A short history of the long war on drugs in Latin America

A short history of the long war on drugs in Latin America

Greg Grandin writes: Today, Donald Trump presides over his own Murder Incorporated, less a government than a death squad. Many brushed off his proclamation early in his second term that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be called the Gulf of America as a foolish, yet harmless, show of dominance. Now, however, he’s created an ongoing bloodbath in the adjacent Caribbean Sea. The Pentagon has so far destroyed 18 go-fast boats there and in the Pacific Ocean. No evidence has…

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Failing state: More than a quarter of Israelis want to leave the country

Failing state: More than a quarter of Israelis want to leave the country

Sruli Fruchter writes: Amid this brutal cycle of war, trauma and sacrifice, more than 25% of Israelis are now considering leaving Israel behind. The stunning results of this survey, conducted in April 2025 and published on Sunday by the Israel Democracy Institute, reveal an existential fissure in the country. Israelis are losing faith in their nation’s future, and they don’t believe they can get it back. It’s a shocking turnaround, after narratives of Israeli society’s exemplary resilience and social cohesion…

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Research indicates a connection between wealth and selfishness

Research indicates a connection between wealth and selfishness

Steve Taylor writes: A few weeks ago, the millionaire Polish CEO Piotr Szczerek made headlines when he snatched a signed cap from a child at the American Open tennis tournament. A social media backlash followed, which threatened Szczerek’s business interests, prompting an apology. Is it strange that a wealthy businessman should behave with such apparent pettiness and meanness? In fact, research has found a clear link between wealth and unethical behaviour, including an increased tendency to cheat and steal. One…

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Bloomberg: Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plan to Trump

Bloomberg: Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plan to Trump

Bloomberg News reports: US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, fresh from the triumph of the Gaza peace deal, held a phone call last month with a senior Kremlin official to suggest they work together on a similar plan for Ukraine — and that Vladimir Putin should raise it with Donald Trump. In an Oct. 14 phone call that lasted a little over five minutes, Witkoff advised Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, on how the Russian leader should broach the…

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Trump’s immigration forces deploy ‘less lethal’ weapons dangerously, skirting rules and maiming protesters

Trump’s immigration forces deploy ‘less lethal’ weapons dangerously, skirting rules and maiming protesters

By A.C. Thompson, ProPublica and FRONTLINE, and J. David McSwane, ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition. Federal agents had set off smoke grenades, driving away many protesters at the front of the facility, but Vincent Hawkins lifted his megaphone anyway. “You should stop and think about what you’re doing!”…

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ICE offers up to $280 million to immigrant-tracking ‘bounty hunter’ private surveillance firms

ICE offers up to $280 million to immigrant-tracking ‘bounty hunter’ private surveillance firms

Wired reports: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expanding plans to outsource immigrant tracking to private surveillance firms, scrapping a recent $180 million pilot proposal in favor of a no-cap program with multimillion-dollar guarantees, according to new contracting records reviewed by WIRED. Late last month, the Intercept reported that ICE intends to hire bounty hunters and private investigators for street-level verification work. Contractors would confirm home and work addresses for people targeted for removal by—among other techniques—photographing residences, documenting comings and…

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Censoring remarks on Trump: The BBC succumbs to the ‘paralysing cowardice’ of today’s elites

Censoring remarks on Trump: The BBC succumbs to the ‘paralysing cowardice’ of today’s elites

The Guardian reports: The BBC has been plunged into a new row over its treatment of Donald Trump, after an academic accused it of censoring his remarks about alleged corruption by the US president. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch author and historian, said the BBC had removed a “key line” from a flagship address he had been invited to give by the corporation. Bregman, who is giving the BBC’s prestigious annual Reith Lectures, said his claim that Trump was “the most…

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Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro to start serving 27-year sentence over coup plot

Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro to start serving 27-year sentence over coup plot

The New York Times reports: Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to start serving a 27-year sentence for overseeing a failed plot to hold onto power after losing the country’s last election. After the nation’s top court rejected an initial appeal by Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers challenging his sentence, the court ruled that he will begin serving his sentence at a federal police facility in Brasília, the capital. Mr. Bolsonaro is already in custody at that same…

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A cell that lacks any metabolic genes is a new addition to the spectrum of life

A cell that lacks any metabolic genes is a new addition to the spectrum of life

Jake Buehler writes: Life’s fundamental structure is the cell, and so the main things that a cell does — processing biomolecules, growing, replicating its genetic material and producing a new body — are considered hallmarks of life. But earlier this year, scientists discovered a cell so severely stripped of essential functions that it challenges biologists’ definitions of what counts as a living thing. The species is a single-celled organism known only by the mysterious sequence of its genetic code. Its…

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Ukraine: Trump’s national security team is ‘working cohesively towards a shared goal.’ Or, creating chaos

Ukraine: Trump’s national security team is ‘working cohesively towards a shared goal.’ Or, creating chaos

Politico reports: Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, an unusual choice to play diplomat, spent two days last week delivering a tough message to Ukraine and its European allies: Accept the offered 28-point peace proposal by Thanksgiving, or else. Then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio showed up. Rubio’s arrival in Geneva on Sunday, to join Driscoll and resume discussions with senior Ukrainian officials, changed the tenor of the conversations. The Trump administration team backed away from a firm Thursday deadline and, in…

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Trump regime’s threat to refugees in U.S. viewed as ‘unspeakably cruel’

Trump regime’s threat to refugees in U.S. viewed as ‘unspeakably cruel’

CNN reports: The Trump administration is moving to reinterview certain refugees who were admitted to the United States under former President Joe Biden as part of a comprehensive review of their cases, according to an internal memo and a source familiar with the plans. The effort marks an unprecedented step in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown — this time, targeting one of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Refugees must show that they were persecuted or face persecution in their home…

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The bad reasoning in the Meta antitrust ruling isn’t even the worst part

The bad reasoning in the Meta antitrust ruling isn’t even the worst part

Tim Wu writes: On Tuesday, the federal judge James Boasberg dismissed the U.S. government’s main antitrust case against Meta, ruling that the company, worth more than $1.5 trillion, does not possess a monopoly in personal social networking. He did so in the face of strong evidence to the contrary, not to mention common sense. But to dwell on the shortcomings of Judge Boasberg’s reasoning is to overlook something even worse: the message that his ruling sends to the country. The…

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Elon Musk’s X where nothing is as it appears and everything is possible

Elon Musk’s X where nothing is as it appears and everything is possible

Charlie Warzel writes: Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X rolled out a feature that had the immediate result of sowing maximum chaos. The update, called “About This Account,” allows people to click on the profile of an X user and see such information as: which country the account was created in, where its user is currently based, and how many times the username has been changed. Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said the feature was “an important first step…

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