Douglas Herbert

Back to fossil fuels. The FT reports: “Early this year BP dropped its pledge to limit exploration and scale back fossil fuel output as investors’ confidence flagged in its previous strategy emphasizing a transition to clean energy.” #oil #cleanenergy #fossilfuels

The New Yorker headline pretty much sums it up. (Full disclosure: I own a pair of well-worn American Eagle #jeans which fit well and are a staple of my basic wardrobe. But wearing them after this will make me feel, well…morally queasy.) #advertisement

The American guns turning Haiti’s gangs into an army Weapons smuggled from Florida are empowering the country’s militias and enabling them to challenge a fragile government

“Fuelling the bloodshed is the gangs’ growing arsenal of military-style weaponry, much of which originates with purchases from US #gun shops and ends in the slums of Haiti. ‘The problem is that in the USA, anyone can buy a weapon,’” says #Haiti’s finance minister. (Source: FT) ig.ft.com/haiti-gangs

Donald Trump plans to build new $200mn White House ballroom Addition to historic mansion to be paid for by US president and ‘patriotic donors’, says administration

Large enough to serve as a hangar for his $400 million Qatari jet? #Trump #ThenThisHappened www.ft.com/content/e350...

Russia Declares Navalny Memoir ‘Extremist’ - The Moscow Times Russia's Justice Ministry added late opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s memoir “Patriot” to its list of “extremist” materials Wednesday — a move that bans the book — following a decision by the Lening...

Vladimir #Putin’s #Russia has passed a restrictive #VPN law and appears poised to ban #WhatsApp and replace it with a homegrown messaging app. And there’s this as well… www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/07/31/r...

The headline to an article that appeared on the website of #Russia’s stated-controlled #propaganda outlet, RIA Novosti, reads: “There is no other option: Nobody should remain alive in #Ukraine.”

Reconnaissance de la Palestine par la France : il était temps Le chemin vers la reconnaissance d’un Etat palestinien est encore long et il reste de nombreux obstacles mais quelle est l’alternative ?

“It was about time… #Macron’s announcement, described by those close to him as a ‘moral duty’, aims to offer a horizon to a people who no longer have one.” -Opinion columnist Alexandra Schwartzbrod on Macron’s decision to recognize #Palestinian statehood next month. www.liberation.fr/idees-et-deb...

How von der Leyen’s no-confidence vote fueled Russian propaganda A confidential study found that a known Russian disinformation network had ramped up its posts by 60 percent while pushing the narrative that the European Commission president was “toxic.&#82…

Lie & Divide: @politico.eu reports: “ #Russian- sponsored #propaganda engines spewed reams of online content designed to divide public opinion and amplify #disinformation in the weeks leading up to the #European Parliament’s no-confidence vote against” #VonDerLeyen. www.politico.eu/article/ursu...

“Russian forces may be able to strike #Ukraine with up to 2,000 drones in a single night by Nov. 2025” if current growth patterns in #drone usage continue.” : ISW. The ISW reports #Russian officials insist publicly they aren’t interested in any deal “that does not acquiesce to Moscow’s demands”.

Inside America’s booming immigration detention industry The enormous US deportation programme is enriching companies as detainees complain of poor treatment

As the “largest domestic #deportation operation in U.S. history” gathers momentum under Donald #Trump, the #FT reports, in a visual investigation, that “a record 57,800 detainees are now being held - a 46 per cent increase since Trump came to power…” #immigration ig.ft.com/us-immigrati...

On the eve of the Bastille Day military parade Emmanuel #Macron, in a speech to the top army brass, calls for #France to rearm itself to face a world of growing global threats: “To be free in this world, we must be feared; to be feared, we must be powerful.” #defence #France24

Charlie #Chaplin’s anti-fascism speech is an appeal to the #humanity that resides in all of us, and a clarion call to resist those who seek to bury our better impulses. #antifascism www.instagram.com/reel/DL7yaoB...

YouTube video by POLITICO Border Czar Homan unsure of status of men deported to South Sudan

Border czar Tom #Homan’s not knowing the fate of US #deportees sent to South Sudan (which the UN accuses of numerous human rights violations), is troubling. But perhaps more alarming is his apparent confusion between “Sudan” and “South Sudan” - two different countries. youtube.com/shorts/E8mXT...

Donald #Trump castigates NYC mayoral contender Zohran #Mamdani as a “Communist” (which he’s not). But in US history, the #Communist Party campaigned most forcefully for #Black rights. It was the first major party to put an African American on the national ticket - in the 1932 presidential election.

“What is at stake today in #Europe,” #Macron tells the #UK parliament, “is the defense of #democratic models amid foreign interference, emotional manipulation, domination of minds by negative emotions and addiction to social media”. He praises the #Netflix series ‘Adolescence’.

La clim n’est pas un crime, par Luc Le Vaillant Défense de ce dispositif rafraîchissant afin que l’espèce humaine garde les idées claires pour lutter contre le réchauffement climatique.

Enfin! A passionate defense of air-conditioning in the French press. Libération’s columnist makes an eloquent case for why his compatriots can (and should) overcome their congenital aversion to AC, and why they can do so with a clear #ecological conscience. #climate www.liberation.fr/idees-et-deb...

Israeli plan for forced transfer of Gaza’s population ‘a blueprint for crimes against humanity’ Military ordered to turn ruins of Rafah into ‘humanitarian city’ but experts call the plan an internment camp for all Palestinians in Gaza

The Guardian reports: “Israel’s defence minister has laid out plans to force all #Palestinians in #Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah, in a scheme that legal experts and academics described as a blueprint for crimes against humanity.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Russia ramps up chemicals weapons use in Ukraine, European spies warn Dutch defense chief accuses the Kremlin of “normalized and widespread” deployment of banned armaments.

The German and Dutch intelligence services said today that Russia is increasing its use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Senate G.O.P. Gambles Its Legacy and Political Fate on Bill

Quotable: “Under fire at home for her support of the bill, Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, answered constituent fears about potential loss of #health care access by saying, ‘We are all going to die.’” Here’s a solid #NYTimes analysis: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/u... #Trump #BigBeautifulBill

Big, but not beautiful: Aside from gifting America’s wealthiest with generous tax cuts & slashing spending on healthcare for the neediest, #Trump’s bill would reduce food stamp spending, slash support for clean energy policies, earmark more cash for mass deportations, and step up military spending.

Opinion | The real reason Republicans are rushing to pass the Trump megabill Much of what this bill does is ultimately immaterial to the president.

Senator Chris Murphy considers #Trump’s so-called #BigBeautifulBill a “moral abomination” that risks seeing up to 17 million people lose health coverage. Critics say Trump cares little about what’s in the bill so long as the wealthiest Americans get big tax cuts. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Google kills the fact-checking snippet Hidden in a developer blog earlier this month, Google announced that it will stop using the fact-checking snippets in search. For a decade, the fact-checking snippet, under the name of ClaimReview, h...

Another setback in the battle to fight information pollution. #disinformation #factchecking www.niemanlab.org/2025/06/goog...

America’s violent impulses lurk at every turn in its history. This opinion piece argues - factually, and eloquently - that #Trump is stoking these violent instincts.

Concerns Grow Over Dire Conditions in Immigrant Detention

Cruelty and inhumanity towards the most vulnerable is a hallmark of #authoritarian drift. Humans are very resilient in the face of adversity. But our ability to adapt has a downside: a moral compass that can lose its bearings in the face of lies and #disinformation. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/u...

It’s another day that ends in Y as Trump attacks the media - Poynter This time, it was CNN’s turn to feel Trump’s wrath, followed by the NYT. He was upset over a report that … came from his own administration.

Trump’s attacks on #journalists have become so routine, we barely flinch anymore - even those of us who write about this stuff for a living. But calling it out still matters. Complacency is the real danger. Props to @TomWJones at #Poynter. www.poynter.org/commentary/2...
#PressFreedom

Jon Favreau on X: "Is this what you wanted, @StephenM? A mother who was 5 months pregnant - who'd just found out she and her American citizen fiancee were having a boy - lost her baby after federal agents in a detention center repeatedly denied her pleas for prenatal care. Lived and worked in" / X Is this what you wanted, @StephenM? A mother who was 5 months pregnant - who'd just found out she and her American citizen fiancee were having a boy - lost her baby after federal agents in a detention center repeatedly denied her pleas for prenatal care. Lived and worked in

Pod Save America’s @jonfavs.bsky.social posts on the latest horror to befall a human being - in this case a pregnant woman who lost her baby - in Donald #Trump’s #immigrant #detention system. x.com/jonfavs/stat...

The July-August issue of #Harvard Magazine pulls few punches.

Opinion | From decrying ‘jack-booted government thugs’ to defending ICE agents wearing masks A California bill that restricts local and state law enforcement officials from covering their faces is a necessary, if symbolic, rebuke of the encroaching police state.

“We’re seeing the rise of secret police - masked, no identifying info, even wearing army fatigues - grabbing & disappearing people,” California state Sen. Scott Weiner wrote on X Monday before calling it “antithetical to #democracy & harms communities.” (MSNBC/Opinion) www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Brendan Loper, an editorial cartoonist for The New Yorker, limns the diplomatic reality of the #Trump era.

Navratilova: 'I wouldn't have left home for Trump's America' The tennis icon tells the BBC she doesn't think a Trump-led government would let her in.

Martina Navratilova left Communist Czechoslovakia 50 years ago for a better life in the United States, but says she wouldn’t come today. Most people, she says, don’t see that things are getting gradually worse in #Trump’s America, nor do they see the #authoritarian drift. bbc.com/news/article...