Scientists have found an alarming environmental impact of vast data centers

Scientists have found an alarming environmental impact of vast data centers

CNN reports: The vast data centers that power artificial intelligence guzzle huge amounts of energy but they also have another alarming impact, according to new research. They are creating “heat islands,” warming the land around them by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and making life hotter for more than 340 million people. There are still big gaps in our understanding of the impacts of data centers, even as they boom in number, said Andrea Marinoni, associate professor with the Earth…

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As public anger rises, even TMZ is channeling the national discontent

As public anger rises, even TMZ is channeling the national discontent

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Russell Berman write: For a brief moment last week, Congress started to do something productive. The Senate, after weeks of bickering and fruitless negotiations, unanimously approved legislation to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, taking a small but meaningful step toward resolving one of the many crises that have sprung up like targets in a game of whack-a-mole during President Trump’s second term. All that stood between tens of thousands of federal employees and…

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Rubio co-sponsored law that blocks Trump from pulling out of NATO

Rubio co-sponsored law that blocks Trump from pulling out of NATO

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump’s threat to exit NATO as retaliation for the bloc’s failure to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz faces a major obstacle — one that comes from his very own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Rubio as a Republican senator from Florida sponsored bipartisan legislation that bars presidents from unilaterally withdrawing the US from the security alliance without the approval of Congress. The measure, co-sponsored with Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, was included in the…

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Top Gulf aluminum producer EGA halted smelter after Iran strike

Top Gulf aluminum producer EGA halted smelter after Iran strike

Bloomberg reports: Emirates Global Aluminium, the Middle East’s top producer of the metal, halted operations at its Al Taweelah smelter after the site was struck by Iranian missiles and drones over the weekend, according to a person familiar with the matter. The smelter on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi lost power due to the strikes and smelting facilities known as potlines were forced into an uncontrolled shutdown, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t…

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UAE wants to force Strait of Hormuz open and is willing to join the fight

UAE wants to force Strait of Hormuz open and is willing to join the fight

The Wall Street Journal reports: The United Arab Emirates is preparing to help the U.S. and other allies open the Strait of Hormuz by force, Arab officials said, a move that would make it the first Persian Gulf country to become a combatant, after being hit by Iranian attacks. The U.A.E. is lobbying for a United Nations Security Council resolution that would authorize such action, the officials said. Emirati diplomats have urged the U.S. and military powers in Europe and…

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Angered by SCOTUS, Trump brands U.S. as ‘STUPID’ for allowing birthright citizenship

Angered by SCOTUS, Trump brands U.S. as ‘STUPID’ for allowing birthright citizenship

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump abruptly exited the Supreme Court on Wednesday after some of his own conservative justices did not appear convinced by his bid to upend birthright citizenship in America. Trump made the unprecedented decision to sit in on oral arguments, staring down the court’s nine justices as they quizzed his lawyers on one of the most consequential constitutional questions they face this year: whether all children born in the United States can continue to automatically receive…

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Border Patrol chief Michael Banks hit with prostitution allegations by agents

Border Patrol chief Michael Banks hit with prostitution allegations by agents

Washington Examiner reports: The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes, according to six current and former Border Patrol employees who spoke with the Washington Examiner. Banks “bragged” to colleagues while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. Banks’ behavior was said to have been…

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The new era of militia influencers

The new era of militia influencers

Wired reports: Just over a week into the US and Israel’s war with Iran, Eric Roscher, an Air Force veteran, published a YouTube video on what he describes as the “very real concerns surrounding sleeper cells and terrorist threats” in the US. The video, titled “Credible DOMESTIC Threat? FBI warns of attack—Drills/Considerations for the Prepared Citizen,” was produced by Roscher’s Florida-based company Barrel and Hatchet, which runs military-style training, sells branded merchandise and tactical gear, and produces online content. In…

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Iran threatens to start attacking major U.S. technology firms on April 1

Iran threatens to start attacking major U.S. technology firms on April 1

Wired reports: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Tuesday that it plans to begin attacking more than a dozen American companies across the Middle East on Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of Iranian citizens in the ongoing war with the US and Israel. The list of companies includes Apple, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Tesla, and Boeing, which the IRGC accused of enabling United States military targeting operations. The IRGC urged employees of the US firms to evacuate and civilians…

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Israel to destroy ‘all houses’ near Lebanon border, defence minister says

Israel to destroy ‘all houses’ near Lebanon border, defence minister says

Reuters reports: Israel will destroy all homes in Lebanese villages near the ‌border and 600,000 people who fled the south will not be allowed home until northern Israel is secure, the defence minister said on Tuesday, vowing to inflict Gaza-like destruction in the area. Israel Katz reiterated Israeli plans to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, saying that it would maintain control over a swathe of territory up to the Litani River once the war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah…

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Trump is trying to override our voting system

Trump is trying to override our voting system

Sen. Mark Warner writes: In the decade since President Vladimir Putin of Russia directed a sweeping campaign of hacking and social media messaging to try to tilt the 2016 presidential election toward his preferred candidate, the United States has rightly focused on shoring up our elections against foreign meddling. But I fear that foreign interference is no longer the most pressing danger to our elections. It is increasingly evident that the greatest threat now comes from inside our own government….

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John Eastman: The man behind Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship

John Eastman: The man behind Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship

Politico reports: Long before John Eastman helped devise Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election, he had another pet cause: ending birthright citizenship. The idea was once relegated to obscure articles in right-wing journals and little-noticed debates before conservative groups. But Trump ushered it into the limelight on his first day back in office last year by issuing an executive order purporting to upend the well-established understanding that virtually everyone born on U.S. soil gets American citizenship. Now, Eastman…

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Trump’s Justice Department dropped 23,000 criminal investigations in shift to immigration

Trump’s Justice Department dropped 23,000 criminal investigations in shift to immigration

By Ken B. Morales and David Armstrong This story was originally published by ProPublica In the first days after Pam Bondi was appointed attorney general last year, the Department of Justice began shutting down pending criminal cases at a record pace. The cases included an investigation into a Virginia nursing home with a recent record of patient abuse; probes of fraud involving several New Jersey labor unions, including one opened after a top official of a national union was accused…

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Kristi Noem ‘blindsided’ by cross-dressing husband who put her at risk for blackmail

Kristi Noem ‘blindsided’ by cross-dressing husband who put her at risk for blackmail

The Independent reports: Ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was “blindsided” by a report alleging that her husband has been posting photos of himself cross-dressing online. National security experts said that Bryon Noem’s alleged activities could have put his wife at risk while she served in President Donald Trump’s cabinet, according to a bombshell Daily Mail report published Tuesday. Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month by Trump, is said to be “devastated” by the report, which detailed how…

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