Why alcohol is so dangerous for young adults’ brains

From the myth of Europeans’ “healthy drinking culture” to the surprising harm of some common family traditions, science is overturning old beliefs around alcohol and young people David Robson I turned 18 the day before I left home for university, conveniently passing the UK’s age threshold for buying alcohol just in time to explore student pubs and… Read More Why alcohol is so dangerous for young adults’ brains

Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, Lancet study finds

Analysis estimates death toll by end of June was 64,260, with 59% being women, children and people over 65 Research published in the Lancet medical journal estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was about 40% higher than numbers recorded by the Palestinian territory’s health ministry.… Read More Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, Lancet study finds

The Hindu: Gaza and the moral crisis facing us. The Guardian on Gaza: a deepening disaster

NB: Since the relentless assault on the Vietnamese people from 1963 till 1975, there has been no crime more brutal, racist and criminal than what the USA and its proxy Israel have done in the past 14 months. As a conscientious Israeli newspaper says, after this there will be no turning back, Israel will implode… Read More The Hindu: Gaza and the moral crisis facing us. The Guardian on Gaza: a deepening disaster

The Fullness of Philosophy

Hegel’s devouring machine Sven-Olov Wallenstein The popular image of Hegel’s philosophical project bequeathed to posterity is almost that of a monstrosity: an all-devouring machine that aspires to achieve total satiety, digesting everything that it encounters by making it into the nutrition of the dialectical animal. Pleroma, fullness, as philosopher Werner Hamacher once suggested, seems to be… Read More The Fullness of Philosophy

‘Flat packing them’: British soldier says S.A.S. described killing Afghans in casual way

Inquiry hears elite forces had a ‘kill all males on target whether they posed a threat or not’ policy in Afghanistan Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor Afghans who were killed by members of the SAS in Afghanistan were described dismissively as having been “flat packed” according to revealing testimony given by a former member of the elite… Read More ‘Flat packing them’: British soldier says S.A.S. described killing Afghans in casual way

Forget talk of defending workers, the US visa feud is about the market’s needs

Whether in America or Britain, working-class people only matter when immigration is an issue Kenan Malik On the one side stand Silicon Valley moguls and leaders of corporate America; on the other, longstanding Donald Trump loyalists and supporters of the Maga (“Make America great again”) movement. One side claims to be building America’s bright new future by… Read More Forget talk of defending workers, the US visa feud is about the market’s needs

Once Upon a Time, a Nation of Laws

From the Global War on Terror to Donald Trump’s Second Term After 9/11, as Brown’s Costs of War Project reports, “These mass surveillance programs allow[ed] the U.S. government to warrantlessly and ‘incidentally’ vacuum up Americans’ communications, metadata and content, and store their information in data centers and repositories,” sacrificing standing protections in the name of greater… Read More Once Upon a Time, a Nation of Laws