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Saudi Arabia on ‘relentless killing spree,’ Amnesty International says

Saudi Arabia on ‘relentless killing spree,’ Amnesty International says

Deutsche Welle reports: Authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have executed at least 100 people in 2023, according to human rights watchdog Amnesty International. In a statement on Friday, the activists said they documented several cases in which people had been sentenced to death for social media posts or drug-related offenses in “grossly unfair trials that fell far short of international human rights standards.” “The authorities’ relentless killing spree raises serious fears for the lives of young men on…

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The Supreme Court could send the U.S. back to the 1950s

The Supreme Court could send the U.S. back to the 1950s

Ronald Brownstein writes: The struggle over the sweeping red-state drive to roll back civil rights and liberties has primarily moved to the courts. Since 2021, Republican-controlled states have passed a swarm of laws to restrict voting rights, increase penalties for public protest, impose new restrictions on transgender youth, ban books, and limit what teachers, college professors, and employers can say about race, gender, and sexual orientation. Some states are even exploring options to potentially prosecute people who help women travel…

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As GOP investigates prosecutors, experts worry about judicial independence

As GOP investigates prosecutors, experts worry about judicial independence

The Washington Post reports: Investigate the investigator. That has been the operating thesis of the GOP’s playbook to counter the myriad criminal investigations into Donald Trump, the de facto leader of the Republican Party. Interrogating investigators’ methods and scruples is a strategy that has been utilized by both parties during tumultuous moments, and is a well-worn tool for lawmakers seeking to appease constituents hungry for the appearance of oversight on polarizing issues. The strategy has been effective in shaping public…

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Trump asked to move lawsuit seeking to boot him from 2024 ballot in Colorado to federal court

Trump asked to move lawsuit seeking to boot him from 2024 ballot in Colorado to federal court

NBC News reports: Former President Donald Trump asked to have a Colorado lawsuit aimed at kicking him off the 2024 ballot in the state moved to federal court. In a court filing on Thursday, lawyers for Trump argued the suit brought earlier this week by a group of six voters should be moved from state court to federal court because it centers on the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which holds that no person shall hold any office if…

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What divides political parties? More than ever, it’s race and ethnicity

What divides political parties? More than ever, it’s race and ethnicity

Dan Balz writes: In a polarized United States, what divides Democrats and Republicans the most isn’t gender or education or income or religion. It is the issue of race, whether in regard to the backgrounds of the voters who make up the two parties’ coalitions, or the conflicting agendas and priorities each side advocates in the pursuit of power. That reality is brought home in a report produced by the American Political Science Association (APSA) in partnership with the organization…

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What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement

What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement

Heidi Przybyla writes: The Supreme Court’s decision in the 2010 Citizens United case transformed the world of politics. It loosened restrictions on campaign spending and unleashed a flow of anonymous donor money to nonprofit groups run by political activists. In the months before the ruling dropped in January of that year, a group of conservative activists came together to create just such an organization. Its mission would be to, at the time, block then-President Barack Obama’s pet initiatives. The activists…

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What humans can learn from Neanderthals

What humans can learn from Neanderthals

Michael Segalov writes: “We might not know much about Neanderthals,” [says Ludovic Slimak], “but through what they created, we can see something incredible. When you take Home Sapien tools made of flint, spanning tens of thousands of years, in different parts of the world, they’re always the same. Standardised. It can’t be cultural.” There was likely little contact between these different settlements. “There’s something innate within the behaviour of Homo Sapiens – within our behaviour – to act and think…

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Back to New Jersey, where the universe began

Back to New Jersey, where the universe began

Dennis Overbye writes: On a field just below the summit of Crawford Hill, the highest point in Monmouth County, N.J., almost within sight of the skyscrapers of Manhattan, sits a cluster of shacks and sheds. Next to them is the Holmdel Horn Antenna, a radio telescope somewhat resembling the scoop of a giant steam shovel: an aluminum box 20 feet square at the mouth and tapering to an eight-inch opening, through which the radio waves are funneled into the “cab,”…

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The prosecutions of Donald Trump are something to celebrate, not lament

The prosecutions of Donald Trump are something to celebrate, not lament

Donald Ayer writes: Several distinguished individuals have recently expressed grave reservations about the prosecutions of former President Donald Trump. Notably, they appear to have no dispute about the seriousness of his wrongdoing. Rather, their main concern is that “terrible consequences” may result, because the prosecutions “may come to be seen as political trials … and play directly into the hands of Trump and his allies.” Although many Trump supporters will view the situation in just this way, any suggestion that…

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Wisconsin GOP’s impeachment plan: Another MAGA coup against democracy

Wisconsin GOP’s impeachment plan: Another MAGA coup against democracy

Dennis Aftergut and Austin Sarat write: MAGA Republicans in Wisconsin are gearing up to impeach newly elected state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, just five weeks after she took her seat on the court and before she has cast her first vote. They want to stop her from doing what the majority of Wisconsin voters elected her to do. Their plan is nothing less than a coup attempt, an effort to sideline a duly elected judge not because she has…

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Why you should pay attention to the Texas attorney general’s impeachment trial

Why you should pay attention to the Texas attorney general’s impeachment trial

Shirin Ali writes: A battle that’s long been brewing in Texas is finally coming to a head as the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, undergoes an impeachment trial for allegations of corruption, bribery, and abuse of power. It all started after Paxton demanded that $3.3 million in taxpayer money be used to settle a lawsuit against him. (Paxton has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty this week in his first hearing.) Paxton is a polarizing political figure, even beyond…

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How ‘free speech’ warrior RFK Jr. tried to intimidate a DailyKos blogger

How ‘free speech’ warrior RFK Jr. tried to intimidate a DailyKos blogger

The Daily Beast reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long postured as an absolute defender of “free speech” online, especially after private social media firms declined to provide a platform to his deadly misinformation during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. But he hired Kyle Rittenhouse’s former attorney to deliver a kill shot to an anonymous DailyKos blogger who penned an article he disliked. That DailyKos writer, who for two decades has contributed to the site’s community section under the…

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Appeals court says Biden admin likely violated First Amendment but narrows order blocking officials from communicating with social media companies

Appeals court says Biden admin likely violated First Amendment but narrows order blocking officials from communicating with social media companies

CNN reports: A federal appeals court on Friday said the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment in some of its communications with social media companies, but also narrowed a lower court judge’s order on the matter. The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that certain administration officials – namely in the White House, the surgeon general, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation – likely “coerced or significantly encouraged social media…

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The sea was never blue

The sea was never blue

Maria Michela Sassi writes: Homer used two adjectives to describe aspects of the colour blue: kuaneos, to denote a dark shade of blue merging into black; and glaukos, to describe a sort of ‘blue-grey’, notably used in Athena’s epithet glaukopis, her ‘grey-gleaming eyes’. He describes the sky as big, starry, or of iron or bronze (because of its solid fixity). The tints of a rough sea range from ‘whitish’ (polios) and ‘blue-grey’ (glaukos) to deep blue and almost black (kuaneos, melas). The sea in its calm…

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