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What are the limits of manipulating nature?

What are the limits of manipulating nature?

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In Scientific American, Neil Savage writes: Matt Trusheim flips a switch in the darkened laboratory, and an intense green laser illuminates a tiny diamond locked in place beneath a microscope objective. On a computer screen an image appears, a fuzzy green cloud studded with brighter green dots. The glowing dots are color centers in the diamond—tiny defects where two carbon atoms have been replaced by a single atom of tin, shifting the light passing through from one shade of green…

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The Trump effect: New study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism

The Trump effect: New study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism

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Noah Berlatsky writes: Since the founding of the United States, politicians and pundits have warned that partisanship is a danger to democracy. George Washington, in his Farewell Address, worried that political parties, or factions, could “allow cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men” to rise to power and subvert democracy. More recently, many political observers are concerned that increasing political polarization on left and right makes compromise impossible, and leads to the destruction of democratic norms and institutions. A new study, however,…

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A triumph for women and for Ireland

A triumph for women and for Ireland

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Barbara Wesel writes: It is such a resounding victory that campaigners in Ireland are weeping with joy. After a tense last few days when the referendum seemed too close to call, it turned out to be a landslide result. Irish people voted overwhelmingly in favor of abolishing the total abortion ban in the constitution. And with this amendment, the last part of an oppressive system that subjugated women in Ireland for centuries has gone. They have achieved what has long…

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Ending the dead end in North Korea

Ending the dead end in North Korea

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James Clapper writes: As control of the regime passed from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un, my assessment of the threat posed by the Hermit Kingdom never changed. The “Dear Leaders” didn’t want a fight but kept the mechanics of war set on a hair trigger, and any sane policy on North Korea needed to respect that dynamic. There is a sacred writ of intelligence officers never to get involved in creating policy. Our job is to present…

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North Korea wants to end up like Pakistan, not Libya

North Korea wants to end up like Pakistan, not Libya

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Dominic Tierney writes: When Donald Trump canceled his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un—before hinting that it might happen anyway after all, as the South Koreans moved into damage-control mode on Saturday with an impromptu summit of their own—it followed days of discussion over a historical parallel: Libya. U.S. National-Security Adviser John Bolton said the basis for a deal with North Korea was the “Libya model” from 2003 to 2004, when Muammar Qaddafi essentially handed over his…

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Climate change warriors’ latest weapon of choice is litigation

Climate change warriors’ latest weapon of choice is litigation

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Bloomberg reports: In the global fight against climate change, one tool is proving increasingly popular: litigation. From California to the Philippines, activists, governments and concerned citizens are suing the biggest polluters and national governments over the effects of climate change at a break-neck pace. “The courts are our last, best hope at this moment of irreversible harm to our planet and life on it,” said Julia Olson, an attorney for Our Children’s Trust, a legal challenge center in the U.S….

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How John Bolton scuppered the Kim Jong Un-Trump summit

How John Bolton scuppered the Kim Jong Un-Trump summit

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Ankit Panda writes: In a letter released on Thursday morning, President Trump declared that the scheduled 12 June summit meeting in Singapore between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un – a meeting that would have been the first of its kind – would no longer take place. Trump justified his decision based on the “tremendous anger and open hostility” shown in a statement released by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency this week. Choe Son-hui, a vice minister…

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After summit pullout, South Korea and China have little appetite for Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’

After summit pullout, South Korea and China have little appetite for Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’

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The Washington Post reports: President Trump credited his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions and threats with bringing North Korea to the negotiating table to discuss its nuclear weapons program. Now, having abruptly decided to call off an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore next month, Trump looks poised to revert to a hard line approach. There’s just one problem: “The multilateral pressure coalition has fallen apart,” says Mira Rapp-Hooper, an East Asia expert at Yale…

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Trump is a better dealbreaker than dealmaker

Trump is a better dealbreaker than dealmaker

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Susan B Glasser writes: At 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, I was speaking with a senior Administration official involved in the preparations for President Trump’s summit with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. The chances, the official told me, were still “seventy-thirty” that the summit would happen, in Singapore, on June 12th, despite increasingly jittery statements from both sides in recent days. By the time we talked again, after dinner, however, the prospects seemed to be dropping by the minute….

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The Deep State theory promoted by Trump and other wild-eyed conspiracy theorists

The Deep State theory promoted by Trump and other wild-eyed conspiracy theorists

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Will Rahn writes: It’s easy to get the basic gist of the Deep State conspiracy theory, which posits that the FBI and CIA ginned up a devious plot to help Hillary Clinton and hurt Donald Trump. But there’s an arch, coy, almost feline quality to the way these arguments are presented. The allegations are always cloaked for a later reveal. And this is probably because the allegations are bonkers, and would sound that way to anyone not already primed to…

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Americans least likely to think we have a responsibility to accept refugees? So-called ‘Christian’ evangelicals

Americans least likely to think we have a responsibility to accept refugees? So-called ‘Christian’ evangelicals

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The Washington Post reports: In February 2017, as debate raged nationally over President Trump’s decision to curtail immigration to the United States, the conservative Christian Broadcasting Network dipped into the Bible to share what that sacred text said about refugees. “Treat refugees the way you want to be treated,” it said, quoting Leviticus. “Invite the stranger in” (Matthew) and “Open your door to the traveler” (Job). The first comment in reply to the article captures the tone of the rest…

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Facebook and Google hit with $8.8 billion in lawsuits on day one of GDPR

Facebook and Google hit with $8.8 billion in lawsuits on day one of GDPR

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The Verge reports: On the first day of GDPR enforcement, Facebook and Google have been hit with a raft of lawsuits accusing the companies of coercing users into sharing personal data. The lawsuits, which seek to fine Facebook 3.9 billion and Google 3.7 billion euro (roughly $8.8 billion in dollars), were filed by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, a longtime critic of the companies’ data collection practices. GDPR requires clear consent and justification for any personal data collected from users,…

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Hemp legalization poised to transform agriculture in arid West

Hemp legalization poised to transform agriculture in arid West

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Amid all the excitement around marijuana legalization in America, another newly legal crop has received comparatively little attention: hemp. And yet hemp may prove to be even more transformative, especially in the West’s arid landscapes. Hemp is a variety of the cannabis sativa plant that is not psychoactive. Whereas marijuana plants can produce both the psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and the non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD) extracts, hemp produces only the latter. And while marijuana is generally grown in small quantities under tightly…

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America’s version of capitalism is incompatible with democracy

America’s version of capitalism is incompatible with democracy

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Eric Levitz writes: American democracy is unwell; on this much, President Trump’s detractors can agree. But when they turn to the tasks of identifying our republic’s symptoms, naming its illness, and writing a prescription, different factions of “the resistance” produce divergent diagnoses. One group — comprised of comparative politics scholars, liberal pundits, and NeverTrump conservatives — have their eyes fixed on Donald Trump. They see the moral cowardice of a Republican elite that declined to deny an illiberal demagogue their…

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