Music: Hvalfugl — ‘Polardrømme’
America faces a type of extremist violence it doesn’t know how to stop
Adrienne LaFrance writes: In the weeks before Labor Day 2020, Ted Wheeler, the mayor of Portland, Oregon, began warning people that he believed someone would soon be killed by extremists in his city. Portland was preparing for the 100th consecutive day of conflict among anti-police protesters, right-wing counterprotesters, and the police themselves. Night after night, hundreds of people clashed in the streets. They attacked one another with baseball bats, Tasers, bear spray, fireworks. They filled balloons with urine and marbles…
As Trump inquiry continues, Republicans seek oversight of Georgia prosecutors
The New York Times reports: To Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Atlanta, several bills in the Georgia legislature that would make it easier to remove local prosecutors are racist and perhaps retaliatory for her ongoing investigation of former President Donald J. Trump. To the Republican sponsors of the bills, they are simply a way to ensure that prosecutors enforce the laws of the state, whether they agree with them or not. Two of the measures under consideration would…
Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmut: ‘Our troops are not being protected’
The Kyiv Independent reports: Russia’s relentless assault on Bakhmut is sacrificing waves and waves of unprepared men being sent to their deaths. But multiple defenders of this embattled city in Donetsk Oblast feel that they are in a similar boat, according to interviews with more than a dozen soldiers currently fighting in or around Bakhmut. During their brief visits to the nearby town of Kostiantynivka, Ukrainian infantrymen told the Kyiv Independent of unprepared, poorly-trained battalions being thrown into the front…
Inside the suspicion machine making life-changing decisions about millions of people around the world
Wired reports: Every year, the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands gives some 30,000 people welfare benefits to help them make rent, buy food, and pay essential bills. And every year, thousands of those people are investigated under suspicion of committing benefits fraud. But in recent years, the way that people have been flagged as suspicious has changed. In 2017, the city deployed a machine learning algorithm built by consulting firm Accenture. The algorithm, which generates a risk score for…
Homeland Security has a program gathering domestic intelligence — and virtually no one knows about it
Politico reports: For years, the Department of Homeland Security has run a virtually unknown program gathering domestic intelligence, one of many revelations in a wide-ranging tranche of internal documents reviewed by POLITICO. Those documents also reveal that a significant number of employees in DHS’s intelligence office have raised concerns that the work they are doing could be illegal. Under the domestic-intelligence program, officials are allowed to seek interviews with just about anyone in the United States. That includes people held…
1,000 super-emitting methane leaks risk triggering climate tipping points
The Guardian reports: More than 1,000 “super-emitter” sites gushed the potent greenhouse gas methane into the global atmosphere in 2022, the Guardian can reveal, mostly from oil and gas facilities. The worst single leak spewed the pollution at a rate equivalent to 67m running cars. Separate data also reveals 55 “methane bombs” around the world – fossil fuel extraction sites where gas leaks alone from future production would release levels of methane equivalent to 30 years of all US greenhouse…
The giant arcs that may dwarf everything in the cosmos
Jasmin Fox-Skelly writes: In 2021, British PhD student Alexia Lopez was analysing the light coming from distant quasars when she made a startling discovery. She detected a giant, almost symmetrical arc of galaxies 9.3 billion light years away in the constellation of Boötes the Herdsman. Spanning a massive 3.3 billion light years across, the structure is a whopping 1/15th the radius of the observable Universe. If we could see it from Earth, it would be the size of 35 full…
Music: Wayne Shorter — ‘Ana Maria’
Putin has assembled an axis of autocrats against Ukraine
Justin Daniels writes: Russia isn’t fighting Ukraine alone. Alongside its soldiers are African conscripts, supported by Iranian drones and partly funded by stolen gold and diamonds. They may soon be joined by “lethal support” from China, according to U.S. officials. For these vital contributions, Russian President Vladimir Putin can thank his fellow autocrats. And he’s returning the favor: Despite the invasion’s heavy toll on Russia, he still sends resources to other embattled dictators. Autocrats, like democrats, are finding that war offers them…
Finland on cusp of joining NATO, but maybe not with Sweden
The New York Times reports: Finland’s Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed all the legislation necessary for joining NATO, subject only to the ratification of its bid by the Parliaments of Turkey and Hungary. Finland and Sweden had pledged to enter the alliance “hand in hand,” but Sweden’s application has been held up by Turkey. So if Turkey and Hungary soon approve the Finns’ application, as is expected, Finland will join NATO even without its Nordic partner. In Finland’s 200-member Parliament,…
Israel Air Force reserve fighter pilots refuse to attend training in protest of judicial overhaul
The Jerusalem Post reports: Thirty-seven reservist fighter pilots out of the 40 stationed at the Israel Air Force’s 69th fighter squadron have declared their intention not to turn up for regular training flights on Wednesday in protest of the government’s judicial overhaul. The reservists, who fly the strategic F-15i that is capable of attacking distant targets in the region, announced their decision on Sunday to the senior commanders of the IAF and to their squadron commander. Instead of training, they…
Florida is trying to take away the American right to free speech
In an editorial, the New York Times says: A homeowner gets angry at a county commission over a zoning dispute and writes a Facebook post accusing a local buildings official of being in the pocket of developers. A right-wing broadcaster criticizing border policies accuses the secretary of homeland security of being a traitor. A parent upset about the removal of a gay-themed book from library shelves goes to a school board meeting and calls the board chair a bigot and…
The sad, desolate scenes of CPAC 2023
Laura Jedeed writes: “It’s so great to see everyone here, and it’s so great to see a packed house, too!” It is approximately 11:15 AM in Washington DC, and investigative reporter Sara Carter is lying. The house is never crowded this early on the first day of CPAC, but even by those standards the Potomac Ballroom looks grim. The camera responsible for providing close-in crowd shots that CPAC likes to work into their livestream footage is working hard to stay…
Fox News bosses scolded reporters who challenged false election claims
The Washington Post reports: As a reporter and an anchor for Fox News watched Donald Trump supporters gather at a rally in Washington, D.C., after his election defeat in November 2020, they both had some questions. Many in the crowd, said correspondent Rich Edson, “are picking up on the president’s unfounded claim that there was widespread electoral interference and that the election was stolen — no proof of that.” “What do these folks want?” wondered weekend anchor Leland Vittert. “Is…
Ocean treaty: Historic agreement reached after decade of talks
BBC News reports: Nations have reached a historic agreement to protect the world’s oceans following 10 years of negotiations. The High Seas Treaty aims to place 30% of the seas into protected areas by 2030, to safeguard and recuperate marine nature. The agreement was reached on Saturday evening, after 38 hours of talks, at UN headquarters in New York. The negotiations had been held up for years over disagreements on funding and fishing rights. The last international agreement on ocean…