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Made in China, exported to the world: The surveillance state

Made in China, exported to the world: The surveillance state

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  The New York Times reports: The squat gray building in Ecuador’s capital commands a sweeping view of the city’s sparkling sprawl, from the high-rises at the base of the Andean valley to the pastel neighborhoods that spill up its mountainsides. The police who work inside are looking elsewhere. They spend their days poring over computer screens, watching footage that comes in from 4,300 cameras across the country. The high-powered cameras send what they see to 16 monitoring centers in…

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Xi Jinping wants to restore China’s former glory through expanding military power

Xi Jinping wants to restore China’s former glory through expanding military power

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An extended Reuters special report says: During his period as China’s paramount leader, President Jiang Zemin handpicked Xi [Jinping] for senior office because the younger man was perceived to lack ambition, according to sources with close ties to the Chinese leadership. Xi was also thought to be a pliable candidate because he lacked a power base, one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. But as China’s top leader, he has shown a willingness to impose radical change at the…

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Deregulation and climate change result in growing number of Americans breathing polluted air

Deregulation and climate change result in growing number of Americans breathing polluted air

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CNN reports: More Americans are breathing air that will make them sick, according to the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air report. The country had been making progress in cleaning up air pollution, but during the Trump administration, it has been backsliding, the report says. Deregulation and climate change are largely to blame. President Donald Trump made a pledge in his 2017 State of the Union address to “promote clean air and water,” but his administration has reversed…

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ISIS still has global reach despite the caliphate’s collapse

ISIS still has global reach despite the caliphate’s collapse

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Robin Wright writes: Exactly a month after losing its final piece of territory, the Islamic State is giving notice that it can still surprise the world—this time in Sri Lanka. On Tuesday, it claimed responsibility for Easter bombings of three churches and three popular hotels which killed more than three hundred innocent civilians, including more than forty children, and injured another five hundred. “The perpetrators of the attack that targeted nationals of the coalition states and Christians in Sri Lanka…

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Official efforts to raise alarm about Russian threat to 2020 elections, stymied by Trump

Official efforts to raise alarm about Russian threat to 2020 elections, stymied by Trump

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The New York Times reports: In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms of interference in the 2020 election. President Trump’s chief of staff told her not to bring it up in front of the president. Ms. Nielsen left the Department of Homeland Security early this month after a tumultuous 16-month tenure and tensions…

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Trump’s thirst for Mueller revenge could land him in legal trouble

Trump’s thirst for Mueller revenge could land him in legal trouble

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Politico reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller may be done, but President Donald Trump and his team are still adding to an already hefty record of evidence that could fuel impeachment proceedings or future criminal indictments. Team Trump’s bellicose tweets and public statements in the last few days are potentially exposing Trump to fresh charges of witness intimidation, obstruction of justice and impeding a congressional investigation — not to mention giving lawmakers more fodder for their presidential probes — according to…

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Experiments that make quantum mechanics directly visible to the human eye

Experiments that make quantum mechanics directly visible to the human eye

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Rebecca Holmes writes: I spent a lot of time in the dark in graduate school. Not just because I was learning the field of quantum optics – where we usually deal with one particle of light or photon at a time – but because my research used my own eyes as a measurement tool. I was studying how humans perceive the smallest amounts of light, and I was the first test subject every time. I conducted these experiments in a…

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To stop global catastrophe, we must believe in humans again

To stop global catastrophe, we must believe in humans again

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Bill McKibben writes: Because I am concerned about inequality and about the environment, I am usually classed as a progressive, a liberal. But it seems to me that what I care most about is preserving a world that bears some resemblance to the past: a world with some ice at the top and bottom and the odd coral reef in between; a world where people are connected to the past and future (and to one another) instead of turned into…

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Melting permafrost in Arctic will have $70tn climate impact, study predicts

Melting permafrost in Arctic will have $70tn climate impact, study predicts

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The Guardian reports: The release of methane and carbon dioxide from thawing permafrost will accelerate global warming and add up to $70tn (£54tn) to the world’s climate bill, according to the most advanced study yet of the economic consequences of a melting Arctic. If countries fail to improve on their Paris agreement commitments, this feedback mechanism, combined with a loss of heat-deflecting white ice, will cause a near 5% amplification of global warming and its associated costs, says the paper,…

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I was Bernie’s biggest critic in 2016 — I’ve changed my mind

I was Bernie’s biggest critic in 2016 — I’ve changed my mind

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Peter Daou writes: If you had told me in the spring of 2016 that three years later I’d be touting the merits of the Bernie Sanders campaign—taking flak from Hillary Clinton supporters for not being loyal enough to her—I would have laughed and asked what alternate reality you lived in. But life and politics have a way of taking unexpected turns, and here I am writing about the considerable strengths Sanders brings to the 2020 election. I do so not…

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A Trump transition staffer says it’s time for impeachment

A Trump transition staffer says it’s time for impeachment

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J. W. Verret writes: Let’s start at the end of this story. This weekend, I read Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report twice, and realized that enough was enough—I needed to do something. I’ve worked on every Republican presidential transition team for the past 10 years and recently served as counsel to the Republican-led House Financial Services Committee. My permanent job is as a law professor at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, which is not political, but where…

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France blasts U.S. for weakened UN resolution on sexual violence in conflicts

France blasts U.S. for weakened UN resolution on sexual violence in conflicts

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France 24 reports: The UN Security Council on Tuesday approved a watered-down resolution on sexual violence in conflicts, eliminating language on providing survivors “sexual and reproductive health care” to get US support in a move criticised by France. Tuesday’s vote on the German-drafted resolution was 13-0, with Russia and China, which had submitted a rival draft, abstaining. Both Russia and China said they opposed sexual violence in conflicts, but denounced “lax interpretations” in the text and a “manipulated” struggle to…

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A Neanderthal tooth discovered in Serbia reveals human migration history

A Neanderthal tooth discovered in Serbia reveals human migration history

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A 3D recreation of a recently discovered Neanderthal tooth. Joshua Lindal, Author provided By Mirjana Roksandic, University of Winnipeg and Joshua Allan Lindal, University of Winnipeg In 2015, our Serbian-Canadian archaeological research team was working at a cave site named Pešturina, in Eastern Serbia, where we had found thousands of stone tools and animal bones. One day, an excited Serbian undergrad brought us a fossil they had uncovered: a small molar tooth, which we immediately recognized as human. A single…

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Earth Day founder thinks we’re close to political breakthrough on climate

Earth Day founder thinks we’re close to political breakthrough on climate

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Joe Romm writes: Denis Hayes, the principal national organizer of the first Earth Day, in April 1970, said on Monday that the upcoming 50th anniversary next year will be “the largest, most diverse action in human history.” The goal is to engage three billion people around the world with a focus on climate change. Thanks to a resurgence in youth-led climate activism, Hayes told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that “2020 will be for climate what…

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