How Russia’s war is putting green tech progress in jeopardy

How Russia’s war is putting green tech progress in jeopardy

Paul Hockenos writes: Volkswagen might as well hang a “sold out” sign on the doors of its European and U.S. factories. The world’s second-largest manufacturer of electric automobiles announced last month that any plug-in ordered after May won’t find its way to customers’ garages before 2023. The German carmaker’s sales of nearly 100,000 battery electric models in the first quarter landed it behind only Tesla, but far from the pace needed for the 700,000 it planned to roll off its…

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Global dismay as Supreme Court ruling leaves Biden’s climate policy in tatters

Global dismay as Supreme Court ruling leaves Biden’s climate policy in tatters

The Guardian reports: Joe Biden’s election triggered a global surge in optimism that the climate crisis would, finally, be decisively confronted. But the US supreme court’s decision last week to curtail America’s ability to cut planet-heating emissions has proved the latest blow to a faltering effort by Biden on climate that is now in danger of becoming largely moribund. The supreme court’s ruling that the US government could not use its existing powers to phase out coal-fired power generation without…

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Zero-emissions natural gas may be possible

Zero-emissions natural gas may be possible

Mark Harris writes: The fossil fuel industry has long touted natural gas as a “bridge fuel”—abundant and reliable, cleaner than coal, and an essential stop-gap while the world transitions to renewable power. Now it is suggesting that gas can be a zero emissions power source all by itself. Start-up NET Power has developed technology that differs from traditional power stations. It burns natural gas with oxygen instead of air and drives a turbine with high pressure carbon dioxide instead of…

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Shadow 2024 race: Newsom vs. DeSantis

Shadow 2024 race: Newsom vs. DeSantis

Politico reports: Forget Donald Trump versus Joe Biden. The biggest prelude to 2024 might just be the escalating back-and-forth between Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis. The governors for California and Florida have hurled insults about each other’s leadership and policies during most of the Covid-19 pandemic. But now Newsom has ratcheted up the conflict by taking almost daily pot-shots at his Republican foils such as DeSantis and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Most recently, Newsom dropped more than $100,000 on…

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What the anthropology of smell reveals about humanity

What the anthropology of smell reveals about humanity

By Sarah Ives, SAPIENS Vivian,* a Washington, D.C.–based art curator, realized she had COVID-19 in December 2020. “I bought a tree, and I brought it home,” she recalls. “And I thought, This tree has no smell. What did they sell me? Is this a bad tree?” For Vivian, the moment involved more than frustration about a “bad tree.” Her loss of smell left her unable to conjure memories and even affected her sense of self. “That Christmas was really hard,”…

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A poet who excels at the artistry of mathematics

A poet who excels at the artistry of mathematics

Jordana Cepelewicz writes: June Huh often finds himself lost. Every afternoon, he takes a long walk around Princeton University, where he’s a professor in the mathematics department. On this particular day in mid-May, he’s making his way through the woods around the nearby Institute for Advanced Study — “Just so you know,” he says as he considers a fork in the path ahead, “I don’t know where we are” — pausing every so often to point out the subtle movements…

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Putin’s war of choice was never about NATO

Putin’s war of choice was never about NATO

Natalia Antonova writes: As NATO met in Madrid last week, conspiracy theories about its role in Ukraine spread fast in Russian media. More respected theorists such as John Mearsheimer, meanwhile, still reiterate their claim that in making war, Russia was merely reacting to the West. Similar arguments have been put forth by other prominent thinkers, including Noam Chomsky. There’s just one problem with this theory. At an event in June, leaning back casually in his chair, Russian President Vladimir Putin…

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Russian nationalism never went away

Russian nationalism never went away

Joy Neumeyer writes: On 19 November 1990, Boris Yeltsin gave a speech in Kiev to announce that, after more than 300 years of rule by the Russian tsars and the Soviet ‘totalitarian regime’ in Moscow, Ukraine was free at last. Russia, he said, did not want any special role in dictating Ukraine’s future, nor did it aim to be at the centre of any future empire. Five months earlier, in June 1990, inspired by independence movements in the Baltics and…

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Russia orders Jewish Agency to stop all operations in country

Russia orders Jewish Agency to stop all operations in country

The Jerusalem Post reports: The order comes amid growing tension between Israel and Russia over Jerusalem’s stance on the war in Ukraine and its policy of standing with Kyiv and its embattled leader, Volodymyr Zelensky. On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry called strikes on Syria that have been blamed on Israel unacceptable, and it demanded an unconditional cessation of the attacks. An order forcing the Jewish Agency to stop its work in Russia is dramatic and could directly undermine the ability…

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Christian nationalists are excited about what comes next

Christian nationalists are excited about what comes next

Katherine Stewart writes: The shape of the Christian nationalist movement in the post-Roe future is coming into view, and it should terrify anyone concerned for the future of constitutional democracy. The Supreme Court’s decision to rescind the reproductive rights that American women have enjoyed over the past half-century will not lead America’s homegrown religious authoritarians to retire from the culture wars and enjoy a sweet moment of triumph. On the contrary, movement leaders are already preparing for a new and…

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The Supreme Court is poised to cut the heart out of majority rule

The Supreme Court is poised to cut the heart out of majority rule

Laurence H. Tribe and Dennis Aftergut write: The Supreme Court’s extremist justices are aiming their next dagger at the heart of the entire democratic enterprise: voters’ right to pick leaders of their choice. On Thursday, the court announced that it will hear Moore vs. Harper, a North Carolina case involving gerrymandered congressional district maps drawn by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature. Those maps would probably give Republicans control of 11 of 14 congressional districts in the state. North Carolina’s Supreme Court…

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After string of Supreme Court setbacks, Democrats wonder whether Biden White House is capable of urgency moment demands

After string of Supreme Court setbacks, Democrats wonder whether Biden White House is capable of urgency moment demands

CNN reports: Debra Messing was fed up. The former “Will & Grace” star was among dozens of celebrity Democratic supporters and activists who joined a call with White House aides last Monday to discuss the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The mood was fatalistic, according to three people on the call, which was also co-organized by the advocacy group Build Back Better Together. Messing said she’d gotten Joe Biden elected and wanted to know why she was being asked…

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Explosion of life on Earth linked to heavy metal act at planet’s center

Explosion of life on Earth linked to heavy metal act at planet’s center

The Observer reports: At the centre of the Earth, a giant sphere of solid iron is slowly swelling. This is the inner core and scientists have recently uncovered intriguing evidence that suggests its birth half a billion years ago may have played a key role in the evolution of life on Earth. At that time, our planet’s magnetic field was faltering – and that would have had critical consequences, they argue. Normally this field protects life on the surface by…

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The norms the Supreme Court targeted this term all came from the same era

The norms the Supreme Court targeted this term all came from the same era

Bill McKibben and Akaya Windwood write: The supreme court, thank heaven, finally adjourned on Thursday, after a week of decisions that blew up much of the framework of American policy and politics. And a key thing to notice about that assault on American norms was how many of their targets were adopted in a few short years in the 1960s and 1970s. Roe v Wade, of course, dates to 1973, the fruit of many year’s work by committed feminists. Thursday’s…

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