Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

Sinema speaks up — and shakes off her critics

Sinema speaks up — and shakes off her critics

Politico reports: Watch the Senate floor enough and you’ll notice Sen. Kyrsten Sinema regularly chatting with Mitch McConnell and his top deputy John Thune. Republicans have even tried to recruit her to their conference, and throw the Senate to the GOP. Don’t worry though, Democrats: Sinema’s not becoming a Republican. “No. Why would I do that?” the moderate Arizonan says in her trademark deadpan. Thune, the GOP whip, wishes it were otherwise, confirming in an interview he’s pressed Sinema to…

Read More Read More

Can Russia’s press ever be free?

Can Russia’s press ever be free?

Masha Gessen writes: Around noon every workday, Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, sits down at the head of a long table in a large round room in the paper’s office, in Moscow, to chair a planyorka, or planning meeting. On October 11th, the Monday after the Friday when the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that it was awarding this year’s Peace Prize to Muratov and the Filipina journalist Maria Ressa, ten people gathered at the table, joined by fifteen…

Read More Read More

The elephant who could be a person

The elephant who could be a person

Jill Lepore writes: The subject of the most important animal-rights case of the 21st century was born in Thailand during the Vietnam War. Very soon after that, a tousle-haired baby, she became trapped in human history. She was captured, locked in a cage, trucked to the coast, and loaded onto a roaring 747 that soared across the Pacific until it made landfall in the United States. She spent her earliest years in Florida, not far from Disney World, before she…

Read More Read More

Who said science and art were two cultures?

Who said science and art were two cultures?

Kevin Berger writes: On a May evening in 1959, C.P. Snow, a popular novelist and former research scientist, gave a lecture before a gathering of dons and students at the University of Cambridge, his alma mater. He called his talk “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Snow declared that a gulf of mutual incomprehension divided literary intellectuals and scientists. “The non-scientists have a rooted impression that the scientists are shallowly optimistic, unaware of man’s condition,” Snow said. “On the…

Read More Read More

Xi Jinping’s terrifying new China

Xi Jinping’s terrifying new China

Michael Schuman writes: China’s social media was briefly aflutter this fall about an impressive feat in the popular online fantasy game Honor of Kings. A player had completed a “pentakill,” or five kills in a row, but something just smelled wrong: The user in question was 60 years old, according to the verified account information—hardly the type to be an expert gamer. Even more mysterious, why was this person brandishing digital weaponry at 3 a.m.? Was the player in fact…

Read More Read More

This next-generation nuclear power plant is pitched for Washington State. Can it ‘change the world’?

This next-generation nuclear power plant is pitched for Washington State. Can it ‘change the world’?

The Seattle Times reports: Near the Columbia River, Clay Sell hopes to launch a new era of nuclear power with four small reactors, each stocked with billiard ball-sized “pebbles” packed full of uranium fuel. Chief executive officer of Maryland-based X-energy, Sell aims to bring the project online by 2028 as part of a broader attempt to develop safer, more flexible reactors to redefine the nation’s energy future. These efforts have gained support in the nation’s capital where many Democrats eager…

Read More Read More

New Russian satellite-killer produces decades of fallout

New Russian satellite-killer produces decades of fallout

Cosmos reports: The International Space Station is going into lockdown every 93 minutes. Satellite operators are scrambling to see if their assets are at risk. All thanks to a “most irresponsible” Russian orbital weapons test. The world’s space agencies and industries went into high alert overnight and ground-based radars had begun issuing warnings about the appearance of a deadly new hail of debris in low Earth orbit. It was quickly determined that this was not the result of a random,…

Read More Read More

Could a new government report spell felony charges for Trump?

Could a new government report spell felony charges for Trump?

Slate reports: Last week, the Office of Special Counsel released a report finding that 13 senior Trump administration officials violated the Hatch Act, a statute prohibiting federal officials from using their positions to influence the outcome of partisan elections. In August 2020, we filed a Hatch Act complaint with that office against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for, among other things, using a diplomatic mission to Jerusalem to broadcast a speech to the Republican National Convention in which he advocated…

Read More Read More

Mnuchin and Pompeo reportedly discussed a plan to oust Trump from office on January 6

Mnuchin and Pompeo reportedly discussed a plan to oust Trump from office on January 6

Rolling Stone reports: Steve Mnuchin and Mike Pompeo discussed a plan to remove Trump from office after the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to Jonathan Karl’s new book Betrayal, which chronicles the final days of the former president’s time in office. Then-Treasury Secretary Mnuchin reportedly called then-Secretary of State Pompeo on the evening of Jan. 6 to suggest using the 25th Amendment, which outlines the protocols for how to replace the president or vice president in the event of their death,…

Read More Read More

Tucker Carlson’s January 6 ‘documentary’ is his most nakedly fascist piece of propaganda yet

Tucker Carlson’s January 6 ‘documentary’ is his most nakedly fascist piece of propaganda yet

HuffPost reports: Tucker Carlson’s “Patriot Purge,” a revisionist history of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, clocks in at an easily binge-watchable 70 minutes, spread over three episodes. It’s produced with the aesthetics and narrative suspense of an action thriller. The good guys are the “patriots” who stormed the Capitol. The bad guys are those in the media and government who are persecuting them. “The left is hunting the right,” Carlson warns his viewers. It is the most…

Read More Read More

To be energy-efficient, brains predict their perceptions

To be energy-efficient, brains predict their perceptions

Anil Ananthaswamy writes: How our brain, a three-pound mass of tissue encased within a bony skull, creates perceptions from sensations is a long-standing mystery. Abundant evidence and decades of sustained research suggest that the brain cannot simply be assembling sensory information, as though it were putting together a jigsaw puzzle, to perceive its surroundings. This is borne out by the fact that the brain can construct a scene based on the light entering our eyes, even when the incoming information…

Read More Read More

The autocrats are winning

The autocrats are winning

Anne Applebaum writes: The future of democracy may well be decided in a drab office building on the outskirts of Vilnius, alongside a highway crammed with impatient drivers heading out of town. I met Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya there this spring, in a room that held a conference table, a whiteboard, and not much else. Her team—more than a dozen young journalists, bloggers, vloggers, and activists—was in the process of changing offices. But that wasn’t the only reason the space felt stale…

Read More Read More

‘COP26 hasn’t solved the problem’: Scientists react to UN climate deal

‘COP26 hasn’t solved the problem’: Scientists react to UN climate deal

Nature reports: Government ministers at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) have reached a deal on further steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after discussions overran by 24 hours. On 13 November, representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed the final text of the deal, which pledges further action to curb emissions, more frequent updates on progress and additional funding for low- and middle-income countries. Researchers have expressed relief that the meeting did not fail to…

Read More Read More

Biden names Mitch Landrieu to lead roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan

Biden names Mitch Landrieu to lead roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Biden named former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to supervise the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill, turning to a veteran of Hurricane Katrina’s recovery to coordinate the rebuilding of roads, bridges and ports, the White House said. Mr. Biden chose Mr. Landrieu, a former Louisiana lieutenant governor who led the city of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018, because of his experience running the city and his relationships with state and municipal leaders around…

Read More Read More