Cornell unjustly punished a pro-Palestinian activist

Cornell unjustly punished a pro-Palestinian activist

An editorial in The Cornell Daily Sun says: Momodou Taal, an international student from the United Kingdom and outspoken pro-Palestinian activist, received a startling email from the University Monday morning informing him that he had been suspended. The email directed Taal to a same-day noon meeting at Day Hall, where he would be handed a no-trespass order barring him from campus. The reason for Taal’s suspension? Cornell University Police Department Lieutenant Scott Grantz ’99 picked Taal out of a crowd…

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The far right is using AI to sell Hitler to a new generation

The far right is using AI to sell Hitler to a new generation

The Washington Post reports: Extremists are using artificial intelligence to reanimate Adolf Hitler online for a new generation, recasting the Nazi German leader who orchestrated the Holocaust as a “misunderstood” figure whose antisemitic and anti-immigrant messages are freshly resonant in politics today. In audio and video clips that have reached millions of viewers over the past month on TikTok, X, Instagram and YouTube, the führer’s AI-cloned voice quavers and crescendos as he delivers English-language versions of some of his most…

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Public mistrust of Gaza coverage is opening space for Russia-linked media on the left

Public mistrust of Gaza coverage is opening space for Russia-linked media on the left

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad writes: Bashar al-Assad’s Syria is not a friendly place for journalists. Since the onset of the uprising in 2011, the regime has issued few visas. In 2012, when the American journalist Marie Colvin and the French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik entered Syria unauthorized, they were targeted and killed. But in 2021, a Canadian podcaster was given unusual access to regime-controlled Syria, and among his various dispatches, one in particular stood out. Standing in front of the ruins of…

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U.S. gov’t agencies found Israel was blocking Gaza aid. Blinken ignored them to keep weapons flowing

U.S. gov’t agencies found Israel was blocking Gaza aid. Blinken ignored them to keep weapons flowing

  We speak with Brett Murphy, the ProPublica reporter behind a blockbuster exposé that revealed the Biden administration ignored warnings from its own experts about Israel blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza in order to keep supplying the country with weapons. USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the State Department’s refugees bureau both concluded earlier this year that Israeli authorities routinely impeded delivery of food and medicine into the devastated Palestinian territory, where hunger, disease and displacement have wreaked…

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‘It’s time to be a man and vote for a woman’

‘It’s time to be a man and vote for a woman’

The Guardian reports: A man in a baseball cap strides through a field of corn. A woman in flannel turns and smiles, a line of trucks visible behind her. As piano music swells, an American flag ripples in a gentle breeze. This video is pure, uncut Americana. Naturally, it’s a political ad. Specifically, it’s an ad made by the Lincoln Project, a group of moderates and former Republicans united by a desire to topple Donald Trump and support Kamala Harris….

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Raffensperger: Election board ‘destroying voter confidence’ in Georgia

Raffensperger: Election board ‘destroying voter confidence’ in Georgia

Christian Science Monitor interviews Georgia GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger: Do you feel like the members who make up the majority governing Georgia’s State Election Board understand how elections work? No, I don’t think they do. And the only way to understand how elections work is to volunteer to be a poll worker. It’s as easy as that. Once you’ve worked one election, you start understanding, ‘oh, they’ve got this procedure to close that gate [to potential voting fraud].’…

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How Musk threatens America’s national security, and what must be done

How Musk threatens America’s national security, and what must be done

Robert Reich writes: Shortly after the apparent second assassination attempt against Trump, Elon Musk responded in a now deleted post: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala 🤔 ????” Musk later said his post was intended as a joke. But it could be interpreted as a call to murder Biden and Harris — at least by one of the 198 million followers of Musk who initially received it. Presumably this is why the Secret Service is investigating it. Under 18…

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John Wheeler saw the tear in reality

John Wheeler saw the tear in reality

Amanda Gefter writes: When Johnny Wheeler was 4 years old, splashing in the bathtub in Youngstown, Ohio, he looked up at his mother and asked, “What happens when you get to the end of things?” The question would haunt him for the rest of his life. What happens when you get to the bottom of space? What happens when you get to the edge of time? It would lead him to suggest that space-time can’t be the true fabric of…

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Sen. Bernie Sanders and colleagues move to block arms sales to Israel

Sen. Bernie Sanders and colleagues move to block arms sales to Israel

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): Today, with colleagues, I introduced Joint Resolutions of Disapproval seeking to block certain arms sales to Israel. The Senate will vote on these resolutions when it reconvenes in November. Let me explain why these arms sales must not proceed. Israel clearly had the right to respond to Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on October 7th, which killed 1,200 innocent Israelis and took hundreds of hostages. But Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against…

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Biden administration divided over Israel’s escalation against Hezbollah

Biden administration divided over Israel’s escalation against Hezbollah

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration is divided over Israel’s military escalation against Hezbollah with some senior officials viewing it as a reckless bombardment likely to produce more deadly cycles of violence and others seeing it as a potentially effective means of degrading the Lebanese militant group and forcing it to back down. Senior officials are publicly calling for de-escalation as the administration tries to find a diplomatic off-ramp to the metastasizing Middle East conflict. In the past two…

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In Israel’s prisons, skin diseases are a method of punishment

In Israel’s prisons, skin diseases are a method of punishment

+972 Magazine reports: Pale and frail, with an unkempt beard and a prosthetic eye, his emaciated body testifies to the neglect and torture he experienced inside Israeli prison. “Stay away,” he shouts at the eager crowd surrounding him upon his release. “I don’t know what disease I’m carrying — I have a rash and can’t risk shaking hands.” But his parents, overcome with emotion, move forward to embrace him. He shrinks away, fearfully insisting that he should remain untouched. Mo’ath…

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Trump’s sexual assault accusers tell their stories in chilling new ads

Trump’s sexual assault accusers tell their stories in chilling new ads

People reports: George Conway, the ex-husband of former Donald Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, is helping bring attention to the sexual assault claims against the former president as he seeks a second term in the White House. On Wednesday, Sept. 25, the attorney’s political action committee launched ads featuring two of the Republican presidential nominee’s sexual assault accusers. The first ad centers around former PEOPLE reporter Natasha Stoynoff, who claims she was assaulted by Trump during a December 2005 trip to…

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D’Esposito scandal sparks ‘migraine’ for Republicans hoping to keep House

D’Esposito scandal sparks ‘migraine’ for Republicans hoping to keep House

ABC News reports: Monday’s bombshell report alleging infidelity and possible violations of House ethics rules by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., is rattling his reelection bid in a key Long Island district. But it’s not just New York’s 4th Congressional District that’s at stake. D’Esposito, a former police detective, allegedly hired his longtime fiancée’s daughter and his mistress to work in his district office, jobs that received taxpayer-funded salaries, The New York Times reported Monday. The first-term lawmaker was already facing…

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