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How Wildlife Corridors Can Allow Africa’s Iconic Animals to Roam Freely (Maria)
The author writes, “The populations of some of Africa’s most iconic wildlife have been bouncing back thanks to decades of conservation efforts. But activists are warning that climate change and human activity are shrinking their habitats. Now, a nature preserve in central Kenya is pushing to set aside more land to connect with other preserves to allow wild animals to roam freely.”
Canada’s Leader Laments Lost Friendship With US in Town That Sheltered Stranded Americans After 9/11 (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Carney’s visit to Gander, Newfoundland on the second day of a national election campaign comes against the backdrop of a trade war and sovereignty threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump’s almost daily attacks on Canada’s sovereignty have left Canadians feeling betrayed. “‘In this crisis caused by the US president and those who are enabling him, we lament a friendship lost,’ Carney said. ‘In Gander Canadians did extraordinary things for Americans when they needed it. Now, we need to do extraordinary things for ourselves.’”
Oscar-Winning Palestinian Director Attacked by Israeli Settlers and Arrested (Dana)
From The Guardian: “A Palestinian director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has been arrested by the Israeli army after masked settlers attacked his house. According to five Jewish American activists who witnessed the attack, Hamdan Ballal, one of the four directors of the film that documented the destruction of villages in the West Bank, was surrounded and attacked by a group of about 15 armed settlers in Susya in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron. ‘They started throwing stones towards Palestinians and destroyed a water tank near Hamdan’s house,’ said Joseph, of the activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, who asked not to use his full name for security reasons.”
The Multi-Faceted Challenge of Powering AI (Sean)
The author writes, “There are now over 5,000 data centers in the United States, and new ones are being built every day—both in the U.S. and worldwide. Often dozens are clustered together right near where people live, attracted by policies that provide tax breaks and other incentives, and by what looks like abundant electricity. And data centers do consume huge amounts of electricity. U.S. data centers consumed more than 4% of the country’s total electricity in 2023, and by 2030 that fraction could rise to 9%, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. A single large data center can consume as much electricity as 50,000 homes.”
Israel Violated the Gaza Ceasefire From the Start. Why Won’t the Media Tell You That? (Laura)
From The Intercept: “Crucially missing from such coverage, however, is the fact that leading up to Tuesday’s attacks, Israel had repeatedly violated terms of the ceasefire deal it agreed to in January. With support from the Trump administration, Israel refused to withdraw its soldiers from Gaza, as was required in the agreement. It continued its military operations and bombings, and it blocked humanitarian aid and electricity from entering the territory where more than 2 million Palestinians live, which amounts to violations of international humanitarian law.”
Viral Audio of JD Vance Badmouthing Elon Musk Is Fake, Just the Tip of the AI Iceberg (Laryn)
The author writes, “Technically speaking, the audio sounds entirely believable. The voice sounds exactly like Vance, and the static in the audio sounds much like other secretly recorded audio of politicians that have leaked to news organizations in the past. As Reality Defender notes, the added static also makes it more difficult for automatic deepfake detectors to recognize the audio as fake. The audio has also been reposted to TikTok dozens of times, as well as YouTube and X. This type of AI-generated content is rampant on TikTok despite the company’s policies against sharing misinformation and asking users to label AI-generated content.”
