A brief story sums up my theory of journalism: In 1991 I was trying to work as a freelance reporter in newly ex-communist St. Petersburg, Russia. I heard a hot rumor. After decades of deprivation, gorillas at the city zoo were to be given bananas. I thought Western editors would go crazy. I’d been rejected for more negative stories about the arrival of heroin, or gun violence. Bananas were positive! I went to the zoo, and interviewed a zookeeper. Then I did what journalists do: I hovered around the gorilla cage looking creepy before mustering the courage to ask a…

In the wake of Israel’s deadly assault on the Jenin refugee camp, the largest military operation in the West Bank in nearly two decades, Israeli military officials have been quick to declare victory. According to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the goals of the two-day Israeli operation were “fully achieved,” adding that “at the moment of truth, the terrorists in Jenin chose to hide or flee.” That Israel, a nuclear power that boasts the region’s most formidable military, would ultimately prevail over the rag-tag and often teenage rebels of Jenin was never in doubt. With the possible exceptions of Prime Minister Benjamin…

Update (5:15pm): The puzzle, wrapped in an engima, inside a bag of blow surrounding the "mystery" cocaine found in the White House is drawing in some of the world's most cunning detectives and brilliant minds. One day after leaked radio intercepts revealed that a "mystery" substance was found over the weekend inside the White House and - after leading to a brief evacuation over hazmat fears - was "cocaine like", the US Secret Service on Wednesday confirmed what everyone already knew - the powdery substance found inside the White House over the weekend is cocaine. While little new was revealed, secret service spokesman…

The Biden administration’s refusal to demand any accountability from Israel for army killings is now an open farce among media who cover these atrocities. Last week the Israeli army stated that there would be no consequences for two grievous killings of Palestinians in the West Bank, though both killings were supposed mistakes. “Poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers,” the Israeli army said of the killing of 80-year-old Omar Asaad, an American left beaten and handcuffed out in the cold at a checkpoint in January 2022. And in the case of three-year-old Mohammed al-Tamimi, who was shot on June 2,…

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, effectively prohibiting affirmative action policies long used to raise the number of Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority students on American campuses. In a blockbuster decision that will force many colleges and universities to overhaul their admissions policies, the justices ruled that affirmative action admissions programs that consider an applicant's race in ways like Harvard and UNC did violate the U.S. Constitution's promise of equal protection under the law. Powered by the conservative justices with the liberals in dissent, the court sided with…