Trump’s Education Dept. threatens academic freedom through witch-hunt against ‘anti-Israel’ bias

Trump’s Education Dept. threatens academic freedom through witch-hunt against ‘anti-Israel’ bias

The New York Times reports: The Education Department has ordered Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to remake the Middle East studies program run jointly by the two schools after concluding that it was offering students a biased curriculum that, among other complaints, did not present enough “positive” imagery of Judaism and Christianity in the region. In a rare instance of federal intervention in the details of higher education academic content, the department asserted that…

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Israel’s Arab politicians emerge from election with new political heft

Israel’s Arab politicians emerge from election with new political heft

The New York Times reports: The right to speak directly after the prime minister? Meetings with all visiting heads of state? Monthly briefings from the Mossad? For the first time, the perks of being the opposition leader in the Israeli Parliament could go to an Arab lawmaker. That tantalizing prospect stems from an upsurge in voter turnout among the country’s Arab population in this week’s election, which has translated into increased political heft. At least 60 percent of the Arab…

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Science is deeply imaginative. Why is this treated as a secret?

Science is deeply imaginative. Why is this treated as a secret?

By Tom McLeish My latest book, The Poetry and Music of Science (2019), starts with my experiences of visiting schools and working with sixth-form pupils in general-studies classes. These students, aged 17-18, would tell me that they just didn’t see in science any room for their own imagination or creativity. Not just on one occasion but repeatedly I heard this from young people bright enough to have succeeded at any subject to which they set their minds.  Yet it doesn’t…

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Greta Thunberg to Congress: ‘We don’t want to be heard. We want the science to be heard’

Greta Thunberg to Congress: ‘We don’t want to be heard. We want the science to be heard’

The Guardian reports: At a meeting of the Senate climate crisis task force on Tuesday, lawmakers praised a group of young activists for their leadership, their gumption and their display of wisdom far beyond their years. They then asked the teens for advice on how Congress might combat one of the most urgent and politically contentious threats confronting world leaders: climate change. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who has galvanized young people across the world to strike for more…

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Trump administration not so interested in states’ rights when it comes to California

Trump administration not so interested in states’ rights when it comes to California

Dino Grandoni writes: President Trump likes to cast himself as a champion of states’ rights. But he stops short when it comes to California and other liberal states. The latest example comes from Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, which is on the cusp of revoking California’s authority to regulate heat-trapping emissions from automobiles inside the state. The decision to spurn California was long expected, and is one in a series of salvos between Trump and one of the nation’s bluest states….

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Only a Green New Deal can douse the fires of eco-fascism

Only a Green New Deal can douse the fires of eco-fascism

Naomi Klein writes: When intense events happen in close proximity to one another, the human mind often tries to draw connections that are not there, a phenomenon known as apophenia. But in this case, there were connections. In fact, the strike [the March 15 School Strike for Climate] and the massacre [in Christchurch, New Zealand] can be understood as mirror opposite reactions to some of the same historical forces. And this relates to the other way that the Christchurch killer…

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The whole-planet view from inner space

The whole-planet view from inner space

Rosalind Watts, Sam Gandy, and Alex Evans write: In 1966, on a rooftop overlooking San Francisco, the writer Stewart Brand felt that he could perceive the curvature of the Earth, an effect of the psychedelic substance he had consumed. He wondered why no one had photographed the Earth from space yet, and realised how much this might help people feel connected to each other and to their shared home. Later that day, he wrote in his journal: ‘Why haven’t we…

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Did Trump lose the election for Netanyahu?

Did Trump lose the election for Netanyahu?

Gill Hoffman writes: The posters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv awkwardly remain hanging, like January Christmas decorations or a November sukkah. The results of Tuesday’s election appeared to indicate that the slogan “Netanyahu: In Another League” was not as persuasive as the creative minds in Likud envisioned. But maybe it was not the slogan that was ineffective, but the relationship itself between Netanyahu and Trump. Ahead of the April election,…

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How Democrats can mitigate the damage done to the judiciary by Trump and McConnell

How Democrats can mitigate the damage done to the judiciary by Trump and McConnell

Jamelle Bouie writes: Should [Democrats] win a federal “trifecta” — the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives — they’ll still have to deal with a Trump-branded judiciary. It’s entirely possible that a future Democratic agenda would be circumscribed and unraveled by a Supreme Court whose slim conservative majority owes itself to minority government and constitutional hardball. So what should Democrats do? They should play hardball back. Congress, according to the Judiciary Act of 1789, decides the number…

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Pentagon has spent nearly $200,000 at Trump’s Scottish resort since 2017

Pentagon has spent nearly $200,000 at Trump’s Scottish resort since 2017

Politico reports: Since Donald Trump took office, the U.S. military has spent nearly $200,000 at the president’s luxury Scotland resort, according to figures and documents the Pentagon provided to the House Oversight Committee. The spending, which has all occurred since August 2017, paid for the equivalent of hundreds of nights of rooms at the Turnberry resort over approximately three dozen separate stays, the committee said. The Air Force confirmed last week that its crews had stayed up to 40 times…

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Farming subsidies — $1 million a minute — are destroying the world, says report

Farming subsidies — $1 million a minute — are destroying the world, says report

The Guardian reports: The public is providing more than $1m per minute in global farm subsidies, much of which is driving the climate crisis and destruction of wildlife, according to a new report. Just 1% of the $700bn (£560bn) a year given to farmers is used to benefit the environment, the analysis found. Much of the total instead promotes high-emission cattle production, forest destruction and pollution from the overuse of fertiliser. The security of humanity is at risk without reform…

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Are the Amazon fires a crime against humanity?

Are the Amazon fires a crime against humanity?

By Tara Smith, Bangor University Fires in the Brazilian Amazon have jumped 84% during President Jair Bolsonaro’s first year in office and in July 2019 alone, an area of rainforest the size of Manhattan was lost every day. The Amazon fires may seem beyond human control, but they’re not beyond human culpability. Bolsonaro ran for president promising to “integrate the Amazon into the Brazilian economy”. Once elected, he slashed the Brazilian environmental protection agency budget by 95% and relaxed safeguards…

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Why carbon dioxide has such outsized influence on Earth’s climate

Why carbon dioxide has such outsized influence on Earth’s climate

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite makes precise measurements of Earth’s carbon dioxide levels from space. NASA/JPL By Jason West, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill CC BY-ND Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz I heard that carbon dioxide makes up 0.04% of the world’s atmosphere. Not…

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