Portside

Following the resignation August 20th of Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras and the announcement of snap parliamentary elections, 25 Syriza lawmakers who opposed the recent bailout deal formed a new Popular Unity Party and will challenge Tsipras and Syriza in September elections. Former Syriza Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis will head the new party. With its 25 members, the Popular Unity Party becomes the third largest party in the Greek parliament.

One can delude one's self into believing that race can be avoided; but at the most awkward moments, it rears its ugly head and tears movements apart. In fact, it is the #BlackLivesMatter movement that has elevated this question to a national discussion point. There is an important segment of the progressive movement who strongly believe that economic injustice and a narrowly defined version of class can and must serve as the unifying feature of a progressive movement.

Last month in Vienna the US and Iran agreed to unprecedented inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities in return for lifting of sanctions. Yet, at Friday prayers and political rallies, hardline Iranians continue to shout "death to America," as they have for decades. Conservative US politicians cite the chant as proof Iran remains hostile to the US and can't be trusted to implement the nuclear accords. But Iranians have a very different interpretation of the slogan.

More than three-fifths of American Jews who express an opinion support the Iran deal, compared with a bit more than half of Americans overall. But among the official “Jewish leaders,” this is hardly the case. Plainly, the idea that American Jews speak as a monolithic bloc needs early retirement. So does the idea that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads, or represents, the world’s Jews.

The petition says, “Jon Stewart is more than qualified to tackle the moderating job. Mr Stewart has interviewed 15 heads of state, 22 members of the United States Cabinet, 32 members of the United States Senate, 7 members of the United States House of Representatives, and scores of other political leaders from this country and around the world while establishing himself as the most trusted person in (satirical) news.”

WeTheProtestors.org, a group that has played a prominent role in organizing the protests against police violence and especially the disproportionate use of force against African Americans in the year since the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, has put forward a set of ten specific policy proposals aimed at ending police violence, including limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability

Obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges of the 21st century, affecting more than 500 million people worldwide and costing at least $200 billion each year in the United States alone. It contributes to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Scientists have now uncovered a genetic circuit that controls whether our bodies burn or store fat. Manipulating that genetic circuit may offer a new approach for obesity treatments.

Meet the Undocumented Immigrant Who Works in a Trump Hotel. Damsel in Distress: Tropes vs Women in Video Games. John Oliver: Sex Education. Neil deGrasse Tyson: A Brief History of Everything. Bad Lip Reading of the Republican Debate.

Reader Comments: Remembering-Honoring Julian Bond; Immigrant Dreams Deferred; Bernie Sanders and #BlackLivesMatter; The Bomb, Hiroshima, Nagasaki; Black Activists and Palestine; Exonerate Ethel Rosenberg; An Urgent Request from May First/People Link

Her life should have ended at 17, an African American college student and civil rights worker, gunned down under a Coca-Cola sign in the fight for freedom and justice. A white seminarian named Jonathan Myrick Daniels pushed her aside and died in her place.