Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

Nuclear fusion in lab finally makes more energy than it uses

Nuclear fusion in lab finally makes more energy than it uses

Science News reports: Scientists have finally managed to bottle the sun. Researchers with the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif., have ignited controlled nuclear fusion that resulted in the net production of energy. The long-awaited achievement, to be announced December 13 by U.S. Department of Energy officials, is the first time a lab has been able to reproduce the reactions in the sun in a way that leads to more energy coming out of the experiment than going in. “This…

Read More Read More

Mark Meadows exchanged texts with 34 members of Congress about plans to overturn 2020 election

Mark Meadows exchanged texts with 34 members of Congress about plans to overturn 2020 election

TPM’s Hunter Walker, Josh Kovensky and Emine Yücel report: Based on TPM’s analysis, Meadows received at least 364 messages from Republican members of Congress who discussed attempts to reverse the election results with him. He sent at least 95 messages of his own. The committee did not respond to requests for comment. Some of Meadows’ texts — notably with Fox News personalities and a couple members of Congress — have already been made public by the committee, media outlets, and…

Read More Read More

Stephen Miller’s white supremacy law group beats Biden in court

Stephen Miller’s white supremacy law group beats Biden in court

The Washington Post reports: The deal in early 2021 was hailed by advocates for Black farmers as the most significant piece of legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — about $4 billion in President Biden’s massive pandemic stimulus package to rectify decades of discrimination. Minority farmers began investing in new machinery and other improvements, anticipating tens of thousands of dollars in government aid. But today, the landmark deal on behalf of historically disadvantaged farmers is dead — successfully…

Read More Read More

Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief

Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk escalated his battle of words with previous managers of Twitter into risky new territory over the weekend, allying himself with far-right crusaders against a purported epidemic of child sex abuse and implying that the company’s former head of trust and safety had a permissive view of sexual activity by minors. Musk told more than 30,000 listeners in a live Twitter Spaces audio session Friday night that he recently discovered that child sex abuse material…

Read More Read More

Iran carries out second execution linked to nationwide protests

Iran carries out second execution linked to nationwide protests

The Guardian reports: Iran has publicly hanged a man accused of killing two members of the security forces in its second use of capital punishment against anti-government protesters. Majidreza Rahnavard’s family were woken early on Monday morning to be informed that he had been executed and that his body had been buried in a lot in the local cemetery. Rahnavard, a 23-year-old wrestler, had been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad for allegedly killing two…

Read More Read More

Security expert calls for an international investigation of Germany’s Russia ties

Security expert calls for an international investigation of Germany’s Russia ties

Berliner Zeitung reports: Until February 24th Jessica Berlin was one of many experts on security and defense policy in the Berlin think tank sphere. But shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Berlin put her work on hold to devote herself entirely to helping Ukraine. She vigorously promotes massive support for Kyiv. In an interview with Berliner Zeitung, she calls for an international commission to investigate corruption by German politicians in the energy sector. She talks about Angela Merkel’s fear of Russia…

Read More Read More

British place names resonate with the song of missing birds

British place names resonate with the song of missing birds

Michael J Warren writes: In one of the oldest poems in English literature, there is a beautiful moment when a lone sailor, battling against stormy winter seas and his troubled soul, describes how birds have replaced human company for him on the ‘ice-cold way’ – an admission that carries both comfort and sardonic misery. His entertainment is the ‘swan’s song’, men’s laughter is now ‘the gannet’s sound and curlew’s cry’, and the warming tonic of mead is echoed in the…

Read More Read More

Ukraine can win the war. But the cost may be too high for the West

Ukraine can win the war. But the cost may be too high for the West

The Wall Street Journal reports: Ukrainian leaders have vowed to retake all territory occupied by Russia, prompting a debate over what would be necessary for Ukraine to win and evict Moscow’s forces. The answer is primarily military because Russia is only going to abandon its hard-won gains if its troops suffer catastrophic losses, military strategists say. Behind those talks about weapons and ammunition is a deeper political question as Ukraine’s battlefield fortunes rely heavily on the willingness of Western governments…

Read More Read More

White nationalists, other Republicans brace for ‘total war’

White nationalists, other Republicans brace for ‘total war’

Southern Poverty Law Center reports: A collection of radical right figures including white nationalists and ultranationalist European leaders gathered in Manhattan for the New York Young Republicans Club’s (NYYRC) annual gala Saturday night, where that group’s president declared “total war” on perceived enemies. “We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets,” NYYRC president Gavin…

Read More Read More

Elon Musk is a far-right activist — one tweet says it all

Elon Musk is a far-right activist — one tweet says it all

Charlie Warzel writes: If there’s one tweet that will tell you everything you need to know about Elon Musk, it’s this one from early this morning: My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022 In five words, Musk manages to mock transgender and nonbinary people, signal his disdain for public-health officials, and send up a flare to far-right shitposters and trolls. The tweet is a cruel and senseless play on pronouns that also invokes the right’s fury…

Read More Read More

Is Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News?

Is Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News?

The Guardian reports: Rupert Murdoch rarely has to answer for the alternative realities presented by his hugely profitable US cable network, Fox News. Its conspiratorial claims of a parade of cover ups from the 2012 Benghazi attack to the climate crisis and Covid-19 have been lapped up by Fox viewers and scorned by much of the rest of America, and then the world moved on. But on Tuesday, the 91-year-old billionaire media mogul will be obliged to answer difficult questions…

Read More Read More

Climate change is driving millions to the precipice of a ‘raging food catastrophe’

Climate change is driving millions to the precipice of a ‘raging food catastrophe’

Georgina Gustin writes: If there’s a ring around the sun, it will rain. If the gude bird sings in descending notes, the skies will open. If vultures gather, the showers will begin. Everyone reads the signs, but they don’t mean what they used to. It’s still not raining. Jala Barako is 85, a grandfather of eight and a member of an ancient nomadic tribe. Today, wearing a pinstriped jacket, dark glasses and turban-like hat, he looks like the proprietor of…

Read More Read More

Peru’s ex-president faced bigotry for impoverished past

Peru’s ex-president faced bigotry for impoverished past

The Associated Press reports: When Pedro Castillo won Peru’s presidency last year, it was celebrated as a victory by the country’s poor — the peasants and Indigenous people who live deep in the Andes and whose struggles had long been ignored. His supporters hoped Castillo, a populist outsider of humble roots, would redress their plight — or at least end their invisibility. But during 17 months in office before being ousted and detained Wednesday, supporters instead saw Castillo face the…

Read More Read More

Genetic legacy of Denisovans may be shaping modern immune system of southwest Pacific populations

Genetic legacy of Denisovans may be shaping modern immune system of southwest Pacific populations

Science reports: When modern humans first migrated from Africa to the tropical islands of the southwest Pacific, they encountered unfamiliar people and new pathogens. But their immune systems may have picked up some survival tricks when they mated with the locals—the mysterious Denisovans who gave them immune gene variants that might have protected the newcomers’ offspring from local diseases. Some of these variants still persist in the genomes of people living in Papua New Guinea today, according to a new…

Read More Read More