Hume believed we were nothing more or less than human

Hume believed we were nothing more or less than human

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Julian Baggini writes: Socrates died by drinking hemlock, condemned to death by the people of Athens. Albert Camus met his end in a car that wrapped itself around a tree at high speed. Nietzsche collapsed into insanity after weeping over a beaten horse. Posterity loves a tragic end, which is one reason why the cult of David Hume, arguably the greatest philosopher the West has ever produced, never took off. While Hume was lying aged 65 on his deathbed at…

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Millions of America’s school children are being terrorized by gun violence

Millions of America’s school children are being terrorized by gun violence

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The Washington Post reports: Locked behind their green classroom door, MaKenzie Woody and 25 other first-graders huddled in the darkness. She sat on the vinyl tile floor against a far wall, beneath a taped-up list of phrases the kids were encouraged to say to each other: “I like you,” “You’re a rainbow,” “Are you ok?” In that moment, though, the 6-year-old didn’t say anything at all, because she believed that a man with a gun was stalking the hallways of…

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How Trump is poisoning America

How Trump is poisoning America

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The New York Times reports: Had Donald J. Trump not won the presidency in 2016, millions of pounds of chlorpyrifos most likely would not have been applied to American crops over the past 21 months. It would not have sickened substantial numbers of farm workers, or risked what the Environmental Protection Agency’s own studies suggest could be continued long-term health problems for others exposed to the chemical at low levels. Widespread concerns about chlorpyrifos led to its removal for nearly…

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How did Trump find the ‘heel spurs’ that helped him dodge the draft during the Vietnam War?

How did Trump find the ‘heel spurs’ that helped him dodge the draft during the Vietnam War?

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The New York Times reports: In the fall of 1968, Donald J. Trump received a timely diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that led to his medical exemption from the military during Vietnam. For 50 years, the details of how the exemption came about, and who made the diagnosis, have remained a mystery, with Mr. Trump himself saying during the presidential campaign that he could not recall who had signed off on the medical documentation. Now a possible explanation…

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Trump’s Syria withdrawal has handed a huge gift to ISIS

Trump’s Syria withdrawal has handed a huge gift to ISIS

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Janine di Giovanni writes: Christmas came early in Syria. Donald Trump’s surprise tweet heralding the withdrawal of US troops neatly indicated the winners and losers in the murderous eight-year Syrian war. While the US never had much leverage in Syria – thanks to Barack Obama’s disastrous 2013 decision not to act following the Ghouta chemical attacks – Trump has managed, in a 16-word message, to embolden Islamic State, Moscow, Damascus, Hezbollah and Iran. In a sense, he has abandoned any…

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Japan to resume commercial whaling, defying international ban

Japan to resume commercial whaling, defying international ban

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The New York Times reports: Japan said on Wednesday that it would withdraw from an international agreement and resume commercial whaling, a defiant move to prop up an industry that still has cultural significance there, despite plummeting demand for whale meat. Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, said the country would leave the International Whaling Commission, which established a moratorium on hunting whales that took effect in 1986. The international agreement never stopped Japanese whaling, because it allowed the country…

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Hungary’s blueprint for the erosion of democracy retains a facade of political freedom

Hungary’s blueprint for the erosion of democracy retains a facade of political freedom

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The New York Times reports: When the Hungarian government coerced the Central European University, a leading college in Budapest, into shutting some of its operations in December, it did not do so by threat of physical force. Viktor Orban, the far-right prime minister of Hungary, never jailed a C.E.U. professor or ordered the university to close by government decree. Instead, the Orban government quietly changed the rules by which all foreign universities like C.E.U. can operate, allowing Mr. Orban to…

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Russia warns U.S. against interfering in Saudi royal succession

Russia warns U.S. against interfering in Saudi royal succession

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Bloomberg reports: Russia warned the U.S. against any effort to influence the royal succession in Saudi Arabia, offering its support to embattled Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who’s under continuing pressure over the killing of a government critic. President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Middle East said Prince Mohammed has every right to inherit the throne when the ailing 82-year-old King Salman dies. “Of course we are against interference. The Saudi people and leadership must decide such questions themselves,”…

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Arms sales to Saudis leave American fingerprints on Yemen’s carnage

Arms sales to Saudis leave American fingerprints on Yemen’s carnage

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The New York Times reports: When a Saudi F-15 warplane takes off from King Khalid air base in southern Saudi Arabia for a bombing run over Yemen, it is not just the plane and the bombs that are American. American mechanics service the jet and carry out repairs on the ground. American technicians upgrade the targeting software and other classified technology, which Saudis are not allowed to touch. The pilot has likely been trained by the United States Air Force….

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Cells talk in a language that looks like viruses

Cells talk in a language that looks like viruses

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Carrie Arnold writes: For cells, communication is a matter of life and death. The ability to tell other members of your species — or other parts of the body — that food supplies are running low or that an invading pathogen is near can be the difference between survival and extinction. Scientists have known for decades that cells can secrete chemicals into their surroundings, releasing a free-floating message for all to read. More recently, however, scientists discovered that cells could…

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Chief Justice Roberts fights perception that Supreme Court is partisan

Chief Justice Roberts fights perception that Supreme Court is partisan

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The New York Times reports: In his first 13 years on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s main challenge was trying to assemble five votes to move the court to the right, though there were only four reliably conservative justices. Now he faces a very different problem. With the retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and his replacement by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the chief justice has the votes he needs on issues like abortion, racial discrimination,…

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Democrats vow new scrub of post-9/11 war powers

Democrats vow new scrub of post-9/11 war powers

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Politico reports: Key House Democrats plan to use their newfound power to force a debate about the war-making authority that Congress approved after 9/11 — after years of being stifled by the chamber’s Republican leaders. Democrats will still face a tough fight to impose greater oversight on the U.S. military deployments that have mushroomed during the past 17 years. But prospects will be much brighter for the lawmakers who have spent years pushing Congress to weigh in on the use…

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Pope Francis promotes sharing and giving instead of devouring and hoarding

Pope Francis promotes sharing and giving instead of devouring and hoarding

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BBC News reports: Pope Francis has called on people in developed countries to live a simpler and less materialistic life. He also condemned the huge divide between the world’s rich and poor, saying Jesus’s birth in poverty in a stable should make everyone reflect on the meaning of life. He spoke out while leading a service in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican for the traditional Christmas Eve Mass. It is the 82-year-old’s sixth Christmas as head of the Roman…

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The battle over whether new nerve cells can develop in adult brains intensifies

The battle over whether new nerve cells can develop in adult brains intensifies

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Science News reports: Just a generation ago, common wisdom held that once a person reaches adulthood, the brain stops producing new nerve cells. Scientists countered that depressing prospect 20 years ago with signs that a grown-up brain can in fact replenish itself. The implications were huge: Maybe that process would offer a way to fight disorders such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease. This year, though, several pieces of contradictory evidence surfaced and a heated debate once again flared up. Today,…

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