Aaron Gerow

Israel kills Al Jazeera journalists in targeted Gaza City airstrike - Committee to Protect Journalists New York, August 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled to learn of the killing today of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and M...

An entire news crew working for Al Jazeera was killed by Israel as they sought to bring the world firsthand reporting from #Gaza.

Among them was prominent journalist Anas Al-Sharif, who had been previously smeared and threatened by the IDF.

#NotATarget

Full statement: cpj.org/2025/08/isra...

D.C. mayor defends capital's crime rates after Trump threatens to take over police Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said President Trump has the power to deploy the National Guard, but "none of the conditions exist" for the president to take over the city's police.

Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low but White House crime in DC is at an all-time high.

www.npr.org/2025/08/10/g...

Yes, we're already in a constitutional crisis, but Trump's plan to redo the census would tear the Constitution to threads.

How the Federal Union Could Break Apart talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/how-t...

Scientists decry Trump energy chief’s plan to ‘update’ climate reports: ‘Exactly what Stalin did’ Ex-fossil fuel executive Chris Wright said administration is reviewing national assessments made by past governments

When updating means going back in time--perhaps a hundred years or so.

Hiroshima and the End We Refuse to Imagine (Gift Article) Eighty years after the city’s destruction, we seem to be blundering into a new age of nuclear perils. It is time for culture to rediscover “the courage to be afraid.”

NY Times special article on the renewed need to think about Hiroshima and the End. Complete with utterly powerful Japanese poetry by Matsuo Atsuyuki and photographs by Kawada Kikuji.

You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

White House Orders NASA to Destroy Important Satellite The White House has instructed NASA employees to destroy two major, climate change-focused satellite missions.

Because the best way to disprove a scientific theory like climate change is to ban data gathering and promote ignorance.

US citizens jailed in LA Ice raids speak out: ‘They came ready to attack’ Exclusive: Andrea Velez and Adrian Martinez recount their capture by immigration officers and its effects on their lives

Remember this has nothing to do with deporting the criminal element among immigrants. It has to do with creating an all powerful secret police whose primary mission is to send fear into even US citizens so they will not protest anymore.

New Haven bars workers from spending city funds on Avelo while it flies ICE deportation charters Avelo accounted for 94.64 percent of Tweed New Haven's commercial traffic between May 2024 and April 2025.

While Avelo is the main airline using the New Haven airport, New Haven officials have vowed not to support the airline as long as it continues flying Trump/GOP/Ice kidnap victims.

Faculty Support of George Mason’s President Draws Federal Investigation

The Trump/GOP regime are now are sicking the Justice Department on those who are simply voting to support diversity. Free speech and the Constitution mean nothing to MAGA—unless the speech is their own and only their own.

Read the NY Times article for free. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change

Voting to reduce the price of eggs surely cannot have repercussions in other areas, right?

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/c...

Since Colbert is successful both in the ratings and, probably, in the profit margin, one can only guess that this is a political decision. Probably best to stop watching CBS other than Colbert.

Opinion | This Is Who’s Really Driving the Decline in Interest in Liberal Arts Education

The liberal arts is in decline not because it is not in demand, or because it is not useful in life, but rather because a group of powerful figures have decided it does not fit with their vision of the world. We should fear that world.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/o...

CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery.

America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.

Watch and share his message.

「なぜ私たちは嫌われる？」日本に長年住む外国人が憂う、参議院選挙の“排外主義”とアメリカとの懸念すべき類似点 7月20日の参議院選挙を控え、日本に暮らす外国人住民を標的とした選挙キャンペーンが繰り広げられている。参政党や日本保守党は、外国人を「入管法違反者」や「経済的脅威」と喧伝して注目を集めているのだ。また…

What some foreign residents of Japan think of the xenophobia that has become the basis of public discourse this year--and of the coming election. (In Japanese.)
toyokeizai.net/articles/-/8...

Texas is about to ban talking on college campuses at night | Opinion If signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, this bill will ban speech at night — from study groups to newspaper reporting — at the state's public universities.

In order to protect free speech, we have to ban free speech! Or so says the Texas GOP.

Texas is about to ban talking on college campuses at night. Seriously. | Opinion www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...

A group of men in red women's kimono get ready to distribute good health charms in front of an old shop.

A group of men in red women's kimono dance in a circle at a Japanese shrine.

Delightful time yesterday at the Ofudamaki お札まき festival at Yasaka Shrine 八坂神社 in Totsuka 戸塚. Going back about 300 years, this very local festival features men in women's kimono scattering good health charms around the neighborhood.

コンペ部門、上映15作品決定　山形国際ドキュメンタリー映画祭2025（山形新聞） - Yahoo!ニュース 今秋に山形市で開かれる山形国際ドキュメンタリー映画祭2025（10月9～16日）のメインとなるインターナショナル・コンペティション部門の上映作品15本が決まった。戦禍にさらされているウクライナやパ

14 of 15 films in the International Competition at the 2025 Yamagata Documentary Film Festival were announced. Four are from Asia, with 2 from Taiwan and 2 from Japan. One of the Japanese films is directed by Kiyohara Yui, who is known for her fiction films.
news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/222...

Sale of the Amsterdam University Press (AUP) film, media and communication list to Taylor & Francis – Resignation of series editors and editorial board members “GR Stocks” auf unsplash It is with great dismay that we, the undersigned, learned that the film, media and communication list of Amsterdam University Press (AUP) has been taken over by Taylor & Franc...

Massive resignations of series editors as Amsterdam University Press is sold to the very profitable Taylor & Francis without any indication of how their free labor will be remunerated.
mediastudies.hypotheses.org/6850

Here's the list of the programs being cut in the Indiana university system:
www.in.gov/che/files/In...

Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.

The Indiana university system is cutting 20% of its programs, including most, if not all, the East Asian studies programs at Indiana Bloomington.
www.ipm.org/news-section...

RFK Jr. says U.S. will stop funding global vaccine alliance Gavi Gavi works to expand access to vaccines for children in some of the world’s poorest countries. Health experts say the move could have deadly consequences.

Let’s be absolutely clear. This decision, based on fringe conspiracy theories, will kill children.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

ユーロスペース代表の堀越謙三さん死去　カラックス映画など製作配給：朝日新聞 映画会社ユーロスペース代表で映画プロデューサーの堀越謙三さんが19日、間質性肺炎で死去した。80歳だった。葬儀は近親者で営んだ。後日お別れの会を開く予定。　1982年、東京・渋谷に映画館ユーロスペー…

Horikoshi Kenzo, the head of Eurospace, died on June 19 at the age of 80. Horikoshi-san not only helped start the mini-theater movement, he helped found a number of film schools and produced films by directors such as Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Abbas Kiarostami, Leos Carax, et al.

Observing is Living: Soda Kazuhiro / Filmmaker - Direct Talk | NHK WORLD-JAPAN Filmmaker Soda Kazuhiro, whose latest work won the Best Movie Award at a film festival in 2024, tells us about the

NHK World 15 min. interview with Japanese documentary filmmaker Soda Kazuhiro about his observational form of filmmaking. In English.
www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

Young man standing in front of traditional Japanese theater Mokubatei.

Had a wonderful time at Tamagawa Daifuku's rokyoku show at Mokubatei. Guests were rakugoka Tatekawa Shiramon and Tatekawa Kashime. Daifuku performed another edition of Yamada Yoji's Tora-san films. BTW, this was all programmed by an ambitious teenager (pictured)!

The thing to remember is that this time, Trump has no adults in the room. As he contemplates bombing Iran, not a single person around him has experience in national security crises—they are all incompetent yes-men.

The golden age of Korean language education is failing the teachers who made it possible Learning Korean as a foreign language is more popular than ever, but the people who actually teach it say their jobs are rife with instability and expectations of personal sacrifice

Korean might be the language most gaining in popularity worldwide, but the conditions for Korean language teachers remains precarious.
english.hani.co.kr/arti/english...

‘Everything politicised’: Tokyo protesters hold anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ rally A small but dedicated band of demonstrators took to the streets of Tokyo on Saturday, one of the first cities in the world to stage a “No Crowns! No Kings! No Tyrants!” protest against the policies of...

There was apparently a small No Kings protest in Shibuya, Japan. Time-wise, it was one of the first protests launched that day.

7月5日（土）は池之端しのぶ亭で師匠好楽と師弟会です！

師弟会、親子会とも呼ばれます。先輩の話を聞いたら親子会というタイトルを使ったら、本物の親子と勘違いされることが多いらしい。勘違いがないないように念のために師弟会にしておきました。

師匠の寄席しのぶ亭で師匠と初めての師弟会、一生懸命頑張ります！
是非ともいらっしゃってください！

ご予約:
sanyuteikouseinen@gmail.com

I will perform rakugo together with my master Sanyutei Kouraku on July 5!

#三遊亭好楽 #落語 #落語会 #しのぶ亭

Anti-Trump demonstrators crowd streets, parks and plazas across the US. Organizers say millions came Demonstrators came out in cities across the U.S. to protest President Donald Trump. Organizers of Saturday's “No Kings” demonstrations said millions marched in hundreds of events.

Didn't see a related event in Japan, but I sent my best wishes as best I could. #NoKings

Anti-Trump demonstrators crowd streets, parks and plazas across the US. Organizers say millions came

Video: Senator Padilla Forcibly Removed After Confronting Noem Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was forced to the floor, handcuffed and removed by federal agents after interrupting a news conference by the homeland security secretary Kristi Noem on T...

A US Senator is forced to his knees and handcuffed for asking a question of homeland security secretary Kristi Noem. Authoritarianism in action

www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol...