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Columbia law professor, Katherine Franke, faces firing after Democracy Now! interview on Gaza

Columbia law professor, Katherine Franke, faces firing after Democracy Now! interview on Gaza

  Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke last appeared on Democracy Now! in January to discuss an attack on Columbia’s campus targeting pro-Palestinian student activists with a foul-smelling liquid that led to multiple hospitalizations. Following her interview, Franke now faces termination after two Columbia professors filed a complaint against her claiming she had created a hostile environment for Israeli students; she also became a target for Republican lawmakers. Franke joins Democracy Now! to discuss the campaign against her, the ongoing…

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Former 2016 Trump campaign adviser is charged over his work for sanctioned Russian TV

Former 2016 Trump campaign adviser is charged over his work for sanctioned Russian TV

The Associated Press reports: The Justice Department has charged a Russian-born U.S. citizen and former adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with working for a sanctioned Russian state television network and laundering the proceeds. Indictments announced Thursday allege that Dimitri Simes and his wife received over $1 million dollars and a personal car and driver in exchange for work they did for Russia’s Channel One since June 2022. The network was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over Russia’s…

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Right-wing influencer network Tenet Media allegedly spread Russian disinformation

Right-wing influencer network Tenet Media allegedly spread Russian disinformation

Wired reports: A Tennessee-based media network that produces shows for high-profile right-wing influencers such as Benny Johnson and Tim Pool was largely funded by Russian state-backed news network RT, according to a federal indictment against two RT employees that the US Department of Justice unsealed on Wednesday. The DOJ claims the US company—which WIRED, along with other news outlets, was able to identify as Tenet Media but goes unnamed in the indictment—posted hundreds of videos on social media that pushed…

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New poll has bad news for Democrats in key Senate race

New poll has bad news for Democrats in key Senate race

Politico reports: Vulnerable Democratic Sen. Jon Tester trails his GOP opponent by 8 points in a new independent poll of Montana’s Senate race — a result that could very well tip control of the Senate to Republicans. Republican Tim Sheehy took 49 percent of the vote, compared to Tester’s 41 percent, on a four-way ballot, according to the late-August survey of 600 likely voters in the state commissioned by AARP. The Libertarian candidate received 4 percent of the vote, while…

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Ukraine army chief reveals the strategy behind Kursk incursion

Ukraine army chief reveals the strategy behind Kursk incursion

  CNN reports: Russia had been planning to launch a new attack on Ukraine from the Kursk region before Kyiv’s surprise cross-border incursion, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday. In his first television interview since becoming military chief in February, the general told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he believed the Kursk operation had been a success. “It reduced the threat of an enemy offensive. We prevented them from acting. We moved the fighting to…

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Inside the brutal siege of Jenin

Inside the brutal siege of Jenin

Mariam Barghouti reports: On Aug. 28, Israel launched “Operation Summer Camps,” the largest military invasion witnessed in the northern West Bank in over two decades. In Jenin, Israeli forces first moved into the city before imposing a full-blown siege on the refugee camp within hours; the army simultaneously carried out operations in Tubas, Nablus, Ramallah, and Tulkarem. Since 2021, the Israeli military has repeatedly targeted Jenin refugee camp under the pretext of fighting armed resistance groups. Most of the victims…

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Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin: ‘Let it be clear that Netanyahu has sentenced the hostages to death’

Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin: ‘Let it be clear that Netanyahu has sentenced the hostages to death’

  As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects growing domestic and international calls to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, we go to Jerusalem to speak to Gershon Baskin of the human rights advocacy group International Communities Organization. Baskin has spent years as a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including throughout Israel’s current war on Gaza. “It’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war,” says Baskin, who calls for all remaining stakeholders, including Hamas, the…

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Ginni Thomas privately praised religious-rights group working against Supreme Court reform

Ginni Thomas privately praised religious-rights group working against Supreme Court reform

ProPublica and Documented report: Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, privately heaped praise on a major religious-rights group for fighting efforts to reform the nation’s highest court — efforts sparked, in large part, by her husband’s ethical lapses. Thomas expressed her appreciation in an email sent to Kelly Shackelford, an influential litigator whose clients have won cases at the Supreme Court. Shackelford runs the First Liberty Institute, a $25 million-a-year organization that describes itself as “the…

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Christian group recruits ‘Trojan horse’ election skeptics as U.S. poll workers

Christian group recruits ‘Trojan horse’ election skeptics as U.S. poll workers

The Guardian reports: A Christian political operative has teamed up with charismatic preachers to enroll election skeptics as poll workers across the country, using a Donald Trump-aligned swing state tour to enlist support in the effort. Joshua Standifer, who leads the group called Lion of Judah, describes the effort as a “Trojan horse” strategy to get Christians in “key positions of influence in government like Election Workers”, which will help them identify alleged voter fraud and serve as “the first…

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U.S. announces plan to counter Russian influence ahead of 2024 election

U.S. announces plan to counter Russian influence ahead of 2024 election

The New York Times reports: The United States on Wednesday announced a broad effort to push back on Russian influence campaigns in the 2024 election, trying to curb the Kremlin’s use of state-run media and fake news sites to sway American voters. The actions include sanctions, indictments and seizing of web domains that U.S. officials say the Kremlin uses to spread propaganda and disinformation about Ukraine, which Russia invaded more than two years ago. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on…

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How politics hung up a $42 billion Biden internet buildout

How politics hung up a $42 billion Biden internet buildout

Politico reports: President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law promised to help Virginia expand broadband internet to hard-to-reach corners of the commonwealth — investing nearly $1.5 billion to improve a key service across a swing state crucial to Democrats’ hopes in the November election. But so far, Virginia, like many states, hasn’t seen a cent of that money put to use. The state got news only in July that it was approved for funding — more than 10 months after completing…

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Israel destroyed 70% of Jenin’s streets, infrastructure, says municipality

Israel destroyed 70% of Jenin’s streets, infrastructure, says municipality

Anadolu Agency reports: The Israeli army destroyed about 70% of the streets and infrastructure in Jenin city in the northern West Bank during its ongoing military offensive for the fourth consecutive day, the local municipality said on Saturday. “The occupying (Israeli) forces have demolished more than 70% of the city’s streets completely (…) to a depth of approximately one to one-and-half meters, which has led to the destruction of water and sewage networks, as well as communication and electricity cables,…

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Official says Netanyahu’s press briefing ‘torpedoed’ hostage deal efforts

Official says Netanyahu’s press briefing ‘torpedoed’ hostage deal efforts

CNN reports: Following the news of the killing of the six hostages in Gaza, officials involved in the mediation of the ceasefire talks have been on the phone discussing ways to push the ceasefire and hostage deal forward, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN. But then Netanyahu gave his press conference Monday evening, arguing that Israel will never leave the Philadelphi corridor, “and this guy torpedoed everything in one speech,” the source said in an initial reaction. Mossad…

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Judge Cannon should be removed from Trump case, watchdog group argues in new legal filing

Judge Cannon should be removed from Trump case, watchdog group argues in new legal filing

ProPublica reports: Judge Aileen M. Cannon has shown bias in handling criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and should be reversed and removed from the case to “preserve the appearance of justice,” a public interest group argued in a legal filing on Tuesday. The brief filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and joined by a retired federal judge and two constitutional lawyers is a direct legal assault on Cannon’s decision to throw out special counsel Jack…

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House Democrats ask Trump if he illegally accepted $10 million from Egypt

House Democrats ask Trump if he illegally accepted $10 million from Egypt

The Washington Post reports: Democratic leaders on the House Oversight Committee released a letter Tuesday asking former president Donald Trump if he ever illegally received money from the government of Egypt, and whether money from Cairo played a role in a $10 million infusion into his 2016 run for president. Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, and Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), the top Democrat on its subcommittee for national security, the border and foreign affairs, wrote…

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How Ted Cruz’s abortion record could cost him a historic election in Texas

How Ted Cruz’s abortion record could cost him a historic election in Texas

The Guardian reports: The notoriously verbose Ted Cruz has gone largely silent on abortion, one of his favorite topics to legislate on and bloviate about, during his Senate re-election campaign in Texas – an ominous sign both for Cruz and the anti-abortion movement writ large. Indeed, Texas representative Colin Allred has mounted an unusually strong campaign for Cruz’s Senate seat at a time when Texas has become ground zero in the grisly maternal health disaster unfolding across the country since…

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