Syria update:
Syria confirmed it had agreed to allow access to the inspectors, who arrived in Syria to investigate smaller chemical weapons allegations just three days before the huge incident, which occurred before dawn after a night of heavy bombardment.
Medicins sans Frontieres says at least 355 people were reported dead in three hospitals from symptoms of poisoning. President Bashar al-Assad's opponents have given death tolls ranging from 500 to well over 1,000.
Reuters: U.N. experts in Syria to visit site of poison gas attack, August 25, 2013
New York Times: Areas Affected by the Alleged Chemical Attack in Syria, August 26, 2013
The Guardian: Syrian hospitals treated thousands for poison gas symptoms, says charity, August 24, 2013
The Guardian: Syrian hospitals treated thousands for poison gas symptoms, says charity, August 24, 2013
US Secretary of State John Kerry gave a statement yesterday saying that "[t]he indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity." The Washington Post refers to this is a "war speech" - "It’s difficult to find a single sentence in Secretary of State John Kerry’s forceful and at points emotional press conference on Syria that did not sound like a direct case for imminent U.S. military action against Syria", and the statement is widely interpreted as "laying the groundwork for possible military action". US Navy forces are moving closer to Syrian shores, and Foreign Affairs calls using "Strikes to Get Talks" the best case scenario. The Guardian followed the development of the conversation yesterday.
A personal essay on Zimbabwe after the re-election of Robert Mugabe in late July.
The New York Times on the effects of Australia's new asylum policy.
openDemocracy on "Cities in the future of democracy" and how the focus on victims constricts the narrative of sexual assault.
A curious story about how The Guardian destroyed hard drives containing files leaked by Edward Snowden.
Longreads collected five stories about the fates of whistleblowers after they speak out.
This is a long and personal story about a transgender teen who has surgery at sixteen.
Pop Culture:
Writer Elmore Leonard died a week ago.
Anna Gunn of Breaking Bad wrote an amazing op-ed for the New York Times last week about playing Skyler White -
As an actress, I realize that viewers are entitled to have whatever feelings they want about the characters they watch. But as a human being, I’m concerned that so many people react to Skyler with such venom. Could it be that they can’t stand a woman who won’t suffer silently or “stand by her man”? That they despise her because she won’t back down or give up? Or because she is, in fact, Walter’s equal?
In response, Maureen Ryan asks if "television feeding and nurturing those kinds of repellent attitudes, or helping stamp them out?" (in approaching BB fandom, "never trust a Skyler White hater" is the best possible advice). PopMatters dissects the teacher-student relationship between Walter and Jesse (and has loads of other interesting essays on the show as part of its "I Am the One Who Knocks" series)
Producer and songwriter Julia Holter created this amazing mix for Dazed Digital.
Vulture spends 92 minutes with Kathleen Hanna, who is playing shows with The Julie Ruin and "she’s happy to be back touring and recording [a]s it means fewer riot-grrrl spokesperson duties and more rocking out".
The Dork Forest talks to Carrie Brownstein, a couple of weeks before the fourth season of Portlandia starts airing.
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