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Pascal's Wager Triangle
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1.2 Kilofives
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Texas A&M Wants to Keep Emails About Leonard Leo’s $15 Million Gift Secret
Tue, 18 Jun 2024 14:14:58 +0000
The donation, one of the largest in the school’s history, was made as right-wing megadonor Leo shopped a new law school center.
The post Texas A&M Wants to Keep Emails About Leonard Leo’s $15 Million Gift Secret appeared first on The Intercept.
From the jump, the lawsuit challenging the legality of mifepristone was a cynical, propagandistic endeavor. In a 9-0 opinion, the Supreme Court threw it out.
The post GOP States Double Down on Fighting Medication Abortion After Supreme Court Keeps It Legal appeared first on The Intercept.
Judge says it was ‘conspicuously unfair’ not to appoint migrants’ commissioner
A decision by the former home secretary Suella Braverman to drop two recommendations intended to repair some of the harm done to the Windrush generation was unlawful, the high court has ruled.
The decision to abandon a promise to establish a migrants’ commissioner and to drop a pledge to increase the powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI) was found to have had a “disproportionately prejudicial effect upon Windrush victims” and indirectly discriminated against them.
Continue reading...President is sworn in for second term as head of coalition government after losing parliamentary majority
South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa warned of the dangers of “toxic cleavages” in one of the world’s most unequal countries, after he was inaugurated for a second term as president – this time at the head of a coalition government with his African National Congress party’s biggest rival.
The ANC lost its parliamentary majority in 29 May elections, for the first time since Nelson Mandela led it to power in 1994 after apartheid, as millions of voters defected to breakaway parties amid chronic unemployment and the declining quality of public services.
Continue reading...There is a lot written about technology’s threats to democracy. Polarization. Artificial intelligence. The concentration of wealth and power. I have a more general story: The political and economic systems of governance that were created in the mid-18th century are poorly suited for the 21st century. They don’t align incentives well. And they are being hacked too effectively.
At the same time, the cost of these hacked systems has never been greater, across all human history. We have become too powerful as a species. And our systems cannot keep up with fast-changing disruptive technologies...
“I don’t want to be working on something that can turn around and be used to slaughter innocent people."
The post “Utterly Dismayed”: Air Force Engineer Resigns as Dissent Against Gaza War Slowly Spreads Within Military appeared first on The Intercept.
The task force revealed its plans not in a communiqué to faculty and students — but instead in an Israeli newspaper article.
The post Columbia Task Force Finally Weighs In: Yes, Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism appeared first on The Intercept.
UAVs continually kill civilians, but the U.S. military wants to expand its arsenal with an army of new, mass-produced kamikaze AI drones.
The post Cheap and Lethal: The Pentagon’s Plan for the Next Drone War appeared first on The Intercept.
The federal judge hearing a human rights case disputed allegations he might not be impartial but recused himself out of an “abundance of caution.”
The post Judge Who Went on Israel Junket Recuses Himself From Gaza Case appeared first on The Intercept.
As India concluded the world’s largest election on June 5, 2024, with over 640 million votes counted, observers could assess how the various parties and factions used artificial intelligence technologies—and what lessons that holds for the rest of the world.
The campaigns made extensive use of AI, including deepfake impersonations of candidates, celebrities and dead politicians. By some estimates, millions of Indian voters viewed deepfakes.
But, despite fears of widespread disinformation, for the most part the campaigns, candidates and activists used AI constructively in the election. They used AI for typical political activities, including mudslinging, but primarily to better connect with voters...
“One side or the other is going to win,” Alito told a person he thought was a right-wing activist.
The post Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Caught on Secret Audio appeared first on The Intercept.
The Republican amendment to the annual defense budget is just one of several proposals to restrict humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The post House Votes to Block U.S. Funding to Rebuild Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
Dan Osborn, running as an independent, has racked up endorsements in a race that could help determine Senate control in 2024.
The post UAW Endorses Nebraska Underdog Threatening to Unseat a Republican Senator appeared first on The Intercept.
Government employees are using their official badges to demonstrate against U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
The post “Not the Career in Public Service I Signed Up For”: Federal Workers Protest War appeared first on The Intercept.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, revealed the tactics and traits that help him face the daily frustrations of leading a country at war for more than two years.
Within a ceremonial room inside Kyiv’s presidential compound, Zelenskiy spoke for nearly an hour with a Guardian team, including the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner. The interview took place during perhaps the toughest time for Ukraine since the early days of the war. Russia is on the offensive in Kharkiv, an advance that follows months of delay in the US Congress over the passing of a major support package, limiting Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities
Continue reading...Every night of the tour, tens of thousands of fans are tuning in to joyfully amateurish livestreams generated by fans in the stadiums. Our writer joins the online audience
When Taylor Swift released The Eras Tour movie last October, it quickly became the highest-grossing concert film of all time. Fans danced in the aisles of screenings. Critics praised Brett Turnbull’s cinematography. When I went to see the actual Eras tour in Edinburgh two weeks ago, I was charmed to see dozens of people watching the film while on the train on their way to, you know, actually see the concert in real life.
The film is a phenomenon in its own right: a slick and bombastic ticket to an event you may have missed out on, or one you might just want to relive in perpetuity. But may I suggest that you’ve never really seen the Eras tour on screen until you’ve participated in one of the unofficial fan livestreams that operate every single night of the tour? Here, the shaky camera footage, taken from phones held up around the stadiums, makes The Blair Witch Project look like Blade Runner. A phone pointed stage-wards from the gods can’t hope to capture the scope of the stadium sound, and so a distant, blown-out Swift often has to compete with joyful caterwauling from your DIY documentarian.
Continue reading...Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy and Austin Butler star in The Bikeriders, inspired by the whiskery brutes of the Outlaws – the world’s second largest biker gang. Director Jeff Nichols explains why he really didn’t want to offend them
Anyone less like a Hells Angel would be difficult to imagine. Yet Jeff Nichols – this genial, softly spoken director, with his pink face and modest quiff of wavy, silver-streaked hair – is responsible for The Bikeriders, a movie thick with the roar of engines and the smell of grease. Inspired by photographer Danny Lyon’s 1967 book of the same name, it stars Tom Hardy as Johnny, the ageing leader of a Chicago biker gang; Austin Butler as Benny, its coolest member; and Jodie Comer as Kathy, who falls for Benny. Lyon rode with and profiled the Outlaws but Nichols has fictionalised the gang, renaming them the Vandals to avoid aggro from the real-life subjects.
“Becoming the historian of the Outlaws was not my goal,” explains the 45-year-old film-maker, seated in front of a wall of books and knick-knacks at his home in Austin, Texas. “Fictionalising them became the safest approach. These guys aggressively protect their colours, their emblem, so I didn’t want to offend them. They’re the second largest motorcycle gang in the world after the Hells Angels.” So had they been ranked only sixth or seventh, it might have been different? “I’m not saying that,” he laughs. “Let them all be over there, and I’ll stay here in my separate space.”
Continue reading...The task force revealed its plans not in a communiqué to faculty and students — but instead in an Israeli newspaper article.
The post Columbia Task Force Finally Weighs In: Yes, Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism appeared first on The Intercept.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
The fishing villages, clifftop paths and sandy coves of the Breton coast provide the perfect backdrop for a five-day hike
They say walking is the best medicine and you could spend months walking off your troubles along the sentier des douaniers (customs officers’ path), which winds for more than 1,240 miles (2,000km) around the bays and headlands of the Breton coast. However, me and my perennial walking companion, an Irishman who lives in Bath, settled for a five-day, 55-mile stretch along the southern Crozon peninsula.
As we agreed not to fly, he took the train to Plymouth, the ferry to Roscoff and buses from there, while I took the train from Barcelona and, after a night in Paris, another train to Quimper and a bus to our starting point at Camaret-sur-Mer.
Continue reading...When I boarded the train at Beijing I felt timid, a cautious traveller. But a chaotic and vodka-soaked party set me off on a very different path
In 2001, after spending a year studying in Beijing as part of our degree, two friends and I decided to travel to Mongolia and Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway. We did everything as cheaply as possible, to the extent that I was terrified we were going to be flung off the train at the Mongolia-Russia border, because we’d got our visas from a tiny, dodgy-looking agency in a random tower block in Beijing.
Being worried was pretty much my default state at that time. I found talking to strangers difficult, and struggled to raise my hand in class. I was always terrified of making mistakes. Though it wasn’t a devastating shyness, I envied the way that friends and classmates always seemed at home in different groups and situations – a feeling that had always eluded me.
Continue reading...There is a lot written about technology’s threats to democracy. Polarization. Artificial intelligence. The concentration of wealth and power. I have a more general story: The political and economic systems of governance that were created in the mid-18th century are poorly suited for the 21st century. They don’t align incentives well. And they are being hacked too effectively.
At the same time, the cost of these hacked systems has never been greater, across all human history. We have become too powerful as a species. And our systems cannot keep up with fast-changing disruptive technologies...
“I felt helpless watching my family dying and not able to help them. It is a nightmare that I will never wake up from.”
The post These “Tent Massacre” Survivors Couldn’t Afford to Leave Rafah. The Next Israeli Attack Nearly Wiped Their Family Out. appeared first on The Intercept.
“One side or the other is going to win,” Alito told a person he thought was a right-wing activist.
The post Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Caught on Secret Audio appeared first on The Intercept.
Ahead of the election in India, the Guardian’s video team travelled through the country to explore how fake news and censorship might shape the outcome.
Almost one billion people are registered to vote. The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been in power for more than 10 years, and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is seeking a third term.
But critics of Modi and the BJP say his government has become increasingly authoritarian, fracturing the country along religious lines and threatening India’s secular democracy. At the same time, the space for freedom of speech has been shrinking while disinformation and hate speech has exploded on social media.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Continue reading...South Korea says 10,000 containers carry suspected North Korean arms for Russia; claim that Russians beheaded captured defender. What we know on day 847
A Ukrainian defence source confirmed a drone attack was used to blow up oil storage tanks near the town of Azov in Rostov, southern Russia. Agence France-Presse said the defence source described it as a “successful” attack and said it caused “powerful fires in the installations”. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) “will continue to impose ‘drone sanctions’ on Russia’s oil refining complex and reduce the enemy’s economic potential, which provides the aggressor with resources to wage war against Ukraine”.
Video published by Russia’s emergencies ministry showed thick smoke and flames billowing out of what appeared to be multiple oil storage tanks over a large area. About 200 Russian firefighters and emergency personnel were sent in. The Rostov region sits directly across the border from Ukraine and is home to the operational headquarters overseeing Russia’s invasion.
A Russian drone attack left a man, 70, in hospital and damaged a multi-storey residential building in Lviv city, Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor, said on Wednesday. It hit the village of Malekhiv within the city district and damaged many windows in other residential buildings, he said. The city is the administrative centre of the Lviv oblast in western Ukraine, on the border with Nato member Poland.
Ukraine said Russian forces were fighting to enter the outskirts of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. “The enemy keeps trying to advance to the micro-district Novy in the town of Chasiv Yar,” a Ukrainian military official said in a briefing.
Farther south, the military said Moscow’s forces were also pushing towards Pokrovsk, threatening a key road, which could complicate Ukrainian supply lines.
Ukraine’s air force said it downed 10 Shahed attack drones launched by Russian forces over Monday night into Tuesday.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general accused Russian forces of beheading a Ukrainian serviceman in the eastern Donetsk region. “The fact of decapitation of a Ukrainian defender was recorded in the Donetsk region,” said Andriy Kostin. He said Ukraine had documented nearly 130,000 war crimes committed by Russia.
National grid operator Ukrenergo said Ukraine would face rolling electricity blackouts throughout Wednesday after Russian strikes on Ukrainian power plants.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said China’s support for Russia’s defence industry was prolonging the Ukraine war and “has to stop”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian earlier urged Nato to “stop shifting blame” over the Ukraine war after the alliance’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, accused Beijing of worsening the conflict through support of Russia.
The South Korean defence minister, Shin Wonsik, told Bloomberg News that South Korea had identified at least 10,000 shipping containers suspected to be containing artillery ammunition and other weapons sent from North Korea to Russia. Those containers could contain up to 4.8m shells, Shin said. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is visiting North Korea. “Putin is expected to seek closer security cooperation with North Korea, especially military supplies such as artillery shells that are necessary to seize a chance to win,” Shin told Bloomberg.
Ukrainian officials have already started preparatory work to organise a second peace summit, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has said after the first conference led by Ukraine was held over the weekend in Switzerland. Yermak said a joint plan needed to be figured out by member states first, a process he expected to take several months.
Continue reading...Masoud Pezeshkian hopes to win over an apathetic electorate and revive talks on the country’s nuclear deal
The sole reformist candidate in Iran’s presidential elections this month has said he wants improved relations with the US, as he accused his conservative rivals of blighting the Iranian economy by not doing enough to revive the a nuclear deal with the west that had led to the lifting of some sanctions.
Masoud Pezeshkian, who has unveiled the combative former foreign minster Javad Zarif as his foreign policy adviser, also suggested under his presidency he might also review its relations with Russia, arguing eastern powers should not think that they are Iran’s only option.
Continue reading...Robert O’Brien says US should abandon moratorium but experts say proposal would hasten global nuclear arms race
Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, widely tipped to play a leading role in a second Trump presidency, has advocated the resumption of nuclear testing, and the possible renewed production of plutonium and weapons-grade uranium.
Arms control experts said O’Brien’s proposals would accelerate the global nuclear arms race and backfire in terms of US security, handing greater advantages to Russia and China.
Continue reading...Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un’s agreement raises western alarm about possible Russian help for nuclear programme
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, have signed a pact that includes a clause requiring the countries to come to each other’s aid if either is attacked, a move that has raised western concerns about potential Russian aid for Pyongyang’s missile or nuclear programmes.
The inclusion of a mutual defence clause in their comprehensive strategic partnership, which Kim described as an “alliance”, will add to the west’s alarm over growing economic and military ties between North Korea and Russia. The deal was finalised on Wednesday after hours of talks in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
Continue reading...The PM is sorry we feel like that, but at least he isn’t trying to con the country into believing in a Labour dictatorship
Donald Trump has famously been a drag on his own business career. He would have been richer today had he simply put his inheritance into an index tracker fund. Politically, however … you have to concede he is doing quite well for himself. Rishi Sunak is the opposite. He’s a successful businessman who is now a drag on his political fortunes. He would have done better in this election had he simply stood in the rain that afternoon and announced: “I’m calling it – and it’s tomorrow!” Alas, he didn’t, and now his position depletes further with each passing day. Sunak is like an extremely unstable isotope, losing energy by the hour. The only way he’d poll high is with a Geiger counter.
Anyway, please don your fallout suits and proceed straight to the site of his LBC phone-in this morning, guided by Nick Ferrari. You’ll see a lot about Sunak promising to cut taxes now inflation has fallen to 2% and a caller telling him he was “a pound shop Nigel Farage”. But it’s largely just noise. Probably the most telling bit was when a chap rang up to talk to Sunak about his imminent resignation honours, and instead of remembering to say that he wasn’t going to be doing any resignation honours for a while, the prime minister engaged thoughtfully with the “very interesting question” in a way that suggested he completely accepted its central premise.
Continue reading...Russian leader’s visit to Pyongyang seen as a meeting of minds, but long-term military consequences are unclear
As state visits go, Vladimir Putin’s arrival in North Korea on Wednesday was relatively low-key. There was no long line of senior government officials on the airport tarmac in Pyongyang and only a small guard of honour. Beneath an ink-black sky, the Russian president stepped off the plane to be greeted by a handshake and a hug from Kim Jong-un, before being presented with a bouquet by a woman in traditional hanbok dress. But the modesty of the occasion was deceptive.
Putin arrived in the North Korean capital from Moscow, via the Russian far east, in darkness, the leaders’ motorcade making its way through “charmingly lit” streets to the Kumsusan state guesthouse in the early hours of Wednesday.
Continue reading...Kim enjoys the recognition and backs Putin in Ukraine. Putin’s war, meanwhile needs North Korean weapons. It’s a dangerous alliance
They make an odd couple. One is smiley-faced and chubby. The other is thin-lipped and scowls a lot. Both are dictators, sinister, brutal and unaccountable in their different ways. Both have made it their mission in life to overturn the post-1945 global order, defying the US, its chief patrolman. And both are sanctioned, ostracised and a little bit feared by the countries of the west.
Those fears are likely to intensify after today’s Pyongyang summit, both symbolic and substantive, between this unofficial Laurel and Hardy tribute act. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un – the plump one – and Russia’s Vladimir Putin – the skinny one – have a shared aim: consolidating their place in a bullish anti-western, anti-democratic alliance, ostensibly representing a “new world order”, reaching from China to Iran.
Simon Tisdall is the Observer’s Foreign Affairs Commentator
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Russia’s president was greeted by cheering crowds on his visit to Pyongyang, where the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, expressed ‘full support’ for Russia’s war in Ukraine and pledged stronger strategic ties with Moscow
Continue reading...Russian president makes first visit to country in 24 years as anti-west relationship deepens
Vladimir Putin has arrived in North Korea for a summit with Kim Jong-un, amid US warnings against any agreement that could add to military pressure on Ukraine and raise tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Making his first visit to the reclusive country since 2000, the Russian president flew to Pyongyang to be greeted by huge welcome banners, cheering crowds and Russian flags.
Continue reading...There is a lot written about technology’s threats to democracy. Polarization. Artificial intelligence. The concentration of wealth and power. I have a more general story: The political and economic systems of governance that were created in the mid-18th century are poorly suited for the 21st century. They don’t align incentives well. And they are being hacked too effectively.
At the same time, the cost of these hacked systems has never been greater, across all human history. We have become too powerful as a species. And our systems cannot keep up with fast-changing disruptive technologies...
‘Absurd’ for Coalition to hype nuclear announcement and then not give details, PM tells ABC. Follow the day’s news
Albanese calls Coalition nuclear policy a ‘fantasy’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has slammed the Coalition’s nuclear power policy, calling it a “fantasy” and saying it was “Peter Dutton and the Seven nuclear reactors.”
What you have here is something that I’ve never seen before. I mean, this is just a fantasy, instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors.
This is just absurd, to have a big buildup for an announcement and then say we won’t give you the details. I’ll make this prediction. All the details won’t be out there before the election. It will be just “trust me”, just the same as Peter Dutton said that [for the] 2030 target when it comes to emissions reduction, “I will let you know all of that after the election.”
Well, our energy policy will and is absolutely focused on driving down prices as we did in government at … this is the important point. And that is because of a range of technologies, not one, nuclear needs to be part of that mix. You need to have every horse in this race. This is a hard race to win. And we want to have every horse in the race. Nuclear is an important one, gas is an important one.
Everyone wants to sort of say there’s one technology this the answer to everything. No. I’m just wondering. It’s a balance of technologies and right now, what is clear is Chris Bowen’s strategy is not getting us to where we need to go.
Continue reading...Both men – 78 and 81 respectively – have behaved in ways that might give even the most cautious observer pause
No election involving Donald Trump can be considered normal, but, in among all the breaches and oddities of this uniquely strange presidential race, one stands out as stranger than others. That is: speculation as to which of the two presidential candidates is showing the greater and more alarming rate of mental decline.
Until recently, this topic was considered at best unsporting, at worst dangerous – particularly on the left, where it is assumed that discussions around age will hurt Biden more than Trump. Even Trump, however, has benefited from certain delicacies governing the subject of impairment. During his first run for president, when the words “narcissist” and “borderline personality” first started to be bandied about, plenty of mental health professionals popped up to steeple their fingers and point out it is neither polite nor judicious to diagnose others based on zero clinical information.
Continue reading...Tony Wood of the Grattan Institute rejects Coalition’s claim electricity prices are high due to Labor’s renewables policy
Peter Dutton’s claim that nuclear energy would lead to cheaper power bills has been rejected by energy experts, with one saying there was “no credible reason” to think adding “the most expensive form of bulk electricity” would cut prices.
They said a range of evidence, including a recent CSIRO analysis, suggested nuclear power would be more expensive than other options, and that the solar and wind system under construction – supported by firming technology – was the cheapest option.
Continue reading...The Coalition still has questions to answer about its energy proposals – not least cost – but some wonder about the aim
Last year, when Peter Dutton campaigned against the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament, he said repeatedly that it shouldn’t be supported because it lacked detail. Now, as he seeks to upend the transition to renewable energy in Australia and spend billions of dollars to build nuclear reactors instead, there is almost none.
Dutton and the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, have selected seven locations around Australia for future nuclear reactors. On Wednesday, they finally named them.
Continue reading...The tacky ex-president loves the overrated Impressionist. Personally, I can only take so many portraits of dough-faced women
Donald Trump has criminally bad taste in just about everything. He orders his steaks well done and drowns them in ketchup. His Manhattan penthouse is gold and famously gaudy. He wears shiny suits that never seem to fit properly. And then there’s his taste in art: the man loves himself a bit of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. For years, Trump had what he liked to boast was an “original Renoir” on his private jet. That has been proven to be nonsense: the original of the painting in question – Two Sisters (On The Terrace) – is in a Chicago gallery and Trump has a fake. Still, he likes it very much and has now relocated it to Trump Tower. Melania Trump also has a fake Renoir in her office.
The tasteless Trumps might enjoy Renoir, but so do a lot of people. Why am I slandering the French Impressionist? I’ll tell you why: I recently visited the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia (home to the world’s single largest collection of Renoirs) and, after looking at 10 million pictures of dough-faced women, I had something of a revelation: Renoir is incredibly overrated.
Continue reading...“I don’t want to be working on something that can turn around and be used to slaughter innocent people."
The post “Utterly Dismayed”: Air Force Engineer Resigns as Dissent Against Gaza War Slowly Spreads Within Military appeared first on The Intercept.
submitted by /u/barweis [link] [comments] |
Aston Villa are hopeful of signing of the versatile Chelsea defender Ian Maatsen, after agreeing terms on a six-year contract. The clubs are thought to have agreed a fee of more than £35m for the full-back, who is with the Netherlands at Euro 2024.
Maatsen spent the second half of last season on loan at the Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund. The 22-year-old, who has made 12 league appearances for Chelsea, spent the three previous seasons on loan at Burnley, Coventry and Charlton. The sale of Maatsen would be a major boost for Chelsea’s profitability and sustainability picture.
Continue reading...‘Extraordinary and unique’ ancient beach that was destroyed in AD79 disaster resurrected in southern Italy
An ancient Roman beach that was buried by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius has reopened to the public at Herculaneum archaeological park in southern Italy.
The beach has been reinstated after conservation work in recent years restored its original level, including bringing back sand, which is aimed at giving visitors the experience of walking along the beach almost as it was before the eruption.
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Critics say differentiated autonomy bill, which sparked brawl in parliament, will increase poverty in south
Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has been accused of “splitting the country” after parliament approved a controversial bill granting regions more power, which critics say will increase poverty in the south.
The change, approved by the lower house early on Wednesday after a fiery debate that lasted all night, is part of the government’s overhaul of the Italian state, including a bill approved by the upper house on Tuesday that would allow for the direct election of a prime minister.
Continue reading...I am delighted to have joined the Guardian as a women’s football writer with the aim to cover the good, the bad and the ugly of an ever-expanding game
The first time I reported on an England women’s international fixture from a stadium’s press box rather than from the distant vantage point of a desk in a far-away office next to a television, the Lionesses were playing a friendly against Italy in April 2017 at Port Vale’s Vale Park, a ground which – please forgive me, any Vale fans reading this – I think it’s fair to say could have benefited from a little TLC, compared to the facilities the European champions have become accustomed to more recently.
Such was the relative informality of the occasion, I found a parking spot down a rather poorly lit side road in Burslem behind some rusting garages and quickly realised a member of an England player’s family was reversing to try to fit into the small space immediately behind me. After the match – a rather forgettable yet interesting 1-1 draw attended by 7,181 fans – half a dozen reporters sat around a small table with chairs hastily arranged for an impromptu post-match chat with the coach then, Mark Sampson. The BBC’s very dedicated women’s sports reporter Jo Currie conducted broadcast interviews, but that aside, it was a quiet press room. All of these things felt perfectly normal at the time, for the level of media attention the national squad were receiving.
Continue reading...When I boarded the train at Beijing I felt timid, a cautious traveller. But a chaotic and vodka-soaked party set me off on a very different path
In 2001, after spending a year studying in Beijing as part of our degree, two friends and I decided to travel to Mongolia and Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway. We did everything as cheaply as possible, to the extent that I was terrified we were going to be flung off the train at the Mongolia-Russia border, because we’d got our visas from a tiny, dodgy-looking agency in a random tower block in Beijing.
Being worried was pretty much my default state at that time. I found talking to strangers difficult, and struggled to raise my hand in class. I was always terrified of making mistakes. Though it wasn’t a devastating shyness, I envied the way that friends and classmates always seemed at home in different groups and situations – a feeling that had always eluded me.
Continue reading...There are numerous terms to describe the wide array of far right parties, but what do all they mean – and do we always use the right ones?
They are known, variously, as far right, national-conservative, radical right, anti-Islam, nativist, and Eurosceptic. Also as extreme right, populist, “alt-right”, neofascist, anti-immigration, nationalist, authoritarian, and assorted combinations of the above.
As the dust settles on the results of this month’s European parliamentary elections, it is worth examining what some of the terms routinely used to describe Europe’s wide array of far-right parties mean – and whether they are always the right ones.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: The war has devastated Sudan, destroying much of the country and leaving 18 million facing acute hunger
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The war in Sudan has caused destruction throughout much of the country. And with every passing week the conflict seems to get worse between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – a paramilitary group who say their main goal is to establish democracy, though the frequent human rights abuses they commit do not support this claim.
Conservatives | Jeremy Hunt said Liz Truss’s economic ambitions were a “good thing to aim for” and her disastrous mini-budget hadn’t left an impact on the economy, according to two leaked recordings obtained by the Guardian. The chancellor was recorded at a meeting of students when he said he was “trying to basically achieve some of the same things” as the former prime minister, but that he was doing it “more gradually”.
Israel | Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the Israeli war cabinet that had been overseeing the conflict in Gaza, rebuffing his far-right allies who had been seeking seats, and apparently moving to solidify his grasp on decision-making over the fighting with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.
Italy | At least 10 people died and dozens were missing after two separate shipwrecks close to the Italian coast, rescuers said. Ten bodies were found on Monday in the lower deck of a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean by rescuers from Nadir, a ship operated by the German charity ResQship.
Germany | Eight alleged members of the German far-right Reichsbürger are to go on trial accused of a plot to violently overthrow the state, in the third in a row of similar court cases being held across the country. The defendants, including a GP, a celebrity chef and an astrologer, are accused of serving as the plot’s leadership council and, prosecutors say, were set to become a cabinet in waiting if the group’s plan overthrow the government had succeeded.
UK news | Officers who hit an escaped cow with a car “probably did the right thing at the time” even if it looks “horrendous”, a union leader and farmer has said. A video showing a police car hitting the calf on Friday night on a residential street in Staines-upon-Thames was met with widespread outrage, including from the RSCPA which criticised it as “disproportionate”.
Continue reading...UAVs continually kill civilians, but the U.S. military wants to expand its arsenal with an army of new, mass-produced kamikaze AI drones.
The post Cheap and Lethal: The Pentagon’s Plan for the Next Drone War appeared first on The Intercept.
Campaigners fear current plans will allow landlords to find new ways to evict tenants if party wins power
Labour is facing pressure to deliver more radical reforms of private renting amid fears landlords will find new ways to evict tenants despite the party confirming it would end no-fault evictions, ban bidding wars and introduce time limits to fix potentially lethal mould.
In a campaign push aimed at the “rip-off private rented sector”, Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, claimed private renters would be £250-a-year better off under a Labour government after it forces landlords to improve the energy efficiency of leaky rental homes.
Continue reading...The public doesn’t understand how economic growth is measured, let alone enjoy much of it. So why is it central to this election?
“Great news this morning!” beamed Rishi Sunak on Wednesday. Not every release from the Office for National Statistics gets its own prime ministerial post on Instagram, but inflation falling to 2% was, the Tory leader claimed, a personal victory. When he moved into No 10, it was 11%, he reminded voters. “But we took bold action, we stuck to a clear plan and that’s why the economy has turned a corner.”
Not so fast, Mr Sunak. The prices of food and petrol remain about 25% higher than two years ago. More than one in five households say that they are struggling to pay their bills or to make ends meet. The cost of living crisis was always much bigger than a number on the consumer price index: it was a catch-all term, taking in everything from a punitive welfare system and poorly paid and insecure work to rising expenses. Millions of households were in a cost of living crisis long before it made the front pages; long after the term falls out of fashion, they will still be in one.
Continue reading...Commission recommends 33-point plan to ensure oil giant complies with state climate commitments
The French government should intervene in TotalEnergies and spur faster climate action, a senate inquiry commission has concluded.
The commission, set up to explore ways the state could guarantee that the oil conglomerate complies with French climate commitments, recommended 33 steps the government should take to “encourage a rapid, orderly and effective transition”.
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Increasing use of fans, air coolers and air conditioners is placing ‘serious’ strain on grid in north of country
Engineers in India have warned of the possibility of prolonged power outages in the north, where a heatwave has brought misery for millions of people.
Demand for electricity has soared due to fans, air coolers and air conditioners being run constantly, placing a strain on the grid in Delhi and elsewhere in the north. Manufacturers of air conditioners and air coolers report sales rising by 40-50% compared with last summer.
Continue reading...A ‘legitimate grievance’ with big tech firms is being used by police as a pretext to undermine privacy, Meredith Whittaker says
Police have used the “very legitimate grievance” the public has with large tech companies like Meta about data collection and surveillance as a pretext to undermine user privacy, the president of encrypted messaging app Signal has said.
Meredith Whittaker told Guardian Australia that it had become “an easy win with few political consequences” for politicians to beat up on Facebook in the past decade, and while there was legitimate public backlash against the “mass surveillance tech business model” the policy response had a “very unfortunate shape”.
Continue reading...Undercover shopping study on 14 common items part of move to provide transparency after Coles and Woolworths accused of price gouging
A basket of Aldi groceries is typically 25% cheaper than an equivalent purchase at major chains Coles and Woolworths, according to government-funded research conducted by consumer group Choice.
The price comparison of 14 common grocery items is part of an initiative to provide better transparency of the supermarket sector, which has faced allegations of anti-competitive price gouging during a cost-of-living crisis.
Continue reading...It compares with 21.7% in the private sector, which WGEA report says is due to more flexible working practice and more full-time work
For every dollar a male federal public servant makes, his female counterpart makes 86c, data reported for the first time by the government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reveals.
An analysis of data reported by 116 commonwealth public-sector employers found the public sector’s gender pay gap was 13.5% in 2022, which was roughly two-thirds that of the private sector’s pay gap (21.7%).
Continue reading...Mozilla, the maker of the popular web browser Firefox, said it received government demands to block add-ons that circumvent censorship.
The post Firefox Browser Blocks Anti-Censorship Add-Ons at Russia’s Request appeared first on The Intercept.
Public polling is a critical function of modern political campaigns and movements, but it isn’t what it once was. Recent US election cycles have produced copious postmortems explaining both the successes and the flaws of public polling. There are two main reasons polling fails.
First, nonresponse has skyrocketed. It’s radically harder to reach people than it used to be. Few people fill out surveys that come in the mail anymore. Few people answer their phone when a stranger calls. Pew Research reported that 36% of the people they called in 1997 would talk to them, but only 6% by 2018. Pollsters worldwide have faced similar challenges...
“One side or the other is going to win,” Alito told a person he thought was a right-wing activist.
The post Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Caught on Secret Audio appeared first on The Intercept.
Dan Osborn, running as an independent, has racked up endorsements in a race that could help determine Senate control in 2024.
The post UAW Endorses Nebraska Underdog Threatening to Unseat a Republican Senator appeared first on The Intercept.
Twelve jurors in New York have presented their fellow Americans with a simple question: are you willing to elect a convicted criminal to the White House?
On Thursday, Donald Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. The verdict makes him the first president, current or former, to be found guilty of felony crimes in the US's near 250-year history. Regardless, the conviction does not disqualify Trump as a presidential candidate or bar him from again sitting in the Oval Office.
Trump, who opted not to take the stand during the trial, has denied wrongdoing, railed against the proceedings and ahead of the verdict compared himself to a saint: “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. The charges are rigged,” he said on Wednesday. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is expected to appeal the verdict.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has been in court over the last several weeks covering all the developments – here are three testimonies he found most memorable.
Could Trump go to prison? Here’s what happens next after the guilty verdict
The U.S. has trained 15 coup leaders in recent decades — and U.S. counterterrorism policies in the region have failed.
The post After Training African Coup Leaders, Pentagon Blames Russia for African Coups appeared first on The Intercept.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, revealed the tactics and traits that help him face the daily frustrations of leading a country at war for more than two years.
Within a ceremonial room inside Kyiv’s presidential compound, Zelenskiy spoke for nearly an hour with a Guardian team, including the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner. The interview took place during perhaps the toughest time for Ukraine since the early days of the war. Russia is on the offensive in Kharkiv, an advance that follows months of delay in the US Congress over the passing of a major support package, limiting Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities
Continue reading...Experts at Northumbria University are winning millions in funding to find new ways to tackle the climate crisis, including using solar power to create water, and to train the next generation of carbon champions
An estimated 1.8 billion people around the world live in homes without a water supply, according to research by Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO). Collecting water is a daily task that falls to women and girls in 70% of those households, and often involves long, dangerous journeys that take them away from education, work and leisure. It’s an issue that’s exacerbated by climate change and war. Experts warn that efforts to tackle water scarcity need to accelerate significantly if the UN’s sixth sustainable development goal – universal access to water – is to be achieved by 2030.
But what if there was a way to harness the energy of the sun to create clean, safe drinking water from thin air? It sounds like a magic trick but that’s precisely what Dr Muhammad Wakil Shahzad, associate professor in Northumbria University’s department of mechanical and construction engineering, has devised with his team. Their portable Solar2Water system uses solar energy to extract moisture from the air and turn it into water – up to 500 litres a day, depending on the size of the unit. It is being seen as a game changer for displaced communities in refugee camps, disaster zones and other remote locations, primarily because it can produce a constant amount of water independently of the humidity in the air.
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