Commentary

Research shows that celebrity political endorsements don’t matter enough to determine an election’s results. Political campaigns seek them out because they still do matter and for many different reasons. Celebrities can easily get media attention, act as campaign surrogates, expand the voter base and make campaign contributions. All these things can help a candidate win.

When Harris triggered Trump’s insecurity by questioning his popularity and political prowess, his responses were narcissistic, racist and occasionally unhinged from reality. Trump’s performance in the debate against Harris demonstrates not only that white male insecurity is a strategic liability but also a threat to democracy.

The unveiling of the iPhone 16 could mark a turning point in the history of Apple’s smartphone brand. Visual Intelligence allows you to search for content on whatever you can see through your phone with the help of a new camera control button on the side of the iPhone 16.

The selection of Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ running mate has sparked a wave of commentary suggesting that simply by elevating a former small-town football coach to the candidacy for vice president, Democrats will naturally secure the allegiance of rural voters nationwide. Not so.

President Joe Biden’s recent approval of a major shift in U.S. nuclear weapons strategy highlights the attention the country’s national security officials are paying to Chinese ambitions for influence in the world. Over the past decade, the Pentagon’s efforts have shifted back to preparing for what officials call “great power competition” among the U.S., Russia and China.

An estimated US$8 billion is stolen annually from seniors age 60 and older through stranger-perpetrated frauds, according to AARP. Increasingly, gift cards are a leading fraud payment method reported by older adults, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

At least 97% of scientists agree that humanity contributes to climate change, but the same cannot be said for society at large. In the United States, where only 12% of citizens are aware of the scientific community’s near-total unanimity. This is a result of, among other things, disinformation, media portrayals, and cognitive bias.

In the Old Town of Rhodesa marble obelisk commemorates the deportation of the island’s small but vibrant Sephardic Jewish community to Auschwitz-Birkenau on July 23, 1944. The 1,700 Jews of Rhodes had the misfortune not only of experiencing deportation late in the war, when Allied victory was almost in sight, but also of enduring the longest journey of any Jewish community sent to Auschwitz — a treacherous voyage that lasted 24 days.

Of all the questions confronting voters in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, few are as puzzling as the seemingly unwavering support for Donald Trump even though he is deeply mired in embarrassing sex scandals and criminal business practices. Part of the reason may be explained by Max Weber, an early 20th century German sociologist and social theorist. At the center of Weber’s thinking about political authority was the word “charisma.”

A systematic review into the potential health effects from radio wave exposure has shown mobile phones are not linked to brain cancer. The review was commissioned by the World Health Organization and is published today in the journal Environment International.

From the Republican party to the far-right National Rally, politicians throughout the conservative spectrum in France and elsewhere have described the opening ceremony’s scenes as “insults to the nation” and largely approached the event as a Trojan horse for the “woke ideology”.

The U.S. Supreme Court is deregulating corruption, with arguably grim consequences for American democracy. Since John Roberts became its chief justice in 2006, the court has made prosecuting corruption, especially at the state and local level, nearly impossible for federal prosecutors.

“Homicide: Life on the Street” featured cops, but you couldn’t always tell whether they were the good guys or the bad guys; its writers played with traditional episode formats; and its scenes were shot on location with handheld cameras in order to give the show a realistic feel. The show has finally been made available for streaming on Peacock. Its groundbreaking visuals and courageous scripting set the template for the television shows of the 21st century, a golden era of programming sometimes called Platinum TV or Peak TV.

Storm-chasing for science can be exciting and stressful. It has been essential for developing today’s understanding of how tornadoes form and how they behave. Here are some answers about what scientists who do this kind of fieldwork are up to when they race off after storms.

The vast majority of Americans – both then and now – agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. That’s in the abstract. When the questions get more concrete, though, their support wanes. Only about half of the respondents in both the 1939 and 2024 polls agreed that anybody in America should be allowed to speak on any subject at any time. The rest believed some speech – or certain subjects or speakers – should be prohibited.

Theodore Ell’s new book, “Lebanon Days,” spans the tumultuous period from 2018 to 2021, which include the country’s economic collapse, Covid, and the horrific explosion in Beirut’s port in August 2020. Ell’s book exudes reality to anyone who has lived in Lebanon. He describes vividly the Lebanese sense of fun, the nightclubs in East Beirut where patrons could drink and dance till dawn – and had done even in the depths of the civil war.

Nearly half of all dementia cases could be delayed or prevented altogether by addressing 14 possible risk factors, including vision loss and high cholesterol. That is the key finding of a new study published in the journal The Lancet.

If AI alignment is the serious issue that OpenAI believes it to be, it is not just a technical problem to be solved by engineers or tech companies, but also a social one. That will require input from philosophers, but also social scientists, lawyers, policymakers, citizen users and others.

Activists are calling for a U.S. arms embargo on Israel, which the Democratic Party’s new national platform does not include. Dov Waxman, a scholar of Israel studies, explains what is behind the U.S.’s relationship with Israel and the strategic reasons why an arms embargo is, at best, a remote possibility.

Differences over politics and policy have a long history of being divisive, of course. But it’s one thing to disagree over substantive matters such as tax rates or foreign aid and something very different to undermine the legitimacy of your opponents. It’s the difference between framing those who disagree with you as fair and equal competitors or as enemies who must be defeated.

Since 5G’s rollout, which coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, it was accompanied by all manner of conspiracies and falsehoods, notably that it was causing or spreading the pandemic, and that vaccines contained computer chips that would allow us to be controlled from a distance via 5G technology. Don’t believe the fabrications.

Alain Delon’s death at the age of 88 brings down the curtain of one of postwar European cinema’s most important film stars. Known for his striking “movie star” look – chiselled features, piercing blue eyes – and magnetic screen presence, Delon portrayed characters who seemed on the surface to be effortless and suave.

While television and radio political ads have been subject to strict disclosure requirements for decades, their online counterparts exist in a regulatory vacuum. Social media giants like Facebook, X – formerly Twitter – and Instagram have become central battlegrounds for political campaigns. Yet they operate without the transparency mandated for traditional broadcast media. This allows advertisers to use sophisticated microtargeting to tailor messages to voters, often exploiting detailed personal data.

Some Republicans appear to think they can win by making gender an issue in the campaign. This is apparent in the sexist rhetoric that Trump and other Republicans are using when talking about Harris. Trump, who has a history of making sexist statements, asserted that foreign leaders would regard Harris as a “play toy,” referred to her as unintelligent, and is now commenting on her appearance.

The term “assassination” is not defined under international law. Legal scholars rely on standard dictionary definitions where assassination is defined as “murder by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons.” But treaties and other international law do make clear that killing for political reasons by sudden or secret attack is unlawful.

At first blush, Canadian immigration law provides an easy answer: anyone convicted of a criminal offence is inadmissible. But there are several reasons why this simple rule may not prevail for Donald Trump. In the case of convictions outside of Canada, the first step to consider is whether the offence in question is also an offence in Canada.

While many people might think LGBTQ+ representation on TV began in the 1990s on shows like “Ellen” and “Will & Grace,” LGBTQ+ people had already been producing their own television programming on local stations in the U.S. and Canada for decades. Hundreds of LGBTQ+ public access series were produced across the country. In a media environment historically hostile to LGBTQ+ people and issues, LGBTQ+ people created their own local programming to shine a spotlight on their lives, communities and concerns.

Black women in the U.S. have a history of struggle against violence and oppression. And too often when they experience joy, and show it, ridicule follows. They are said to be too loud, too emotional – well, too “Black women.” History shows that this is a familiar dog whistle.

Many parents are worried about their children using social media. But these concerns tend to focus on privacy, exposure to explicit material or contact with strangers. But looking at sexism and misogyny in schools and the influence of social media, it is also important for parents to understand how algorithms work. These can drive misogynistic content towards boys and young men and make extreme views seem normal.

These can drive misogynistic content towards boys and young men and make extreme views seem normal.

Professors across the country have sounded the alarm about infringements on academic freedom following crackdowns on pro-Palestine protesters on campus. The current conflict, however, is only the latest iteration of an intensifying decline in academic freedom.

According to the coevolutionary tale of humans and their lice, our immediate ancestors lost most of their body fur 3 to 4 million years ago and did not don clothing until 83,000 to 170,000 years ago. That means that for over 2.5 million years, early humans and their ancestors were simply naked.

Many observers say a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision from July 1, 2024, turns presidents into kings – but they underestimate how truly radical the ruling actually may be. In fact, though the court’s majority said it was honoring constitutional tradition, it appears to have created something entirely new: a legal tyrant, someone above the law, a privilege even kings never enjoyed.

The village of Majdal Shams has been in mourning since July 27, 2024: the day a rocket hit a soccer field, killing 12 children and wounding tens more. Majdal Shams is home to a community whose relationship with Israel is doubly complicated: Druze residents of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967 and annexed in 1981.