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Preventing the collapse of biodiversity, demands the development of a new planetary politics

Preventing the collapse of biodiversity, demands the development of a new planetary politics

Stewart Patrick writes: The planet is in the midst of an environmental emergency, and the world is only tinkering at the margins. Humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels and voracious appetite for natural resources are accelerating climate change and degrading ecosystems on land and sea, threatening the integrity of the biosphere and thus the survival of our own species. Given these risks, it is shocking that the multilateral system has failed to respond more forcefully. Belatedly, the United States, the EU,…

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If we are entering the sixth mass extinction, we are facing our own demise

If we are entering the sixth mass extinction, we are facing our own demise

Patrick Hughes writes: Five times in our planet’s history, adverse conditions have extinguished most of life. Now, scientists say, life on Earth could be in trouble again, with some even saying we could be entering a sixth mass extinction. No credible scientist disputes that we are in a crisis regarding the speed at which nature is being destroyed. But could we really be on track to lose most life on Earth? Human-caused climate change, changes in land use and pollution…

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Grant Wahl just died in a region whose rulers routinely murder those who dare speak truth to power

Grant Wahl just died in a region whose rulers routinely murder those who dare speak truth to power

The reason why ppl are suspecting Qatar of foul play in Grant Wahl’s death is because Sharia countries have a track record of chopping up journalists in embassies, beating girls to death over hijab, executing gay ppl and atheists, etc etc. You made this bed. #SorryNotSorry. — Yasmine Mohammed 🦋 ياسمين محمد (@YasMohammedxx) December 10, 2022 NPR reports: Wahl had been critical of FIFA and Qatar during the tournament. In an interview with NPR, Eric Wahl said his brother didn’t…

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Zero Covid’s failure is Xi’s failure

Zero Covid’s failure is Xi’s failure

Michael Schuman writes: For three years, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, fought a remorseless battle against COVID-19. He called it a “people’s war”—a national struggle to defeat an unseen foe and save lives. The contest locked families in their homes for weeks, strangled the economy, and closed the country to the world. Other governments that failed to contain the pandemic may be indifferent to death and suffering, the message was, but not the Chinese Communist Party, which cares about life above…

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Russia launches new drone attacks as partnership with Iran deepens

Russia launches new drone attacks as partnership with Iran deepens

The Wall Street Journal reports: Russia launched fresh attacks with Iranian-made drones early Saturday over Ukraine, where the country’s southern command said it shot down 10 of the unmanned aerial systems, an indication that Moscow has replenished its supply of the drones as the two countries move toward what the U.S. has called a full defense partnership. Ukraine’s southern command said it shot down four Shahed-136 drones in the Kherson region, four more in the Mykolaiv region and two in…

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How serious was the Reichsbürger plot?

How serious was the Reichsbürger plot?

The Observer reports: The time to forgive and forget had passed, the grey-bearded man said in a heavy Bavarian growl, his back facing the turquoise Adriatic sea as he calmly gesticulated towards the camera. “Those people who bullied us, who locked us up”, he said, were about to face a reckoning in an “epochal upheaval” that would usher in a new judicial and political order. Change was imminent – a matter of weeks. “If everything goes to plan, we’ll do…

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Elon Musk uses Twitter for partisan ends so he can denounce Twitter’s use for partisan ends

Elon Musk uses Twitter for partisan ends so he can denounce Twitter’s use for partisan ends

Eric Levitz writes: Twitter is not what it seems. The social media platform poses as a neutral marketplace for the exchange of ideas and information; an agora where journalists, politicians, academics, cultural icons, business titans, and ordinary citizens can engage in a dialogue unbounded by gatekeeping elites. But it is actually a tool of progressive power. While you were hypnotized by viral memes, a cabal of social-justice STEM majors seized the commanding heights of the attention economy. And they have…

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Russia is providing ‘unprecedented’ military support to Iran in exchange for drones, officials say

Russia is providing ‘unprecedented’ military support to Iran in exchange for drones, officials say

NBC News reports: Russia is now providing an “unprecedented level” of military and technical support to Iran in exchange for Tehran supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine, senior Biden administration officials say. As part of the enhanced partnership, Russia may be providing Iran with advanced military equipment and components, including helicopters and air defense systems. In the spring, Iranian pilots trained in Russia to fly the Sukhoi Su-35, a Russian fighter jet, which the officials say indicates Iran “may…

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Iran hit with sanctions over first protester execution

Iran hit with sanctions over first protester execution

AFP reports: Iran was slapped with new sanctions Friday and activists called for fresh protests after the Islamic republic carried out its first execution over demonstrations that have shaken the regime for nearly three months. Mohsen Shekari, 23, was hanged Thursday after being convicted of “moharebeh” — or “enmity against God” — after what rights groups denounced as a show trial. The judiciary said Shekari was arrested after blocking a Tehran street and wounding a member of the Basij, a…

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War has tamed Ukraine’s oligarchs, creating space for democratic change

War has tamed Ukraine’s oligarchs, creating space for democratic change

The Washington Post reports: Over two days in October, eight Russian cruise missiles screamed out of the sky and obliterated tens of millions of dollars’ worth of critical machinery at this city’s hulking coal-fired power plant. The attacks were designed to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter. But they also deepened a financial crisis for the plant’s owner, Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest man. Akhmetov’s wealth has dived from $7.6 billion to $4.3 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine in…

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Kyrsten Sinema is playing chicken

Kyrsten Sinema is playing chicken

Jonathan Chait writes: The biggest loser of the 2022 election other than Donald Trump was Kyrsten Sinema. The Arizona senator and now-former Democrat desperately needed Democrats, especially fellow senator Mark Kelly, to lose. Only such a setback would make the party desperate enough to tolerate her continued presence. Kelly’s reelection made it certain that Sinema would face, and lose, a primary challenge in two years. Sinema’s declaration of independence from the party is a ploy to avoid the primary and…

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Donald Trump is running against himself — and losing

Donald Trump is running against himself — and losing

Susan Glasser writes: From his low-energy announcement speech at Mar-a-Lago to his dinner with the Hitler-praising Kanye West and the white supremacist Nick Fuentes, Trump has courted more controversy than votes since launching his bid in November. He has held no campaign rallies and hired no campaign manager. He has hosted a QAnon conspiracy theorist and helped raise money for the indicted insurrectionists of January 6th. More classified items have been found in his possession, and his Trump Organization was…

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Despite a changing climate, Americans are ‘flocking to fire’

Despite a changing climate, Americans are ‘flocking to fire’

Inside Climate News reports: Despite an increase in wildfire risk spurred by climate change, Americans are moving to wildfire-prone areas and prioritizing lower housing costs and amenities such as temperate weather and recreational opportunities over risk of natural disasters. An analysis of U.S. migration data from the past decade published today, “Flocking to fire: How climate and natural hazards shape human migration across the United States,” shows that Americans have been moving into certain “migration hot spots” in the West,…

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DNA from elusive human relatives the Denisovans has left a curious mark on modern people in New Guinea

DNA from elusive human relatives the Denisovans has left a curious mark on modern people in New Guinea

Derek R. Audette/Shutterstock By Irene Gallego Romero, The University of Melbourne and Davide Vespasiani, The University of Melbourne An encounter with a mysterious and extinct human relative – the Denisovans – has left a mark on the immune traits of modern Papuans, in particular those living on New Guinea Island. This is a new discovery we describe in a study published in PLoS Genetics today. It further suggests that our modern human diversity didn’t just evolve – some parts of…

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