Music: Gabin ft. Zee Gachette — ‘Slow Dancing Dans La Maison’
Marcy Wheeler’s decision to out her source to the FBI
Margaret Sullivan writes: It’s pretty much an inviolable rule of journalism: Protect your sources. Reporters have gone to jail to keep that covenant. But Marcy Wheeler, who writes a well-regarded national security blog, not only revealed a source — she did so to the FBI, eventually becoming a witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of President Trump’s possible connections to Russia. “On its face, I broke one of the cardinal rules of journalism, but what he was…
Leave.EU campaign met Russian officials as many as 11 times
The Guardian reports: Arron Banks’ Leave.EU campaign team met with Russian embassy officials as many as 11 times in the run-up to the EU referendum and in the two months beyond, documents seen by the Observer suggest – seven more times than Banks has admitted. The same documents suggest the Russian embassy extended a further four invitations to Brexit’s biggest funder, but it is not known if they were accepted. It is the third time the number of such meetings…
How the remorseless rise of the Swedish far right could leave the country ungovernable
Richard Milne writes: Every July, Sweden provides one of the world’s great democratic displays. Politicians of all hues descend on the Baltic island of Gotland for the annual Almedalen festival (1-8 July), meeting voters and debating issues ranging from forestry and fake news to immigration and imams in schools. But in advance of the general election on 9 September, a spectre haunted this year’s Almedalen. Swedish politics is facing its most severe test for decades. The consensual, egalitarian model that…
Families torn apart by Trump administration are difficult to unite
The New York Times reports: Faced with a court-imposed deadline to reunite families separated at the southwest border, federal authorities are calling in volunteers to sort through records and resorting to DNA tests to match children with parents. And they acknowledged for the first time Thursday that of the nearly 3,000 children who are still in federal custody, about 100 are under the age of 5. The family separations, part of an aggressive effort by the Trump administration to deter…
A massive study solidifies the link between air pollution from cars and diabetes
Olga Khazan reports: It’s fairly well known that a bad diet, a lack of exercise, and genetics can all contribute to type 2 diabetes. But a new global study points to an additional, surprising culprit: the air pollution emitted by cars and trucks. Though other research has shown a link between diabetes and air pollution in the past, this study is one of the largest of its kind, and it’s unique because it both is longitudinal and includes several types…
Science and the Loss of Confidence Project
Dalmeet Singh Chawla writes: In September 2016, the psychologist Dana Carney came forward with a confession: She no longer believed the findings of a high-profile study she co-authored in 2010 to be true. The study was about “power-posing” — a theory suggesting that powerful stances can psychologically and physiologically help one when under high-pressure situations. Carney’s co-author, Amy Cuddy, a psychologist at Harvard University, had earned much fame from power poses, and her 2012 TED talk on the topic is…
Music: Moonchild — ‘Cure’
After being held by the U.S. govt, children returned to their parents covered in dirt and lice
PBS reports: Last week, Democratic attorneys general in 17 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that its family separation policy violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fifth Amendment. Now, in a new filing, they’re asking the federal government to provide more immediate information and access to those detained under the policy on an “expedited schedule.” The motion filed Monday came with more than 900 pages of declarations that…
Donald Trump’s commitment to white supremacy
Jamelle Bouie writes: Under the Trump administration, even naturalized citizens are now a target. The government agency that oversees immigration applications is hiring lawyers and immigration officers to review cases of immigrants suspected of obtaining citizenship through fake identities or other false information on their applications. Cases would be referred to the Department of Justice, where offenders could lose their citizenship or legal status. “We finally have a process in place to get to the bottom of all these bad…
U.S. Army quietly discharging immigrant recruits
The Associated Press reports: Some immigrant U.S. Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship are being abruptly discharged, the Associated Press has learned. The AP was unable to quantify how many men and women who enlisted through the special recruitment program have been booted from the Army, but immigration attorneys say they know of more than 40 who have been discharged or whose status has become questionable, jeopardizing their futures. “It was…
What makes the new acting EPA chief even worse than Scott Pruitt
Alexander C. Kaufman reports: Just one year ago, Andrew Wheeler worked as one of the coal industry’s most powerful lobbyists, serving as coal baron Bob Murray’s Capitol Hill muscle, challenging environmental regulations and casting doubt on the science behind climate change. On Monday, Wheeler will take over at the Environmental Protection Agency, after Administrator Scott Pruitt’s sudden resignation Thursday amid a five-month avalanche of ethics and legal controversies. Wheeler’s ascension, while expected to return stability to the scandal-struck EPA, demonstrates…
According to the Aztecs, improvement doesn’t come from the self
Sebastian Purcell writes: When Halloween rolled around last year, my wife and I were prepared to be greeted by scores of eager trick-or-treaters. Guided by the thought that too much candy was better than too little, we bought entirely too much, and simply poured the excess on to a platter in our living room. The problem is: I have a sweet-tooth. ‘I can’t stop eating these!’ I said to my wife, peevishly, a few days later. Nearly every time I…
Trump’s nativism is transforming the American landscape
Jedediah Purdy writes: In his late may commencement address at the Naval Academy, President Trump chose to remind the graduating cadets and their families of a particular aspect of American history. “Our ancestors conquered a continent,” he said. This point is part of a larger attack on “cynics and critics” who “denigrate America’s incredible heritage.” Like many of Trump’s actions as president, the speech was a reminder that his particular brand of nationalism takes a keen interest in the meaning…
How democracy fades away
Murtaza Hussain writes: Despite being one of the United States’s founding statesmen and its second president after independence from Britain, John Adams was quite skeptical of democracy. “Democracy never lasts long,” Adams reflected in an 1814 letter. “It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.” The United States that existed when Adams wrote the letter was not very worthy of being described as a democracy in any case. Millions of…
Trump’s talking points on Crimea are the same as Putin’s
Christian Caryl writes: A few days ago, reporters on Air Force One asked President Trump if he would accept Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. They had good reason to do so. As Trump prepares for his July 16 summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, there have been signs that the U.S. president might be considering some sort of grand bargain that might entail recognition of Moscow’s claims. You’d think that the journalists’ question would be an easy one…