The role of billionaires in directing climate policy

The role of billionaires in directing climate policy

The Washington Post reports: They are not elected to any office. But in the fight against global warming, the world’s billionaires have more influence than many heads of state. As government struggles to move quickly to contain greenhouse gases, ultrawealthy investors and philanthropists are increasingly grabbing the reins, using their fortunes to guide the transition to cleaner energy toward their favored projects and market strategies. They are men with household names like Jeff Bezos (net worth: $113 billion, according to…

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The Energy Department’s fusion breakthrough: It’s not really about generating electricity

The Energy Department’s fusion breakthrough: It’s not really about generating electricity

John Mecklin writes: This week’s headlines have been full of reports about a “major breakthrough” in nuclear fusion technology that, many of those reports misleadingly suggested, augurs a future of abundant clean energy produced by fusion nuclear power plants. To be sure, many of those reports lightly hedged their enthusiasm by noting that (as The Guardian put it) “major hurdles” to a fusion-powered world remain. Indeed, they do. The fusion achievement that the US Energy Department announced this week is…

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Microorganisms that expand their range by absorbing organelles

Microorganisms that expand their range by absorbing organelles

Veronique Greenwood writes: Nature, red in tooth and claw, is rife with organisms that eat their neighbors to get ahead. But in the systems studied by the theoretical ecologist Holly Moeller, an assistant professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the consumed become part of the consumer in surprising ways. Moeller primarily studies protists, a broad category of unicellular microorganisms like amoebas and paramecia that don’t fit within the familiar macroscopic categories of…

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White House leans on Congress, rallies allies, to aid Ukraine through winter of war

White House leans on Congress, rallies allies, to aid Ukraine through winter of war

Politico reports: The White House is steeling itself for new challenges posed by a winter of war in Ukraine and an incoming Republican House majority promising to curb funding to Kyiv. Though Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia’s brutal invasion continue to exceed expectations, President Joe Biden has been warily watching developments on both sides of the Atlantic. Ukraine remains standing as fighting enters its tenth month, but new tests for the Biden administration, at home and abroad, are rising just…

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Iran uses rape to enforce women’s modesty

Iran uses rape to enforce women’s modesty

Nicholas Kristof writes: One gauge of the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime is that there are credible reports that it is enforcing its supposedly strict moral code by arresting women and girls accused of advocating immodesty, and then sexually assaulting them. In a searing report about the rape of protesters by security forces, CNN recounted how a 20-year-old woman was arrested for supposedly leading protests and later was brought by the police to a hospital in Karaj, shaking violently, head…

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Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti arrested after criticism of death penalty

Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti arrested after criticism of death penalty

The Guardian reports: Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most famous actors, has been detained by security forces in Tehran days after she criticised the state’s use of the death penalty against protesters. She had previously posted a picture of herself on her Instagram page in which she was not wearing the hijab and holding a piece of paper reading “women, life, freedom” – the slogan that has come to encapsulate the fight against the current Iranian regime. Alidoosti is regarded…

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Facing blackouts and Iranian-made drones, Ukrainian Jews urge Israel to help

Facing blackouts and Iranian-made drones, Ukrainian Jews urge Israel to help

The Washington Post reports: When Russia invaded Ukraine, the homeland of his parents and grandparents, David felt obligated to leave Israel and fight against Vladimir Putin, the man he views as a modern Hitler. After praying on a recent Shabbat in Kyiv’s oldest synagogue, David, 56, said he was proud to have spent most of the past nine months on the front lines, where he took fire from artillery and drones while fighting in Ukraine’s eastern offensive in Kharkiv. Are…

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Media companies remain in codependent relationship with Twitter

Media companies remain in codependent relationship with Twitter

The Washington Post reports: When Twitter abruptly suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists Thursday night — in response to a baffling claim from new owner Elon Musk that they had endangered his safety — media bosses were quick to speak out in protest. The New York Times called the suspensions “questionable.” CNN said it would “reevaluate” its relationship with Twitter. The Washington Post demanded that Twitter reinstate the account of one of its technology reporters “immediately,” noting that he…

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Life in Fukushima offers a glimpse into our contaminated future

Life in Fukushima offers a glimpse into our contaminated future

Maxime Polleri writes: As a farmer, Atsuo Tanizaki did not care much for the state’s maps of radioactive contamination. Colour-coded zoning restrictions might make sense for government workers, he told me, but ‘real’ people did not experience their environment through shades of red, orange and green. Instead, they navigated the landscape one field, one tree, one measurement at a time. ‘Case by case,’ he said, grimly, as he guided me along the narrow paths that separated his rice fields, on…

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Trump’s need for attention hasn’t dwindled since he left office

Trump’s need for attention hasn’t dwindled since he left office

The Washington Post reports: On a typical day since leaving office, advisers said, Trump gets up early, makes phone calls, watches television and reads some newspapers. Then, six days a week, he plays 18 or sometimes 27 holes of golf at one of his courses. After lunch, he changes into a suit from his golf shirt and slacks and shows up in the office above the Mar-a-Lago ballroom or, when he is in New Jersey, a similar office in a…

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‘This isn’t war,’ the Russian soldier said. ‘It’s the destruction of the Russian people by their own commanders’

‘This isn’t war,’ the Russian soldier said. ‘It’s the destruction of the Russian people by their own commanders’

The New York Times reports: They never had a chance. Fumbling blindly through cratered farms, the troops from Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade had no maps, medical kits or working walkie-talkies, they said. Just a few weeks earlier, they had been factory workers and truck drivers, watching an endless showcase of supposed Russian military victories at home on state television before being drafted in September. One medic was a former barista who had never had any medical training. Now, they…

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Ramzan Kadyrov: The Chechen warlord who does Putin’s dirty work in Ukraine

Ramzan Kadyrov: The Chechen warlord who does Putin’s dirty work in Ukraine

The Wall Street Journal reports: At the start of the war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to occupy Kyiv’s government quarters and assassinate the Ukrainian president, Ukrainian intelligence and security officials allege. When Mr. Putin needed more soldiers on fast-crumbling front lines, the warlord rounded up thousands of men, sometimes forcibly, and sent them in, according to Chechen residents. Now, following successive Russian retreats, Mr. Kadyrov’s men are disciplining dejected Russian troops at the front…

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Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help

Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help

Jason Hickel et al, write: The global economy is structured around growth — the idea that firms, industries and nations must increase production every year, regardless of whether it is needed. This dynamic is driving climate change and ecological breakdown. High-income economies, and the corporations and wealthy classes that dominate them, are mainly responsible for this problem and consume energy and materials at unsustainable rates. Yet many industrialized countries are now struggling to grow their economies, given economic convulsions caused…

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How to make a Mastodon account and join the fediverse

How to make a Mastodon account and join the fediverse

Electronic Frontier Foundation: The recent chaos at Twitter is a reminder that when you rely on a social media platform, you’re putting your voice, your privacy, and your safety in the hands of the people who run that system. Many people are looking to Mastodon as a backup or replacement for Twitter, and this guide will walk you through making that switch. Note this guide is current as of December 2022, and the software and services discussed are going through…

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