Новости за 14.12.2022

There are three things worth knowing about this week’s startling announcement of a breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology. First, this could one day offer a huge new source of energy. Second, it won’t come in time to change the dynamics of the current climate crisis. And third, don’t expect advocates of conventional nuclear power—i.e. fission rather than fusion—to cheer this news. They’re more likely miffed.

People on the right seem unable to stop comparing Representative Ilhan Omar to white supremacists.

There have been at least 14 attacks on power stations across the country this year.

On Tuesday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced the state will be commuting the sentences of all 17 people on death row in the state, moving them instead to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lionel Messi may have just slalomed his way into the final, but Morocco is the 2022 World Cup’s best story.

LGBTQ activists and allies in San Antonio, Texas turned a far-right attack on a drag show into an open air party.

The Twitter account tracking Elon Musk’s private jet has been suspended, a month after Musk had promised not to ban the profile in the name of “free speech.”

For a few days in early November, it seemed like Twitter might go down in flames. That hasn’t happened—yet—but the prospect of the platform’s end has forced a reckoning. What would its loss mean for the countless journalists, academics, and politicians who rely on it? Would we be better or worse off? And could a diminished Twitter augur the death of social media in general? On episode 58 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with the writer Max Read about Twitter’s possible futures... Читать дальше...

Is Elon Musk the worst boss who ever lived? He fires people who disagree with him publicly. He fires people who disagree with him privately. He fires people for expressing sympathy for the people he’s fired previously. He lays off half his workers indiscriminately. These indiscriminate firings may violate federal antidiscrimination law. He installs beds in the company’s San Francisco office so employees will never have to leave. He smears the company’s former safety chief in a manner reminiscent of QAnon. Читать дальше...

House Republicans have made no secret of their desire to investigate the Biden administration and the president’s family members when they take over the chamber in January. They have promised probes of the president’s son Hunter, the administration’s border security policies, and the FBI and Department of Justice’s alleged politicization. But Republicans have also pledged to investigate the chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Representative Louie Gohmert looked distressed—confused, even. 

Just a few feet away on the House floor, a roll call vote was underway last Tuesday afternoon for the Veteran Service Recognition Act, which would protect U.S. military veterans from deportation and make it easier for deported veterans to come back to the U.S. 

“As a general principle, if they fought for this country, you wouldn’t think they’d be deported if they served honorably,” said Gohmert, an eight-term MAGA Republican from Texas... Читать дальше...

On December 14, 2012, third grade student Bear Nikitchyuk had been sent to deliver his class’s attendance roster to the front office at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. While he was there, a gunman shot out the windows behind him and entered the school. Bear fled and survived the shooting—teacher Abbey Clements pulled him out of the hallway and into her classroom—but the trauma of that day still affects him now, at 18 years old. For the Nikitchyuk family, like so many other Newtown families... Читать дальше...

Sean Casten has no shame when it comes to climate advocacy.

In fact, the Illinois representative spent his Tuesday morning singing praises for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to the tune of Rihanna’s “Work.”

“To my colleagues in the Senate, the eyes of the nation in this chamber are on you, we will never, no never, neglect you. We do not hold your past against you,” Casten urged the Senate, to a rhythm that would make Lin Manuel-Miranda blush. “But you need to get it done... Читать дальше...

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a historic bill enshrining the right to marriage equality into law.

Sam Bankman-Fried wants people to think he was the victim. The ex-billionaire who founded FTX, the now-failed crypto exchange, planned to tell Congress on Tuesday that he was “sorry” and that he had “fucked up.” But Bankman-Fried also apparently wanted pity and sympathy for his own downfall.