Music: Bremer/McCoy — ‘Ny Begyndelse’
The upper atmosphere is cooling, prompting new climate concerns
Fred Pearce writes: There is a paradox at the heart of our changing climate. While the blanket of air close to the Earth’s surface is warming, most of the atmosphere above is becoming dramatically colder. The same gases that are warming the bottom few miles of air are cooling the much greater expanses above that stretch to the edge of space. This paradox has long been predicted by climate modelers, but only recently quantified in detail by satellite sensors. The…
Pentagon accounting error overvalued Ukraine weapons aid by $3 billion
Reuters reports: The Pentagon overestimated the value of the ammunition, missiles and other equipment it sent to Ukraine by around $3 billion, a Senate aide and a defense official said on Thursday, an error that may lead the way for more weapons being sent to Kyiv for its defense against Russian forces. The error was the result of assigning a higher than warranted value on weaponry that was taken from U.S. stocks and then shipped to Ukraine, two senior defense…
U.S. signals to allies it won’t block their export of F-16 jets to Ukraine
CNN reports: The Biden administration has signaled to European allies in recent weeks that the US would allow them to export F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, sources familiar with the discussions said, as the White House comes under increasing pressure from members of Congress and allies to help Ukraine procure the planes amid intensifying Russian aerial attacks. Administration officials are not aware, however, of any formal requests by any allies to export F-16s, and State Department officials who would normally…
Trust in Supreme Court fell to lowest point in 50 years after abortion decision, poll shows
The Associated Press reports: Confidence in the Supreme Court sank to its lowest point in at least 50 years in 2022 in the wake of the Dobbs decision that led to state bans and other restrictions on abortion, a major trends survey shows. The divide between Democrats and Republicans over support for abortion rights also was the largest ever in 2022, according to the General Social Survey. The long-running and widely respected survey conducted by NORC at the University of…
Mayoral losses deal blow to GOP in conservative strongholds
The Washington Post reports: Republicans suffered surprising losses Tuesday in mayoral races in Jacksonville, Fla., and Colorado Springs, dealing a blow to the GOP in two longtime conservative strongholds and highlighting the limits of waging hyperpartisan campaign battles in local races. In Jacksonville, Florida’s most populous city, Democrat Donna Deegan upset Republican Daniel Davis by about 4 percentage points to win the mayor’s race. Deegan’s victory flips the mayoral seat of the largest city in the United States that was…
Christiane Amanpour voices dissent over Trump town hall, says she had ‘very robust exchange’ with CNN chief
Oliver Darcy writes: It has been one week since CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump — and the fierce fallout stemming from the event is still reverberating. While accepting the prestigious Columbia Journalism Award and serving as the school’s 2023 commencement speaker, Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday became the first network anchor to publicly voice dissent with management over the town hall, which has spawned a storm of fierce backlash. Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, disclosed that she had met with…
ChatGPT can’t think – consciousness is something entirely different to today’s AI
Illus_man / Shutterstock By Philip Goff, Durham University There has been shock around the world at the rapid rate of progress with ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence created with what’s known as large language models (LLMs). These systems can produce text that seems to display thought, understanding and even creativity. But can these systems really think and understand? This is not a question that can be answered through technological advance, but careful philosophical analysis and argument tells us the answer…
Music: Bremer/McCoy — ‘Fortæl Os Om Begyndelsen’
New evidence in special counsel probe undercuts Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
CNN reports: The National Archives has informed former president Donald Trump that it is set to hand over to special counsel Jack Smith 16 records which show Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president, according to multiple sources. In a May 16 letter obtained by CNN, acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall writes to Trump, “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to…
I’ve never seen the Kremlin so rattled
Anna Nemtsova writes: A mysterious drone attack on the Kremlin. A car bombing that wounded a key advocate of the invasion of Ukraine. Four military aircraft shot down in a single day — inside Russia’s borders. If the Ukrainians and their allies wanted to rattle the Russian leadership, it’s working. Never, in more than two decades of covering Vladimir Putin’s regime, have I seen it in such an obvious state of chaos and disarray. These days, Kremlin-watchers don’t have to read tea leaves or…
Premature calls for Ukraine-Russia talks are dangerous
Hein Goemans and Branislav Slantchev write: Russia’s war in Ukraine has been raging for more than a year. And for more than a year, various international leaders—including French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese leader Xi Jinping—not to mention domestic pundits and politicians, have been calling for negotiations to end the bloodshed. Though well-intentioned, these appeals fail to take into account the fundamental nature of war, which requires the fighting to play out before a lasting peace can be a realistic…
The truth about Russia, Trump and the 2016 election
Glenn Kessler writes: There have been four major investigations into Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election and the FBI’s handling of the subject — a 2019 report released by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, a 2019 Justice Department inspector general report, a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee issued in 2020 by a GOP-controlled Senate, and now a 2023 report released by special counsel John Durham. All told, the reports add up to about 2,500 pages of dense prose and sometimes contradictory conclusions. But broad themes…
Elon Musk at home among the anti-Semites
Yair Rosenberg writes: Last night, Elon Musk made two rookie social-media mistakes: He tweeted after 10 p.m., and he echoed paranoid anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. “George Soros reminds me of Magneto,” he declared, likening the financier to the Marvel supervillain, both of them Jewish Holocaust survivors. In case the meaning was unclear, Musk quickly clarified to another user, “He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.” Criticizing George Soros is not inherently anti-Semitic. He is one of…
New genetic analysis of 290 people suggests humans emerged at various times and places in Africa
Carl Zimmer reports: Scientists have revealed a surprisingly complex origin of our species, rejecting the long-held argument that modern humans arose from one place in Africa during one period in time. By analyzing the genomes of 290 living people, researchers concluded that modern humans descended from at least two populations that coexisted in Africa for a million years before merging in several independent events across the continent. The findings were published on Wednesday in Nature. “There is no single birthplace,”…
Bees can learn, remember, think and make decisions – here’s a look at how they navigate the world
A bumblebee lands on the flowers of a white sloe bush. Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images By Stephen Buchmann, University of Arizona As trees and flowers blossom in spring, bees emerge from their winter nests and burrows. For many species it’s time to mate, and some will start new solitary nests or colonies. Bees and other pollinators are essential to human society. They provide about one-third of the food we eat, a service with a global value estimated at…