Browsed by
Category: Politics

UK urged to take action against Israel as ‘Generals’ Plan’ takes shape in north Gaza

UK urged to take action against Israel as ‘Generals’ Plan’ takes shape in north Gaza

Middle East Eye reports: Several MPs have urged the UK government to take firm action against Israel after it launched a major military offensive in northern parts of Gaza and ordered the forced mass displacement of nearly 400,000 Palestinians living there. For six consecutive days, Israeli forces have pummelled the Jabalia refugee camp with air strikes and artillery shelling, despite ordering residents to leave their homes and head south to the Mawasi “humanitarian zone”. At least 120 Palestinians are known…

Read More Read More

Israel orders Gazans to leave the north, but most are staying put

Israel orders Gazans to leave the north, but most are staying put

The New York Times reports: For more than a year, as Israeli bombs pounded northern Gaza around Mariam Awwad’s home, she and her family of 11 have refused to leave. Their resolve did not change even after the Israeli military dropped leaflets over the town of Jabaliya on Sunday, ordering Palestinians in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south. The military was renewing an offensive on the north, saying it was going after Hamas fighters. “We refuse to flee only…

Read More Read More

Trump sounds like a fascist because he is a fascist

Trump sounds like a fascist because he is a fascist

Politico reports: Donald Trump vowed to “rescue” the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, from the rapists, “blood thirsty criminals,” and “most violent people on earth” he insists are ruining the “fabric” of the country and its culture: immigrants. Trump’s message in Aurora, a city that has become a central part of his campaign speeches in the final stretch to Election Day, marks another example of how the former president has escalated his xenophobic and racist rhetoric against migrants and minority…

Read More Read More

Inside Turkey’s EU-funded deportation machine

Inside Turkey’s EU-funded deportation machine

New Lines Magazine reports: Dawood remembers the disgust in the eyes of the Turkish security guards in the deportation center where he was held last year. “I felt like humanity had died,” said the soft-spoken Syrian man in his 30s, who is identified by a pseudonym to protect his safety. “They just kept shouting: ‘You are like animals! We’re tired of you. If you are a man, go back to Syria and fight!’” The humiliation hit hard for Dawood, who…

Read More Read More

Some online conspiracy-spreaders don’t even believe the lies they’re spewing

Some online conspiracy-spreaders don’t even believe the lies they’re spewing

When people spread lies online, they may know they’re sharing falsehoods. Timucin Taka/500 px via Getty Images By H. Colleen Sinclair, Louisiana State University There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a number of people sharing conspiracies online who don’t believe their own content. They are opportunists. These people share conspiracy theories…

Read More Read More

What does FEMA actually do? A former administrator explains

What does FEMA actually do? A former administrator explains

Politico reports: FEMA is probably the most talked about institution every time there’s a natural disaster, and this time’s no different. There’s almost too much news to choose from. To address Hurricanes Helene and Milton, FEMA has spent half of its disaster fund just days into its fiscal year. Members of the Florida delegation are agitating for a return to Washington to replenish the money. And it’s a target ahead of the election, with former President Donald Trump slamming the…

Read More Read More

What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis

What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis

Charlie Warzel writes: The truth is, it’s getting harder to describe the extent to which a meaningful percentage of Americans have dissociated from reality. As Hurricane Milton churned across the Gulf of Mexico last night, I saw an onslaught of outright conspiracy theorizing and utter nonsense racking up millions of views across the internet. The posts would be laughable if they weren’t taken by many people as gospel. Among them: Infowars’ Alex Jones, who claimed that Hurricanes Milton and Helene…

Read More Read More

Eight years ago, Trump vowed to ‘drain the swamp.’ Now he swims in it

Eight years ago, Trump vowed to ‘drain the swamp.’ Now he swims in it

The Washington Post reports: When clients tell Mercury Public Affairs, a consulting and lobbying shop with 18 offices worldwide, that they’re concerned about Donald Trump’s possible return to office, the firm has just the person to ease their nerves: Bryan Lanza. Lanza, a Mercury partner and longtime Republican strategist, is well-suited to the task. In between client breakfasts in far-flung parts of the world, he serves as a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign. So he’s a natural person to…

Read More Read More

Musk is going all in to elect Trump

Musk is going all in to elect Trump

The New York Times reports: In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, the richest man in the world has involved himself in the U.S. election in a manner unparalleled in modern history. Elon Musk, seen over the weekend jumping for joy alongside former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., is now talking to the Republican candidate multiple times a week. He has effectively moved his base of operations to Pennsylvania, the place that he has…

Read More Read More

Trump requests military aircraft and vehicles amid Iran threat

Trump requests military aircraft and vehicles amid Iran threat

The Washington Post reports: Donald Trump’s campaign requested military aircraft for Trump to fly in during the final weeks of the campaign, expanded flight restrictions over his residences and rallies, ballistic glass pre-positioned in seven battleground states for the campaign’s use and an array of military vehicles to transport Trump, according to emails reviewed by The Washington Post and people familiar with the matter. The requests are extraordinary and unprecedented — no nominee in recent history has been ferried around…

Read More Read More

Trump’s top general calls ex-president ‘fascist to the core’ and ‘most dangerous person to this country,’ new book says

Trump’s top general calls ex-president ‘fascist to the core’ and ‘most dangerous person to this country,’ new book says

The Independent reports: Mark Milley, the US Army general who Donald Trump appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now says the current Republican presidential nominee is a “fascist to the core” and says no person has ever posed more of a danger to the United States than the man who served as the 45th President of the United States. Milley, a decorated military officer who became a target for right-wing scorn after it became known that he…

Read More Read More

In Texas’ third-largest county, the far right’s vision for local governing has come to life

In Texas’ third-largest county, the far right’s vision for local governing has come to life

By Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune, and Jeremy Schwartz, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune This story was originally published by ProPublica Over the past two decades, Tim O’Hare methodically amassed power in North Texas as he pushed incendiary policies such as banning undocumented immigrants from renting homes and vilifying school curriculum that encouraged students to embrace diversity. He rode a wave of conservative resentment, leaping from City Council member of Farmers Branch, a suburb north of Dallas, in 2005 to…

Read More Read More

Trump is already laying the groundwork for contesting an election loss

Trump is already laying the groundwork for contesting an election loss

Dennis Aftergut writes: “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.” That is, according to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s recent evidentiary filing in his case against Donald Trump for the January 6th insurrection, what Trump said at a crucial moment in 2020. That was his plan then—and all signs indicate that it is his plan now. There’s nothing normal about Trump’s campaign this year. Even the standard features—the rallies, fundraising, and…

Read More Read More

Trump’s small-dollar donor fundraising is beset by confusion and fatigue

Trump’s small-dollar donor fundraising is beset by confusion and fatigue

The Associated Press reports: Donald Trump’s contributions from small-dollar donors have plummeted since his last bid for the White House, presenting the former president with a financial challenge as he attempts to keep pace with Democrats’ fundraising machine. Fewer than a third of the Republican’s campaign contributions have come from donors who gave less than $200 — down from nearly half of all donations in his 2020 race, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and OpenSecrets, an organization…

Read More Read More

FEMA spent nearly half its disaster budget in just eight days

FEMA spent nearly half its disaster budget in just eight days

Politico reports: Eight days into the fiscal year, the federal government has spent nearly half the disaster relief that Congress has allocated for the next 12 months. The rapid spending — which is likely to accelerate as aid flows to states pulverized by Hurricanes Helene and Milton — soon will force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to restrict spending unless Congress approves additional funding. “I’m going to have to evaluate how quickly we’re burning the remaining dollars in the Disaster…

Read More Read More

Trump & GOP push misinformation on hurricanes as climate crisis intensifies across globe

Trump & GOP push misinformation on hurricanes as climate crisis intensifies across globe

  As we continue to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, we speak with Manuel Ivan Guerrero, a freshman at the University of Central Florida and an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, who says young people are extremely worried about the impact of the climate crisis on their communities. “This just has me more scared for what the future’s going to look like in Florida,” he says. “We’re having these thousand-year storms every three, four years now.” We also speak…

Read More Read More