Israeli leaders celebrate assassinations — and make the living pay the price

Israeli leaders celebrate assassinations — and make the living pay the price

Orly Noy writes: We are now faced with the regional war of Gog and Magog that Benjamin Netanyahu has been so determined to ignite. Every one of us is now trying in horror to guess what the response will be to the recent assassinations — which our leaders are celebrating as a “brilliant achievement” of Israel’s sophisticated war machine — and whether our children will survive it. We are now contemplating the fate of the hostages, afraid to say what…

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Antarctic temperatures rise 10C above average in near record heatwave

Antarctic temperatures rise 10C above average in near record heatwave

The Guardian reports: Ground temperatures across great swathes of the ice sheets of Antarctica have soared an average of 10C above normal over the past month, in what has been described as a near record heatwave. While temperatures remain below zero on the polar land mass, which is shrouded in darkness at this time of year, the depths of southern hemisphere winter, temperatures have reportedly reached 28C above expectations on some days. The globe has experienced 12 months of record…

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The man behind Project 2025’s most radical plans

The man behind Project 2025’s most radical plans

By Alec MacGillis This story was originally published by ProPublica In January 2023, a group of about 15 people gathered for three days at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative Washington think tank a few blocks from the Capitol. Their aim was ambitious and farsighted: to start building the next Republican administration, two years before a Republican president might again take office. The group’s leaders originally cast the initiative as candidate-agnostic, intended to assist the 2024 Republican nominee, whoever that might…

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GOP lawmakers support ‘mass deportations’ but have no idea how the policy would work

GOP lawmakers support ‘mass deportations’ but have no idea how the policy would work

NOTUS reports: Former President Donald Trump is promising “mass deportation” — and Republicans in Congress have been quick to support the promise, even if they’re unsure how such an effort would work. “You’ll have to ask the president,” Sen. Ron Johnson said when NOTUS asked last week what that sort of deportation policy would look like. When NOTUS asked Rep. Troy Nehls a similar question — how the government would go about getting a large number of undocumented people out…

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Democracy will suffer a relatively quiet death. We simulated it

Democracy will suffer a relatively quiet death. We simulated it

Through the Democracy Futures Project, Rosa Brooks led a simulation of a second Trump administration. She writes: Imagine, for instance, something like this in spring 2025: On the surface, America seems stable. For nearly all Americans, life continues as usual. But at the Pentagon, top generals are being forced out for objecting to Trump’s cozy relationship with Russia and his plans to use active-duty troops to round up migrants. At the CIA, the Justice Department, and other agencies, civil servants…

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Kamala Harris embodies the demographic trends that have reshaped America

Kamala Harris embodies the demographic trends that have reshaped America

In 2021, Kim Parker and Amanda Barroso from the Pew Research Center wrote: The swearing-in of Kamala Harris as the vice president of the United States marked several important “firsts”: She became the first female vice president, as well as the first Black person and first Asian American to hold that office. But her ascendance to the second-highest office in the land represented so much more. It held up a mirror to America, revealing how key demographic trends have reshaped…

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New Louisiana law will make it easier for the police to use excessive force

New Louisiana law will make it easier for the police to use excessive force

By Richard A. Webster, Verite News This story was originally published by ProPublica Four years before a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, prompting nationwide demonstrations, hundreds of people marched in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to protest officers’ killing of Alton Sterling in front of a convenience store. Law enforcement responded in force: Officers armed with rifles, body armor and gas masks pushed protesters back and forcibly arrested about 200 people. Some were injured. A group of 13 protesters and two…

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The Houthi’s ‘have been very happy’ to challenge Israel and the U.S.

The Houthi’s ‘have been very happy’ to challenge Israel and the U.S.

Robert F. Worth writes: The Houthi militia, born in the wilds of northwestern Yemen, has been wanting a war with Israel for decades. Its distinctive five-line motto, printed on flags and chanted at rallies by the group’s faithful, includes the lines “Death to Israel” and “Curses on the Jews.” The Houthis got their wish on July 19, when one of their drones struck a high-rise in Tel Aviv, killing one man and wounding four others. The blast signaled a troubling…

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Links between pathogens and Alzheimer’s spur new projects searching for causal evidence

Links between pathogens and Alzheimer’s spur new projects searching for causal evidence

Science reports: This week, thousands of researchers are flocking to downtown Philadelphia for what’s billed as the largest international conference dedicated to Alzheimer’s disease. But several kilometers away a much smaller group congregated for an alternative meetup: a daylong dive into whether and how pathogens might cause the fatal dementia. Saturday’s gathering of about 80 scientists on the city’s periphery is something of a metaphor for where the idea sits in the larger Alzheimer’s community, long dominated by the view…

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Trump is becoming an embarrassment to his own party

Trump is becoming an embarrassment to his own party

Kamala Harris in Houston addresses Trump's bonkers appearance at the NABJ: "The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say. The American people deserve better … a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts." pic.twitter.com/uo7sN6NV0Z — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 1, 2024 Axios reports: Former President Trump’s comments about Vice President Harris to the National Association of Black Journalists are being treated as radioactive by many Republicans. Why it matters: The tense interview is being…

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Gaza, Islamophobia, family and the environment are the top issues for Muslim-American voters in 2024

Gaza, Islamophobia, family and the environment are the top issues for Muslim-American voters in 2024

New Lines Magazine: For months, as the war in Gaza raged on and student protests overtook American campuses, the question of just how much President Joe Biden’s steadfast support for Israel amid the war’s escalation would cost Democrats fueled endless debate. Many speculated that the anger that fueled the protests would come home to roost in November, as Muslim Americans in key swing states who had voted for Biden in 2020 would stay home, or worse, vote for Republican former…

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With the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Netanyahu shows his determination to block a ceasefire in Gaza

With the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Netanyahu shows his determination to block a ceasefire in Gaza

UN News reports: “The Secretary-General believes that the attacks we have seen in South Beirut and Teheran represent a dangerous escalation at a moment in which all efforts should instead be leading to a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages, a massive increase of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and a return to calm in Lebanon and across the Blue Line,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “Rather than that, what…

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Democrats may have a real chance to reform the Supreme Court

Democrats may have a real chance to reform the Supreme Court

Ankush Khardori writes: The summer of reversals for President Joe Biden continued in dramatic form on Monday as he announced that he now supports sweeping Supreme Court reform. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Biden pushed 18-year term limits and a binding ethics code on Supreme Court justices — after a long career spent opposing such measures — as well as a constitutional amendment overturning the court’s recent decision granting presidents immunity from criminal prosecution. Is it too little…

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Who is brave enough to back Brazil’s global tax on billionaires? The answer will define our future

Who is brave enough to back Brazil’s global tax on billionaires? The answer will define our future

George Monbiot writes: Last week, Brazilian climate minister Ana Toni explained a proposal put forward by her government (and now supported by South Africa, Germany and Spain), for a 2% global tax on the wealth of the world’s billionaires. Though it would affect just 3,000 of the super-rich, it would raise around $250bn (£195bn): a significant contribution either to global climate funds or to poverty alleviation. Radical? Not at all. According to calculations by Oxfam, the wealth of billionaires has been growing so fast…

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