Why the world needs a fire department

Why the world needs a fire department

Douglas P. Fry writes: The threats posed by extreme wildfires are a global challenge that require a global response. Wildfires are increasing in frequency and severity on all inhabited continents. Writing in Science this month, Bo Zhang and colleagues note that an “increase in fire emissions poses a widening threat to climate.” For example, the record-breaking 2020 fire season in California negated more than 18 years of carbon dioxide reductions in the state. Wildfires fuel climate change, and climate change…

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Why climate ‘doomers’ are replacing climate ‘deniers’

Why climate ‘doomers’ are replacing climate ‘deniers’

The Washington Post reports: When Sean Youra was 26 years old and working as an engineer, he started watching documentaries about climate change. Youra, who was struggling with depression and the loss of a family member, was horrified by what he learned about melting ice and rising extreme weather. He started spending hours on YouTube, watching videos made by fringe scientists who warned that the world was teetering on the edge of societal collapse — or even near-term human extinction….

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Fossil teeth reveal how brains developed in utero over millions of years of human evolution – new research

Fossil teeth reveal how brains developed in utero over millions of years of human evolution – new research

Any hominid fossil find with molar teeth can be plugged into a new equation that reveals its species’ prenatal growth rate. Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images By Tesla Monson, Western Washington University Fossilized bones help tell the story of what human beings and our predecessors were doing hundreds of thousands of years ago. But how can you learn about important parts of our ancestors’ life cycle – like pregnancy or gestation – that leave no obvious trace in the fossil…

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Norway watches warily as Russian subs and aircraft step up Arctic patrols

Norway watches warily as Russian subs and aircraft step up Arctic patrols

NBC News reports: NATO ally Norway has announced that it is boosting the number of naval patrols near vital undersea gas pipelines off its coast, and released a trove of videos exclusively to NBC News illustrating what it sees as a growing Russian threat in the Arctic. The videos provided by the Royal Norwegian Air Force capture the high-stakes cat-and-mouse game between the two militaries, with Russian attack submarines patrolling near a maze of undersea pipelines carrying vast amounts of…

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She posted a question about the war in Ukraine on Instagram. Then she faced a prison term

She posted a question about the war in Ukraine on Instagram. Then she faced a prison term

The New York Times reports: Sitting in a small courtroom flanked by her two lawyers last month, Olesya Krivtsova was facing a stiff penalty for her fondness for posting on social media. Barely 20 and until this year a university student in northern Russia, she was accused of “justifying terrorism” and “discrediting the Russian armed forces,” and was facing up to a decade in prison. Her apparent crime? An Instagram post asking why Ukrainians had rejoiced when the main bridge…

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When Russia runs out of museum-grade tanks, is it going to send in the cavalry?

When Russia runs out of museum-grade tanks, is it going to send in the cavalry?

Kyiv Post reports: A trainload of obsolete, museum-grade T-54 tanks was spotted on a transport train heading west from a Russian military repair base, news reports said on Thursday. Still images and videos geolocated to Russia’s far-eastern Primorsky region showed at least 14 outdated combat vehicles aboard flatcars rolling past a rail crossing. Screen grabs by the Georgia-based Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) showed some clearly identifiable as the T-54B model. The shipment most likely departed from the 1295th Central Tank…

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How the unedifying ‘lessons of Iraq’ reappraisals obscure the war’s real lessons

How the unedifying ‘lessons of Iraq’ reappraisals obscure the war’s real lessons

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad writes: During the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, Democratic Party candidate Bill Clinton distinguished himself from the Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush with regard to Bosnia by supporting a “lift and strike” policy. Armed with weapons from the old Yugoslav Army, Bosnian Serbs were on a rampage, and a United Nations embargo was preventing Muslim Bosniaks from being able to defend themselves, even as the Bush administration looked on. Clinton’s proposal would lift the arms blockade and…

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Israel passes law shielding Netanyahu from being removed amid protests over judicial changes

Israel passes law shielding Netanyahu from being removed amid protests over judicial changes

CNN reports: Benjamin Netanyahu resisted calls to drop his controversial overhaul of Israel’s judiciary in a fiery televised address Thursday, hours after his government passed a law that was condemned by critics as an effort to protect his position. Israeli opposition politicians earlier condemned the new law, which would limit the ways a sitting prime minister can be declared unfit for office, describing it as a way to protect Netanyahu, who is facing an ongoing corruption trial. By a 61-to-47…

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Rahul Gandhi: India’s Congress leader sentenced to jail for Modi ‘thieves’ remark

Rahul Gandhi: India’s Congress leader sentenced to jail for Modi ‘thieves’ remark

BBC News reports: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has been sentenced to two years in prison in a criminal defamation case. The Congress MP was convicted by the court in Gujarat state for 2019 comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname at an election rally. Mr Gandhi, who was present in court for sentencing, remains out of jail on bail for 30 days and will appeal. His party said he was being targeted for exposing the government’s “dark deeds”. Elections…

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Matt Taibbi doesn’t get there are reasons to study propaganda information flows, so he insists this must be nefarious

Matt Taibbi doesn’t get there are reasons to study propaganda information flows, so he insists this must be nefarious

Mike Masnick writes: Over the last few months, Elon Musk’s handpicked journalists have continued revealing less and less with each new edition of the “Twitter Files,” to the point that even those of us who write about this area have mostly been skimming each new release, confirming that yet again these reporters have no idea what they’re talking about, are cherry picking misleading examples, and then misrepresenting basically everything. It’s difficult to decide if it’s even worth giving these releases…

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America is in a disgraced class of its own

America is in a disgraced class of its own

Matthew Desmond writes: The United States has a poverty problem. A third of the country’s people live in households making less than $55,000. Many are not officially counted among the poor, but there is plenty of economic hardship above the poverty line. And plenty far below it as well. According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for government aid and living expenses, more than one in 25 people in America 65 or older lived in deep poverty in 2021,…

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‘Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich’ — Russian conscripts decry ‘criminal orders’

‘Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich’ — Russian conscripts decry ‘criminal orders’

The Washington Post reports: In a dimly lit room, a dozen or so men in Russian military uniforms, their faces concealed by dark balaclavas, stood around a man reading out a letter addressed to President Vladimir Putin. “As of today, we still have not received weapons and ammo,” the man said, identifying his group as soldiers from the 580th Separate howitzer Artillery Division from Serpukhov, a city 62 miles south of Moscow — a unit he said is now stationed…

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Here’s the real lesson from the showy Xi-Putin meeting

Here’s the real lesson from the showy Xi-Putin meeting

David Ignatius writes: Pentagon strategists have always divided the world into East and West, with U.S. regional forces under European Command or Indo-Pacific Command. But looking at the embrace of Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin this week, you wonder whether we may need a single “Eurasian Command” to handle an integrated threat. A strong China is bolstering a weak Russia. That’s the real headline that describes the showy meetings in Moscow this week between the two countries’ leaders. The…

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TikTok ban would be ‘a slap in the face’ to young Democratic voters, activists warn

TikTok ban would be ‘a slap in the face’ to young Democratic voters, activists warn

NBC News reports: In the nation’s capital, the debate over banning TikTok has largely focused on whether the app’s Chinese parent company poses a security threat to Americans. But behind closed doors, Democrats are also being forced to weigh whether blocking the popular video platform could come with heavy political costs. In 2020, Aidan Kohn-Murphy used TikTok to rally support for Joe Biden. Now, he’s trying to use the platform to stop Biden from killing it. “I’m not defending TikTok…

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