Democracy Now!

How CNN, ADL & Others Amplified Smear Against Rep. Rashida Tlaib for Criticizing Campus Prosecutions

We look at the smear campaign faced by the only Palestinian American in Congress and a vocal critic of Israel, Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, after she defended the rights of student protesters. Tlaib recently criticized Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel over charges Nessel filed against 11 mostly students and alumni who were involved in a pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Michigan. Nessel then accused Tlaib of antisemitism despite the congressmember never mentioning Nessel’s religion. Key media figures like CNN’s Jake Tapper have parroted the claim that Tlaib said Nessel is biased because she is Jewish, despite the original article’s author fact-checking the narrative. “This is not at all what happened. She’s talking about an anti-Palestinian bias,” says Steve Neavling, an investigative reporter who first published Tlaib’s comments in the Detroit Metro Times. “It was a very unusual, surreal experience for me as a journalist to see so many lies being peddled about an interview that I witnessed.” We also speak with Prem Thakker, a political correspondent for Zeteo News who has documented the smear campaign, about his efforts to get an update on the U.S. investigation into the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza. “I have not gotten an answer. It’s been over 240 days.”

Democracy Now!

Report from Beirut: Israel Is “Targeting Everyone” in Bombing Campaign, Killing 700+ in Just Days

We get an update from Lebanon, where the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has risen to over 700 since Monday, following a series of explosions involving pagers and walkie-talkies in Beirut and southern Lebanon last week. The Israeli military reiterated its troops were preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon if tensions continue to escalate. Multiple Israeli tanks and armored vehicles have appeared across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. As the Biden administration claims it’s working toward a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel is set to receive a new military aid package from the United States totaling some $8.7 billion. “People are really scared,” says Mona Fawaz, professor of urban planning at the American University of Beirut. “Israel does these so-called targeted assassinations, which, sadly, much of the Western press has been celebrating, and they talk about Israelis’ ingenuity. In fact, it’s targeting everyone.” Fawaz discusses the context for Lebanon’s crisis, organizing to shelter and survive the bombing, and the Israeli messaging about evacuation orders and Hezbollah.

Democracy Now!

U.S. Gov’t Found Israel Was Blocking Gaza Aid. Blinken Ignored It.

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 havoc on the civilian population. Although U.S. law requires the government to stop arms shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed aid, Secretary of State Antony Blinken ignored the findings and told Congress Israel was not restricting humanitarian assistance — helping to keep weapons flowing to the Israeli military to continue its assault on Gaza.

Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government

DOJ inspector general criticizes FBI for suspending whistleblower - Washington Examiner

FBI agent Marcus Allen, who was tasked with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, was forced to take unpaid leave from January 2022 to June 2024.

ProPublica

Despite Persistent Warnings, Texas Rushed to Remove Millions From Medicaid. That Move Cost Eligible Residents Care.

The decision to buck federal government guidelines was one of many that led to serious repercussions for Texas residents who rely on Medicaid. Among them were children forced to forgo or postpone lifesaving operations, doctors say.

TIME

It Could Be Harder to Find a Job and Get a Pay Raise if the Fed Gets Its Way

Most estimates say that unemployment will have to reach as high as 7.5% to get inflation down to the Fed’s target of 2%.

Quanta Magazine

If the Universe Is a Hologram, This Long-Forgotten Math Could Decode It | Quanta Magazine

A 1930s-era breakthrough is helping physicists understand how quantum threads could weave together into a holographic space-time fabric.

Gaza: Why is it so hard to establish the death toll?

Body counts are a crude measure of the war’s impact and more reliable estimates will take time to compile.

TIME

Capitalism Can't Solve Climate Change

If we continue to see the private sector as our savior from climate catastrophe, we'll continue to fail.

Security Affairs

Apple dismisses lawsuit against surveillance firm NSO Group due to risk of threat intelligence exposure

Apple drops its lawsuit against commercial spyware vendor NSO Group, due to the risk of "threat intelligence" information exposure.

Democracy Now!

Palestinian Healthcare Workers Chained, Starved, Sexually Abused: New Report

We speak with Human Rights Watch researcher Milena Ansari about the organization’s new report detailing the torture of Palestinian medical workers in Israeli prisons. HRW spoke with eight doctors, paramedics and nurses who were picked up in Gaza before being transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman camp and other facilities, where they say they suffered beatings, starvation, humiliation, electric shocks and other forms of abuse. The men also describe threats of sexual violence during brutal interrogations and seeing another prisoner bleeding after being gang-raped with an M16 rifle by three soldiers. The findings track with other reports from researchers and survivors, and HRW has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for its attacks on healthcare workers. “We’re really ringing the alarm about the situation inside the Israeli custody and detention facilities,” says Ansari, who says evidence is mounting of a “systematic pattern of ill-treatment and abuse.”

Dialogue Earth

Tipping points: Lessons from cod’s decline

Researchers fear cod numbers have dwindled beyond recovery to join other ocean systems passing worrying ‘tipping points’

WIRED

How Soon Might the Atlantic Ocean Break? Two Sibling Scientists Found an Answer—and Shook the World

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is like a huge heat pump, taking water from the tropics to the north, warming areas in Europe. But as climate change accelerates, AMOC is becoming less stable. It might even be headed to a shutdown.

Vox

Your brain’s privacy is at risk. The US just took its first big step toward protecting it.

What are neurorights? Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are building tech to read our minds. Lawyers are trying to protect our mental privacy from Silicon Valley through neurorights.

POLITICO

Machines can read your brain. There’s little that can stop them.

Technology is giving access to the inner workings of the brain, and policymakers are scrambling to regulate it.

Vox

Your brain’s privacy is at risk. The US just took its first big step toward protecting it.

What are neurorights? Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are building tech to read our minds. Lawyers are trying to protect our mental privacy from Silicon Valley through neurorights.

POLITICO

Machines can read your brain. There’s little that can stop them.

Technology is giving access to the inner workings of the brain, and policymakers are scrambling to regulate it.

Declassified Media Ltd

Will UK ministers now be held liable for war crimes?

Britain’s new government admits Israel could use UK weapons for war crimes in Gaza. So will their Conservative predecessors be investigated for complicity?

Democracy Now!

Daily Show for September 05, 2024

A daily independent global news hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González. Lax Gun Laws a “Death Sentence”: Georgia Teen Kills 4 in Deadliest School Shooting of 2024; EXCLUSIVE: Northwestern Suspends Journalism Professor Steven Thrasher After Gaza Solidarity Protest; “Campus Has Become Unrecognizable”: Columbia Prof. Franke Faces Firing After DN Interview on Gaza; How U.S. College Administrators Are “Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests”

LII / Legal Information Institute

18 U.S. Code § 1091 - Genocide

How to ask for more — and get it

How do you get what you want out of a negotiation? United Nations negotiation trainer Alex Carter says the best methods center on recruitment, not rivalry. Whether you're asking for a raise or resolving a family dispute, she offers five simple tips for a successful discussion — starting with one powerful question.

An ethical way forward for Indigenous microbiome research

Science has a history of exploitation and extraction. Microbiologists have the chance to take a different approach. By Sam Jones

Mapping Ignorance

A cheaper way to make green hydrogen, using AI

An AI-generated "recipe" for a new catalyst offered a more efficient way to make hydrogen fuel

Democracy Now!

Daily Show for September 03, 2024

A daily independent global news hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González. Mass Israeli Protests as 6 More Hostages Killed, But Netanyahu Refuses Ceasefire Terms, U.S. Sends Arms; 10,000 Hotel Workers Strike at Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton for Raises, Fair Workloads & Respect; The New Yorker Publishes 2005 Haditha, Iraq Massacre Photos Marines “Didn’t Want the World to See”

Center for American Progress

Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation

The United States must reckon with the racism built into its housing system in order to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to build wealth.

Adafruit Industries - Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers!

Workers Rights Activists And The History of Labor Day

PBS shares the history of workers rights, workers activists, and the history surrounding the Labor Day holiday. Labor Day has been a national holiday since 1894, when President Grover Cleveland sig…

Hackaday

Swiss Researchers May Have Solved Hydrogen Storage

If you follow the world of clean energy, you will probably have read all about the so-called hydrogen future and the hydrogen economy. The gas can easily be made from water by electrolysis from gre…

New Atlas

Fungus learns to drive in "biohybrid" robots

Autonomous vehicles are said to be safer than human drivers – but would you trust a mushroom behind the wheel? A new kind of “biohybrid” robot moves in response to signals from the nervous system of a fungus.

Nature

The power of quantum neural networks - Nature Computational Science

A class of quantum neural networks is presented that outperforms comparable classical feedforward networks. They achieve a higher capacity in terms of effective dimension and at the same time train faster, suggesting a quantum advantage.

Democracy Now!

No Ban on Fracking: Kamala Harris Doubles Down on Fossil Fuels

In her first major interview since replacing Joe Biden on the ballot, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was questioned about her shifting statements on fracking, which has been linked to a surge in methane gas emissions over the past decade. Harris, who has previously made comments opposing fracking, vowed not to ban it if elected. The vice president went on to highlight the Biden-Harris administration’s environmental record, which activists have criticized for vastly expanding oil production rather than drawing down the country’s reliance on fossil fuels. “The data is telling us that what Kamala Harris said about fracking — that we can do it without dealing with reducing the supply of fossil fuels — it’s just not borne out by the numbers,” explains The Lever’s David Sirota, who adds, “Ultimately, consequences for that will be on the United States, for the entire world.”

FactCheck.org

FactChecking Harris' CNN Interview - FactCheck.org

In her first media interview as the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris stretched the facts on her past stance on fracking and the number of clean energy jobs created by recent legislation.

New Atlas

All-in-one solution captures and destroys ‘forever chemicals’ using light

Proposed methods of removing toxic ‘forever chemicals’ from water have either only trapped the chemicals or broken them down. A new study has demonstrated a method that does both – quickly and cheaply.

Democracy Now!

From Decriminalization to Border Crackdown, Harris Defends Hard-Line Shift

In her first major interview since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was questioned by CNN’s Dana Bash about her policy positions and campaign platform. We begin with a look at Harris’s increasingly rightward stance on immigration and border policy with immigration activist Erika Andiola. As she touted her support for hard-line border security and asylum policies, Harris positioned herself as tougher on immigration than Trump. “Republican talking points … now truly have become Democrat talking points,” says Andiola.

Democracy Now!

Kamala Harris Refuses to Condition U.S. Military Support for Israel

We turn to Kamala Harris’s position on Israel’s war on Gaza, which many are calling a genocide. After she was asked about calls to condition U.S. arms shipments to Israel by CNN reporter Dana Bash, Harris refused to consider halting the flow of weapons and instead affirmed her support of Israel. This position violates both federal and international law, argues Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer, and, coupled with her campaign’s denial of a requested Palestinian American speaking spot from “uncommitted” voters at the DNC, he warns that “Harris could be worse than Biden” when it comes to U.S. support for Israel.

Democracy Now!

Taliban Approves Law in Afghanistan Requiring Women Remain Silent in Public

The Taliban government in Afghanistan is drawing renewed outrage over a new law banning women’s voices in public, forcing them to completely cover their bodies and faces out of the home, and more. This comes after the Taliban banned women from working in most fields and ended girls’ education past primary school following their takeover of the country in 2021. We speak with Sima Samar, an Afghan human rights advocate and doctor who chaired the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission from 2002 until 2019; she also briefly served as minister of women’s affairs in the interim Afghan government in 2002, after a U.S.-led coalition toppled the first Taliban government for its support of al-Qaeda. “You cannot see such a law in any other regime on this planet,” she says. “This is a crime against humanity. It is gender apartheid.”

Quanta Magazine

Computer Scientists Prove That Heat Destroys Entanglement | Quanta Magazine

While devising a new quantum algorithm, four researchers accidentally established a hard limit on the “spooky” phenomenon.

Quanta Magazine

How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection | Quanta Magazine

Like a highway system, the vagus nerve branches profusely from your brain through your organs to marshal bodily functions, including aspects of mind such as mood, pleasure and fear.

Dezeen

Eleven US houses with bold black exteriors

From a home in Alabama to one in San Francisco, we've rounded up 11 recently completed houses in the United States with striking black facades.

Chain retraction: how to stop bad science propagating through the literature

Awareness of when a paper can’t be trusted is often too low — but adopting some easy-to-use technological solutions can help researchers, publishers and referees to clean things up.

Nature

AI generates covertly racist decisions about people based on their dialect - Nature

Despite efforts to remove overt racial prejudice, language models using artificial intelligence still show covert racism against speakers of African American English that is triggered by features of the dialect.