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Iran ‘using Gaza conflict as cover’ for execution of 127 people since war began

Iran ‘using Gaza conflict as cover’ for execution of 127 people since war began

The Guardian reports: The Iranian regime has executed more than 127 people, including women and children, since the Hamas attacks of 7 October, according to human rights groups. According to data collected by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Norway-based organisation Hengaw, which have been cross-referenced by the Observer, there has been an alarming rise in executions since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas. A third group, Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), confirmed that there has…

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Biden’s EPA launches crackdown on planet-warming methane

Biden’s EPA launches crackdown on planet-warming methane

Politico reports: The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled sweeping new regulations targeting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector on Saturday, a significant milestone for President Joe Biden’s strategy for curbing the pollution driving up the Earth’s temperatures. The rule’s 3 a.m. rollout was timed to coincide with the ongoing U.N. climate talks in Dubai, where the U.S. has sought to play a leading role in global efforts to reduce emissions of the powerful planet-heating gas. But its biggest test…

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Climate change imperils Indigenous ecosystems, food security, knowledge bases and ways of life

Climate change imperils Indigenous ecosystems, food security, knowledge bases and ways of life

Inside Climate News reports: As world leaders gather in Dubai for the 28th United Nations climate talks, Indigenous representatives from seven socio-cultural regions are calling for a moratorium on “false solutions” that ignore the roots of the climate crisis and urging a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Indigenous peoples’ caucus, called the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, or IIPFCC, had two minutes during COP28’s opening plenary Thursday to lay out their core concerns and assert their…

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Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power

Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power

The Washington Post reports: At a diner known for political chitchat and Coca-Cola memorabilia, former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio walked from table to table on a recent fall morning, asking voters to back him for mayor of his Phoenix-area hometown — and to support the former president who once rescued him from a potential prison sentence. “Are you for Trump?” Arpaio asked one restaurant patron, as town council members, a Republican Party activist and a Bible study group ate…

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‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza

‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza

+972 and Local Call reports: The Israeli army’s expanded authorization for bombing non-military targets, the loosening of constraints regarding expected civilian casualties, and the use of an artificial intelligence system to generate more potential targets than ever before, appear to have contributed to the destructive nature of the initial stages of Israel’s current war on the Gaza Strip, an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals. These factors, as described by current and former Israeli intelligence members, have likely…

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The bogus historians who teach evangelicals they live in a theocracy

The bogus historians who teach evangelicals they live in a theocracy

Tim Alberta writes: I had never seen a sanctuary so full on a Tuesday night. The people packed into FloodGate Church in Brighton, Mich., weren’t here for Bill Bolin, the right-wing zealot pastor who’d grown his congregation tenfold by preaching conspiracy-fueled sermons since the onset of Covid-19, turning Sunday morning worship services into amateur Fox News segments. No, they had come out by the hundreds, decked out in patriotic attire this October evening in 2021, to hear from a man…

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MSNBC draws backlash for canceling Mehdi Hasan show

MSNBC draws backlash for canceling Mehdi Hasan show

The Washington Post reports: MSNBC faced a blizzard of backlash Thursday after announcing that popular liberal host Mehdi Hasan would lose his Sunday-night show as part of a broader restructuring of the network’s weekend lineup. The network said the changes, which include a new weekend panel show, were made with 2024 election coverage in mind. But fans and prominent liberals questioned whether Hasan, one of the few Muslim hosts in cable news, was being penalized for his criticism of the…

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Trump may be sued over Jan. 6 incitement claims, appeals court panel rules

Trump may be sued over Jan. 6 incitement claims, appeals court panel rules

Politico reports: Donald Trump can be sued over claims that he incited violence on Jan. 6, 2021, an appeals court ruled Friday, rejecting the former president’s argument that he is entirely immune from being held liable for incendiary remarks that preceded the attack on the Capitol. The three-judge panel concluded that Trump’s actions as a candidate for president would not automatically be protected by “presidential immunity,” turning aside Trump’s sweeping argument that nearly all speech and conduct by an incumbent…

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Why Cornel West is broke

Why Cornel West is broke

Forbes reports: Cornel West has been a fixture of American society for more than three decades, publishing books, teaching at Ivy League institutions, commenting on cable news, collaborating on music with Prince—even popping up in sequels to the Matrix. Ubiquity provided liquidity, with West earning an estimated $15 million or so over the last 30 years. But oddly, as he mounts an independent run for president, his net worth resembles that of a first-year adjunct professor. “I live paycheck to…

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A glimpse of the world’s heart

A glimpse of the world’s heart

Nick Hunt writes: I am standing on the beach in Santa Marta, a small port city on Colombia’s humid Caribbean coast. Around me, brightly dressed families are eating ice cream and grilled meat. Venezuelan refugees beg for coins, and shredded plastic bags are snagged in the cactuses. Offshore, cargo vessels idle on blue-grey waves, perhaps heading east towards the Atlantic, or west to Panama and the Pacific. The industrial port bristles with cranes and gantries. Looking inland, my view is…

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What we get when we give

What we get when we give

Molly McDonough writes: From where in the body might kindness flow? Folklore and belief systems far and wide point to the heart. Ancient Egyptian mythology, for example, maintained that the leap to the afterlife required a test. Before the deceased could enter, their heart had to be weighed, placed on a balance under the watchful eyes of the gods. The dead person’s heart wasn’t beating, but it wasn’t considered dead weight; it held proof of virtue. If the person had…

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A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending otherwise

A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending otherwise

Robert Kagan writes: It is worth getting inside Trump’s head a bit and imagining his mood following an election victory. He will have spent the previous year, and more, fighting to stay out of jail, plagued by myriad persecutors and helpless to do what he likes to do best: exact revenge. Think of the fury that will have built up inside him, a fury that, from his point of view, he has worked hard to contain. As he once put…

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Israel knew Hamas’s attack plan more than a year ago

Israel knew Hamas’s attack plan more than a year ago

The New York Times reports: Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out. The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people. The…

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Mourned from Gaza to Glasgow, this is Dima’s story

Mourned from Gaza to Glasgow, this is Dima’s story

  Channel 4 News: More than 14,000 thousand people have been killed in Gaza, during Israel’s assault – according to officials there – and every single one of them has a story. Last week 29-year-old Dima AlHaj, her husband Muhammed, her six month old son Abood and more than 40 members of her extended family were killed when their house was hit. Dima worked for the World Health Organisation in Gaza and previously studied in Glasgow. Our international editor Lindsey…

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