Russia abandons Ukrainian city of Kherson in major retreat

Russia abandons Ukrainian city of Kherson in major retreat

Moment Surovikin and Shoygu admit defeat in the Kherson direction and announce the withdrawal of troops. pic.twitter.com/10UZgVuIcm — Dmitri (@wartranslated) November 9, 2022 Reuters reports: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his troops to withdraw from the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson and take up defensive lines on the opposite bank of the River Dnipro. The announcement marked one of Russia’s most significant retreats and a potential turning point in the war, now nearing the end of its…

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With Lula back, can Brazil turn the tide on Amazon destruction?

With Lula back, can Brazil turn the tide on Amazon destruction?

Jonathan Watts writes: The month before Brazil’s October 30 presidential election was the most brutal of Jair Bolsonaro’s term as president. Landowners rushed to illegally clear forest while they could rely on the impunity that had been a characteristic of the Bolsonaro era. From my home in Altamira, I could see flames on the other side of the Xingu River from a blaze large enough to generate its own lightning. Most other days in September and October, my asthmatic lungs…

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Lawyers press international court to investigate a ‘network’ committing crimes against humanity in Brazil’s Amazon

Lawyers press international court to investigate a ‘network’ committing crimes against humanity in Brazil’s Amazon

Inside Climate News reports: Even as environmentalists cheer the ouster of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as a turning point for the Amazon rainforest, new information filed Wednesday with the International Criminal Court suggest that the battle to protect the region and its inhabitants is far from over. In the filing, human rights and environmental lawyers acting on behalf of rural land users are requesting an investigation into a colossal “network” of politicians, business officials, industry lobbyists and criminal gangs for…

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How I learned to stop worrying and love uncertainty

How I learned to stop worrying and love uncertainty

Paul M Sutter writes: Like most physicists, I spent much of my career ignoring the majority of quantum mechanics. I was taught the theory in graduate school and applied the mechanics here and there when an interesting problem required it … and that’s about it. Despite its fearsome reputation, the mathematics of quantum theory is actually rather straightforward. Once you get used to the ins and outs, it’s simpler to solve a wide variety of problems in quantum mechanics than…

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Russia’s heavy casualties in Ukraine spark outcry and rare official response

Russia’s heavy casualties in Ukraine spark outcry and rare official response

The Washington Post reports: Steep Russian casualties in key battles in eastern Ukraine have prompted an unusual public outcry — and sharp criticism of military commanders — by surviving soldiers and family members of recently conscripted fighters, who say their units were led to slaughter in poorly planned operations. The uproar over battlefield losses near Vuhledar in the Donetsk region prompted an official statement from the Russian Defense Ministry, which sought to play down the reportedly high death toll among…

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Ukraine’s Zelensky sets conditions for ‘genuine’ peace talks with Russia

Ukraine’s Zelensky sets conditions for ‘genuine’ peace talks with Russia

The Wall Street Journal reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was open to negotiations with Russia if they are focused on safeguarding Ukraine’s territorial integrity, compensating Kyiv and bringing to justice perpetrators of war crimes. Speaking ahead of his address to a global climate summit in Egypt on Tuesday, Mr. Zelensky said late Monday: “Anyone who treats seriously the climate agenda should just as seriously treat the necessity of immediately stopping Russian aggression, resuming our territorial integrity and forcing…

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‘We were completely exposed’: Russian conscripts say hundreds killed in attack

‘We were completely exposed’: Russian conscripts say hundreds killed in attack

The Guardian reports: Hours after Aleksei Agafonov arrived in the Luhansk region on 1 November as part of a battalion of new conscripts, his unit were handed shovels and ordered to dig trenches throughout the night. Their digging, which they took turns to do because of the lack of available shovels, was abruptly interrupted in the early hours of the next day as Ukrainian artillery lit up the sky and shells started raining down on Agafonov and his unit. “A…

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The world is falling short of its climate goals. Four big emitters show why

The world is falling short of its climate goals. Four big emitters show why

The New York Times reports: Seven years after the Paris Agreement, in which leaders pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, the world is still not on track to meet those goals. New data published by Climate Action Tracker, an independent research group, ahead of this week’s United Nations climate summit reveals the gap. None of the world’s biggest emitters — China, the United States, the European Union and India —…

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Trump keeps musing about journalists being raped in prison — he’s not joking

Trump keeps musing about journalists being raped in prison — he’s not joking

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump ended his pre-midterm rally blitz in disgusting fashion, calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “an animal,” championing the death penalty, and giddily imagining the prison rape of the journalist who reported on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “The leaking from the Supreme Court is unbelievable,” the former president said Monday night at a rally in Ohio. “But you get the information very easily. You tell the reporter who is it … and…

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Meet the ‘Black Robe Regiment’ of extremist pastors spreading Christian nationalism

Meet the ‘Black Robe Regiment’ of extremist pastors spreading Christian nationalism

Vice News reports: Days before the midterm elections, Pastor David MacLellan was ready to preach far-right politics through Bible verses to his small congregation. MacLellan, a hulking man with a long, grizzled black beard, isn’t an ordinary pastor. He proudly identifies himself as a far-right, extremist pastor and a Christian nationalist, someone who believes American politics should reflect fundamentalist Christian values. And he’s part of a growing national religious political movement called the Black Robe Regiment, a modern-day group inspired…

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How supergenes fuel evolution despite harmful mutations

How supergenes fuel evolution despite harmful mutations

Carrie Arnold writes: Thousands of miles from home in the steamy Amazon rainforest in the mid-1800s, the British naturalist Henry Walter Bates had a problem. More than one, really; there were thumb-size biting insects, the ever-present threat of malaria, venomous snakes, and mold and mildew that threatened to overtake his precious specimens before they could be shipped back to England. But the nagging scientific problem that bothered him involved butterflies. Bates had noticed that some of the brightly colored Heliconius…

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Climate change threatening ‘things Americans value most,’ U.S. report says

Climate change threatening ‘things Americans value most,’ U.S. report says

The Washington Post reports: Climate change is unleashing “far-reaching and worsening” calamities in every region of the United States, and the economic and human toll will only increase unless humans move faster to slow the planet’s warming, according to a sprawling new federal report released Monday. “The things Americans value most are at risk,” write the National Climate Assessment authors, who represent a broad range of federal agencies. “Many of the harmful impacts that people across the country are already…

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A technologically advanced society is choosing to destroy itself. It’s both fascinating and horrifying to watch

A technologically advanced society is choosing to destroy itself. It’s both fascinating and horrifying to watch

Landon Parenteau/Unsplash, CC BY By Christopher Wright, University of Sydney; Daniel Nyberg, University of Newcastle, and Vanessa Bowden, University of Newcastle As world leaders assemble for the United Nations climate change conference (COP27) in Egypt, it’s hard to be optimistic the talks will generate any radical departure from the inexorable rise in global carbon emissions over the past two centuries. After all, before last year’s Glasgow talks, experts warned the summit was the world’s last chance to limit global warming…

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How a GOP Congress could roll back freedoms nationwide

How a GOP Congress could roll back freedoms nationwide

Ronald Brownstein writes: If Republicans win control of one or both congressional chambers this week, they will likely begin a project that could reshape the nation’s political and legal landscape: imposing on blue states the rollback of civil rights and liberties that has rapidly advanced through red states since 2021. Over the past two years, the 23 states where Republicans hold unified control of the governorship and state legislature have approved the most aggressive wave of socially conservative legislation in…

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