PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
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This Summer Is What Climate Change Looks Like: Scientists (Maria)
The authors write, “The blistering heat threatening lives and fueling wildfires across Southern Europe and North America this July would have been ‘virtually impossible’ without man-made global warming, scientists said on Tuesday. Their findings come as the planet’s ocean and land temperatures hit new records in recent weeks, with waters around Florida and the Mediterranean coast surpassing 30 degrees Celsius and parts of the Northern Hemisphere baking in heat of 45C or more. Scientists have long warned climate change would make heat waves hotter, longer and more frequent. Tuesday’s study found that this month’s extreme temperatures are no longer an outlier.”
‘The KHP Waged War’: Federal Judge Orders End of Kansas Trooper ‘Two-Step’ Maneuver (Al)
From the Kansas Reflector: “The Kansas Highway Patrol has been ordered to stop its infamous ‘two-step’ technique by a federal judge, in what the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas calls a ‘huge win’ for all motorists using state highways. The U.S. district court ruled KHP’s policies and practices violate the Fourth Amendment, releasing a Friday opinion that the KHP ‘has waged war on motorists — especially out-of-state residents traveling between Colorado and Missouri on federal highway I-70 in Kansas.’ The trial challenged the constitutionality of the KHP’s policy of targeting out-of-staters and other ‘suspicious’ people for vehicle searches by drug-sniffing dogs, along with the ‘Kansas two-step’ maneuver. The ‘two-step’ is a technique taught to KHP personnel, in which they end a routine traffic stop and begin a separate effort to dig for information and gain entry to a vehicle to search for contraband.”
Publishers Want Billions, Not Millions, From AI (Dana)
The author writes, “Barry Diller fired publishers’ opening shot at artificial intelligence platforms in a Semafor interview this April, suggesting they sue the companies that have trained models on their data. Now his company, IAC, and a handful of key publishers are close to formalizing a coalition that could lead a lawsuit as well as press for legislative action, people at those companies said. The group crucially includes the two industry pillars, The New York Times and News Corp., as well as Axel Springer. … Many publishers have begun to experiment with AI tools aimed at making writing more efficient. But executives also worry about threats to everything from their revenue to the very nature of online authority.”
New Book Exposes the Horror of the US’s Endless, Invisible Wars (Reader Jim)
From Truthout: “This June, the Swiss journalist Maurine Mercier found several United States citizens fighting in Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian work. ‘All of them are veterans, former soldiers who fought in all the recent American wars: the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan,’ she reports. … One veteran Mercier interviewed admits he’s addicted to combat. … At a fundamental level, these rudderless warriors are a symbol of a society addicted to warfare. They reflect the tensions that author and antiwar activist Norman Solomon unwinds in his brilliant new book, War Made Invisible, which examines the profound causes and costs of U.S. interventionism. Solomon offers a powerful framework for understanding geopolitical crises, as well as the unseen yet enduring costs of militarism.”
She’s on a Mission From God: Suing Big Oil for Climate Damages (Sean)
The author writes, “[Missy] Sims, 54, may be the most surprising legal figure to emerge as the world grapples with the devastating impacts of a warming planet. An Armani-and-Rolex wearing observant Catholic from a small Midwest town who talks to God as she mulls her complex legal cases, Ms. Sims is also a constant TikTok poster whose dog has more followers than some celebrities. And she is now the singular force behind a creative legal gambit to make oil and gas companies pay for the devastation being wrought by climate change in Puerto Rico. Her strategy is being carefully watched by the fossil fuel industry and environmental groups as well as other lawyers and municipalities.”
The Untold Story of the Manhattan Eight: FBI’s Secret Spying on Hanover Women (Reader Steve)
From The Seattle Times: “The Manhattan Project’s defining role in U.S. history is now in the spotlight via the newly released movie Oppenheimer, which chronicles the famed scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s work and the government’s hard-line efforts to kick him, too, out of the nuclear weapons program. While movies and biographies spotlight Oppenheimer, thousands of others toiled in obscurity in the Manhattan Project, even as their contributions altered the trajectory of history. They were history’s extras. Declassified FBI records and Atomic Energy Commission memos reviewed by The Seattle Times chronicle the women’s experiences trying to live their authentic lives while staying ahead of the FBI in a chase that stretched from Los Alamos to Hanford [WA] and spanned a decade.”
Why Are India’s Lions Increasingly Swapping the Jungle for the Beach? (Laura)
The author writes, “It was one morning, while walking on the beach in Gujarat, that wildlife expert Meena Venkataraman spotted a pair of paw prints. But this was no dog or fox that had visited. The footprints belonged to an Asiatic lion, the king of the jungle — and, increasingly, the beach. … While most of the nearly 700 animals counted in 2020 are found in the dry, deciduous terrain of the Gir forest and its surrounding protected areas, many have been moving to seaside locales.”
