Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the U.S. will regard the Palestinian-led boycott movement as "anti-Semitic" and cut off government support for any organizations taking part in it, a step that could deny funding to Palestinian and international human rights groups. Pompeo announced the initiative during a visit to Israel in which he is expected to make the first-ever appearance by a secretary of state in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. Pompeo said he would also visit the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war. "We will regard the global, anti-Israel BDS campaign as anti-Semitic," Pompeo said, referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

There is new and disturbing information in the alleged militia plot against the governor of Michigan. The 14 men charged had far more violent plans than just a kidnapping, according to federal and state authorities. New filings claim there was a Plan B the militiamen had drawn up, that involved a takeover of the Michigan capitol building by 200 combatants who would stage a week-long series of televised executions of public officials. And, according to government documents now on file in lower Michigan court, there was also a Plan C -- burning down the state house, leaving no survivors.

Prime minister says lasers are among ‘technologies that will revolutionise warfare’

Three years ago on a drizzly summer evening in Mount Vernon, New York, Bobby Brown was chatting with a friend on the sidewalk, waiting for his girlfriend to pick him up. As she pulled up across the street, Brown saw a trio of plainclothes police officers approach her white car. He grabbed his phone and started recording. “They harassing us all the time man, they ain’t got nothing better to do,” he said, narrating for the camera. After about a minute, the officers let her go. But instead of heading out, the officers noticed Brown recording and crossed the street. One of them, bald and muscular, got up in his face. “Let me see your mouth,” he barked, implying that he was hiding drugs there. Brown protested that he had nothing, even swallowing when the detective commanded him to. Without warning, the detective hunched over and began frisking Brown, ordering him to spread his legs. Brown, like many Black residents in the small Westchester County city, knew this detective well. For years, Detective Camilo Antonini had sparked complaints of police brutality, missing cash, and humiliating searches. But the department kept the investigator on the street, never disciplining him with more than a written reprimand in response to a civilian complaint, according to department records. So here Antonini was, groping around Brown’s legs while telling him to relax. “You feeling me, you not explaining what you came out here for,” the citizen protested. Antonini, he believed, was “just guessing”—searching him without cause in the hopes of finding something. Brown had a record for dealing, but now at the age of forty he said that life was behind him. “I don’t sell drugs no more, bro. I don’t hustle no more,” he pleaded.

A biologist decided to investigate a shrimp parade that attracts thousands of tourists in a province of Thailand.

Last week, Pope Francis' official Instagram account liked a photo of a model's butt, prompting the Vatican to investigate who's responsible for this remarkable instance of being horny on main.

It's been a big few days for a tiny bird. A saw-whet owl is recovering at a wildlife refuge in New York state after it was discovered clinging to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The bird was found by workers helping to transport the spruce 170 miles from Oneonta, New York, to New York City. "It's just a story out of a movie," said Ravensbeard Wildlife Center director Ellen Kalish, who is caring for the owl.

One of Twitch’s best-kept secrets is the Museum of Home Video, a weekly found-footage show advertised as “90 minutes of pure discovery for archivists, drinkers, stoners, and seekers.” That could be a commercial for the '90s adult juicebox BoKu starring Richard Lewis, a clip of Patti Labelle struggling to remember the lyrics for “This Christmas” at the 1996 National Tree Lighting ceremony, a supercut of forgotten moments in daytime television interviews. Whatever the programming is that week, it’s likely to be a collection of videos largely lost to time or memor

The Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to conduct three executions in the final weeks of President Trump’s administration and ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

How the President could endanger the official records of one of the most consequential periods in American history. Donald Trump is not much of a note-taker, and he does not like his staff to take notes. He has a habit of tearing up documents at the close of meetings. (Records analysts, armed with Scotch Tape, have tried to put the pieces back together.) No real record exists for five meetings Trump had with Vladimir Putin during the first two years of his Presidency. Members of his staff have routinely used apps that automatically erase text messages, and Trump often deletes his own tweets, notwithstanding a warning from the National Archives and Records Administration that doing so contravenes the Presidential Records Act.

A wrongful death lawsuit tied to COVID-19 infections in a Waterloo pork processing plant alleges that during the initial stages the pandemic, Tyson Foods ordered employees to report for work while supervisors privately wagered money on the number of workers who would be sickened by the deadly virus. Earlier this year, the family of the late Isidro Fernandez sued the meatpacking company, alleging Fernandez was exposed to the coronavirus at the Waterloo plant where he worked. The lawsuit alleges Tyson Foods is guilty of a “willful and wanton disregard for workplace safety.” Fernandez, who died on April 20, was one of at least five Waterloo plant employees who died of the virus. According to the Black Hawk County Health Department, more than 1,000 workers at the plant — over a third of the facility’s workforce — contracted the virus.

According to Twitter Director of Design Joshua Harris, the company’s delay to launch Stories was because Twitter was being “methodical in exploring how the format works for people on Twitter.” That’s not exactly true. Twitter wasn’t years late because it was being careful about Fleets’ development. The reality was that Twitter had prioritized work on its core product over new features. Things have been changing in recent months, following activities by activist investor Elliott Management Group, which took a sizable stake in Twitter earlier this year, along with Silver Lake. The firms did so with a plan to push the company for more innovation and new executive leadership. (The companies later struck a deal to spare Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s ousting, gain board seats, and put someone on the board with expertise in technology and artificial intelligence.)

President Donald Trump has announced his intention to nominate author and former U.S. Air Force officer Scott O’Grady to be an assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. O’Grady is a Trump adviser who has retweeted QAnon accounts, pushed right-wing conspiracy theories, and promoted other toxic rhetoric.  The White House announced on November 17 that it nominated O’Grady and described him, in part, as “a successful author, speaker, spokesperson, investor, and entrepreneur, having served 12 years as an officer in the United States Air Force. O’Grady’s incredible story of how he survived in hostile territory for 6 days during the Bosnian War is chronicled in his book, Return With Honor.”  O’Grady has frequently appeared as a commentator in the media, and he is co-chairing the Veterans for Trump advisory board. He's also a right-wing conspiracy theorist.  Here is some of O’Grady’s Twitter activity:  In mid-November, O’Grady retweeted a post by a QAnon-supporting account that began by proclaiming “The Great Awakening!” -- a phrase used by QAnon supporters. 

Remarkably, becoming Borat’s patsy was not Giuliani’s most embarrassing moment in 2020. On Tuesday, he made an even bigger fool of himself by representing Donald Trump in his bid to overturn the results of the election. US District Court Judge Matthew Brann treated Giuliani’s arguments with scorn. “At bottom, you are asking this court to invalidate 6.8 million votes, thereby disenfranchising every single voter in the Commonwealth” [of Pennsylvania], Brann said. “Can you tell me how this result can possibly be justified?” At one point, Giuliani said, “I’m not sure what ‘opacity’ means. It probably means you can see.” Brann helpfully explained, “It means you can’t.” This exchange was typical of Giuliani’s hapless performance. Time and again, Trump’s legal team have made arguments that are all but laughed out of court. Four things remain true in the two weeks since the election. (1) Trump and his campaign persist in trying to engineer a coup. (2) This coup has excited support from grassroots Republican activists all over America. (3) This coup is very badly run and will almost certainly fail. (4) Even as it fails, the coup will do lasting damage to American democracy and could set a precedent for future aspiring autocrats.

In a bizarre and deeply disturbing turn of events, a proponent of QAnon has been arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a crank legal theorist who was widely known and respected among a certain subset of QAnon supporters, whom she had relied on for bogus legal advice in an effort to regain custody of her twin daughters.

The top elections official in Arizona called on President Trump and members of Congress on Wednesday to stop “perpetuating misinformation” as she faces threats of violence following this month's election, the first time Arizona has voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1996. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) said in a statement that the “ongoing and escalating threats of violence” against her, her family and her office are “utterly abhorrent," pledging that the “continued intimidation tactics will not prevent me from performing the duties I swore an oath to do.” She specifically faulted Trump and other elected officials for fueling distrust in the voting system. 

Since the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there has been a muted undercurrent of recriminations over her deciding not to resign back in 2013 or so, when Democrats still controlled the Senate and the presidency. Many people, reportedly including President Obama, urged her and Stephen Breyer to do so at the time, for obvious reasons — especially given that she had already had cancer twice by 2009. Whoops! However, Ginsburg is far from the only elderly Democrat to stay in office long after she should have made way for fresh blood. Virtually the entire Democratic Party leadership is well past the traditional retirement age, some by over a decade, and many of them are showing their age. It's time to bring retirement back to Democratic politics. Here are the members of the Democratic leadership who are over 65 years old: Presidential nominee Joe Biden is 77, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 80, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is 81, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn is 80, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is 69, and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin is 75. On the four most powerful committees on the House side, Appropriations chair Nita Lowey is 83, Ways and Means chair Richard Neal is 71, Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler is 73, and Foreign Affairs chair Eliot Engel is 73. To be fair, Lowey is not running for re-election this year, and Engel was defeated in his primary by Jamaal Bowman. But (assuming the Democrats retain control of the House) that will only move Marcy Kaptur and Brad Sherman into the top slots, who will be 74 and 66 respectively during the next Congress. On the corresponding Senate committees, Appropriations ranking member Pat Leahy is 80, Finance ranking member Ron Wyden is 71, Judiciary ranking member Dianne Feinstein is 87, and Foreign Relations ranking member Bob Menendez is 66.

Kim Kelly argues that it’s time for the movement to bring back dynamite—if not literally, then in the very least metaphorically, by harnessing the mass worker power of this movement and forcing the change that some leaders are loath to even politely consider.

This morning, my children went to school — school, in an old brick building, where they lined up to go in the scuffed front doors. I went to work out at the gym, the real gym, where I huffed and puffed in a sweaty group class. And a few days ago, my partner and I hosted a dinner party, gathering eight friends around the dining room table for a boisterous night that went too late. Remember those? Where I’m living, we gather without fear. Life is unfolding much as it did a year ago. This magical, virus-free world is just one long day’s drive away from the Empire State Building — in a parallel dimension called Nova Scotia. This is one of the four Atlantic provinces that cling to the coast of Canada, north and east of Maine. In Canada, these are typically known as “have-not provinces,” economically depressed areas dependent on cash transfers from wealthier provinces to the West.

Because of course it is.