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Twitter’s chief troll slanders George Soros with antisemitic slurs

Twitter’s chief troll slanders George Soros with antisemitic slurs

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk made a series of attacks on George Soros overnight, tweeting that the Jewish-born investor and liberal philanthropist, who often is subject to virulent antisemitic conspiracy theories, hates humanity and “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization.” Musk, who has overseen an increase of antisemitism and other hate speech on Twitter since he bought the social media platform last year, did not give a reason for singling out Soros. But he made his comments…

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UK and Netherlands agree ‘international coalition’ to help Ukraine procure F-16 jets

UK and Netherlands agree ‘international coalition’ to help Ukraine procure F-16 jets

The Guardian reports: Prime minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch leader Mark Rutte have agreed to build an “international coalition” to help procure F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine, the British government has announced. A Downing Street spokesperson said Sunak and Rutte “would work to build an international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities, supporting with everything from training to procuring F-16 jets”. “The prime minister reiterated his belief that Ukraine’s rightful place is in Nato and the leaders agreed…

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Humiliation for Putin’s ‘unstoppable’ superweapons blasted out of sky by U.S. defense system

Humiliation for Putin’s ‘unstoppable’ superweapons blasted out of sky by U.S. defense system

The Daily Beast reports: Russian officials must be reeling in utter disbelief after Ukraine claimed six of their most sophisticated missiles were blasted out of the sky in an incredible night of drama over Kyiv. When Ukraine’s Defense Express outlet reported that just one Kh-47 “Dagger” missile had been shot down with a U.S.-made Patriot air defense system earlier this month, it prompted fury in Russia. On Saturday, U.S. officials told CNN that the Russian missile attack on May 5 was targeting the Patriot itself. Russian officials called the interception “wishful thinking”—even as…

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The tiny physics behind immense cosmic eruptions

The tiny physics behind immense cosmic eruptions

Zack Savitsky writes: During fleeting fits, the sun occasionally hurls a colossal amount of energy into space. Called solar flares, these eruptions last for mere minutes, and they can trigger catastrophic blackouts and dazzling auroras on Earth. But our leading mathematical theories of how these flares work fail to predict the strength and speed of what we observe. At the heart of these outbursts is a mechanism that converts magnetic energy into powerful blasts of light and particles. This transformation…

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The end of Ukraine aid is rapidly approaching. Reupping it won’t be easy

The end of Ukraine aid is rapidly approaching. Reupping it won’t be easy

Politico reports: Move over, Treasury. You’re not the only one with an X-date. The $48 billion Ukraine aid package that Congress approved in December has about $6 billion left, meaning U.S. funding for weapons and supplies could dry up by midsummer. That’s raising fresh concerns among lawmakers about what the White House is planning next, including when the administration will ask for another major package and whether it will be enough. The funding, many members say, needs to continue to…

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Imran Khan accuses Pakistan’s military of ordering his arrest

Imran Khan accuses Pakistan’s military of ordering his arrest

The Guardian reports: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has escalated his criticism of the country’s powerful military, accusing the head of the army of harbouring a “personal grudge” against him and ordering his arrest and a crackdown on his party. “It is personal. It’s got nothing to do with national interest,” Khan told the Guardian in an interview at his home in Lahore, after a dramatic week in which he was arrested at Islamabad’s high court by almost 100…

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UN commemorates Palestinian Nakba for first time on 75th anniversary

UN commemorates Palestinian Nakba for first time on 75th anniversary

The National reports: For the first time in 75 years, the UN has officially commemorated the Nakba — the plight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes upon the formation of Israel. The UN passed a historic resolution in 2022, despite Israel’s vehement opposition, to recognise the Nakba, which roughly translates as “catastrophe”. The day brings painful memories of displacement and widely documented reports of torture and mass killings by Israeli forces against Palestinians…

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The paranoia that fuels gun-buying

The paranoia that fuels gun-buying

Christine Emba writes: At the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly, spirits seemed high. People wandered from booth to booth, and the scent of popcorn filled the air. It could have been mistaken for a state fair or weekend flea market were it not for the rows of weapons and accessories — gun parts, AR build kits and body armor — laid out on every surface. It was easy to overlook the one common emotion underlying the event: fear. Here were…

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Prosecutor ends probe of FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation with harsh criticism, but no new charges

Prosecutor ends probe of FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation with harsh criticism, but no new charges

The New York Times reports: John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years has pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the F.B.I. of having “discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia” in a final report made public on Monday. Mr. Durham’s 306-page report revealed little substantial new information about the inquiry, known as Crossfire Hurricane, and it failed to produce the…

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Rep. James Comer is looking for anti-Biden evidence. Also, his informant

Rep. James Comer is looking for anti-Biden evidence. Also, his informant

Philip Bump writes: Soon after the 2020 election, a senior vice president at the Fox Business Network sent a warning to the network’s president that neatly distilled the recent trajectory of host Maria Bartiromo’s career. Bartiromo, he said, has “GOP conspiracy theorists in her ear and they use her for their message sometimes.” On Sunday, Bartiromo lived up to that reputation. To introduce her show on Fox News, she promised viewers that she would be covering “the most serious allegations…

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AI’s ostensible emergent abilities are a mirage

AI’s ostensible emergent abilities are a mirage

Stanford University Human-Centered AI: For a few years now, tech leaders have been touting AI’s supposed emergent abilities: the possibility that beyond a certain threshold of complexity, large language models (LLMs) are doing unpredictable things. If we can harness that capacity, AI might be able to solve some of humanity’s biggest problems, the story goes. But unpredictability is also scary: Could making a model bigger unleash a completely unpredictable and potentially malevolent actor into the world? That concern is widely…

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Despairing about climate change? These 4 charts on the unstoppable growth of solar may change your mind

Despairing about climate change? These 4 charts on the unstoppable growth of solar may change your mind

Shutterstock By Andrew Blakers, Australian National University Last year, the world built more new solar capacity than every other power source combined. Solar is now growing much faster than any other energy technology in history. How fast? Fast enough to completely displace fossil fuels from the entire global economy before 2050. The rise and rise of cheap solar is our best hope for rapidly mitigating climate change. Total solar capacity tipped over 1 terawatt (1,000 gigawatts) for the first time…

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Climate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter

Climate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter

The Observer reports: Some of the UK’s top scientists are struggling to deal with what they describe as a huge rise in abuse from climate crisis deniers on Twitter since the social media platform was taken over by Elon Musk last year. Since then, key figures who ensured “trusted” content was prioritised have been sacked, according to one scientist, and Twitter’s sustainability arm has vanished. At the same time several users with millions of followers who propagate false statements about…

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Wagner chief offered to give Russian troop locations to Ukraine, leak says

Wagner chief offered to give Russian troop locations to Ukraine, leak says

The Washington Post reports: In late January, with his mercenary forces dying by the thousands in a fight for the ruined city of Bakhmut, Wagner Group owner Yevgeniy Prigozhin made Ukraine an extraordinary offer. Prigozhin said that if Ukraine’s commanders withdrew their soldiers from the area around Bakhmut, he would give Kyiv information on Russian troop positions, which Ukraine could use to attack them. Prigozhin conveyed the proposal to his contacts in Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, with whom he has…

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