For much of the 2000s, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s serial governments and Hamas’s leaders have found each other useful for their own purposes, a The Washington Post analysis explains.
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California commits to teaching media literacy in schools
“Beginning next year, California’s public school students will be required to take media literacy courses that will help them identify fake news posted online while also being able to tell the difference between legitimate news articles and paid advertising,” The Los Angeles Times reports.
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Jason Momoa has a blast hosting SNL’s 2023 Thanksgiving episode
Watch highlights from the fifth episode of SNL’s forty-ninth season, hosted by Jason Momoa, with Tate McRae as the musical guest, including the Biden Panda cold open.
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What if money expired?
Jacob Baynham: “A long-forgotten German economist argued that society and the economy would be better off if money was a perishable good. Was he an anarchist crank or the prophet of a better world?”
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SNL satirizes third Republican debate by imagining how Trump might have interrupted it
Watch highlights from the fourth episode of SNL’s forty-ninth season, hosted by Timothée Chalamet, with boygenius as the musical guest, including the Republican debate cold open.
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Election Night’s biggest loser: Glenn Youngkin
“The Virginia governor put himself on the ballot, trying to curb abortion rights, gun safety, and educational freedom. He lost badly,” Joan Walsh writes.
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Christopher Walken shows up for SNL’s 2023 Halloween episode
Watch highlights from the third episode of SNL’s forty-ninth season, hosted by Nate Bargatze, with Foo Fighters as the musical guest, including the Biden Halloween cold open with Christopher Walken.
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SNL gleefully mocks Jim Jordan after failure of his bid for Speaker
Watch highlights from the second episode of SNL’s forty-ninth season, hosted by Bad Bunny, who also performed as the musical guest, including the Jim Jordan cold open.
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Jim Jordan’s conspiratorial quest for power
The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer on how the Ohio Republican built an insurgent bid for Speaker on the lies of Donald Trump.
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Guaranteed basic income could substantially improve economic security in the Pacific Northwest
GBI is a proven tool for improving social, economic, and health inequities; it entails providing periodic cash payments to people, like the economic assistance payments provided to millions of Americans during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Saturday Night Live returns at last; Pete Davidson comments on violence in the Middle East
Watch highlights from the season premiere of SNL’s forty-ninth season, hosted by Pete Davidson, with Ice Spice as the musical guest, including Davidson’s cold open commenting on the violence in the Middle East.
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McCarthy’s fall from speakership was sudden but no surprise
“Power and responsibility didn’t remold the man, or summon deep reserves of character and wisdom,” The Los Angeles Times’ Mark Barabak writes. “There is a hollowness at McCarthy’s core, which has long been evident, and it left him empty and bereft as he fought to stay in power.”
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How red state politics are shaving years off American lives
Republican-dominated state policies on cigarettes, seat belts, and public health regulations are shortening life spans, The Washington Post reports.
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Clarence Thomas secretly participated in Koch network donor events
“Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court,” ProPublica reports.
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Biden administration announces $600M to produce COVID tests and will reopen website to order them
Good news via The Associated Press: “The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is providing $600 million in funding to produce new at-home COVID-19 tests and is restarting a website allowing Americans to again order up to four free tests per household — aiming to prevent possible shortages during a rise in coronavirus cases that has typically come during colder months.”
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DeSantis’ gerrymandered congressional map in Florida is unconstitutional and must be redrawn, state judge says
“A Florida redistricting plan pushed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution and is prohibited from being used for any future U.S. congressional elections since it diminishes the ability of Black voters in north Florida to pick a representative of their choice.”
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Following Elon Musk’s lead, YouTube and Facebook are surrendering to disinformation
“Facebook and YouTube are receding from their role as watchdogs against conspiracy theories ahead of the 2024 presidential election,” The Washington Post’s report.
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No OB-GYNs left in town: What came after Idaho’s assault on abortion
“In Sandpoint, Idaho, the maternity ward closed down. Within months, medical care for women in the rural community was hollowed out,” explains The Guardian’s Kathleen McLaughlin.
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Facing threat of Trump’s return, Ukrainians ramp up homegrown arms industry
“It will be very difficult for us to fight alone with such a huge monster. But the civilized world has two options: to help us restore our 1991 borders, or to throw away all claims of shared values and just watch us bleed,” Serhiy Prytula says.
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This bold plan to kick the world’s coal habit might actually work
“Novel climate-financing deals are promising to shut off dirty energy plants in developing countries and retrain their staff to work in the green economy,” Wired reports.
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How climate scientists feel about seeing their dire predictions come true
The Los Angeles Times “spoke with several researchers and climate experts about how the recent string of record-breaking, precedent-setting events feel to them. Their comments have been lightly edited for clarity.”
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