Lawmakers in the Arizona house on Wednesday voted to repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban after the law was upheld by the state supreme court earlier this month. The Arizona house passed the repeal bill by a 32–28 margin, with three Republican state representatives joining state Democrats in voting for the measure. The latest vote, which was the third attempt to pass a repeal, ended a weekslong stalemate in the Arizona legislature between Republicans and Democrats. The bill now heads to the ..read more

Columbia University’s decision to move classes online is inexcusable, and it does nothing to solve the university’s antisemitism problem. Columbia is moving most of its classes into a hybrid model, meaning that most in-person classes will become, at least in part, online classes. This is in reaction to antisemitic student mobs harassing Jewish students and setting up an encampment from which they are celebrating genocidal terrorists while claiming to oppose genocide. The university’s ..read more

A pro-Palestinian passenger berated Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams, slamming him over his support for Israel, as he flew home from Miami after speaking at the 2024 Concordia Americas Summit. Adams was in Florida to speak about the migrant crisis and the impact on local communities when border states transported illegal immigrants to self-described “sanctuary cities” like New York City — but the topic quickly turned to Israel when he boarded a plane to head for home ..read more

Ukraine's military reportedly deployed long-range ballistic missiles secretly supplied by the United States against Russian forces for the first time. The weapons were used during a bombing on a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week, as well as during an overnight strike against Russian targets in another occupied area of Ukraine, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing U.S. officials. One official told the AP that President Joe Biden approved the delivery of the long ..read more

Israel’s military is poised to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah and assault Hamas hold-outs in the southern Gaza Strip city, a senior Israeli defense official said Wednesday, despite international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said Israel was “moving ahead” with a ground operation, but gave no timeline. The defense official said Israel’s Defence Ministry had bought 40,000 tents, each with the capacity for ..read more

Texas state police detained multiple pro-Palestinian demonstrators Wednesday on the University of Texas (UT) at Austin campus after hundreds of students walked out of classes and began a sit-in to support Gaza amid Israel’s war against Hamas. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety said more than 20 arrests were made on campus, while social media videos showed the state police in riot gear attempting to disperse the crowd.  The state police said they came at the ..read more

Donald M. Payne Jr., a member of a prominent Newark political family who represented the city and nearby communities in Congress for over 11 years, died Wednesday following a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes, his office said. Payne, 65, entered Congress somewhat reluctantly in 2012 following the death of his father, Rep. Donald Payne Sr., who was the first Black person elected to Congress in New Jersey and who became one of the city’s luminaries during his more than two ..read more

President Joe Biden signed a bill Wednesday that will force TikTok's Chinese parent company to divest from its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban. Why it matters: The move potentially sets up a protracted legal fight over the fate of the popular social media app, as TikTok has vowed not to go down without a fight. What's the concern about TikTok? The bill signed into law Wednesday has been a long time coming, after the Biden administration warned last year that TikTok could face ..read more

Three months after signing off from MSNBC for the final time, Mehdi Hasan believes he is proving all of his “doubters wrong.” Weeks after announcing the launch of his new media venture, Zeteo, the unapologetically progressive Hasan will on Thursday debut the company’s flagship podcast, We’re Not Kidding. The podcast will air twice a month and feature new Zeteo contributor Bassem Youssef as its first guest. Youssef, known as the “Jon Stewart of the Middle East,” will, in fact, be a fixture on ..read more

House Speaker Mike Johnson wants Columbia University's president to resign, calling her "inept" and "weak." Johnson, who is visiting Columbia on Wednesday, has railed against Nemat "Minouche" Shafik's handling of pro-Palestinian student protests and antisemitism on campus following Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent war in Gaza. Upon his arrival to campus Wednesday evening, Johnson was greeted by a crowd that booed and heckled him, while a few cheered, according to ..read more