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The paradox that’s supercharging climate change

The paradox that’s supercharging climate change

Wired reports: No good deed goes unpunished—and that includes trying to slow climate change. By cutting greenhouse gas emissions, humanity will spew out fewer planet-cooling aerosols—small particles of pollution that act like tiny umbrellas to bounce some of the sun’s energy back into space. “Even more important than this direct reflection effect, they alter the properties of clouds,” says Øivind Hodnebrog, a climate researcher at the Center for International Climate Research in Oslo, Norway. “In essence, they make the clouds…

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Milky Way’s largest stellar black hole discovered 2,000 light years away from Earth

Milky Way’s largest stellar black hole discovered 2,000 light years away from Earth

The European Space Agency reports: Wading through the wealth of data from ESA’s Gaia mission, scientists have uncovered a ‘sleeping giant’. A large black hole, with a mass of nearly 33 times the mass of the Sun, was hiding in the constellation Aquila, less than 2000 light-years from Earth. This is the first time a black hole of stellar origin this big has been spotted within the Milky Way. So far, black holes of this type have only been observed…

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How Iran attacks exposed Israel’s weakness

How Iran attacks exposed Israel’s weakness

David Hearst writes: Israel, under Netanyahu’s stewardship, has become a pariah state. Once again, Israel needed to play the victim, to sustain the myth that it is fighting for its existence. What better time for Netanyahu, the gambler, to throw the dice and attack an Iranian consulate, knowing full well what that meant? The US also knew what Netanyahu was doing, which was to try to drag America into an attack on Iran for at least the third time in…

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Babies and children hit hardest as famine tightens hold on Gaza

Babies and children hit hardest as famine tightens hold on Gaza

The Guardian reports: Even if the war in Gaza ended tomorrow, for some of the Palestinian territory’s children, it would not help. Hunger and malnutrition have already claimed an estimated 27 young lives, and for many more, it may be too late to reverse the excruciating toll that starvation takes on small, growing bodies. Nuzha Awad’s triplets, Malek, Khader and Moustafa, born two months before the war began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, did not stop crying as…

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China says Iran can ‘handle situation,’ spare Middle East turmoil

China says Iran can ‘handle situation,’ spare Middle East turmoil

Reuters reports: China said it believed Iran could “handle the situation well and spare the region further turmoil” while safeguarding its sovereignty and dignity, referring to an attack on Iran’s embassy in Syria and its retaliatory strike over the weekend. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian via a phone call on Monday that China appreciated Iran’s emphasis on not targeting regional and neighboring countries, according to the official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday. Wang also said…

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Military aid to Israel cannot be unconditional

Military aid to Israel cannot be unconditional

The New York Times editorial board says: The suffering of civilians in Gaza — tens of thousands dead, many of them children; hundreds of thousands homeless, many at risk of starvation — has become more than a growing number of Americans can abide. And yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his ultranationalist allies in government have defied American calls for more restraint and humanitarian help. The United States commitment to Israel — including $3.8 billion a year in…

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Far right’s ties to Russia sow rising alarm in Germany

Far right’s ties to Russia sow rising alarm in Germany

The New York Times reports: To enter a secret session of Germany’s Parliament, lawmakers must lock their phones and leave them outside. Inside, they are not even allowed to take notes. Yet to many politicians, these precautions against espionage now feel like something of a farce. Because seated alongside them in those classified meetings are members of the Alternative for Germany, the far-right party known by its German abbreviation, AfD. In the past few months alone, a leading AfD politician…

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Small-time investors in Trump’s Truth Social reckon with stock collapse

Small-time investors in Trump’s Truth Social reckon with stock collapse

The Washington Post reports: Jerry Dean McLain first bet on former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social two years ago, buying into the Trump company’s planned merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, at $90 a share. Over time, as the price changed, he kept buying, amassing hundreds of shares for $25,000 — pretty much his “whole nest egg,” he said. That nest egg has lost more than half its value in the past two weeks as Trump Media & Technology Group’s share…

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Sleeping more flushes junk out of the brain

Sleeping more flushes junk out of the brain

Elizabeth Rayne writes: As if we didn’t have enough reasons to get at least eight hours of sleep, there is now one more. Neurons are still active during sleep. We may not realize it, but the brain takes advantage of this recharging period to get rid of junk that was accumulating during waking hours. Sleep is something like a soft reboot. We knew that slow brainwaves had something to do with restful sleep; researchers at the Washington University School of…

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U.S. tells Israel it won’t join counter-strike on Iran, urges caution

U.S. tells Israel it won’t join counter-strike on Iran, urges caution

Politico reports: President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States will not join an offensive counter-strike on Iran should Israel choose that road after Tehran attacked it this weekend, according to two people familiar with the conversation. U.S. officials, meanwhile, are urging Israelis to be measured in any response, two U.S. officials and a diplomat familiar with the issue said. The Biden administration is trying to defuse an armed confrontation that could drag the Middle…

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The staggering cost of Israel’s defense against Iran’s missile attack: $1.2 billion per night

The staggering cost of Israel’s defense against Iran’s missile attack: $1.2 billion per night

Ynet reports: Iran’s massive missile attack overnight between Saturday and Sunday on Israel was stopped by Israel’s sophisticated defense systems. It obviously cost a lot of money, and the question, among others that arise the next morning, is how much? Brig. Gen. Reem Aminoach, former financial advisor to the IDF chief of staff, tried to estimate. “The defense tonight was on the order of 4-5 billion shekels,” he said in a conversation with Ynet studio. “If we’re talking about ballistic…

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Iran attack was ‘declaration of war’, Israeli president says – but insists ‘we are seeking peace’

Iran attack was ‘declaration of war’, Israeli president says – but insists ‘we are seeking peace’

Sky News reports: Iran’s attack on Israel was a “declaration of war”, Israel’s president has told Sky News. Isaac Herzog said it was “about time the world faces this empire of evil in Tehran”. World leaders need to “make it clear” to the Iranian regime that its behaviour is “unacceptable”, Mr Herzog added. “We should be looking lucidly at the phenomena called Tehran and Iran.” Israel has not sought war since its creation in 1948, the president insisted. [Continue reading…]…

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Netanyahus hide in luxury villa with advanced missile shelter during Iranian attack

Netanyahus hide in luxury villa with advanced missile shelter during Iranian attack

The Jerusalem Post reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara stayed at the luxury villa of Simon Falic, an American Jewish business man, in Jerusalem, where they had resided at the start of the war. Reports suggest that, amidst concerns of an Iranian reaction to the assassination of a senior official in Damascus, the house includes an advanced missile shelter. Sources close to Netanyahu confirmed to Walla! News that he stayed there, though no response was provided by…

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Western governments increasingly concerned about their complicity in Israeli war crimes

Western governments increasingly concerned about their complicity in Israeli war crimes

The New York Times reports: For months, Western governments have provided military support for Israel while fending off accusations that their weapons were being used to commit war crimes in Gaza. But as a global outcry over the growing death toll in Gaza mounts, maintaining that balance is becoming increasingly difficult, as was clear on a single day this past week. On Tuesday, in a United Nations court, Germany found itself having to defend against accusations that it was complicit…

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