“Emanuel, who possessed no advanced degree but was undeterred in adopting a physician’s title, founded Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps in the late 1940s, in large part because he wanted to broadcast his ideas about unifying the human race, and his All-One dicta are still printed on the brand’s soap-bottle labels. In the early years of the company, Dr. Bronner’s was a genuine grassroots operation—a cult-favorite brand passed, if not directly from the hands of Emanuel himself, among hippies camping out in vans at places like Woodstock. Emanuel would distribute his product by promising a free bottle of soap to anyone who would show up to listen to him proselytize the All-One message.” (GQ/ Carrie Battan)
In Pakistan, an Economic Crisis Keeps Life on the Edge (Somaiyah Hafeez /New Lines Magazine)
“The new, fourth edition of the Development Cooperation Charter is a clear product of the times. It reflects a Japan increasingly confident in its self-image as a force for good in the world and an important counterbalance to autocracy in the midst of unprecedented geopolitical challenges, such as the expansion of China’s power and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This path continues the legacy of deceased Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, putting into practice his then-nascent philosophy of a Japan which would ‘proactively contribute to peace.’” (James Kaizuka/The Diplomat)
“Democrats are still smarting from the 2022 redistricting process, which contributed to the narrow loss of their House majority. To win it back, they’re angling for a redo in several states. The Supreme Court handed them a major victory last week when it struck down Alabama’s congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander — a ruling that could ultimately cost Republicans a handful of seats across the South." (Nicholas Wu and Ally Mutnick/Politico)
The White House is disgusted with Fox News — even more so than usual. (Reliable Sources)
"Pat Robertson, who died at age 93, was a much hated figure on the left, and for good reason. For many decades, through his television show, The 700 Club, and in his frequent interventions in political debates, he was one of America’s most prominent voices for the religious right: a sexist and homophobic preacher with a wide audience." (Jeet Heer/The Nation)
"An estimated 25 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population – are in desperate need of aid due to an acute humanitarian crisis made worse by the fighting. But as the conflict enters its third month, both sides are accused of attempting to exploit aid deliveries to gain an upper hand on the battlefield." (Mat Nashed/Al Jazeera)
“There’s been a lot of focus on how US dollar dominance facilitates Western financial sanctions. But the mixed results of the economic campaign against Russia demonstrate that a powerful countervailing trend has gone largely unnoticed: the rise of Asian commercial power as a facilitator of trade diversion that blunts Western sanctions. Modern economic sanctions were created in the early twentieth century at a time of undisputed European mastery of the world economy, a mantle subsequently passed to the United States. This Western economic dominance lay behind the expansion of sanctions during the Cold War period. But the global economic centre of gravity has since moved towards the East.” (Nicholas Mulder/East Asia Forum)
The tech platforms have surrendered in the fight over election-related misinformation (Mathew Ingram/CJR)
“Recently visiting the rural village where I grew up on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden, I was intrigued by how the pattern of my high school friends' conversations had changed. Over the decade and a half I had been gone, their speech had taken on an unmistakable tone, one that I do not associate with the pine forests and beach meadows and old lumber mills: that of American intellectual interview podcasts. The shift isn’t all that surprising, given that they have likely spent more time listening to Lex Fridman and others talk than they have spent listening to their colleagues talk at work, especially because Scandinavia has the highest rate of podcast penetration in the world.” (WIRED)
"The fastest rate of inflation since the 1980s is what prompted the Fed to hike interest rates so much. So it makes sense that inflation would be a key indicator of when its job is complete. The latest consumer price index data, released on June 13, showed core inflation – the Fed’s preferred measure, which excludes volatile food and energy prices – falling to an annual rate of 5.3% in May 2023, the slowest pace since November 2021. That’s down from a peak of 6.6% in September 2022." (The Conversation/Ryan Herzog)
A No Labels candidate would likely throw the election to Trump (WashPo)
The truth behind the No Labels political party(Rick Wilson/Twitter)
"In a 2021 report, we estimated that there were around 337,000 New Yorkers who had been imprisoned at some point in their lives, and reduced earning potential related to time in prison cost them $1.9 billion every year." (Ames Grawert and Noah Kim/Brennan Center)
Nigeria's Tinubu launches presidency by unleashing market-driven reforms (semafor)
Iran’s claims of developing a hypersonic missile raise doubts (Robert Czulda/Stimson Center)
"This spring, Digiday reported that ‘media companies are still mostly hiring white people.’ The news was damning not only because of the facts of the matter, but also the context: just a couple of years ago, the journalism industry was said to be undergoing a ‘reckoning’ over racism. " (CJR/Betsy Morais)
“The settlement will mark the fourth case in a string of lawsuits that the billionaire owners of Fox News, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, have moved to put an end to in recent months. The Murdochs, facing scrutiny on a number of fronts, have sought to disentangle themselves from a web of legal threats.” (Oliver Darcy)
"Gannett tiptoes into generative AI, giving humans the last word" (Helen Coster/Reuters)
"ABC’s ratings-challenged Happy Endings created a cult following thanks to its relatable stories about a group of friends in their late 20s and early 30s ... As Rutherford Falls creator Sierra Teller Ornelas revealed in a recent Twitter thread, Happy Endings had 23 writers over its three seasons, with an incredible 21 — including assistants — becoming showrunners." (Lesley Goldberg/THR)
“A group of Russian-speaking cyber criminals has claimed credit for a sweeping hack that has compromised employee data at the BBC and British Airways and left US and UK cybersecurity officials scrambling to respond.” ( Sean Lyngaas/CNN)
“But before all of that, on the morning of September 19 1970, Bristol-based prog-rockers Stackridge played Glastonbury Festival’s first-ever live slot. ‘We knew nothing until our manager told us we were booked,’ says Mutter Slater, the band’s vocalist and flute player … At this first-ever Glastonbury there were 25 toilets (compared to the 4,800 there will be this year) and 30 stewards (in 2019: thousands), and Eavis’ farmhouse doubled up as a dressing room for bands. Entry for punters cost £1, the equivalent of £15 in today’s money, and for that you got a carton of milk from the dairy farm.” (El Hunt/NME)