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Republicans want to keep the IRS underfunded so rich tax cheats get away with it

Republicans want to keep the IRS underfunded so rich tax cheats get away with it

Media Matters for America reports: Several major national news outlets are promoting House Republicans’ deceptive spin as the party seeks to leverage emergency funding for Israel to enact its top priority of protecting wealthy tax cheats. President Joe Biden requested $105 billion in emergency supplemental funding earlier this month. His proposed package includes military aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan; money to enhance U.S. border security; and humanitarian aid for Palestinian, Israeli, and Ukrainian civilians. But in a Fox interview…

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Biden administration approves biggest offshore wind farm yet

Biden administration approves biggest offshore wind farm yet

The New York Times reports: The Interior Department on Tuesday approved a plan to install up to 176 giant wind turbines off the coast of Virginia, clearing the way for what would be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm yet. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, to be built by Dominion Energy, is the fifth commercial-scale offshore wind project approved by the Biden administration. If completed, the 2.6-gigawatt wind farm would produce enough electricity to power more than 900,000 homes,…

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Top Trump allies facing charges lose lawyers after failing to pay legal bills

Top Trump allies facing charges lose lawyers after failing to pay legal bills

The Guardian reports: A trio of top Donald Trump allies who have racked up huge legal expenses to defend themselves from either criminal charges, convictions or defamation lawsuits have lost key lawyers for failing to pay six- and seven-figure bills in a sign of the huge legal problems they face. The hefty legal bills of the ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell, underscore the scale of the criminal and civil charges that…

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Collective punishment in Gaza will not bring Israel security

Collective punishment in Gaza will not bring Israel security

Wendy Pearlman writes: Responding to Hamas’ horrific killing of some 1,400 Israelis on Oct. 7, Israel has targeted the Gaza Strip with one of the most devastating military assaults of modern times. By day six, according to Middle East analyst Charles Lister, Israel had dropped more than twice as many bombs on this densely populated civilian area as the anti-Islamic State coalition dropped per month on an area 126 times as large. By day nine, Israel had pummeled 2.2 million…

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‘This war is prophetically significant’: Why U.S. evangelical Christians support Israel

‘This war is prophetically significant’: Why U.S. evangelical Christians support Israel

The Guardian reports: It didn’t take long for many evangelical Christian groups in America to show their support for Israel. Hours after Hamas attacked the country on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people, Christians United for Israel, an evangelical lobbying group which claims to have more than 10 million members, posted a message to on X, formerly known as Twitter. “To the terrorists who have chosen this fight, hear this, what you do to Israel, god will do to…

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The Christofascism of Mike Johnson

The Christofascism of Mike Johnson

Noah Berlatsky writes: It took Mike Johnson just a couple days last week to rise from a relatively obscure Louisiana congressman to House speaker. Suffice it to say his background and policy positions did not hold up well under their first exposure to national attention. Johnson is an opposition researcher’s goldmine. Even over the weekend, news reports and video clips steadily trickled out exposing the new speaker for embracing views that are far out of step with mainstream America. In…

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Ivanka Trump helped her dad lie about his net worth

Ivanka Trump helped her dad lie about his net worth

Forbes reports: Ivanka Trump is expected to testify on Friday in a $250 million fraud case that the New York attorney general is waging against her father and his associates. That’s bad news for Ivanka, who tried to get out of taking the stand. But it might be even worse news for her father, who employed Ivanka in his years-long con to convince the world that he had more money than he actually did. The attorney general will have plenty…

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Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive runs out of steam as West scrambles to deliver aid

Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive runs out of steam as West scrambles to deliver aid

Igor Kossov writes: As fall weather arrives, observers are looking at the status of Ukraine’s three-pronged counteroffensive, which continues to move very slowly. Ukrainian forces have yet to fully break through Russia’s defensive lines and fight to their target cities — Tokmak, Berdiansk, and Vasylivka. Their tempo is heavily limited by minefields, airstrikes, shortages of specialized equipment, troop exhaustion, and uncertain signals from Washington. Many analysts are asking if the operation has already run its course. The ones who spoke…

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Climate crisis: Remaining carbon emissions budget is now tiny, scientists say

Climate crisis: Remaining carbon emissions budget is now tiny, scientists say

The Guardian reports: The carbon budget remaining to limit the climate crisis to 1.5C of global heating is now “tiny”, according to an analysis, sending a “dire” message about the adequacy of climate action. The carbon budget is the maximum amount of carbon emissions that can be released while restricting global temperature rise to the limits of the Paris agreement. The new figure is half the size of the budget estimated in 2020 and would be exhausted in six years…

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When idiot savants do climate economics

When idiot savants do climate economics

Christopher Ketcham writes: William Nordhaus, who turned 82 this year, was the first economist in our time to attempt to quantify the cost of climate change. His climate-modeling wizardry, which won him the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2018, has made him one of the world’s most consequential thinkers. His ideas have been adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, global risk managers, the financial services industry, and universities worldwide that teach…

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3,195 children killed in Gaza surpasses annual number of children killed in conflicts globally since 2019

3,195 children killed in Gaza surpasses annual number of children killed in conflicts globally since 2019

Save the Children: The number of children reported killed in Gaza in just three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, Save the Children said. Since October 7, more than 3,257 children have been reported killed, including at least 3,195 in Gaza, 33 in the West Bank, and 29 in Israel, according to the Ministries of Health in Gaza and Israel respectively. The number of children reported killed in just three…

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After helping Israel kill over 8,000 Palestinians, Biden scrambles to repair relations with Muslim Americans

After helping Israel kill over 8,000 Palestinians, Biden scrambles to repair relations with Muslim Americans

The Washington Post reports: One ripple effect of the Israel-Gaza war is the warp-speed unraveling of relations between President Biden and some of his most loyal voters: Muslims and Arab Americans. This week at the White House encapsulated the strains, beginning with a listening session for frustrated administration personnel from those communities and ending with a controversial meeting between the president and five Muslim figures picked by the White House who had faced enormous pressure from activists to decline in…

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The choices available to those who claim they have no choice

The choices available to those who claim they have no choice

Tom Friedman writes: I am watching the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza today and thinking about one of the world leaders I’ve most admired: Manmohan Singh. He was India’s prime minister in late November 2008, when 10 Pakistani jihadist militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, widely believed to be linked to Pakistan’s military intelligence, infiltrated India and killed more than 160 people in Mumbai, including 61 people at two luxury hotels. What was Singh’s military response to India’s Sept. 11? He did…

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I fought house to house in Gaza … I know force alone won’t bring peace

I fought house to house in Gaza … I know force alone won’t bring peace

Ariel Bernstein writes: On the morning of 7 October, I woke up in Tel Aviv to the sound of alarms. Soon after came a constant stream of horrific news. As we began to piece together the gruesome picture of Hamas’s atrocities that morning, it became apparent that Israel was facing another war in Gaza – this time on an entirely different scale. I write these words 20 days after that cursed Sabbath, during which many hundreds of my people were…

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