Beijing is coming for the metaverse

Beijing is coming for the metaverse

Politico reports: China wants to define how a new, promising technology called the metaverse works — and it is pushing proposals that bear an eerie resemblance to the country’s controversial social credit systems, proposals reviewed by POLITICO showed. The proposals, drafted by the state-owned telecoms operator China Mobile, floated a “Digital Identity System” for all users of online virtual worlds, or metaverses. They recommended that the digital ID should work with “natural characteristics” and “social characteristics” that include a range…

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How bad do things have to get for Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency?

How bad do things have to get for Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency?

Eric Lutz writes: A summer of extreme weather in the United States is coming to a close with a one-two punch of historic disasters: the Maui wildfires, which have displaced thousands, killed more than a hundred, and left more than 800 still missing; and Hilary, the hurricane-turned-tropical storm that is bringing catastrophic flooding to Southern California and the desert southwest. The devastation from both is ongoing, but they carry the same message as the hazardous heat and stinging smoke that…

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How the U.S. government came to rely on Elon Musk — and is now struggling to rein him in

How the U.S. government came to rely on Elon Musk — and is now struggling to rein him in

Ronan Farrow writes: Last October, Colin Kahl, then the Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, sat in a hotel in Paris and prepared to make a call to avert disaster in Ukraine. A staffer handed him an iPhone—in part to avoid inviting an onslaught of late-night texts and colorful emojis on Kahl’s own phone. Kahl had returned to his room, with its heavy drapery and distant view of the Eiffel Tower, after a day of meetings with officials…

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A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country

A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country

The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, report: Against the background hum of the convention center, Dar Leaf settled into a club chair to explain the sacred mission of America’s sheriffs, his bright blue eyes and warm smile belying the intensity of the cause. “The sheriff is supposed to be protecting the public from evil,” the chief law enforcement officer for Barry County, Michigan, said during a break in the National Sheriffs’ Association 2023…

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The surprise ruling that tosses a grenade into the Jan. 6 prosecutions

The surprise ruling that tosses a grenade into the Jan. 6 prosecutions

Mark Joseph Stern writes: James Little invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. He later pleaded guilty but remains unrepentant, insisting that he engaged in a “patriotic” protest that was hijacked by antifa, Black Lives Matter, and Capitol Police as part of a “setup” to entrap Trump supporters. In light of his criminal conduct and ongoing lack of remorse, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Little to 60…

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Does Sam Altman know what he’s creating?

Does Sam Altman know what he’s creating?

Ross Andersen writes: On a Monday morning in April, Sam Altman sat inside OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters, telling me about a dangerous artificial intelligence that his company had built but would never release. His employees, he later said, often lose sleep worrying about the AIs they might one day release without fully appreciating their dangers. With his heel perched on the edge of his swivel chair, he looked relaxed. The powerful AI that his company had released in November had…

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Critics of Beijing face increasing impersonation attacks

Critics of Beijing face increasing impersonation attacks

Jemimah Steinfeld writes: Andrew Phelan was preparing his Melbourne home for the arrival of his elderly, unwell mother when the doorbell rang. Standing next to the man whom Phelan had booked to help assemble a bed were four police officers. They were carrying firearms. They barged into his house and told Phelan — a high-profile China watcher and commentator — that he was under arrest. A Chinese-Australian reporter had contacted the Victoria state police to say she’d received an email…

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JWST spots giant black holes all over the early universe

JWST spots giant black holes all over the early universe

Charlie Wood writes: Years before she was even sure the James Webb Space Telescope would successfully launch, Christina Eilers started planning a conference for astronomers specializing in the early universe. She knew that if — preferably, when — JWST started making observations, she and her colleagues would have a lot to talk about. Like a time machine, the telescope could see farther away and farther into the past than any previous instrument. Fortunately for Eilers (and the rest of the…

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The criminal charges against Trump aren’t actually helping him in the GOP primary race, research suggests

The criminal charges against Trump aren’t actually helping him in the GOP primary race, research suggests

Russell Berman writes: In the months since Donald Trump’s indictments started piling up, pollsters have noticed something remarkable: The dozens of criminal charges brought against the former president have seemed to boost his standing in the Republican presidential primary. Trump has widened his already commanding lead over his rivals, and in poll after poll, GOP voters have said that the charges make them more—not less—likely to vote for him again. The dynamic has turned an infamous example of Trumpian bravado—his…

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Bucks County power struggle could hint at shifting suburban politics for 2024

Bucks County power struggle could hint at shifting suburban politics for 2024

Politico reports: An obscure race for county commissioner underway here in a suburb outside of Philadelphia could tell us a lot about who will win the presidential election in 2024. Bucks County is one of the swingiest counties in one of the swingiest states in America. President Joe Biden won it in 2020. So did Sen. John Fetterman and Gov. Josh Shapiro two years later. But it’s represented by a Republican in Congress, perennial battlegrounder Brian Fitzpatrick, and conservatives staged…

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In talks with prosecutors, Hunter Biden’s lawyers vowed to put the president on the stand

In talks with prosecutors, Hunter Biden’s lawyers vowed to put the president on the stand

Politico reports: It was Halloween of 2022, and Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Chris Clark, didn’t sound happy. Just three weeks earlier, news had leaked that federal agents believed they had enough evidence to charge his client with illegally buying a gun as a drug user. The leak was “illegal,” the lawyer wrote to the U.S. attorney overseeing the probe. The prosecution, he argued, would be seen as purely political, and it might even violate the Second Amendment. Then he issued a…

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White House is torn over Joe Manchin’s fury at climate law he crafted

White House is torn over Joe Manchin’s fury at climate law he crafted

The Washington Post reports: The obscure federal agency that oversees the nation’s immense tangle of pipelines, power lines and transfer stations is unfamiliar to most Americans. But it has very much been on Sen. Joe Manchin III’s mind. By the end of last year, the West Virginia Democrat had become deeply displeased with how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was helping the Biden administration advance its aggressive climate goals. Manchin, a staunch ally of fossil fuel interests, was particularly critical…

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Environmental activists are fleeing Elon Musk’s Twitter

Environmental activists are fleeing Elon Musk’s Twitter

Quartz reports: Scientists and environmental activists have been fleeing Twitter—now called X—after Elon Musk bought the social platform and took a wrecking ball to its innards. A study (pdf) published in a journal called Trends in Evolution and Ecology on Aug.15 showed, that out of a sample of 380,000 environmentally oriented X users, “nearly 50% became inactive” after Musk’s acquisition. This rate, the researchers found, was “much higher than a control sample.” By April 2023, only 52.5% of sampled environmental activists on X were still active. The study was conducted between Dec. 2022 and May 2023. Days after…

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As dead dolphins wash ashore, Ukraine builds a case of ecocide against Russia

As dead dolphins wash ashore, Ukraine builds a case of ecocide against Russia

The New York Times reports: The victim was found along a stretch of beach near the port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine early this summer, cause of death unknown. As a light rain fell in the open field where the necropsy would take place, law enforcement officials, a representative of the local prosecutors’ office and civilian witnesses gathered to watch. On the beach was a harbor porpoise. They are washing up dead in droves on the shores of the…

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