Reading

Ferris Jabr’s 3 greatest revelations while writing his book, Becoming Earth.

The post How Life Made Our Earth appeared first on Nautilus.

Judd Legum writes about the factual disconnect on crime: According to the latest FBI data, violent crime and property crime are down sharply in 2024. The new data shows substantial drops in every category, including murder (-26.4%), rape (-25.7%), robbery (-17.8%), and property crime (-15.1%). These declines follow steep drops in violent crime and property crime in 2023.  And yet, according to a recent Gallup poll, “77% [of Americans] believe there is more crime in the U.S. than a year ago.” Why? There are two key factors. First, high-profile politicians are constantly making false claims about crime rates in the United States. For example, speaking at a Black church in Detroit last Saturday, former President Trump said the following: We’ll bring back public safety and defend our communities for law-abiding American citizens. The crime is most rampant right here in African American communities. And more people see me, and they say, “Sir, we want protection. We want the police to protect us.

The Biden campaign has good reason to run ads drawing attention to Trump’s criminal conviction: President Joe Biden’s campaign had been restrained in its attacks on Donald Trump’s New York criminal conviction for weeks until the campaign said internal polling and focus groups showed the verdict turned off voters. The result, hitting TV sets across the country on Monday, was the campaign’s unleashing of its sharpest attack ad yet, depicting Trump as a “convicted criminal who’s only out for himself.” And the campaign says it’s just the start. Biden advisers say they plan to hammer Trump over the coming weeks — aiming to both set up a favorable narrative ahead of next week’s debate and keep Trump’s felony conviction top-of-mind for voters who haven’t yet fully tuned into the election. “We’ve seen in polling since the conviction that the more the conviction is front and center in voters’ attention, the worse it is for Trump,” said a Biden campaign pollster granted anonymity to describe internal polling because they were not authorized to do so publicly.

Such a move would support the peace efforts, not undermine them, as some have argued. Over the last eight months, we have witnessed the mass killing and displacement of Palestinians and the devastation and destruction of Gaza carried out by Israel under the guise of “self-defence”. As the Israeli government continues to disregard its obligations under Continue reading »

Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit underscores the significance of the Australia-China relationship, especially given China’s status as Australia’s largest trading partner. A deeper relation should develop, but that will take time. Trust needs to be reestablished not only at diplomatic and business levels, but also in the Australian mass media, whose China opinion writers have Continue reading »

How many more wrongful convictions does Australia have to have before state and federal attorneys-general and senior members of the legal profession agree that they must address this serious problem? Why is Australia languishing so far behind similar legal systems in England and Wales, Scotland, New Zealand and Canada? In the case of the UK, Continue reading »

In Australia, the demon of penal regulation clings in its stubbornness. Keeping government accountable and open to the suspicious eye of the public is a weary worn task that yields little by way of change. Secrecy remains addictive, even pathological. Reforms, to that end, remain cosmetic, patchy, and indeterminate. What is the public interest useful for Continue reading »

The Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited New Zealand last week (June 13-15) and held talks that were generally agreed to be frank but friendly. It was the highest ranking visit by a Chinese official for seven years and coincided with the tenth anniversary of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries. Li Qiang was Continue reading »

President Vladimir Putin has laid out a clear Russian position on how the fighting in Ukraine could stop immediately, says Jeffrey Sachs in an interview with Judge Napolitano. Watch the full interview here:   Republished from Judge Napolitano – Judging Freedom, June 18, 2024 Continue reading »

Major Western news outlets are currently reporting how the Pentagon ran a secret anti-vaccination campaign in order to undermine China’s life-saving COVID vaccination programme in the Philippines – and beyond – from the spring of 2020 to mid-2021. According to Reuters, this extensive, well-organised, malign project aimed: “to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy Continue reading »

Barghouti has been relocated to 3 different locations and last December, his lawyer recounted how he was “dragged on the floor naked in front of other prisoners” in Ayalon prison. Former inmates and several rights groups claim that circumstances inside Israeli jails for Palestinians altered suddenly last October, following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti is Continue reading »

I mentioned this the other day but now it’s official. President Biden is announcing today that he will legalize the undocumented immigrant spouses of American citizens: President Biden on Tuesday is announcing a large-scale immigration program that will offer legal status and a streamlined path to U.S. residency and citizenship to roughly half a million unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens. The Department of Homeland Security policy will allow these immigrants to apply for work permits and deportation protections if they have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years and meet other requirements, senior administration officials said during a call with reporters. Perhaps most importantly, however, Mr. Biden’s move will unlock a path to permanent residency — colloquially known as a green card — and ultimately U.S. citizenship for many of the program’s beneficiaries.

Isn’t this neighborhood charming? The cute brick ranches. The historic bungalows with their breezy porches. The old apartment buildings that symbolize our romantic notions of the working class.

Even the duplexes are just adorable. It’s inspiring how people share walls and divide roofs right down the middle. So egalitarian.

Yes, we love the character of this neighborhood, which is why we bought a house, tore it down, and built a mansion resembling a La Quinta Inn.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but once Brad talked to the architect, it just made sense to go with five stories, nine bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, and a six-car garage with a glass door that reflects the setting sun like the Eye of Sauron.

Did I mention how we love the big porches here? They’re such cute little areas for sitting and talking to your neighbors. It’s too bad they aren’t considered “livable space” and do not add to a home’s value.

Project 2025 is hundreds of pages long and it’s difficult to get through. And that’s just for starters. There’s more in it every day. So this run-down by John Oliver is about as short and succinct and explanation possible. If you have a few minutes it’s well worth watching. You might want to have a drink handy…

“He’s emotionless, unblinking, a special kind of animal. When financial sanctions finally drop, Khareba needs to be one of the first people targeted"

He’s a convicted criminal. Make it stick. A high school friend was raised a good Southern Baptist. “We couldn’t cuss in the house,” he said. “Except you could say ‘damn yankee,’ because that’s just what they were.” The Biden campaign is taking that approach with Donald Trump: A convicted criminal is just what he is. Ankush Khardori, a senior writer for Politico Magazine, speaks with Greg Sargent about a Politico poll “with some pretty big surprises: A larger-than-expected percentage of Americans say Donald Trump’s criminal conviction in Manhattan makes them less likely to vote for him.” Politico: Thirty-three percent of respondents said that the conviction made them less likely to support Trump, while only 17 percent of respondents said that it made them more likely to support Trump. “Support” is one thing. Voting is another. Twenty-two percent of respondents said that the conviction is important to how they will vote and that it makes them less likely to support Trump.

The donation, one of the largest in the school’s history, was made as right-wing megadonor Leo shopped a new law school center.

The post Texas A&M Wants to Keep Emails About Leonard Leo’s $15 Million Gift Secret appeared first on The Intercept.

I don’t like this collapse of trust; I don’t like being in a technological arms race with my students.

While April and May are usually the hottest months in many countries in Southeast Asia, hundreds of millions of people are now suffering in South Asia from an exceptionally intense heat wave that has killed hundreds. One expert has already called it the most extreme heat event in history. Record-breaking temperatures above 122º F were reported in the Indian capital of New Delhi and temperatures sizzled to an unheard of 127º F  in parts of India and Pakistan. Nor was the blazing heat limited to Asia. Heat waves of exceptional severity and duration are now occurring simultaneously in many areas of the world. Mexico and parts of the United States, notably Miami and Phoenix, have recently been in the grip of... Read more

Source: A National Climate Action Plan appeared first on TomDispatch.com.