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Project 2025 poses far-reaching threats to science

Project 2025 poses far-reaching threats to science

Scientific American reports: Project 2025, the sweeping right-wing blueprint for a new kind of U.S. presidency, would sabotage science-based policies that address climate change, the environment, abortion, health care access, technology and education. It would impose religious and conservative ideology on the federal civil service to such an extent that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has, dubiously, tried to distance himself from the plan. But in 2022 Trump said the Heritage Foundation—the think tank that authored Project 2025—would “lay the…

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RFK Jr explores opportunities for serving Trump

RFK Jr explores opportunities for serving Trump

The Washington Post reports: Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held talks this month with former president Donald Trump about endorsing his campaign and taking a job in a second Trump administration, overseeing a portfolio of health and medical issues, according to four people familiar with the matter. The discussions, which began hours after the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally on July 13, did not result in an agreement amid concerns in Trump’s orbit about the complications…

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The people who feed America are going hungry

The people who feed America are going hungry

Grist reports: Standing knee-deep in an emerald expanse, a row of trees offering respite from the sweltering heat, Rosa Morales diligently relocates chipilín, a Central American legume, from one bed of soil to another. The 34-year-old has been coming to the Campesinos’ Garden run by the Farmworker Association of Florida in Apopka for the last six months, taking home a bit of produce each time she visits. The small plot that hugs a soccer field and community center is an…

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Democratic elites were slow to admit what voters already knew

Democratic elites were slow to admit what voters already knew

Ezra Klein writes: President Biden and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agree on this much: It is the elites who are trying to take Biden down, ignoring the sentiments of legions of Democratic voters. But when I started arguing in February that his age would mortally wound his candidacy, it didn’t feel that way to me. I saw the elites propping him up, ignoring the sentiments of legions of Democratic voters. Who’s right? Maybe we both are. In any system, elites are…

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Biden’s continued candidacy was an insult to the intelligence of American voters

Biden’s continued candidacy was an insult to the intelligence of American voters

Helen Lewis writes: Allow me to summarize the response from outside America to the news that President Joe Biden is not running for reelection: Thank God. Here in Britain, the most common reaction in the minutes after the news broke was sheer relief. Relief that Donald Trump will not be allowed an easy path to a second term. Relief that the Democrats will put forward a candidate who is able to bear a full campaign schedule—defending the party’s record and…

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Anne Applebaum: ‘Often, for autocrats, the second time in power is worse’

Anne Applebaum: ‘Often, for autocrats, the second time in power is worse’

Tim Adams writes: A couple of years ago, in the Atlantic magazine, journalist Anne Applebaum wrote an era-defining cover story called “The Bad Guys Are Winning”. Her argument was not only that democratic institutions were in decline across the world, but that there was a new version of old threats to them: rogue states and dictatorships were increasingly linked not by ideology, as in the cold war, but by powerful currents of criminal and mercenary interest, often enabled by western…

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Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain

Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain

Carole Cadwalladr writes: Less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, he invited the cream of Silicon Valley’s tech elite to a meeting at his transition team’s headquarters at Trump Tower. It was an awkward affair. Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Google’s Larry Page and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos had facial expressions that ranged from a semi-rictus grin to full tech-mogul-in-a-hostage-situation. But then, in a sense they were. There was a new sheriff in town – and none…

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What impact could the latest ICJ ruling on Israel have?

What impact could the latest ICJ ruling on Israel have?

  Illegal Israeli settlements have been steadily expanding in Palestinian territories for years. Now the UN’s top court says it’s time for Israel to stop, reverse course, and repair the damages. The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel’s occupation is unlawful and is fueling a surge in violence. However, the court’s findings are not legally binding — and the Israeli government has ignored previous decisions. So, will the ICJ’s advisory opinion have any practical implications?

Lebanese journalist wounded by Israeli strike carries torch at Olympics

Lebanese journalist wounded by Israeli strike carries torch at Olympics

The New Arab reports: A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris to honour journalists wounded and killed in the field on Sunday. The torch relay, which started in May, is part of celebrations in which about 10,000 people from various walks of life were chosen to carry the flame across France before the Games opening ceremony on 26 July. Christina Assi of Agence France-Presse was among six journalists struck by Israeli shelling on 13 October while reporting on…

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Data centers are draining resources in water-stressed communities

Data centers are draining resources in water-stressed communities

Eric Olson, Anne Grau, and Taylor Tipton write: The rapid growth of the technology industry and the increasing reliance on cloud computing and artificial intelligence have led to a boom in the construction of data centers across the United States. Electric vehicles, wind and solar energy, and the smart grid are particularly reliant on data centers to optimize energy utilization. These facilities house thousands of servers that require constant cooling to prevent overheating and ensure optimal performance. Unfortunately, many data…

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Kamala Harris is ‘ready to step up and unite the party,’ says Elizabeth Warren

Kamala Harris is ‘ready to step up and unite the party,’ says Elizabeth Warren

CNBC reports: Vice President Kamala Harris has gained more public support from Democratic lawmakers as a potential replacement for President Joe Biden, should he decide to drop out of the race against former President Donald Trump. California Rep. Mark Takano on Saturday became the thirty-sixth Democrat on Capitol Hill to call on Biden to exit the race on the record. He added that he believes Harris should be the one to helm the ticket. “President Biden’s greatest accomplishment remains saving…

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DNC moves forward with nominating Biden via virtual roll call as though his candidacy is not in question

DNC moves forward with nominating Biden via virtual roll call as though his candidacy is not in question

NBC News reports: Democrats are in an unprecedented crisis over who should be their presidential candidate. But the party committee that governs the nominating process met Friday and proceeded as if everything was normal and its entire plan was not at risk of being upended at any minute. As calls mount for President Joe Biden to step aside and let another Democrat lead the party into the November election against former President Donald Trump, the Democratic National Convention’s Rules Committee…

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We volunteered at a Gaza hospital. What we saw was unspeakable

We volunteered at a Gaza hospital. What we saw was unspeakable

Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa write: In the United States we would never dream of operating on anyone without consent, let alone a malnourished and barely conscious 9-year-old girl in septic shock. Nevertheless, when we saw Juri, that’s exactly what we did. We have no idea how Juri ended up in the Gaza European Hospital preoperative area. All we could see was that she had an external fixator — a scaffold of metal pins and rods — on her left…

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Israel confirms airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Hodeidah port

Israel confirms airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Hodeidah port

Middle East Eye reports: The official spokesperson for the Houthis, Nasruddin Amer, described the Israeli airstrike on the oil tanks and power facility at Hodeidah port as “a brutal act of aggression against Yemen aimed at worsening the suffering of its people and pressuring Yemen to halt its support for Gaza.” The Israeli military announced that it carried out strikes on the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in Yemen earlier on Saturday. In a post on X, Amer dismissed…

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