NYT Cuts Controversial Study From Bret Stephens’ ‘Jewish Genius’ Column

After a public uproar, The New York Times has revised a column by Bret Stephens that cited an academic paper co-authored by an anthropologist who has been branded a white nationalist.An editor’s note, appended to the column headlined “The Secrets of Jewish Genius,” says a reference to the 2005 study was removed and that Stephens did not know the author “promoted racist views.”“Mr. Stephens was not endorsing the study or its authors’ views, but it was a mistake to cite it uncritically,” the note said. “The effect was to leave an impression with many readers that Mr. Stephens was arguing that Jews are genetically superior. That was not his intent.” It noted that he “went on instead to argue that culture and history are crucial factors in Jewish achievements.”In the column, Stephens posed a question about Jews: “How is it that a people who never amounted even to one-third of 1 percent of the world’s population contributed so seminally to so many of its most pathbreaking ideas and innovations?”New York Times Columnist Bret Stephens Cites White Nationalist in ‘Jewish Genius’ ColumnHe said that Jews “are, or tend to be, smart” and then cited the 2005 paper “Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence” by Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, and Henry Harpending, which declares that Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average I.Q. of any ethnic group.It was quickly pointed out on social media that Harpending, who died in 2016, was listed as an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which listed his ideology as “white nationalist.” “Harpending has given talks on these ideas at white supremacist conferences, and is widely celebrated among white supremacists on forums like Stormfront and the Vanguard News Network, who see a champion for their cause behind his academic rhetoric,” the center said.Nieman Lab scholar Joshua Benton also pointed out in a Twitter thread that Cochran has a history of homophobia.In the paper “An Evolutionary Look at Human Homosexuality,” Cochran wrote that homosexuality, from a biological perspective, is “surely a disease.” “So it’s a bug,” Cochran wrote. “Somehow, the brain has been damaged, but in a limited and focused way.”Stephens—who previously stirred outrage by calling a professor’s boss to complain he compared him to a bedbug on Twitter—has not commented directly on the last controversy.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Iran blasts France for 'interference' over jailed academic

Tehran accused Paris on Sunday of "interference" in the case of an Iranian-French academic held in the Islamic republic, saying she is considered an Iranian national and faces security charges. France said on Friday it summoned Iran's ambassador to protest the imprisonment of Fariba Adelkhah and another academic, Roland Marchal of France, saying their detention was "intolerable". Their imprisonment has added to distrust between Tehran and Paris at a time when French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to play a leading role in defusing tensions between Iran and its arch-foe the United States. "The statement by France's foreign ministry regarding an Iranian national is an act of interference and we see their request to have no legal basis," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement. "The individual in question (Adelkhah) is an Iranian national and has been arrested over 'acts of espionage'," he said, adding that her lawyer had knowledge about the details of the case which is being investigated. Iran does not recognise dual nationality and has repeatedly rebuffed calls from foreign governments for consular access to those it has detained during legal proceedings. France's President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to play a leading role in defusing tensions between Iran and the US Credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP In its statement on Friday, the French foreign ministry reiterated its call for the release of Adelkhah and Marshal. It also reaffirmed France's demand for consular access. In response, Mousavi said Marshal was detained for "conspiring against national security", that he has had "consular access multiple times" and that his lawyer was in touch with the judiciary. A specialist in Shiite Islam and a research director at Sciences Po University in Paris, Adelkhah's arrest for suspected "espionage" was confirmed in July. Her colleague Marchal was arrested while visiting Adelkhah, according to his lawyer. A judge had decided to release the two on bail this month, as they had been entitled to it after six months in detention, their lawyer said. But this was opposed by the prosecution, and as a result the case was referred to Iran's Revolutionary Court to settle the dispute, Iran's semi-official news agency ISNA reported. The Revolutionary Court typically handles high-profile cases in Iran, including those involving espionage. The university and supporters said this week that Adelkhah and another detained academic, British-Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert, had started an indefinite hunger strike just before Christmas. British-Australian national, Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, has gone on indefinite hunger strike in Iranian prison Credit: Nicholas Razzell  The French statement said the ministry had made clear to the ambassador "our grave concern over the situation of Mrs Fariba Adelkhah, who has stopped taking food". "Creating hype cannot stop Iran's judiciary from handling the case, especially considering the security charges the two face," Mousavi said. Mousavi had previously dismissed similar calls from France, saying it should remember that "Iran is sovereign and independent" and interference in its affairs is "unacceptable". The latest tensions come after Xiyue Wang, an American scholar who had been serving 10 years on espionage charges, was released by Iran this month in exchange for Massoud Soleimani, an Iranian who had been held in the US for allegedly breaching sanctions. Iran has said it is open to more such prisoner swaps with the United States. Tehran is still holding several other foreign nationals in high profile cases, including British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father Mohammad Bagher Namazi. US-Iran tensions have soared since Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran last year and reimposed crippling sanctions.

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Navy SEAL cleared by Trump called 'freaking evil' by comrades

A Navy SEAL platoon leader controversially pardoned of war crimes by US President Donald Trump was described as "toxic" and "freaking evil" by veterans who served with him in Iraq, The New York Times reported Friday. Video testimony provided to war crimes investigators and published by the newspaper showed former members of Eddie Gallagher's elite commando unit accusing him of shooting at a 12-year-old and discussing the accusations that Gallagher targeted civilians. "The guy is freaking evil," special operator first class Craig Miller, one of the most experienced members of Alpha Platoon's SEAL Team 7, told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).

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Biden would "honor" whatever Congress "legitimately" asks

Some Republicans and President Trump have floated subpoenaing Joe and Hunter Biden to appear before the Senate.

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Hanukkah stabbing that injured five called 'domestic terrorism' by New York governor

A stabbing at the house of a Hasidic rabbi in New York which left five injured has been condemned as “domestic terrorism” by the state’s governor.  Andrew Cuomo said the attack during a gathering to celebrate Hanukkah was evidence of a “cancer” spreading in America as he warned of a surge in “hatred”. Police named the suspect arrested as Grafton E. Thomas, 37. He will face five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.  The attack happened around 10pm  on Saturday in Monsey, an area with a large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews which is about 35 miles north of the city of New York.  Witnesses described a man bursting into the home of the rabbi, Chaim Rottenberg, where dozens of people had gathered on the seventh night of Hanukkah. The assailant’s face was said to have been partially covered by a scarf and he brandished a large knife. Guests reportedly fought back by throwing tables and chairs.  Police said the stabbings happened at around 10 p.m.  Credit: REUTERS  The exact status of the victims was unclear on Sunday evening but one person was said to have been very seriously wounded. The rabbi’s son was among those injured.  Aron Kohn, 65, who witnessed the attack told The New York Times: “I was praying for my life. He started attacking people right away as soon as he came in the door. We didn’t have time to react at all.” “We saw him pull a knife out of a case. It was about the size of a broomstick.” The attacker later attempted to enter a synagogue next door before fleeing the area. A witness noted the assailant’s license plate number and alerted the police, with a suspect later being arrested in Harlem.  Extra police patrols were organised for three areas of Brooklyn, a New York borough with a large Jewish population, in the wake of the stabbing. In Britain, the chief constable of West Midlands Police said he would provide reassurance to local Jewish communities. Investigators cordoned off the large home on Forshay Road yellow crime scene tape Credit: Seth Harrison/The Journal News via AP Mr Cuomo, who has been New York governor since 2011, said: “It is domestic terrorism. These are people who intend to create mass harm, mass violence, and generate fear based on race, colour, creed. That is the definition of terrorism. “Just because they don't come from another country doesn't mean they are not terrorists. They should be prosecuted as domestic terrorists." "We are not going to let this poison spread. No one else can defeat this county, but this country can defeat itself.” The stabbing is the latest in a string of brutal attacks that have alarmed the Jewish community, leading to renewed concerns about anti-Semitisim in America. Earlier this month a shooting in a Jersey City kosher market saw three people inside the store and a police officer killed. The two attackers also died in a standoff with police.  In October 2018, a gunman killed 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history. Mr Coumo, speaking outside the rabbi’s house on Sunday, said: “This is an intolerant time in our country. We see anger, we see hatred exploding." He added: “It is an American cancer on the body politic." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country “unequivocally condemns” the “vicious attack”. He pledged to “cooperate in every way” with the local authorities to help stamp out anti-Semitism.  It is not known how the suspect will plead.  Ivanka Trump, a senior White House adviser and daughter of the US president, issued a call for more political action to tackle anti-Semitism in the wake of the attack. She tweeted: "The increasing frequency of anti-Semitic violence in New York (and around the country) receives far too little local governmental action and national press attention."

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New WeWork co-chiefs would reportedly each receive an $8.3-million golden parachute if they were fired or choose to leave

Co-chief executives Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham would cost WeWork almost $17 million if ousted, documents reportedly show.

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Trump claims homelessness 'so easy' to handle in attack on Democrats

President says governors of New York and California should ‘politely’ ask him for help in latest broadsideDonald Trump has continued to use America’s homelessness crisis to attack his political opponents in California and New York, tweeting on Saturday that homelessness should be “easy” to handle and that the governors of the two liberal states should ask him for help.Workers and activists on the front lines of the crisis have repeatedly said that Trump’s “tough talk” on homelessness is concerning, and that some of his proposed policies will only make the situation worse.As the number of homeless people has increased sharply in cities across California, some local politicians have already tried to try to penalize people for being homeless, rather than addressing root causes of the crisis, including unaffordable rents and evictions pushing people on to the streets.Meanwhile, Trump has continued to fuel anxiety by repeatedly suggesting he might try to implement some kind of police crackdown in California to clear the streets of encampments.On Christmas Day, Trump attacked California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, for his “bad job” on “taking care of the homeless population in California”.“If he can’t fix the problem, the Federal Govt. will get involved!” the president said.On Thursday, Trump attacked Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who has lead the effort to impeach him, and told her to “clean up her filthy dirty District & help the homeless there”.On Saturday, Trump wrote that fixing the homeless crisis “would be so easy with competence!”The governors of California and New York “must do something”, Trump wrote, and if they “can’t handle the situation, which they should be able to do very easily, they must call and ‘politely’ ask for help.”In September, a report from Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers concluded that “policing may be an important tool to help move people off the street and into shelter or housing where they can get the services they need”.Trump told reporters that month he was concerned about homeless people living on “our best streets, our best entrances to buildings”, places “where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige”.“We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco, and numerous other cities destroy themselves,” he said, citing his concern that “foreign tenants” who moved to the cities because of the “prestige” now wanted to leave because of the homeless people and tents on the streets.Violent attacks directly targeting homeless people have risen in California in the past year: in Los Angeles alone, there have been at least eight incidents in which people threw makeshift explosives or flammable liquids on homeless people or their tents, according to officials and the Los Angeles Times.Trump’s repeated tweets about homelessness have been labeled “vile and reprehensible” by activists.Diane Yentel, the president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), noted on Thursday that Trump had proposed drastically shrinking or eliminating federal programs that keep the lowest-income people affordably housed, an important prevention measure that keeps people from becoming homeless.“In California, over 37,000 of the lowest-income people are at risk of eviction from this Trump proposal alone,” Yentel said.She also noted that Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development had “proposed allowing homeless shelters to discriminate and refuse shelter to transgender and other LGBTQ people, subjecting them to high risk of violence”.Homelessness is continuing to rise across California: a year-end Guardian investigation found that homelessness had increased 16% in Los Angeles, 17% in San Francisco, 42% in San Jose, 47% in Oakland, and 52% in Sacramento county, home to the state’s capital. Many people were experiencing homelessness for the first time, and both families and seniors are increasingly struggling with homelessness.Trump’s focus on homelessness in California and elsewhere is not the first time he has suggested that he could “easily” solve complex social problems in cities where Democrats hold political power.During his presidential campaign, Trump claimed that an unnamed Chicago police official had told him that violence in Chicago could be stopped “in one week” if officers were allowed to be “very much tougher than they are right now”.Chicago typically has the highest total number of murders of any American city, though other smaller cities, including St Louis, have higher per capita murder rates.

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The 'lathi': India's colonial vintage anti-protest weapon

As Indian protests against a new citizenship law have intensified, so has police use of "lathis", sturdy sticks used to whack, thwack and quell dissent since British colonial times -- to sometimes deadly effect. At least 27 people have died in the past two weeks of protests, mostly from bullets, but hundreds more have been injured in clashes between demonstrators and riot police wielding the bamboo canes. "From being used as means to regulate crowds, lathi has turned into a lethal weapon," said V. Suresh, the secretary general of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a non-profit rights group.

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Machete Attacker Stabs 5 at NY Rabbi’s Hanukkah Celebration

A masked, machete-wielding man barged into a Hanukkah celebration and stabbed five people at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, on Saturday evening, intensifying fears anti-Semitic violence after a spate of incidents last week. The assailant escaped but the NYPD quickly picked up a suspect. Law-enforcement sources identified him as Grafton Thomas, 37, who has several previous arrests on his record, including one for punching a police horse. He was turned over to the state police, and will face five counts of attempted murder.The terrifying ambush—which took place in Rockland County, a northern suburb that has the highest per capita Jewish population in the U.S.—drew swift condemnation from public officials from Israel to Washington. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it an “act of domestic terrorism.”According to Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel, a man covering his face with a scarf knocked on the door at Rabbi Rottenburg’s shul during the seventh night of Hanukkah just as the rabbi was lighting the candle. The assailant rushed past the man who answered the door, who said he pulled out a machete and began stabbing people, according to several witnesses.He is said to have gone after terrified victims as they ran away and tried to access the adjacent synagogue before fleeing the scene after some of the guests hit him with chairs and a small table.Ramapo Town Police said the suspect was in custody. He reportedly escaped the scene but was arrested in Harlem after being tracked down through the license plate number of his vehicle.Of the five victims rushed to local hospitals, two of them were in critical condition as of late Saturday, according to the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley region. The organization said one of the victims had been stabbed six times. Governor Andrew Cuomo called the stabbings a “cowardly act” and directed the State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate the incident.“Let me be clear: anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind are repugnant to our values of inclusion and diversity and we have absolutely zero tolerance for such acts of hate,” Cuomo said in a statement. “In New York we will always stand up and say with one voice to anyone who wishes to divide and spread fear: you do not represent New York and your actions will not go unpunished.”President Trump addressed the “horrific” bloodshed on Sunday afternoon, in a tweet: “We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism. Melania and I wish the victims a quick and full recovery.”Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of the OJPAC for the Hudson Valley region, told The New York Times there were “many dozens of people” celebrating in the home at the time of the attack. “It was a Hanukkah celebration,” he was quoted saying. Videos said to have been taken by witnesses showed paramedics rushing to treat the victims in a chaotic scene. The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James released a statement saying she was left “deeply disturbed” by the incident.“There is zero tolerance for acts of hate of any kind and we will continue to monitor this horrific situation,” James said. “I stand with the Jewish community tonight and every night.”New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the attack “horrific.” “So many Jewish families in our city have close ties to Monsey. We cannot overstate the fear people are feeling right now,” he wrote on Twitter. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also expressed solidarity with the victims during the opening remarks at his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. “Israel condemns in every sense the latest anti-Semitic incidents and the brutal attack in the middle of Hanukkah at the rabbi’s house in Monsey, New York,” he said. “We will work together in every way with the local authorities in order to help eliminate this phenomena. We offer our help to all countries.”The attack comes after at least seven other anti-Semitic incidents were reported in New York City this week, prompting the New York City Police Department to increase the number of officers in predominantly Jewish areas. The stabbings also come less than a month after four people were killed in a “targeted” shooting at a Jersey City kosher supermarket that investigators believe was fueled by a “hatred of the Jewish people.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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'Impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine': Biden expands on subpoena remarks

"The subpoenas should go to witnesses with testimony to offer to Trump’s shaking down the Ukraine government," former Vice President Joe Biden said.

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