Новости за 07.08.2020

Donald Trump’s plan in Syria is simple: Commit war crimes. Last October, the president unilaterally withdrew most American troops from their positions in Syria. He was convinced to leave only a few soldiers behind by the defense establishment, which prevailed on Trump by telling him the troops were necessary to protect the region’s oil fields for future American exploitation. “We’re keeping the oil,” Trump has said repeatedly.

Just as the physics of our atmosphere is no longer only the concern of atmospheric physicists, so has climate change become a dominating theme for writers of otherwise different concerns. From Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation to Nathaniel Rich’s Odds Against Tomorrow, the last decade has seen such a steep rise in sophisticated “cli-fi” that some literary publications now devote whole verticals to it. With such various and fertile imaginations at work on the same topic, whether in fiction or nonfiction... Читать дальше...

In late June, overlooked amid pandemic, economic crisis, and protest headlines, a bipartisan cohort of United States senators introduced a bill to establish a U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, certification program, helping farmers and forest landowners participate in carbon credit markets. The bill’s sponsoring politicians ranged from Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse to South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham. But the diverse set of interest groups that proudly pasted their logo... Читать дальше...

A return to normal life after the pandemic, which we can only hope will be better and more equitable than the one that preceded it, depends on the creation of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. Aware of this reality, the Trump administration has made incredible declarations about when a vaccine will be ready; Trump claimed yesterday that a vaccine would be available “right around” Election Day. The prospect that Trump will push for a vaccine to begin distribution, potentially before we know whether it’s safe or effective... Читать дальше...

The failure of Bernie Sanders to take control of the Democratic Party in the 2020 primaries was understandably traumatic for the American left. Having rapidly ascended from seeming irrelevance to surging media attention and organizing in just a few years, many democratic socialists convinced themselves that their moment had come.

It’s not clear quite what era you’re in. The place seems dislocated in time, an imperial outpost somewhere in the desert, its manners and materials evidently imported from some far-off capital. It looks hot and hazy and a little quaint, as if everyone knows they’re playing their parts in a reassuring period piece—dusty pack animals moving slowly in the sun, staff murmuring to one another as they prepare food. Waiting for the Barbarians is an adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s 1980 novel, in which time... Читать дальше...

In a video that circulated on social media two weeks after George Floyd’s death, 14 white celebrities gathered to take responsibility for “every not so funny joke” they’d laughed at and each time they’d “explained away police brutality.” As a mawkish piano theme twinkled in the background, they directed viewers to an organization, I Take Responsibility, whose website states: “We cannot sit idle while systemic racism and police brutality continue throughout our country. Racism is personal, it is... Читать дальше...

When the pandemic lockdowns in the United States first began, there were troubling signs that women would bear the brunt of the coming economic collapse. As layoffs started, more women than men lost jobs; by April, unemployment was almost 3 percentage points higher for women. A few months later, those gender disparities appear to have only further solidified: “Nearly 11 million jobs held by women disappeared from February to May, erasing a decade of job gains by women in the labor force,” journalist Chabeli Carrazana recently wrote. Читать дальше...

On October 7, 2007, I attended a lecture by Seymour Hersh at the University of California, Los Angeles titled “The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib and Beyond.” At the time, Hersh was one of the most prominent critics of the Bush Administration, and I had gone hoping for both insight and a better sense of how to push back against this machine of never-ending war. But Hersh had none of that to offer. He opened his talk with a number: 471.

The National Rifle Association once ranked among the most powerful political organizations in America. Now it could face dissolution under a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James. In the 169-page complaint James released on Thursday, she describes years of financial and ethical misconduct by the group’s leaders, including Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law,” James said in a statement. Читать дальше...