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2023 was even hotter than predicted, raising fears we’re in uncharted territory

2023 was even hotter than predicted, raising fears we’re in uncharted territory

Science Alert reports: Last year Earth warmed around 0.2 °C more than climate models predicted. While that may not seem like much in isolation, when you consider it’s a measure across an entire planet it amounts to a heck of a lot of unexplained heat. “It’s humbling, and a bit worrying, to admit that no year has confounded climate scientists’ predictive capabilities more than 2023 has,” writes NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt in an article for Nature. “The 2023 temperature anomaly…

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Why do some leading geologists reject the term, the Anthropocene?

Why do some leading geologists reject the term, the Anthropocene?

Elizabeth Kolbert writes: A few months into the third millennium, a group called the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (I.G.B.P.) held a meeting in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Among the researchers in attendance was Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist best known for his research on ozone-depleting chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons. For this work, Crutzen, a Dutchman living in Germany, had received a Nobel Prize, in 1995. In his Nobel lecture, he noted that, given humanity’s heedlessness, it had got off lightly. Millions of pounds…

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Will a mountain of evidence be enough to convict Trump?

Will a mountain of evidence be enough to convict Trump?

The New York Times reports: In the official record, the case is known as the People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, and, for now, the people have the stronger hand: They have insider witnesses, a favorable jury pool and a lurid set of facts about a presidential candidate, a payoff and a porn star. On Monday, the prosecutors will formally introduce the case to 12 all-important jurors, embarking on the first prosecution of an American…

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Boeing and the dark age of American manufacturing

Boeing and the dark age of American manufacturing

Jerry Useem writes: The sight of Bill Boeing was a familiar one on the factory floor. His office was in the building next to the converted boatyard where workers lathed the wood, sewed the fabric wings, and fixed the control wires of the Boeing Model C airplane. there is no authority except facts. facts are obtained by accurate observation read a plaque affixed outside the door. And what could need closer observation than the process of his aircraft being built?…

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Political warfare and Congress

Political warfare and Congress

In testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Timothy Snyder said: Democracy is in decline, dragged down by the autocratic lie. The autocrats offer no new visions; instead they lie about democracies and insert lies into democracies. The test of disinformation is its power to alter the course of crucial events, such as wars and elections. Russia undertook a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the basis of a big lie about Nazis. Even as we meet today, Russian (and…

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House approves $61bn in military aid for Ukraine after months of stalling

House approves $61bn in military aid for Ukraine after months of stalling

The Observer reports: After months of stalling, the US House of Representatives finally approved more than $61bn worth of military assistance to help Ukraine in its desperate defense against Russia, as well as billions for other allies including Israel and Taiwan. In a bipartisan vote, 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans joined to support Ukraine, with 112 Republicans – a majority of the GOP members – voting against. It came after the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, forced a series of bills…

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U.S. expected to sanction IDF unit for human rights violations in West Bank

U.S. expected to sanction IDF unit for human rights violations in West Bank

Axios reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to within days announce sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces “Netzah Yehuda” battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, three U.S. sources with knowledge of the issue told Axios. Why it matters: It would be the first time the U.S. imposed sanctions on an Israeli military unit. The sanctions will ban the battalion and its members from receiving any kind of U.S. military assistance or training, the sources said. A…

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Strike was meant to show Iran that Israel could paralyze its defenses, Western officials say

Strike was meant to show Iran that Israel could paralyze its defenses, Western officials say

The New York Times reports: An Israeli weapon deployed in a retaliatory strike against Iran on Friday damaged a defense system responsible for detecting and destroying aerial threats near Natanz, a central Iranian city critical to the country’s secret nuclear weapons program, according to two Western officials and two Iranian officials. The strike, the Western officials said, was calculated to deliver a message to Iran that Israel could bypass Iran’s defense systems undetected and paralyze them, using a fraction of…

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Iran vs Israel: Deterrence, drama or distraction?

Iran vs Israel: Deterrence, drama or distraction?

  Of the more than 300 Iranian projectiles launched Israel’s way last week, the vast majority were shot down by Israel and its allies. Israel’s response on Friday against military targets in Isfahan also had more to do with spectacle than substance. Whatever comes next, Iran’s attack – and the way it was characterised in the Western media – may have garnered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government some more support in this global battle of perceptions. Contributors: Laleh Khalili –…

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Trump forced to listen silently as potential jurors offer their unvarnished assessments of him

Trump forced to listen silently as potential jurors offer their unvarnished assessments of him

The Associated Press reports: He seems “selfish and self-serving,” said one woman. The way he carries himself in public “leaves something to be desired,” said another. His “negative rhetoric and bias,” said another man, is what is “most harmful.” Over the past week, Donald Trump has been forced to sit inside a frigid New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his criminal hush money trial share their unvarnished assessments of him. It’s been a dramatic…

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Insects and other animals have consciousness, experts assert in new declaration

Insects and other animals have consciousness, experts assert in new declaration

Dan Falk writes: In 2022, researchers at the Bee Sensory and Behavioral Ecology Lab at Queen Mary University of London observed bumblebees doing something remarkable: The diminutive, fuzzy creatures were engaging in activity that could only be described as play. Given small wooden balls, the bees pushed them around and rotated them. The behavior had no obvious connection to mating or survival, nor was it rewarded by the scientists. It was, apparently, just for fun. The study on playful bees…

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Columbia University is colluding with the far-right in its attack on students

Columbia University is colluding with the far-right in its attack on students

Moira Donegan writes: The students sat on the ground and sang as police in riot gear approached them. Eventually, more than 100 of them would be arrested; their tents, protest signs and Palestinian flags were gathered into trash bags by the police and thrown away. One video showed officers and university maintenance workers destroying food that had been donated to the encampment, making sure it would be inedible. According to student journalists reporting from WKCR, Columbia University’s student radio station,…

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Inside the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University

Inside the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University

Lara-Nour Walton writes: Around 4 AM on Wednesday, hundreds of Columbia University students set up tents on the East Butler lawn, establishing what they called a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in protest of the university’s role in helping fund the war in Gaza. The occupation, organized by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition (CUAD), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), had been planned for months. The encampment was an escalation of previous pro-Palestine actions, designed…

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Blinken says he’s made ‘determinations’ linked to human rights accusations against Israel

Blinken says he’s made ‘determinations’ linked to human rights accusations against Israel

Reuters reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said he has made “determinations” regarding accusations that Israel violated a set of U.S. laws that prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights. The Leahy Laws, authored by then-Senator Patrick Leahy in the late 1990s, prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights and have not been brought to justice. Earlier…

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