Earth’s upper atmosphere could hold a missing piece of the universe, new study hints

Earth’s upper atmosphere could hold a missing piece of the universe, new study hints

Paul Sutter writes: Earth may be swimming through an ocean of dark matter — and waves in that invisible ocean lapping against our planet’s upper atmosphere may generate detectable radio waves that allow us to finally find this elusive component of the universe, according to new theoretical research. A wealth of astrophysical and cosmological evidence points to the existence of dark matter, from the inexplicable rotation curves of certain galaxies to the growth of the largest structures in the universe….

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Outrage over ‘massacre’ in Gaza as Israel rescued four hostages

Outrage over ‘massacre’ in Gaza as Israel rescued four hostages

The Guardian reports: Israeli attacks in central Gaza killed scores of Palestinians, many of them civilians, amid a special forces operation to free four hostages held there, a death toll that has caused international outrage. At least 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 wounded in Israeli strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday. The Israeli military said its forces had come under heavy fire during the daytime operation. The EU’s top diplomat,…

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Evidence of Israel’s war crime of perfidy during operation to rescue hostages

Evidence of Israel’s war crime of perfidy during operation to rescue hostages

Geneva Convention, Article 37 — Prohibition of perfidy 1. (c) The feigning of civilian, non-combatant status This evidence of Israel's war crime of perfidy comes not from Palestinians but a right-wing Israeli newspaper: "the special force entered Nuseirat with a truck carrying 'furniture' for displaced persons….driven by a female soldier in civilian clothes." https://t.co/3Nzv1uxMT8 — Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) June 9, 2024 Israel Hayom reports: In Gaza, it is reported that the special force entered Nuseirat with a truck carrying “furniture”…

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With Gantz resignation, Netanyahu loses centrist partner at pivotal moment in the war. Will anything change?

With Gantz resignation, Netanyahu loses centrist partner at pivotal moment in the war. Will anything change?

Jacob Kornbluh writes: [Senior war cabinet minister Benny] Gantz’s departure will heighten U.S. and international pressure on Netanyahu. “The government is losing the protective shield that Gantz provided,” said Dan Arbell, a scholar-in-residence at the Center for Israel Studies at American University. “It will put it in a position of being greatly scrutinized for missteps and miscalculations and increase the possibility of international actions.” But it could also boost Netanyahu’s standing among his right-wing base. The government still maintains a…

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Nesrine Malik on ‘the forgotten genocide’

Nesrine Malik on ‘the forgotten genocide’

  On April 15, Nesrine Malik wrote: One year ago today, Sudan descended into war. The toll so far is catastrophic. Thousands are dead, and millions are displaced, with hunger and disease ravaging all in the absence of aid. The UN has called the situation “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent history”, afflicting about 25 million people. The Sudanese people are suffering what has become the largest displacement crisis in the world. The war was both sudden and…

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Europe swings to the right — led by France

Europe swings to the right — led by France

Politico reports: Europe’s center of political gravity is veering to the right. Center-right and far-right parties are set to take the largest number of seats in Sunday’s European Union election in the most populous nations: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland. France led the rightward lurch with such a crushing victory for the far-right National Rally that liberal President Emmanuel Macron dissolved France’s parliament and called an early election. Early projections suggested the National Rally would win 32 percent or…

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In thrall to Viktor Orbán and the hard right, Europe is facing its moment of truth

In thrall to Viktor Orbán and the hard right, Europe is facing its moment of truth

Simon Tisdall writes: Viktor Orbán was his usual poisonous self, spouting toxic twaddle in true Boris Johnson/Nigel Farage style. Hungary’s hard-right prime minister and Europe’s saboteur-in-chief warned supporters at a Budapest rally that, without him, their country would be overrun by millions of illegal migrants and cease to exist as a nation. The EU was to blame, he said. The commission was under the spell of his liberal nemesis, the Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros. It was secretly preparing to go…

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Israel rescues hostages from Gaza, leaving trail of death and destruction

Israel rescues hostages from Gaza, leaving trail of death and destruction

The Washington Post reports: Israel’s military staged a blistering operation to rescue four hostages from the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, leaving hundreds of Palestinians dead or wounded in its wake and marking a much-needed political victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under both domestic and international pressure to wind down the nine-month-long war. The Israel Defense Forces said it retrieved Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; Shlomi Ziv, 40; and Noa Argamani, who turned 26 in…

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Haaretz: ‘The countdown has begun’ for the collapse of Israel

Haaretz: ‘The countdown has begun’ for the collapse of Israel

Al Mayadeen English summarizes an editorial from Haaretz published on June 7: Recent internal events suggest that Zionism is on a path to demise, and unless leaders take swift action, the existential countdown has already started, Haaretz warned in its Friday op-ed. The newspaper mentioned the “Flag March” in occupied al-Quds, which took place earlier this week and saw Israeli settlers storming the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and violating its sanctity, attacking Palestinians and journalists, in addition to other Israelis, describing…

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Columbia Law Review back online after student editors threatened to strike over Nakba censorship

Columbia Law Review back online after student editors threatened to strike over Nakba censorship

  The Intercept reports: After the Columbia Law Review’s board of directors responded to the publication of an article about Palestine by taking the prestigious journal completely offline, the students who run CLR voted on Wednesday to reject an offer in a letter from the directors to reinstate the website. The Columbia Law School students who run CLR were considering a proposal to append a note to the Palestine article disclaiming what the directors, in an unsigned letter to students,…

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Trump plans to claim sweeping powers to cancel federal spending

Trump plans to claim sweeping powers to cancel federal spending

The Washington Post reports: Donald Trump is vowing to wrest key spending powers from Congress if elected this November, promising to assert more control over the federal budget than any president in U.S. history. The Constitution gives control over spending to Congress, but Trump and his aides maintain that the president should have much more discretion — including the authority to cease programs altogether, even if lawmakers fund them. Depending on the response from the Supreme Court and Congress, Trump’s…

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Trump loyalist pushes ‘post-constitutional’ vision for second term

Trump loyalist pushes ‘post-constitutional’ vision for second term

The Washington Post reports: A battle-tested D.C. bureaucrat and self-described Christian nationalist is drawing up detailed plans for a sweeping expansion of presidential power in a second Trump administration. Russ Vought, who served as the former president’s budget chief, calls his political strategy for razing long-standing guardrails “radical constitutionalism.” He has helped craft proposals for Donald Trump to deploy the military to quash civil unrest, seize more control over the Justice Department and assert the power to withhold congressional appropriations…

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An object lesson from Covid on how to destroy public trust

An object lesson from Covid on how to destroy public trust

Zeynep Tufekci writes: Big chunks of the history of the Covid pandemic were rewritten over the last month or so in a way that will have terrible consequences for many years to come. Under questioning by a congressional subcommittee, top officials from the National Institutes of Health, along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, acknowledged that some key parts of the public health guidance their agencies promoted during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic were not backed up by solid science….

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