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Powerful forces are fracking our attention. We can fight back

Powerful forces are fracking our attention. We can fight back

D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh and Peter Schmidt write: The lament is as old as education itself: The students aren’t paying attention. But today, the problem of flighty or fragmented attention has reached truly catastrophic proportions. High school and college teachers overwhelmingly report that students’ capacity for sustained, or deep attention has sharply decreased, significantly impeding the forms of study — reading, looking at art, round-table discussions — once deemed central to the liberal arts. By some measures you are…

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The Israel-Hamas war is deadly for journalists. Lives are being lost, and truth

The Israel-Hamas war is deadly for journalists. Lives are being lost, and truth

Margaret Sullivan writes: The numbers alone are dreadful. Journalists are being killed in the Israel-Hamas war at the rate of more than one every day since 7 October – at least 53 so far, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. This has been the deadliest period for journalists in the 30 years since the New York-based organization began keeping these dire statistics. But, of course, it’s not all about the numbers. There’s also the reality that the…

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Antagonisms flare as red states try to dictate how blue cities are run

Antagonisms flare as red states try to dictate how blue cities are run

The Washington Post reports: Despite long advocating small government and local control, Republican governors and legislators across a significant swath of the country are increasingly overriding the actions of Democratic cities — removing elected district attorneys or threatening to strip them of power, taking over election offices and otherwise limiting local independence. State lawmakers proposed nearly 700 bills this year to circumscribe what cities and counties can do, according to Katie Belanger, lead consultant for the Local Solutions Support Center,…

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The Fifth Circuit is making the Supreme Court look reasonable

The Fifth Circuit is making the Supreme Court look reasonable

Stephen I. Vladeck writes: Where to even start in cataloging the most ridiculous—and alarming—recent rulings to come out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit? There’s a case about whether a class action could go forward that boiled down to a dispute among three Fifth Circuit judges over the meaning of a Bible verse. There’s a case in which the Fifth Circuit allowed three doctors to sue the FDA over a tweet intended to discourage ivermectin use…

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Leonard Leo firm received $21M from Leo-linked group

Leonard Leo firm received $21M from Leo-linked group

Politico reports: Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo’s consulting firm received $21 million in 2022 from a group that is a pillar of Leo’s aligned nonprofit network, according to a new tax filing. That group, The 85 Fund, is part of an umbrella of nonprofits under investigation by the Washington, D.C. attorney general for potentially violating tax laws. Carrie Severino, a former law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, is a director of the group. The tax filing, obtained by the watchdog…

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Why won’t OpenAI say what the Q* algorithm is?

Why won’t OpenAI say what the Q* algorithm is?

Karen Hao writes: Last week, it seemed that OpenAI—the secretive firm behind ChatGPT—had been broken open. The company’s board had suddenly fired CEO Sam Altman, hundreds of employees revolted in protest, Altman was reinstated, and the media dissected the story from every possible angle. Yet the reporting belied the fact that our view into the most crucial part of the company is still so fundamentally limited: We don’t really know how OpenAI develops its technology, nor do we understand exactly…

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Ukraine says wife of spymaster Budanov was poisoned

Ukraine says wife of spymaster Budanov was poisoned

Reuters reports: The wife of Ukraine’s military spy chief has been poisoned with heavy metals and is undergoing treatment in a hospital, a spokesperson for the agency said on Tuesday. Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, who heads Ukrainian military intelligence agency GUR, which has been prominently involved in clandestine operations against Russian forces since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “Yes, I can confirm the information, unfortunately, it is true,” GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov told Reuters, without…

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U.S. oil and gas production set to break record in 2023 despite UN climate goals

U.S. oil and gas production set to break record in 2023 despite UN climate goals

The Guardian reports: The United States is poised to extract more oil and gas than ever before in 2023, a year that is certain to be the hottest ever recorded, providing a daunting backdrop to crucial United Nations climate talks that hold the hope of an agreement to end the era of fossil fuels. The US’s status as the world’s leading oil and gas behemoth has only strengthened this year, even amid warnings from Joe Biden himself over the unfolding…

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Biden calls climate change ‘the ultimate threat to humanity’ but won’t be attending latest UN summit

Biden calls climate change ‘the ultimate threat to humanity’ but won’t be attending latest UN summit

The New York Times reports: President Biden will not attend a major United Nations climate summit that begins Thursday in Dubai, skipping an event expected to be attended by King Charles III, Pope Francis and leaders from nearly 200 countries, a White House official said Sunday. The official, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the president’s schedule, did not give a reason Mr. Biden will not make an appearance at the two-week summit, known as COP28. But senior White…

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Undercover filming highlights Saudi plan to artificially raise oil demand

Undercover filming highlights Saudi plan to artificially raise oil demand

  Channel 4 News: An undercover sting operation has highlighted a Saudi Arabian government plan to artificially raise global oil demand, Channel 4 News can reveal in an investigation released just days before climate crisis talks begin in the UAE. Officials from Saudi Arabia’s Oil Sustainability Programme (OSP) have admitted the country’s state-backed plan to target Africa and Asia with petrol, oil and diesel products, under a public programme from its Ministry of Energy. The operation was conducted by the…

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COP28: UAE planned to use climate talks to make oil deals

COP28: UAE planned to use climate talks to make oil deals

BBC News reports: The United Arab Emirates planned to use its role as the host of UN climate talks as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals, the BBC has learned. Leaked briefing documents reveal plans to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations. The UN body responsible for the COP28 summit told the BBC hosts were expected to act without bias or self-interest. The UAE team did not deny using COP28 meetings for business talks, and said “private…

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‘World’s first net zero transatlantic flight’ might not be so green after all

‘World’s first net zero transatlantic flight’ might not be so green after all

Open Democracy reports: Virgin Atlantic and the UK government have been accused of misleading the public over what they claim will be “the world’s first net zero transatlantic flight” ahead of next week’s COP28 summit. The Department for Transport said the flight, scheduled for Tuesday, was “ushering in a new era of guilt-free flying” because it will run entirely on so-called “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF). But openDemocracy revealed concerns earlier this year that SAF production in the UK may be…

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‘We were treated like dogs’ – freed Palestinians complain of mistreatment

‘We were treated like dogs’ – freed Palestinians complain of mistreatment

  Sky News’ Dominic Waghorn speaks to Palestinian prisoners in East Jerusalem freed from an Israeli jail as part of a deal with Hamas. The Israeli military had refused to let journalists speak to those who have been let out – and Palestinians had also been threatened with fines for celebrating the releases.

Trump has a master plan for destroying the ‘deep state’

Trump has a master plan for destroying the ‘deep state’

Donald P. Moynihan writes: I study government bureaucracies. This is not normally a key political issue. Right now, it is, and everyone should be paying attention. Donald Trump, the former president and current candidate, puts it in apocalyptic terms: “Either the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state.” This is not an empty threat. He has a real and plausible plan to utterly transform American government. It will undermine the quality of that government and it will…

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