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‘Nobody is listening to us’: On the school protest frontline, I heard why France’s students feel disowned

‘Nobody is listening to us’: On the school protest frontline, I heard why France’s students feel disowned

Alexander Hurst writes: When adolescents protest that the government is failing to uphold their right to an education, and the government’s response is to send in riot police, the government has lost the plot. People outside France may have spent the past week watching the student protests in Paris and other cities, and thought, “Well, France has a long tradition of insurrection” or, “That’s just the French being French.” But the situation that has provoked the high-school walkouts and teenage…

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Trump’s former defense secretary sees no end in sight for Iran war — to the benefit of China

Trump’s former defense secretary sees no end in sight for Iran war — to the benefit of China

CNBC reports: The U.S.-Iran war could drag on for years, putting America at risk of overlooking China’s rise to power, according to President Donald Trump’s former defense secretary. During a panel discussion at LSEG and Eurasia Group’s GZERO Summit in London, Mark Esper said on Thursday he saw the conflict continuing “well into 2027,” with a possibility that it could be handed to the next U.S. administration in three years’ time. “At some point, we will reach a point where…

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Oil prices jump as Iran steps up tanker attacks, hurricane threatens U.S. Gulf production

Oil prices jump as Iran steps up tanker attacks, hurricane threatens U.S. Gulf production

CNBC reports: Crude oil prices rose sharply Thursday, as Iran ramped up its attacks on tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz and Hurricane Isaias threatened U.S. offshore production in the Gulf of Mexico. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, gained 4% to close at $104.28 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures advanced 3.6% to settle at $91.49 per barrel. Nine tankers have come under attack in and around Hormuz over the past week, jeopardizing the recent recovery in crude…

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‘Neither war nor peace’: Palestinians in Gaza on existing amid disease, despair and ruins

‘Neither war nor peace’: Palestinians in Gaza on existing amid disease, despair and ruins

The Guardian reports: Ahmed Ishtaiwi has six chairs. They are cheap and plastic and battered, but they are among the 43-year-old driver and mechanic’s most valuable possessions. Ishtaiwi lives in a tent near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza with his two daughters. Their former home is far to the north, in the now ruined town of Beit Lahiya, uninhabitable and impossible to reach. “When I sit on those chairs, I remember sitting in the garden at home, having breakfast and…

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Hegseth wants Americans to watch Nidal Hasan’s execution — the first military execution since 1961

Hegseth wants Americans to watch Nidal Hasan’s execution — the first military execution since 1961

MeidasTouch Network reports: Hegseth has promised a public execution, while the Army’s official notice offers only the bare machinery of a death warrant. The Pentagon and Army have declined to provide reporters details about the firing squad’s personnel, its procedures or the location on the base where Hasan would be executed, according to an Associated Press account published Wednesday. The Trump regime has supplied a date. It has not supplied the rules. The prospect of a public execution would place…

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Most voters say Trump, Congress don’t take AI risks seriously, poll finds

Most voters say Trump, Congress don’t take AI risks seriously, poll finds

Reuters reports: Most US voters think President Donald Trump’s administration and Congress are not taking the risks of AI seriously enough and want the government to ​write new regulations for the technology, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The six-day survey, which ended on Monday, showed that wide swaths of the electorate see AI as ‌a major threat to American jobs, underscoring growing skepticism of the technology from voters across the political spectrum. The fast-advancing technology has become a matter…

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Trump-appointed federal judge accuses ICE of lying and fabricating records

Trump-appointed federal judge accuses ICE of lying and fabricating records

The New York Times reports: A federal judge in New York reprimanded the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency on Monday, accusing its officers of lying, lacking proper training and fabricating records to cover up illegal arrests. In a scathing 28-page ruling, the judge, Gary R. Brown, condemned the agency’s tactics when it mistakenly arrested two Hispanic men, including a U.S. citizen, in the Bronx in May, finding that ICE had “falsified official records trying to conceal” its “illegal actions.” Judge…

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Can $1 billion buy Republicans victory in the midterms?

Can $1 billion buy Republicans victory in the midterms?

The Associated Press reports: Republicans are entering the final month of the midterm campaign increasingly anxious that the $1 billion at their disposal may not be enough to fend off sweeping losses as the party reckons with President Donald Trump’s unpopularity, persistent cost concerns and the fallout from the war in Iran. The cash advantage, spread out across a half-dozen groups, is driven largely by the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc., which had nearly $416 million in cash on hand at the…

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Trump’s retreat shows Iran it has the power to chase the U.S. out of the Middle East

Trump’s retreat shows Iran it has the power to chase the U.S. out of the Middle East

The New York Times reports: To hear President Trump and his aides describe it, the rush to withdraw 12 B-1 bombers from an air base in Britain over the weekend was a prudent precaution, in response to a threat they refused to describe. It was no big deal, Mr. Trump insisted, and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, tried to wave it away by noting that the Pentagon is “constantly reallocating resources where ​they need to be.” But to anyone…

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Attacks on tankers in Hormuz hit highest of any week since start of Iran war, sources say

Attacks on tankers in Hormuz hit highest of any week since start of Iran war, sources say

Reuters reports: Attacks on tankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz hit their highest last week of any week since the ​Iran war began, according to maritime security sources tracking incidents, amid ‌a bigger export push by Gulf producers. Attacks, attempted attacks and harassment activity including drone overflights, surveillance and hailing using VHF radio by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have persisted ​in the strait, the US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) said ​in a note on Sunday. “These actions continue…

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‘Another coup d’état’: fears grow as Flávio Bolsonaro vows to ‘re-democratise’ Brazil

‘Another coup d’état’: fears grow as Flávio Bolsonaro vows to ‘re-democratise’ Brazil

The Guardian reports: Flávio Bolsonaro, the far-right frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president, has vowed to “re-democratise” the South American country, increasing fears about a move into authoritarian rule if he wins power. Brazil was re-democratised in the 1980s after a brutal 21-year dictatorship that Flávio’s father, the disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, has long praised. Last year, Jair Bolsonaro, a former soldier who served under that military regime, was jailed for 27 years for trying to engineer a coup after…

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FBI whistleblower says White House pushed unconstitutional probe of protesters

FBI whistleblower says White House pushed unconstitutional probe of protesters

NBC News reports: The Trump administration pushed the FBI to investigate Los Angeles protesters in violation of their constitutional rights and the bureau’s policies, a former FBI supervisor alleges in a new whistleblower complaint. Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, made a formal whistleblower complaint to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders over the federal response to anti-ICE protest activity around federal buildings, as well as in a residential area, early last year. Fields…

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506 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents

506 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents

ProPublica reports: The Trump administration says none of this is happening. “DHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.” “There are no ‘indiscriminate’ stops.” Allegations of “racial profiling are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE.” “The pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force.” “ICE does not zip tie or restrain children.” But that is precisely what is happening, and at a far larger scale than previously reported. We know because we have once again done what the government hasn’t: We…

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Rightwing ‘great replacement’ fears mask tech’s real great replacement

Rightwing ‘great replacement’ fears mask tech’s real great replacement

Jason Stanley writes: Across the world, “great replacement” theory has been employed again and again as the political foundation for fascism. Some of its fundamental tenets, such as the view that “whites are a dying minority”, have been amplified by tech billionaires and their platforms. According to the version of this theory most employed in Europe and the United States, white replacement theory, white populations are being “replaced” by non-white populations, a replacement engineered by a shadowy global elite. For…

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French high school students lead mass protests over school funding and inequality. Thousands are arrested

French high school students lead mass protests over school funding and inequality. Thousands are arrested

  Nearly 2,000 French high schools are blockaded or closed today amid massive student-led protests over school funding and inequality. The demonstrations began in September at a single school in the economically deprived suburbs of Paris, where students protested teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated school buildings beset by rats, falling debris and more. But the scope of the protests has widened amid a violent crackdown by French police. French authorities have arrested more than 5,000 people, largely underage students,…

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Amid midterm crunch, Trump advisers took time to help Russia-aligned government in the Balkans

Amid midterm crunch, Trump advisers took time to help Russia-aligned government in the Balkans

The New York Times reports: As President Trump crisscrossed the country last week trying to help his party avoid a blowout in next month’s midterm elections, two of his top political advisers were in the Balkans helping a pro-Russian government looking to tighten its grip on power. James Blair and Chris LaCivita, who are leading a big-money midterm advertising campaign for the Trump political operation, spent some of the past few days in a small self-governing territory in Bosnia and…

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