Music: Hanakiv — ‘Goodbye’
Rep. Adam Schiff: Joe Biden needs to seek objective advice from outside his inner circle
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Rep. Adam Schiff says Biden needs to ‘win overwhelmingly’ or ‘pass the torch.’ He praises Biden’s record while calling into question his future. David Axelrod: “It’s more likely that [Biden] will lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race, and if the stakes are as large as he says, and I believe they are, then he really needs to consider what the right thing to do here is […] The only thing that’s…
Among Biden donors ‘for every 10 people who think he should exit, one thinks he should stay’
The Washington Post reports: Billionaire donors, for all their swagger, don’t get to order a president around. But a cruel conventional wisdom is setting in. “I’d estimate that for every 10 people who think he should exit, one thinks he should stay,” said one donor adviser. The Biden campaign counters that this week was the best grass-roots fundraising start of any month during this campaign. The campaign, meanwhile, has not been able to answer the central question of their detractors….
Watching Biden, many see the heartbreaking indignities of aging
The Washington Post reports: President Biden shuffled onto the debate stage. He whispered, mumbled and repeatedly trailed off. When he wasn’t speaking, he stood slightly stooped, his mouth at times agape and his eyes flickering between apparent confusion and recognition. When his halting 90-minute 2024 debate debut was over, his wife took him by the hand, escorting him gingerly offstage. Biden’s debate performance a week and a half ago set off a swirl of political angst and upheaval in the…
Akhil Reed Amar: ‘Incoherent’ immunity decision renders ‘Constitution itself unconstitutional’
The Supreme Court this week severely undermined the principle that no one is above the law – a bedrock of our nation’s system of government – with its historic ruling declaring that presidents have absolute immunity for their official acts. In her fierce dissent, Justice Sotomayor accused the conservative majority of making the president a “king above the law.” Eminent legal scholar and one of the most cited by SCOTUS, Yale’s Akhil Reed Amar, joins Ali Velshi to discuss…
Israeli government accused of trying to sabotage Gaza ceasefire proposal
The Guardian reports: The Israeli government has been accused of attempting to sabotage a US-backed ceasefire proposal, according to Israeli media, by introducing new demands despite previously accepting the plan. Hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza had risen in recent days following reports that Hamas had given initial approval for a new proposal for a phased deal, after ninth months of war since the attack on 7 October. Egyptian officials and representatives of Hamas said the Islamist militant organisation had…
Israeli army ordered ‘Hannibal Directive’ on Oct. 7, Haaretz reports
The New Arab reports: The Israeli military ordered the “Hannibal Directive” on 7 October, according to a report in the Israeli media on Sunday. The “Hannibal Directive” is a military protocol where Israeli soldiers would kill captives and their captors to stop enemies from being able to use Israeli citizens as bargaining chips. The directive dates back to the 1980s but was revised after Hamas members abducted a soldier in 2006. While it officially does not allow soldiers to kill…
‘We were so scared’: France’s centrist and leftwing voters breathe sigh of relief
The Guardian reports: A nervous energy rippled through the crowd gathered at Lyon’s Place de la République. As the final polls closed in the most momentous election in recent memory, hundreds of people milled about, waiting to find out what would lie in store for France. Just after 8pm, Florent Martins came running through the plaza, mobile phone in hand. “We won,” the 23-year-old yelled out, his voice shaking with disbelief as those around him exploded into cheers and hearty…
Music: Ulf Wakenius ft. Lars Danielsson, Magnus Öström — ‘Taste of Honey’
A campaign that was all about saving democracy is now all about saving Joe Biden
John Hendrickson writes: At Joe Biden’s rally in Madison, Wisconsin, this afternoon, the men and women who had crammed into a middle-school basketball gym dutifully clapped, yelled words of support, and waved signs bearing the president’s name. But when it came time to chant “Four more years,” they sounded as if they were merely going through the motions. Most of the attendees I spoke with said they were more committed to the Democratic Party than its 81-year-old leader. Some told…
Massachusetts governor, a top Biden ally, urges him to ‘listen to the American people’
Politico reports: One of Joe Biden’s high-profile campaign surrogates is publicly urging him to consider exiting the presidential race. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a member of Biden’s national campaign advisory board who earlier this spring headlined a big-dollar fundraiser for him in Boston, said in a statement Friday that he should “carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump.” Biden “saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the last four years,”…
Will Iran’s new reformist president fulfill his promises?
The Guardian reports: The shock election of Masoud Pezeshkian as Iran’s new president is as much a testimony to his personality as to his politics. A former heart surgeon and health minister, he came across in the many presidential TV debates as a man of great personal integrity and humility, desperate to bring the country together after it had been divided domestically and abroad. In the end, it will only be his opponents’ fear of his continued popularity that…
Hopes of Gaza ceasefire rise further as Hamas reportedly backs new proposal
The Guardian reports: Hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza have risen further after reports that Hamas has given its initial approval of a new US-backed proposal for a phased deal. Egyptian officials and representatives of the militant Islamist organisation confirmed Hamas had dropped a key demand that Israel commits to a definitive end to the war before any pause in hostilities, Reuters and the Associated Press reported. Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza have intensified over…
UK appoints new attorney general critical of Israeli rights violations
Middle East Eye reports: The new British government has appointed Richard Hermer, an experienced lawyer who has often spoken out against Israeli breaches of international law, as the country’s attorney general. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party won a landslide majority in this week’s election, selected Hermer as the chief legal adviser to the government on Friday. The attorney general oversees the Government Legal Department, the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service (which Starmer led between 2008…
The French republic is under threat. We are 1,000 historians and we cannot remain silent
Patrick Boucheron, Antoine Lilti et al write: For the first time since the second world war, the far right is at the gates of power in France. As historians from differing political backgrounds who share an attachment to democratic values and the rule of law, we cannot remain silent in the face of an alarming prospect that we still have the capacity to resist. Despite a superficial makeover, the National Rally (RN) remains fundamentally the successor and heir of the…
Unhappy lives linked to recent rise of right-wing populism in Europe
PsyPost reports: A recent study published in the American Behavioral Scientist has shed light on the link between life dissatisfaction and the rise of right-wing populist movements in Europe. By analyzing survey data from 14 countries collected between 2012 and 2018, researchers found that individuals who are dissatisfied with their lives are more likely to hold negative views on immigration and distrust political institutions, which in turn increases their likelihood of supporting right-wing populist parties. The researchers aimed to understand…