We may have found the part of the brain where conscious experience lives

We may have found the part of the brain where conscious experience lives

Science Alert reports: New research sheds light on a tricky idea of consciousness: There’s a difference between what the brain takes in and what we’re consciously aware of taking in. Scientists now think they’ve pinpointed the brain region where that conscious awareness is managed. The team, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), in the US, found sustained brain activity in the occipitotemporal area of the visual cortex in the back…

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Trump’s ‘Save America’ PAC has spent more than $40 million on legal costs this year for himself, others

Trump’s ‘Save America’ PAC has spent more than $40 million on legal costs this year for himself, others

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump’s political group spent more than $40 million on legal costs in the first half of 2023 to defend Trump, his advisers and others, according to people familiar with the matter, financing legal work that has drawn scrutiny from prosecutors about potential conflicts of interest between Trump and witnesses. Save America, the former president’s PAC, is expected to disclose about $40.2 million in legal spending in a filing expected Monday, said the people…

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Trump calls for conditioning Ukraine aid on congressional Biden probes

Trump calls for conditioning Ukraine aid on congressional Biden probes

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump called on congressional Republicans to withhold military support for Ukraine until the Biden administration cooperates with their investigations into the president and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The demand, delivered at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, echoed Trump’s conduct at issue during his first impeachment, when Trump withheld aid from Ukraine while pressuring the country’s president to announce an investigation of Biden. “Congress should refuse to authorize a single additional…

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Florida universities hit by brain drain as academics flee ‘toxic’ environment

Florida universities hit by brain drain as academics flee ‘toxic’ environment

The Guardian reports: With the start of the 2023-24 academic year only six weeks away, senior officials at New College of Florida (NCF) made a startling announcement in mid-July: 36 of the small honors college’s approximately 100 full-time teaching positions were vacant. The provost, Bradley Thiessen, described the number of faculty openings as “ridiculously high”, and the disclosure was the latest evidence of a brain drain afflicting colleges and universities throughout the Sunshine state. Governor Ron DeSantis opened 2023 with…

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How Costa Rica saved its biodiversity

How Costa Rica saved its biodiversity

CNN reports: Pedro Garcia nurses a plate of seeds on his lap. “This is my legacy,” he says, tenderly picking up the seed of a mountain almond – a tree which can grow up to 60 meters (200 feet) tall and is a favored nesting spot for the endangered great green macaw. Aged 57, Garcia has worked on his seven-hectare plot, El Jicaro, in northeast Costa Rica’s Sarapiqui region for 36 years. In his hands it has turned from bare…

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No ‘Oppenheimer’ fanfare for those caught in first atomic bomb’s fallout

No ‘Oppenheimer’ fanfare for those caught in first atomic bomb’s fallout

The Washington Post reports: A strong rumble woke 13-year-old Lucy Benavidez Garwood in the darkness, shaking the three-room adobe house where she and her family lived and rattling dishes in the kitchen cupboard. Neighbors who gathered that morning agreed it must have been an earthquake. They learned the truth several weeks later when U.S. forces attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The atomic bombs dropped on the two cities had been developed in Tularosa’s own backyard — that pre-dawn test blast…

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The making of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The making of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

John Ehrenreich writes: For decades, he was a superstar environmental lawyer who demanded that Americans should accept and act on the scientific consensus that climate change is real. He specialized in cases in which corporations had hidden the environmental or health costs of their products. His legal work against corporations that dump toxic chemicals in water, waste dumps, and food saved thousands of people from disabling diseases or death. He embraced the science that revealed this and attacked the superficially exculpatory science used by the companies…

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Tickled rats reveal brain structure that controls laughter

Tickled rats reveal brain structure that controls laughter

Science reports: Do rats like to be tickled? The furry rodents can be quite fun-loving, scientists say. And yes, under the right circumstances, they do enjoy a bit of rough-and-tumble play, letting out high-pitched squeaks akin to human laughter. Now, researchers say they have identified the area of the brain responsible for this playfulness. The discovery, reported today in Neuron, represents “a fantastic step forward” for understanding the neural basis of play and laughter, says Sergio Pellis, a neuroscientist at…

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Elon Musk’s unmatched power in satellite internet technology

Elon Musk’s unmatched power in satellite internet technology

The New York Times reports: On March 17, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the leader of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, dialed into a call to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over the secure line, the two military leaders conferred on air defense systems, real-time battlefield assessments and shared intelligence on Russia’s military losses. They also talked about Elon Musk. General Zaluzhnyi raised the topic of Starlink, the satellite internet technology…

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Coast to coast, a corridor of coups brings turmoil across Africa

Coast to coast, a corridor of coups brings turmoil across Africa

The New York Times reports: Africa’s coup belt spans the continent: a line of six countries crossing 3,500 miles, from coast to coast, that has become the longest corridor of military rule on Earth. This past week’s military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup —…

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U.S. hunts Chinese malware that could disrupt military operations and civilian infrastructure

U.S. hunts Chinese malware that could disrupt military operations and civilian infrastructure

The New York Times reports: The Biden administration is hunting for malicious computer code it believes China has hidden deep inside the networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases in the United States and around the world, according to American military, intelligence and national security officials. The discovery of the malware has raised fears that Chinese hackers, probably working for the People’s Liberation Army, have inserted code designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in…

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As America’s political gerontocracy clings to power, who will tell them to step aside?

As America’s political gerontocracy clings to power, who will tell them to step aside?

The New York Times reports: After a series of troubling moments this week, an uncomfortable question has become unavoidable, leaving voters, strategists and even politicians themselves wondering: Just how old is too old to serve in public office? For years, like so many children of aging parents across America, politicians and their advisers in Washington tried to skirt that difficult conversation, wrapping concerns about their octogenarian leaders in a cone of silence. The omertà was enabled by the traditions of…

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One of GOP’s highest-profile Black lawmakers blasts DeSantis on slavery: ‘You’ve gone too far. Stop.’

One of GOP’s highest-profile Black lawmakers blasts DeSantis on slavery: ‘You’ve gone too far. Stop.’

Insider reports: Republican Rep. John James of Michigan on Friday blasted Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over the governor’s response to criticism from key Black conservatives over the state’s new Black history education guidelines, stating that the presidential candidate had “gone too far” and needed to “stop” his defense of the changes. James — a Black freshman lawmaker who was the GOP nominee in two highly competitive Senate races in 2018 and 2020 — took to X, the social media…

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Syrian refugee elected mayor in Black Forest town as anti-immigrant sentiment rises elsewhere in Germany

Syrian refugee elected mayor in Black Forest town as anti-immigrant sentiment rises elsewhere in Germany

  Malcolm Brabant, reporting for PBS: In a small town on the edge of the Black Forest, a social revolution is taking its first tentative steps. Ryyan Alshebl, Mayor of Ostelsheim, Germany (through interpreter): Germany is a country that has given hope to many in the past, and it’s also a country of hope for me. Malcolm Brabant: Eight years after Ryyan Alshebl arrived in Germany as a 20-year-old refugee, the people of Ostelsheim have entrusted him to be their…

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