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Does chaos theory square classical physics with human agency?

Does chaos theory square classical physics with human agency?

Erik Van Aken writes: A slight shift in Cleopatra’s beauty, and the Roman Empire unravels. You miss your train, and an unexpected encounter changes the course of your life. A butterfly alights from a tree in Michoacán, triggering a hurricane halfway across the globe. These scenarios exemplify the essence of ‘chaos’, a term scientists coined during the middle of the 20th century, to describe how small events in complex systems can have vast, unpredictable consequences. Beyond these anecdotes, I want…

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Enthusiasm for Harris is fueling a surge in voter registration

Enthusiasm for Harris is fueling a surge in voter registration

NPR reports: Eve Levenson’s job looked very different just over a month ago. The 24-year-old is the National Youth Engagement Director for Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign, a role she’s had since the beginning of the year when President Biden was seeking re-election. Her task has been the same throughout: get young voters to the polls this fall. But as she addressed a room of Gen Z organizers last week at a coffee shop in Chicago, wearing a handful of…

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The superseding Trump indictment charts Jack Smith’s path forward

The superseding Trump indictment charts Jack Smith’s path forward

Anna Bower, Matt Gluck, Quinta Jurecic, Natalie K. Orpett, and Benjamin Wittes write: On Tuesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith unveiled a superseding indictment of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. for his effort to overturn the 2020 election. Trump, for his part, didn’t wait long to weigh in. Posting on Truth Social, he declared the indictment “ridiculous” and part of “the single greatest sabotage of our Democracy in History.” The former president seemed particularly insulted that the grand jury handed up…

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Photos of European influencers used to push pro-Trump propaganda on fake X accounts

Photos of European influencers used to push pro-Trump propaganda on fake X accounts

CNN reports: Luna, a self-described 32-year-old “MAGA Trump supporter” from the battleground state of Wisconsin, has gained a huge following since she joined X, formerly Twitter, in March. Her timeline has become a digital bullhorn for the “Make America Great Again” movement, praising former President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, promoting conspiracy theories about his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and touting Republican talking points to nearly 30,000 followers, who she addresses as “patriots.” “Would You Support Trump Being The President…

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Immigrants to the U.S. are held to higher standards than those applied to Trump

Immigrants to the U.S. are held to higher standards than those applied to Trump

Edgar Chen and Dan Ross write: From the moment Donald Trump descended his gilded escalator to launch his first presidential campaign in 2015, impugning immigrants as criminals has been the centerpiece of his political identity. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” he said that day. This year, “migrant crime” has become a cornerstone of Trump’s campaign. Moments after he became a convicted felon himself in May, Trump took the opportunity not only to attack the justice system but…

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Why the media won’t report the truth about Trump

Why the media won’t report the truth about Trump

James Risen writes: Over the last few years, as it grew increasingly likely that Donald Trump would mount a third campaign for the White House, leading press critics and others in the media vowed that this time had to be different. The press couldn’t fail in its coverage of Trump once again. This time, it must aggressively investigate Trump while focusing coverage on the threat that he poses to democracy. The stakes for the nation in the election, not just…

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Zuckerberg’s spineless surrender: Rehashing old news to enable false GOP narratives

Zuckerberg’s spineless surrender: Rehashing old news to enable false GOP narratives

Mike Masnick writes: Two bits of news came out of the letter Mark Zuckerberg sent to Rep. Jim Jordan this week (and how people responded to it), neither of which are what you’re likely to have heard about. First, Donald Trump seems to be accusing himself of rigging the 2020 election against himself. And, second, Mark Zuckerberg has absolutely no spine when it comes to Republican pressure on Meta’s moderation practices. He falsely plays into their fundamentally misleading framing, all…

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Don’t downplay the risks for democracy posed by AI

Don’t downplay the risks for democracy posed by AI

Suzanne Nossel writes: Midway through a year in which more than 2 billion voters in at least 64 counties are going to the polls, pioneers of artificial intelligence are breathing a sigh of relief and arguing that the worst fears over the potentially corrosive influence of AI on democracies seem to have been overblown. While platforms have removed scores of AI-distorted videos of politicians lying or making fools of themselves, the impact on voters and tallies has seemed minimal. But…

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New HRW report: Palestinian healthcare workers chained, starved, sexually abused

New HRW report: Palestinian healthcare workers chained, starved, sexually abused

  We speak with Human Rights Watch researcher Milena Ansari about the organization’s new report detailing the torture of Palestinian medical workers in Israeli prisons. HRW spoke with eight doctors, paramedics and nurses who were picked up in Gaza before being transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman camp and other facilities, where they say they suffered beatings, starvation, humiliation, electric shocks and other forms of abuse. The men also describe threats of sexual violence during brutal interrogations and seeing another…

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Israeli settler: ‘I think colonialism gets a bad rap’

Israeli settler: ‘I think colonialism gets a bad rap’

  Violence has flared in the Occupied West Bank. At least five Palestinians, including two children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a refugee camp, and one Palestinian man was shot dead in an attack by Israeli settlers near Bethlehem. The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since the October 7 attacks. 607 Palestinians have been killed, largely in Israeli military raids, while attacks by settlers have displaced more than 1,500. In the same period,…

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Ilan Pappe: ‘Hope, for me, is the end of Israel and the creation of a free Palestine from the river to the sea’

Ilan Pappe: ‘Hope, for me, is the end of Israel and the creation of a free Palestine from the river to the sea’

  Israeli historian Ilan Pappe launched his new book, “Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic,” on 11 June at an event organised by The Cordoba Foundation, MEMO and One World Publications in London, UK. At the event, Pappe spoke about historical and present antisemites who have supported Zionism.

Telegram’s loudest defender: the global crypto industry

Telegram’s loudest defender: the global crypto industry

The New York Times reports: Shortly after Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested in France on Saturday, the chief executive of the cryptocurrency company Tether called the situation “very concerning.” Crypto enthusiasts pledged to support Mr. Durov, posting the hashtag #FreeDurov. Others investors declared that the arrest was an assault on free speech. “Can’t even imagine a day without Telegram,” one crypto user wrote. The wave of support for Mr. Durov was a reflection of…

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More Americans want the U.S. to stay the course in Ukraine as long as it takes

More Americans want the U.S. to stay the course in Ukraine as long as it takes

Shibley Telhami writes: Just before the recent advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian territory, there were signs that Americans were becoming somewhat less confident about Ukraine’s prospects in the war with Russia. Add to this that the United States is in the middle of a heated election season where Republican politicians have been less supportive of backing Ukraine, one might have expected a drop in American public support for Kyiv. Yet, our new University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll with…

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Georgia governor inquires whether he can remove MAGA election board members after series of alarming votes

Georgia governor inquires whether he can remove MAGA election board members after series of alarming votes

The Independent reports: Georgia’s governor has asked his attorney general if he can remove state election board members after three right-wing members approved a series of alarming new rules. Republican Governor Brian Kemp asked Attorney General Christopher Carr for “guidance” on whether he can remove members of the state election board, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. This comes after three right-wing members of the five-person board championed and passed a series of new rules that add extra requirements for county election…

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