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What Tucker Carlson’s spin on World War II really says

What Tucker Carlson’s spin on World War II really says

Megan Garber writes: In the movie The History Boys, based on Alan Bennett’s play, a student wins a scholarship to Oxford with the help of an argument he makes on an entrance exam: Hitler, he claims, was “much misunderstood.” As fiction, this is mordant comedy—a mockery of the particular type of arrogance required to twist the tragedies of the Holocaust into personal gain. But now the satire has come for our news cycle. In a long and meandering interview on…

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The mainstream media is gaining an increasing number of mainstream critics

The mainstream media is gaining an increasing number of mainstream critics

Rebecca Solnit writes: The first thing to say about the hate and scorn currently directed at the mainstream US media is that they worked hard to earn it. They’ve done so by failing, repeatedly, determinedly, spectacularly to do their job, which is to maintain their independence, inform the electorate, and speak truth to power. While the left has long had reasons to dismiss centrist media, and the right has loathed it most when it did do its job well, the…

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Washington lobbyists battle over future of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine

Washington lobbyists battle over future of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: When JD Vance became the Republican nominee for vice president, a speech he gave in April condemning the Ukrainian government for what he claimed was an “assault on traditional Christian communities” became a rallying cry for lobbyists hired by a lawyer of an ally of the Russian Orthodox patriarch. “We commend Vance for taking a strong position on this issue and urge you to follow suit,” said a July 17 email sent to lawmakers on Capitol…

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Scientists are closing in on the true, horrifying scale of death and disease in Gaza

Scientists are closing in on the true, horrifying scale of death and disease in Gaza

Devi Sridhar writes: In August, a 10-month-old baby in Gaza was partly paralysed from polio, the first confirmed case there in 25 years. The paralysis is probably permanent, and there are no treatments for polio. We have a safe and effective vaccine to prevent serious disease, but the ongoing war in the region has meant vaccination campaigns have stopped. A polio outbreak seems inevitable given that the disease spreads through dirty water and rubbish, which surrounds those living in tents…

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Columbia law professor, Katherine Franke, faces firing after Democracy Now! interview on Gaza

Columbia law professor, Katherine Franke, faces firing after Democracy Now! interview on Gaza

  Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke last appeared on Democracy Now! in January to discuss an attack on Columbia’s campus targeting pro-Palestinian student activists with a foul-smelling liquid that led to multiple hospitalizations. Following her interview, Franke now faces termination after two Columbia professors filed a complaint against her claiming she had created a hostile environment for Israeli students; she also became a target for Republican lawmakers. Franke joins Democracy Now! to discuss the campaign against her, the ongoing…

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Former 2016 Trump campaign adviser is charged over his work for sanctioned Russian TV

Former 2016 Trump campaign adviser is charged over his work for sanctioned Russian TV

The Associated Press reports: The Justice Department has charged a Russian-born U.S. citizen and former adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with working for a sanctioned Russian state television network and laundering the proceeds. Indictments announced Thursday allege that Dimitri Simes and his wife received over $1 million dollars and a personal car and driver in exchange for work they did for Russia’s Channel One since June 2022. The network was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over Russia’s…

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Right-wing influencer network Tenet Media allegedly spread Russian disinformation

Right-wing influencer network Tenet Media allegedly spread Russian disinformation

Wired reports: A Tennessee-based media network that produces shows for high-profile right-wing influencers such as Benny Johnson and Tim Pool was largely funded by Russian state-backed news network RT, according to a federal indictment against two RT employees that the US Department of Justice unsealed on Wednesday. The DOJ claims the US company—which WIRED, along with other news outlets, was able to identify as Tenet Media but goes unnamed in the indictment—posted hundreds of videos on social media that pushed…

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New poll has bad news for Democrats in key Senate race

New poll has bad news for Democrats in key Senate race

Politico reports: Vulnerable Democratic Sen. Jon Tester trails his GOP opponent by 8 points in a new independent poll of Montana’s Senate race — a result that could very well tip control of the Senate to Republicans. Republican Tim Sheehy took 49 percent of the vote, compared to Tester’s 41 percent, on a four-way ballot, according to the late-August survey of 600 likely voters in the state commissioned by AARP. The Libertarian candidate received 4 percent of the vote, while…

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Ukraine army chief reveals the strategy behind Kursk incursion

Ukraine army chief reveals the strategy behind Kursk incursion

  CNN reports: Russia had been planning to launch a new attack on Ukraine from the Kursk region before Kyiv’s surprise cross-border incursion, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday. In his first television interview since becoming military chief in February, the general told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he believed the Kursk operation had been a success. “It reduced the threat of an enemy offensive. We prevented them from acting. We moved the fighting to…

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New study shows gut microbiome could play role in preventing cognitive decline

New study shows gut microbiome could play role in preventing cognitive decline

PsyPost reports: A new study published in Nature Communications suggests that a daily fiber supplement could improve brain function in older adults. Researchers found that in just 12 weeks, participants who took the supplement showed better performance in memory tests that are often used to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. This placebo-controlled, double-blind trial was conducted on twins over the age of 65, offering insight into how gut microbiome interventions could benefit cognitive health in older adults. As the…

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Inside the brutal siege of Jenin

Inside the brutal siege of Jenin

Mariam Barghouti reports: On Aug. 28, Israel launched “Operation Summer Camps,” the largest military invasion witnessed in the northern West Bank in over two decades. In Jenin, Israeli forces first moved into the city before imposing a full-blown siege on the refugee camp within hours; the army simultaneously carried out operations in Tubas, Nablus, Ramallah, and Tulkarem. Since 2021, the Israeli military has repeatedly targeted Jenin refugee camp under the pretext of fighting armed resistance groups. Most of the victims…

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Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin: ‘Let it be clear that Netanyahu has sentenced the hostages to death’

Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin: ‘Let it be clear that Netanyahu has sentenced the hostages to death’

  As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects growing domestic and international calls to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, we go to Jerusalem to speak to Gershon Baskin of the human rights advocacy group International Communities Organization. Baskin has spent years as a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including throughout Israel’s current war on Gaza. “It’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war,” says Baskin, who calls for all remaining stakeholders, including Hamas, the…

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Ginni Thomas privately praised religious-rights group working against Supreme Court reform

Ginni Thomas privately praised religious-rights group working against Supreme Court reform

ProPublica and Documented report: Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, privately heaped praise on a major religious-rights group for fighting efforts to reform the nation’s highest court — efforts sparked, in large part, by her husband’s ethical lapses. Thomas expressed her appreciation in an email sent to Kelly Shackelford, an influential litigator whose clients have won cases at the Supreme Court. Shackelford runs the First Liberty Institute, a $25 million-a-year organization that describes itself as “the…

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Christian group recruits ‘Trojan horse’ election skeptics as U.S. poll workers

Christian group recruits ‘Trojan horse’ election skeptics as U.S. poll workers

The Guardian reports: A Christian political operative has teamed up with charismatic preachers to enroll election skeptics as poll workers across the country, using a Donald Trump-aligned swing state tour to enlist support in the effort. Joshua Standifer, who leads the group called Lion of Judah, describes the effort as a “Trojan horse” strategy to get Christians in “key positions of influence in government like Election Workers”, which will help them identify alleged voter fraud and serve as “the first…

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