Mahmoud Khalil, AOC, lawyers speak after his release from ICE custody
Mahmoud Khalil arrived at Newark Liberty Airport after a federal judge ordered his release from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana.
Florida law school gave a white supremacist an award, then banned him for being antisemitic
The New York Times reports: Preston Damsky is a law student at the University of Florida. He is also a white nationalist and antisemite. Last fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal judge on “originalism,” the legal theory favored by many conservatives that seeks to interpret the Constitution based on its meaning when it was adopted. In his capstone paper for the class, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase “We the People,” in…
Why the empty-atom picture misunderstands quantum theory
Mario Barbatti writes: The camera zooms in on the person’s arm to reveal the cells, then a cell nucleus. A DNA strand grows on the screen. The camera focuses on a single atom within the strand, dives into a frenetic cloud of rocketing particles, crosses it, and leaves us in oppressive darkness. An initially imperceptible tiny dot grows smoothly, revealing the atomic nucleus. The narrator lectures that the nucleus of an atom is tens of thousands of times smaller than…
Music: Till Brönner — ‘42nd & 6th’
We’re on the brink of a disastrous, illegal conflagration in the Middle East
Fawaz Gerges writes: Like the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, Israel’s war on Iran is neither legal nor just. It is a war of choice, not of necessity – and should the US or its European allies, particularly Britain, join in, they risk being dragged into another disastrous and unlawful conflict in the Middle East. A US military intervention would be in direct contravention of international law. Already, the US, once the architect and guardian of the…
Trump might take the U.S. to war. Where are the Democratic leaders?
Peter Beinart writes: Given the gravity of this moment, Democratic leaders should be holding news conferences, addressing mass protests, even bringing Congress to a standstill with all-night filibusters in order to prevent an unauthorized, unjustified war. The public is deeply weary of conflict. And yet top Democrats are not boldly rallying them against the possibility of another. This is a serious blunder. It’s a foreign policy blunder because Iran — a corrupt and brutal regime interested primarily in staying in…
Israel’s attack on Iran is illegal
Adil Ahmad Haque writes: Israel’s use of force against Iran was and remains plainly unlawful and a manifest violation of the United Nations Charter. The Charter prohibits the use of force except with the authorization of the UN Security Council or in the exercise of the right of self-defense “if an armed attack occurs.” No armed attack by Iran against Israel was occurring on June 12, or was about to occur, or was bound to occur unless prevented by the…
‘The Hunger Games’: Inside Israel’s aid death traps for starving Gazans
Ahmed Ahmed and Ibtisam Mahdi report: In the early hours of June 11, before sunrise, 19-year-old Hatem Shaldan and his brother Hamza, 23, went to wait for aid trucks near the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip. They hoped to return with a bag of white flour for their family of five. Instead, Hamza returned with his younger brother’s body wrapped in a white burial shroud. The Shaldan family had lived virtually without food for nearly two months due…
The Trump regime has unleashed an unaccountable secret police force
Garrett Graff writes: Day by passing day, we are watching what amounts to a national police riot by ICE. Social media is filled with disturbing videos of masked ICE officers — or, I should say, people suspected of being or self-identifying as ICE officers, since for the most part they’re not wearing any identifiable police insignia — manhandling people, including the comptroller of New York, US citizens, suspected aliens, and even journalists alike. In recent days, ICE has also begun…
How Trump might use U.S. technology dominance against Europe
The New York Times reports: When President Trump issued an executive order in February against the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for investigating Israel for war crimes, Microsoft was suddenly thrust into the middle of a geopolitical fight. For years, Microsoft had supplied the court — which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands and investigates and prosecutes human rights breaches, genocides and other crimes of international concern — with digital services such as email. Mr. Trump’s…
Humans adapted to diverse habitats before successfully populating Eurasia
Live Science reports: Before modern humans began their major dispersal out of Africa about 50,000 years ago, they moved to places that were significantly more ecologically diverse, which may have given them the flexibility they needed to migrate across the globe, a new study finds. Our species, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa more than 300,000 years ago. Genetic evidence suggests that all modern human populations outside Africa mostly descend from a small group of modern humans who started migrating out…
Music: Moses Yoofee Trio — ‘On That Side’
Iran FM held direct talks with Witkoff amid intensifying conflict with Israel, diplomats say
Reuters reports: U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran last week, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, three diplomats told Reuters. According to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, Araqchi said Tehran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped the attacks, which began on June 13. They said…
Trump’s caution on Iran strike linked to doubts over effectiveness of ‘bunker buster’ bomb, officials say
The Guardian reports: Donald Trump has suggested to defense officials it would make sense for the US to launch strikes against Iran only if the so-called “bunker buster” bomb was guaranteed to destroy the critical uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Trump was told that dropping the GBU-57s, a 13.6-tonne (30,000lb) bomb would effectively eliminate Fordow but he does not appear to be fully convinced, the people said, and has held off authorizing strikes…
U.S. on brink of getting dragged into Israel’s war on Iran but ‘nobody is talking to Hegseth’
The Washington Post reports: As the United States moves additional military forces into the Middle East to help defend Israel from Iranian counterstrikes, protect U.S. assets and possibly launch bunker-busting bombs at Iran’s buried nuclear sites, Trump is relying more on a pair of four-star generals than on Hegseth, his defense secretary, according to three U.S. officials. The generals are Caine, the Joint Chiefs chairman; and Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, which has operational authority…
Netanyahu highlights ‘personal cost’ inflicted on his family by war: another postponed wedding
The Guardian reports: Benjamin Netanyahu has evoked the spirit of London during the blitz, and pointed to his own family’s sacrifice amid the blood, toil, tears and sweat of his nation: the second postponement of his son’s wedding. The Israeli prime minister’s remarks, solemnly delivered to the cameras against the backdrop of a missile-struck hospital building in the southern city of Beersheba, set off a howl of derision that echoed around the Hebrew-language internet, at the height of a war…