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Biden has abdicated U.S. leadership on Syria to Russia and Iran

Biden has abdicated U.S. leadership on Syria to Russia and Iran

Josh Rogin writes: President Biden’s trip to the Middle East last week showed that his administration has abandoned any pretense of U.S. leadership on addressing the crisis in Syria. That policy of neglect undermines U.S. and regional interests — and threatens to leave the region’s security in the hands of Russia and Iran. Biden never mentioned Syria publicly during his four-day trip, which was billed as a demonstration of U.S. engagement in a region where powers such as Russia and…

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I was wrong about Facebook

I was wrong about Facebook

Farhad Manjoo writes: Early in 2009, I offered the world some tech advice that I have regretted pretty much ever since: I told everyone to join Facebook. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. I didn’t just tell people. I harangued. I mocked. Writing in Slate, I all but reached through the screen, grabbed Facebook skeptics by the lapels and scolded them for being pompous, mirthless Luddites. “There is no longer any good reason to avoid Facebook,” I wrote shortly after the…

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The octopus dreams of crabs

The octopus dreams of crabs

Laura Miller writes: John James Audubon was wrong. The great naturalist may have illustrated and compiled 1827’s Birds of America, a pioneering work of ornithology, but thanks to a series of sloppy experiments on turkey vultures, he insisted that birds can’t smell. This was taken for granted until the 1960s when two women scientists in New Zealand proved otherwise, but we are still discovering just how discerning bird’s noses can be. In the 1990s, biologist Gabrielle Nevitt was puzzling, as…

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War and warming upend global energy supplies and amplify suffering

War and warming upend global energy supplies and amplify suffering

The New York Times reports: Deadly heat and Russia’s war in Ukraine are packing a brutal double punch, upending the global energy market and forcing some of the world’s largest economies into a desperate scramble to secure electricity for their citizens. This week, Europe found itself in a nasty feedback loop as record temperatures sent electricity demand soaring but also forced sharp cuts in power from nuclear plants in the region because the extreme heat made it difficult to cool…

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The deadly connections between climate change and migration

The deadly connections between climate change and migration

Yale Climate Connections spoke with UCLA anthropologist Jason De León: Yale Climate Connections: What are the main drivers of undocumented migration across the U.S.-Mexico border? Jason De León: The primary reasons that people attempt undocumented migrations include poverty, political instability, violence of different forms, famine, a devaluation of currency, and, increasingly, climate change. You’ve got people who are fleeing places like western Mexico because of droughts. They’re fleeing places like Honduras because of the intensity and frequency of hurricanes that…

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U.S. Himars help to hold off Russian advance, Ukraine says

U.S. Himars help to hold off Russian advance, Ukraine says

The Wall Street Journal reports: U.S.-supplied long-range artillery has helped stabilize the front line with Russia in the east of the country, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces said, as his troops geared up for a counteroffensive to retake territory in the south. After weeks of grueling combat in eastern Ukraine that culminated in Russian forces claiming control over the Luhansk region, the arrival of U.S. mobile rocket launchers, known as Himars, last month has strengthened Kyiv’s hand. “It is…

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Biden announces modest steps to fight climate’s ‘clear and present danger’

Biden announces modest steps to fight climate’s ‘clear and present danger’

Politico reports: President Joe Biden sought to keep his faltering climate change agenda alive Wednesday after bruising defeats in Congress and at the Supreme Court, and he vowed to take matters into his own hands as heatwave records topple in the U.S. and Europe and his climate goals drift further out of reach. For now, those steps will be modest: Biden’s administration will clear the way for new offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, he…

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Is the Justice Department meeting the moment?

Is the Justice Department meeting the moment?

Quinta Jurecic and Natalie K. Orpett write: As the Jan. 6 committee continues to build its case for Donald Trump’s criminal culpability regarding the Capitol insurrection, the Justice Department has come under increasing criticism for its failure to take public action against the former president. Rep. Adam Schiff, who sits on the Jan. 6 committee, commented on MSNBC that “it is unprecedented for Congress to be so far out ahead of the Justice Department in a complex investigation.” According to…

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Blake Masters is Peter Thiel’s dream candidate — and a total nightmare for democracy

Blake Masters is Peter Thiel’s dream candidate — and a total nightmare for democracy

Mother Jones reports: In the spring of 2012, Blake Masters, who was in his final year at Stanford Law, sat in on a computer science class taught by Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal. During a lecture titled “Founder as Victim, Founder as God,” Thiel argued a kinglike leader was essential to innovation. “A startup is basically structured as a monarchy,” he explained. “We don’t call it that, of course. That would seem weirdly outdated, and anything that’s not…

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You trust the media more than you say you do

You trust the media more than you say you do

Jack Shafer writes: If you follow the trendline of plummeting trust in newspapers, as just updated by Gallup, you could make an argument that by the year 2030 or so, 0 percent of respondents will say they have any “confidence” in newspapers and TV news. It sounds ridiculous, but that’s the direction the data is headed. In 1979, 51 percent of those polled said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspaper journalism. But in…

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How ‘Stop the Steal’ movement now threatens the future of American elections

How ‘Stop the Steal’ movement now threatens the future of American elections

Charles Homans writes: The Pennsylvania State Capitol, in Harrisburg, is a Beaux-Arts landmark that on its eastern side echoes the west terrace of the U.S. Capitol, and the scene there on Nov. 7, 2020, four days after Election Day, strikingly prefigured the one in Washington two months later. On the plaza below, more than a thousand strong, were the Donald Trump faithful, in MAGA hats and every possible variation of red, white and blue clothing, waving the banners of the…

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‘Sprint through the finish’: Why the January 6 committee isn’t nearly done

‘Sprint through the finish’: Why the January 6 committee isn’t nearly done

Politico reports: The Jan. 6 select committee once envisioned a single month packed with hearings. Then a fire hose of evidence came its way — and now its members have no interest in shutting or even slowing the spigot. As its summer hearings show some signs of chipping at Donald Trump’s electoral appeal, select panel members describe Thursday’s hearing as only the last in a series. Committee members, aides and allies are emboldened by the public reaction to the information…

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Secret Service says the dog ate their texts

Secret Service says the dog ate their texts

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. Secret Service has determined it has no new texts to provide Congress relevant to its Jan. 6 investigation, and that any other texts its agents exchanged around the time of the 2021 attack on the Capitol were purged, according to a senior official briefed on the matter. Also, the National Archives on Tuesday sought more information on “the potential unauthorized deletion” of agency text messages. The U.S. government’s chief record-keeper asked the Secret Service…

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Why are Democrats spending millions to boost the far-right fringe?

Why are Democrats spending millions to boost the far-right fringe?

Brian Beutler writes: Three simple facts will form the backdrop of the November midterms, and taken together, they are difficult to fully reconcile: First, Democrats are serious underdogs and may be defeated in a wave as devastating as the ones that wiped them out in 1994 and 2010. Second, Donald Trump, the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, has endorsed a slate of G.O.P. primary candidates who are unfit to hold public office in a democracy. Third, Democrats want to…

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