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Poland shows the risks for women’s lives when abortion is banned

Poland shows the risks for women’s lives when abortion is banned

The New York Times reports: It was shortly before 11 p.m. when Izabela Sajbor realized the doctors were prepared to let her die. Her doctor had already told her that her fetus had severe abnormalities and would almost certainly die in the womb. If it made it to term, life expectancy was a year, at most. At 22 weeks pregnant, Ms. Sajbor had been admitted to a hospital after her water broke prematurely. She knew that there was a short…

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How fashion giants rebrand plastic as good for the planet

How fashion giants rebrand plastic as good for the planet

The New York Times reports: It’s soft. It’s vegan. It looks just like leather. It’s also made from fossil fuels. An explosion in the use of inexpensive, petroleum-based materials has transformed the fashion industry, aided by the successful rebranding of synthetic materials like plastic leather (once less flatteringly referred to as “pleather”) into hip alternatives like “vegan leather,” a marketing masterstroke meant to suggest environmental virtue. Underlying that effort has been an influential rating system assessing the environmental impact of…

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Why the mind is more than a machine

Why the mind is more than a machine

Bobby Azarian writes: Before Kurt Gödel, logicians and mathematicians believed that all statements about numbers — and reality more generally — were either true or false, and that there must be a rule-based way of determining which category a specific statement belonged to. According to this logic, mathematical proof is the true source of knowledge. The Pythagorean theorem, for example, is a mathematical conjecture that is true: It has been proved formally, and in more ways than one. With many…

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Putin’s imperial ambitions

Putin’s imperial ambitions

If it wasn’t obvious by the reign of terror, Putin now openly admits he’s a Tsar. The 21st century Hitler disgraces even Russian history by comparing his depraved kleptocracy to a 17th century emperor who “opened a window to Europe.” Putin’s lobbing missiles thru that window. https://t.co/zGCA9sF5Qr — 🇺🇦Paula Chertok🗽🇺🇦 (@PaulaChertok) June 11, 2022 When Putin says he will retake what is "historically his" – and restore the Russian "borders" – I present you a map of Russia 1914. @cepa…

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Ukraine’s ‘Nuremberg moment’ amid flood of alleged Russian war crimes

Ukraine’s ‘Nuremberg moment’ amid flood of alleged Russian war crimes

Robbie Gramer and Amy Mackinnon write: As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, top Biden administration officials are working behind the scenes with the Ukrainian government and European allies to document a tsunami of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces. But the sheer volume of the documented war crime cases could be too overwhelming for Ukraine’s justice system as well as for the International Criminal Court (ICC), raising questions of how many cases will be brought to trial and…

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Gary Younge: ‘If guns made you safer, America would be the safest place in the world’

Gary Younge: ‘If guns made you safer, America would be the safest place in the world’

“To talk about it would lead to some conclusions about how we’re raising boys & about male violence & patriarchy… can we just concentrate on the fact that these are all guys & that their insecurity, their anxiety, their anger has led to this.” @garyyounge pic.twitter.com/qauBTHutG0 — The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) June 11, 2022

Why it matters that the January 6 hearings put ‘a war scene’ on display

Why it matters that the January 6 hearings put ‘a war scene’ on display

Jamelle Bouie writes: We already know about — we already saw with our own eyes — the assault on the Capitol, the threats against the vice president and the heroism of the Capitol Police. And we know, or at least some of us know, that Jan. 6 was just the beginning and that Trump has continued to use all the power and influence at his disposal to put pro-coup Republicans on the ballot in as many states as possible. The…

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How the January 6 hearing played out on the pro-Trump web

How the January 6 hearing played out on the pro-Trump web

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump’s supporters scrambled to defend him online in the hours after the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings began, seeking to sow doubt about his involvement via the same social media channels that had captured clear evidence linking him to the Capitol assault. In so doing, they reinforced the unmistakable role social media played in the 2021 insurrection and made clear that his supporters are determined to remain a major internet force, despite Trump’s ban…

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Online disinformation uses culture wars to delay climate action, study says

Online disinformation uses culture wars to delay climate action, study says

Inside Climate News reports: A team of researchers and environmental advocates are urging governments and Big Tech companies to do far more to stop rampant online disinformation campaigns, which they say aim to delay action on the climate crisis by intentionally dragging the issue into the culture wars now dominating Western politics. Failing to stop such campaigns, the groups warned in a new report, could further splinter unity at November’s climate talks and jeopardize a global effort that has struggled…

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Group aiming to defund disinformation tries to drain Fox News of online advertising

Group aiming to defund disinformation tries to drain Fox News of online advertising

NPR reports: A nonprofit aiming to defund disinformation online that has taken money out of the pockets of several prominent far-right websites now has its sights set on its most formidable target yet: Fox News. The group, Check My Ads, is hoping the success it has had in stripping advertising dollars from right-wing provocateurs including Steve Bannon, Glenn Beck and Dan Bongino will give it momentum as it attempts to confront a powerful media empire. On Thursday, the outfit announced…

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We’re almost out of ammunition and relying on Western arms, says Ukraine

We’re almost out of ammunition and relying on Western arms, says Ukraine

The Guardian reports: Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence has said Ukraine is losing against Russia on the frontlines and is now reliant almost solely on weapons from the west to keep Russia at bay. “This is an artillery war now,” said Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence. The frontlines were now where the future would be decided, he told the Guardian, “and we are losing in terms of artillery”. “Everything now depends on what [the west] gives…

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Ukraine’s high casualty rate could bring war to tipping point

Ukraine’s high casualty rate could bring war to tipping point

Dan Sabbagh writes: Any way you count it, the figures are stark: Ukrainian casualties are running at a rate of somewhere between 6oo and 1,000 a day. One presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, told the Guardian this week it was 150 killed and 800 wounded daily; another, Mykhaylo Podolyak, told the BBC that 100 to 200 Ukrainian troops a day were being killed. It represents an extraordinary loss of human life and capacity for the defenders, embroiled in a defence of…

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Inside the OSCE’s botched withdrawal from Ukraine

Inside the OSCE’s botched withdrawal from Ukraine

Politico reports: The signs had been there for weeks, if not months: Russian forces were massing around Ukraine, painting Zs and Vs on their military vehicles; Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric was getting more and more bellicose; and Western intelligence agencies were warning that an invasion was imminent. But the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest security body, was caught napping. For eight years, it had overseen a Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) on the ground in Ukraine,…

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The reason the Watergate hearings were explosive — and the January 6 hearings won’t be

The reason the Watergate hearings were explosive — and the January 6 hearings won’t be

Jeff Greenfield writes: It is fitting that a giant television screen loomed over the members of the January 6 committee Thursday night. The core premise of this hearing was that the images from that day, accompanied by the comments and testimony of key players in Donald Trump’s orbit, would galvanize a national audience. It’s too easy — and more importantly, unfair — to dismiss the presentation as “political theater.” The interviews with insurrectionists, the blunt comments from former Attorney General…

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