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Harris has momentum as the convention starts but some progressives remain skeptical

Harris has momentum as the convention starts but some progressives remain skeptical

Samer Badawi writes: In June 2020, news photographer Kerem Gencer was an on-again, off-again student at Ohio State University in Columbus, the state capital. During the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that summer, Gencer remembers police officers in riot gear lining the streets and cutting a menacing presence in public spaces, especially around the Statehouse downtown. Some protesters were roughed up, he said. Some were arrested. Many politicians, especially on the Democratic side of the aisle, were sympathetic to the…

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The cost of trying to make Palestinian lives matter in the newsroom

The cost of trying to make Palestinian lives matter in the newsroom

Hoda Sherif writes: In the heart of Gaza’s ruins, local Palestinian journalists are enduring the unimaginable toll of a merciless war machine, starvation, and unwarranted daily brutality. Meanwhile, Muslim journalists and others reporting on the war from the West are faced with a different kind of impediment: the battle against blood-washing discourse. For the past 10 months, journalists across the world have voiced concerns to their employers over imbalanced, misleading, and at times, fictitious coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza….

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Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson owes his career to activism. How will he handle demonstrators at the DNC?

Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson owes his career to activism. How will he handle demonstrators at the DNC?

Mother Jones reports: At a contentious January city council meeting marked by passionate speeches and so much heckling that an hour-long recess had to be called, the new mayor cast the tie-breaking vote on a 23-23 deadlock to approve a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. More than 100 local governments have done so, but Chicago remains the largest by population. If Johnson wasn’t mired in meetings with local and national lawmakers and law enforcement personnel ahead of…

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Israel perpetrating war crimes in plain sight in Gaza, says ex-UK diplomat

Israel perpetrating war crimes in plain sight in Gaza, says ex-UK diplomat

The Guardian reports: Israel is “flagrantly and regularly” committing war crimes in Gaza, according to a former British diplomat who recently resigned over ministers’ failure to ban arms sales to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Mark Smith, who resigned as a counter-terrorism official at the British embassy in Dublin after raising complaints about the sale of British weapons to Israel, told the BBC on Monday that he believed Israel to be in breach of international law. Smith told Radio 4’s Today programme:…

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Prominent conservative former federal judge, Michael Luttig, endorses Harris, calls Trump a threat to democracy

Prominent conservative former federal judge, Michael Luttig, endorses Harris, calls Trump a threat to democracy

CNN reports: Retired federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative legal scholar put on the bench by President George H.W. Bush, is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, whose candidacy he describes as an existential threat to American democracy. It will be the first time Luttig, a veteran of two Republican administrations, has voted for a Democrat. “In the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for…

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Project 2025: The right-wing conspiracy to torpedo global climate action

Project 2025: The right-wing conspiracy to torpedo global climate action

Michael E. Mann writes: Summer 2024 saw another round of devastating heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, and record-setting global temperatures. The window for averting a catastrophic 1.5 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit) warming of the planet is rapidly closing. Can we meet this moment? I suppose it depends on whom you ask. For this is a tale of two worldviews. In one—based on facts and evidence—environmental policy is motivated by science and reason, with the intent of advancing the common good and the sustainability of…

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Inside conservative activist Leonard Leo’s long campaign to gut Planned Parenthood

Inside conservative activist Leonard Leo’s long campaign to gut Planned Parenthood

KFF Health News reports: A federal lawsuit in Texas against Planned Parenthood has a web of ties to conservative activist Leonard Leo, whose decades-long effort to steer the U.S. court system to the right overturned Roe v. Wade, yielding the biggest rollback of reproductive health access in half a century. Brought by an anonymous whistleblower and later joined by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the suit alleges the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and three Planned Parenthood affiliates defrauded the…

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Pro-Palestinian protesters are looking for a change in policy — not simply a change in tone

Pro-Palestinian protesters are looking for a change in policy — not simply a change in tone

The Washington Post reports: A coalition of Muslim and Arab American grassroots groups based in the Midwest — including the key battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin — sent a letter to the vice president recently outlining what it would take to win back their votes. Some Arab American and Muslim organizers say they are open to supporting Harris — but only if she lays out policies toward Israel that differ significantly from Biden’s. The groups made several policy demands,…

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‘Incomprehensible’: U.S. approves $20 billion in new arms for Israel as Gaza death toll tops 40,000

‘Incomprehensible’: U.S. approves $20 billion in new arms for Israel as Gaza death toll tops 40,000

  Health officials in Gaza said Thursday that the official death toll from Israel’s 10-month war has topped 40,000, though that is believed to be a vast undercount of the true figure. The grim milestone was reached just days after the Biden administration greenlit $20 billion in additional weapons sales to Israel, including 50 F-15 fighter jets, tank ammunition, mortar rounds, tactical vehicles and advanced air-to-air missiles. The U.S. approved the sales despite growing calls for an arms embargo on…

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Far-right influencers turn against Trump campaign

Far-right influencers turn against Trump campaign

The Washington Post reports: Some of the internet’s most influential far-right figures are turning against former president Donald Trump’s campaign, threatening a digital “war” against the Republican candidate’s aides and allies that could complicate the party’s calls for unity in the final weeks of the presidential race. Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and podcaster who dined with Trump at his Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago in 2022, said on X that Trump’s campaign was “blowing it” by not positioning itself more…

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Trump’s ‘nuclear explosion’ on Georgia governor was months in the making. He could pay a price in November

Trump’s ‘nuclear explosion’ on Georgia governor was months in the making. He could pay a price in November

Politico reports: Donald Trump was privately stewing over Brian Kemp earlier this year — long before he unloaded on him at a rally in Atlanta this month — offended by the Georgia governor’s absence from campaign events and fundraisers and other perceived slights. “What’s the deal with Brian Kemp?” Trump asked companions on a flight back to Florida from a fundraiser held in the swing state in April, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion granted anonymity to…

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Election deniers secretly pushed rule that would make it easier to delay certification of Georgia’s election results

Election deniers secretly pushed rule that would make it easier to delay certification of Georgia’s election results

By Doug Bock Clark This story was originally published by ProPublica Georgia’s GOP-controlled State Election Board is poised to adopt a rule on Monday that would give county election board members an additional avenue to delay certification of election results, potentially allowing them to throw the state’s vote count into chaos this fall. A former Fulton County election official who submitted an initial draft of the rule told ProPublica that she had done so at the behest of a regional…

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Experts: Pro-Trump officials could face ‘severe’ punishments if they refuse to certify election

Experts: Pro-Trump officials could face ‘severe’ punishments if they refuse to certify election

Salon reports: Pro-Trump local election officials may try to slow down the certification of election results in November based on unsubstantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud – but legal experts say those efforts alone won’t secure the White House for the former president. Instead, legal experts say they’re more concerned about the role of state legislatures and the Trump-friendly Supreme Court coming to Trump’s aid as he sows the kind of discord and doubt in the nation’s electoral processes that…

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Ukraine’s Kursk offensive is a turning point in the war

Ukraine’s Kursk offensive is a turning point in the war

Carl Bildt writes: As Ukrainian forces expand their area of control in Russia’s Kursk region in the second week of their incursion, it’s clear that they will eventually have to go home. After all, the principle of territorial integrity is at the very core of Ukraine’s fight and the firm international reaction to Russia’s attempt to change Europe’s borders through conquest. But that’s not the issue for today, and I will leave it to the experts to assess the military…

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Kamala Harris wants to stop Wall Street’s homebuying spree

Kamala Harris wants to stop Wall Street’s homebuying spree

Quartz reports: Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled plans to tackle the rise in Wall Street homeownership as part of a slate of economic proposals announced Friday. The Democratic presidential nominee is targeting investors that buy up and mark up homes in bulk, a growing trend that’s making the housing and rental market more expensive for Americans, the Harris campaign said. Within her first 100 days in office, Harris said she would call on Congress to pass the “Stop Predatory Investing…

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How Trump would use the military against riots, crime and migrants

How Trump would use the military against riots, crime and migrants

The New York Times reports: During the turbulent summer of 2020, President Donald J. Trump raged at his military and legal advisers, calling them “losers” for objecting to his idea of using federal troops to suppress outbreaks of violence during the nationwide protests over the police murder of George Floyd. It wasn’t the only time Mr. Trump was talked out of using the military for domestic law enforcement — a practice that would carry profound implications for civil liberties and…

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