Struggling with relationships? You may be too materialistic

Digital technology and social media have revolutionized communication, making people more connected than ever. Yet many developed nations are struggling with loneliness and data has shown that while we have more ways to connect with others, the quantity and quality of our connections may be declining, especially among young people.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-11-struggling-relationships-materialistic.html

How the 10 Abortion Ballot Initiatives Fared in the 2024 Election

The 2024 election was a mixed bag for abortion rights.

Voters in seven states moved to protect abortion access by passing ballot initiatives that will amend their state constitutions to include protections for reproductive rights. But similar measures in three other states failed—a blow to abortion-rights supporters. And the country ultimately decided to reelect the man who has claimed credit for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade: former President Donald Trump.

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Measures meant to protect abortion rights passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York, but failed in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota. This election saw the highest number of statewide abortion-related ballot measures in a single year, surpassing the previous record of six in 2022. The results break a previous trend—before this year, voters had sided with abortion rights every time the issue has been on state ballots since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision two years ago.

Many polls have shown that most Americans support abortion rights, but 21 states have either banned or restricted abortion since the Dobbs decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion. As state lawmakers have taken steps to curtail abortion rights, advocates have turned to state ballot initiatives to try and protect access. The majority of the statewide abortion-related measures that appeared on the ballot this year were citizen-led initiatives.

Here are the results of the statewide abortion-related ballot measures in 2024.

Arizona

In the battleground state of Arizona, voters approved a measure that will establish “a fundamental right to abortion under Arizona’s constitution,” allowing abortions until fetal viability or later if an abortion is needed to protect the pregnant person’s life or health.

Nearly 62% of voters supported the measure, while about 38% voted against it, with about 60% of votes counted as of 9:40 a.m. ET on Wednesday. The Associated Press called the race at 3:31 a.m. ET on Wednesday. 

Currently in Arizona, abortion is banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical emergencies. But the newly-passed amendment is expected to upend the state’s existing restrictions on abortion.

Colorado

Voters in Colorado supported a ballot measure that will enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, with more than 61% voting in favor and nearly 39% voting against it, as of 5:40 a.m. ET on Wednesday when about 73% of votes were counted. The AP called the race at 10:26 p.m. on Tuesday.

The state already allows for abortion at any stage of pregnancy, but supporters of the measure have said that the amendment will ensure that future state lawmakers wouldn’t be able to roll back abortion rights. The amendment will also repeal a nearly 40-year-old ban on state and local government money being used to pay for abortion services.

Florida

In Florida, a measure that would have amended the state constitution to guarantee the right to abortion up until fetal viability or when necessary to protect the health of the pregnant person, failed. The measure needed the support of at least 60% of voters to pass, but fell short, with about 57% of Floridians voting in favor and nearly 43% voting against, as of 9:49 a.m. ET on Wednesday when about 99% of the votes were counted. The AP called the race at 9:06 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Florida has banned abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy, which is before many people know they’re pregnant. The restriction carries some exceptions, such as when the life of the pregnant person is at risk. With the failure of the proposed amendment, the state’s existing six-week ban will remain in place.

The lead-up to Election Day was contentious for the ballot initiative. Those behind the measure launched an extensive campaign to reach voters, sharing the stories of many people who were unable to receive care because of the state’s restrictions. But state officials tried to keep the initiative off the ballot and repeatedly attacked the campaign.

Lauren Brenzel, director of the campaign behind the ballot measure, said at a press conference Tuesday night that the vote breakdown showed that the majority of Florida voters supported it, even though the measure ultimately failed. Brenzel called on Florida politicians to repeal the six-week ban, given the vote breakdown.

“They are tired of women dying because of abortion bans. They are tired of women being forced to give birth to children who died in their arms because of abortion bans,” Brenzel said. “A bipartisan group of voters today sent a clear message to the Florida legislature.”

Maryland

Maryland voters passed a measure that will enshrine the right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution. The AP called the race at 9:28 p.m. on Tuesday. About 74% of Maryland voters supported the measure and nearly 26% rejected it, as of 4:34 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 76% of votes were counted.

Unlike most of the other statewide abortion-rights measures this year, this initiative was placed on the ballot after a vote from Maryland’s Democratic-controlled legislature. Abortion is already legal in the state until fetal viability—or after that if necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or health, or if the fetus has a serious abnormality—but, as with the initiative in Colorado, supporters have said that this amendment will prevent the possibility of state lawmakers restricting access in the future.

Missouri

In a major win for abortion-rights supporters, Missouri voters decided to amend its state constitution to guarantee the right to abortion until fetal viability, with exceptions after that if the pregnant person’s life or physical or mental health is at risk. Nearly 52% of voters backed the measure, while 48% rejected it, with about 99% of the vote counted by 9:34 a.m. ET. on Wednesday. The AP called the race at 11:24 p.m. on Tuesday.

The newly-passed amendment is expected to invalidate Missouri’s existing near-total ban on abortion, which is one of the strictest in the country.

Montana

In Montana, more than 57% of voters supported amending the state constitution to guarantee the right to abortion until fetal viability, or after that if necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or health. The measure passed, since it only needed a simple majority, with nearly 43% of voters rejecting it, as of 9:47 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 87% of the votes were counted. The AP called the race at 6:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Abortion is currently legal until fetal viability in Montana, and the Montana Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that abortion is protected under the state constitution. But state lawmakers have tried to restrict abortion in the past few years, and reproductive rights advocates have said that the measure would protect abortion rights if lawmakers continue those attempts in the future.

Montana voters previously weighed in on reproductive healthcare in 2022, when they rejected a legislative referendum that would have further restricted abortion by classifying an embryo or fetus as a legal person entitled to medical treatment if they are born prematurely or in the rare case that they survive an attempted abortion.

Nebraska

Unlike the other states voting on the issue this year, Nebraska had two competing abortion-related measures on the ballot.

Ultimately, voters backed the measure that will amend the state constitution to include a ban on abortion in the second and third trimesters, with exceptions for medical emergencies, rape, or incest. About 55% of Nebraskans voted in favor of the measure, while nearly 45% voted against it, as of 6:52 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 99% of votes were counted. The AP called the race at 1:02 a.m. on Wednesday.

The other initiative, which would have enshrined the right to abortion until fetal viability in the state constitution (with exceptions beyond that in situations when an abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or health), failed, with more than 51% of voters rejecting it and nearly 49% supporting it, as of 6:52 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 99% of the votes were counted. The AP called the race at 3:27 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

In Nebraska, abortion is currently prohibited beyond 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the pregnant person’s life. The failure of the abortion-rights initiative allows the state’s existing restriction to remain in place, and the passing of the anti-abortion amendment will enshrine the restriction into the state’s constitution.

Nevada

Voters in Nevada took the first step to enshrining the right to abortion until fetal viability, or later when necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or health, in the state constitution. About 63% of voters supported the abortion-rights measure and about 37% rejected it, as of 5:09 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 84% of the votes were counted. The measure only needed a simple majority to pass, but voters will need to approve it again in 2026 in order to officially amend the state constitution. The AP called the race at 3:21 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Nevada currently allows abortions until the 24th week of pregnancy.

New York

New York will amend its state constitution to include equal rights protections, such as declaring that no one should be discriminated against because of “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Nearly 62% of people voted in favor of the measure, while almost 39% voted against it, as of 9:49 a.m. ET on Wednesday, with about 88% of the vote counted. The AP called the race at 9:31 p.m. ET on Tuesday. New York was the only other state, in addition to Maryland, that had a legislative abortion-related initiative on the ballot.

Abortion is allowed until fetal viability in New York. The New York initiative didn’t explicitly mention abortion, but was a broad equal rights amendment that included protections for reproductive healthcare, as well as factors like ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

South Dakota

South Dakota voters rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have guaranteed the right to abortion in the first trimester. The measure needed a simple majority to pass, but only about 40% voted in favor, while nearly 60% voted against it, as of 9:55 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 90% of the votes were counted. The AP called the race at 2:49 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

The initiative would have also amended the state constitution to allow the state to regulate abortion in the second trimester only if “reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman,” and permit the state to regulate or prohibit abortion in the third trimester except in situations where abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant person’s health or life.

Because the measure failed, South Dakota’s near-total abortion ban will remain in place.

source https://time.com/7173410/abortion-ballot-results-2024-election/

Secrets and lies: Spies of the Stuart era played a dangerous game in the shadows of an unstable Europe

Stuart monarchs were repeatedly challenged by dangerous threats—a gunpowder plot, a civil war and political revolution. As a result, by the restoration of Charles II in 1660, the English government had come to rely on a shadowy trade of secrets for gathering domestic and international intelligence.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-11-secrets-spies-stuart-era-played.html

Revealing the superconducting limit of twisted bilayer graphene

Graphene is a simple material containing only a single layer of carbon atoms, but when two sheets of it are stacked together and offset at a slight angle, this twisted bilayer material produces numerous intriguing effects, notably superconductivity.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-11-revealing-superconducting-limit-bilayer-graphene.html

Premier League: Tottenham Blow Aston Villa Away In Second-Half Rampage

Dominic Solanki scored twice as Tottenham blitzed Aston Villa in the second half on Sunday, winning 4-1 to move just two points behind their rivals for a top-four finish in the Premier League.

source https://sports.ndtv.com/football/premier-league-tottenham-blow-aston-villa-away-in-second-half-rampage-6936300

Earth's climate will keep changing long after humanity hits net-zero emissions. Our research shows why

The world is striving to reach net-zero emissions as we try to ward off dangerous global warming. But will getting to net-zero actually avert climate instability, as many assume?

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-earth-climate-humanity-net-emissions.html

Sudan's civil war has left at least an estimated 62,000 dead—but the true figure could be far higher

The ongoing war in Sudan has often been overlooked amid higher-profile conflicts raging across multiple continents. Yet the lack of media and geopolitical attention to this 18-month-long conflict has not made its devastation in terms of human lives any less stark.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-11-sudan-civil-war-left-dead.html

Iran’s Supreme Leader Threatens Israel and U.S. With ‘a Crushing Response’ Over Israeli Attack

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.

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Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, into a wider regional conflict just ahead of the U.S. presidential election this Tuesday.

“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media.

The supreme leader did not elaborate on the timing of the threatened attack, nor the scope. The U.S. military operates on bases throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier likely is in the Arabian Sea, while Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that more destroyers, fighter squadrons, tankers and B-52 long-range bombers would be coming to the region to deter Iran and its militant allies.

The 85-year-old Khamenei had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed.” Iran has launched two major direct attacks on Israel, in April and October.

But efforts by Iran to downplay the Israeli attack faltered as satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed damage to military bases near Tehran linked to the country’s ballistic missile program, as well as at a Revolutionary Guard base used in satellite launches.

Iran’s allies, called the “Axis of Resistance” by Tehran, also have been severely hurt by ongoing Israeli attacks, particularly Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran long has used those groups as both an asymmetrical way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct assault. Some analysts believe those groups want Iran to do more to back them militarily.

Iran, however, has been dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and it has faced years of widespread, multiple protests. After Khamenei’s speech, the Iranian rial fell to 691,500 against the dollar, near an all-time low. It had been 32,000 rials to the dollar when Tehran reached its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Gen. Mohammad Ali Naini, a spokesman for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard which controls the ballistic missiles needed to target Israel, gave an interview published by the semiofficial Fars news agency just before Khamenei’s remarks were released. In it, he warned Iran’s response “will be wise, powerful and beyond the enemy’s comprehension.”

“The leaders of the Zionist regime should look out from the windows of their bedrooms and protect their criminal pilots within their small territory,” he warned. Israeli air force pilots appear to have used air-launched ballistic missiles in the Oct. 26 attack.

Khamenei on Saturday met with university students to mark Students Day, which commemorates a Nov. 4, 1978, incident in which Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the rule of the shah at Tehran University. The shooting killed and wounded several students and further escalated the tensions consuming Iran at the time that eventually led to the shah fleeing the country and the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The crowd offered a raucous welcome to Khamenei, chanting: “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!” Some also made a hand gesture — similar to a “timeout” signal — given by the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2020 in a speech in which he threatened that American troops who arrived in the Mideast standing up would “return in coffins” horizontally.

Iran will mark the 45th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis this Sunday, following the Persian calendar. The Nov. 4, 1979, storming of the embassy by Islamist students led to the 444-day crisis, which cemented the decades-long enmity between Tehran and Washington that persists today.

source https://time.com/7171658/iran-supreme-leader-threatens-israel-us/

Courts in UK may permit companies to be convicted of crimes even when no individual employee is criminally liable

Due to loopholes that remain despite recent reforms to corporate criminal law in the UK, University of Surrey academics are calling for a new legal approach that could hold companies accountable for economic crimes, even when no single employee possesses the complete mental state required for a conviction.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-11-courts-uk-companies-convicted-crimes.html

A Guide to What to Make of the Polls Right Now

This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.

As we finally hit the last weekend before Election Day, plenty of our friends are suddenly experts on the polls. Whether it’s a political circle, a YA book club, or even the line at the grocery store, the chatty ones have just one topic atop their minds. Did you see that gender gap in The New York Times’ final survey last week? What about Thursday’s Gallup poll showing voter intensity among Democrats higher than any point in the last 24 years? But I heard on NPR that Trump is polling better than any Republican in the last two decades, including when Trump won in 2016? It can be a lot.

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For those who want to do it, going down the rabbit hole of polls can be a choose-your-own-adventure tale of self-assurance, self-torture, and deep confusion. And, to be frank, each path is entirely valid.

Sure, there are plenty of metrics by which to pour through to assess the health and potential of the two presidential campaigns. Campaign finance data, ad strategy, where the candidates are planting themselves in the final days. Oh, and don’t even get me started about the imprecise modeling behind early-vote numbers.

But, really, polls are the easiest way to get a sense of the race. In August, we published a primer on how to read the polls like a pro. But in the final days of an election cycle like no other, many wonder if pollsters are getting the presidential race completely wrong… again. Here’s a rundown of why polling in 2024 is different from any other year, and why that’s creating more confusion about who’s getting it right.  

Don’t all the polls show this is basically a coin toss?

Yes, but no.

With apologies to readers who are looking for an easy answer, one is not in the offing. As Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson notes, the numbers are remarkably consistent across different surveys even as pollsters are following a different set of assumptions to get there. The Times poll showing a tied race at 48% and the CNN poll showing a tied race at 47% can be accurate in each case, but there are big differences in how they reach similar conclusions. 

Put in legal terms, Jurors A and B can both find someone guilty of a crime but get that verdict by prioritizing a different set of facts. That doesn’t mean the defendant is not guilty, but the rationale for each juror can be as true as it is divergent. 

Part of this multi-track path toward the same end comes down to different polling shops prosecuting different theories of the electoral case. Is Harris changing the electorate in ways unseen before, with a dramatic—and still unrealized—success among women and college-educated voters? Is she putting together the old Obama coalition from 2008? Is Trump reviving the base a la 2016 or is he banking on a different coalition that has grown more tolerant of his disregard of norms? And should the voting patterns of 2020 be ignored, given that we were in the middle of a pandemic? All of those scenarios can be true, but to what degree? Different pollsters consider some of these questions more relevant than others in deciding who will turn out.

So, yes, polls are close. No one in either camp is sleeping comfortably these days, if they’re sleeping at all. The candidates are busy for a reason: this thing may be decided by fewer than 100,000 people in three (still-unknown) states. And no one knows who they are.

So these polls aren’t all using a common baseline?

Nope. Not even close, if they’re being honest. Every polling operation has to use its own best understanding of who will actually show up. Usually, as Election Day draws closer, pollsters shift from a wider universe of registered voters to likely voters—and therein comes a blend of statistical modeling, historical trends, and more than a little gut. 

The co-director of Vanderbilt University’s solid polling operation, Josh Clinton, published an incredibly useful illustration of this challenge. Using a raw dataset from a national survey taken in early October, the wonk found Harris is ahead by about 6 percentage points. That finding reflects who the pollsters were able to reach, which may not accurately reflect who ultimately turns out to vote. That’s where every pollster makes different decisions on how to adjust the raw data. When Clinton adjusts the data to fit the 2022 turnout universe, Harris is actually up 8.8 percentage points. Plug-in 2020’s turnout, it’s a 9-point race in Harris’ advantage. And if you use the 2016 figures, Harris still wins by 7.3 percentage points.

But then this is where things can get interesting. If you overlay modeling on how many voters out there identify as Democrat, Republican, or neither, you can get vastly different looks at the race. If you believe Pew Research Center’s data of the nation’s electorate, Harris’ lead shrinks to a 3.9 percentage point head start if turnout resembles 2020. Pivot to Gallup’s snapshot of the electorate and that advantage drops to 0.9 percentage points. So, you can see how modeling alone, using the same raw numbers, can swing this race by 8 points. And that’s just the most basic example of how a tweak here—on just one input question—and a bump there on dozens of other factors can throw the whole system. 

This is happening at every single polling outfit in the political universe, and each set of data nerds is looking at the datasets through different lenses. It’s why the same set of voters can say the same thing to pollsters and see themselves reflected in an entirely different race. There’s a reason why we had to show our work in math class; the process matters as much as the answer. 

So we shouldn’t compare, say, the CNN polls with the New York Times Polls?

Absolutely not. The best practice is to compare like with like. 

This year includes the added twist of Democrats dumping Joe Biden for Kamala Harris as their nominee in July. Basically, most comparisons between pre- and post-Biden Exit have a limited utility. The same is true for cross-pollster comparisons given they’re all making different assumptions about the electorate.

There’s also little value in comparing polls of registered voters and those of likely voters. They’re completely different universes.

Wait. Did no one fix political polling after 2016?

The 2016 polls became punchline and gut punch after their misalignment with reality became apparent quickly on Election Day. Hillary Clinton, after all, was thought to be coasting toward a clean defeat of Trump. But with the benefit of hindsight, it was pretty clear that the pollsters assumed too many college grads would show up, as just one of the most obvious misses. Pollsters did their best to fix it four years later, but again the polls thought Biden would do better than he did.

Part of it is the Trump effect, which again has pollsters second-guessing themselves, and in particular, which factors matter most in gaming out voter behavior. A research team at Tufts University did a survey of, well, the surveys, and found that some of the biggest shifts on the back-end modeling since 2016 have come in giving much more heft to education, voting history, and where the voters actually live. They also document a shift away from giving respondents’ income and marital status too much clout. Most pollsters have also adjusted the weight they give to age, race, and gender. 

So, yes, pollsters have taken steps to iron-out the wrinkles that were so apparent in 2016. But this is a public-opinion science that has to bake-in some assumptions. And those are simply those: best-educated guesses about the universe in play.  

(Just to be contrarian: A credible counter argument is that the polls in 2016 weren’t that off, just that the national surveys didn’t match the state-by-state results that mattered most. Clinton allies would rather blame the pollsters for inflating her voters’ confidence to the point of complacency, but the reality is far more nuanced.)

So You’re Saying We Should Cool It With The Polls?

Absolutely. Polls are informative, not predictive. By the time you read them, they’re already out of date. Each one of them is making some informed assumptions about who will bother to cast a ballot. Almost every crosstab from a pollster’s latest release includes a judgment call, and no one gets all of them correct.

But let’s be honest: we won’t cool it. It’s just not what the armchair wonks know how to do. After two—if not four—full years of waiting for this final push, the catnip of these numbers is too much. It might be a waste of time, but ultimately it could actually have virtue in the most unlikely of ways.

The closeness of the polls may be a bankshot for getting more people to vote if they think they may actually determine the outcome. So, in that, these tight polls might be good for the exercise of democracy and simultaneously garbage for the discussion of it. Yet it’s all we’re going to talk about for the next few days—and maybe beyond if the expectations they create are too far afield of the outcome. I’m as likely to be as guilty of this as anyone. And, no, I probably won’t repent.

Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter.

source https://time.com/7171398/harris-trump-polls-explainer/

Chemists just broke a 100-year-old rule and say it's time to rewrite the textbooks

UCLA chemists have found a big problem with a fundamental rule of organic chemistry that has been around for 100 years—it's just not true. And they say, It's time to rewrite the textbooks.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-chemists-broke-year-rewrite-textbooks.html

Study shows bats have acoustic cognitive maps

Echolocating bats have been found to possess an acoustic cognitive map of their home range, enabling them to navigate over kilometer-scale distances using echolocation alone.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-echolocating-acoustic-cognitive.html

Archaeologists suggest the 'urban revolution' was slow in Bronze Age Arabia

Settlements in northern Arabia were in a transitional stage of urbanization during the third to second millennium BCE, according to a study published October 30, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Guillaume Charloux of the French National Center for Scientific Research, Paris and colleagues.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-archaeologists-urban-revolution-bronze-age.html

Recent whale deaths highlight risks from Antarctica's booming krill fishery

Two humpback whales were found dead and another seriously injured this year in huge nets used to collect krill for fishmeal and omega-3 pills near Antarctica, The Associated Press has learned.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-whale-deaths-highlight-antarctica-booming.html

Salton Sea, an area rich with lithium, is a hot spot for child respiratory issues

Windblown dust from the shrinking Salton Sea harms the respiratory health of children living nearby, triggering asthma, coughing, wheezing and disrupted sleep, USC research shows.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-salton-sea-area-rich-lithium.html

New class of encrypted peptides exhibits significant antimicrobial properties

In a significant advance against the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, researchers have identified a novel class of antimicrobial agents known as encrypted peptides, which may expand the immune system's arsenal of tools to fight infection. The findings, published in Trends in Biotechnology, reveal that many antimicrobial molecules originate from proteins not traditionally associated with immune responses.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-class-encrypted-peptides-significant-antimicrobial.html

Tracking a disappearing mantle plume in ancient Samoa: Researchers shed light on a 30-million-year gap

When plumes of magma well up through Earth's lithosphere, they create volcanoes, islands, seamounts, and other features on the surface. Telltale hot spot tracks form as tectonic plates move over these plumes, marking plume locations and the movement of the crust above them through time.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-tracking-mantle-plume-ancient-samoa.html

Philadelphia D.A. Says He Is Suing Elon Musk’s America PAC Over its $1 Million Giveaway

The district attorney of Philadelphia has filed a lawsuit to halt Elon Musk ‘s $1 million giveaways as part of his political organization’s effort boosting Donald Trump ‘s presidential campaign.

The suit by Democratic District Attorney Larry Krasner is the first legal action to be brought over the America PAC’s sweepstakes offering $1 million every day until Nov. 5 to a person in a battleground state who has signed a petition supporting the Constitution.

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Krasner’s office said the lawsuit, coming just over a week before Election Day, doesn’t preclude potential criminal action.

“The Philadelphia District Attorney is charged with protecting the public from public nuisances and unfair trade practices, including illegal lotteries. The DA is also charged with protecting the public from interference with the integrity of elections,” Krasner’s office said in a statement published on its website.

A spokesperson for the billionaire tech mogul’s America PAC, emailed for comment on the lawsuit and asked if the cash awards would continue, responded with a link to an X post, which showed the latest $1 million winner holding an oversized check.

Krasner’s office didn’t immediately respond to questions about the lawsuit, including whether it compels Musk to immediately stop the giveaway or whether the dispute can be resolved before Election Day.

Reflecting the state’s importance in the election, both Harris and Trump have made numerous recent visits to Pennsylvania, including Trump’s photo op at a suburban Philadelphia McDonald’sand Harris’ Sunday visit in the city that included stops at a church and a barbershop.

Musk’s giveaway requires entrants to sign a petition backing the First and Second Amendments of the Constitution and calls for them to serve as spokespeople for the organization as a condition of winning.

The awards have carried on after election law experts raised questions that it violates federal law barring anyone from paying a person to vote or register to vote. The issue, they say, is that winning the award requires contestants to be registered to vote in one of a handful of battleground states. Musk has cast the money as both a prize as well as earnings for work as a spokesperson for the group.

In his statement announcing the lawsuit, Krasner characterized the $1 million prize as a “lottery,” which would make it more heavily regulated than if it were a prize or work-related.

Brought in Pennsylvania court, Krasner’s suit doesn’t directly apply to the other swing states whose residents are eligible for the $1 million.

Musk, who founded SpaceX and Tesla and owns X, has gone all in on Trump this election, saying he thinks civilization is at stake if he loses. He is undertaking much of the get-out-the-vote effort for Trump through his super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money. He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.

source https://time.com/7113168/philadelphia-district-attorney-to-sue-musk-1-million-giveaway/

Premier League: Salah Scores Late As Liverpool Rescue A Point vs Arsenal

Arsenal vs Liverpool LIVE Score, Premier League 2024-25: Arsenal drew 2-2 against Liverpool in their Premier League clash on Sunday.

source https://sports.ndtv.com/football/arsenal-vs-liverpool-live-score-premier-league-2024-25-liverpool-vs-arsenal-live-scorecard-football-match-updates-6886369

No new freeports in Budget after 'comms cock-up'

The government mistakenly briefed that five new low-tax sites would be announced this week.

source https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74887vj8p4o

"Unleash CBI After Us": Prashant Kishor After Minister's Bribing Charge

Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor on Saturday lashed out at Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi for charging the newly formed political party with bribing voters in by-elections to four assembly seats of...

source https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/unleash-cbi-after-us-says-prashant-kishor-after-union-minister-jitan-ram-manjhis-bribing-charge-6881236

Most Republican states have made voting harder since 2020—our research shows how successful they've been

In late September, the governor of the state of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, boasted that election officials had removed 453,000 people from the state's voter rolls since 2021. In a state with only 2.3 million registered voters, it appears that roughly one in six registered voters had been purged.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-republican-states-voting-harder-successful.html

Moo Deng: The celebrated hippo's real home has disappeared—will the world restore it?

The playful and pudgy mammal that went viral from its Thai zoo enclosure has a sad story to tell about her fellow hippos.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-moo-deng-celebrated-hippo-real.html

Graphene oxide and chitosan sponge found to be ten times more efficient at removing gold from e-waste

A team of chemists and materials scientists at the National University of Singapore, working with colleagues from Manchester University, in the U.K., and Guangdong University of Technology, in China, has developed a type of sponge made of graphene oxide and chitosan, that can be used to extract gold from electronic waste.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-graphene-oxide-chitosan-sponge-ten.html

How the U.S. Energy Department Reorganized to Champion Clean Energy

(To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter here.)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is one of the most enthusiastic champions of the Biden Administration’s climate agenda. Since the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) just over two years ago, she has hopped around the country and around the world touting U.S. clean technology investments catalyzed by the law and other infrastructure dollars. I’ve seen her speak everywhere from Houston to Paris, drawing big crowds and delivering a characteristically upbeat, almost cheerful view of the work being done to decarbonize and revitalize American industry.

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And yet, in an interview in New York last month, she told me she still worries that the public may not fully appreciate the magnitude of the change underway. “People don’t fully understand the moment in history we’re in with the incredible explosion of clean energy that is coming onto the grid,” she says. “Once the history is written, people will say, ‘wow, this was the moment where we really got serious.’”

In our conversation, Granholm touts familiar data points: 800 new or expanded clean technology manufacturing facilities in the U.S. during the Biden Administration; 60 GW of clean energy capacity this year alone (equivalent to 30 Hoover Dams). She touts the diverse geographic distribution of these investments. “How fantastic is it that every pocket of America is benefiting from this clean energy transformation?” she asks enthusiastically.

But when I ask what she’s most proud of, the first thing that comes to mind is the agency’s reorganization that has allowed the agency to achieve what it has. In the past, the Department of Energy (DOE) has focused in large part on nuclear energy and basic research. Under Granholm’s watch, the agency has continued that remit while turning its attention to helping deploy clean energy. Indeed, since she took office in 2021, the DOE has reorganized from the ground up, hiring nearly 1,000 people and creating new leadership positions. Those changes, she says, have helped the agency implement 60 new programs and fund thousands of projects.

“We are exercising a muscle we have not exercised before,” she says. 

That deployment focus has homed in on activating the private sector—a choice clear from the personnel hired to execute the vision. David Crane, who was appointed the under secretary for infrastructure, previously served as the CEO of the energy company NRG. Jigar Shah, a well-known climate tech investor, took over the Loans Program Office, which is responsible for lending money. Vanessa Chan, a former partner at McKinsey & Company, became chief commercialization officer. Corporate executives sometimes complain about various challenges working with DOE (things like the quantity of paperwork), but there’s no question that the reorganization has allowed the agency to reach the private sector in a way it hasn’t before.

Whether the reorganization sticks will depend in large part on who wins the presidential election—a question that hangs heavy over the climate world. Former President Donald Trump’s allies have signaled a desire to return the agency to its older, more circumscribed remit. And while Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t offered too much detail on her climate plans, it’s fair to guess that she would provide continuity to the implementation of the IRA.   

Granholm insists that the momentum will continue either way thanks to the simple economics of clean energy. “This momentum is inexorable,” she says, adding that with “the incentives we’ve made it irresistible.”

And then there are other changing market dynamics. For the past two years, the energy transition—and the DOE by extension—has faced various headwinds. High interest rates have made deploying clean energy more costly. And supply chain hiccups have slowed down the transition. Slowly but surely, though, these challenges are being resolved. Interest rates have begun to come down; supply chains have adjusted to a post-COVID reality. Granholm calls those speed bumps “underbrush” and she says it’s “being cleared away.” 

Granholm, a former governor of Michigan, touts specific examples of new manufacturing spurred by the IRA: iron-air batteries installed in Maine and battery manufacturers that have popped up in Washington state and West Virginia, to name a few. The investments have changed the situation on the ground, she says. 

“In Michigan, we had the highest unemployment rate in the nation because of all the loss of these manufacturing jobs and the meltdown in the auto industry. And we used to say, ‘where are we going to find jobs for all of these people?’” she says. “Now we’re saying, ‘Where are we going to find people for all of these jobs?’”

When the chaos of the presidential campaign gives way to calm, the American public will have the opportunity to grapple with the policy choices that have led to a surge in clean technology in communities across the country. Building that popular understanding and support may be the best way to ensure that those measures are here to stay.

TIME receives support for climate coverage from the Outrider Foundation. TIME is solely responsible for all content.

source https://time.com/7098721/us-energy-department-jennifer-granholm-clean-energy/

In the Vatican Movie Conclave, Big Secrets Are Revealed. Here Are Three Real Life Papal Conclaves Marked by Controversy

After the death of a pope, the conclave of cardinals that meets to elect his successor are sworn to secrecy. As a result, the proceedings, which traditionally take place in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, are perfect fodder for authors and filmmakers.

In the movie Conclave—out in theaters today (Oct. 25) and based on Robert Harris’s eponymous 2016 thriller—a group of cardinals played by Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Lucian Msamati are rattled by secrets about one another revealed during the voting process. There’s also a cardinal of Kabul who nobody knew existed until he showed up (played by Carlos Diehz). On top of the explosive secrets, a car bomb shatters the windows of the Sistine Chapel. And the biggest secret of all comes out in the last five minutes of the movie.

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While Conclave is fiction, here have been real-life controversial conclaves throughout history. Here’s a look back at three of the most dramatic ones:

The conclave that resulted in two popes

When the 1378 conclave convened, a debate raged about whether the pope should be in Avignon, France, or in Rome. The pope had been based in Avignon since 1309, as the French king sought greater influence over the papacy.

An estimated 20,000 people swarmed the 1378 conclave in Rome to make their opinion known, including peasants who traveled from the countryside. 

According to Frederic J. Baumgartner’s Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections, the crowd shouted things like, “We want a Roman pope, or at least an Italian, or else you will die!” One heckler shouted “If you cardinals don’t give us one, we will make your heads as red as your hats.” At one point, to shoo the mob away, the cardinals pretended they had elected an elderly, feeble Italian cardinal by having him stand at the window until the crowd dispersed.

The cardinals quickly elected the archbishop of Bari, Bartolomeo Prignano, and he took the name Urban VI. The cardinals assumed he would agree to resign immediately after things calmed down in Rome, so they could then elect whomever the favorite was. But Urban didn’t resign, and he flew into so many violent rages that the cardinals didn’t trust him and declared the papacy vacant. In his place they elected the cardinal of Geneva, who would take the name Clement VII.

“That’s the only time in history where you have at least a large portion of the same group of cardinals electing two different men as Pope,” says Baumgartner.

For the next four decades, there were two popes—even three popes at one point—until the Council of Constance (1414-1418) formalized the authority of a single pope in Rome. 

The conclave where a cardinal was beat up

At the 1605 conclave, cardinals who supported church historian Cesare Baronius and the cardinals who supported former soldier Domenico Tosco were so fired up that they began pushing and shoving each other. 

The commotion could even be heard outside of the building. Elderly Cardinal Visconti suffered several broken bones. In the end, the cardinals choose someone both sides could agree on: Camillo Borghese, who became known as Paul V.

The 1605 conclave is “the only case of that kind of violence in a conclave, in which someone is actually injured,” Baumgartner says. “There’s an occasional example of pushing and shouting, but for the most part, these are elderly men [who] don’t have the energy to invest too much time in pushing and shouting.” 

The last conclave where an emperor had veto power

In the 1903 conclave, Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I vetoed the leading candidate, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla.

“The emperor used the right of exclusion, or jus exclusivæ, to block Rampolla’s election,” Massimo Faggioli, a professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University, wrote in an email. “This right allowed certain Catholic monarchs to veto a candidate for the papacy.”

It’s unclear why the emperor interfered. 

There is a theory that Rampolla didn’t support a Catholic funeral for the emperor’s son, Crown Prince Rudolf, because he took his own life, believed to be a sin. “Several people have speculated that was because his son committed suicide,” says Baumgartner.

Once elevated, the chosen Pope, Pius X, banned that type of veto.

The secrecy of conclaves

After the controversy in 1903, conclaves became much more secretive. “We know a great deal more about the election, say, of 1549 than we do about the elections back in 2013 because the documentation—diaries, ambassador reports, the ballot numbers—all of that stuff exists in large quantities for most of the elections before 1903,” Baumgartner says.

The more secret the conclave process has become, the more likely conspiracy theories spread. As Faggioli explains, “conclaves have acquired the potential to become more controversial in the 20th century because of the mass media and now in the 21st century because of social media, digital media, the crisis of mainstream media, conspiracy theories etc.”

In early conclaves, cardinals were overwhelmingly Italian and knew each other’s politics going into the process so there weren’t as many surprises. “The number of cardinals is very small, and they all knew each other very well,” Baumgartner says, “They knew what their sins were.”

As the number of cardinals grew in the 20th century, the more likely it was that cardinals would not know everyone in the room. If there are conclaves where cardinals find out secrets about one another, they are likely to be in the 20th and 21st centuries.

But there is no known precedent for the bombshell secret revealed about Pope elected at the end of the movie Conclave.

source https://time.com/7098621/real-life-papal-conclave-controversies/

How America Must Stand Up to Putin’s ‘Axis of Evil’

There is something especially disconcerting seeing Vladimir Putin smiling like the cat who ate the canary at this week’s BRICs Summit. Could it be more than coincidence that the coordinated Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi attacks on Israel, with Iranian support, were not just coincidental distractions from Russia’s stalemate in his invasion of Ukraine? Yesterday, Putin’s continued efforts to influence the U.S. elections to favor Donald Trump in concert with interference from China and Iran was documented by Microsoft and other cybersecurity experts. As President George W. Bush warned in 2002, there truly is an “axis of evil” still, Vladimir Putin at its hub.

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It is bewildering that the failed aggressor Putin has killed hundreds of thousands of his own people and destroyed his own economy but continues to hold influence over other leaders around the world. More than bravado, that influence extends through manipulation, sparking diversionary fires with and between nations, despite his own limited means as a failed superpower. As a KGB veteran, Putin has extended his tentacles, subverting democracy and undermining global harmony through propaganda and intrigue to compensate for lost industrial might.

Russia’s national income statistics have been suppressed from the IMF since 2022 because Putin is afraid to show the world how bad his economy is crumbling across every sector. Russia has become increasingly irrelevant to global commerce and diplomacy as major sources of revenue evaporate from collapsed energy and other raw material exports and reserves dwindle from a stalemate in the hapless war against Ukraine.

U.S. domestic tensions have flared with Trump’s resurgence. Divisive political extremism in France and Germany is on the rise. Ukraine faces massive suffering as threats to European safety escalate. Mideast instability has reignited amid brazen attacks on Israel and E.U. vessels by Iran and its proxies, the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

Putin’s imperialistic invasion of Ukraine has resulted in over half a million deaths, including 120,000 Russian soldiers, 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and 12,000 innocent civilians, in addition to the reported kidnapping of 10,000 children. Russia has been set back decades, no longer a global superpower or even a significant economic force.

Putin has become more than just an aggressor engaged in a pursuit of empire building. He is the engineer behind the rise of a new, more powerful “axis of evil.” The “axis of evil” was a term initially coined by President George W. Bush during his 2002 State of the Union address. Then, Bush was speaking to a nation – and a world – looking for moral leadership after the horrific terrorist attacks on September 11. The axis members of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were the perceived bad state actors responsible for collectively organizing attacks meant to “threaten the peace of the world.”

Hostile states have only expanded the use of terrorist proxies to advance their end game. Those actors continue to coordinate behind closed doors to expand their knowledge, resources, and capabilities, and pose a greater threat as a result. Trump does not seem to appreciate, or understand, these invaluable lessons from history.

Energizing Putin’s Partners in China, Iran, and North Korea

Today, political leaders and national security experts have recast the axis of evil to feature Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Despite historically fraught relationships and renewed skepticism between members of the new axis, the four states and their proxies have boosted trade, enhanced diplomacy, and expanded military cooperation over the last decade. 

Russia is giving away highly sensitive advanced military technology, information, and equipment, including nuclear weapons, ballistic missile and missile defense programs, and space satellites to axis members in an attempt to maintain its war against Ukraine. In exchange, Iran provides drones and ballistic missiles; North Korea supplies ammunition, ballistic and tactical missiles as well as thousands of fresh recent troops; and China now smuggles 90% of controlled dual-use goods imported by Russia for manufacturing missiles, tanks, planes, and drones. All actors benefit from the technical learnings of live weapons testing on the battlefield.

Iran and Russia export hydrocarbons to China, while the duo serve as an additional source of demand for Chinese goods – an attempt to replace trade lost from recent EU and U.S. restrictions. Meanwhile, China props up North Korea providing oil, critical consumer goods, and cross-border labor opportunities. Hamas and Hezbollah have also benefited, using new weapons from Russia, China, and North Korea to attack Israel.

Diplomacy, too, has improved. Russia has renewed partnership agreements with China and North Korea in May and June, respectively, and expects to sign a new agreement with Iran after a BRICS Summit this week, deepening relations in each case. China and Russia welcomed Iran to BRICS this year and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization last year, reintroducing the Middle Eastern country to a new group of possible partners and trade potential. China and North Korea have had a long-standing relationship dating back decades and will continue to remain connected as long as it serves China’s interests.

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Efforts to Erode European Solidarity

Soft diplomacy has also been a frequent tool deployed by Putin to forge new covert inroads with Western proxies. The documented ties between Putin and Marine Le Pen, former president of the strengthening French National Rally party, are long. Pro-Russian political parties in multiple German states notched substantial gains in the September regional elections. Similarly, Austria saw their far-right, pro-Russian Freedom Party capture the largest share of voters in the August national election. And to the consternation of Western allies, Serbia, Hungary, and Turkey have maintained close ties to the Putin regime, with the latter two nations often holding NATO votes hostage to assist the Kremlin.

Military engagement has steadily escalated and reached new highs recently when China and Russia held major multi-ocean joint naval exercises for “friendly states” to observe. Iran joined the two in a previous exercise. In support of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) led trainings for Russian troops in Syria to operate Iranian drones. Now, North Korea is sending special forces to Eastern Russia to prepare for fighting in Russia’s war with Ukraine.

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Mischief in the Mideast

Syria has played a crucial role in extending the reach of Putin’s military complex over the past decade and has continued to in the present moment with Ukraine. In 2015, Putin came to the defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his civil war against Islamic State rebel forces. While the move provided a lifeline for Assad, whose military received equipment, troops, training, and technology, Russia came out on top. Putin would receive control of western and central Syrian airspace and access to a port in the Mediterranean. Moscow was also presented an opportunity to reconstruct relations with Iran, which was already supporting Assad through the IRGC and Quds forces as well as Hezbollah. 

Those gains have proved invaluable for Russia over time. The Syrian outpost bolstered its presence in the Black Sea, expanding commercial trade, and has served as key tool for its military power projection. The position has been used to facilitate military and covert operations, including the war with Ukraine, and to train thousands of military personnel from Russia, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis over the years. Putin has even recruited Syrian mercenaries to support the Ukraine war.

A Shared Bond but Divergent Interests

What brings the axis of evil together is not a common belief in a particular form of government or system of values but disdain for the current global, Western-led order and a reaction to Western-imposed sanctions. More notably, the bond is motivated by economic opportunism for China but encouraged by economic necessity for Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon the U.S. and its allies to squeeze the three weaker states. The U.S. must more strictly enforce the current sanctions on Russia as well as secondary sanctions on entities supporting Russian aggression. Sanctions should be reinstated on Iranian oil exports, most of which go to China. New targeted sanctions should be readied when Russia, Iran, or North Korea overstep.

China has more to lose than its peers demanding a more nuanced approach. Total trade with its three peers represents less than a quarter of trade with just the U.S. and E.U., both of which represent critical consumer markets for the Chinese economy. The erratic behavior by Iran and North Korea and the embarrassing execution of the invasion of Ukraine does not give President Xi Jinping confidence. The U.S. and its allies then must provide Xi with a viable alternative, convincing him that the benefit of the current opportunistic policy is outweighed by the cost.

The timing may prove favorable for the West considering China’s current economic malaise. In fact, Xi recently signaled an interest to increase engagement with the U.S., saying: “China is willing to be a partner and friend with the United States. This will benefit not only the two countries, but the world.”

In each approach, a realistic strategic response will require more than tariffs and bluster. Instead, the West needs to develop a coordinated response that is firm but fair, tailored to China’s current economic and geopolitical situation. 

Trump as the Useful Tool to Degrade Allies’ Strength

This month, Bob Woodward revealed private conversations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin continued after the former left office. Trump refused to deny these charges. The Woodward revelations of Trump’s affection for Putin following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of a peaceful sovereign neighbor is even more alarming given Trump’s prospective return to office. Trump’s continued sympathy towards Putin must be examined on the eve of the U.S. elections.

Western leaders must start by building a more unified front. Success will necessitate a degree of trust in each leader’s commitment to defend democracy, pledge to protect their allies, and respect for the rule of law as well as in their personal character. Those same attributes are also essential to strengthening emerging regional alliances in Asia Pacific and the Middle East and to establish new partnerships in other geo-strategic regions. Unfortunately, not a single trait could be used to define Trump’s leadership.

Nor did the Trump Administration leave America strengthened on the global stage once the Biden-Harris Administration took over. Trump’s tough-man act did more harm than good degrading relations with key allies in the West and East and diminished U.S. standing in the world. Trump diplomacy did nothing to limit North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Iran cut the time required to produce a nuclear bomb in half after Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal.

Decisions by the Trump Administration to exit or diminish partnerships and alliances left a void in global leadership, long filled by the U.S., allowing China to quickly step in. For example, Chinese foreign direct investment, via the Belt and Road Initiative, accelerated allowing the country to construct dual-use commercial-military capabilities in geostrategic locations and develop favorable trade relations with recipient countries.

Closer to home, Trump did not rebuild the military or improve preparedness as promised during his campaign. The ever-mentioned trade imbalances actually grew by more than 20% from the time Trump took and left office, nor did the trade imbalance with China decrease.

A Leadership Agenda to Unmask the Evil and Fortify Collection Defense

It will be incumbent upon next leader of the U.S., and its Western allies, to improve diplomacy, trade partnerships, and military preparedness. Blunt force tactics, broad-based tariffs and all, surely will not prove effective, nor will appeasement that is based on an obsession with strongmen regimes.

A singular focus on Russia will not deliver peace to the Middle East or ease tensions in Asia Pacific. Driving a wedge between the new axis of evil will require a foreign policy employing precision, tact, trust, stability, and cooperation. The U.S. cannot do this alone and needs a president who humbly but confidently recognizes that reality.

Collection action across world leaders has never been more urgent needed to counter the spreading evil of Putin’s agenda. 

source https://time.com/7024423/russia-putin-military-power-us/

Superconductivity offers new insights into quantum material MnBi₂Te₄

For the first time since the discovery of the material MnBi2Te4 (MBT), researchers at the University of Twente have successfully made it behave like a superconductor. This marks an important step in understanding MBT and is significant for future technologies, such as new methods of information processing and quantum computing.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-superconductivity-insights-quantum-material-mnbi8322te8324.html

How beef became a marker of American identity

Beef is one of America's most beloved foods. In fact, today's average American eats three hamburgers per week.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-beef-marker-american-identity.html

Harnessing science to tackle global crises: Scientists say its true potential remains untapped

In a paper published in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, an international team of researchers looked at how science could play a more active role in managing crises. The paper builds on the outcomes of the international conference "What Role for Science in Crisis Times? Outlook in the Health, Environment, and Agriculture Interconnected Areas," held in Montpellier in 2022.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-harnessing-science-tackle-global-crises.html

Former Abercrombie & Fitch Chief Mike Jeffries Arrested on Federal Sex Trafficking Charges

(NEW YORK) — Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man were arrested Tuesday on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors said.

Details of the criminal charges weren’t immediately available. They follow sexual misconduct allegations, made in civil lawsuits and the media, from young people who said Jeffries lured them with promises of modeling work and then pressed them into sex acts.

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Jeffries’ attorney, Brian Bieber, said by email he would “respond in detail to the allegations after the indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but plan to do so in the courthouse — not the media.”

Jeffries and his partner, Matthew Smith, were arrested in Florida and were due to make an initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon in West Palm Beach. Co-defendant James Jacobson was arrested in Wisconsin; there was no immediate information on a court appearance.

Information on attorneys for Smith and Jacobson wasn’t immediately available.

Read More: Abercrombie & Fitch Used to Rule the Mall. The Netflix Documentary White Hot Is a Deep-Dive Into What Made it Toxic

Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Breon Peace and FBI and police officials were set to hold a news conference later Tuesday.

Jeffries became CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch in 1992 and left in 2014. The New Albany, Ohio-based company declined to comment on his arrest.

One lawsuit filed in New York last year accused Abercrombie of allowing Jeffries to run a sex-trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure. It said that Jeffries had modeling scouts scouring the internet for victims, and that some prospective models became sex-trafficking victims.

Abercrombie last year said it had hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation after a report on similar allegations was aired by the BBC.

The BBC investigation included a dozen men who described being at events involving sex acts they said were staged by Jeffries and Smith, often at his home in New York and hotels in London, Paris and elsewhere. The BBC report described Jacobson as a middleman who recruited men for the events.

When the lawsuit was filed in New York last year, Bieber declined to comment on the allegations.

Abercrombie & Fitch traces its roots to a hunting and outdoors goods store that was founded in 1892. By the time Jeffries arrived a century later, the brand was a retail also-ran.

He was credited with transforming it into a darling of turn-of-the-millennium teen mall culture, known for its nouveau-preppy aesthetic — and for some controversy surrounding it. Jeffries alienated some customers by talking about how the company went after attractive kids who could fit into its clothes.

After the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession, A&F’s popularity started to fade again. By the time Jeffries left, a hedge fund had pushed the company’s board to replace him because of the company’s lagging performance.

But the company has rebounded in recent years.

source https://time.com/7095913/abercrombie-fitch-mike-jeffries-arrested-sex-trafficking/

How Project 2025 Became a Flashpoint in the 2024 Election

(WASHINGTON) — For the past year, Project 2025 has endured as a persistent force in the presidential election, its far-right proposals deployed by Democrats as shorthand for what Donald Trump would potentially do with a second term at the White House.

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Even though the former president’s campaign has vigorously distanced itself from Project 2025 — Trump himself declared he knows “nothing” about it — the sweeping Heritage Foundation’s proposal to gut the federal workforce and dismantle federal agencies aligns closely with his vision. Project 2025’s architects come from the ranks of Trump’s administration and top Heritage officials have briefed Trump’s team about it.

It’s rare for a complex 900-page policy book to figure so dominantly in a political campaign. But from its early start at a think tank, to its viral spread on social media, the rise and fall and potential rise again of Project 2025 shows the unexpected staying power of policy to light up an election year and threaten not only Trump atop the ticket but down-ballot Republicans in races for Congress.

Through it all, Project 2025 has not gone away. It exists not only as a policy blueprint for the next administration, but as a database of some 20,000 job-seekers who could staff a Trump White House and administration and a still unreleased “180-day playbook” of actions a new president could employ on Day One after the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.

Read More: Column: Project 2025’s Plan to Eliminate Public Schools Has Already Started

The Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, who recently took the helm of the project, appears to relish the fight, moving full steam ahead.

“Rest assured we will not give up,” Roberts wrote in an email to supporters this summer. “We will not back down.”

How Project 2025 came to be

When Project 2025 debuted in April 2023, it promised to “dismantle the administrative state” by putting forward the personnel and the policies that could serve as a roadmap for the next conservative president.

The former Trump administration officials working on the project said they wanted to avoid the mistakes of the first Trump White House by ensuring the next Republican president would be ready with personnel and policies to enact his campaign priorities.

“There is an impetus to really hit the ground running,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, in a 2023 Associated Press interview.

Centered at the Heritage Foundation, the venerable conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., the concept for the book touched back to an earlier version, its Reagan-era “Mandate for Leadership” that was said to be so popular at the White House that copies were put on work desks to guide the new presidency.

At least 100 conservative groups, many with alumni from the Trump administration, came together to craft the proposals for a vast restructuring of the federal government — from installing more political appointees at the Justice Department to reassigning government workers with law enforcement backgrounds to handle illegal immigration to dismantling the Department of Education.

One of the core proposals would make it easier to staff the government with Trump loyalists by reclassifying some 50,000 workers into jobs where they can be fired — a revival of the so-called Schedule F policy that Trump tried to put in place before leaving office. The idea is now central to the conservative vision of dismantling the “deep state” bureaucracy that they blame for blocking Trump priorities.

The rollout of Project 2025 on the foundation’s 50th anniversary was also a debut of sorts for Roberts; he had previously been seen as an ally to Trump rival Ron DeSantis, who keynoted the gala event at the start of the presidential primary season.

“The conservative movement is coming together to prepare for the next conservative administration,” Roberts said in the announcement. Heritage, he said, sought “to ensure that the next president has the right policy and personnel necessary to dismantle the administrative state.”

When Project 2025 became a viral sensation

President Joe Biden’s campaign had warned against Project 2025 early on, in social media posts ahead of his State of the Union address in April, and House Democrats launched a Project 2025 Task Force to amplify their concerns in June. Days later, comedian John Oliver mocked it on his HBO show.

But it wasn’t until Biden’s dismal debate performance with Trump in June that Project 2025 had its viral moment.

It wasn’t so much what was said at the presidential debate as what went unsaid: Biden failed to really even mention Project 2025, crushing the expectations of allies who expected more of a knock-out punch.

Read More: Column: Project 2025 Is About Much More Than Trump

That weekend, a single thread on X about Project 2025 took off, amassing nearly 20 million views, according to the Democratic campaign. Actress Taraji P. Henson, who had spoken to Vice President Kamala Harris in a segment for the BET Awards show, warned prime-time viewers: “The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!” And countless young TikTok creators speaking directly into their cameras explained the threat they believed Project 2025 posed to their civil rights, reproductive rights and other rights in videos that went viral.

“This is really a case of the grassroots revolting,” said Joe Radosevich at the Center for American Progress. “They saw what was being offered as the contours of the race and completely rejected it.”

Especially in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling that ended the constitutional protections for abortion, Democrats and their allies wanted to make the case showing how the presidential election would impact people’s lives in the future, rather than simply giving voters a choice between the personalities.

People wanted a debate about policies, Radosevich said, not an election “purely on vibes.”

By the end of June, Google searches for “Project 2025” surpassed searches for Taylor Swift and the NFL, the Harris campaign said.

And by the time a giant-size replica of the Project 2025 book was hauled on stage for nightly ridicule at the Democratic National Convention, it wasn’t just celebrities and liberal convention-goers who were mocking it. Conservatives began blaming Heritage and Project 2025 for hurting Trump’s election chances.

Project 2025 gets a tongue-lashing from Trump

Trump’s campaign never embraced Project 2025 and actively shunned it, despite the proximity of people and policies familiar to the former president’s time in the White House.

Other conservative groups with close ties to Trump are also preparing for a second term in the White House. Trump’s campaign team had repeatedly warned Heritage to tone it down and not portray Project 2025 as part of Trump’s campaign.

But Roberts appeared undeterred, even as he came under fire in July for suggesting, after the Supreme Court ruling granting the president broad immunity from prosecution over the Jan. 6 insurrection, that the country was in the midst of a “second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Read More: Column: How Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health

Trump spoke up forcefully against Project 2025 days later.

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on his own social media account. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Trump at the time was rolling out his own policy platform ahead of the Republican National Convention, drafted partly by one of his former administration officials, the conservative leader Russ Vought, who also contributed to Project 2025 and its 180-day playbook.

Heritage parted ways with Dans, the chief architect of Project 2025, who resigned at the end of the month, a move that apparently pleased Trump’s team.

“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you,” said Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, the Trump campaign managers, in a joint statement.

The future of Project 2025

As the races for control of Congress tighten to the point where a single seat could determine which party controls the House or Senate, Project 2025 is being used by Democratic-aligned outside groups to portray Republicans as linked to its hardline proposals.

The House Accountability Project has created micro-websites for more than a dozen House Republicans in some of the most contested seats, tying their past votes on abortion, government funding and other issues to Project 2025 proposals.

“The House GOP is actually pushing policies that are in Project 2025 as we speak,” said Danny Turkel, spokesman for the House Accountability War Room. “They’re already taking these policies into the Capitol.”

The House Republican campaign committee argues its candidates have nothing to do with Project 2025, and the attacks are concocted by Democrats to shift attention from their own border and inflation policies.

“They fabricated a false attack based on something House Republicans had never even read,” said Will Reinert, press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

He called the attacks a “desperate lie” as the House Democrats “see their chances of regaining the majority dwindling.”

source https://time.com/7095886/project-2025-election-donald-trump/

Everything You Need To Know About The US Presidential Candidates

Republican former President Donald Trump will face Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 US presidential election after Democratic President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid.

source https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-presidential-elections-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-us-presidential-candidates-6841626

Unexpected beauty and major antimicrobial power boost as phages form into surprising flower shapes

A group of McMaster researchers who routinely work with bacteriophages—viruses that eat bacteria—had a pleasant and potentially very important surprise while preparing slides to view under a powerful microscope.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-unexpected-beauty-major-antimicrobial-power.html

Artificial 'nose' can sniff out damaged fruit and spoiled meat

Although smell has historically played an important role in the fight against diseases such as the plague and tuberculosis, the human nose is generally not sensitive enough to be used as a reliable diagnostic tool. However, a new artificial "nose" inspired by our sense of smell could now make it possible to detect undiagnosed disease, hazardous gases, and food that is starting to spoil. And it is all made possible with technology that already exists.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-10-artificial-nose-fruit-meat.html