Do plants have minds?

Do plants have minds?

Rachael Petersen writes: Gustav Theodor Fechner championed the idea that plants have souls – something we might call ‘consciousness’ today. I first learned of him in an interdisciplinary reading group on plant consciousness that I co-lead at Harvard University. We convene biologists, theologians, artists and ethologists to explore the burgeoning literature on plant life. We found Fechner covered in the New York Times bestselling book by Christopher Bird and Peter Tompkins titled The Secret Life of Plants (1973). Michael Pollan…

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Jewish U.S. army intel officer quits over Gaza. He says ‘impossible’ not to see echoes of Holocaust

Jewish U.S. army intel officer quits over Gaza. He says ‘impossible’ not to see echoes of Holocaust

  We speak with U.S. Army Major Harrison Mann, the first military and intelligence officer to publicly resign over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Mann left his role at the Defense Intelligence Agency after a 13-year career, saying in a public letter explaining his resignation that “nearly unqualified support for the government of Israel … has enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.” Mann submitted his resignation on November…

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Israel’s war on Gaza takes record toll on journalists

Israel’s war on Gaza takes record toll on journalists

Committee to Protect Journalists: The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas following its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. As of June 11, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 108 journalists and media workers were among the more than 38,000 killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992. Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including…

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‘Worse than Guantanamo’: The prison holding suspected ISIS fighters

‘Worse than Guantanamo’: The prison holding suspected ISIS fighters

  More than 50,000 ISIS suspects and their families are being held in a constellation of some 27 detention facilities across Syria, by the US backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Officials warn the prisons and camps present a major security threat that needs to be dealt with. Human rights groups describe them as legal black holes and a stain on the world’s conscience. CNN’s Clarissa Ward travelled to Syria and gained unprecedented access to some of the detention centers.

Hunter Biden verdict throws ‘sand in the gears’ of GOP’s attacks on legal system

Hunter Biden verdict throws ‘sand in the gears’ of GOP’s attacks on legal system

Politico reports: Republicans are scrambling to prevent Hunter Biden’s conviction on felony gun charges from undermining their argument that the judicial system is being weaponized against Donald Trump. They just can’t agree on how. Trump’s campaign cast the conviction of his rival’s son on Tuesday as a “distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family,” while some hard-line supporters dismissed the proceedings as “fake.” House Speaker Mike Johnson argued that Hunter Biden’s conviction “doesn’t” undercut Republicans’ claims of…

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Chief Justice Roberts: The role of Supreme Court is for ‘deciding the cases,’ not giving moral guidance

Chief Justice Roberts: The role of Supreme Court is for ‘deciding the cases,’ not giving moral guidance

The New York Times reports: Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told a woman posing as a Catholic conservative last week that compromise in America between the left and right might be impossible and then agreed with the view that the nation should return to a place of godliness. “One side or the other is going to win,” Justice Alito told the woman, Lauren Windsor, at an exclusive gala at the Supreme Court. “There can be a way of working, a…

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Frau Martha-Ann Alito: ‘You come after me, I’m going to give it back to you’

Frau Martha-Ann Alito: ‘You come after me, I’m going to give it back to you’

The Daily Beast reports: Justice Samuel Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann, once again unwitting made herself the internet’s Main Character on Tuesday after an undercover reporter released a secretly recorded conversation in which she nastily complained about her neighbor’s Pride flag and bizarrely declared “I’m German.” “Look at me. I’m German, from Germany. My heritage is German,” she told a documentary maker who was posing as a conservative activist. “You come after me, I’m going to give it back to you. And…

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The new math of how large-scale order emerges

The new math of how large-scale order emerges

Philip Ball writes: A few centuries ago, the swirling polychromatic chaos of Jupiter’s atmosphere spawned the immense vortex that we call the Great Red Spot. From the frantic firing of billions of neurons in your brain comes your unique and coherent experience of reading these words. As pedestrians each try to weave their path on a crowded sidewalk, they begin to follow one another, forming streams that no one ordained or consciously chose. The world is full of such emergent…

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U.S. presses Hamas to accept deal that Netanyahu calls a ‘total lie’ as Hamas welcomes UNSC resolution

U.S. presses Hamas to accept deal that Netanyahu calls a ‘total lie’ as Hamas welcomes UNSC resolution

Reuters reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Arab leaders to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire proposal outlined ten days ago by U.S. President Joe Biden to end the eight month-long war in Gaza. Blinken is on his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering the bloodiest episode in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The trip comes as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire…

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Ben Gvir says Gantz’s departure an opportunity to ‘stop the humanitarian policy’ in Gaza

Ben Gvir says Gantz’s departure an opportunity to ‘stop the humanitarian policy’ in Gaza

The Times of Israel reports: National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls last night’s departure from the coalition by National Unity chief Benny Gantz “a very big opportunity,” arguing that in recent months the former war cabinet minister’s centrist party had “put a spoke in the wheels of the war machine.” Gantz, alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was one of three voting members of the decision-making war cabinet. Speaking to reporters ahead of his far-right…

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How the UAE subverts democracy far beyond its borders

How the UAE subverts democracy far beyond its borders

Rhys Davies and Matthew Hedges write: “With democracy on the ballot, we have to remember these first principles: Democracy means the rule of the people—not the rule of monarchs or the moneyed.” That was President Joe Biden’s appeal to American voters on the eve of midterm elections in the United States in 2022, a message he is carrying into his crucial re-election campaign and presumptive rematch with Donald Trump this fall. Yet one of America’s closest partners in the Middle…

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Justices Sotomayor and Kagan must retire now

Justices Sotomayor and Kagan must retire now

Ian Millhiser writes: Let’s not beat around the bush. It is more likely than not that Donald Trump will return to the White House next year. Right now, polling averages show Trump with a slight popular vote lead over incumbent President Joe Biden. And, even if Biden overcomes this small deficit, the Electoral College system effectively makes Trump votes count more than Biden votes. Although there may be signs that the Republican Party’s advantage in the Electoral College is fading, that advantage was…

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Wall Street titans shake off qualms and embrace Trump

Wall Street titans shake off qualms and embrace Trump

Politico reports: Wall Street executives spent three years doing everything they could to distance themselves from former President Donald Trump. Now they’re busy coming up with reasons to vote for the guy. Many high-dollar donors at banks, hedge funds and other financial firms had turned their backs on Trump as he spun unfounded claims that the 2020 election had been stolen and savaged the judicial system with attacks. Today, they’re setting aside those concerns, looking past qualms about his personality…

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Elephants call each other by name across the savanna

Elephants call each other by name across the savanna

Marta Zaraska writes: Humans have a long history of inventing names for elephants. There is Disney’s Dumbo, of course, and Jumbo, a 19th-century circus attraction, and Ruby, a famed painting elephant from the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona. But new research suggests wild African elephants may pick their own names, too—and use them to call and greet one another on the savanna. Most animals are born with a fixed set of sounds for communication. A few, such as songbirds, can imitate…

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