Music: Studnitzky — ‘Sequel’
Israel’s military objective in Gaza: ‘Kill them all’
Yagil Levy writes: The Israeli attack on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza in early April that killed seven aid workers with the U.S.-based aid group World Central Kitchen has ignited a fierce global backlash against Israel’s policies of engagement in the territory. The attack involved the successive firing of three missiles at three vehicles, driven by suspicions of a Hamas combatant’s presence within the convoy, according to reports. In Israel, the event is being portrayed as an accident, “a grave…
Where is America’s ‘rules-based order’ now?
Spencer Ackerman writes: No sooner had a nearly unanimous United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza last month than the United States and Israel acted as if it were a meaningless piece of paper. Israel, unwilling to accept a U.N. mandate, continued bombing the overcrowded southern city of Rafah and besieging Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Shortly after the vote, Biden administration officials called the resolution, No. 2728, “nonbinding,” in what appeared to be…
Israel braces for imminent Iranian retaliation after embassy strike
Reuters reports: Israel on Friday braced for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of retaliation for the killing last week of a senior officer in Iran’s embassy in Damascus. Countries including India, France, Poland and Russia have warned their citizens against travel to the region, already on edge over the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the threat from Iran was real and viable. The…
‘No tech for apartheid!’: Google workers revolt over $1.2 billion contract with Israel
Time reports: In midtown Manhattan on March 4, Google’s managing director for Israel, Barak Regev, was addressing a conference promoting the Israeli tech industry when a member of the audience stood up in protest. “I am a Google Cloud software engineer, and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid, or surveillance,” shouted the protester, wearing an orange t-shirt emblazoned with a white Google logo. “No tech for apartheid!” The Google worker, a 23-year-old software engineer named Eddie Hatfield,…
Russia is buying politicians in Europe. Is it happening here too?
Alex Finley writes: Democrats for years have warned about Russian influence in the Republican Party under Donald Trump. But now even some prominent GOP members of Congress are sounding the alarm. “I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base,” Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck’s Julia Ioffe last week. Representative Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, went…
Trump tries to boost support for Truth Social as DJT stock tanks
CNBC reports: Donald Trump on Friday urged his followers to support his social media app Truth Social, as its parent company’s stock continues to sink lower. Trump in a post on that app said he believes Truth Social embodies the political “movement” behind his “Make America Great Again” presidential campaign slogan, adding that “it shows the Spirit and Love of our Country.” “If people who believe in putting America First and want to Make America Great Again, support TRUTH,” Trump…
Viruses finally reveal their complex social life
Carl Zimmer writes: Ever since viruses came to light in the late 1800s, scientists have set them apart from the rest of life. Viruses were far smaller than cells, and inside their protein shells they carried little more than genes. They could not grow, copy their own genes or do much of anything. Researchers assumed that each virus was a solitary particle drifting alone through the world, able to replicate only if it happened to bump into the right cell…
Music: Anomalie — ‘Crescent’
American surgeons return from Gaza, call for end of U.S. culpability in genocide
We speak with two doctors who’ve just returned after two weeks at the European Hospital in Gaza. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa and Dr. Mark Perlmutter are co-authors of a new piece for Common Dreams titled “As Surgeons, We Have Never Seen Cruelty Like Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.” They describe a hospital “hanging on by a thread,” with the majority of patients being young children, and bombing targeted at Muslim Palestinians “concentrated at the time of evening prayer.” “Genocide was the…
David Miliband, International Rescue Committee: There’s only a trickle of aid going into Gaza right now
There’s a trickle of aid going into Gaza right now, as the population faces imminent famine. There needs to be a deluge. For every hour that the war goes on, the desperate need increases. I spoke to @WagnerTonight about the situation on the ground and the work of @RESCUEorg: pic.twitter.com/bYNsFTXtCC — David Miliband (@DMiliband) April 11, 2024
Trump’s telling comment on punishing doctors who provide abortions
Aaron Blake writes: Back in 2022, when it looked as if the Supreme Court would soon overturn Roe v. Wade, Senate Republicans’ campaign arm sent out a memo encouraging GOP candidates to get their messaging right. “Republicans DO NOT want to throw doctors and women in jail,” the memo maintained. It cast the statement as a rebuttal to Democrats’ “lies” about the GOP’s abortion positions. Donald Trump did not get the memo. The former president on Wednesday responded to the…
States warn Biden could miss ballot. Dems say exceptions have been made for GOP
The Washington Post reports: Democratic officials are looking at their options after Republican secretaries of state in Ohio and Alabama warned them that President Biden might not appear on their ballots in November because of the timing of his expected nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Publicly, the Biden campaign is expressing confidence that he will appear on the ballot in both states. But the situation has created new headaches for Democrats and stoked distrust with election officials over what…
Fears of massive ‘forest collapse’ event as Western Australia’s record dry spell continues
ABC News (AU) reports: After a record-breaking hot summer and significant dry spell, ecologists are warning large pockets of WA’s central to south-west coast are facing a potential forest collapse event, where trees and other smaller plants get so dry they die. One expert has likened it to coral bleaching on land, and just like in the ocean, such an event can have serious implications on the wider ecosystem, impacting breeding habitats and potentially populations of entire species. Murdoch…
Renewable energy shatters records in the U.S.
E&E News reports: Renewable energy is breaking records across the U.S. Wind and solar accounted for 76 percent of electricity production in Texas’ primary power grid last Friday. The next day, New England set its own record, with 45 percent of its power coming from wind, solar and hydropower. Within the last month, grid operators have reported record solar generation in the Midwest, record wind generation in New York and record renewable generation in the mid-Atlantic, according to data collected…
A toxic grass that threatens a quarter of U.S. cows is spreading. Can it be stopped?
Robert Langellier writes: America’s “fescue belt,” named for an exotic grass called tall fescue, dominates the pastureland from Missouri and Arkansas in the west to the coast of the Carolinas in the east. Within that swath, a quarter of the nation’s cows — more than 15 million in all — graze fields that stay green through the winter while the rest of the region’s grasses turn brown and go dormant. But the fescue these cows are eating is toxic. The…