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Biden’s efforts to buy votes don’t impress young Black voters who stand in solidarity with the oppressed

Biden’s efforts to buy votes don’t impress young Black voters who stand in solidarity with the oppressed

NBC News reports: If only young voters knew more about what Biden has done to erase billions in student loan debt, for example, they’d feel differently, the president’s allies contend. In an interview before the church service [in Sumter, SC], Clyburn summoned one of his security aides, a Black man in his 40s, who described his delight in getting a letter telling him that his and his wife’s student loan debt totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars had been wiped…

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‘Smoking gun proof’: Fossil fuel industry knew of climate danger as early as 1954, documents show

‘Smoking gun proof’: Fossil fuel industry knew of climate danger as early as 1954, documents show

The Guardian reports: The fossil fuel industry funded some of the world’s most foundational climate science as early as 1954, newly unearthed documents have shown, including the early research of Charles Keeling, famous for the so-called “Keeling curve” that has charted the upward march of the Earth’s carbon dioxide levels. A coalition of oil and car manufacturing interests provided $13,814 (about $158,000 in today’s money) in December 1954 to fund Keeling’s earliest work in measuring CO2 levels across the western…

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45,000-year-old bones unearthed in cave are oldest modern-human remains in Central Europe

45,000-year-old bones unearthed in cave are oldest modern-human remains in Central Europe

Live Science reports: Modern humans crossed the Alps into chilly Northern Europe about 45,000 years ago, meaning they may have coexisted with Neanderthals in Europe for thousands of years longer than experts previously thought, according to new research. The discovery — of 13 bone fragments belonging to Homo sapiens who occupied a cave in Germany between about 44,000 and 47,500 years ago — catalogs the oldest known H. sapiens remains from Central and Northwest Europe, the researchers said. The finding…

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Hamas regroups in northern Gaza to prepare new offensive

Hamas regroups in northern Gaza to prepare new offensive

The Guardian reports: Hamas militants have returned to northern Gaza, where they are mobilising against Israeli forces and rebuilding a system of governance, aid officials, Gaza residents, analysts and Israeli officials say. Elsewhere in Gaza, Hamas administrators and police maintain firm control of the south, where much of the population is concentrated, though civil order is breaking down in central regions. The apparent resurgence of Hamas in areas seized and cleared by Israeli troops during the nearly four-month offensive underlines…

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A pediatrician’s two weeks inside a hospital in Gaza

A pediatrician’s two weeks inside a hospital in Gaza

Isaac Chotiner interviewed Dr. Seema Jilani, a senior technical adviser at the International Rescue Committee who went to Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza to aid the humanitarian effort there in December: We worked alongside the Palestinian physicians and nurses there, and we really think it’s important to work alongside them and learn from them. We were in one of the last enduring emergency rooms in central Gaza. Within the two weeks that I was there, I saw it go from…

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Harvard students file civil rights complaint over harassment for Palestinian advocacy

Harvard students file civil rights complaint over harassment for Palestinian advocacy

Middle East Eye reports: Students at Harvard University submitted a civil rights complaint against the institution on Monday, claiming that it failed to provide adequate support or protection to students facing harassment due to their Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim identities or for advocating for Palestinian rights. The complaint was filed by the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) and nearly a dozen students, including Muslim students and others who have reported experiencing harassment for their pro-Palestine stance during protests on…

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Republicans now say it might be okay to ignore the Supreme Court

Republicans now say it might be okay to ignore the Supreme Court

Aaron Blake writes: A consequential development of the Trump era is what increasingly looks like the Republicans’ acrimonious divorce from the rule of law. The party that once prided itself as the law-and-order side has leaped headlong into highly speculative theories about the “weaponization” of the justice system, spurred by former president Donald Trump. Both Trump and his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani recently flouted civil defamation verdicts against them by continuing to defame their victims — cheered on by many…

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Ret. Judge J. Michael Luttig urges Supreme Court to disqualify Trump from office

Ret. Judge J. Michael Luttig urges Supreme Court to disqualify Trump from office

CNN reports: A former conservative federal appellate judge is urging the Supreme Court to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, arguing the ex-president’s effort to cling to power after his 2020 election loss was “broader” than South Carolina’s secession from the US that triggered the Civil War. “Mr. Trump tried to prevent the newly-elected President Biden from governing anywhere in the United States. The South Carolina secession prevented the newly-elected President Lincoln from governing only in that State,” J. Michael…

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The rise of techno-authoritarianism

The rise of techno-authoritarianism

Adrienne LaFrance writes: If you had to capture Silicon Valley’s dominant ideology in a single anecdote, you might look first to Mark Zuckerberg, sitting in the blue glow of his computer some 20 years ago, chatting with a friend about how his new website, TheFacebook, had given him access to reams of personal information about his fellow students: Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard Zuckerberg: Just ask. Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures,…

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Gen Z never learned to read cursive

Gen Z never learned to read cursive

Drew Gilpin Faust writes: It was a good book, the student told the 14 others in the undergraduate seminar I was teaching, and it included a number of excellent illustrations, such as photographs of relevant Civil War manuscripts. But, he continued, those weren’t very helpful to him, because of course he couldn’t read cursive. Had I heard him correctly? Who else can’t read cursive? I asked the class. The answer: about two-thirds. And who can’t write it? Even more. What…

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Black pastors pressure Biden to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, warning him of grave risk to his re-election

Black pastors pressure Biden to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, warning him of grave risk to his re-election

The New York Times reports: As the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth month, a coalition of Black faith leaders is pressuring the Biden administration to push for a cease-fire — a campaign spurred in part by their parishioners, who are increasingly distressed by the suffering of Palestinians and critical of the president’s response to it. More than 1,000 Black pastors representing hundreds of thousands of congregants nationwide have issued the demand. In sit-down meetings with White House officials, and through…

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U.S. funds IDF despite minister of national security along with 10% of Israeli Jews supporting terrorism

U.S. funds IDF despite minister of national security along with 10% of Israeli Jews supporting terrorism

Last year, Ruth Margalit wrote in the New Yorker about Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir: Ben-Gvir, who entered parliament in 2021, leads a far-right party called Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power. His role model and ideological wellspring has long been Meir Kahane, a Brooklyn rabbi who moved to Israel in 1971 and, during a single term in the Knesset, tested the moral limits of the country. Israeli politicians strive to reconcile Israel’s identities as a Jewish state and a…

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Pelosi wants FBI to investigate pro-Palestinian protesters

Pelosi wants FBI to investigate pro-Palestinian protesters

The New York Times reports: Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California and the former House speaker, on Sunday called for the F.B.I. to investigate protesters demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, suggesting without evidence that some activists may have ties to Russia and President Vladimir V. Putin. “For them to call for a cease-fire is Mr. Putin’s message,” Ms. Pelosi said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what…

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In federal court, Palestinians accuse Biden of complicity in genocide

In federal court, Palestinians accuse Biden of complicity in genocide

The Intercept reports: At the hearing [in Oakland, CA], U.S. Judge Jeffrey S. White went to some length to state the impact of Israel’s war on Palestinian civilians and the U.S. government’s support for it but indicated the case might ultimately hinge on questions of jurisdiction. “The Palestinian people are living in fear and without food, medical care, clean water, or sufficient humanitarian aid. Defendants — the president of the United States and his secretaries of state and defense —…

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