Musk funded right-wing political non-profit years before he endorsed Trump, sources say

Musk funded right-wing political non-profit years before he endorsed Trump, sources say

Reuters reports: Elon Musk secretly funded a conservative political group in recent years, according to four people familiar with his donations, illustrating quiet financial support for right-wing causes even before the billionaire entrepreneur in July endorsed former President Donald Trump’s bid for re-election. Two of the people familiar with the donations told Reuters that Musk’s contributions to the organization, Building America’s Future, had started by 2022. One of those people and a third source said the donations amounted to millions…

Read More Read More

A new theory argues humans evolved through competition

A new theory argues humans evolved through competition

Megan Scudellari and Mark Belan write: A surprising discovery about human evolution began with a research study about, surprisingly, birds. Five years ago, evolutionary biologist Laura van Holstein at the University of Cambridge read a study on the role of competition in songbird evolution. The work, from an international team of evolutionary biologists, found that competition between interacting species of songbirds—over food, mates, and territory—drove the evolution of new traits, such as beak shape, across long timescales and large distances…

Read More Read More

Israel vows to retaliate after Iran launches unprecedented missile attack

Israel vows to retaliate after Iran launches unprecedented missile attack

Julian Borger writes: The sight of missiles descending on Tel Aviv on Tuesday night was the clearest sign imaginable that the regional conflict so widely feared over the past year may finally have ignited. This is the second Iranian aerial attack on Israel in less than six months, but last time there was several days’ notice; the much slower drones and cruise missiles arrived first, and the principal target was a military base in the underpopulated Negev desert. This time,…

Read More Read More

White House backed Israeli attacks on Hezbollah despite opposition from Pentagon, State and intelligence community

White House backed Israeli attacks on Hezbollah despite opposition from Pentagon, State and intelligence community

Politico reports: Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials. Presidential adviser Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, told top Israeli officials in recent weeks that the U.S. agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad…

Read More Read More

Can Israel root out Hezbollah?

Can Israel root out Hezbollah?

  Israel says its army has launched a ground operation in southern Lebanon to target Hezbollah. It’s the latest escalation after more than a week of air strikes across the country, which have killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians, and the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. It comes as Israeli allies, including US President Joe Biden, urge it to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has voiced support for the Israeli military’s goals in Lebanon. So. does America…

Read More Read More

In the aftermath of Helene, many rural communities begin the recovery effort on their own

In the aftermath of Helene, many rural communities begin the recovery effort on their own

Chris Moody writes: We knew something had gone terribly wrong when the culverts washed up in our backyard like an apocalyptic art installation splattered with loose rock and black concrete. The circular metal tubes were a crucial piece of submerged infrastructure that once channeled water beneath our street, the primary connection to town for our small rural community just outside Boone, North Carolina. When they failed under a deluge created by Hurricane Helene, the narrow strip of concrete above didn’t…

Read More Read More

Is the idea of a ‘climate haven’ under water?

Is the idea of a ‘climate haven’ under water?

Bob Henson writes: Asheville, North Carolina, seemed like a good place to escape the worst of a warming world. The city’s appealing four-season climate includes summers with a typical daily high around 84°F – unusually low for the Southeast U.S. – and winters that aren’t too frigid. There’s typically plenty of moisture throughout the year, but with a mountain rain shadow that keeps Asheville a bit less wet than most of its neighbors. And the city takes climate seriously: findings…

Read More Read More

Trump lies about federal response as he campaigns in area ravaged by Hurricane Helene

Trump lies about federal response as he campaigns in area ravaged by Hurricane Helene

The Associated Press reports: Donald Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods Monday about the federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia. The former president and Republican nominee claimed upon landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he said was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him.” He repeated the claim at an event with…

Read More Read More

The hidden world of electrostatic ecology

The hidden world of electrostatic ecology

Max G. Levy writes: Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a honeybee. In many ways, your world is small. Your four delicate wings, each less than a centimeter long, transport your half-gram body through looming landscapes full of giant animals and plants. In other ways, your world is expansive, even grand. Your five eyes see colors and patterns that humans can’t, and your multisensory antennae detect odors from distant flowers. For years, biologists have wondered whether bees have another grand…

Read More Read More

Devastation in Western North Carolina shows nowhere is safe from climate change

Devastation in Western North Carolina shows nowhere is safe from climate change

Marina Koren writes: When Helene swept through western North Carolina late last week, the rain fell heavy and fast enough to start washing away mountainsides. Rivers overflowed, and a chunk of one of the state’s major highways collapsed, cutting off communities; floods slung mud and muck into buildings. Cars, trucks, dumpsters, entire homes and bridges—these and more were carried away in the floods as if they weighed nothing. Much of what managed to stay in place became submerged in brown…

Read More Read More

U.S. is ‘fully complicit’ in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Gaza

U.S. is ‘fully complicit’ in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Gaza

  “Everybody [in Lebanon] is talking about … this $9 billion that the US has just promised the Israelis now in the middle of this invasion.” On this week’s ‘Mehdi Unfiltered,’ American University of Beirut professor Karim Makdisi joins the show to discuss Israel’s latest attacks on Lebanon – including Israel’s explosive pager attacks – and how Israel’s offensive is only increasing Lebanese support for Hezbollah. Also joining the panel discussion is the Center for International Policy’s Matt Duss, a…

Read More Read More

Drunk with power, Israel’s ‘victory’ opens the gates for war without end

Drunk with power, Israel’s ‘victory’ opens the gates for war without end

Lubna Masarwa writes: The media in Israel reacted to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah with euphoria. On Channel 12’s “Meet the Press”, Amit Segal and Ben Caspit raised a glass of arak to mark Nasrallah’s death. Paz Robinson, Channel 13’s reporter, distributed chocolates in Karmiel. Channel 13 is considered left wing. Channel 14’s flagship programme, The Patriots, opened with singing and celebration led by presenter Yinon Magal. Nadav Eyal wrote in Ynet:”[Nasrallah’s] assassination is an event…

Read More Read More

‘Just not right’: A GOP governor confronts Trump’s lies

‘Just not right’: A GOP governor confronts Trump’s lies

Jonathan Martin writes: Springfield was once a manufacturing hub. Perched on the interstate between Dayton and Columbus, it had tire and farm implement factories. Like a lot of Midwestern towns, that economy declined in the 1970s and 1980s. Yet in recent years, a number of jobs have been created in the area and with that a demand for more workers. It’s the same story in all of Ohio, which is why [Ohio Gov. Mike] DeWine made a point in his…

Read More Read More

An Ohio businessman faces death threats for praising his Haitian workers

An Ohio businessman faces death threats for praising his Haitian workers

The New York Times reports: For Jamie McGregor, a businessman in Springfield, Ohio, speaking favorably about the Haitian immigrants he employs has come to this: death threats, a lockdown at his company and posters around town branding him a traitor for hiring immigrants. To defend himself and his family, Mr. McGregor has had to violate his own vow to never own a gun. “I have struggled with the fact that now we’re going to have firearms in our house —…

Read More Read More