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South Carolina’s all-male Supreme Court upholds abortion law, reversing earlier decision

South Carolina’s all-male Supreme Court upholds abortion law, reversing earlier decision

The New York Times reports: The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the state’s new near-total ban on abortion by a 4-1 vote, reversing a decision it had made in January that struck down a similar ban and declared that the State Constitution’s protections for privacy included a right to abortion. The court’s decision was not unexpected, because the makeup of the bench had changed, and Republicans in the State Legislature had passed a new abortion law in the…

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It may be time to break out the masks against Covid, some experts say

It may be time to break out the masks against Covid, some experts say

CNN reports: If you’re at high risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19, it’s time to dust off those N95 masks and place them snugly over your nose and mouth to protect yourself from a recent uptick of the virus, according to a growing number of experts. That advice should go all the way up to 80-year-old President Joe Biden, said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist. “Octogenarians comprise the highest-risk group for complications following Covid infection,” Reiner said. “At…

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If AI becomes conscious, how will we know?

If AI becomes conscious, how will we know?

Science reports: In 2021, Google engineer Blake Lemoine made headlines—and got himself fired—when he claimed that LaMDA, the chatbot he’d been testing, was sentient. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems, especially so-called large language models such as LaMDA and ChatGPT, can certainly seem conscious. But they’re trained on vast amounts of text to imitate human responses. So how can we really know? Now, a group of 19 computer scientists, neuroscientists, and philosophers has come up with an approach: not a single definitive…

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No, Biden hasn’t messed up an opportunity to end the war in Ukraine

No, Biden hasn’t messed up an opportunity to end the war in Ukraine

Fred Kaplan writes: Did President Joe Biden miss an opportunity to end the war in Ukraine diplomatically nine months ago? Some commentators and at least one U.S. official are starting to think he might have. I disagree. The queasy feeling was first articulated last week in a Politico article that recalled a speech last November by Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The war was getting brutal, both sides had suffered horrible casualties, civilians were under…

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Ukraine’s forces and firepower are misallocated, U.S. officials say

Ukraine’s forces and firepower are misallocated, U.S. officials say

The New York Times reports: Ukraine’s grinding counteroffensive is struggling to break through entrenched Russian defenses in large part because it has too many troops, including some of its best combat units, in the wrong places, American and other Western officials say. The main goal of the counteroffensive is to cut off Russian supply lines in southern Ukraine by severing the so-called land bridge between Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula. But instead of focusing on that, Ukrainian commanders have…

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Trump vows massive new tariffs if elected, risking global economic war

Trump vows massive new tariffs if elected, risking global economic war

The Washington Post reports: Even in the face of growing personal legal peril, Donald Trump summoned his top economic advisers to his private golf club in New Jersey for a two-hour dinner last Wednesday night to map out a trade-focused economic plan for his presidential bid. Trump and top aides, including former senior White House officials Larry Kudlow and Brooke Rollins, as well as outside advisers Stephen Moore and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, spent the dinner discussing how Trump…

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Prosecutors: Trump Mar-a-Lago security aide flipped after changing lawyers

Prosecutors: Trump Mar-a-Lago security aide flipped after changing lawyers

Politico reports: A Trump employee who monitored security cameras at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate abruptly retracted his earlier grand jury testimony and implicated Trump and others in obstruction of justice just after switching from an attorney paid for by a Trump political action committee to a lawyer from the federal defender’s office in Washington, prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday. The aide — described as “Trump Employee 4” in public court filings but identified elsewhere as Yuscil Taveras —…

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U.S. businessman is wannabe ‘warlord’ of secretive far-right men’s network

U.S. businessman is wannabe ‘warlord’ of secretive far-right men’s network

The Guardian reports: Charles Haywood, creator of the Society for American Civic Renewal, has said he might serve as ‘warlord’ at the head of an ‘armed patronage network’ The founder and sponsor of a far-right network of secretive, men-only, invitation-only fraternal lodges in the US is a former industrialist who has frequently speculated about his future as a warlord after the collapse of America, a Guardian investigation has found. Federal and state tax and company filings show that the Society…

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Why a highly mutated coronavirus variant has scientists on alert

Why a highly mutated coronavirus variant has scientists on alert

Nature reports: Researchers are racing to determine whether a highly mutated coronavirus variant that has popped up in three continents will be a global concern — or much ado about nothing. Several laboratories detected the variant last week, and it has been named BA.2.86. Although the lineage seems to be exceedingly rare, it is very different from other circulating variants and carries numerous changes to its spike protein, a key focus of the body’s immune attack on the SARS-CoV-2 virus….

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Beijing is coming for the metaverse

Beijing is coming for the metaverse

Politico reports: China wants to define how a new, promising technology called the metaverse works — and it is pushing proposals that bear an eerie resemblance to the country’s controversial social credit systems, proposals reviewed by POLITICO showed. The proposals, drafted by the state-owned telecoms operator China Mobile, floated a “Digital Identity System” for all users of online virtual worlds, or metaverses. They recommended that the digital ID should work with “natural characteristics” and “social characteristics” that include a range…

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How bad do things have to get for Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency?

How bad do things have to get for Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency?

Eric Lutz writes: A summer of extreme weather in the United States is coming to a close with a one-two punch of historic disasters: the Maui wildfires, which have displaced thousands, killed more than a hundred, and left more than 800 still missing; and Hilary, the hurricane-turned-tropical storm that is bringing catastrophic flooding to Southern California and the desert southwest. The devastation from both is ongoing, but they carry the same message as the hazardous heat and stinging smoke that…

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How the U.S. government came to rely on Elon Musk — and is now struggling to rein him in

How the U.S. government came to rely on Elon Musk — and is now struggling to rein him in

Ronan Farrow writes: Last October, Colin Kahl, then the Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, sat in a hotel in Paris and prepared to make a call to avert disaster in Ukraine. A staffer handed him an iPhone—in part to avoid inviting an onslaught of late-night texts and colorful emojis on Kahl’s own phone. Kahl had returned to his room, with its heavy drapery and distant view of the Eiffel Tower, after a day of meetings with officials…

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A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country

A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country

The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, report: Against the background hum of the convention center, Dar Leaf settled into a club chair to explain the sacred mission of America’s sheriffs, his bright blue eyes and warm smile belying the intensity of the cause. “The sheriff is supposed to be protecting the public from evil,” the chief law enforcement officer for Barry County, Michigan, said during a break in the National Sheriffs’ Association 2023…

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The surprise ruling that tosses a grenade into the Jan. 6 prosecutions

The surprise ruling that tosses a grenade into the Jan. 6 prosecutions

Mark Joseph Stern writes: James Little invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. He later pleaded guilty but remains unrepentant, insisting that he engaged in a “patriotic” protest that was hijacked by antifa, Black Lives Matter, and Capitol Police as part of a “setup” to entrap Trump supporters. In light of his criminal conduct and ongoing lack of remorse, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Little to 60…

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