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Capitalism and underdevelopment in the American South

Capitalism and underdevelopment in the American South

Keri Leigh Merritt writes: In 1938, near the end of the Great Depression, the US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt commissioned a ‘Report on the Economic Conditions of the South’, examining the ‘economic unbalance in the nation’ due to the region’s dire poverty. In a speech following the report, Roosevelt deemed the South ‘the nation’s No 1 economic problem’, declaring that its vast levels of inequality had led to persistent underdevelopment. Although controversial, Roosevelt’s comments were historically accurate. The president’s well-read…

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Blinken warns: Israel risks becoming indistinguishable from Hamas if it doesn’t protect Gaza civilians

Blinken warns: Israel risks becoming indistinguishable from Hamas if it doesn’t protect Gaza civilians

The Times of Israel reports: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warns that Israel risks becoming indistinguishable from Hamas if it continues to fail to protect civilians amid the Gaza war. “What happened after October 7 could have ended immediately if Hamas had stopped hiding behind civilians, released the hostages and put down its weapons, but Israel is not Hamas. Israel is a democracy; Hamas, a terrorist organization. Democracies place the highest value on human life, every human life. As…

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Pelosi joins House Democrats urging Biden to halt arms transfers to Israel

Pelosi joins House Democrats urging Biden to halt arms transfers to Israel

Breaking: 40 Democratic Representatives, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have called on President Biden to halt offensive arms transfers to Israel. https://t.co/8zFxayNoKT — Hassan El-Tayyab (@HassanElTayyab) April 5, 2024 The Times of Israel reports: Several dozen Democratic members of Congress have sent a letter to US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for a halt on arms transfers to Israel following an IDF strike in Gaza that killed seven staffers of World Central Kitchen, including a…

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Norman Finkelstein on Gaza: The U.S. could have stopped Israel on day one

Norman Finkelstein on Gaza: The U.S. could have stopped Israel on day one

  Renowned scholar and activist Norman Finkelstein discusses Israel’s war on Gaza with Marc Lamont Hill. As Israel’s war on Gaza continues, killing more than 33,000 people, numerous scholars and politicians have voiced concern and condemned Israel’s policies and actions. Among those critics is Norman Finkelstein, a staunch advocate for Palestinian freedom and one of the foremost historians on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, himself a son of Holocaust survivors. This week on UpFront, Norman Finkelstein shares his insights on Israel’s war…

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Israel and U.S. are on alert for Iran to retaliate against Israeli attack on Damascus embassy

Israel and U.S. are on alert for Iran to retaliate against Israeli attack on Damascus embassy

The New York Times reports: Iran vowed on Friday to avenge Israel’s killing of senior commanders and other officers of its elite Quds Force, at a public funeral held for the dead men, elevating fears of open war but leaving unsaid how it would retaliate or when. U.S. officials in Washington and the Middle East said on Friday that they were bracing for possible Iranian retaliation for the Israeli airstrike on Monday in Damascus, Syria. U.S. military forces in the…

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Top Israeli spy chief accidentally exposes his true identity in online security lapse

Top Israeli spy chief accidentally exposes his true identity in online security lapse

Huge embarrassment to Brigadier-General Yossi Sariel the commander of the prestigious Israeli intelligence unit 8200. The Guardian exposes his full name following a book which Sariel himself authored in 2021. He wrote a book about AI under his name's acronym as YS and published… — Yossi Melman (@yossi_melman) April 5, 2024 The Guardian reports: The identity of the commander of Israel’s Unit 8200 is a closely guarded secret. He occupies one of the most sensitive roles in the military, leading…

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What liberals get wrong about ‘white rural rage’ — almost everything

What liberals get wrong about ‘white rural rage’ — almost everything

Nicholas Jacobs writes: Research both by me and by others has illuminated how resentment is driven by the complex rural identity that, while occasionally intersecting with national political currents, is rooted in the unique context of rural life. Rage, both as a soundbite and as presented in the book [White Rural Rage, by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman], oversimplifies and misrepresents these debates. And so does the assumption that all the holders of these views are white, and that this…

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Solar eclipses are always with us

Solar eclipses are always with us

Marina Koren writes: Cosmically speaking, the alignment of Earth, the sun, and the moon is ordinary. But from our corner of the universe, the occurrence produces something wondrous: a total solar eclipse. On April 8, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth, casting a shadow along a narrow strip of the country, from Texas to Maine. Outside this path, the sun will not disappear, and the best and safest way to observe the event is with eclipse glasses….

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A blinking red light for Israel in American politics

A blinking red light for Israel in American politics

Politico reports: In notably blunt terms Thursday, top U.S. officials made a series of warnings to the Israeli government that they were nearly out of patience with its conduct of the war in Gaza. President Joe Biden and his top deputies said they would consider changing their policy towards Israel unless more consideration was given towards the humanitarian crisis its military was producing. A top Biden ally in the Senate argued that aid could be conditioned should Israel follow through…

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Chef José Andrés: Israel is engaged in ‘a war against humanity itself’

Chef José Andrés: Israel is engaged in ‘a war against humanity itself’

  World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés is speaking out after seven aid workers were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza: “Humanitarians and civilians should never be paying the consequences of war. This is a basic principle of humanity.” video showing the Israeli army shooting a Palestinian civilian several times after he managed to get an aid package thrown from the air . The Israeli army continued shooting him after he was injured while he was trying to crawl…

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‘Stop it now’: Jill Biden privately urges an end to conflict in Gaza

‘Stop it now’: Jill Biden privately urges an end to conflict in Gaza

The New York Times reports: One of the strongest voices inside the White House urging an end to civilian casualties in Gaza is the person closest to the president: Jill Biden. At a meeting with Muslim community members at the White House on Tuesday evening, one guest told President Biden that his wife had disapproved of him coming to the meeting because of Mr. Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Mr. Biden replied that he understood. The…

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MSF dismisses Israeli claim of ‘regrettable incident’ in strike against aid workers in Gaza

MSF dismisses Israeli claim of ‘regrettable incident’ in strike against aid workers in Gaza

Reuters reports: The Doctors Without Borders medical charity (MSF) said on Thursday it rejected Israel’s position that an airstrike which killed seven aid workers was a “regrettable incident”, saying many humanitarian personnel have been attacked previously. Seven workers from World Central Kitchen, which provides food relief in crisis and conflict zones, were killed when their convoy was hit on Monday night shortly after they oversaw the unloading of 100 tons of food brought to the Palestinian enclave by sea. “We…

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Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law

Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law

The Guardian reports: A fourth former supreme court justice has put his name to a letter warning Rishi Sunak that the UK is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel, as the number of legal experts signing the letter rose to more than 750. Lord Carnwath joins Lady Hale, who was president of the UK’s highest court, and lords Sumption and Wilson, in urging ministers to act to prevent the “plausible risk” of genocide in Gaza. Another new signatory…

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Biden moves to defang political assaults on federal workforce

Biden moves to defang political assaults on federal workforce

Politico reports: The Biden administration put the finishing touches Thursday on a plan to restrict presidents from unilaterally nixing civil service protections from large swaths of the federal workforce, as former President Donald Trump renews his vow to uproot a perceived “deep state” if he is returned to the White House. While a future president could take steps to squelch the new directive, it reflects a larger effort by the Biden administration to put a protective wall around its policies….

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