the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Glenn Greenwald    

Democracy Now!   As a wave of student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza continues to spread from coast to coast, schools and law enforcement have responded with increasing brutality to campus encampments.    One of the most violent police crackdowns took place at Emory University in Atlanta on Thursday, when local and state police swept onto the campus just hours after students had set up tents on the quad in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza as well as the planned police training center known as Cop City.    Police used tear gas and stun guns to break up the encampment as they wrestled people to the ground, and are accused of using rubber bullets. Among those arrested were a few faculty members.    Democracy Now! spoke with two of the arrested professors: Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department, and Emil’ Keme, professor of English and Indigenous studies. Also with Palestinian American organizer and medical student Umaymah Mohammad, who describes how Emory has repeat

Al Jazeera English   As Israel’s war on Gaza continues for a seventh month, killing more than 34,000 Palestinians and 200 humanitarian workers, the United States just approved roughly $15bn in military aid to Israel. But is this transfer of weapons against both domestic and international law? A scathing report released this week argues that by providing weapons that may be used in war crimes, the Biden administration may have acted in violation of not just international law, but its own regulations.   Marc Lamont Hill talks to the authors of this report, lawyer and scholar Noura Erakat and former senior official at the US Department of State Josh Paul.

New court documents reveal that ministers David Cameron and Kemi Badenoch authorised UK arms sales to Israel right after an airstrike killed three British charity workers in Gaza. by John McEvoy   Part 2 - ‘Killed with British weapons’   Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq challenged the UK government today in court over arms sales to Israel. Documents provided to the court show that the UK government has conducted five legal assessments of the situation in Gaza since 18 December. One of those assessments, which covered the period 18 December to 29 February, was delivered to UK foreign secretary David Cameron on 28 March. On 3 April, two days after the Israeli airstrike on the aid workers, Cameron used this assessment to recommend that the UK continue arms sales to Israel. Five days later, UK trade secretary Kemi Badenoch authorised the continuation of extant licences and new licences to Israel, according to GLAN’s press statement. The court doc

Al Jazeera English   In Gaza's Rafah district, Palestinian civil defense officials discuss mass grave discoveries near Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals. Yemen Abu Solaiman, head of civil defence in Khan Younis, reveals three graves at Nasser Hospital, expressing concerns over signs of executions. Of 392 bodies found, only 65 are identified due to decomposition or mutilation. Abu Sulaiman urges global action to halt aggression and allow access for scrutiny.  

Smears from the press and pro-Israel influencers are a dangerous distraction from real threats to our safety.   by Jonathan Ben-Menachem *   “Reprehensible and dangerous.” “Terrorist sympathizers.” “It’s not 1938 Berlin. It’s 2024, Columbia University, NYC.” The White House, Congressional Republicans, and cable news talking heads would have you believe that the Columbia University campus has devolved into a hotbed of antisemitic violence – but the reality on the ground is very different. As a Jewish student at Columbia, it depresses me that I have to correct the record and explain what the real risk to our safety looks like. I still can't quite believe how the events on campus over the past few days have been so cynically and hysterically misrepresented by the media and by our elected representatives.     Last week, the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition, representing more than 100 student organizations, including Jewish groups, organized the Gaza Solidarity Enca

Democracy Now!   Student protests calling for university divestment from Israel and the U.S. arms industry have rocked campuses from coast to coast. The nonviolent protests, which have been characterized as “antisemitic” for their criticism of Israel, have been met with an intensifying police crackdown as university administrators threaten academic discipline and arrests.    On Wednesday, local and state troopers violently arrested dozens at the University of Texas at Austin. Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia University in New York City, the site of a high-profile student encampment and one of the first to be met with police action, where he called on university president Minouche Shafik to resign.    Democracy Now! spoke with two Jewish students involved in protests at their schools. Joshua Sklar, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin and an organizer with Jewish Voice of Peace Austin, says concern over campus antisemitism is insincer

The Grayzone   The gangland assassination of Fernando Villavicencio was a key factor in preventing socialist-oriented Citizens' Revolution candidate Luisa González from winning the elections. The Grayzone spoke with Luisa Gonzales about that disturbing intrigue and the malign activities of the US embassy inside her country.  

Geopolitical Economy Report   US President Joe Biden signed a law that will force TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the app, or it will be banned in the US. Ben Norton explains how this is part of Washington's economic war, aimed at protecting Big Tech monopolies in Silicon Valley.

Amid the internal battle over the New York Times’s coverage of Israel’s war, top editors handed down a set of directives. by Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim     Part 3 - “Words Like ‘Slaughter’” The Times memo outlines guidance on a range of phrases and terms. “ The nature of the conflict has led to inflammatory language and incendiary accusations on all sides. We should be very cautious about using such language, even in quotations. Our goal is to provide clear, accurate information, and heated language can often obscure rather than clarify the fact, ” the memo says. “ Words like ‘slaughter,’ ‘massacre’ and ‘carnage’ often convey more emotion than information. Think hard before using them in our own voice, ” according to the memo. “ Can we articulate why we are applying those words to one particular situation and not another? As always, we should focus on clarity and precision — describe what happened rather than using a label. ” Despite the memo’s framing as an effort to not employ incen