UAE’s Cop28 president claims there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels

UAE’s Cop28 president claims there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels

The Guardian reports: The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal. Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”. The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were…

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Israel is using the same tactics in Gaza that Assad employed in Syria

Israel is using the same tactics in Gaza that Assad employed in Syria

Daanish Faruqi writes: As the humanitarian pause took effect in Gaza, footage of the massive destruction in the northern part of the enclave has started to trickle in. Seeing these images of devastation, one cannot but think of Thomas Friedman’s reference to what he calls the “Hama rules” in an article he published with The New York Times on October 14. A neologism he coined many years ago, it refers to then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad’s violent razing of the city…

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Research links the tendency to feel victimized to support for political violence

Research links the tendency to feel victimized to support for political violence

PsyPost reports: A recent series of studies reveals a strong connection between an individual’s tendency to feel victimized and their support for political violence. This research, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Violence, sheds light on how personal perceptions of victimhood can influence attitudes towards violent political actions. In an era where political tensions often lead to violent outbreaks, understanding the root causes of such violence is crucial. Past research has linked trauma, abuse, and relative…

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Trump attempts to spin anti-democracy, authoritarian criticism against Biden

Trump attempts to spin anti-democracy, authoritarian criticism against Biden

The Washington Post reports: Republican polling leader Donald Trump moved to deflect from criminal charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 election and from his own pledges to take revenge on his opponents if he returns to the White House, seeking to parry warnings that he presents a danger to democracy. His speech on Saturday was an effort to turn the tables on rising alarms from Democrats and some Republicans that Trump’s return to power would imperil free elections…

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Santos, now booted from the House, got elected as a master of duplicity – here’s how it worked

Santos, now booted from the House, got elected as a master of duplicity – here’s how it worked

Rep. George Santos in the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 7, 2023. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images By David E. Clementson, University of Georgia U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, was expelled on Dec. 1, 2023 from Congress for doing what most people think all politicians do all the time: lying. Santos lied about his religion, marital status, business background, grandparents, college, high school, sports-playing, income and campaign donation expenditures. Santos’ fellow members of Congress –…

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Swing-state Muslim leaders launch campaign to ‘abandon’ Biden in 2024

Swing-state Muslim leaders launch campaign to ‘abandon’ Biden in 2024

Politico reports: Muslim leaders from several swing states on Saturday descended on Dearborn, Michigan, to launch a national campaign against the reelection of President Joe Biden — a response to his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Organizers from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania are calling the campaign #AbandonBiden, vowing to ensure that Biden is a one-term president. These leaders have run separate pressure campaigns in their respective states, members of the coalition said, but they felt…

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The scale of displacement in Gaza is unparalleled

The scale of displacement in Gaza is unparalleled

The New York Times reports: Up to 1.8 million Gazans — around 80 percent of the population — have been forced to leave their homes since Israel began its bombardment in response to Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7. That number is expected to rise after Israel issued a new evacuation order on Saturday for areas in the south. Gaza has never experienced so much internal displacement in such a short time. Earlier conflicts forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from…

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Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza than were killed throughout Vietnam War and WW2

Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza than were killed throughout Vietnam War and WW2

“The stage of reporting has ended. The stage of trying to survive has begun…Our situation is more dire than you can imagine.”@azaizamotaz9 one of Gaza’s last journalists Israel killed 70 journalists in Gaza, more than those killed in 20yrs of the Vietnam war & 6yrs of WWII. https://t.co/Wk6fos8vhw — Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) December 2, 2023

Iran ‘using Gaza conflict as cover’ for execution of 127 people since war began

Iran ‘using Gaza conflict as cover’ for execution of 127 people since war began

The Guardian reports: The Iranian regime has executed more than 127 people, including women and children, since the Hamas attacks of 7 October, according to human rights groups. According to data collected by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Norway-based organisation Hengaw, which have been cross-referenced by the Observer, there has been an alarming rise in executions since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas. A third group, Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), confirmed that there has…

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Biden’s EPA launches crackdown on planet-warming methane

Biden’s EPA launches crackdown on planet-warming methane

Politico reports: The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled sweeping new regulations targeting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector on Saturday, a significant milestone for President Joe Biden’s strategy for curbing the pollution driving up the Earth’s temperatures. The rule’s 3 a.m. rollout was timed to coincide with the ongoing U.N. climate talks in Dubai, where the U.S. has sought to play a leading role in global efforts to reduce emissions of the powerful planet-heating gas. But its biggest test…

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Climate change imperils Indigenous ecosystems, food security, knowledge bases and ways of life

Climate change imperils Indigenous ecosystems, food security, knowledge bases and ways of life

Inside Climate News reports: As world leaders gather in Dubai for the 28th United Nations climate talks, Indigenous representatives from seven socio-cultural regions are calling for a moratorium on “false solutions” that ignore the roots of the climate crisis and urging a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Indigenous peoples’ caucus, called the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, or IIPFCC, had two minutes during COP28’s opening plenary Thursday to lay out their core concerns and assert their…

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Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power

Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power

The Washington Post reports: At a diner known for political chitchat and Coca-Cola memorabilia, former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio walked from table to table on a recent fall morning, asking voters to back him for mayor of his Phoenix-area hometown — and to support the former president who once rescued him from a potential prison sentence. “Are you for Trump?” Arpaio asked one restaurant patron, as town council members, a Republican Party activist and a Bible study group ate…

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‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza

‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza

+972 and Local Call reports: The Israeli army’s expanded authorization for bombing non-military targets, the loosening of constraints regarding expected civilian casualties, and the use of an artificial intelligence system to generate more potential targets than ever before, appear to have contributed to the destructive nature of the initial stages of Israel’s current war on the Gaza Strip, an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals. These factors, as described by current and former Israeli intelligence members, have likely…

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The bogus historians who teach evangelicals they live in a theocracy

The bogus historians who teach evangelicals they live in a theocracy

Tim Alberta writes: I had never seen a sanctuary so full on a Tuesday night. The people packed into FloodGate Church in Brighton, Mich., weren’t here for Bill Bolin, the right-wing zealot pastor who’d grown his congregation tenfold by preaching conspiracy-fueled sermons since the onset of Covid-19, turning Sunday morning worship services into amateur Fox News segments. No, they had come out by the hundreds, decked out in patriotic attire this October evening in 2021, to hear from a man…

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