1+ hour, 6+ min ago (570+ words) The war on drugs has failed, and Trump's deadly boat strikes are only doubling down on decades of failed policy. I was never that into cocaine " preferring the euphoria promised by MDMA or the relaxation offered by cannabis " but back in 2015, a cocaine-serving lounge bar, Route 36, in La Paz, Bolivia, was the talk of the backpacking circuit, and the scarcely-believable novelty of the place was alluring. In the international waters around the U.S., the "legally indefensible" and "barbarian" campaign the Trump administration is waging against boats suspected of trafficking drugs from Latin America has killed at least 83 people in 21 extrajudicial airstrikes. Pope Leo XIII was such a fan of one cocaine-infused tonic wine as a mental fortifier, "when prayer was insufficient," that he awarded its creator a Vatican gold medal. President Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Edison, and Queen Victoria were also partial....

1+ day, 6+ hour ago (255+ words) After J. Edgar Hoover cast the civil rights leader as a "liar," NYPD's spy unit heeded the call. Joshua Clark Davis is a historian at the University of Baltimore. On their face, the images are mundane. King emerges from a car, greeted by two men in suits. In another, King stands with family and confidants, including his wife, the activist Coretta Scott King; his mother, Alberta Williams King; and his friend and adviser Bayard Rustin, organizer of the March on Washington. In a third shot, Coretta shakes hands with Wagner. These surveillance tactics are of more than just historical significance. Local police continue to deploy weapons of political espionage against movements for justice to this day. In Trump's first term, police in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Portland, and Chicago surveilled the same racial justice activists disparaged by the president. Words matter. Federal…...

2+ day, 6+ hour ago (1504+ words) Members of Gaza's Civil Defense force describe pulling decomposing bodies from collapsed buildings, and digging in hopes that someone remains alive. The mission that haunts Nooh al-Shaghnobi most took place on September 17, near the al-Saha area of eastern Gaza City. Israeli forces had bombed a home, killing more than 30 members of one extended family. Most of their bodies were trapped under the rubble. Al-Shaghnobi's Gaza Civil Defense force team pulled two dead young girls from the bombed house and kept digging, crawling under collapsed floors. "We don't go under unless someone is alive," he told The Intercept. "Otherwise, we dig from above " ceiling by ceiling." What followed was a descent into something dreamlike and horrifying. "We walked 12 meters under the rubble," he said. "Every meter, the air grew less. I crawled past legs, arms, the body of a child hugging…...

3+ day, 8+ hour ago (480+ words) The so-called ceasefire might seem like a good excuse to bury the hatchet and enjoy a quieter family dinner, but it's not. To be clear, if two years of livestreamed annihilation have failed to shift your loved ones' support away from the Israeli ethnostate, I doubt there is anything a dinner table argument could do to persuade them. There can be no reasoning with a worldview that forecloses seeing Palestinians as fully human. I navigate this with pro-Israel members of my own British Jewish family. It's painful, and I don't have any good advice. Whatever your approach with your family, there can be no pretense that the genocide in Gaza is over. I'll be thinking of another family this Thanksgiving: that of my student from Gaza. Families like mine, divided over Israel, are not the important ones here. For my…...

3+ day, 23+ hour ago (1035+ words) Mike Selig had dozens of crypto clients. Now he will be a key industry regulator. Republicans in the Senate are racing to confirm a lawyer with a long list of crypto industry clients as the next Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair, a position that will hold wide sway over the industry. CFTC nominee Mike Selig has served dozens of crypto clients ranging from venture capital firms to a bear-themed blockchain company based in the Cayman Islands, according to ethics records obtained by The Intercept. Those records show the breadth of potential conflicts of interest for Selig, who, if confirmed, will serve on the CFTC alone due to an exodus of other commissioners. With a Bitcoin crash wiping out a trillion dollars of value in the past few weeks, the industry is counting on friendly regulators in Washington to give it…...

4+ day, 6+ hour ago (529+ words) The anti-woke Wikipedia alternative aims to create a parallel version of the truth for the right wing. LK Seilling, an AI researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute, describes Grokipedia as "cloaking misinformation." "Everyone knows Wikipedia. They're an epistemic authority, if you'd want to call them that. [Musk] wants to attach himself to exactly that epistemic authority to substantiate his political agenda," he says. It's worth paying attention to how Grok frames a few key issues. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution was established after World War II to ensure that no German leader tries to overturn the country's constitution again. But Grokipedia subtly casts doubt on the institution's legitimacy arguing that it is "downplaying" the AfD's achievements. According to Seiling, who is German, Grokipedia is attempting to undermine the authority of German institutions created to prevent another Hitler....

5+ day, 6+ hour ago (543+ words) The aid group oversaw relief in Gaza during a period defined by the killings of Palestinians seeking food during famine. Another way of measuring GHF's achievements is by counting the hundreds of Palestinians killed while trying to access such aid and the hundreds more who died of starvation-related conditions amid famine when GHF was the only organization allowed to deliver aid. "On every dimension, on every indicator, I'd consider it a failure." In August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared a famine in Gaza City. GHF did not expand its operations beyond its four distribution sites. Within the famine's first month, at least 175 Palestinians died of starvation, a likely undercount. "The GHF model is one of the worst "aid' " and I use "aid' in quotes " models that's been tried in the 21st century, if not longer than that," said Anastasia…...

1+ week, 6+ hour ago (672+ words) Daniel Sanchez is facing federal charges for what free speech advocates say is a clear attack on the First Amendment. Federal prosecutors have filed a new indictment in response to a July 4 noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, during which a police officer was shot. There are numerous problems with the indictment, but perhaps the most glaring is its inclusion of charges against a Dallas artist who wasn't even at the protest. Daniel "Des" Sanchez is accused of transporting a box that contained "Antifa materials" after the incident, supposedly to conceal evidence against his wife, Maricela Rueda, who was there. Sanchez was first indicted in October on charges of "corruptly concealing a document or record" as a standalone case, but the new indictment merges his charges with those against the other defendants, likely in hopes…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (674+ words) The Democratic congresswoman was an early believer in Zohran Mamdani. His win showed her it was "the right time to pass the torch." Rep. Nydia Vel'zquez knew it was time to retire when Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race. "What I saw during that election was that so many young people were hungry for a change and that they have a clear-eyed view of the problems we face and how to fix them," Vel'zquez, D-N.Y., told The Intercept. "That helped convince me that this was the right time to pass the torch." "She could be in that seat as long as she wants," said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, a longtime ally whom Vel'zquez once described as one of her "children." "Nydia is at her peak. So that she would go out like that " it's so Nydia....

1+ week, 1+ day ago (602+ words) Progressive Rep. Danny Davis rejected AIPAC cash at the end of his career. Now the Israel lobby is coming for his seat. Pro-Israel donors have picked a candidate to replace Rep. Danny Davis in Chicago. Jason Friedman, one of 18 candidates vying to replace Davis in the March Democratic primary next year, has pulled ahead of the pack in fundraising. His campaign reported donations totaling over $1.5 million in its October filing with the Federal Election Commission. AIPAC has not said publicly whether it's backing a candidate in the race, but more than 35 of its donors have given money to Friedman's campaign. Among them, 17 have donated to the United Democracy Project, and eight have donated to both. Together, the Friedman donors have contributed just under $2 million to AIPAC and UDP since 2021. Reached by phone, the pro-Israel donor Larry Hochberg told The Intercept…...