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The 22 Best Movies on Apple TV+ Right Now (June 2024)
Thu, 30 May 2024 19:00:00 +0000
Argylle, Mad Max: Fury Road, Napoleon, and Blade Runner 2049 are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Apple TV+ this month.
Match ID: 0 Score: 47.14 source: www.wired.com age: 3 days
qualifiers: 30.00 (best|good|great) (show|movie), 17.14 movie
The Sexy Mind Games of “Hit Man”
Fri, 31 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000
In Richard Linklater’s romantic crime comedy, an undercover operative transforms his love life by means of professional deceptions.
Match ID: 1 Score: 20.00 source: www.newyorker.com age: 2 days
qualifiers: 20.00 movie
Sam Altman Dreams of an A.I. Girlfriend
Wed, 29 May 2024 20:00:00 +0000
A recent OpenAI product had an uncanny resemblance to Scarlett Johansson’s character in the movie “Her.” Did the company make a critical misstep?
Match ID: 2 Score: 14.29 source: www.newyorker.com age: 4 days
qualifiers: 14.29 movie
NASA’s Commitment to Safety Starts with its Culture
Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:00:00 +0000
NASA works on projects that often have never been done, or perhaps the way they are being done has never been tried. Living on the edge of innovation requires a high degree of risk. After organizational silence led to the loss of space shuttle Challenger and its crew in 1986, NASA vowed to change the […]
Match ID: 3 Score: 2.86 source: www.nasa.gov age: 33 days
qualifiers: 2.86 movie
Most Frequently Asked Questions About NFTs(Non-Fungible Tokens)
Sun, 06 Feb 2022 10:04:00 +0000
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
Biden's plan to cozy up to Arab dictators is right out of Donald Trump's playbook — but even worse.
The post Joe Biden’s Terrible Israel Policy Is Really About Getting in Bed With Saudi Arabia appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Ukrainian leader says bad peace deal in event of Trump victory would mean end of US as global ‘player’
Donald Trump risks being a “loser president” if he wins November’s election and imposes a bad peace deal on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, saying it would mean the end of the US as a global “player”.
In an interview with the Guardian in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said he had “no strategy yet” for what to do if Trump returned to the White House, and that the former British prime minister Boris Johnson had approached him on his behalf.
Continue reading...Ukrainians hold 70% of Vovchansk, says army; Zelenskiy in Singapore for security forum. What we know on day 830
Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged a group of top defence officials at a Singapore security conference to attend the Swiss summit this month on ending the Russian war on Ukraine. Zelenskyy told the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum on Sunday that he was “disappointed” some world leaders had not yet confirmed attendance at the conference in about two weeks. The Ukrainian president did not specify any country by name, but the possible participation of China, Russia’s most important ally, has been seen as a key issue. The Chinese defence minister, Dong Jun, spoke earlier in the day at the Shangri-La conference but did not appear to be in the room when Zelenskyy made his appeal.
Zelenskiy said on Sunday that he met with the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue. “We discussed what’s key: the defence needs of our country, the strengthening of the Ukrainian air defence system, the F-16 coalition and the preparation of a bilateral security agreement.”
A Russian missile strike on residences injured 13 people including eight children in Balakliia town, Kharkiv region, on Saturday, Ukrainian prosecutors said. Prosecutors also announced that recovery operations had concluded at the site of three missile strikes on Friday in the city of Kharkiv, with a death toll of nine, most in a badly damaged apartment building.
A military spokesperson, Nazar Voloshin, told national television on Saturday that Ukrainian forces controlled 70% of Vovchansk, 5km (three miles) inside the border, which Russian troops have been trying to capture.
Russian forces fired a combined 100 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday morning, hitting energy sites, Ukrainian officials said. The air force said it shot down 35 of the missiles and all but one of the drones. Two thermal power plants were damaged, said their operator, DTEK operator.
Mourners and soldiers have laid flowers at a statue over the St Petersburg grave of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary leader who sent his forces into Ukraine for Vladimir Putin but then staged a mutiny against the Russian government before being killed when his plane was blown up. Putin, who said grenade fragments were found in the plane’s wreckage, called him a “talented” man who had made “serious mistakes”.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has estimated that the number of Russian troops killed or wounded since the war’s outbreak “has now likely reached 500,000”.
Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has told the BBC that “we have no Plan B for a Russian victory, because then we would stop focusing on Plan A” – helping Ukraine push back the Russian invasion. “We should not give in to pessimism. Victory in Ukraine is not just about territory. If Ukraine joins Nato, even without some territory, then that’s a victory because it will be placed under the Nato umbrella.” Estonia’s government has given more than 1% of its GDP for Ukraine’s defence – concerned that Vladimir Putin might also turn his attention to the Baltics to bring countries like Estonia back under Moscow’s control.
Continue reading...The megadonor’s plan for a $25 million research center at Cornell fell apart. So he took his money to Texas A&M.
The post Leonard Leo Built the Conservative Court. Now He’s Funneling Dark Money Into Law Schools. appeared first on The Intercept.
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An ex-UK envoy’s compelling account of the chaotic military withdrawal from the country is full of telling details, while Seierstad’s latest work drives home the cruel reality of women’s lives after the return of Taliban rule
In August 2021, Britain’s last ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, climbed on to a table holding a kitchen knife. He and a member of his security team had a small but important task. They unscrewed a portrait of the queen from the wall. Around them was “incessant gunfire”. Some of it came from heavy calibre weapons. A large TV screen nearby relayed the news on a loop. It was grim. The Taliban were at the gates of Kabul.
From time to time, Bristow recalls, there were great crashes from the roof as soldiers destroyed sensitive equipment. The UK was shutting its embassy and relocating to a military facility inside Kabul airport. Soon, soldiers and diplomats would depart. The US-led campaign in Afghanistan – a 20-year saga of wishful thinking and blunders – was ending in ignominy and farce. And, as Bristow describes in his compelling memoir Kabul: Final Call, with betrayal and human disaster.
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In Fox interview, Trump derides his conviction and baselessly characterizes it as political weaponization of US justice system
Donald Trump on Sunday lauded the Republican party for rallying behind him in the wake of his conviction on 34 felony charges in a hush-money case aimed at influencing the 2016 election.
Trump made the comments in his first sit-down press interview since the guilty verdict was returned on Friday that held he falsified business records linked to an illicit affair with adult actor Stormy Daniels. The former US president appeared on Sunday in a taped interview on Fox & Friends, a friendly forum on the rightwing channel and in which he was served up a series of softball questions by a trio of Fox hosts.
Continue reading...‘The campaign is playing on all fields,’ an adviser to Trump’s campaign tells Politico
Former president Donald Trump has joined social media platform TikTok and made his first post late Saturday night, a video featuring the Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO, Dana White, introducing Trump on the social media platform.
The move came despite that fact that as president Trump pushed to ban TikTok by executive order due to the app’s parent company being based in China. Trump said in March 2024 that he believed the app was a national security threat, but later reversed on supporting a ban.
Continue reading...In ‘mirror world’, Trump is martyr and Biden is autocrat, as calls for violence erupt on internet after ex-president’s conviction
The posts are ominous.
“Pick a side, or YOU are next,” wrote conservative talkshow host Dan Bongino on the Truth Social media platform in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions.
Continue reading...War in Gaza, Donald Trump in New York, voting in South Africa and an eruption in Iceland: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing
Continue reading...Revisited: Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland speaks to Sam Levine about how Donald Trump became the first US president, sitting or former, to become a convicted criminal
Today, we are sharing Politics Weekly America’s latest episode with Today in Focus listeners.
Donald Trump has made history again, becoming the first US president, sitting or former, to be a convicted criminal. Late on Thursday a New York jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal. Within minutes of leaving the courtroom, Trump said he would appeal.
Continue reading...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
Found guilty on 34 counts by a New York jury, Trump might find himself campaigning behind bars.
The post These Convictions Thwart Trump’s Plan to Pardon Himself appeared first on The Intercept.
Two-thirds of Ingria near Turin are competing for positions including a mother and son in rival camps
The last time Igor De Santis ran for mayor in Ingria, a tiny village surrounded by forests and mountains near Turin, he won an easy landslide victory. But he faces a tough challenge in his bid for a fourth mandate, after his mother joined a rival camp.
Ingria, one of the smallest villages in Italy, is home to 46 inhabitants. A further 26 people, registered to vote from abroad, make up the electorate.
Continue reading...Ministers at Riyadh meeting agree daily limit of 2m barrels should be in place until end of next year
The Opec+ group of oil producers have agreed to extend most of their production curbs into next year, in an attempt to shore up crude prices.
After a ministerial meeting in Riyadh on Sunday, the Opec cartel and allies including Russia decided to extend a cut of 2m barrels a day until the end of 2025, rather than ending it at the end of 2024.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leaked internal documents show Pravfond has spent millions of euros to finance propaganda and legal campaigns
Leaked internal documents have exposed the activities of a Russian state-backed legal defence foundation that European intelligence agencies and analysts say is in fact a Kremlin influence operation active in 48 countries across Europe and around the world.
Internal documents from the Fund for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad (Pravfond) indicate that the foundation finances propaganda websites targeted at Europeans, helped pay for the legal defence of the convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout and the assassin Vadim Krasikov, and has employed a number of former intelligence officers as the directors of its operations in European countries.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson, Archie Rhind-Tutt and Jonathan Fadugba for the final pod of the domestic season
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
On the podcast today; Real Madrid are outplayed for large parts of the game as Borussia Dortmund miss chance after chance in the first half but none of that matters does it? Because Real Madrid always win.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president says Beijing is supporting efforts by Moscow to warn leaders off attending Swiss meeting
Volodomyr Zelenskiy has accused China of discouraging other countries from attending a peace summit in Switzerland later this month that is aimed at bringing peace to war-ravaged Ukraine.
Speaking at Asia’s biggest security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, the Ukrainian president sought to rally support among Asia-Pacific nations, urging them to attend the Swiss meeting.
Continue reading...A new flavour from Lakrids is so good it must be shared
Many years ago, deep in Bermondsey, which is south of London’s Thames, I had a boyfriend who supported Leeds United. Because I had no UK team (my team was Juventus thanks to Dino Zoff, the greatest goal keeper of all time), I adopted his team and even had a scarf. Little did I know that I would find myself in Leeds and all its glory so frequently in the future. For me, as a young woman, Leeds was just somewhere up north. My life revolved around London where we lived, the occasional Bedford jaunt where one uncle lived and, because I’m Italian, Italy. The wilds and wonders of the UK were little known to me and I had yet to discover how fabulous Leeds was.
This time, I brought a little bit of Copenhagen with me to Leeds. I visited the Lakrids factory two winters ago and this is not my first time writing about this Danish brand. But they’ve just launched a new flavour called Milk and Honey, £19.99, and it’s so good I had to share it. Milk and Honey is the newest addition to its Organic Slow Crafted Liquorice range. When I toured the factory I was given a chunk of the slow-crafted stuff and I couldn’t let go of it. It’s so toffee-ish, but the sort of chew a woman with fillings can enjoy.
Continue reading...About 20-50 balloons an hour incoming, warns Seoul’s military, urging public to report but don’t touch
North Korea has sent about 600 more rubbish-filled balloons containing everything from cigarette butts to plastic across the border, Seoul’s military said on Sunday, adding that security personnel were collecting them as they landed.
“North Korea has resumed launching waste balloons towards South Korea” since around 8pm on Saturday, Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said.
Continue reading...Even her toughest opponents admit she’s played it cleverly. Yet the long-term aims of Italy’s prime minister remain unclear
When she became Italy’s prime minister in October 2022, Giorgia Meloni looked like Brussels’ worst nightmare. Until then, the fiery leader of the Brothers of Italy – a party with neofascist roots – had seemed anything but EU-friendly.
For years, railing against the bloc had been Meloni’s stock in trade: the euro amounted to enslavement, the European Commission was effectively a loan shark. “Bring down this EU!” she urged the 2019 conservative CPAC conference in the US.
Continue reading...Properties will require air conditioning, external door seals and ceiling insulation under proposed new standards
All Victorian rental properties will need air conditioning, draught proofing on doors and a certain amount of ceiling insulation under new minimum heating and cooling standards proposed by the state government.
The government on Monday announced it would begin consultation on the expanded standards requirements, including for broken appliances to be replaced with energy efficient ones, which it said would drive down power bills for renters by more than $800 a year.
Continue reading...Brian Krebs reports on research into geolocating routers:
Apple and the satellite-based broadband service Starlink each recently took steps to address new research into the potential security and privacy implications of how their services geolocate devices. Researchers from the University of Maryland say they relied on publicly available data from Apple to track the location of billions of devices globally—including non-Apple devices like Starlink systems—and found they could use this data to monitor the destruction of Gaza, as well as the movements and in many cases identities of Russian and Ukrainian troops...
ICC warrants against Israeli officials would mean they can’t travel — and their patrons in the U.S. would be pressured over continued arms sales.
The post Can a U.S. Ally Actually Be Held Accountable for War Crimes in the ICC? appeared first on The Intercept.
Is this what the “pro-life” movement wanted?
The post Sterilization, Murders, Suicides: Bans Haven’t Slowed Abortions, and They’re Costing Lives appeared first on The Intercept.
He tells the world he intends to be an authoritarian. So why won’t journalists repeat it?
The post The Media Still Doesn’t Grasp the Danger of Trump appeared first on The Intercept.
New paper: “Zero Progress on Zero Days: How the Last Ten Years Created the Modern Spyware Market“:
Abstract: Spyware makes surveillance simple. The last ten years have seen a global market emerge for ready-made software that lets governments surveil their citizens and foreign adversaries alike and to do so more easily than when such work required tradecraft. The last ten years have also been marked by stark failures to control spyware and its precursors and components. This Article accounts for and critiques these failures, providing a socio-technical history since 2014, particularly focusing on the conversation about trade in zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits. Second, this Article applies lessons from these failures to guide regulatory efforts going forward. While recognizing that controlling this trade is difficult, I argue countries should focus on building and strengthening multilateral coalitions of the willing, rather than on strong-arming existing multilateral institutions into working on the problem. Individually, countries should focus on export controls and other sanctions that target specific bad actors, rather than focusing on restricting particular technologies. Last, I continue to call for transparency as a key part of oversight of domestic governments’ use of spyware and related components...
Shalev Hulio is remaking his image but is still involved in a web of cybersecurity ventures with his old colleagues from NSO Group.
The post After Pegasus Was Blacklisted, Its CEO Swore Off Spyware. Now He’s the King of Israeli AI. appeared first on The Intercept.
The battalion has a dedicated U.S. nonprofit to support its operations — whose president is supporting AIPAC’s political agenda.
The post This AIPAC Donor Funnels Millions to an IDF Unit Accused of Violating Human Rights appeared first on The Intercept.
In the survey of Democrats and independents in five battleground states, 2 in 5 voters said a ceasefire and conditioning aid would make them more likely to vote for Biden.
The post Conditioning Aid to Israel Would Boost Support for Biden in Key States, New Poll Finds appeared first on The Intercept.
Engineers warned Meta that nations can monitor chats; staff fear Israel is using this trick to pick assassination targets in Gaza.
The post This Undisclosed WhatsApp Vulnerability Lets Governments See Who You Message appeared first on The Intercept.
Dong Jun rails at length about democratic island’s ‘separatists’ during Shangri-La Dialogue defence conference in Singapore
The Chinese defence minister, Dong Jun, has warned that anyone who dares pursue independence for Taiwan will be “crushed to pieces” and face “destruction”, as he accused external forces of dragging the island into “a dangerous situation”.
In a speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s biggest defence summit, Dong said Beijing was committed to “peaceful unification” with Taiwan, but that it was prepared “for all kinds of extreme situations” and that any attempts to seek independence would be futile.
Continue reading...Ukrainians hold 70% of Vovchansk, says army; Zelenskiy in Singapore for security forum. What we know on day 830
Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged a group of top defence officials at a Singapore security conference to attend the Swiss summit this month on ending the Russian war on Ukraine. Zelenskyy told the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum on Sunday that he was “disappointed” some world leaders had not yet confirmed attendance at the conference in about two weeks. The Ukrainian president did not specify any country by name, but the possible participation of China, Russia’s most important ally, has been seen as a key issue. The Chinese defence minister, Dong Jun, spoke earlier in the day at the Shangri-La conference but did not appear to be in the room when Zelenskyy made his appeal.
Zelenskiy said on Sunday that he met with the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue. “We discussed what’s key: the defence needs of our country, the strengthening of the Ukrainian air defence system, the F-16 coalition and the preparation of a bilateral security agreement.”
A Russian missile strike on residences injured 13 people including eight children in Balakliia town, Kharkiv region, on Saturday, Ukrainian prosecutors said. Prosecutors also announced that recovery operations had concluded at the site of three missile strikes on Friday in the city of Kharkiv, with a death toll of nine, most in a badly damaged apartment building.
A military spokesperson, Nazar Voloshin, told national television on Saturday that Ukrainian forces controlled 70% of Vovchansk, 5km (three miles) inside the border, which Russian troops have been trying to capture.
Russian forces fired a combined 100 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday morning, hitting energy sites, Ukrainian officials said. The air force said it shot down 35 of the missiles and all but one of the drones. Two thermal power plants were damaged, said their operator, DTEK operator.
Mourners and soldiers have laid flowers at a statue over the St Petersburg grave of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary leader who sent his forces into Ukraine for Vladimir Putin but then staged a mutiny against the Russian government before being killed when his plane was blown up. Putin, who said grenade fragments were found in the plane’s wreckage, called him a “talented” man who had made “serious mistakes”.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has estimated that the number of Russian troops killed or wounded since the war’s outbreak “has now likely reached 500,000”.
Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has told the BBC that “we have no Plan B for a Russian victory, because then we would stop focusing on Plan A” – helping Ukraine push back the Russian invasion. “We should not give in to pessimism. Victory in Ukraine is not just about territory. If Ukraine joins Nato, even without some territory, then that’s a victory because it will be placed under the Nato umbrella.” Estonia’s government has given more than 1% of its GDP for Ukraine’s defence – concerned that Vladimir Putin might also turn his attention to the Baltics to bring countries like Estonia back under Moscow’s control.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president says Beijing is supporting efforts by Moscow to warn leaders off attending Swiss meeting
Volodomyr Zelenskiy has accused China of discouraging other countries from attending a peace summit in Switzerland later this month that is aimed at bringing peace to war-ravaged Ukraine.
Speaking at Asia’s biggest security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, the Ukrainian president sought to rally support among Asia-Pacific nations, urging them to attend the Swiss meeting.
Continue reading...I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to predict that artificial intelligence will affect every aspect of our society. Not by doing new things. But mostly by doing things that are already being done by humans, perfectly competently.
Replacing humans with AIs isn’t necessarily interesting. But when an AI takes over a human task, the task changes.
In particular, there are potential changes over four dimensions: Speed, scale, scope and sophistication. The problem with AIs trading stocks isn’t that they’re better than humans—it’s that they’re faster. But computers are better at chess and Go because they use more sophisticated strategies than humans. We’re worried about AI-controlled social media accounts because they operate on a superhuman scale...
Events marking the day that Chinese soldiers shut down a peaceful protest with deadly violence are banned in China and Hong Kong
Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have arrested or put under surveillance several dissidents ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre this week, according to human rights groups.
On 4 June it will be 35 years since Chinese soldiers shut down a weeks-long peaceful protest with violence, killing untold numbers of people, estimated from several hundred to several thousand.
Continue reading...Japan’s Yuka Saso overcame an early four-putt to overturn a three-shot deficit and win her second US Open title on a dramatic final day at Lancaster Country Club.
Minjee Lee, Wichanee Meechai and Andrea Lee shared the lead heading into the final round and Saso’s chances of catching them took a massive blow when she followed a birdie on the second by four-putting the sixth for a double bogey.
Continue reading...Spacecraft to collect samples from rarely explored area after landing heralded as ‘enormous technical achievement’
China has landed its uncrewed Chang’e-6 lunar probe on the far side of the moon, marking an important step in the country’s 53-day mission to retrieve rock and soil samples from the “dark” lunar hemisphere, in what would be a world first.
The landing elevates China’s space power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries including the US are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade.
Continue reading...‘The campaign is playing on all fields,’ an adviser to Trump’s campaign tells Politico
Former president Donald Trump has joined social media platform TikTok and made his first post late Saturday night, a video featuring the Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO, Dana White, introducing Trump on the social media platform.
The move came despite that fact that as president Trump pushed to ban TikTok by executive order due to the app’s parent company being based in China. Trump said in March 2024 that he believed the app was a national security threat, but later reversed on supporting a ban.
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Last week’s conviction of dissidents came in the biggest case since introduction of a new national security law
The verdict wasn’t surprising but outside room no 2 of the West Kowloon courthouse, people still wept. The panel of Hong Kong national security judges had set down two days for the hearing but dispensed with the core business in about 15 minutes. In the city’s largest ever national security trial – involving the prosecution of pro-democracy campaigners and activists from a group known as the “Hong Kong 47” – almost all the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion.
Their crime was trying to win an election, holding unofficial primaries in 2020 attended by an estimated 600,000 residents.
Continue reading...Modi’s ruling BJP may gain a two-thirds majority, amid allegations of intimidation of opposition candidates and Muslim voter suppression
Voting has come to a close in India’s mammoth elections, as exit polls widely predicted prime minister Narendra Modi would win a historic third term in proceedings marred by allegations of irregularities.
The election, the longest and largest in India’s history with almost a billion eligible voters, began in mid-April. As it progressed over seven phases until 1 June, a deadly heatwave gripped the country, with temperatures almost touching 50C in areas, leading to deaths of dozens of voters and polling officials.
Continue reading...People paid to obtain visas and sponsorship certificates but arrived to find little or no work, in abuses of care worker visa system
Akhil Jenny was living in a small town in southern India, struggling with crippling debts, when a work contact offered him a way out.
“I had some loans which I had taken out for medical care and I couldn’t repay them,” Jenny told the Guardian. “I had a nursing qualification and wanted to come to the UK. That’s what Shinto Sebastian offered me – a well-paid job as a care worker in Britain. It solved all my problems.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Experts raise alarm over ‘national scandal’ that has hallmarks of trafficking and modern slavery
British social care agencies have been accused of exploiting foreign workers, leaving people living on the breadline as they struggle to pay off debts run up while trying to secure jobs that fail to materialise.
Dozens of people working for 11 different care providers have told the Guardian they paid thousands of pounds to agents to secure jobs working in UK care homes or residential care, with most finding limited or no employment when they arrived.
Continue reading...After two World Cup campaigns with wildly different outcomes and a personally challenging start to this year, a leaner, more focused Harry Brook heads into this latest push for global glory confident that England have the power to bring home the trophy.
Doing so would certainly change the narrative from late last year in India, where Jos Buttler’s team were barely also-rans in their 50-over title defence. Brook, whose first winter with England in 2022-23 returned the T20 World Cup, has a diagnosis for that no-show and, with it, clarity as to how things must differ over the next four weeks.
Continue reading...Unite move comes after Tata, which owns Port Talbot and Llanwern plants, threatened to cut redundancy pay
Union leaders are preparing to ramp up industrial action at two south Wales steelworks, in a further escalation of a row over almost 3,000 job losses that threatens to become a big general election issue.
Unite said such moves at the Port Talbot and Llanwern works are planned after the sites’ Indian owner, Tata Steel, threatened to cut redundancy pay as a response to members voting for an overtime ban.
Continue reading...In the week that the country’s election results are announced, this disturbing study of individuals imprisoned without trial illustrates Modi’s autocratic rule and the plight of minorities and dissenters
It began with a riot. On New Year’s Day 2018, thousands of historically oppressed Dalits arriving for an annual commemoration at Bhima Koregaon, a village in the west Indian state of Maharashtra, were pelted with stones by a mob of Hindu supremacists. One person was killed in the resulting violence and multiple others injured. The cops initially accused two local leaders connected to the Hindu right of inciting the upper-caste residents of the area against Dalits (who occupy the lowest rung of the caste order), but a few months later the investigation changed tack. By May, the police were linking the incident to an anti-caste interfaith public meeting that took place 20 miles away a day before and claiming that the organisers were part of a “chilling Maoist conspiracy” to assassinate the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.
To those of us living in India since Modi was first elected in 2014, the lack of police impartiality wasn’t exactly a surprise; and yet you couldn’t help but despair at the pace with which the investigation transformed into a witch-hunt. In August that year, the police raided the homes of, among others, a leftwing political columnist, a cartoonist, a poet, a human rights lawyer, a Dalit scholar and a Jesuit priest. Many of them had never heard of Bhima Koregaon nor were they present at the anti-caste public meeting. Yet they were all imprisoned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act (UAPA), a repressive 2008 anti-terror law that has been repurposed as a tool to punish dissenters.
Continue reading...Prime minister claims victory but opposition dismisses poll results as fixed and unscientific
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP)-led alliance is projected to win a big majority in the general election that concluded on Saturday, TV exit polls said, suggesting it would do better than expected by most analysts.
Most exit polls projected the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could win a two-thirds majority in the 543-member lower house of parliament, where 272 is needed for a simple majority. A two-thirds majority will allow the government to usher in far-reaching amendments to the constitution.
Continue reading...Meteorologists found 52.9C reading to be false, though new record does appear to have been set
A record temperature registered this week for the Indian capital of 52.9C (127.22F) was too high by 3C, the Indian government has said.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had investigated Wednesday’s reading by the weather station at Mungeshpur, a densely packed corner of New Delhi, “and found a 3C sensor error”, the earth sciences minister, Kiren Rijiju, said.
Continue reading...“It’s hard to see this wildly disproportionate response as anything other than an attempt to chill speech on this issue.”
The post Columbia Coincidentally Rewrites Disciplinary Rules Just in Time to Screw Over Student Protesters appeared first on The Intercept.
All over the country, architecture firms make the case for bigger jails — then get hired to design them.
The post The Little-Known Reason Counties Keep Building Bigger Jails: Architecture Firms appeared first on The Intercept.
Found guilty on 34 counts by a New York jury, Trump might find himself campaigning behind bars.
The post These Convictions Thwart Trump’s Plan to Pardon Himself appeared first on The Intercept.
Biden's plan to cozy up to Arab dictators is right out of Donald Trump's playbook — but even worse.
The post Joe Biden’s Terrible Israel Policy Is Really About Getting in Bed With Saudi Arabia appeared first on The Intercept.
About 20-50 balloons an hour incoming, warns Seoul’s military, urging public to report but don’t touch
North Korea has sent about 600 more rubbish-filled balloons containing everything from cigarette butts to plastic across the border, Seoul’s military said on Sunday, adding that security personnel were collecting them as they landed.
“North Korea has resumed launching waste balloons towards South Korea” since around 8pm on Saturday, Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said.
Continue reading...Temperatures of more than 45C have left population of 29 million exhausted – but the poorest suffer most
As the water tanker drove into a crowded Delhi neighbourhood, a ruckus erupted. Dozens of residents ran frantically behind it, brandishing buckets, bottles and hoses, and jumped on top of it to get even a drip of what was stored inside. Temperatures that day had soared to 49C (120F), the hottest day on record – and in many places across India’s vast capital, home to more than 29 million people, water had run out.
Every morning, Tripti, a social health worker who lives in the impoverished enclave of Vivekanand Camp, is among those who has to stand under the blazing sun with buckets and pots, waiting desperately for the water tanker to arrive.
Continue reading...India is in the final stages of a general election, and 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.
The Guardian’s video team travelled through India to explore how fake news and censorship might be shaping the outcome of the election
Meteorological department examining data from Mungeshpur station amid soaring temperatures that came close to 50 degrees Celsius
Authorities in India are investigating whether a faulty sensor may have been behind a reading that showed temperatures in Delhi soaring past 50 degrees for the first time, amid a scorching heatwave in the capital.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said it was examining the data and sensors at the Mungeshpur station after an unusually large variation in temperatures was recorded at the station compared to others.
Continue reading...CEO Jensen Huang tells packed stadium in Taipei ‘next Industrial Revolution has begun’
Nvidia has unveiled new products and plans to accelerate the advance of artificial intelligence, with the AI hardware company’s chief executive telling a packed stadium in Taipei on Sunday that “the next Industrial Revolution has begun”.
Jensen Huang is in Taiwan for the island’s leading tech expo, Computex, along with the CEOs of some of the world’s biggest semiconductor companies – including AMD, Intel and Qualcomm – and their plans for a tech industry dominated by AI are top of the agenda.
Continue reading...We know turbulence is a common part of flying – but are some routes more prone? And where is it the worst? Turbulence is the leading cause of in-flight injuries to crew and passengers and after the fatal Singapore Airlines incident and injuries to passengers above Turkey on a Qatar Airways flight, you might be wondering if flights are about to get bumpier. Incidents of severe turbulence are on the rise – increasing by 55% between 1979 and 2020 – and the climate crisis is thought to be a responsible factor
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Continue reading...Kuo Chiu, known as KC to his friends, teaches urban design at Tunghai University in Taiwan. He’s also one of many of the country's citizens who practises rifle skills in his spare time, in case of a Chinese invasion.
The population of Taiwan has long grown familiar with Beijing’s pledge to one day ‘unify’ what it claims is a breakaway province. But recently, there has been a significant increase in aggressive and intimidatory acts.
Taiwan’s 160,000 active military personnel are vastly outnumbered by China’s 2 million-member armed forces, leading many civilians to turn to voluntary medical and combat training to protect themselves.
The Guardian's video team spent time with KC to see how he is preparing
Continue reading...Study confirms huge concentrations of potentially dangerous PFAS in rivers, lakes and taps in Dhaka
Rivers, lakes and tap water in areas of Bangladesh that host garment factories are swarming with dangerous levels of toxic “forever chemicals”, some with links to serious health issues, according to new research.
In the first study of its kind conducted in Bangladesh, a global fashion hub supplying international brands, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as forever chemicals, were found in 27 water samples collected close to textile factories in the capital, Dhaka.
Continue reading...He tells the world he intends to be an authoritarian. So why won’t journalists repeat it?
The post The Media Still Doesn’t Grasp the Danger of Trump appeared first on The Intercept.
From targeting humanitarian vehicles to standing by as mobs attack trucks, Israel is blocking aid from reaching Gaza.
The post The State Department Says Israel Isn’t Blocking Aid. Videos Show the Opposite. appeared first on The Intercept.
Khaled Al Serr, a young surgeon, vanished from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis two months ago. He hasn’t been heard from since.
The post Hundreds of Palestinian Doctors Disappeared Into Israeli Detention appeared first on The Intercept.
Ban Khun Samut Chin, a coastal village in Samut Prakan province, Thailand, has been slowly swallowed by the sea over the past few decades. This has led to the relocation of the school and many homes, resulting in a dwindling population. Currently, there are only four students attending the school, often leaving just one in each classroom. The village has experienced severe coastal erosion, causing 1.1-2km (0.5-1.2 miles) of shoreline to disappear since the mid-1950s
Continue reading...All over the country, architecture firms make the case for bigger jails — then get hired to design them.
The post The Little-Known Reason Counties Keep Building Bigger Jails: Architecture Firms appeared first on The Intercept.
The megadonor’s plan for a $25 million research center at Cornell fell apart. So he took his money to Texas A&M.
The post Leonard Leo Built the Conservative Court. Now He’s Funneling Dark Money Into Law Schools. appeared first on The Intercept.
Last week’s conviction of dissidents came in the biggest case since introduction of a new national security law
The verdict wasn’t surprising but outside room no 2 of the West Kowloon courthouse, people still wept. The panel of Hong Kong national security judges had set down two days for the hearing but dispensed with the core business in about 15 minutes. In the city’s largest ever national security trial – involving the prosecution of pro-democracy campaigners and activists from a group known as the “Hong Kong 47” – almost all the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion.
Their crime was trying to win an election, holding unofficial primaries in 2020 attended by an estimated 600,000 residents.
Continue reading...Government prosecutors claimed they didn’t know a former detainee recanted his testimony in interviews with the government.
The post Guantánamo Prosecutors Accused of “Outrageous” Misconduct for Trying to Use Torture Testimony appeared first on The Intercept.
Found guilty on 34 counts by a New York jury, Trump might find himself campaigning behind bars.
The post These Convictions Thwart Trump’s Plan to Pardon Himself appeared first on The Intercept.
ANC says demands that President Cyril Ramaphosa must step down is ‘no-go area’ as rival Jacob Zuma stokes fears of violence
Final results from Wednesday’s seismic South Africa elections have confirmed that the African National Congress (ANC) party has lost its majority for the first time in 30 years of full democracy, firing the starting gun on unprecedented coalition talks.
The ANC, which led the fight to free South Africa from apartheid, won just 159 seats in the 400-member national assembly on a vote share of just over 40%. High unemployment, power cuts, violent crime and crumbling infrastructure have contributed to a haemorrhaging of support for the former liberation movement.
Continue reading...Claudia Sheinbaum is the presidential frontrunner, with 20,000 other posts up for grabs in the country’s biggest election ever
Mexican voters go to the polls on Sunday in an election that seems certain to deliver the country’s first female president – and may also give her party enough power in congress to change the constitution and rewire the democracy of Latin America’s second-largest economy.
Frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, has vowed to continue the policies of her populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who founded the Morena party and forged a bond with voters who had become disenchanted with democracy.
Continue reading...After 30 years in power, the African National Congress, which took 40.2% of the vote, must engage in tricky coalition talks with rivals
The African National Congress’s (ANC) three decades of political dominance in South Africa has come to an end after it was announced that it had won just 40.2% of the vote in last week’s general election.
The ANC’s dramatic decline – the first time it has failed to win a majority of the votes since Nelson Mandela led it to victory in the first democratic election in 1994 – will lead to a chaotic round of coalition negotiations, with all of its potential partners posing difficulties.
Continue reading...Collapse in support means ANC may not reach 50% vote share needed to rule alone. Which parties are contenders for coalition?
South Africa is facing the uncertain possibility of a coalition government after a collapse in support for the ruling African National Congress party in Wednesday’s election meant it probably will not reach the 50% vote share needed for it to rule on its own. Here is a guide to the three main contenders for coalition partners:
Continue reading...Ex-president’s uMkhonto we Sizwe party erodes vote share of African National Congress, which has been in power for three decades
South Africa is facing the uncertain possibility of a coalition government after the former president Jacob Zuma’s new party upended the country’s elections, contributing to the African National Congress party’s vote share collapsing well below half, with 97% of voting stations counted.
By Saturday, the ANC, which has governed South Africa with a large majority since Nelson Mandela led it to power 30 years ago after the end of apartheid, had 40.14% of the vote.
Continue reading...The Intercept’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft shows how digital outlets are uniquely vulnerable.
The post Scarlett Johansson Isn’t Alone. The Intercept Is Getting Ripped Off by OpenAI Too. appeared first on The Intercept.
He tells the world he intends to be an authoritarian. So why won’t journalists repeat it?
The post The Media Still Doesn’t Grasp the Danger of Trump appeared first on The Intercept.
The U.S. held Saeed Bakhouch at Guantánamo Bay for 20 years without charge, then sent him to have his rights violated in Algeria.
The post After Torturing Him, U.S. Breaks Guarantees of Safety to Former Guantánamo Detainee appeared first on The Intercept.
ICC warrants against Israeli officials would mean they can’t travel — and their patrons in the U.S. would be pressured over continued arms sales.
The post Can a U.S. Ally Actually Be Held Accountable for War Crimes in the ICC? appeared first on The Intercept.
The battalion has a dedicated U.S. nonprofit to support its operations — whose president is supporting AIPAC’s political agenda.
The post This AIPAC Donor Funnels Millions to an IDF Unit Accused of Violating Human Rights appeared first on The Intercept.
In the survey of Democrats and independents in five battleground states, 2 in 5 voters said a ceasefire and conditioning aid would make them more likely to vote for Biden.
The post Conditioning Aid to Israel Would Boost Support for Biden in Key States, New Poll Finds appeared first on The Intercept.
With FDA approval on the horizon, an internal document lays out measures to treat PTSD and stanch the suicide crisis.
The post The VA Is Quietly Fast-Tracking MDMA Therapy for Veterans appeared first on The Intercept.
From targeting humanitarian vehicles to standing by as mobs attack trucks, Israel is blocking aid from reaching Gaza.
The post The State Department Says Israel Isn’t Blocking Aid. Videos Show the Opposite. appeared first on The Intercept.
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