Corax
ECB chief Christine Lagarde says the bank will do what it has to do, which is to continue hiking interest rates in the next several meetings until the 2% target is met, says they have been surprised that the inflation during the post-pandemic economic recovery wasn't only transitory and that today's crisis has been more persistent and of a magnitude that nobody had expected, says the supply-driven European inflation is more complicated than the demand-driven US one as monetary policy in and of itself cannot reduce the price of gas nor stop the war
World
EU statement on behalf of all 27 members says the bloc is deeply concerned about the damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, promises to meet any deliberate disruption of European energy infrastructure with a robust and united response, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the country will remain committed to promoting European energy security
Global Covid-19 cases drop to the lowest level since March 2020 after 28% decrease of new cases during week 36, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the world is in a winning position where it is time to run harder and make sure to cross the line to reap the rewards of all the hard work, adds that he is incredibly proud of WHO's people and their work during the pandemic
Cary Yan and Gina Zhou extradited from the Marshall Islands to US for attempting to set up a mini-state on one of the country's atolls and in the process bribing several Marshalls officials as well as nearly toppling the president of the nation, the couple allegedly engaged in a multi-year scheme and are charged with violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, money laundering and conspiracy to commit those offenses in connection with a bribing scheme
Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech for patent infringement in the development of the first Covid-19 vaccine approved in the United States, alleges that the companies copied technology that Moderna patented between 2010 and 2016, lawsuit filed in US district court in Massachusetts and the regional court of Düsseldorf in Germany, says the lawsuit is not meant to stop people from getting vaccines, Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine has brought in USD 10.4 billion in revenue this year while Pfizer's has brought in about USD 22 billion
WHO declares monkeypox a global health emergency which is its highest alert level, Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the outbreak has spread rapidly and that they understand too little about the transmission, more than 16,000 cases of the zoonosis have been reported across 75 countries so far this year, 98% of infections among men who have sex with men and primarily those who have had multiple recent anonymous or new sexual partners
Russia and Ukraine reach deal to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the deal also signed by UN and Turkey
18 migrants dead and 76 injured after two-hour skirmish as 2,000 adult men stormed the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave Melilla, 130 people breached the border and are evaluated at a local migrant center, 140 Moroccan security officers injured
Swimming's world governing body Fina votes to stop transgender athletes from competing in women's elite races if they have gone through any part of male puberty, requires that the sex change is finished by the age of 12, aims to establish an open category for swimmers who do not identify with their sex
Miscellaneous
New York-based artist Kris Kashtanova claims the first US copyright for AI art with her graphic novel Zarya of the Dawn created using Midjourney, hosting site Getty Images recently declared that they wouldn't accept AI-generated images noting ongoing copyright questions and Shutterstock among others have also decided to not accept such art
Magnus Carlsen leaves the Saint Louis Sinquefield Cup halfway and comments only on Twitter via a viral video where José Mourinho says that he will be in big trouble if he speaks, the decision follows Carlsen's loss with the white pieces against much lower-ranked 19-year-old German Hans Niemann who allegedly has been accused of cheating earlier in his career
Merriam-Webster amends its definition of "female" to include "having a gender identity that is the opposite of male", the definition of "woman" has lately been hotly debated including in recent Congressional hearings
Indian police shut down elaborate hoax cricket league created to dupe Russian gamblers, a group of men in the state of Gujarat hired a field and dressed up labourers to play, set up cameras and streamed on YouTube with a commentator and added crowd noice, gamblers reportedly bet USD 6,000 on the matches, four people charged with criminal conspiracy and gambling
Media
Google, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram all suppress any advertising for Alex's War, the documentary about Alex Jones is ranked 2nd on the iTunes movie preorder rankings behind Top Gun: Maverick, director Alex Lee Moyer says the movie is an impartial, fly-on-the-wall look at why so many revere Jones as a hero when he has said things that would make anybody uncomfortable
Twitter sues Elon Musk to try to force him to buy the company according to his contractual obligations, Musk walked away from his proposed USD 44 billion takeover due to not being given information about the number of fake and spam accounts on the platform
Dutch right wing broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland fined EUR 92,000 for spreading wrongful information and not differentiating between facts and opinion, allowed for instance Flemish politician Felix de Winter to unopposed talk about replacement theory, ON chair Arnold Karskens calls the fine unjustified and says they are getting fined for letting elected representatives speak about mass migration and the consequenses of rampant climate measures
Elon Musk threatens to walk away from his USD 44 billion bid to buy Twitter as the company repeatedly has refused to provide information regarding the amount of spam bot accounts, says the company's offer of only providing details about the testing methods breaches the merger agreement obligations
BBC alters female rape victim's quote from he/him to they/them to prevent misgendering the transgender attacker, the pronouns reportedly changed on advice from the 14-member central diversity team in accordance with the editorial policy
Politics
Liz Truss wins race to be elected leader of the ruling Conservative Party and the new UK prime minister, defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak by 57% to 43% in the final runoff which was a smaller margin than opinion polling had suggested, the 47-year-old foreign minister campaigned as a tax-cutting, anti-woke candidate who would take a hard line on post-Brexit dealings with the EU
The European parliament votes to end sale of petrol and diesel car by 2035 in EU, MEPs still have to negotiate the final law with ministers from the 27 national governments, the proposed law is part of a broader climate crisis response with the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the end of the decade
Boris Johnson calls for a return to the workplace to drive up productivity and revive Britain's town and city centres, says his experience of working from home involves spending an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and walking very slowly to hack off a small piece of cheese before forgetting what it was he was doing when returning to the computer
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the idea of defunding the police is not the position of the Democratic Party as community safety is their oath of office, the slogan was frequently used during the 2020 elections but Pelosi now quotes her far left colleague Ritchie Torres' statement that "defund the police" is dead
Joe Biden calls Fox News journalist a stupid son of a bitch after being asked if he thinks inflation will be a political liability ahead of the midterms
Joe Biden reassures his allies that he plans to run for 2024 reelection, the message follows six-month stretch where his national approval rating has plummeted more than a dozen points into the low 40s amid growing inflation concerns, top donor John Morgan says he is unsure regarding Biden's future health despite recent health checkup showing the 79-year-old to be healthy and vigorous
Opinion
Scott Shackford: Black people represent less than 15% of the US population but account for more than half of all exonerations with 55% of the ones due to murders, 59% of the sexual assaults and 64% of the robberies, the reasons are more complicated than racism even though a factor in the rape exonerations is misidentification by the mostly white victims
Ryan McMaken: States have surpassed and replaced the monarchs and expanded their powers far beyond what even the most ambitious monarchs of centuries past dreamed about, monarchies of today should not be confused with the pre-state 16th and 17th century monarchies where monarchs' income depended largely on rents collected from their private estates in essentially a system of private law where the king often tended to business personally and feudalism otherwise kept things local, rising wealth then enabled decentralization and a growing bureaucracy leading to the state overwhelming the monarchs
Vladimir Putin: For 30 years we have tried to come to an agreement with Nato regarding equal and indivisible security in Europe but have faced a continued military expansion despite our protests and concerns, a hostile anti-Russia fully controlled from the outside is taking shape in territories adjacent to Russia and this crosses the red line which we have spoken about on numerous occasions, we are acting to defend ourselves from the threats created for us and from a worse peril than what is happening now
Jeffrey Tucker: The world seemingly forgetting about natural immunity despite it being documented since the Peloponnesian War might constitute what Murray Rothbard called "lost knowledge" where known truths are forgotten and have to be rediscovered, remarkable that the hysteria keeps festering when everyone carries access to nearly all the world's information in their pockets
Peter Hitchens: Just like the Red fanatics, the Green fanatics think they're too good and noble to possibly be wrong, but just like Soviet Union the UK will begin to get colder and darker as efficient nuclear and coal-fired power stations are dismantled and the country is made hopelessly reliant on expensive non-green gas and by autumn all will be paying hard cash to sustain the dogmatic lunacy of a power elite wholly gripped with Green zealotry
Paul A. Nuttall: Viktor Orbán's 5-question referendum on LGBTQ+ law is a brave move, if he wins it could be the end of Hungary's EU membership and if he loses it would be curtains for him as prime minister, EU doesn’t like referendums as it does not like to leave anything to chance, but will now make the referendum about Hungary's membership, confident its people will be cowed into voting against Orbán’s proposals
Matthew Crawford: When science is elevated to authority to rule society it is distorted into a scientistic religion, manipulation becomes necessary to make public opinion conform to official intepretation of research results, leads to unstable regime which provokes stronger and more militant counterreactions
Peter Hitchens: The West pushes for war with Russia, which is a broken former superpower with the economy of about the same size as Italy's, imagine how US would act if Soviet had won the cold war, engulfed the former Nato nations into the Warsaw Pact, encouraged Texas and California to form an independent Spanish-speaking nation hostile to the US and based troops along the American border
Peter Hitchens: Scotland Yard’s raid on Polish Church of Christ the King in Balham during Good Friday devotions proof of revolution where much we used to know and believe is being insistently destroyed, with Johnson Government’s contemptuous indifferent to how insulting their actions are to those who acknowledge a power higher than them, but if the police had come in with Communist emblems on their cap-badges the Poles probably would have thrown them out, but free countries are incredibly easy to turn into despotisms, because nobody can believe what is happening
Kevin Karp: EU press Northern Ireland’s onerous post-Brexit arrangement as key for the Good Friday Agreement, while using it as a political prop to claw the rest of Britain back into the EU regulatory straitjacket, whatever the damage this causes to peace in Northern Ireland, spurring the recent sectarian violence and validating EU’s condescending disregard for British interests
Europe
EU aims to impose a price cap on Russian oil and further restrict commercial links with Moscow as response to the referendums held in four occupied regions of Ukraine and the Russian decree of partial mobilisation, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says they do not accept the sham referenda nor any kind of annexation in Ukraine and that they are determined to make the Kremlin pay for the escalation, the sanctions require full EU unanimity to be approved and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who has become increasingly vocal against the sanctions plans to organize a survey among citizens to test the country's support
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says military spending will double from its current level to hit GBP 100 billion in 2030, does not comment possibly reversing the near-10,000 cut in the size of the British army by 2025, says the suggested expansion is likely in anti-drone warfare, signals intelligence and artillery
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says that EU has the tools to deal with Italy if the upcoming elections show things going in a difficult direction, right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini questions if the statement should be viewed as a threat and asks von der Leyen to respect the free, democratic and sovereign vote of the Italian people
16% excess mortality compared to the monthly averages for 2016-2019 in Europe during July which is the highest value on record so far in 2022, Spain registered the highest rate with 37% while Latvia with -0.5% was the only country with no excess deaths, the heatwaves are mentioned as a possibly contributing factor
The European Commission unanimously recommends the Council to withhold an estimated EUR 7.5 billion in funds from Hungary to protect the budget from rule of law violations, the decision follows MEPs declaring Hungary a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy
North America
Buckhead elected official Mary Norwood says more than the crime level drives the Atlanta neighbourhood secession attempts, explains that many years of centralized neglect has resulted in poor roads, flooding and a disproportionate influx of new residents and that the city government must take their concerns very seriously if it wants to avoid the creation of a separate city
Oberlin College in Ohio agrees to pay USD 37 million to Gibson's Bakery for falsely accusing them of racism after a 2016 incident where three black students who had previously stolen from the bakery were chased out of the store while trying to swipe two wine bottles using a fake ID and the employee Allyn Gibson was assaulted, the 137-year-old family business was hit hard by the protests and had to lay off half of the staff
Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization says a Covid-19 vaccine booster every 90 days may be warranted in the context of heightened epidemiological risk as well as operational considerations for the efficient deployment of the Covid-19 vaccination program, the Department of Health recently said a booster every nine months was sufficient
Mississippi officials say Jackson's 150,000 residents can shower in tap water but should close their mouths as the city's month-long water issues continue, state of emergency declared as excessive rainfall and flooding exacerbated the problems
Kansas middle school math teacher Pamela Ricard reaches USD 95,000 settlement after being suspended for violating the Geary County Schools' Diversity and Inclusion Policy that requires educators to refer to students by their preferred names and pronouns, Ricards had one incident where she used a student's birth name instead of the preferred name and then called a girl by her last name only despite being reminded multiple times of the policy, Ricard argued in the now dismissed lawsuit that any policy that requires her to refer to a student as zhe/zher etc violates her religious beliefs
38-year old Florida vegan Sheila O'Leary sentenced to life in prison for starving her 18-month-old son to death in 2019, her husband Ryan Patrick O’Leary remains in jail while awaiting trial on the same charges, the couple's 3-year-old and 5-year-old children were also found malnourished and a fourth child was earlier returned to her biological father after an earlier malnutrition case in Virginia, the family ate only raw fruits and vegetables although the toddler was also fed breast milk
Florida jury finds Tesla 1% to blame for teenager's 2018 death crash in Fort Lauderdale as they granted the teen's wish to disable the father's speed limiter, the teen crashed at 186 kph in a 48 kph zone and the limiter was formerly set at 136 kph
First Avenue in Minneapolis cancels Dave Chappelle show and apologizes after backlash on social media, Varsity Theater instead hosts the comedian with five sold-out shows over three days, Chappelle criticized for transphobic jokes such as comparing being transgender to wearing blackface and has despite years of callouts insisted that his views are biological facts
Sesame Place in Philadelphia apologizes and conducts bias training after viral video shows a costumed performer in a parade waved at two black girls instead of highfiving them, the family's attorney B'Ivory LaMarr says they request immediate termination of the employee and that the theme park takes care of any type of health care or mental care expenses that these children have realized
Three dead and two injured after Indiana mall shooting, the shooter who was armed with a rifle and several magazines of ammunition was shot dead by a legal carrier shortly after commencing the shooting, Police Chief Jim Ison calls the intervening citizen a hero, no info given regarding the perpetrator
Latin America
20 members of the Jewish cult Lev Tahor detained in massive raids by law enforcement authorities in Mexico, the group who claims everyone had the necessary permits and paperwork to stay in the country practices a fundamentalist version of hassidism where women are required to cover themselves in black from head to toe and young girls are forcibly wed to older men
All of Cuba without power after Hurricane Ian swept through causing severe flooding, sustained winds of 56 mps/125 mph registered, around 40,000 people evacuated from the Pinar del Río province
Bolivia's President Luis Arce declares 2022 The Year of the Cultural Revolution to Eliminate the Patriarchy, says the pandemic and the structural crisis of capitalism have deteriorated the living conditions of women, proposes that the UN General Assembly declares a decade of the elimination of patriarchy as it is the most ancient system of oppression and also linked to colonialism and capitalism
At least 16 suspected gang criminals and one police officer dead in favela complex in Rio de Janeiro after police raid with 400 officers, ten bullet-proof vehicles and four helicopters, Governor Cláudio Castro laments the police officer's death and says he will continue to fight crime with all his strength, Complexo do Alemão holds 13 favelas and 70,000 people of which three-quarters are black
Tens of thousands protesting increasing inflation and food prices in Argentina, inflation at 6.7% monthly and 58% annually in April, 43% rise in poverty since the beginning of the year
German-speaking Covid-19 deniers seek to build 1,600-hectare gated community El Paraíso Verde in the Caazapá region of Paraguay, the current population of 150 will eventually grow to 3,000 according to the owners
710 people charged with crimes including sedition and vandalism in Cuba after taking part in anti-government protests in July 2021, 172 people already tried and convicted where the trials are criticized as unfair and the sentences ranging up to 30 years in prison are seen as disproportionate
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says the identities of the officials who authorized Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccinations for 5-year-olds will be revealed despite the country's health regulator stating death threats have been received, comments that everyone has the right to know the names and to form their own judgment
Asia
India makes moves to bring semiconductor chips manufacturing to the country, currently has no fabrication plants but investor consortium ISMC Digital plans to build a USD 3 billion manufacturing facility together with Israeli company Tower Semiconductor and Taiwanese firm Foxconn together with Indian mining company Vedanta are to build a USD 19.5 billion chipmaking facility in the country
Mongolia's former President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj asks Buryats, Tuvans and Kalmyks to flee to Mongolia to avoid forced conscription, says they will be met with open arms and hearts, urges Putin not to fight with Ukrainian brothers and sisters
Millions of people in Japan are urged to evacuate their homes since the typhoon Nanmadol strikes the south coast of the country, over 200 000 homes without power
24 Kyrgyz citizens killed and 87 wounded after intense battles on the disputed border between Kyrgyzstan and its central Asian neighbour Tajikistan, more than 136,000 civilians evacuated from the conflict zone, ceasefire and troop pullback agreed between the countries
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe both agree to resign after thousands of demonstrators stormed the president's residence and set the prime minister's private residence on fire, the country is in a crippling economic crisis with a severe shortage of fuel, food and medicine
Former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo dead after being shot while giving a speech in Nara during Friday morning, former navy member, Yamagami Tetsuya, arrested and his home-made double-barrelled shotgun seized
Authorities in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh demolish homes of people accused of involvement in last week's riots triggered by by two ruling BJP party figures' perceived derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad, opposition leaders say state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's government is pursuing unconstitutional tactics to silence protesters
Myanmar junta troops accused of torching hundreds of buildings during three-day raid against the People's Defense Force in the northern Sagaing region, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing says efforts were made to minimise the casualties when performing the counterattacks to terror acts and that the country is now in tranquility
Sri Lanka's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe warns of food shortage as last year's decision to ban all chemical fertilisers drastically cut crop yields despite the ban then being reversed, promises to obtain enough fertilizer for the next planting season, 29.8% inflation in the country in April with food prices up 46.6% year-on-year
MIDDLE EAST
At least four Lebanese banks stormed by depositors demanding their trapped savings, all banks in the country to be closed for three days, protest group Depositors' Outcry says more break-ins are to be expected
Israel drops the threshold for cash transactions from USD 3,200 to USD 1,700 in accordance with the Law on Reducing the Use of Cash, tens of thousands of audit-raids on businesses have been conducted by the Tax Authority and 1.5 billion in fines have been collected since the law came into force in came into force in 2019, violations are punished with up to 30% of the transaction for businesses and 25% for private individuals, attempts at splitting payments is a criminal offense punishable by three years in prison
Turkish police detain at least 36 people in Ankara after dispersing a Pride march with teargas and pepper spray, follows last week's detaining of over 300 people during Pride march in Istanbul, widespread hostility towards homosexuality in the country and increasingly tougher police crackdowns on Pride parades which are banned in many cities
More than 100 arrested in Istanbul for participating in a Pride march, journalists' union says many were beaten by police, Pride marches banned in the city since 2015
Iran's state TV hacked to show a salute to Mujahedeen-e-Khalq leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi as well as a death threat to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Iran asks its population to wear warm clothes to cut gas use the next ten days, the country has the world's second largest gas reserves and subsidizes it heavily, Oil Minister Javad Owji thanks God and the oil industry for the stability so far but emphasizes that further efforts are now needed
Turkish journalist Sedef Kabaş detained for using the Turkish proverb "a bull does not become king just by entering the palace, but the palace becomes a barn" on live television, risks four years prison sentence, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Chief Spokesman Fahrettin Altun says a so-called journalist blatantly insulted the president with no goal other than spreading hatred
Iran agrees to replace damaged cameras at the Karaj nuclear facility after agreement with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA
Turkey investigates 31 Syrians of which 11 is arrested and 7 to be deported on charges of provocatively eating bananas in social media posts, the viral trend began after a Turkish man complained about not affording bananas while the Syrians bought kilos, the arrested are charged with the crime of inciting or insulting the public to hatred and hostility
Israel's decision to label six Palestinian NGOs as terror organizations based on being PFLP fronts criticized internationally, UN Human Rights Office in Ramallah says the decision includes entirely peaceful activities and EU says the funding will continue, at least two of the organizations have denied the allegations
Africa
Long-time spokesman Chris Anu elected president of Cameroon's self-declared Republic of Ambazonia, the separatist movement is said to currenty be losing support due to allegations of infighting, corruption and human rights abuses
Amnesty International calls for an investigation into the Ethiopian June 18th ethnic massacre where the Oromo Liberation Army killed more than 450 Amhara civilians, burned down buildings and looted, government forces arrived hours after the attack ended despite early emergency calls
Zimbabwe's central bank says that gold coins will be issued as legal tender in late July to act as a store of value and reduce the demand for US dollars, inflation rate in the country more than doubled last month to 191%, economist Prosper Chitambara says that the measure will not fix the inflation problem as that is caused by money supply growth
At least 35 teenage girls rescued from baby factory hotel in south-eastern Nigeria where they were used as sex slaves and their babies sold on the black market, three suspects arrested accused of abducting the teenagers, engaging in sexual slavery and prostitution, and operating a baby factory
Nigeria bans bushmeat sales to stop the spread of monkeypox, six cases detected in the country this month of the infection that is endemic in the country
South Sudanese ram sentenced to three years at a military camp for killing a woman, the ram's owner is referred to as innocent by the major but a local court has ruled that he is to hand over five cows to the victim's family as compensation, the ram is also to be transferred to the victim's family after its three-year sentence according to local laws
24-hour curfew imposed with immediate effect in Nigerian state of Sokoto after hundreds protested to demand the release of suspects accused of stoning and burning the Christian student Deborah Samuel, Samuel was accused of making a social media post that blasphemed Prophet Muhammad, Kaduna state 500 kilometers from Sokoto bans protests related to religious activity citing moves to organize a similar demonstration
Economy
ECB chief Christine Lagarde says the bank will do what it has to do, which is to continue hiking interest rates in the next several meetings until the 2% target is met, says they have been surprised that the inflation during the post-pandemic economic recovery wasn't only transitory and that today's crisis has been more persistent and of a magnitude that nobody had expected, says the supply-driven European inflation is more complicated than the demand-driven US one as monetary policy in and of itself cannot reduce the price of gas nor stop the war
IMF criticizes the UK tax package containing the largest tax cuts in 50 years, warns that the proposal is likely to increase inequality and speed up the pace of price rises, asks the government to reevaluate especially the measures that benefit high income earners, former Brexit minister Lord Frost comments that the IMF has consistently advocated policies that have produced years of slow growth and weak productivity and adds that the only way forward for is lower taxes and spending restraint
Amazon is one of five companies selected by The European Central Bank to help develop a digital euro, the four others are CaixaBank, EPI, Worldline and Nexi
The 83-year old founder of the clothing company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, and his family gives away their ownership to a non-profit organization founded to ensure that all of the yearly profit are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land, the successful entrepreneur hopes this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn't end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people
Argentina's central bank hikes the benchmark interest rate 550 basis points to 75% the day after inflation overshot forecasts to near 80% on an annual basis, the hike follows a 950 basis points-raise in August
Scania announces far-reaching measures to decarbonise its supply chain by 2030, aims for 100% green batteries, 100% green steel, 100% green aluminium and 100% green cast iron in its production, Head of Sustainability Andreas Follér says that the company once again leads the way in ambitious climate action in the same way they were the first in the industry to adopt science based carbon reduction targets
Inflation in the Netherlands hits record high of 12% in August, the former record since 1963 when the government's statistics agency CBS started compiling records was 11.1% set in January 1975
Snapchat to lay off 20% of its 6,400 employees, team developing ways to build mini games and apps as well as the AR hardware team and the social mapping team to see deep cuts
Technology
Mullvad VPN launches hardware product Tillitis Key, a programmable USB key with enhanced security features, both software and hardware are open source
Teenager hacks Uber and announces it in company Slack channel, poses as IT worker from corporate in text message and convinces employee to send password giving him access, enabling him to access company VPN, scan the intranet, and find Powershell scripts containing credentials for multiple services, Uber warnes employees to stay away from Slack, but many keep logging back on to check out everyone's joke responses
Google fires engineer Blake Lemoine who despite lengthy engagement from the company maintained that the AI language technology Lamda is sentient, Google comments that Lemoine's claims are wholly unfounded and that they take the responsible development of AI very seriously, Lemoine who tested if the program used discriminatory or hate speech found that it showed self-awareness and could hold conversations about religion and emotions
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requests information from Tesla after 758 complaints regarding vehicles braking for no reason, demands access to all consumer and field reports about false braking as well as reports of crashes, injuries, deaths and property damage claims, also wants to know whether the Full Self-Driving system was active during any of the incidents, the problem reportedly might be connected to last year's decision to remove radar sensors from Model 3 and Model Y vehicles
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asks Tesla Inc for information about a recent 2021 Tesla Model Y fire in Vancouver where the driver had to smash a window to exit the vehicle as the doors did not open and the windows did not go down when the power stopped working
Hyundai and Kia tell owners of almost 500,000 cars and SUVs in the United States to park outside and away from buildings due to a possible anti-lock brake defect caused by foreign contaminants that can cause the vehicles to spontaneously catch fire, owners can safely continue driving the vehicles according to company info
Science
Nasa spacecraft Dart to crash into asteroid Dimorphos almost 10 millions of kilometers away head-on at 22 500 kph on Monday to nudge it into slightly tighter orbit around companion space rock, demonstrating humans would stand a fighting chance of diverting any future killer asteroid heading towards Earth
150 million-year-old marine invertebrate with ten arms named Ausichicrinites zelenskyyi to honor the Ukraine president's courage and bravery in defending the country, the well-preserved fossil that was unearthed in Ethiopia is a feather star which are spectacularly colored and let nutrients moved by the current come to them as they wave their arms, the feather star also have the ability to shed an arm as anti-predator response
Covid-19 variant Omicron BA.5 which accounts for 54% of the US cases is claimed to pose the biggest threat yet to immune protection as it along with BA.4's 17% is four times more resistant to antibodies from vaccines than BA.2, Pfizer says it can have an updated vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 ready to be distributed in October, the most common symptoms in the UK where the variants also dominate is a runny nose, sore throat, headache, persistent cough and fatigue with less than one in three reporting fevers
50 mg intravenous vitamin C per kilogram of body weight every 6 hours for up to 96 hours resulted in 17% increased risk of dying, according to Canadian randomized and placebo-controlled trial on 872 adults with sepsis who were receiving vasopressor therapy in the intensive care unit
Low butyrylcholinesterase levels linked to 1.3 times increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome according to Australian study comparing blood samples from 655 healthy children, 26 who died of Sids and 41 who died of other causes, the enzyme plays a major role in the brain's arousal pathway and a deficit might reduce an infant's ability to wake or respond to the external environment such as overheating or a blanket over the face
Pack of orcas attack and kill blue whales, some push the blue whale under water while other attack the head and tongue, three killings documented, marine ecologist Robert Pitman comments that it is amazing to see the biggest apex predator taking down the biggest prey
New insect species Phlogis kibalensis of the leafhopper family identified in western Uganda's rainforest by British scientist Dr Alvin Helden, the 6.5mm long male has distinctive metallic sheen, pitted body and leaf shaped reproductive organs, first Phlogis genus sighting since 1969
Chinese nuclear fusion reactor research facility in Anhui runs at 70 million degrees Celsius for over 17 minutes which lays a solid scientific and experimental foundation towards the running of a fusion reactor, according to researcher Gong Xianzu at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Nasa launches USD 10 billion James Webb Space Telescope on to its one-million-mile voyage into solar orbit to give widest ever spectrum view to be able to peer back in time 13.5 billion years to a point within a 100 million years of the Big Bang, lifted off from European Space Agency's base in French Guiana