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☆ How Biden Can Out-Populist the Populist - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Nicholas Kristof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As Democrats puzzle over how President Biden can be so unpopular, it’s worth looking at the global context — because he’s actually doing better than most Western leaders. In the Morning Consult approval ratings for global leaders, Biden polls better than leaders in Canada, Britain, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, France and Japan. Here in America, we often attribute Biden’s unpopularity to his age, and that’s certainly part of it. But youthful leaders abroad are even less popular: In Britain, people fault the 43-year-old prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for being “too inexperienced for these grim times,” as The New Statesman put it. So while there’s a far-right tide that may also swamp the United States, it’s not hopeless for Biden.

Persons: Biden, he’s, that’s, Rishi Sunak, Donald Trump, it’s Organizations: New Statesman Locations: Canada, Britain, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, France, Japan, America, United States

☆ Emmett Shear, OpenAI's new interim CEO, thinks most of the CEO role is 'very automatable'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI's new interim CEO has said AI could potentially take over jobs like his. Much of the CEO role, Emmett Shear tweeted on Thursday, can be automated. Shear was appointed as OpenAI's top exec after Sam Altman was ousted on Friday by the company board. AdvertisementEmmett Shear, OpenAI's new interim CEO, thinks artificial intelligence can perform most of a CEO's responsibilities. Shear, who was previously the CEO of streaming platform Twitch, reposted a 2021 article that suggested companies automate CEO roles.

Persons: Emmett Shear, Shear, Sam Altman, —, Will Dunn, Twitch, Altman, OpenAI's, Greg Brockman — OpenAI's, Satya Nadella, Nadella Organizations: Service, The New Statesman, Business Insider, Microsoft Locations: OpenAI

☆ Putin's plan to wear down support for Ukraine in a war of attrition seems to be working, though it's not risk-free
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Putin is seeking to wear down Western support for Ukraine with a war of attrition. AdvertisementAdvertisementAt the Valdai Club conference Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin gloated over the potential impact of Western support for Ukraine ebbing. Meanwhile, Ukraine's economy is struggling under the weight of the conflict and it is heavily dependent on Western aid. Wagner fighters deployed in Rostov-on-Don REUTERS/StringerPutin faces threats of his ownBut there are also risks for Putin in an attrition strategy. AdvertisementAdvertisementA notable series of successes could lead to a new wave of public support for Ukraine, and damage Putin's internal credibility.

Persons: Putin, —, Vladimir Putin gloated, Kevin McCarthy, Joe Biden's, George Beebe, Beebe, Wagner, Don, Stringer Putin, –, Lawrence Freedman, Yevgeny Prigozhin Organizations: Ukraine, Putin, Service, Valdai, Republicans, Don REUTERS, King's College London, New Statesman Locations: Ukraine, Slovakia, Germany, Russia, Kyiv, Europe, Rostov, Russian, —, Moscow, Lviv

☆ Opinion | When Being Good Is Just a Matter of Being Lucky
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Indeed, one resolution of the “moral luck” paradox is that free will does not truly exist, Kristin Mickelson, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has written. The first drives drunk and kills a person. The second drives drunk and loses control of her car, but by luck doesn’t kill anyone. “Being blameworthy for an event is about being accountable for what you have done in the world,” Hartman wrote. There’s no excluding luck from our calculations, because luck “saturates” who we are, what we do and the consequences of what we do, Hartman wrote.

Persons: Kristin Mickelson, Roger Crisp, ” Robert Hartman, Hartman, ” Hartman, saturates ” Organizations: University of Colorado, The New Statesman, Ohio Northern University Locations: Boulder

CNN —The Roald Dahl Museum in England, founded by the widow of the children’s author, has acknowledged his racism was “undeniable and indelible.”Dahl, who died in 1990, was the creator of characters such as Matilda, the BFG, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Willy Wonka and the Twits. Now the museum, based in the village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire where Dahl lived, has posted a statement on its website to say that it “fully” supports an apology released by the Dahl family and Roald Dahl Story Company in 2020 for the author’s antisemitic views. The museum adds that it “condemns all racism directed at any group or individual.”Based in Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, where Dahl lived, the museum has condemned the author's racism. Greg Balfour Evans/AlamyIn the 2020 apology, the Dahl groups said they “deeply apologise for the lasting and understandable hurt” caused by his statements. ‘Providing the full story’The Roald Dahl Museum confirmed to CNN Thursday that the online statement issued this week is also on display in its entrance gallery.

Persons: Roald Dahl, ” Dahl, Matilda, Mr, Fox, Willy Wonka, Dahl, “, Greg Balfour Evans, Alamy, Hitler, ” “ Roald, Dahl’s, Marie van der Zyl, ” Organizations: CNN, Roald Dahl Museum, Roald Dahl Story Company, New Statesman, Jewish Leadership Council, Community Security Trust, ‘ Locations: England, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, Missenden

☆ There's no evidence that Russia has rigged Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya plant with explosives, nuclear watchdog says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The IAEA said Friday there's no sign Russia plans to destroy the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. Inspectors "have not seen any mines or explosives," according to the head of the nuclear watchdog. Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that his intelligence services found evidence that Russia had "placed objects resembling explosives" on those rooftops, possibly "to simulate an attack on the plant." Ukrainian officials have for months asserted that Russia is planning a potential "false flag" attack at the nuclear plant. The Ukrainian armed forces have suggested Russia could also stage a lesser disaster, using explosives to accuse Ukraine of "shelling" the plant.

Persons: —, Rafael Mariano Grossi, Grossi, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kyrlo Budanov, Dmitry Peskov, Ukraine's Budanov Organizations: IAEA, Service, United Nations, International Atomic Energy Agency, New Statesman, Reuters Locations: Russia, Europe, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Kahkovka

☆ Fact Check-Image of Nancy Pelosi in casket is a digitally-altered fake
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

An image of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi supposedly lying in a casket is digitally altered and taken from a stock image website. An online search reveals that the image originates via the stock image website, iStock (here). Pelosi’s face was superimposed onto the stock image of the woman in the casket, and the blonde edges of the woman’s hair in the stock photo can be seen beneath Pelosi’s own hair. The original photograph of Pelosi was captured by photographer Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images in 2010 and can be seen (here). The original is viewable via stock image website, iStock.

☆ Martin Amis, British writer of dark comedic novels, dies at 73
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Novelist Martin Amis (L) talks to Tina Brown at the launch of Brown's book "The Diana Chronicles" at a party hosted by Reuters in the Serpentine Gallery in central London, June 18, 2007.... Read moreWASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - Martin Amis, a British writer of dark comedic novels, has died at the age of 73, his publisher said Saturday on Twitter. Penguin Books said Amis "leaves a towering legacy and an indelible mark on the British cultural landscape, and will be missed enormously." Amis died Friday at his home in Lake Worth, Florida, the New York Times reported earlier, quoting his wife, Isabel Fonseca, as saying the cause was esophageal cancer. He worked as an editor at The Times Literary Supplement and later the literary editor of The New Statesman. In a 2020 interview with the New York Times, Amis said "we read literature to have a good time.

☆ Paul Johnson’s Historic Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

There’s an old joke that academics bitterly complain about popular historians for the high sin of publishing books people enjoy reading. Few working journalists have written history with as much elan and narrative force as the British author Paul Johnson , who died this week at age 94. Johnson spent his early career editing the New Statesman, later contributing to the Spectator, Commentary and others, including these pages. His more than 50 books range from “The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830” to “Art: A New History” to histories of the United States, Christianity and the Jews.

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