Telegram founder’s arrest part of broad investigation, French prosecutors say

Telegram founder’s arrest part of broad investigation, French prosecutors say

The New York Times reports: Prosecutors in France said on Monday that Pavel Durov, the entrepreneur who runs the Telegram messaging platform, had been arrested in connection with an investigation opened last month into criminal activity on the app and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Mr. Durov, 39, was detained on Saturday at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing on a private plane from Azerbaijan. He had not been charged and remained in custody, which can be…

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How our longest nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

How our longest nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

R. Douglas Fields writes: It is late at night. You are alone and wandering empty streets in search of your parked car when you hear footsteps creeping up from behind. Your heart pounds, your blood pressure skyrockets. Goose bumps appear on your arms, sweat on your palms. Your stomach knots and your muscles coil, ready to sprint or fight. Now imagine the same scene, but without any of the body’s innate responses to an external threat. Would you still feel…

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DNC focused on America. At the RNC it was all about Trump

DNC focused on America. At the RNC it was all about Trump

Business Insider reports: The Democratic and Republican National Conventions concluded this week, solidifying former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as their party’s respective nominees. But between the partisan speeches and celebrity appearances, the ambiance of the convention — created in part by the design of the stage each candidate spoke on and the signs held by audience members — underscored each party’s priorities headed into this year’s contentious election. A political scientist told Business Insider the stagecraft…

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How I’ve been convincing Christians they don’t have to vote Republican

How I’ve been convincing Christians they don’t have to vote Republican

Doug Pagitt writes: Central to our work at Vote Common Good, I spend a lot of my time traveling the country speaking to voters, particularly evangelical and Catholic voters who are hardwired into voting Republican, working to get them to break out of those patterns. What I’ve learned is that most don’t want or need their elected leader to be like them, but they really do want their leader to like them. It wasn’t clear that Secretary of State Hillary…

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Why Democrats are going big on housing despite the risks

Why Democrats are going big on housing despite the risks

Politico reports: California and San Francisco in particular have become the poster child for unaffordability, with expensive housing fueling waves of homelessness that burden city services and repel people and businesses. State lawmakers have responded, passing laws that streamline permits for affordable housing and banning single-unit zoning, an effort seen as critical to paving the way for more building. “America is not a museum,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who’s locked in a tough reelection race, said as Democrats gathered…

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Former U.S. army officer: Gaza war ‘wouldn’t have continued without us’

Former U.S. army officer: Gaza war ‘wouldn’t have continued without us’

  After 13 years in the US military, Harrison Mann resigned his position as an army intelligence officer in protest at how the US is handling the war on Gaza. This week on Real Talk we unpacked with Mann his decision, asking him about his thought process before submitting his resignation and the conversations he was having leading up to his decision. We also spoke about the relationship between the US and Israel when it comes to intelligence-sharing, and why…

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Telegram becomes free speech flashpoint after its founder, Pavel Durov, is arrested in France

Telegram becomes free speech flashpoint after its founder, Pavel Durov, is arrested in France

The New York Times reports: Telegram, founded in 2013 by the Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, has grown into one of the world’s largest online communication tools and is central to everyday life in countries like Russia, Ukraine and India for messaging, getting independent news and exchanging views. The company’s growth — it now has more than 900 million users — has been driven partly by a commitment to free speech. Telegram’s light oversight of what people say or do on…

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Ukraine has captured more than 200 Russian soldiers including conscripts with minimal fighting experience

Ukraine has captured more than 200 Russian soldiers including conscripts with minimal fighting experience

The Washington Post reports: Ukrainian forces have captured more than 240 Russian soldiers since their surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region this month, according to an analysis of visual evidence that includes mass detentions of young troops appearing to surrender without resistance. The Washington Post reviewed more than 130 photos and videos taken since the incursion began Aug. 6, most of which appear to have been filmed by Ukrainian soldiers and shared on social media. The analysis also included photos…

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Sleep deprivation alters connections in the brain, mouse study finds

Sleep deprivation alters connections in the brain, mouse study finds

Science reports: Lack of sleep wreaks havoc on the brain, making us worse learners and disrupting our memory, among other insults. Now, a study in mice suggests some of these effects could stem from changes in how brain cells are connected to one another. In a paper published today in Current Biology, researchers show that just hours of sleep deprivation reduce how many different types of synapses—the places where neurons meet—there are in brain regions associated with learning and memory….

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Israeli society’s dehumanization of Palestinians is now absolute

Israeli society’s dehumanization of Palestinians is now absolute

Meron Rapoport writes: After every war in recent decades that Israelis have fought in, there have been public displays of remorse. This has often been criticized as a mentality of “shooting and crying” — but at least the soldiers were crying. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, the hugely successful book “The Seventh Day: Soldiers’ Talk about the Six-Day War” was published, containing testimonies from soldiers trying to grapple with the moral dilemmas they faced during the fighting. After the Sabra…

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Why is the DNC more willing to embrace Republicans than Democratic Palestinians?

Why is the DNC more willing to embrace Republicans than Democratic Palestinians?

  In this special episode of ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’, we’re at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, around the corner from the United Center, at the Palestinian-American owned OUD Coffee and Cafe. Mehdi is joined in this exclusive interview with prominent voices from the Uncommitted Movement – and just moments after it was revealed that the DNC would not be allowing a Palestinian to speak at the convention. Joining ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ are co-chair of the Uncommitted Movement Layla Elabed, who briefly…

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Trump’s businesses rake in millions of dollars from Republican political campaigns – including his own

Trump’s businesses rake in millions of dollars from Republican political campaigns – including his own

CNN reports: Late last year, former President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of car dealership owner Bernie Moreno for Ohio’s Senate seat – elevating an untested candidate who’d never held public office over several other more prominent Republicans. Two days later, Moreno’s campaign spent about $17,000 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and then followed up by spending an additional $79,000 the next month – making him one of the Florida club’s top political spenders. He wasn’t alone. With glitzy Mar-a-Lago fundraisers,…

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Are Republicans losing the culture wars?

Are Republicans losing the culture wars?

Politico reports: Republicans are confronting a decisive moment in the battle over public education: proving they can still win a culture war. School board candidates backed by Moms for Liberty, a conservative vanguard whose members popularized restrictions on classroom library books, are losing elections in Florida and some swing states. Republican leaders who rallied against critical race theory and LGBTQ+ issues recently faced recalls in red pockets of California. And in the presidential race, Democrats are playing offense. This week’s…

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just incinerated his credibility as an environmentalist

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just incinerated his credibility as an environmentalist

The Washington Post reports: As he suspended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talked at length about the “many key issues” on which he claims that he and Trump are aligned. What he did not explain were their profound disagreements in the area that for many years was central to Kennedy’s career and public image: environmental protection. Kennedy had promised to be “the best environmental president in American history.” For decades, as…

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