Latest news with #civilization
New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
Season Opener
Last night, at 10:42 p.m. Eastern, summer arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. With it, a major heat wave is affecting large swaths of the U.S. Keep yourself safe and stay cool however you can this weekend. If you can find your way to some water — a pool, a lake or a river, the ocean, your trusty old bathtub — do it. Not only will you cool off, but you'll also get the benefit that my friend Lori pointed out to me recently: Swimming is one of the only activities in modern life during which it's nearly impossible to be on your phone. (Fine, it's possible in the bathtub. But why are you on your phone in the bathtub?) The ideal of summer, the one that plays in my imagination during the colder months, is totally tech-free. It's all real life, all sensation: sun on skin, sand between toes, picking the corn cob free of its waxy silk, always smelling something grilling somewhere. There's no phone in this film, no text message or push alert, nothing vibrating in anyone's pocket. My colleagues on the Travel desk have a new story this morning about far-flung resorts where people pay up to $32,000 a night to get away from civilization, to unyoke themselves from the stranglehold of Wi-Fi. This seems extreme. But I still get nostalgic remembering the phone-free week I spent in the woods nearly two years ago, what a relief it was not to have that parallel life to tend to for a spell. Last week, I wrote about how to find a middle ground between obsession and retreat in the face of what feels like an impossible-to-process volume of information. The solution, as with so many of our persistent complaints, is presence. The phone takes us out of the present like nothing else. I've been thinking about the moment when you return, after having been deep in your phone, oblivious to your surroundings. There's this feeling of dislocation, like waking up. You have been traveling, you've been elsewhere, totally disconnected from the world, your home. You have this second where you aren't sure where you were, as if you've lost your place. You lose bits of your life when you're lost in your device. You know this, I know this, but somehow, in summer, it seems even more regrettable to miss out on the moment. It's finally warm enough to linger outside. There's enough daylight that, on a Saturday, you can get your chores done and still have time to lie in the grass with a book, to contemplate the leaves against the sky. On hot days in the city, you can see and smell the sun acting on the asphalt, refracting in blurry, mineral-y waves. The roses are almost obnoxious in their exuberance. Why would you want to miss a minute of this? Politics Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian campus protester detained by the Trump administration, was released on bail, ending his three-month imprisonment. A federal judge sided with Harvard and barred the Trump administration from rescinding the school's right to host international students. The university has restarted talks with the White House to potentially settle their acrimonious dispute. The Trump administration laid off more than 600 workers from the federally funded news outlet Voice of America, leaving the broadcaster with fewer than 200 staffers. On Juneteenth, Trump did not utter the name of the federal holiday. It's part of a broader playbook to minimize the Black experience in America, writes Erica Green, a White House correspondent. This week, the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law that prohibits some medical treatments for transgender youths. In the video below, Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court, describes the three factions within the 6-to-3 decision. Click to watch. Iran-Israel War A day of talks between the European Union and Iran yielded no significant breakthroughs. An Iranian official said there would be 'no room for talking' until Israel stopped its attacks. Israel and Iran traded fire for the ninth consecutive day after a European diplomatic effort — dismissed by President Trump — made little immediate progress in preventing the exchanges of fire from spiraling into a broader war. In a fiery U.N. Security Council meeting, Israel and Iran blamed each other for the war, and their allies took familiar sides. Trump says he wants to make a nuclear deal with Iran in two weeks. Veteran diplomats warn that his timeline may be too short for a notoriously slow process. More International News Microsoft recently suspended a European official's email account, under orders from the Trump administration. The move stoked fears abroad: Can Trump use U.S. tech dominance as a cudgel? The crash of an Air India flight last week highlighted the danger of building busy airports within dense city neighborhoods. Vladimir Putin's insistence on maintaining the Russian offensive in Ukraine has come at a diplomatic cost. Other Big Stories A law student at the University of Florida won a class award for a paper he wrote promoting racist views. It set off months of campus turmoil. The Republican plan to terminate billions in clean energy tax credits would result in a hotter planet, scientists warn. Trump's funding cuts are forcing universities to consider tuition hikes and layoffs. Some New York City leaders want to include nearly two million noncitizens in the next census. Film and TV Flesh-shredding creatures are wandering, crawling and, most worryingly, running amok in '28 Years Later,' the third installment in the zombie film series. Read the review. Three directors are credited on Pixar's 'Elio,' about an orphaned boy who dreams of being abducted by aliens. But they're not all listed onscreen at the same time. Here's why. Times critics put together a list of the best TV shows of 2025 so far, including the animated conspiracy thriller 'Common Side Effects.' In an era of skepticism around live-action remakes, Universal believed a new 'How to Train Your Dragon' would draw audiences. Read the inside story of the studio's big bet. More Culture Many modern video games take inspiration from Studio Ghibli, the famed Japanese animation studio. FIFA, soccer's governing body, unveiled a luxury fashion line at a starry party in L.A. See inside. New York City restaurants won three of the six major awards at the James Beard Restaurant awards this week, including outstanding chef and outstanding hospitality. After a ban last year, Joey Chestnut will return to the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Leonard Lauder, the visionary executive behind Estée Lauder who died last week at 92, was the original beauty influencer. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Science
- Irish Times
Only two years left to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees target, scientists warn
The planet's remaining carbon budget to meet the international target of 1.5 degrees has just two years left at the current rate of emissions, scientists have warned, showing how deep into the climate crisis the world has fallen. Breaching the target would ramp up the extreme weather already devastating communities around the world. It would also require carbon dioxide to be sucked from the atmosphere in future to restore the stable climate in which the whole of civilisation developed over the past 10,000 years. The carbon budget is how much planet-heating carbon dioxide can still be emitted by humanity while leaving a reasonable chance that the temperature target is not blown. The latest assessment by leading climate scientists found that in order to achieve a 66 per cent chance of keeping below the 1.5 degrees target, emissions from 2025 onwards must be limited to 80bn tonnes of carbon dioxide. That is 80 per cent lower than it was in 2020. Emissions reached a new record high in 2024: at that rate the 80bn tonne budget would be exhausted within two years. Lags in the climate system mean the 1.5 degrees limit, which is measured as a multiyear average, would inevitably be passed a few years later, the scientists said. READ MORE Scientists have been warning for some time that breaching the 1.5 degrees limit is increasingly unavoidable as emissions from the burning of fossil fuels continue to rise. The latest analysis shows global emissions would have to plummet towards zero within just a few years to have any decent chance of keeping to the target. That appears extremely unlikely, given that emissions in 2024 rose yet again. However, the scientists emphasised every fraction of a degree of global heating increases human suffering, so efforts to cut emissions must ramp up as fast as possible. Currently, the world is on track for 2.7 degrees of global heating, which would be a truly catastrophic rise. The analysis shows, for example, that limiting the rise to 1.7 degrees is more achievable: the carbon budget for a 66 per cent chance of keeping below 1.7 degrees is 390bn tonnes, which is about nine years at the current rate of emissions. 'The remaining carbon budgets are declining rapidly and the main reason is the world's failure to curb global CO2 emissions,' said Prof Joeri Rogelj, at Imperial College London, UK. 'Under any course of action now, there is a very high chance we will reach and even exceed 1.5 and even higher levels of warming. 'The best moment to have started serious climate action was 1992, when the UN [climate] convention was adopted,' he said. 'But now every year is the best year to start being serious about emissions reduction. That is because every fraction of warming we can avoid will result in less harm and suffering, particularly for poor and vulnerable populations, and in less challenges to living the lives we desire.' The hottest year on record was 2024, fuelled by increasing coal and gas burning, and setting an annual average of 1.5 degrees for the first time. There is no sign yet of the transition away from fossil fuels promised by the world's nations at Cop28 in Dubai in December 2023. Solar and wind energy production is increasing rapidly and has precluded previous worst-case scenarios of 4 to 5 degrees of global heating. But energy demand is rising even faster, leading to more fossil fuel burning and turbocharging extreme weather disasters. The analysis, produced by an international team of 60 leading climate scientists, is an update of the critical indicators of climate change and is published in the journal Earth System Science Data. It aims to provide an authoritative assessment, based on the methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but published annually unlike the intermittent IPCC reports, the most recent of which was 2021. The study found that the Earth's energy imbalance – the excess heat trapped by the greenhouse effect – has risen by 25 per cent when comparing the past decade with the decade before. – Guardian
Daily Mail
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Sir Bob Geldof launches a blistering attack on Elon Musk as he labels him a 'w***er' and a 'ketamine crazed fool'
Sir Bob Geldof has launched a blistering attack on Elon Musk labelling him a 'w***er' and a 'ketamine-crazed fool'. The Boomtown Rats frontman made the remarks at the opening night of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical at the Shaftesbury theatre in London's West End. The 73-year-old rocker took particular exception to Elon's cuts to the US aid budget during his time at the White House heading the Department of Government Efficiency. He also criticised the Tesla boss for his recent remarks when Musk said: 'The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit.' Firing back Bob took aim at Elon, he said: 'A couple of weeks ago, that prime wanker Elon Musk said something seriously wrong. He said the great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy.' 'The great weakness? You ketamine-crazed fool! You sociopathic loser! Empathy is the glue of civilisation. Empathy is the glue of humanity.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 'It's how we do things together. It's how we sit here together and clap because we actually understand that this is the stuff that works. The musical, which has finished a run in Toronto, Canada last year, gives 10 per cent of its ticket revenues to the Band Aid charity and has already raised almost £1 million. Bob said: 'The money these people have raised has already - in the place that was the epicentre of the famine in 1984 - they've already built hospitals and schools and stuff like that with the money by doing their job tonight. That's what they've achieved.' The musician then turned his sights on President Trump for his decision to remove funding for USAid on February 1, and Prime Minister Starmer for cuts to overseas aid spending. Bob said: 'On the February 1 this year, the strongest nation in the world, the most powerful man on Earth, and the richest person ever in the history of the planet decided to declare war on the poorest, the weakest, and the most vulnerable people on the planet. I despise them.' 'The net result of that is that Boston University, and reported in the New York Times, is that since February, because they cut out overnight when US Aid websites went dark and fired everyone. 'Since that day a couple of months ago, 300,000 people have died because of Musk, because of Trump, because of Vance. and Marco Rubio is lying when they say people have not died. 'When they say they are sending food to the starving children of Sudan, who are being held captive and starved to death. 'That's a lie. They are not. So it's down to us to scrape together a million quid. The Irishman said it was a 'great shame' that Keir Starmer had cut aid budgets. He added: 'It can't work like that. It doesn't have to work like that. And it began not working like that in 1985. 'This is Great Britain. This country can do anything. It led the way for many years, and times are really tough. Believe me. Times are really hard, but we don't let ourselves go. And these people aren't, and you didn't tonight.' In the new musical Sir Bob is played by Craige Els, who the rock star described as 'amazing' for the portrayal of him as a 'cartoon arsehole in double denim just saying 'f***', basically'. Live Aid, was originally held in Philadelphia as well as at Wembley Stadium on 13 July 1985, and has been turned into a stage musical. Titled Just For One Day, the musical relives the day when the likes of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Who, U2, Queen, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross and more united on stage to raise funds and awareness for the Ethiopian famine crisis. The plot of the production, which takes its name from a line in David Bowie's song Heroes, combines a behind-the-scenes look at how Band Aid and Live Aid came together with a love story inspired by real events.
Daily Mail
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Japanese pop star Ayumi Hamasaki reveals truth about her 'secret love child' with Elon Musk amid claims he boasted about fathering baby with a Japanese singer
Elon Musk is convinced that civilization will crumble unless highly intelligent people – like him – start rapidly reproducing. But a Japanese pop icon linked to Musk has made it clear she wants nothing to do with the Tesla CEO's one-man mission to stave off any looming population crisis, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal.
Russia Today
09-06-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Musk's father praises Putin as ‘impressive and resilient man'
Errol Musk, a South African businessman and the father of tech billionaire Elon Musk, has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as 'a very impressive and resilient man' and said he would like to learn from his leadership. The 79-year-old made the remarks on Monday in Moscow, on the sidelines of the Forum of the Future 2050, a two-day event that brought together international participants to discuss high technology, science, space, development, and education. 'I think he [Putin] is a very impressive and resilient man. He has proven that,' Musk told journalists. He did not respond to a question about whether he planned to meet with the Russian president. The remark echoed comments Musk made in April during an interview with the BBC, when he said he believed his family was 'impressed' with the Russian leader. He added that he had listened to Putin's speeches and found that the Russian president said 'logical things.' Addressing the forum, Musk said it was his first visit to Russia and that he accepted the invitation to attend without hesitation, despite being advised not to travel to the country. 'The first thing I saw was an absolutely beautiful civilization in every sense,' he said, noting that he generally takes a critical view of most things. 'I saw a city that could truly rival Ancient Rome... In many ways, this city is the best capital in the world,' he added, drawing applause from the audience. The businessman also criticized the Western media's portrayal of Russia, which he described as 'complete nonsense.' He said the country is often depicted as 'a terrible place full of awful people who will kill you if you visit.' 'It's absurd,' he said, urging an end to the negative stereotypes being spread in the West about Russia and its people. 'I think this may be one of the best countries I've ever seen,' Musk said.
