Browsed by
Category: Politics

The Houthi’s ‘have been very happy’ to challenge Israel and the U.S.

The Houthi’s ‘have been very happy’ to challenge Israel and the U.S.

Robert F. Worth writes: The Houthi militia, born in the wilds of northwestern Yemen, has been wanting a war with Israel for decades. Its distinctive five-line motto, printed on flags and chanted at rallies by the group’s faithful, includes the lines “Death to Israel” and “Curses on the Jews.” The Houthis got their wish on July 19, when one of their drones struck a high-rise in Tel Aviv, killing one man and wounding four others. The blast signaled a troubling…

Read More Read More

Trump is becoming an embarrassment to his own party

Trump is becoming an embarrassment to his own party

Kamala Harris in Houston addresses Trump's bonkers appearance at the NABJ: "The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say. The American people deserve better … a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts." pic.twitter.com/uo7sN6NV0Z — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 1, 2024 Axios reports: Former President Trump’s comments about Vice President Harris to the National Association of Black Journalists are being treated as radioactive by many Republicans. Why it matters: The tense interview is being…

Read More Read More

Gaza, Islamophobia, family and the environment are the top issues for Muslim-American voters in 2024

Gaza, Islamophobia, family and the environment are the top issues for Muslim-American voters in 2024

New Lines Magazine: For months, as the war in Gaza raged on and student protests overtook American campuses, the question of just how much President Joe Biden’s steadfast support for Israel amid the war’s escalation would cost Democrats fueled endless debate. Many speculated that the anger that fueled the protests would come home to roost in November, as Muslim Americans in key swing states who had voted for Biden in 2020 would stay home, or worse, vote for Republican former…

Read More Read More

With the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Netanyahu shows his determination to block a ceasefire in Gaza

With the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Netanyahu shows his determination to block a ceasefire in Gaza

UN News reports: “The Secretary-General believes that the attacks we have seen in South Beirut and Teheran represent a dangerous escalation at a moment in which all efforts should instead be leading to a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages, a massive increase of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and a return to calm in Lebanon and across the Blue Line,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “Rather than that, what…

Read More Read More

Democrats may have a real chance to reform the Supreme Court

Democrats may have a real chance to reform the Supreme Court

Ankush Khardori writes: The summer of reversals for President Joe Biden continued in dramatic form on Monday as he announced that he now supports sweeping Supreme Court reform. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Biden pushed 18-year term limits and a binding ethics code on Supreme Court justices — after a long career spent opposing such measures — as well as a constitutional amendment overturning the court’s recent decision granting presidents immunity from criminal prosecution. Is it too little…

Read More Read More

Who is brave enough to back Brazil’s global tax on billionaires? The answer will define our future

Who is brave enough to back Brazil’s global tax on billionaires? The answer will define our future

George Monbiot writes: Last week, Brazilian climate minister Ana Toni explained a proposal put forward by her government (and now supported by South Africa, Germany and Spain), for a 2% global tax on the wealth of the world’s billionaires. Though it would affect just 3,000 of the super-rich, it would raise around $250bn (£195bn): a significant contribution either to global climate funds or to poverty alleviation. Radical? Not at all. According to calculations by Oxfam, the wealth of billionaires has been growing so fast…

Read More Read More

Kamala Harris is rightwing white America’s worst nightmare

Kamala Harris is rightwing white America’s worst nightmare

Robert Reich writes: When Joe Biden stepped down in support of Kamala Harris, he didn’t just pass the torch to another generation. He passed it from old white men to America’s future. Consider that women now compose a remarkable 60% of college undergraduates. And that by 2050, it’s estimated that America will consist mostly of people of color – 30% more Black people than today, 60% more Latinos, and twice the number of Asian Americans. The power shift has already…

Read More Read More

Harris candidacy offers foreign policy opportunity

Harris candidacy offers foreign policy opportunity

Matt Duss writes: While no one expects Harris to dramatically distance herself from Biden, there are steps that she can take to show that she speaks for the Democratic Party of today and not 40 years ago. She can announce that as president, she will immediately suspend the U.S.-supplied military aid being used in violation of U.S. law. She can publicly make clear that she agrees with the assessment of countless Israelis—including Israeli opposition lawmakers and top sitting security officials—that…

Read More Read More

How the crypto industry is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy political influence

How the crypto industry is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy political influence

Judd Legum writes: 15 years after Bitcoin was created, there are still few legitimate use cases. Today, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are primarily used for financial speculation and to facilitate organized crime. The broader crypto industry, meanwhile, has been rocked by scandals, including the spectacular implosion of FTX and criminal charges against Binance. But crypto lobbyists still have one ace up their sleeves: lots of money. The industry’s primary Super PAC, Fairshake, has raised over $202 million in the 2024…

Read More Read More

The polarization of gender attitudes

The polarization of gender attitudes

Derek Thompson writes: Men have for decades preferred Republican candidates, while women have for decades leaned Democratic. In a 2024 analysis of voter data, Catalist, a progressive firm that models election results, “found that the gender divide was roughly the same for all age groups in recent elections,” [Rose] Horowitch wrote. One suggested explanation for these apparent contradictions is that the most alarming surveys are showing us the future, and this November will establish a new high-water mark in gender…

Read More Read More

Social trends: The experiences of U.S. adults who don’t have children

Social trends: The experiences of U.S. adults who don’t have children

Pew Research Center reports: The U.S. fertility rate reached a historic low in 2023, with a growing share of women ages 25 to 44 having never given birth. And the share of U.S. adults younger than 50 without children who say they are unlikely to ever have kids rose 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2023 (from 37% to 47%), according to a Pew Research Center survey. In this report, we explore the experiences of two groups of U.S. adults: Those ages 50 and older who…

Read More Read More

Trump Media quietly enters deal with a Republican donor who could benefit from a second Trump administration

Trump Media quietly enters deal with a Republican donor who could benefit from a second Trump administration

By Justin Elliott, Robert Faturechi and Alex Mierjeski This story was originally published by ProPublica This month, former President Donald Trump’s media company announced it was making its first major purchase: technology to help stream TV on Truth Social, its Twitter-like platform. There was a mystery at the center of the deal: One of the companies on the other side of the transaction, which went unmentioned in Trump Media’s press release but was named in securities filings, is an obscure…

Read More Read More

Massive appropriation of labor from the Global South enables high consumption in rich countries

Massive appropriation of labor from the Global South enables high consumption in rich countries

Phys.org reports: The high levels of consumption enjoyed by wealthy countries in the Global North are only possible because of mass appropriation of labor from the population of the Global South. This is evidenced by research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), which indicates that this appropriation takes place through unequal exchange in international trade and global commodity chains. The new study, published in Nature Communications, measured the flows of labor…

Read More Read More

The decimation of Gaza’s academia is ‘impossible to quantify’

The decimation of Gaza’s academia is ‘impossible to quantify’

Ibtisam Mahdi writes: Dr. Refaat Alareer was a good friend of mine. A poet, writer, and prominent activist for the Palestinian cause, Refaat taught English literature and poetry for many years at the Islamic University of Gaza. He loved the works of Shakespeare, Thomas White, John Donne, Wilfred Owen, and many others, and he was the editor of two books: “Gaza Unsilenced“ and “Gaza Writes Back.” Refaat is one of at least 105 Palestinian academics killed in Gaza since the start…

Read More Read More

Joe Biden’s plan to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law

Joe Biden’s plan to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law

Joe Biden writes: This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one. But the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on July 1 to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do. The only limits will be those that…

Read More Read More

What Kamala Harris’s candidacy means for Black women

What Kamala Harris’s candidacy means for Black women

Nia Prater writes: More than half a century after New York Representative Shirley Chisholm became the first Black major-party candidate for president, Kamala Harris could do what seemed impossible in 1972. And while the vice-president’s rise to the top of the ticket has energized the entire Democratic Party, it has particularly thrilled Black voters and especially Black women. Still, Harris’s first week at the top of the ticket has been beset by a recent wave of racist attacks from commentators…

Read More Read More