Netanyahu says that Israel must become Sparta, hardened against the world

Netanyahu says that Israel must become Sparta, hardened against the world

Ruth Margalit writes: On Monday afternoon, a few hours before the first ferocious attacks of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City made buildings tremble as far away as Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Jerusalem for an economics conference. With his far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sitting in the front row, Netanyahu took the stage, looking a little peeved, and berated the event’s organizers for muddling his slide show. Then he turned to the audience: a group of…

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Immigration judge orders Mahmoud Khalil deported to Syria or Algeria

Immigration judge orders Mahmoud Khalil deported to Syria or Algeria

Politico reports: An immigration judge in Louisiana has ordered pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the U.S., deported to Syria or Algeria for failing to disclose certain information on his green card application, according to documents filed in federal court Wednesday by his lawyers. Khalil’s lawyers suggested in a filing that they intend to appeal the deportation order, but expressed concern that the appeal process will likely be swift and unfavorable. The order from the immigration judge,…

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Protester found not guilty of assault despite top Border Patrol official’s testimony

Protester found not guilty of assault despite top Border Patrol official’s testimony

The Los Angeles Times reports: A protester was acquitted Wednesday of charges that he assaulted a federal agent during widespread protests against immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles, just hours after one of the faces of President Trump’s enforcement policies took the stand to testify against him. U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino — the brash agent who led a phalanx of military personnel into MacArthur Park this summer — was called as a witness Wednesday in a federal misdemeanor…

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The emerging teen-health crisis caused by AI

The emerging teen-health crisis caused by AI

Kaitlyn Tiffany and Matteo Wong write: On Tuesday afternoon, three parents sat in a row before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. Two of them had each recently lost a child to suicide; the third has a teenage son who, after cutting his arm in front of her and biting her, is undergoing residential treatment. All three blame generative AI for what has happened to their children. They had come to testify on what appears to be an…

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Bernie Sanders becomes first senator to acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

Bernie Sanders becomes first senator to acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

The Guardian reports: Senator Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, calling the conclusion “inescapable” and becoming the first US senator to use the term. “Over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas,” Sanders wrote. “Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.” Sanders had long received flak from supporters and protesters alike for avoiding the term, which he previously said made him “queasy” when protesters…

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Pam Bondi gets schooled on the First Amendment

Pam Bondi gets schooled on the First Amendment

Politico reports: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared to take aim at recent remarks by Attorney General Pam Bondi vowing to “target” anyone who uses “hate speech” following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “Every time I listen to a lawyer-trained representative saying we should criminalize free speech in some way, I think to myself, that law school failed,” Sotomayor said while speaking on a panel Tuesday morning at New York Law School. [Continue reading…] In an editorial, the…

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Israel’s attack on Qatar failed and backfired

Israel’s attack on Qatar failed and backfired

Axios reports: A week after Israel’s missile strikes in Qatar, it’s clear not only that the assassination attempt against Hamas leaders failed, but that it backfired. Why it matters: The strike increased the feeling inside the Trump administration and around the world that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is reckless and has become a destabilizing force in the region. How it happened: Israel’s plan was to take out several of Hamas’ top leaders all at once as they met to discuss President Trump’s Gaza peace proposal. Five…

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UAE got the chips while team Trump got the crypto riches

UAE got the chips while team Trump got the crypto riches

The New York Times reports: This summer, Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, paid a visit to the coast of Sardinia, a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea crowded with super yachts. On one of those extravagant vessels, Mr. Witkoff sat down with a member of the ultrarich ruling family of the United Arab Emirates. He was meeting Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a trim figure in dark glasses who controls $1.5 trillion of the Emiratis’ sovereign wealth. It…

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Trump’s Harvard cuts threaten a pillar of global basic biomedical research

Trump’s Harvard cuts threaten a pillar of global basic biomedical research

NBC News reports: For more than a century, the humble fruit fly has paved the way for many critical scientific breakthroughs. This tiny insect helped researchers figure out that X-rays can cause genetic mutations. That genes are passed on from parent to child through chromosomes. That a gene called period helps our bodies keep time — and that disruptions to that internal clock can lead to jet lag and increased risk for neurological and metabolic diseases. Those discoveries, along with…

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At Windsor Castle, Trump is haunted by the ghost of Epstein through ‘malicious communications’

At Windsor Castle, Trump is haunted by the ghost of Epstein through ‘malicious communications’

  The Guardian reports: The arrest of four men after images of Donald Trump alongside Jeffrey Epstein were projected on to Windsor Castle on Tuesday was “Orwellian” and “ridiculous”, the group behind the protest has told the Guardian. The political campaign group Led By Donkeys confirmed that it was behind the stunt, which saw several images of Trump and Epstein projected on to a tower while a soundtrack questioning the relationship between to the two men was played on a…

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The struggle for attention in an age of distractions

The struggle for attention in an age of distractions

Nathan Heller writes: On a subway train not long ago, I had the familiar, unsettling experience of standing behind a fellow-passenger and watching everything that she was doing on her phone. It was a crowded car, rush hour, with the dim but unwarm lighting of the oldest New York City trains. The stranger’s phone was bright, and as I looked on she scrolled through a waterfall of videos that other people had filmed in their homes. She watched one for…

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By ignoring Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric and actions, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy

By ignoring Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric and actions, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes: Before he was killed last week, Charlie Kirk left a helpful compendium of words—ones that would greatly aid those who sought to understand his legacy and import. It is somewhat difficult to match these words with the manner in which Kirk is presently being memorialized in mainstream discourse. New York Times columnist Ezra Klein dubbed Kirk “one of the era’s most effective practitioners of persuasion” and a man who “was practicing politics in exactly the right way.” California governor Gavin Newsom hailed Kirk’s “passion and commitment…

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FBI profiler explains why some Groypers have trans partners

FBI profiler explains why some Groypers have trans partners

A self-described FBI profiler (and I see no reason to doubt that that is indeed her profession) who provides commentary on TikTok as “FriendlyHoneyBadger” and YouTube as “Cult College,” sheds light on why some far-right Groypers (led by Nick Fuentes) choose or groom trans partners, countering the assumption that if Tyler Robinson (Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer) had a trans partner then he must be a leftist.