Author: nick

The company has been forced to pay billions in fines and overhaul some of its most destructive practices. Hopefully there’s more where that came from. Source link

By Mike Ludwig This article was originally published by Truthout In a world where autonomous weapons can choose targets on their own, data can put us all at risk, a US veteran warns. The United Nations and the Red Cross are warning that rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic weapons are bringing the world dangerously close to crossing a moral red line that has inspired dystopian science fiction for decades: the autonomous targeting of humans by deadly machines. In an appeal to world leaders on August 25, the International Committee of the Red Cross and UN Secretary-General António Guterres…

Jason Arday speaking at the Society for Experimental Biology symposium. (Screen capture from video posted to YouTube.) The controversy surrounding the death of Jason Arday has produced a revealing moment of institutional self-defense, if not abject moral cowardice, within the liberal press. Three recent interventions are especially instructive. The Guardianhas defended its reporting on Arday as legitimate and responsible journalism while condemning the racialized abuse directed at its journalists. Michelle Goldberg, writing in the New York Times, warns against allowing outrage over Arday’s treatment to become an attack on press freedom. And Graeme Wood, writing in The Atlantic, reduces Arday’s…

Yes, social media is susceptible to groupthink. But if the TikTok moms posting ‘Same, Lindsay’ really mean it, they should log off and seek help. Source link

Recently, Republican political operatives have been sounding the alarm about the bad politics of data centers. Data centers have become politically toxic, and the polling makes it undeniable. More than 70% of Americans oppose building a data center in their neighborhood. This isn’t only about energy costs, water usage, aesthetics, or noise. The American people are worried about artificial intelligence replacing human beings. They don’t want technology companies to build superintelligence. And they fear more loss-of-control incidents that could lead to financial losses, national security threats, or even human extinction caused by a novel biological weapon. Republican operatives are catching up to…

Photograph Source: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit photographer – CC BY-SA 3.0 It has been hot in Switzerland. Temperatures have hovered around 35C (95F) during recent peaks. One longs for cooler, even cold weather. And yet, when it comes to war, it is often hot conflicts that attract attention. What continues for years, even decades, can gradually become background. And as it does, what was once considered temporary and exceptional can begin to look normal and permanent. Israel’s recent announcement that authority in the West Bank will be transferred from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to Israeli police may seem like a…

A Democratic 'Power Grab' in Brooklyn Source link

Industrial clearcutting in the Oregon Coast Range. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. Last week, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brook L. Rollins moved forward on the agency’s promise to revoke the 2001 Roadless Rule, opening a public comment period on the proposal and a draft environmental statement on its impact. If this sounds familiar, that’s because we covered this almost a year ago during the scoping process. So what’s changed, and what hasn’t? First, it’s important to understand what the Roadless Rule does. Enacted at the end of the Clinton administration, the rule prohibits road construction, road reconstruction, and timber…

Freddie Ponton21st Century Wire On the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow border separates Morocco from a piece of Spain. On the night of July 29, that border gave way. Tens of thousands of young men surged into Ceuta by land and sea, following online claims that the crossing had been opened. By morning, bodies were being pulled from the water and collected from the fence. IMAGE: Thousands move along Ceuta’s coast after crossing from Morocco by land and sea, July 2026 (Source:  NBC News) It looked like chaos, but it did not come without warning. For years, Israeli and…

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair Can a progressive be a patriot?  Well, you say, yes, of course!  More than two centuries ago, Sir Walter Scott defined patriotism as love of country – a special feeling for one’s birthplace and its people. Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,Who never to himself hath said,This is my own, my native land!Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,As home his footsteps he hath turn’d,From wandering on a foreign strand! To Scott, this sort of affection for one’s homeland separates people who care for others from those who care only for themselves.  The villain of…