News gathered 2024-09-28
(date: 2024-09-28 10:39:46)
US town divided by factory deal as candidates compete to be toughest on China
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
In the American Midwest, a local fight over a Chinese electric vehicle battery factory reflects broader controversy over Chinese investments in the U.S. VOA’s Calla Yu reports on how the issue of U.S.-China competition is playing out in a small city in Michigan during this year’s U.S. presidential election. Videographer: Yu Gang
US, Asia-Pacific nations hold joint exercises in South China Sea
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The armed forces of five countries conducted joint maritime exercises in a portion of the South China Sea on Saturday as China carried out its own military drills in the disputed waterway.
The exercises involving the Philippines, United States, Australia, Japan and — for the first time — New Zealand took place in Manila’s exclusive economic zone and sought to improve the militaries’ interoperability, the Philippine armed forces said in a statement.
Saturday’s exercises included a Philippine warship, the United States’ USS Howard, Japan’s JS Sazanami and New Zealand’s HMNZS Aotearoa, the statement said.
Australia’s Department of Defense said the drills demonstrated “our collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”
The exercises follow a series of air and sea encounters between the Philippines and China, which have sparred over disputed areas of the South China Sea, including the Scarborough Shoal, one of Asia’s most contested features. The shoal has been occupied by China’s coast guard for more than a decade.
On Wednesday, naval vessels from New Zealand and Australia sailed through the Taiwan Strait, part of the South China Sea.
China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own, says it alone exercises sovereignty and jurisdiction over the strait. The U.S. and Taiwan say the strait — a major trade route through which about half of global container ships pass — is an international waterway.
Australia has “consistently pressed China on peace and stability in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday.
“We have welcomed the resumption of leader- and military-level dialogue between the U.S. and China,” Wong said, according to a transcript.
Chinese air and naval forces conducted maneuvers in a disputed area of the sea hours after the country’s top diplomat discussed ways of reducing regional tension with his U.S. counterpart.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, despite overlapping maritime claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, angering its neighbors.
Coming home
date: 2024-09-28, updated: 2024-09-28, from: Robin Rendle Essays
https://robinrendle.com/notes/coming-home/
CWWK X86-P5 “Pocket NAS” is a cheap, tiny mini PC with dual 2.5 GbE LAN ports and up four M.2 2280 slots
date: 2024-09-28, from: Liliputing
Earlier this year Chinese PC maker CWWK launched the X86-P5 Dev Board with support for up to an Intel Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N processor, support for up to 32GB of DDR5-4800 memory, and an M.2 slot for a PCIe 3.0 SSD. But what really makes the this little computer interesting is that there’s an optional […]
The post CWWK X86-P5 “Pocket NAS” is a cheap, tiny mini PC with dual 2.5 GbE LAN ports and up four M.2 2280 slots appeared first on Liliputing.
Dozens dead, millions without power after Helene’s march across southeastern US
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
PERRY, Florida — Hurricane Helene caused dozens of deaths and billions of dollars of destruction across a wide swath of the southeastern United States, and more than 3 million customers went into the weekend without power and, for some, a continued threat of floods.
Helene blew ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday packing winds of 225 kilometers per hour and then quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. The storm uprooted trees, splintered homes and sent creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.
Western North Carolina was essentially cut off because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. There were hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in eastern Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from the roof of a hospital that was surrounded by water from a flooded river.
The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect in parts of the southern and central Appalachian Mountains, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.
Among the at least 44 people killed in the storm were three firefighters, a woman and her 1-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was struck by a falling tree. According to an Associated Press tally, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
When the water hit knee-level in Kera O’Neil’s home in Hudson, Florida, she knew it was time to escape.
“There’s a moment where you are thinking, ‘If this water rises above the level of the stove, we are not going to have much room to breathe,’” she said, recalling how she and her sister waded through chest-deep water with one cat in a plastic carrier and another in a cardboard box.
Evacuations and record rainfall
In North Carolina, a lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing” overtopped a dam and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated, although there were no immediate concerns it would fail.
People also were evacuated from Newport, Tennessee, a town of about 7,000 people, amid concerns about a dam near there, although officials later said the structure had not failed.
Tornadoes hit some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, that critically injured four people.
Atlanta received a record 28.24 centimeters of rain in 48 hours, the most the city has seen in a two-day period since recordkeeping began in 1878, Georgia’s Office of the State Climatologist said on the social platform X. Some neighborhoods were so badly flooded that only car roofs could be seen poking above the water.
Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.
Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.
Big Bend region hit hard
Florida’s Big Bend is a part of the state where salt marshes and pine flatwoods stretch into the horizon, and where the condo developments and strip malls that have carved up so much of the state’s coastlines elsewhere are largely absent.
It’s a place where Susan Sauls Hartway and her 4-year-old Chihuahua mix, Lucy, could afford to live within walking distance of the beach on her salary as a housekeeper.
At least, until her house was carried away by Helene. Friday afternoon, Hartway wandered around her street near Ezell Beach, searching for where the storm may have deposited her home.
“It’s gone. I don’t know where it’s at. I can’t find it,” she said of her house.
Born and raised in rural Taylor County, Hartway said there is nowhere in the world she would rather be, even after Helene. But she’s watched as wealthier residents from out of state have bought up second homes here. She wonders how many of them will sell out — and what will happen to the locals who have nowhere else to go.
“There’s so many people down here … this was all they had,” she said.
The community has taken direct hits from three hurricanes since August 2023.
All five who died in one Florida county were in neighborhoods where residents were told to evacuate, said Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff in Pinellas County in the St. Petersburg area. Some who stayed ended up having to retreat to their attics to escape the rising water. He said the death toll could rise as crews go door-to-door in flooded areas.
More deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas, including two South Carolina firefighters and a Georgia firefighter who died when trees struck their trucks. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin reported at least one death in his state.
Power loss and infrastructure damage
President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency headed to the area. The agency deployed more than 1,500 workers, and they helped with 400 rescues by late Friday morning.
Officials urged people who were trapped to call for rescuers and not tread floodwaters, warning they can be dangerous due to live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris.
In Georgia, an electrical utility group warned of “catastrophic” damage to utility infrastructure, with more than 100 high-voltage transmission lines damaged. And officials in South Carolina, where more than 40% of customers were without power, said crews had to cut their way through debris just to determine what was still standing in some places.
The hurricane came ashore near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 30 kilometers northwest of where Hurricane Idalia hit last year at nearly the same ferocity. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene appears to be greater than the combined effects of Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August.
The destruction extended far beyond Florida.
Historic flooding expected
A mudslide in the Appalachian Mountains washed out part of an interstate highway at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line.
Another slide hit homes in North Carolina, and occupants had to wait more than four hours to be rescued, said Ryan Cole, the emergency services assistant director in Buncombe County. His 911 center received more than 3,300 calls in eight hours Friday.
“This is something that we’re going to be dealing with for many days and weeks to come,” Cole said.
Forecasters warned of flooding in North Carolina that could be worse than anything seen in the past century. The Connecticut Army National Guard sent a helicopter to help.
Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
2017: I want my old blog back. (And it was a good move, glad I gave up on making the ghost of Google Reader happy.)
http://scripting.com/2017/05/05/iWantMyOldBlogBack.html
Five reasons why OpenAI’s $150B financing might fall apart
date: 2024-09-28, from: Gary Marcus blog
And what that might mean for Generative AI more broadly
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/five-reasons-why-openais-150b-financing
An Update on the End of the World
date: 2024-09-28, from: 404 Media Group
Cannibalism, the cheese mummy, and a star-broiled Earth.
https://www.404media.co/an-update-on-the-end-of-the-world/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
POSSE: Reclaiming social media in a fragmented world.
https://www.citationneeded.news/posse/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Knicks trade Julius Randle to Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns in rare player swap between contenders.
YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Good Regulators Come For Bad Medicine
date: 2024-09-28, from: The Lever News
Antimonopolists are coming for meddling drug middlemen and lousy landlords, the tide turns on overdoses, and carbon goes under the sea.
https://www.levernews.com/you-love-to-see-it-good-regulators-come-for-bad-medicine/
US Army orders next-gen robot mule to haul a literal ton of gear
date: 2024-09-28, updated: 2024-09-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Soldiers’ new best friend does all the heavy lifting
Soldiers bear a heavy burden while serving their homelands, which is why the US Army has awarded contracts this week to two companies for a new generation of equipment-hauling robots. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/28/us_army_robot_equipment/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Flaw in Kia’s web portal let researchers track, hack cars.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/09/flaw-in-kia-web-portal-let-researchers-track-hack-cars/
Glock pistols popular among US criminals because they’re easily modified, report says
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
BALTIMORE — Glock pistols are a popular choice for people committing gun crimes, in part because they can be easily converted into fully automatic weapons using a small device, according to a new report based on data from nearly three dozen U.S. cities.
Often called Glock switches or auto sears, the devices have received heightened attention in recent years because they’re increasingly turning up at crime scenes. They effectively turn semiautomatic weapons, which fire one bullet per trigger pull, into machine guns that can spray continuous gunfire.
Authorities believe the shooters who killed four people and injured 17 others in Birmingham, Alabama, last weekend were using conversion devices to make their guns more powerful. About 100 shell casings were recovered from the scene.
A report by the anti-violence organization Everytown for Gun Safety says criminals often choose Glocks because they’re relatively cheap and easy to operate and modify. But the brand is perhaps best known for its popularity among law enforcement officers, who almost exclusively carry Glock handguns.
The report was released this week ahead of a conference Thursday in Baltimore hosted by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group that falls under Everytown’s umbrella. The organization called on Glock and other weapons manufacturers to take responsibility for their products and do more to prevent violence.
“We have to build that level of accountability for them as well,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in an interview. “At some point, as a country, the sanctity of the lives of Americans has to begin to outweigh the sanctity of American guns.”
A spokesperson for Glock didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
Scott and other mayors said while local elected officials are often at the forefront of pushing for better gun policies, Congress must also step up and address the issue.
Researchers found that four gun manufacturers accounted for more than 40% of the recovered guns they studied, with Glock alone accounting for 18%. The team compiled data from 34 U.S. cities about guns recovered from crime scenes in 2023.
“They’re basically profiting off of pain,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown. “They’re prioritizing profits over safety.”
Meanwhile, the prevalence of machine gun conversion devices has increased dramatically — 570% between 2017 and 2021, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The devices are banned under federal law. Most are small pieces of metal or plastic made with a 3D printer or ordered online.
The report also found that recoveries of Polymer80 ghost guns — untraceable, unassembled firearms that can be purchased online — increased nearly 1,200% across 28 cities over the past five years. Those numbers have started trending downward following the implementation of a new federal rule and a wave of state legislation banning the weapons, according to the report. Polymer80, once a leading manufacturer of ghost guns in the U.S., also shut down operations last month after a deluge of lawsuits.
The city of Baltimore was among those who filed suit. City officials announced a settlement agreement in February after the Nevada-based company agreed to stop selling its products to Maryland residents.
The city’s lawsuit accused Polymer80 of intentionally undermining federal and state firearms laws by designing, manufacturing and providing gun assembly kits without serial numbers to buyers who don’t undergo background checks. It was filed the same day Maryland’s statewide ban on ghost guns went into effect in 2022 following a law change that expanded the definition of a firearm to include “an unfinished frame or receiver.”
A year later, recoveries of ghost guns in Baltimore had dropped 25%, according to the report.
Gun violence has also decreased significantly in the city over roughly the past two years, a positive trend that experts and officials attribute to a wide range of factors, including expanded anti-violence programs and ongoing police reform. Violence is trending downward nationally as well following a sharp spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report suggests several actions that manufacturers could take to keep their firearms out of the hands of criminals, including through increased oversight of the gun dealers they work with. Manufacturers could also focus on producing safer weapons that aren’t easily modified and fund advertising campaigns to increase public awareness of gun safety.
“I think common sense can get through to people. I think wanting to save the lives of our children can get through to people,” said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas. “Manufacturers could do things tomorrow that would make guns safer and save lives.”
Halloween superfans see the culture catching up to them
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/halloween-superfans-see-the-culture-catching-up-to-them/7801323.html
The price of gold keeps climbing to unprecedented heights. Here’s why
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — The rush for gold just keeps coming.
Gold hit another all-time high this week. Recent gains for the precious metal are largely credited to ongoing economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and strong demand from central banks around the world.
If trends continue, analysts have bullish outlooks on the price of gold for the months ahead. But the future is never promised. Here’s what you need to know.
Where does the price of gold stand today?
The New York spot price of gold closed Tuesday at just over $2,657 per Troy ounce — the standard for measuring precious metals, which is equivalent to 31 grams — the highest recorded to date, per FactSet. That would make a gold bar or brick weighing 400 Troy ounces worth more than $1.06 million today.
This week’s record high means that the price of gold has climbed hundreds of dollars per Troy ounce over the last year. Tuesday’s price is up nearly $145 from a month ago and more than $740 from this time in 2023.
The price of gold is up nearly 30% year to date, analysts note — outpacing the benchmark S&P 500’s roughly 20% gain since the start of 2024.
Why is the price of gold going up?
There are a few factors behind the recent gains.
Interest in buying gold often comes at times of uncertainty — with potential concerns around inflation and the strength of the U.S. dollar, for example, causing some to look for alternative places to park their money. Gold also surged in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among sources of uncertainty today are geopolitical tensions — which escalated over recent days with Israel’s deadly strikes in Lebanon. And the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine have continued to fuel fears about the future worldwide.
In markets like the U.S., there’s also particular concern about the health of the job market. Last week’s larger-than-usual half-point cut by the Federal Reserve signals a new focus on slowing employment numbers, and more rate cuts are expected before the end of the year. And such action arrives in the midst of a tumultuous election year — which could prove crucial to economic policy in the road ahead, too.
In the near future, people are considering “any case of turbulence in the economy,” FxPro senior market analyst Michel Saliby explained. “This is why they’re keeping a decent portion of gold in their portfolio as a ‘safe haven.’”
Analysts also point to strong demand from central banks around the world. Joe Cavatoni, senior market strategist at the World Gold Council, noted last month that central bank demand was well-above the five year average — reflecting “heightened concern with inflation and economic stability.”
Recent stimulus measures in China aimed at boosting consumer spending are also expected to up retail investments, Saliby added, further boosting gold’s performance.
Is gold worth the investment?
Advocates of investing in gold call it a “safe haven,” arguing the commodity can serve to diversify and balance your investment portfolio, as well as mitigate possible risks down the road. Some also take comfort in buying something tangible that has the potential to increase in value over time.
Experts caution against putting all your eggs in one basket.
Both retail and institutional investors shouldn’t be influenced by the “FOMO effect,” or fear of missing out, Saliby notes — explaining that people should not risk all their money just because they are seeing others rake in gains. He advises investors to watch the market and always have a clear risk management strategy for their position.
If geopolitical tensions cool, Saliby expects the price of gold to correct slightly, perhaps falling around $50 to $80. But he remains bullish overall for the near future — expecting gold’s spot price to soon surpass the $2,700 mark previously predicted for 2025, and perhaps reach as high as $2,800 or $2,900 if trends continue.
Still, future gains are never promised and not everyone agrees gold is a good investment. Critics say gold isn’t always the inflation hedge many say it is — and that there are more efficient ways to protect against potential loss of capital, such as through derivative-based investments.
The Commodity Futures Trade Commission has also previously warned people to be wary of investing in gold. Precious metals can be highly volatile, the commission said, and prices rise as demand goes up — meaning “when economic anxiety or instability is high, the people who typically profit from precious metals are the sellers.”
If you do choose to invest in gold, the commission adds, it’s important to educate yourself on safe trading practices and be cautious of potential scams and counterfeits on the market.
Nearly 1 in 10 Americans report they are severely obese, says study
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/severe-obesity-on-the-rise-in-us-/7799858.html
Brazil imposes new fine, demands payments before letting X resume
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA BRAZIL — Brazil’s Supreme Court said on Friday that social platform X still needs to pay just over $5 million in pending fines, including a new one, before it will be allowed to resume its service in the country, according to a court document.
Earlier this week, the Elon Musk-owned U.S. firm told the court it had complied with orders to stop the spread of misinformation and asked it to lift a ban on the platform.
But Judge Alexandre de Moraes responded on Friday with a ruling that X and its legal representative in Brazil must still agree to pay a total of $3.4 million in pending fines that were previously ordered by the court.
In his decision, the judge said that the court can use resources already frozen from X and Starlink accounts in Brazil, but to do so the satellite company, also owned by Musk, had to drop its pending appeal against the fund blockage.
The judge also demanded a new $1.8 million fine related to a brief period last week when X became available again for some users in Brazil.
X, formerly known as Twitter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to a person close to X, the tech firm will likely pay all the fines but will consider challenging the fine that was imposed by the court after the platform ban.
X has been suspended since late August in Brazil, one of its largest and most coveted markets, after Moraes ruled it had failed to comply with orders related to restricting hate speech and naming a local legal representative.
Musk, who had denounced the orders as censorship and called Moraes a “dictator,” backed down and started to reverse his position last week, when X lawyers said the platform tapped a local representative and would comply with court rulings.
In Friday’s decision, Moraes said that X had proved it had now blocked accounts as ordered by the court and had named the required legal representative in Brazil.
US-led coalition ending operations against Islamic State in Iraq
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
The global coalition to ensure the defeat of Islamic State group terrorists is ending its military mission in Iraq. U.S. officials said a two-phased plan would not hinder counter-IS operations elsewhere in the region but did not detail how, or if, U.S. troop numbers would change. Carla Babb reports.
Blinken dismisses China’s Ukraine peace plan over material support for Russia
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
new york — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that China’s words and actions regarding ending Russia’s war on Ukraine do not “add up,” as the Beijing government continues to allow Chinese companies to “fuel Russia’s war machine.”
The United States and China are planning a call between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping in the coming days, with China’s material support for Russia in the war on Ukraine expected to be a key topic on the U.S. agenda.
Friday afternoon, Blinken held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Ukraine
Following talks that lasted more than an hour, Blinken told reporters at a news conference that any peace plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine must be based on the principles of the U.N. Charter, particularly territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.
“A peace in which the aggressor gets everything that it sought, and the victim does not have its rights upheld, is not a recipe for a lasting peace, and certainly not a just one,” Blinken said when asked about a peace proposal by China and Brazil.
Earlier on Friday, China and Brazil pushed forward with efforts to rally developing countries behind a plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s rejection of the initiative, viewing it as favorable to Moscow’s interests.
The meeting between Blinken and Wang came amid growing U.S. concerns over Chinese firms supplying semiconductor chips and drones to Moscow, which have significantly bolstered Russia’s battlefield capabilities in its war against Ukraine.
Blinken said, “Roughly 70% of the machine tools that Russia’s importing, coming from China, Hong Kong. Ninety percent of the microelectronics, from China, Hong Kong. And this is materially helping the Russians produce the missiles, the rockets, the armored vehicles, the munitions that they need to perpetuate the war, to continue their aggression.”
In New York, Wang told reporters that China had discussed with other countries the importance of preventing escalation in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“Russia and Ukraine are neighbors that cannot be moved away from each other and amity is the only realistic option,” Wang said, emphasizing that other nations should support an international peace conference involving Russia and Ukraine.
Taiwan
On Friday, Blinken said he also “emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait” during the meeting with his Chinese counterpart.
Rick Waters, former deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan, said the United States and China share an interest in maintaining diplomatic and military communication.
“You’re not going to resolve disputes over Taiwan or the South China Sea in those channels, but I don’t think either leader wants a military mishap to put them in a corner where they might have to contend with escalation or, even worse, conflict,” Waters, now managing director of Eurasia Group’s China practice, said in a recent interview with VOA.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) will celebrate its National Day on Tuesday, commemorating the founding of the country in 1949.
Taiwan celebrates October 10, known as “Double 10,” as the anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1912. The Republic of China is Taiwan’s formal name.
Taiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communists took power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang nationalists in a civil war, prompting the nationalists’ relocation to the island.
PRC leaders usually carefully watch the speeches from leaders in Taiwan during its Double 10 celebrations.
Since Taiwan’s democratically elected President Lai Ching-te took office in May, Beijing has increased military pressure against Taiwan. The PRC has deemed Lai a separatist.
U.S. officials have stressed to their Chinese counterparts that the more pressure China applies to Taiwan, the more it risks pushing Taiwan further away, according to sources familiar with recent diplomatic discussions between Washington and Beijing.
Analysts indicate they do not expect Lai to advocate for issues considered taboo by China in the coming months.
“Taiwan President Lai has been quite careful not to touch China’s red lines in his public remarks since becoming the president of Taiwan,” Dennis Wilder, senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, told VOA. “I would guess that he will try again to reach out to Beijing and do not expect him to push independence themes.”
Wilder added, “The Chinese leadership came to the conclusion long ago that because of Lai’s deep green background they would never be able to trust him. Thus, there is very little he can do, as was the case as well with former President Tsai [Ing-wen], to convince Beijing that they should improve cross-strait relations while he is in office.” He was referring to Taiwan’s political coalition known for its pro-independence platform.
VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
Harris visits Border Patrol leaders in Arizona
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
DOUGLAS, Arizona — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris walked a scrubby stretch of fence line along Arizona’s border with Mexico on Friday, seeking to project an image of strength against illegal migration as she confronts one of her biggest vulnerabilities in the November election.
In her first trip to the international boundary since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris chatted with local Border Patrol leaders as they strode along a rust-colored stretch of wall built during Barack Obama’s presidency. Temperatures in Douglas, Arizona, neared 37.7 degrees Celsius during a conversation that lasted about half an hour.
“They’ve got a tough job, and they need, rightly, support to do their job,” Harris said of the Border Patrol as she entered the Douglas port of entry for a briefing on efforts to block the flow of fentanyl across the border. “They are very dedicated. And so I’m here to talk with them about what we can continue to do to support them. And also thank them for the hard work they do.”
Later, she was expected to call for further tightening asylum restrictions, moving beyond President Joe Biden’s policy on an issue where her rival, former President Donald Trump, has an edge with voters. Hundreds of people packed into a gymnasium to hear her speak.
Trump and his fellow Republicans have pounded Harris relentlessly over the Biden administration’s record on migration and fault the vice president for spending little time visiting the border during her time in the White House.
Harris will outline her plan to crack down further on asylum claims and keep the restrictions in place longer compared with the executive order that Biden signed this summer, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Harris had not yet made the announcement. The official briefed reporters aboard Air Force 2 en route to Arizona.
Harris arrived by helicopter in Douglas, where she met with Mayor Donald Huish, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and County Supervisor Ann English, along with Senator Mark Kelly and Attorney General Kris Mayes.
Immigration and border security are top issues in Arizona, the only battleground state that borders Mexico and one that contended with a record influx of asylum-seekers last year. Voters favor Trump on migration, and Harris has gone on offense to improve her standing on the issue and defuse a key line of political attack for Trump.
In nearly every campaign speech she gives, Harris recounts how a sweeping bipartisan package aiming to overhaul the federal immigration system collapsed in Congress earlier this year after Trump urged top Republicans to oppose it.
“The American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games,” Harris plans to say, according to an excerpt of her remarks previewed by her campaign.
After the immigration legislation stalled, the Biden administration announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. Since then, arrests for illegal border crossings have fallen.
Harris will also use her trip to remind voters about her work as attorney general of California in confronting crime along the border. During an August rally in Glendale, outside Phoenix, she talked about helping to prosecute drug- and people-smuggling gangs that operated transnationally and at the border.
“I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won,” Harris said then.
The vice president’s trip to Douglas thrusts the issue of immigration into the brightest spotlight yet less than six weeks before Election Day.
Trump didn’t wait for her to arrive there before pushing back. He pointed Friday to purported data about criminals entering the U.S. illegally in a bid to link Harris to violent crimes committed by migrants. In a scathing diatribe, he said “blood is on her hands.”
“These are hard, tough, vicious criminals that are free to roam in our country,” Trump said at a manufacturing plant in Michigan.
Earlier in the week, he told voters that “when Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero.”
The Trump campaign has also countered with its own TV ads deriding the vice president as a failed “border czar.”
“Under Harris, over 10 million illegally here,” said one spot. However, estimates on how many people have entered the country illegally since the start of the Biden administration in 2021 vary widely.
Harris also never held the position of border czar. Instead, her assignment was to tackle the “root causes” of migration from three Central American nations — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — that were responsible for a significant share of border crossers.
The vice president took a long-term approach to an immediate problem, helping persuade multinational corporations and Latin American businesses to invest in the region. That, she argued, would create jobs and give locals more reasons to stay home rather than take the arduous trek north.
Still, Trump has continued to decry an “invasion” of border crossers.
Douglas, where Harris appeared, is an overwhelmingly Democratic border town in GOP-dominated Cochise County, where the Republicans on the board of supervisors are facing criminal charges for refusing to certify the 2022 election results. Trump was in the area last month, using a remote stretch of border wall and a pile of steel beams to draw a contrast between himself and Harris on border security.
The town of 16,000 people has strong ties to its much larger neighbor, Agua Prieta, Mexico, and a busy port of entry that’s slated for a long-sought upgrade. Many locals are as concerned with making legal border crossings more efficient as they are with combatting illegal ones.
https://www.voanews.com/a/harris-visits-border-patrol-leaders-in-arizona/7802688.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Special Counsel Proposes Making Public More Evidence From Trump Election Case.
http://feedland.org/-election-interference.html?unlocked_article_code=1.N04.GXkO
Harris, Trump vie for battleground state Michigan
date: 2024-09-28, from: VOA News USA
Michigan is one of the key swing states that may decide November’s presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara went to Michigan to see what the campaigns are doing. Camera: Rivan Dwiastono
https://www.voanews.com/a/harris-trump-vie-for-battleground-state-michigan-/7802655.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-27, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump Camp Says State Menstrual Surveillance Programs are A-OK.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-camp-says-state-menstrual-surveillance-programs-are-a-ok
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-27, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Update for the weekend:
- Limited preview: 24 bugs
- Public testflight: 50
- Public launch/AppStore: 31
- Public testflight: 50
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113212055082918025
On My Motorbike
date: 2024-09-27, from: Margaret Atwood’s substack
I haven’t been sitting on my hands…
https://margaretatwood.substack.com/p/on-my-motorbike
Notice
date: 2024-09-27, from: OS News
Just want to let y’all know that my family and I have been hit hard with bronchitis these past two weeks, and especially my recovery is going quite slowly (our kids are healthy again, and my wife is recovering quite well!). As such, I haven’t been able to do much OSNews work. I hope things will finally clear up a bit over the weekend so that I can resume normal service come Monday. Enjoy your weekend, y’all!
https://www.osnews.com/story/140807/notice/
Feds charge 3 Iranians with ‘hack-and-leak’ of Trump 2024 campaign
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Snoops allegedly camped out in inboxes well into September
The US Department of Justice has charged three Iranians for their involvement in a “wide-ranging hacking campaign” during which they allegedly stole massive amounts of materials from Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and then leaked the information to media organizations.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/us_charges_iran_trump_campaign_hack/
The Talk of the Town at Climate Week
date: 2024-09-27, from: Heatmap News
Who Isn’t Amped About Climate Policy?
On the first night of climate week, I headed over to a happy hour hosted by a bunch of progressive climate advocacy nonprofits, including Climate Cabinet, Data for Progress, and Evergreen Collaborative. The event was called “Progress No Matter What,” and the theme was states’ ability to advance climate action regardless of national politics.
On the packed back patio of a beer garden on the Lower East Side, a handful of speakers took turns climbing atop a picnic bench to address the boisterous crowd. State and federal officials celebrated the billions of dollars flowing to states to decarbonize and pressed attendees not to ignore the down-ballot climate champions running for office in November. Then, to close things out, White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi got up. Over the past year, I’ve heard Zaidi deliver the same impassioned but rehearsed preamble on press call after press call reminding us of President Biden’s climate accomplishments during his term. But here, Zaidi let loose. He said the Wall Street Journal had published a story that morning that started with the line “Climate optimism is fading.” He didn’t think so. “This is popular shit!” he declared, of efforts to fight climate change while reducing pollution, and the audience erupted in cheers. — Emily Pontecorvo
A Video Journal of Climate Extremes
Last weekend, I attended the U.S. premiere of The Here Now Project at the inaugural Climate Film Festival — and was totally wowed. The 75-minute documentary is unnarrated and composed entirely of archival cell phone videos, vlogs, and news clips that were shot during climate disasters in 2021, ranging from the Texas power crisis that left almost 250 people dead after a February cold snap to the “sea snot” that covered Turkey’s Sea of Marmara over that summer.
While it’s harrowing to see all the footage back-to-back — and to learn about disasters I hadn’t paid close attention to at the time, like the subway flooding in Zhengzhou or the dust storms in Brazil — I was even more struck by the seemingly universal urge people have to document the way extreme weather upends their lives, even when those lives are quite immediately at risk.
The movie’s power lies in echoes and patterns of human nature, from our curiosity to our horror to our powerful compassion and self-sacrifice. I spoke to the filmmakers, Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel, for my article about the Climate Film Festival last week, and Jacobs told me they hope to make The Here Now Project an ongoing chronicle of climate change in the style of Michael Apted’s famous Up series; I very much hope they will succeed. — Jeva Lange
In Search of a Demand Signal for Carbon Dioxide Removal
At several events this week related to carbon dioxide removal, the conversation turned again and again to the challenge of finance and the scarcity of buyers. During a marine carbon removal panel on Monday, for instance, James Lindsay, the director of investments at the philanthropic Builders Initiative described the tension between simultaneously trying to raise capital for a given carbon removal approach while also trying to prove that it’s safe and actually works. While there are a few buyers, like the Frontier Climate initiative, that accept these conditions and are willing to support nascent approaches that may or may not work out, making one big deal with Frontier doesn’t provide the consistent cash flow that a startup needs to progress, he said.
Later that day, at a mini-conference hosted by the direct air capture company Climeworks, CEO Christoph Gebald declared that the industry simply cannot rely on voluntary purchases if it is going to scale. “We need to transition to regulated markets,” he said. Josh Becker, a California State Senator gave a brief presentation on a bill he introduced this year, SB 308, to do just that. It was a “government-enabled, market led” policy that would have required corporate polluters to begin paying for carbon removal. The bill “died a mysterious death,” he said, but he plans to try again in 2025.
The event closed out with a panel on “the economic opportunity of carbon removal in the U.S.,” and yet the talk once again turned to the economic obstacles. “Demand is an existential challenge,” Giana Amadour, executive director of the Carbon Removal Alliance, said. “If we want deployment beyond these 1,000- to 10,000-ton facilities, we need a demand signal that is robust, steady, resilient, growing, in order to make sure these companies can raise the private and public sector funding they need.” — Emily
Clean Energy for the People
While most of the energy developers, technologists, and investors I spoke to and/or heard speak this week were excited about artificial intelligence as a way to bring forward demand for clean electrons, there was one interesting note of caution from Katie Rae, chief executive of Engine Ventures, the investment firm that has backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems and the long-duration battery company Form Energy. “The government has to think about it: Are the people going to get energy? Or are the hyperscalers going to get energy? The pitchforks can come.” — Matthew Zeitlin
Journey to the Center of the Earth (With My Face on It)
On Tuesday morning, I stopped by “Geothermal House,” a day-long event and installation at the Hall des Lumières near City Hall. It’s a former bank building that now hosts “immersive experiences,” which essentially amount to wandering around a room decorated with floor to ceiling projections of art, like the paintings of Chagall. This time, however, the room was made up to bring you miles deep within the Earth’s crust.
The
VR lounge at Geothermal
House.Emily
Pontecorvo
The event was put on by Project InnerSpace, a nonprofit dedicated to transferring skills and knowledge from the oil and gas industry to scale geothermal energy. “This is the first time geothermal has shown up at NY Climate Week,” the group’s executive director, Jamie Beard, declared at the start of a series of panels held in the central hall. Unfortunately, the talks were nearly impossible to hear in the cavernous marble room, but I spent some time wandering around, watching the animated projections of geothermal power plants and hit up the “VR lounge,” which offered a much more convincing immersive experience and taught me about the difference between “enhanced” and “advanced” geothermal.
The event also had some of the best swag I saw at Climate Week, including a station where you could 3D print your face onto “the core of the Earth.” Jeva was accurate when she compared the resulting object to a Ferrero Rocher. — Emily
A Tribal Home, Lost
Two members of the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation — which is considered to be one of the first communities in the U.S. to be displaced by climate change — spoke at an event on Wednesday hosted by EarthRights International. They emphasized the way the state of Louisiana failed to keep the tribe intact during the relocation effort, with Chief Deme Naquin and Tribal Secretary Chantel Comardelle explaining that while their own story is one marked by failure, they hope other communities will be able to learn from it. After all, it’s not just a house or neighborhood that you lose to something like coastal erosion; it’s also the stories and memories of the place you’d called home. “We probably weren’t the first” community to be displaced by climate change, Chief Deme told the room, “but we’re definitely not the last.” — Jeva
‘AI Doesn’t Care Where It Goes to School’
And over in D.C., during “National Clean Energy Week,” a more industry-focused panel-ganza, the cofounder and chief executive of the most important company in energy was sharing his thoughts on the sector. That would be Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, the head of the company that designs the chips that power many artificial intelligence models and applications.
During his one-hour chat with former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at the Bipartisan Policy Center on Friday, Huang focused mostly on what good AI could do for energy and grid efficiency, including weather simulation and designing smart grids. While it’s true, Huang said, “that AI does take energy,” AI-trained models can predict weather and climate “tens of thousands of times more energy efficiently” than supercomputers. But he was also straightforward about the intense energy demands of training artificial intelligence models.
“These data centers could consume, today, maybe 100 megawatts. In the future it will be 10, 20 times more than that.” To reduce strain on the grid, these data centers could be located “where the energy” is located, Huang suggested. “The AI doesn’t care where it goes to school.” And like a student, “it’s okay” if it sometimes has to “take a nap” when the sun’s not out. — Matthew
https://heatmap.news/climate/climate-week-recap
Hands up who hasn’t made an offer to buy some part of Intel
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Now Arm reportedly approached, rebuffed by Chipzilla. Who’s next? MOS Technology?
Comment Brit chip designer Arm is reportedly the latest to make an attempted play for Intel’s product division.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/arm_intel_takeover/
Recall the Recall recall? Microsoft thinks it can make that Windows feature palatable
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
AI screengrab service to be opt-in, features encryption, biometrics, enclaves, more
Microsoft has revised the Recall feature for its Copilot+ PCs and insists that the self-surveillance system is secure.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/microsoft_has_some_thoughts_about/
iA Writer’s Google Drive Access
date: 2024-09-27, from: Michael Tsai
Oliver Reichenstein (Mastodon, Hacker News): A couple of months ago, Google changed its API policy and revoked iA Writer’s access to Google Drive on Android. By freezing up Android’s main storage option, our app was frozen in carbonite. It still lived but we couldn’t move forward before resolving it. In order to allow our users […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/27/ia-writers-google-drive-access/
NSManagedObjectID and PersistentIdentifier
date: 2024-09-27, from: Michael Tsai
Fatbobman: However, in SwiftData, there is currently no similar property or method to directly determine the [temporary] state of a PersistentIdentifier. Since SwiftData’s mainContext defaults to the autoSave feature (developers do not need to explicitly save data), identifiers may temporarily be unusable in other contexts after creating data objects. […] SwiftData’s default implementation is still […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/27/nsmanagedobjectid-and-persistentidentifier/
X/Twitter Censorship
date: 2024-09-27, from: Michael Tsai
Mike Masnick: Among the key reasons Elon Musk insisted he had to buy Twitter were (1) that it was too political in how it was managed and how content moderation was done, (2) the company was not as transparent as it should be, and (3) it was too quick to censor.[…]We can only confirm how […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/27/x-twitter-censorship/
No More iMore
date: 2024-09-27, from: Michael Tsai
Gerald Lynch: After more than 15 years covering everything Apple, it’s with a heavy heart I announce that we will no longer be publishing new content on iMore.[…]I would like to take this moment to thank everyone from the iMore community, past and present, for their support and passion for what we’ve created over the […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/27/no-more-imore/
Hours After the Protesters Who Threw Soup at a van Gogh Were Sentenced, Three More Activists Repeated the Stunt
date: 2024-09-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Two members of Just Stop Oil staged the original demonstration in late 2022. Group members say the harsh penalties will not deter their efforts
US-led coalition to wrap up operations vs. Islamic State in Iraq
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
Daily Deals (9-27-2024)
date: 2024-09-27, from: Liliputing
Today’s the last day to score up to 3 months of Disney+ for $2 per month. The Epic Games Store is giving away The Spirit and the Mouse for free this week. And it hasn’t taken long for prices of laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus chips to start falling. You’re […]
The post Daily Deals (9-27-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-9-27-2024/
Dreary weather doesn’t dampen swim
date: 2024-09-27, from: Catalina Islander
It was dreary, overcast and it nearly looked like it might drizzle when forty-four swimmers gathered at 6:45 a.m. for the 2024 Annual Pancreatic Swim fund raiser on Saturday morning. However, the atmosphere was festive, very festive, with swimmers chatting and welcoming swimmers who had made the trek to Avalon for the event. When asked […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/dreary-weather-doesnt-dampen-swim/
The Science of the Perfect Cup for Coffee
date: 2024-09-27, from: NASA breaking news
Material research is behind the design of a temperature-regulating mug
This 3,775-Year-Old Log May Hold the Secret to a Low-Cost Climate Solution
date: 2024-09-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Researchers say burying wood could be a viable method to prevent carbon from reaching the atmosphere
These Fish Have Legs—and They Can Use Them to Taste Prey
date: 2024-09-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Sea robins have “the body of a fish, the wings of a bird and multiple legs like a crab”
Hispanic Heritage Celebration in Avalon
date: 2024-09-27, from: Catalina Islander
The City of Avalon and Love Catalina joined forces to commemorate Mexican Independence Day on Sept. 16 with a vibrant celebration. The event honored the country’s struggle for independence, sparked by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s “Grito de Dolores” in 1810. The festivities kicked off with a mass at St. Catherine Church, led by Father […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/hispanic-heritage-celebration-in-avalon/
Microsoft makes Recall more secure ahead of rollout, promises users can customize or uninstall it
date: 2024-09-27, from: Liliputing
Microsoft’s Copilot+ platform is designed to bring new AI features to Windows by tapping into the powerful neural processing units baked into the latest Qualcomm, AMD, and Intel processors. And when Microsoft first announced the platform earlier this year, one of the most impressive features also turned out to be the most controversial. Recall is […]
The post Microsoft makes Recall more secure ahead of rollout, promises users can customize or uninstall it appeared first on Liliputing.
Cruise ship fees to rise to $7.50 a passenger
date: 2024-09-27, from: Catalina Islander
Last week the Avalon City Council unanimously adopted new wharfage fees for cruise ships that visit Catalina Island. The new rate of $7.50 per passenger aboard each cruise ship will go into effect Jan. 1, 2026. The council also ended the marketing incentive in the Municipal Code that returned 50% of wharfage fees collected for […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/cruise-ship-fees-to-rise-to-7-50-a-passenger/
Sheriff’s Log: Sept. 19 to Sept. 25, 2024
date: 2024-09-27, from: Catalina Islander
The following is the Avalon’s Sheriff’s Stations significant incidents report for the period of Sept. 19 to Sept. 25, 2024. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Many people who are arrested do not get prosecuted in the first place and many who are prosecuted do not get convicted. […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/sheriffs-log-sept-19-to-sept-25-2024/
Trump meets Zelenskyy amid tension, Republican criticism of Kyiv
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
Former U.S. President Donald Trump met Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York, where Trump repeated claims that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine by making a deal with Russia. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
Explore Abraham Lincoln’s Life and Legacy Through Rare Copies of Historic Books and Documents
date: 2024-09-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
A new exhibition in New York City uses more than 200 texts and artifacts to contemplate Lincoln’s rise to the nation’s highest office
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-27, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Don’t know about you folks, but every algorithmic-based platform for me is a non-stop stream of Arabs being blown up day after day in large volumes.
It’s been a year of this, and the only thing that has improved is the contrived language used to justify it.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113210735280950383
Catalina Film Festival to honor Marcia Gay Harden, Emmanuelle Chriqui
date: 2024-09-27, from: Catalina Islander
Catalina Film Festival (CFF) announced the 2024 honorees for the 14th annual celebration and will be presenting Academy Award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden (The Morning Show, Pollock) with the Avalon Award and actress/philanthropist Emmanuelle Chriqui (Entourage) with the Champion of Challenge Award at the Red Carpet & Awards Ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 28, at 7 […]
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-27, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
The US is providing the targets for Israel to bomb Lebanon:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113210693853105333
US moves against Iranian actors charged with election meddling
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The United States put bounties on three Iranian hackers, charging them with multiple crimes in connection with an attempt to undermine former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and upend the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
Friday’s actions by multiple U.S. government agencies came with just a little over a month until U.S. voters go to the polls and as U.S. officials seek to push back against what they describe as ever more brazen attempts by Iran to foment division and discord in Washington and beyond.
“You and your hackers can’t hide behind your keyboards,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a video statement.
“If you try to meddle in our elections, we’re going to hold you accountable,” Wray said. “As long as you keep attempting to flout the rule of law, you’re going to keep running into the FBI.”
Iranian officials have previously and repeatedly rejected U.S. accusations of election meddling. The Iranian Mission to the United Nations has not yet responded to VOA’s request for comment on the latest allegations.
But an indictment unsealed by the U.S. Justice Department assigns responsibility for Iran’s long-standing efforts, as well as a recent hack-and-leak operation aimed at derailing the Trump campaign, to three hackers employed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
It accuses Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yaser Balaghi of engaging in what prosecutors describe as a wide-ranging campaign to hack into the work and personal email accounts of current and former government officials, campaign officials and members of the media.
Prosecutors said their list of victims includes a former State Department official, a former presidential homeland security adviser and at least two former CIA officials.
But starting in May, prosecutors allege, the three Iranians turned their attention to the Trump campaign, stealing documents and materials that they then sought to leak to the public.
“I think this information is worth a good [U.S. news publication] piece with your narration,” they wrote in an email to a U.S. news outlet in late July or early August, according to the indictment. “Let me know your thoughts.”
The revelations build on a U.S. intelligence assessment shared last week, which alleged Iranian actors tried to ensnare officials with the reelection campaign of U.S. President Joe Biden, before Biden’s decision to drop out of the race.
The Trump campaign first announced the suspected hack last month, initially blaming “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” U.S. intelligence officials attributed the attack to Iran about a week later.
“The defendants’ own words make clear that they were attempting to undermine former President Trump’s campaign in advance of the 2024 U.S. presidential election,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland during a news conference to announce the charges Friday.
All three are believed to remain in Iran, although the U.S. is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information that leads to their arrests. And both the State Department and the FBI have issued wanted posters of the suspects.
“We will follow these people for the rest of their lives,” Garland said.
The indictment also makes clear that the efforts spearheaded by the Iranian hackers have not necessarily abated, noting there have been efforts to potentially steal more information as well as to leak already stolen materials to media outlets.
“When it comes to advanced persistent threat actors, you can never be fully confident that you have eradicated them from an environment,” a senior FBI official told reporters Friday, briefing on the condition of anonymity. “So, we remain fully engaged with the victims in this case, which include presidential campaigns, as well as individuals associated with those campaigns, to breed resilience among their systems and their various email accounts.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have previously said that Tehran is working to hurt the campaign of Trump, believing his election would be detrimental to Iran’s goals in the Middle East and beyond.
Senior officials said the latest indictment shows Iranian officials remain intent on damaging the Trump campaign.
“Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests,” said the senior FBI official. “We will be more persistent than the Iranian actors in ensuring that we are assisting victims of this activity [and] increase their resilience against these actors.”
Jalili, Aghamiri and Balaghi are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit identity theft, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, unauthorized access to computers and wire fraud.
The various charges carry maximum penalties ranging from two to 27 years in prison.
Tennessee Is Hurricane Country Now
date: 2024-09-27, from: Heatmap News
After a hurricane makes landfall comes the eerie wait for bad news. For Hurricane Helene — now a tropical storm as it barrels toward Nashville — that news came swiftly on Friday morning: at least 4 million are without power after the storm’s Thursday night arrival near Florida’s Big Bend region; more than 20 are dead in three states; and damage estimates are already in the billions of dollars.
But that’s just the news from the coasts.
As Helene is set to illustrate yet again, hurricanes are not just coastal events — especially in the era of our warming climate. The National Weather Service warned towns in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina and Georgia that Helene will be “one of the most significant weather events” in the region in “the modern era,” while the Appalachians are in store for a “catastrophic, historic flooding disaster” according to AccuWeather’s Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter during a briefing with reporters Friday morning. He added for good measure: “This is not the kind of language we use very often.”
Helene’s dangerous inland impacts are precisely what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sounded the alarm over earlier this year. Ninety percent of hurricane fatalities result from water, and almost 60% of those are freshwater deaths caused by heavy rainfall. Such fatalities often occur hundreds of miles from the shore in flash floods fueled by the warmer atmosphere, which can hold and dispense far more moisture in a short period than would have been possible in the pre-industrial era.
With Helene specifically, “there are going to be communities that are cut off” as bridges are compromised and roadways wash out, Porter said. Especially in mountain communities that might have only one or two ways in and out of town, that kind of rain raises the level of difficulty for any sort of emergency response and can make evacuation impossible. There have already been reports of 12 to 15 inches of rain in some parts of North Carolina.
“This is steep terrain,” Porter said. “When you get rain rates of 2 to 4 inches per hour, that is going to result in very significant flash flooding that can go from a dangerous situation to a life-threatening emergency over the matter of just a few minutes.” Rivers could exceed record levels by tonight, with more than 2 million under flash flood warnings around Raleigh and Fayetteville. Landslides are also a possibility in the mountains, where just 5 inches of rain from a single storm can be enough to trigger a disaster, the National Hurricane Center warned; two interstates near Asheville, North Carolina, are already closed due to slides.
It’s certainly not unheard of for the remnants of tropical storms to pass over the Carolinas and Appalachian Mountains — hurricanes such as Katrina in 2005 and Lee in 2011 were deadly billion-dollar disasters even as far inland as Tennessee. But as storms get bigger and wetter like Helene, “even people who have lived in a community for decades may see water flowing fast and rising rapidly in areas that they’ve never seen flood before,” Porter said.
It’s time to adjust expectations — and preparedness plans — accordingly. Louisiana, Texas, and Florida still stand for “Hurricane Country” in the popular imagination, but the mountain states of the southeast are rapidly joining that list. The National Hurricane Center is already monitoring a new low-pressure area in the Gulf of Mexico — in nearly the exact same spot that birthed Helene.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/hurricane-helene-appalachia-tennessee
Lenovo is working on Legion Go Gen 2 and Legion Go Lite handheld gaming PCs
date: 2024-09-27, from: Liliputing
The Lenovo Legion Go will celebrate its first birthday later this year, and it looks like the handheld gaming PC could soon be part of a growing family. Rumors about an upcoming Lenovo Legion Go Lite handheld have been making the rounds for months, but now it looks like Lenovo has confirmed that at least two […]
The post Lenovo is working on Legion Go Gen 2 and Legion Go Lite handheld gaming PCs appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/lenovo-is-working-on-legion-go-gen-2-and-legion-go-lite-handheld-gaming-pcs/
The Stanley Cup Comes to Kennedy
date: 2024-09-27, from: NASA breaking news
The Stanley Cup, won in 2024 by the Florida Panthers, made a visit to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 17, 2024, as part of its championship tour. The VAB currently houses components of the agency’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/the-stanley-cup-comes-to-kennedy/
Friday Links: September 27, 2024
date: 2024-09-27, from: California Native Plants Society
What is extreme botany? What kind of gardening does Ed Ruscha do? Can one person make a difference for climate change? Get the answers and see the fearsome teddy bear cholla in action.
The post Friday Links: September 27, 2024 appeared first on California Native Plant Society.
https://www.cnps.org/friday-links/friday-links-september-27-2024-40411
Behind the Blog: Secretive Service and Being Taken Seriously
date: 2024-09-27, from: 404 Media Group
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss being taken seriously, the Secret Service being secretive, and doing business while doing journalism.
https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-secretive-service-and-being-taken-seriously/
Cockroach Labs CEO: Diverse database models are essential as app demands surge
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Licensing mixes also needed lest vendors give too much away
Interview On the eve of the Cockroach Labs’ annual conference, CEO Spencer Kimball commented about the virtues of a rival database company. “There are real benefits to the way MongoDB does things, and that’s why a lot of developers like it,” he told The Register from RoachFest in New York.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/cockroach_labs_ceo/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-27, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
What if the media has the election all wrong (and Harris is running away with it)?
https://presswatchers.org/2024/09/what-if-the-media-has-the-election-all-wrong/
The Netherlands Has Returned 288 Stolen Artifacts to Indonesia
date: 2024-09-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The Dutch seized the majority of the items in the aftermath of a brutal 1906 conflict that killed an estimated 1,000 Balinese
The Big Thing Making Hurricane Helene Dangerous
date: 2024-09-27, from: Heatmap News
When Hurricane Helene began to take shape in the Gulf of Mexico, there was one factor that quickly made the storm stand out to meteorologists: its size. Helene is “unusually large,” the National Hurricane Center said; “exceptionally large,” per the Washington Post. Upon landfall, it was one of largest hurricanes in modern history, according to hurricane expert Michael Lowry — bigger than Harvey, bigger than Katrina, surpassed only by 2017’s Hurricane Irma, which was one of the costliest tropical storms on record and resulted in dozens of deaths.
Bigger does not always correlate to stronger. Discussions around the strength of a hurricane typically center on its wind speeds (which is what the categories connote) and the volume of rain it is expected to unleash. But in Helene’s case, there was both size and power — when the storm made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday night, it was classified as a Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 61 of the state’s 67 counties ahead of the storm, speaking to the breadth of damage he expects to see and the long recovery process to come. Already, images of flooded streets are circulating on social media, multiple deaths have been reported, and millions are without electricity. As Helene continues its course, it’s bringing tropical storm conditions to Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee.
In the hours and days to come, we’ll get a better understanding of how well forecasters did predicting the path and strength of this storm, a task that has become increasingly difficult. Because at the same time technology has improved oversight of these storms, with artificial intelligence models that have raised the bar for prediction accuracy and the ability to deploy radar systems as they pass overhead, climate change is altering the ingredients that feed their formation. For example, record-high temperatures in oceans have changed the behavior of storms as they form, Matt Lanza, who monitors Atlantic storm activity for The Eyewall, explained to me, resulting in more storms intensifying rapidly ahead of landfall. This has made storms like 2023’s Hurricane Idalia tougher to predict, despite being closely tracked.
Helene, too, rapidly intensified on its way to reaching land. The area of Florida where it hit, a little over 50 miles from the state capital in Tallahassee, is no stranger to storms— in just the past 13 months, Florida’s Big Bend has had to absorb the impacts of both Idalia and Hurricane Debby, each of which caused billions of dollars in damages. Still, Truchelut said Hurricane Helene could be a “truly unprecedented scenario for North Florida.” Part of the unusual force behind this storm can be attributed to another unprecedented scenario — the warmth of the water in the Gulf of Mexico. CBS News said the water surface temperature below the storm’s formation was up to 89 degrees Fahrenheit, which is as much as 4 degrees above average. This follows the overall Gulf warming trend observed by NOAA, which the agency says “increases the intensity of hurricanes.”
Another factor that allowed Helene to grow so huge so fast was the lack of wind shear, a term meteorologists use to refer to the way wind changes speed or direction or both across different elevations. Strong upper-level winds can inhibit storms from forming or growing. In Helene’s case, however, warm water was accompanied by low wind shear and plenty of moisture— conditions that aligned to provide tremendous energy for the storm’s formation. The only thing really standing in Helene’s way was its own size, Lanza noted, which would have made it more difficult for the storm to get organized and strengthen further.
The most obvious reason size matters is the footprint the storm will have on land. To give you an idea of just how large Helene is, Lowry said in his newsletter Friday that the full breadth of its winds upon landfall stretched over 450 miles across, nearly half the entire width of the Gulf of Mexico. This means the effects of the storm began long before it officially made landfall and will continue long after the eye of the storm has moved on.
Hours before Helene officially reached Florida, rain was already drenching communities in the storm’s projected path. Meanwhile, “Severe and life-threatening impacts from Helene will occur hundreds of miles from the cone confines, especially on the eastern half of the storm,” Florida meteorologist Ryan Truchelut wrote in the Tallahassee Democrat, summing up just how far-reaching Helene’s effects could be. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a self-described “rare news release” on Wednesday to warn of the potential for major flooding as far inland as Appalachia, some 300 miles from the Gulf Coast.
Another serious size-related consideration relates to the potential storm surge, or how far above average tides the water will rise. “When you have a storm this big, you’re just inherently moving a lot of water over a broader area,” Lanza said. As Hurricane Helene’s eye approached Florida, water levels easily surpassed multiple storm surge records. But what stood out to Lanza was not just that the surge was powerful, it was also that the threat of surge was so widespread. “A much smaller storm, you can still have a very large storm surge, but it’s going to be very isolated near to where it comes ashore,” he told me. “With a storm like Helene, because of its size, near and east of where it comes ashore, you’re going to have a massive storm surge — and you’re going to have a pretty big storm surge even down the coast from that.” The NHC warned that much of Florida’s Western coastline would see multiple feet of water.
Messaging the risks of these storms to an extreme weather-weary public is another challenge stemming from climate change. “Record breaking” has now become a familiar phrase for most of us, describing everything from extreme temperatures to rainfall rates. But as tropical storms become more intense, fueled by warming-influenced weather conditions, finding ways to accurately convey threats to the public is increasingly essential.
Ahead of Helene’s landfall, the NHC stressed that the storm surge would be “unsurvivable,” encouraging residents to heed evacuation orders. According to The New York Times, the warnings — paired with memories of those other recent storms — seemed to have worked, leaving Big Bend-area towns “eerily empty.” Even the local Waffle House, a business widely recognized for making its own assessments of hurricane risk, was shuttered on Thursday.
The NHC is experimenting with new graphics in hopes of better conveying risks outside of the classic “cone of uncertainty,” which illustrates the predicted path of a tropical storm’s eye. The center shared an image on social media showing inland risks from storms, not just those along the coast.
So if you noticed the NHC’s risk map for Hurricane Helene colored the entire state in a palette of watches and warnings, the reason why is twofold: Yes, the risks really are that widespread with this storm, but the agency is also trying to get better at telling you about them. And in the case of major hurricane like Helene, the more warning, the better.
https://heatmap.news/climate/hurricane-helene-florida-size
California Cut $200 Million for Extreme Heat and Other Climate Disasters. Voters Can Reverse That.
date: 2024-09-27, from: Capital and Main
Proposition 4 would fund infrastructure to relieve brutally hot days such as those that just scorched Los Angeles.
The post California Cut $200 Million for Extreme Heat and Other Climate Disasters. Voters Can Reverse That. appeared first on .
Extinct Volcanoes May Be an Untapped Source of Rare Metals
date: 2024-09-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Unexplored iron-rich magma could help power current and future technologies
Would Trump Go After Workers’ Rights in a Second Term? Look at His Record.
date: 2024-09-27, from: Capital and Main
Trump and running mate JD Vance court workers, but the former president targeted unions and labor rights while in office.
The post Would Trump Go After Workers’ Rights in a Second Term? Look at His Record. appeared first on .
https://capitalandmain.com/would-trump-go-after-workers-rights-in-a-second-term-look-at-his-record
The World’s Oldest Cheese Was Buried in a Chinese Tomb 3,600 Years Ago. Now, Scientists Have Sequenced Its DNA
date: 2024-09-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
New research has revealed that the mysterious white substance found alongside three ancient mummies was once a soft cheese called kefir
Chief Engineer Dr. Donald Mendoza
date: 2024-09-27, from: NASA breaking news
“From my earliest childhood, flight had always captivated me. I lived out in the boonies and the farmlands, so I didn’t have neighbors to go and play with. If I wasn’t working, I was left to my own devices, and often, I would just be captivated by the wildlife and in particular, the birds of […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/chief-engineer-dr-donald-mendoza/
OpenAI reportedly considering for-profit plans, but what would that be good for?
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Even investors might not get much out of it
Opinion Once upon a time, OpenAI was purely a non-profit. Really. It was established in December 2015 as a non-profit AI research organization. Now it appears increasingly likely that OpenAI will become a for-profit company.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/opinion_openai/
Launch Your Creativity with These Space Crafts!
date: 2024-09-27, from: NASA breaking news
In honor of the completion of our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s spacecraft — the vehicle that will maneuver the observatory to its place in space and enable it to function once there — we’re bringing you some space crafts you can complete at home! Join us for a journey across the cosmos, starting right […]
Sols 4316-4317: Hunting for Sulfur
date: 2024-09-27, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024 Navigating the rugged, unforgiving Martian terrain is always a challenge, and our recent attempt to reach the “Sheep Creek” target highlights this. We had aimed for small, distant bright rocks, but from 50 meters away (about 164 feet), the limited resolution of our images made it difficult to […]
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4316-4317-hunting-for-sulfur/
It’s election season, which means talking politics at work
date: 2024-09-27, from: Marketplace Morning Report
In the run-up to the election, we’re looking at political polarization in America — specifically, the role companies play in intensifying or easing political divides — in our Office Politics series. This time, we’re tackling the touchy subject of talking politics at work, which has become increasingly tense in recent years. We chat with Alison Taylor, executive director of the think tank Ethical Systems, about the interaction between our work and civic lives. And, the “Low-down” on this morning’s inflation numbers with FHN Financial’s Christopher Low.
In meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump promises ‘good for both sides’ deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
Washington — Former President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Friday, promising that he “can work out something that’s good for both sides” to end the Russia-Ukraine war, if elected.
In response to VOA’s question, the Republican presidential nominee repeated his claim he will quickly end the fighting that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin. And I think if we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly.”
It’s a significant meeting for Zelenskyy as he works for assurances that Washington will continue to support his war efforts no matter who wins in U.S. presidential election in November.
“We have a common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped, and Putin can’t win,” Zelenskyy said as he stood next to Trump.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants the Russia-Ukraine war to end but has not stated whether he wants Kyiv to win or keep all its territories.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said Thursday in response to a question about whether Ukraine should turn over some of its own land to Russia to end the war.
Zelenskyy admitted he cannot win against Russia before the tightly contested presidential election.
“We understand that after November we have to decide, and we hope that the friends of [the] United States will be very strong, and we count on it,” he said. “That’s why I decided to meet with both candidates, with all honor to them.”
Trump is virtually tied in the polls with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. Zelenskyy with Harris in Washington on Thursday, following a separate meeting with President Joe Biden.
Unlike Trump, who is pushing for Kyiv to strike a deal with Moscow, Harris underscored that it’s up to Ukraine to decide how the war will end.
“I will continue to stand with Ukraine, and I will work to ensure Ukraine prevails in this war,” she vowed.
Without mentioning names, Harris criticized Trump by denouncing calls for Ukraine to end the war by ceding territory to Russia, focusing on a proposal from Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance that would mean Ukraine is left with less land and no path to an alliance with the West.
Vance suggested in a recent interview that Ukraine and Russia halt fighting and create a demilitarized zone at the current battle lines. Kyiv would need to adhere to a neutral status and stop its bid to join NATO.
“These proposals are the same as those of Putin, and let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace,” Harris said. “Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.”
“It’s not a surrender,” Trump responded Thursday. “What my strategy is, to save lives.”
Tension between Trump and Zelenskyy
Tension has been brewing between the two leaders. During a campaign event in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump slammed Zelenskyy for making “little, nasty aspersions” toward him. He appeared to be referring to Zelenskyy’s comments in a recent New Yorker magazine article that Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”
Trump suggested the Ukrainian leader together with the Biden administration are at fault for prolonging the war that followed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelenskyy money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said. He argued that Kyiv should have made concessions to Moscow before Russian troops attacked, asserting that Ukraine is now “in rubble” and in no position to negotiate the war’s end.
Zelenskyy, who has been in the United States since Sunday to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, was scheduled to depart Thursday but extended his visit as Trump announced the meeting.
Trump complains of impeachment
Trump spent a significant part of the open-to-press portion of his Friday meeting with Zelenskyy complaining about his 2019 impeachment by Democrats in Congress.
The impeachment was triggered by a phone call he had with Zelenskyy in July of that year in which Trump, who was president at the time, asked the Ukrainian leader to start an investigation into Biden — then his Democratic presidential rival — and his son Hunter Biden.
“It was a hoax, just a Democrat hoax, which we won,” said Trump, who was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate at that time.
Trump praised Zelenskyy for being “like a piece of steel” in supporting his claim that he did nothing wrong during their phone call. Zelenskyy did not respond to Trump’s remarks related to the impeachment.
Zelenskyy is also dealing with attacks from congressional Republicans loyal to Trump demanding that the Ukrainian leader fire his ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, over Zelenskyy’s visit earlier this week to an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania, a hotly contested battleground state in the November U.S. presidential election. Zelenskyy met with the Democratic governor of the state, Josh Shapiro.
In a letter to Zelenskyy, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday said the visit to the factory that makes munitions for Ukraine was a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats,” that amounts to “election interference.”
The White House called Johnson’s letter a “political stunt” and pointed out that Zelenskyy recently met Republican Governor of Utah Spencer Cox in a “similar event.”
Ahead of Zelenskyy’s visit, the U.S. administration announced $8 billion in new aid for Ukraine. In a statement, Biden said the aid includes a Patriot missile battery and missiles, as well as air-to-ground munitions and a precision-guided glide bomb with a range of up to 130 kilometers.
The White House said no announcement is imminent regarding Ukraine’s request for weapons donors to allow Ukrainian forces to use the weapons to strike targets deeper inside Russia.
Iuliia Iarmolenko, Tatiana Koprowicz and Iryna Solomko Bonenberger contributed to this report.
Deportations begin under Panama-US agreement
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
Panama has begun deporting migrants who cross the dangerous Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama as part of an agreement with the United States signed in July. Veronica Villafane narrates this story by Oscar Sulbaran.
https://www.voanews.com/a/deportations-begin-under-panama-us-agreement/7801690.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-27, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/26/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained/
AI Avatars Are Doing Job Interviews Now
date: 2024-09-27, from: 404 Media Group
“This HR AI avatar is a perfect demonstration of late stage capitalism,” Jack Ryan, someone who was interviewed by a tool called Fairgo.ai, told 404 Media.
https://www.404media.co/ai-avatars-are-doing-job-interviews-now/
Ransomware gang using stolen Microsoft Entra ID creds to bust into the cloud
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Defenders beware: Data theft, extortion, and backdoors on Storm-0501’s agenda
Microsoft’s latest threat intelligence blog issues a warning to all organizations about Storm-0501’s recent shift in tactics, targeting, and backdooring hybrid cloud environments.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/microsoft_storm_0501/
GM’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kristen Siemen Talks Shop
date: 2024-09-27, from: Heatmap News
I spoke with Kristen Siemen, General Motors’ chief sustainability officer, as her fellow Michiganders were reeling from another late summer day of violent thunderstorms, extreme summer heat, tornado and hail warnings, school closings, and damaging wind gusts that left 365,000 homes and businesses without power.
In the race against climate change, Siemen feels the pressure for GM to reach its goal to be carbon neutral in its products and operations by 2040, despite lowering its production target for electric vehicles this year to 200,000 to 250,000 vehicles (down from 200,000 to 300,000) and backtracking on its plans to produce a million EVs next year. The 31-year GM veteran started her career as an engineer.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How bad was last night?
I was texting all night and into this morning, checking in on my staff and whether they have power at their homes and whether we’re able to operate our facilities. Unfortunately, these big storms are happening more and more frequently and it’s getting harder for our grid to reliably and consistently provide energy for all of the things we’re trying to do. And this isn’t just a U.S. problem.
How worried are you about the idea that there’s a slowdown in EV sales?
There’s no doubt that the acceleration has not happened as quickly as was predicted. But that doesn’t mean that the EV segment isn’t growing. It’s still a huge growth opportunity. We’ve got a lot of products covering a lot of segments that weren’t available before, everything from the affordable Equinox EV to full-size trucks with the Silverado and a luxury vehicle with the Cadillac Lyric. And obviously the supertruck Hummer.
Which new EV model do you think will do the best?
I have two favorites and I’ve driven them all. I actually was in the Cadillac Lyric for quite a while, and it’s, by far, the best vehicle I’ve ever driven, based on performance and luxury features. Just absolutely loved the product.
And then the Equinox EV. To get a family sized SUV that starts at $35,000 and you add in the tax incentives, you’re talking under $30,000 for an EV for a family. That’s a game changer, to be able to have something that’s affordable. It’s a fantastic product with incredible range, great performance, and all the features that you can imagine. These are the things that will really open the doors for people that maybe couldn’t or weren’t considering an EV in the past.
What else do you worry about?
I worry about the stability of our country’s infrastructure, particularly the grid. We need to more reliably and consistently provide energy for all of the things we’re trying to do to make the energy transition a reality. And we have a long way to go.
What about a lack of EV charging infrastructure?
If you go on a long road trip and you drive through areas that don’t have public EV charging stations, it’s a little unnerving. People need to see more charging stations in their daily lives — like we’re used to seeing a gas station on every corner. The more people that can see that EV charging stations are readily available, even though they probably will use one rarely, they just want to know it’s there. It gives that sense of comfort that it’s available. And charging at home isn’t feasible for everybody, particularly in urban areas. So it’s going to be important to see that our customers see more charging infrastructure when they are out and about.
How are you feeling about Plug-In Hybrids (PHEVs)?
As long as consumers have concerns over the charging infrastructure, PHEVs are going to help bridge that gap for customers that either aren’t ready or aren’t able to make the full transition to an EV. But from a chief sustainability officer’s perspective, the only way we get to zero is by charging with green energy. And so we want that transition to happen as quickly as it possibly can.
What did GM learn from its Bolt experience and what do you expect from the new Bolt due out in late 2025?
The Bolt was a terrific product. And the customer base was extremely passionate, extremely loyal, and probably the highest customer satisfaction score of some vehicles ever, not just at GM. So for the new Bolt, we’re going to build on that equity and that passion that we’ve had and do it as efficiently as possible.
We really needed to transition, and that’s what we’re doing. The new Bolt EV will be on the new Ultium battery platform, and so it’ll be profitable and an affordable EV. We heard a lot from Bolt customers and that passion is certainly something that drives us.
Any advice for all the sustainability executives out here who are having a hard time getting traction within their companies?
When I first got the phone call to take this role, my first question was, why me? You know, I don’t have a sustainability background, I’m not sure what I can contribute.
But in reality, knowing the business has been a huge advantage to be able to communicate and understand all the challenges to being a chief sustainability officer. I know how long it takes to put a product into production. I know all of the things that an engineer needs to balance around cost and quality and performance.
So I tell other CSOs to meet [their C-suite colleagues and stakeholders] where they’re at. Talk to the CEO about how making the company more sustainable means making the company more resilient and stronger for the future, ensuring that we have a positive impact on the world. Educate the CFO on how all this saves money. When you look at the things we’re doing from an environmental or health and safety standpoint, they’re just good for people. It’s about doing the right thing. So it doesn’t even have to be a debate over climate change, right?
How does that dynamic work within GM?
Saving energy, saving water, those save costs. And there isn’t anybody who disagrees with saving costs.
Now, there are some things that we may want to do today, but we just can’t justify it. Some of our largest challenges are in our assembly plants, around things like heating and cooling and with our paint ovens. Even if we had the capital, or wanted to allocate the capital, to make those transitions today to electric, it really doesn’t make sense in every case, because natural gas is really cheap.
And so we need to focus instead on, how do we make what we do more efficient? How do we use less resources? How do we continue to make our manufacturing processes more efficient and make sure that we’re allocating our resources, our capital, our investments in the places that we can make the biggest impact today? And then prepare ourselves for when this transition is more readily available.
What other companies do you admire for their work in sustainability?
One of the things I love about this job is really the collaboration. The CSO space is a very friendly space. We’re all trying to work on the same issues, right? It’s a very unique situation where you all have the same challenges, regardless of what your company does, and so it’s extremely collaborative.
There are a lot of companies just doing incredible work in sustainability. I’ve spent time recently with the CSO of Colgate-Palmolive and one of their big wins this year was developing a recyclable toothpaste tube. What’s really cool about their story is that they made [their IP] available for everyone. We’ve also had conversations with Nike and Lululemon around materials. It’s a good opportunity for us to come up with solutions together. And we’re working with the tech companies too, Google, Amazon, Microsoft.
Partnering with NGOs has also been helpful, working on everything from how to purchase renewable energy, including virtual power plants, and how you take advantage of all those EVs out there that can help generate power for days like today when so many people have lost power.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/kristen-siemen-general-motors-chief-sustainability-officer
Scientists Have Found Bacteria and Fungi 10,000 Feet Up in the Air
date: 2024-09-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The discovery has implications for human health, since the microbes included some that were still viable, some that could be infectious to humans and others that carried drug-resistant genes
Hurricane Helene kills 40, produces ‘catastrophic flooding’
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
New York City mayor charged with bribery, wire fraud
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, has been indicted on multiple corruption charges by the U.S. government. Aron Ranen has the story from the Big Apple.
https://www.voanews.com/a/new-york-city-mayor-charged-with-bribery-wire-fraud/7801598.html
Musk’s Starlink rockets to 4 million subscribers
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Satellite broadband mega-constellation passes mega-milestone
Starlink’s subscriber count is accelerating and has passed the 4 million milestone, up from the 2.3 million it claimed in its 2023 progress report.…
Steam Removes Forced Arbitration Clause, Gamers Can Now Sue Valve
date: 2024-09-27, from: 404 Media Group
“The updated Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA) now provides that any disputes are to go forward in court instead of arbitration.”
https://www.404media.co/steam-removes-forced-arbitration-clause-gamers-can-now-sue-valve/
Careful With Your Snarky Group Chat Names
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/09/27/careful-with-your-snarky-group-chat-names/
REDMAGIC Nova Gaming Tablet launches globally for $499 and up
date: 2024-09-27, from: Liliputing
The REDMAGIC Nova Gaming Tablet is an Android tablet with a 10.9 inch, 2880 x 1800 pixel display featuring a 144 Hz refresh rate and 840 Hz touch sampling rate, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, and active cooling to help keep the hardware running smoothly during extended gaming sessions. First launched in China earlier […]
The post REDMAGIC Nova Gaming Tablet launches globally for $499 and up appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/redmagic-nova-gaming-tablet-launches-globally-for-499-and-up/
We Made an Emergency Alert Guide To Help Californians Navigate a Complicated Process. Here’s How To Do This In Any State
date: 2024-09-27, from: The Markup blog
CalMatters and The Markup reported on how residents in each of California’s 58 counties can sign up for local emergency alerts, and found a few surprises along the way. Here’s how you can build the same guide in your state
https://themarkup.org/2024/09/27/emergency-alerts-how-to-guide
As Ukraine war enters a critical period, the EU moves ahead without the US
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
BRUSSELS — s the war in Ukraine enters a critical period, the European Union has decided that it must take responsibility for what it sees as an existential threat to security in its own neighborhood and is preparing to tackle some of the financial burden, perhaps even without the United States.
EU envoys have been working in Brussels this week on a proposal to provide Ukraine with a hefty loan package worth up to $39 billion. It was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a trip to Kyiv last Friday.
“Crucially, this loan will flow straight into your national budget,” she told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “It will provide you with significant and much-needed fiscal space. You will decide how best to use the funds, giving you maximum flexibility to meet your needs.”
Zelenskyy wants to buy weapons and bomb shelters and rebuild Ukraine’s shattered energy network as winter draws near.
In international matters, particularly involving major conflicts, the EU rarely moves ahead without the U.S., but it hopes this decision will encourage others to come forward.
Russian troops and an election close in
Almost 1,000 days since their full-scale invasion, Russian forces are making advances in the east. Ukraine’s army has a shaky hold on part of the Kursk region in Russia, which has provided a temporary morale boost, but as casualties mount it remains outmanned and outgunned.
On the political front, Zelenskyy hopes to secure support for a “victory plan” that might force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. He’s trying to persuade U.S. President Joe Biden and other allies to help strengthen Ukraine’s hand in any future talks.
But a U.S. election looms, and polls suggest that Donald Trump might return to the White House in January. Trump has been critical of U.S. aid to Ukraine. On Wednesday, he said Zelenskyy should have made concessions to Putin before the invasion began in February 2022.
Most of the 27-nation EU fears that a Putin victory would lead to deep uncertainty. Russia’s armed forces are depleted and currently incapable of another war, but the prospect of a future land grab in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland remains.
Reworking a G7 loan plan
The EU loans are part of a plan by the Group of Seven major industrialized nations to take advantage of interest earned on about $250 billion worth of frozen Russian assets, most of them held in Europe. These windfall profits are estimated at around $5 billion to $6 billion a year.
The profits underpin the G7 plan. The EU would stump up $20 billion, the U.S. $20 billion, and Canada, Japan and the U.K. $10 billion together, for a combined total of $50 billion. The scheme expires at the end of the year, before the next U.S. president takes office.
Now, amid differences over how long the Russian asset freeze should be guaranteed, the EU has decided to go it alone. Its offer of up to $39 billion in loans accounts for almost the entirety of the U.S. share as well.
The U.S. wants to ensure that the assets are locked away for at least three years to guarantee the income. But EU member Hungary insists this should only happen in 6-month increments. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán styles himself as a peacemaker and is too close to Putin for many of his partners’ comfort.
The other 26 EU countries feel they must move now because time is running out.
Evolving alliance with the United States
The U.S. election is just weeks away. The Europeans are wary of Trump’s unpredictability and are testing scenarios to help protect themselves from the kind of battering, like tariff hikes, their economies received during his past presidency. But they also see the Democrats as more inward looking these days.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act left European leaders fuming over rules that favored American products. China and war in the Middle East are the foreign policy priorities of Democrat or Republican candidates alike, and for now the U.S. is in the grip of election campaign fever.
The EU hopes that Vice President Kamala Harris, if she is elected president, would enter the loan program as previously planned and reduce the EU’s financial burden. But that remains an open question for now, and EU members say Ukraine’s position is too precarious to hesitate.
Political delays in the U.S. Congress last year over a $60 billion support package starved Ukrainian troops of weapons and ammunition for months, resulting in “real consequences on the battlefield,” in the words of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Pressing ahead on pressing needs
Helping Ukraine in military terms is a challenge for the Europeans. They could not do it alone, and cannot match the U.S. transport, logistics and equipment superiority, despite progress in ramping up their defense industries to supply arms and ammunition.
But the world’s biggest trading bloc does wield economic might. It has already given Ukraine about $132 billion since the full-scale invasion started. Within weeks it appears ready to provide tens of billions more, even though going it alone is not in the EU’s DNA.
“I do not know what the Americans, the United States with the new presidency, will do or not,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday. But, he said, “as long as the Ukrainians want to resist, we have to support them. Otherwise, we will make a historical mistake.”
The Biden administration did announce Wednesday that the U.S. will send Ukraine a major military aid package, including cluster bombs and an array of rockets, artillery and armored vehicles. A U.S. official also said billions of dollars more in assistance would arrive over the coming months.
Meanwhile, deliberations on the EU’s share of the G7 loan package will be high on the agenda of a summit of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels on October 17-18.
IBM and Oracle to support 280,000 users after winning mega ERP govt tech contract
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Pair of industry giants set to take on £711M upgrade supporting four UK departments
IBM and Oracle have won a competition to supply an ERP upgrade to a group of UK central government departments in a deal worth £711 million ($950 million).…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/ibm_and_oracle_uk_contract/
Why fewer funds for FEMA means slower disaster recoveries
date: 2024-09-27, from: Marketplace Morning Report
President Biden just signed a bill to fund the government for the next three months, but extra money for the federal government’s disaster management agency, FEMA, was not in the legislation. A look at why the agency was asking for more funds and how fewer resources can impact communities recovering from disasters. The labor dispute between some of the largest U.S. ports and dockworkers escalated Friday, with employers calling for federal intervention to force a restart in negotiations. And, Southwest Airlines announced that it will scrap one of the features that set it apart in a crowded airline market: no pre-assigned seating.
Hurricane Helene’s Path of Destruction
date: 2024-09-27, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Parts of England could be hit by tornadoes today • Another hurricane is churning in the Atlantic • The border between Switzerland and Italy has to be moved because of rapidly melting glaciers.
THE TOP FIVE
- Hurricane Helene slams into Florida as Category 4 storm
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region last night as a Category 4 storm with top sustained winds of 140 miles per hour. The extent of the damage from the storm so far is unclear, but several locations saw record storm surge, including nearly 10 feet in Ceder Key and 6.3 feet in St. Petersburg. At least three people are known to have been killed, and more than 1.2 million Floridians are without power. “We’re fearing the worst when the sun comes up,” said the sheriff’s office in Suwannee County. “We’re gonna need some prayers folks.”
NOAA
One hurricane scientist said Helene is one of the largest storms on record to strike the Gulf Coast, with its winds covering an area of about 420 miles. The storm’s size means its effects will be felt in cities far north of the coast, even as it weakens. As of Friday morning it had been downgraded to a tropical storm. In Georgia, more than 900,000 are without power. Tornado warnings were issued for parts of South Carolina, with additional tornado watches in effect in Georgia and North Carolina. A quarter of oil production and about 20% of gas output in the Gulf was shut down because of the storm.
- Natural gas industry seeks clarity on Harris policies
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is under pressure to clarify her position on natural gas. “We need more details,” said Dave Callahan, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. Harris has reiterated that she is not against fracking, and has called for investing in “diverse sources of energy,” but hasn’t said much more on the issue yet. President Biden paused approvals for new liquified natural gas export terminals while the Energy Department studied their climate effects, a move that angered the industry but pleased climate activists who say the terminals lock in greenhouse gas pollution for decades to come. A judge has since blocked the freeze, but new approvals remain slow. Pennsylvania is a major natural gas producing state, and a must-win battleground for the 2024 election. Republican candidate Donald Trump has promised to lift the permitting freeze if elected in November.
- Texas approves plan to expand electricity transmission for Permian
Basin oil and gas operations
Texas yesterday approved a plan to expand grid infrastructure in the Permian Basin, the largest oilfield in the U.S., to make sure the basin’s oil and gas facilities have reliable electricity. Last month Permian Basin Petroleum Association Executive vice president Stephen Robertson said access to electricity was the industry’s biggest concern for the basin, where power demand is expected to balloon over the next 15 years as the oil and gas industry electrifies operations.
The International Energy Agency estimates that oil and gas operations account for around 15% of global energy-related emissions. It calls for a 50% reduction in emissions intensity for those operations by the end of the decade to align with a planway toward net zero by 2050, and electrification is one step on that path. But the IEA notes that “tackling methane emissions is the single most important measure that contributes to the overall fall in emissions from oil and gas operations.” Recent data suggests U.S. producers – including those in the Permian Basin – continue to emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, at rates much higher than current EPA estimates and industry targets.
- UAE to unveil its new NDC before COP29
The United Arab Emirates is expected to outline its new national climate plan – known more formally as a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) – ahead of the upcoming COP29 climate summit in November. “That would make it one of the first major emitters to take that step ahead of the February 2025 deadline,” Reuters noted. Under the Paris Agreement, party nations are required to submit new and updated NDCs every five years, outlining their plans to reduce emissions in line with the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The upcoming deadline for new NDCs is February 2025, but Sultan Al Jaber, president of last year’s COP, said the UAE hopes to set an example for other countries to submit their plans asap. Previous NDCs from major fossil fuel producing nations did not mention oil, coal, and gas, so it will be interesting to see if or how the new plans grapple with the stated COP28 goal of “transitioning away” from fossil fuels.
- Climate change costs to real estate sector could reach $500 billion
A recent report from the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore and S&P Global warned that the real estate sector could see climate change-related losses of more than $500 billion by 2050. It added that “climate adaptation solutions for non-residential real estate like green or cool roofs and wet or dry floodproofing present investment opportunities.” Last year, the U.S. experienced 28 weather and climate disasters, and together they cost more than $92 billion.
Relatedly, yesterday the online real estate marketplace Zillow said it will start including properties’ climate risks in sale listings, using data from climate research and technology company First Street. Prospective buyers will be able to see flood, fire, wind, heat, and air quality risks, along with insurance requirements and tailored recommendations. More than 80% of home buyers are factoring climate risk into their decisions now, First Street said. The climate risk information will be available on the Zillow website by the end of the year (rolling out on the Zillow apps this year or early 2025).
Zillow/First
Street
THE KICKER
“I just want to be clear that building the clean energy future that we want and need is not a rhetorical flourish. It means actual construction.” –Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, speaking with Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer about how fighting climate change will mean building a new economy. Read their entire conversation here.
https://heatmap.news/climate/hurricane-helene-damage-florida-georgia
Trump and Zelenskyy will meet as tensions rise over US backing for Ukraine
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Donald Trump is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as public tensions have been rising between the two over Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.
Trump said Zelenskyy asked for the meeting. The visit is set for about 9:45 a.m. Eastern Time at Trump Tower in New York, less than a day after Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent, met with the Ukrainian leader and expressed unwavering support.
“I look forward to seeing him tomorrow,” Trump said in a press conference Thursday. “I believe I will be able to make a deal between President [Vladimir] Putin and President Zelenskyy, quite quickly.”
The meeting is highly anticipated and comes as Election Day nears, with Trump and Harris taking sharply different positions on backing Ukraine in the third year of its war with Russia.
Trump argues Putin would never have invaded had he been president while derisively calling Zelenskyy a “salesman” for getting U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump has in recent days praised Russia’s historic military victories and insisted the U.S. needs “to get out” and end its involvement with Ukraine.
Friday’s meeting almost wasn’t scheduled despite Zelenskyy’s office saying something had been planned during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the U.N. General Assembly, during which he is making his endgame pitch to allies.
In an interview with The New Yorker magazine that was published earlier this week, Zelenskyy implied Trump does not understand and oversimplifies the conflict. The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s running mate JD Vance was “too radical” and had essentially advocated for Ukraine to “make a sacrifice” by “giving up its territories.”
Trump ripped Zelenskyy and Ukraine on two separate occasions this week. Speaking Wednesday in North Carolina, Trump referred to Ukraine as “demolished” and its people as “dead.”
“Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump said. “If they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living, and every building would be built and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years.”
Meanwhile, Harris on Thursday stood alongside Zelenskyy and said Trump’s push for Ukraine to quickly cut a deal to end the war were “not proposals for peace,” but “proposals for surrender.” Trump on Thursday said he was not advocating for a surrender.
While Trump and Vance have long been skeptics of U.S. backing for Ukraine, other Republican allies of the former president have backed Kyiv’s defense against Moscow’s invasion and argue supporting Ukraine is in America’s interest.
One ally of both Ukraine and Trump is Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. At a closed-door meeting Zelenskyy had with senators on Capitol Hill, also on Thursday, Graham stood up and said he had been talking to Trump about the Ukrainian president, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
Graham told those in the room he would talk to Zelenskyy privately about his conversations with Trump, the person said. As the meeting came to a close, Graham pulled Zelenskyy aside and the two had a private conversation.
Graham is close to the former president, despite an on-again-off-again relationship, and has often played a role as an intermediary on various subjects. He did not respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.
Is China-US competition driving the Africa proposal in the UN?
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
Johannesburg — This week at U.N. meetings in New York, the United States said that two African countries should have permanent seats on one of the world’s major decision-making bodies, the United Nations Security Council.
For years, numerous African leaders have called for the continent to have representation on the U.N. Security Council, which since World War II has had just five permanent members: the U.S., France, the UK, Russia and China.
This week, the top representative of one of those permanent seats, U.S. President Joe Biden, threw his weight behind the idea. However, there was one major caveat, which Kenyan analyst Cliff Mboya said is not going over well on the continent. The new African members would not have veto power on decisions.
“We’ve already seeing a lot of backlash… like this is a big joke, the question is what is the point in joining the Security Council if you don’t have veto powers, what are you going to do there?” asked Mboya.
That could play in China’s favor, as it has long positioned itself as a fellow developing country and leader of what’s become known as the Global South, while disparaging the West for its colonial past, said Mboya, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg.
“So I don’t think this helps the U.S. and the West in terms of perception and narratives, and it will only embolden African countries to lean more to the East because it just speaks to the hypocrisy,” he said. “China’s been able to, you know, build this coalition of emerging and developing countries against the U.S. and Western-led world order.”
But Paul Nantulya, a research associate with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said he thought the announcement was a “win’’ for U.S. diplomacy and would mostly be welcomed by African nations as it opens the door to further negotiations.
“Regarding China, China has been very, you know, kind of like sitting on the fence. So rhetorically China has said all the right things, supporting Africa’s, what it calls Africa’s legitimate interests in the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council,” he said.
But its plan for that has been hazy, he added.
“When it comes to specific details, in terms of whether China supports permanent African representation on the council with veto power, when it comes to that China has not articulated a position.”
Among those in New York this week calling for U.N. reform was South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. He said, quote: “Africa and its 1.4 billion people remain excluded from its key decision-making structures.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also called for reform, saying the UNSC hasn’t kept up with a changing world and Africa is underrepresented.
Some African countries want veto power in the Security Council dispensed with entirely.
If there is reform, and Africa gets the two seats on the Security Council that the U.S. proposes, key contenders could include the continent’s largest economy, South Africa; most populous country, Nigeria; or North African heavyweight Egypt, Nantulya told VOA.
However, analysts say any future process of adding African countries as permanent members is likely to face hurdles, as there will be problems reaching consensus. Nantulya said some African politicians think it could even drive a wedge between countries on the continent.
There are also concerns the U.S. statement could just be rhetoric — and so far no timeline has been given regarding the next steps. Under U.N. rules, any change to Security Council membership would need approval from two-thirds of the General Assembly, including all five permanent members.
Hubble Captures Steller Nurseries in a Majestic Spiral
date: 2024-09-27, from: NASA breaking news
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy IC 1954, located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Horologium. It sports a glowing bar in its core, majestically winding spiral arms, and clouds of dark dust across it. Numerous glowing, pink spots across the disc of the galaxy are H-alpha […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-captures-steller-nurseries-in-a-majestic-spiral/
Hubble Captures Stellar Nurseries in a Majestic Spiral
date: 2024-09-27, from: NASA breaking news
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy IC 1954, located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Horologium. It sports a glowing bar in its core, majestically winding spiral arms, and clouds of dark dust across it. Numerous glowing, pink spots across the disc of the galaxy are H-alpha […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-captures-stellar-nurseries-in-a-majestic-spiral/
Japan’s ruling party picks next PM
date: 2024-09-27, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Japan’s ruling party has elected Shigeru Ishiba as its new leader, positioning the political veteran as the next prime minister of Japan. A look at what his ascent could mean for the country’s economic policy. Ticketing websites have been overwhelmed after millions of people in India tried to book to see Coldplay’s concerts next year; as well as technical problems and long digital queues, there’s concern over alleged price gouging. And, scientists in China have discovered the world’s oldest known cheese – from 3500 years ago.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/japans-ruling-party-picks-next-pm
Bring the joy of train delays home with your very own departure board
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Working from home, but missing the voice of Elinor Hamilton telling you all services are canceled?
Great news for transport nerds! It is now possible to recreate the desolation of an empty platform with every train delayed or canceled, thanks to an unnervingly accurate replica of a station departure board.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/departure_boards/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-27, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Northeast Ski Resort Projected Opening Dates 2024/25.
https://www.onthesnow.com/northeast/projected-openings
Is Harris’ Big Tent About To Burst?
date: 2024-09-27, from: The Lever News
Kamala Harris has built a coalition spanning from Dick Cheney to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — but is that setting her up for a rudderless presidency?
https://www.levernews.com/is-harris-big-tent-about-to-burst/
Fedora 41 beta arrives, neck-and-neck with Ubuntu – but with a different focus
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Text Edit emerges, plus tinted terminal title bar when it’s time to tread tactfully
For those on the RPM side of the fence, Fedora 41 has hit beta, and works better in VirtualBox than ever if you’re curious to try it.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/fedora_41_beta/
OS/2 expert channeled a higher power to dispel digital doom vortex
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘He sat in a chair, rubbed his temple, and began to recite syntax as if performing magic’
On Call The end of the working week brings with it magical possibilities for fun and frolics, which is why The Register celebrates each Friday with a fresh incantation of On Call – the reader-contributed column that tells your tech support tales.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/on_call/
Data harvesting superapp admits it struggled to wield data – until it built an LLM
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Engineers at Grab don’t need to ask each other questions any more
Asia’s answer to Uber, Singaporean superapp Grab, has admitted it gathered more data than it could easily analyze – until a large language and generative AI turned things around.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/grab_dataset_llm/
Starlink-branded hardware reportedly found amid wreckage of downed Russian drone
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Space broadband on weapons is not something Elon Musk condones
A Russian drone shot down over Ukraine appears to have been fitted with equipment made by Elon Musk’s space broadband service Starlink, according to Ukrainian media.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/starlink_drone_russia_ukraine/
Hurricane Helene makes landfall in northwestern Florida
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/hurricane-helene-makes-landfall-in-northwestern-florida/7801395.html
India flips the switch on three homebrew supercomputers
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Rudra machines use local designs for server, interconnect, and cooling – but seemingly not a planned 96-core Arm CPU
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi yesterday dedicated three new supercomputers, and made the machines a symbol of his economic, social, and industry policies.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/india_rudra_supercomputers_dedicated/
Blinken to meet Chinese counterpart amid concerns over China’s drone supply to Russia
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
New York — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
This meeting between the countries’ top diplomats comes amid growing U.S. concerns over Chinese firms supplying chips and drones to Moscow, which have significantly bolstered Russia’s battlefield capabilities in its war against Ukraine.
Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has told the Congress that China’s material support for Russia’s war effort “comes from the very top.”
Blinken’s talks with Wang will take place ahead of a call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, expected later this fall.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. General Assembly that Ukraine would never accept a deal imposed by other nations to end Russia’s 31-month invasion, questioning the motives of China and Brazil in pushing for negotiations with Moscow.
For months, U.S. officials have accused China of actively aiding Russia’s war effort. Washington has sanctioned Chinese firms providing crucial components to Russia’s defense industry.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller recently told VOA that the U.S. openly discusses its “differences” with China to ensure that both countries “at least understand where the other is coming from, even if we can’t reach an agreement.”
He added that Washington is managing its relationship with China to prevent it from “veering from competition into conflict.”
Japanese orgs now paying salaries direct into e-wallets
date: 2024-09-27, updated: 2024-09-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Starting at SoftBank, using its own PayPay service
Ten subsidiaries of Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank Group have begun paying employees’ salaries into SoftBank’s own PayPay digital wallet.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/softbank_digital_salary/
Former Trump adviser describes China’s ideology as ‘danger to all of us’
date: 2024-09-27, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/former-trump-official-sees-china-as-threat-like-no-other/7800988.html