How volatile is the situation in Iran?

How volatile is the situation in Iran?

  Widespread unrest, killings and arrests in Iran, during protests sparked by a collapse in the local currency. The leadership says it will listen to demonstrators — but rioters face the death penalty. As the US warns against a crackdown, how volatile is the situation? Mehran Kamrava — Head of Iranian Studies at the Arab Center for Policy Studies and Research Roxane Farmanfarmaian — Professor of Modern Middle East Politics at the University of Cambridge Trita Parsi — Executive Vice…

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An academic researcher kidnapped by idiots

An academic researcher kidnapped by idiots

Elizabeth Tsurkov writes: Four men searched my mouth for implanted tracking devices. I had told them I didn’t have any—that, as far as I knew, such things existed only in movies. They asked if I had fillings, and I confessed that I did. They looked again. “No, you don’t,” one of them corrected me, having failed to find any glint of silver. My fillings are white. The men, wearing dark civilian clothes and balaclavas, seemed convinced that these unfamiliar fillings…

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Big Oil knows that Trump’s Venezuela plans are delusional

Big Oil knows that Trump’s Venezuela plans are delusional

Rogé Karma writes: So, about all that Venezuelan oil. Although President Trump has declared that America’s oil companies will soon “go in” to Venezuela and “spend billions of dollars” to rebuild that country’s petroleum industry, the administration is making two huge assumptions. First, that unleashing Venezuelan oil would yield lower energy prices for American consumers and giant profits for American companies. Second, that unlike previous administrations, which got bogged down for decades in failed nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan,…

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From ‘America First’ to ‘Manifest Destiny’: MAGA pivots toward foreign expansion

From ‘America First’ to ‘Manifest Destiny’: MAGA pivots toward foreign expansion

Axios reports: MAGA is pressing the Trump administration to write a new chapter in America’s expansionist history — one that adds territory and influence as part of a new Western empire. Why it matters: On its face, MAGA’s imperial turn is a head-spinning reversal for a movement built around hostility to “endless wars” in the Middle East. But reframed as hemispheric dominance, the right’s expansionist impulse fits a civilizational worldview: America as the enforcer of the West, bending weaker nations to its will. What they’re saying: In…

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Steve Bannon quietly making moves toward 2028 run

Steve Bannon quietly making moves toward 2028 run

Axios reports: Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon is laying the groundwork for a 2028 run for president, two people familiar with his thinking tell Axios. Why it matters: The MAGA godfather isn’t serious about becoming president — that’s not the point. Instead, he’s told allies he wants to shape the debate and pressure Republican candidates to embrace an “America First” agenda — including a non-interventionist foreign policy, economic populism and opposition to Big Tech. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who has appeared…

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Eoin Higgins: How tech billionaires on the right bought the loudest voices on the left

Eoin Higgins: How tech billionaires on the right bought the loudest voices on the left

  In this episode of Dystopia Now, we talked to journalist Eoin Higgins about his book “Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left” which examines how Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk have used their wealth to shape media narratives, especially through journalists Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi.

Why some people are wired to help strangers, and what their brains reveal

Why some people are wired to help strangers, and what their brains reveal

The Washington Post reports: Abigail Marsh, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Georgetown University, studies extraordinary altruism — people who jump in to rescue strangers in emergencies or donate a kidney to someone they don’t know. Marsh spoke with Cristina Quinn, host of The Washington Post’s podcast “Try This,” about what her work has uncovered, and what brain science reveals about people who habitually engage in selfless acts. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You often…

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Chimp sounds trigger a strange brain signal in humans

Chimp sounds trigger a strange brain signal in humans

SciTechDaily reports: The human brain is not limited to recognizing speech from other people. Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have found that specific parts of the auditory cortex react strongly to the vocalizations of chimpanzees. These primates are our closest relatives both in evolutionary terms and in the acoustic qualities of their calls. The study, published in the journal eLife, points to the presence of specialized subregions in the human brain that are particularly responsive to the sounds…

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By murdering Renee Good, ICE sent a message to every American

By murdering Renee Good, ICE sent a message to every American

Michelle Goldberg writes: In the imagination of some on the right, Good quickly came to stand in for all the grating Resistance moms they’d like to see crushed. Fox News sneered that Good was a “self-proclaimed poet” — she’s the winner of a prestigious poetry award — “with pronouns in her bio.” The conservative radio host Erick Erickson described her as an “AWFUL,” or “Affluent White Female Urban Liberal.” It’s entirely possible that had Good lived, the Trump administration might…

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Renee Macklin Good ‘was made of sunshine’

Renee Macklin Good ‘was made of sunshine’

MPR News reports: Renee Macklin Good’s wife, Becca Good, said that the 37-year-old poet and mother of three was made of sunshine. “She literally sparkled,” Becca Good said in a statement. “I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time.” But behind that light was a well of deep values that Macklin Good lived by, including a conviction that every person — regardless of “where you come from or…

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Anne Applebaum: ICE is acting the way a paramilitary force functions in a dictatorship

Anne Applebaum: ICE is acting the way a paramilitary force functions in a dictatorship

  The transformation of ICE into a type of national police force, backed, in some cases, by soldiers from the National Guard, has been covered as immigration story—but these forces are reshaping democracy for all of us. This shift was evident even before the shootings in Minneapolis and Portland this week.

More Americans than ever say that ICE should be abolished

More Americans than ever say that ICE should be abolished

G. Elliott Morris writes: On Wednesday morning, Jan. 7, an agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed a 37-year-old mother, Renee Nicole Good, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Video footage of the incident went viral and prompted mass protests around the country on Wednesday and Thursday night, from San Diego to Houston to Philadelphia. The Minnesota Timberwolves, a basketball team, held a moment of silence for Good during Thursday3night’s game. Over the past year, protests against ICE have become…

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EU and South America to form a 700 million-strong free-trade zone in ‘a world without America’

EU and South America to form a 700 million-strong free-trade zone in ‘a world without America’

The New York Times reports: The European Union, overcoming deep dissension among its members, gave the green light to a sweeping trade pact with four South American countries on Friday that would create one of the largest free-trade zones in the world, connecting markets with more than 700 million people. The agreement offers a stark contrast to the amped-up aggression on display this week from the Trump administration. As Europe worked to extend an era of economic collaboration, the United…

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