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How Putin’s Russian goon squad used Mexican gig workers to troll an American election

How Putin’s Russian goon squad used Mexican gig workers to troll an American election

Mattathias Schwartz reports: In March 2020, a freelance writer in Mexico City was browsing the internet at home when he saw an ad for a self-described “social media” company that was looking for writers to post messages online. The company didn’t appear to have a name. Instead, there was a WhatsApp number and an address for an account on an encrypted email service. “Fluent English is a must,” the ad emphasized. The freelancer — I’ll call him Carlos — thought…

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China is dying out

China is dying out

Yi Fuxian writes: China’s population decline, which the Chinese government officially confirmed in January, has led many observers to wonder if the country’s current demographic trends threaten its stability. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s population shrank last year for the first time in 60 years, nine years earlier than government projections had anticipated. The fertility rate (births per woman) fell to 1.0-1.1, well below the official forecast of 1.8. Most notably, the number of births dropped sharply to 9.56 million, the fewest since 1790, despite China’s…

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Pliny the Elder’s radical idea to catalog knowledge

Pliny the Elder’s radical idea to catalog knowledge

By Tom Siegfried, Knowable Magazine, February 2, 2023 Among the achievements of the ancient Roman Empire still acclaimed today, historians list things like aqueducts, roads, legal theory, exceptional architecture and the spread of Latin as the language of intellect (along with the Latin alphabet, memorialized nowadays in many popular typefaces). Rome was not known, though, for substantially advancing basic science. But in the realm of articulating and preserving current knowledge about nature, one Roman surpassed all others. He was the…

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Inside the stunning growth of Russia’s Wagner Group

Inside the stunning growth of Russia’s Wagner Group

Politico reports: American and European allies are mobilizing to thwart the rapid expansion of the Russian paramilitary group known as Wagner, run by a Putin-affiliated oligarch, as it captures key cities for Moscow in Ukraine and spreads its influence to Africa and other corners of the world. With tens of thousands of fighters, many of them now battlefield-trained, the Wagner Group’s emergence as a rogue military threat could become a serious global challenge in years to come, U.S. and European…

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U.S. officials believe China may be providing Russia nonlethal military assistance in Ukraine war

U.S. officials believe China may be providing Russia nonlethal military assistance in Ukraine war

NBC News reports: The US believes China may be providing non-lethal military assistance to Russia for use in Ukraine, according to four US officials familiar with the matter, and the administration is concerned they are considering sending lethal aid. While China has provided some help to Russia, including parroting Russian disinformation campaigns about the war and promoting Russian false pretexts about the war, this is more tangible assistance for use by Russian troops in Ukraine, according to sources familiar with…

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U.S. formally accuses Russia of crimes against humanity in Ukraine, Harris says

U.S. formally accuses Russia of crimes against humanity in Ukraine, Harris says

Politico reports: The United States has determined that Russia is committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Saturday, the latest salvo in the West’s effort to hold Moscow accountable for its wartime atrocities. In a marquee address at the Munich Security Conference, Harris detailed that Russia is responsible for a “widespread and systematic attack” against Ukraine’s civilian population, citing evidence of execution-style killings, rape, torture and forceful deportations — sometimes perpetrated against children. As a result,…

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Rail companies blocked safety rules before Ohio derailment

Rail companies blocked safety rules before Ohio derailment

The Lever reports: Before the recent fiery Norfolk Southern train derailment prompted emergency evacuations in Ohio, the company helped kill a federal safety rule aimed at upgrading the rail industry’s Civil War-era braking systems, according to documents reviewed by The Lever. Though the company’s 150-car train in Ohio reportedly burst into 100-foot flames upon derailing — and was transporting materials that triggered a fireball when they were released and incinerated — it was not being regulated as a “high-hazard flammable train,” federal officials told The Lever….

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New court filings reveal what Fox News leaders really think of its viewers

New court filings reveal what Fox News leaders really think of its viewers

Brian Stelter writes: The basic story of Fox News and the 2020 election is well understood. Fox’s relatively small news operation covered the vote count accurately; this coverage infuriated President Donald Trump, the MAGA base, and Fox’s opinion stars; some viewers temporarily flipped to further-right outlets, such as Newsmax; and Fox panicked. But thanks to Dominion Voting Systems, which is pursuing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, we now know that the network’s sense of crisis was even more…

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Ants aren’t adapting to warmer temperatures

Ants aren’t adapting to warmer temperatures

Eos reports: Ants are a bedrock of forest ecosystems, and they might not be adjusting well to warming temperatures. In newly published research, scientists found that foraging ants preferred to gather food placed at specific temperatures but did not avoid food that was too hot or too cold. Long-term exposure to these hot, but sublethal, temperatures could be changing the ants’ food and energy usage, harming colonies and broader forest ecosystems. Hotter temperatures force ants to use more energy to…

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Cockatoos know how to pick the right tools for the job

Cockatoos know how to pick the right tools for the job

The New York Times reports: Cockatoos contain contradictions. “They behave like gremlins,” said Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, a biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. His colleague Alice Auersperg agreed. “Imagine a toddler with pliers in their head,” she said, that is also able to fly. But just like toddlers, cockatoos can be sweet and curious, always exploring the world around them. Dr. Auersperg and other researchers showed the innateness of this curiosity in 2021, when they reported that wild Goffin’s…

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In wake of Ukraine war, U.S. and allies are hunting down Russian spies

In wake of Ukraine war, U.S. and allies are hunting down Russian spies

The Washington Post reports: Among the slumbering passengers on an overnight flight from Miami to Munich last month were two travelers on opposing sides of an espionage takedown. In one seat was a German citizen who would be arrested upon arrival and charged with treason for helping Russia recruit and run a Kremlin mole in the upper ranks of Germany’s intelligence service. Seated nearby was an FBI agent who had boarded the flight to surreptitiously monitor the suspected operative, according…

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A Russian mole in Germany sows suspicions at home, and beyond

A Russian mole in Germany sows suspicions at home, and beyond

The New York Times reports: A few days before Christmas, a convoy of security vehicles invaded a quiet corner of Weilheim, a quaint Bavarian town of pastel squares and fastidiously kept cobblestone streets. Their target seemed as unassuming as the setting: a local children’s soccer coach. Nothing ever stood out about the man, fellow coaches recalled. He was not short, but not tall — friendly, yet never wanting to discuss anything but soccer. Grasping for words, most landed on the…

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Trump leaked classified Russia papers to conservative journalist

Trump leaked classified Russia papers to conservative journalist

Murray Waas reports: In the closing days of his presidency— as President Donald J. Trump was preparing to declassify and make public almost a thousand pages of highly classified records pertaining to the FBI investigation into Russia’s covert interference in the 2016 presidential election to help elect him, and defeat Hillary Clinton — he turned to conservative columnist John Solomon for help. On Jan 14, 2021, less than a week before Trump was to leave office, Solomon excitedly declared on…

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GOP operative sentenced to 18 months for funneling Russian money to Trump campaign

GOP operative sentenced to 18 months for funneling Russian money to Trump campaign

Mother Jones reports: On Friday, a federal judge in Washington, DC sentenced a veteran GOP operative to 18 months in prison for funneling $25,000 from a Russian businessman to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Jesse Benton, a longtime aide to both Ron and Rand Paul, was convicted in November on six related charges. The court found that he and another GOP operative accepted $100,000 from Roman Vasilenko, a St. Petersburg-based influencer who wanted photos with Trump to display on his social…

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