electrek.co
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announces $1.5B for four transmission projects – including connecting the Texas grid to the rest of the US for the first time ever. The projects, spanning multiple states, will add nearly 1,000 miles of new transmission lines and increase grid capacity by 7,100 megawatts (MW). They’ll boost grid reliability, lower energy costs, and support the clean energy transition.
www.theguardian.com
**_Videos voiced by Nate Hochman tout conspiracy theories about McKinsey and have elements of fascist rhetoric_** A Marco Rubio-linked thinktank [stoking fears about Haitian migrants](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/21/nate-hochman-marco-rubio-anti-immigrant-thinktank-america-2100) in Pennsylvania has also produced a sequence of videos in recent months that **promote conspiracy theories about LGBTQ+ people, human rights organizations and even the corporate consultancy McKinsey & Company**. The editor hired to produce those videos also produces for the media organization founded by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow chief and prominent election-denier who is a close ally of the former US president [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump). The videos and the **ongoing campaign against Haitians** – which follows a similar effort in Springfield, Ohio, that has caused chaos in the midwestern city – raise questions about the **increasingly extreme political rhetoric used in Republican circles**. Two experts told the Guardian that the ads contained elements of fascist rhetoric. --- 🗳️ **Register to vote:** https://vote.gov/
www.dw.com
Facebook "cannot use all of the personal data" it gathers without restrictions and deadlines, according to the EU Court of Justice. The ruling is the latest in the EU privacy battle led by Austrian activist Max Schrems.
www.theguardian.com
**_Populist leader alleged to have ‘copied word for word’ a monologue by TV show’s fictional president Jed Bartlet_** Argentina’s rightwing populist president, Javier Milei, has been accused of plagiarising a chunk of his recent speech to the United Nations general assembly from the political drama The West Wing. “It seems like fiction, but it isn’t,” the left-leaning Buenos Aires newspaper Página 12 [reported](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/772291-parece-ficcion-pero-no-lo-es-milei-plagio-su-discurso-en-la-) on Friday, claiming Milei had “copied, word for word, a monologue” by the television show’s fictional president, Josiah “Jed” Bartlet. Suspicions over Milei’s address surfaced this week when the political columnist Carlos Pagni [flagged](https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/nuevos-reclamos-nuevos-sujetos-otra-indignacion-nid02102024/) the “extraordinary” similarities between part of the president’s speech and words uttered by Martin Sheen’s Bartlet 21 years earlier. “Didn’t anyone else notice?” Pagni wrote in the newspaper La Nación, before transcribing the words of both men.
www.abc.net.au
**In short:** X (formerly Twitter) has unsuccessfully challenged Australia's eSafety Commissioner's fine for allegedly failing to respond to questions about harmful content on its platform, particularly child sexual abuse material. The organisation argued Twitter stopped being a company when it merged with X Corp and any penalty process would need to be restarted. **What's next?** X Corp will have to pay the fine and the commissioner's court costs.
www.swissinfo.ch
Full-time workers have an increased risk of cancer, say researchers from the University of Fribourg. In a new study, they found that people with a 100% workload are more likely to develop cancer than people with other career paths. The reasons for this are unclear.
www.rferl.org
The United States expects **Russia, Iran, and China to continue their attempts to influence the November 5 elections by using artificial intelligence to disseminate fake information**, according to a **[report ](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2024/10/02/dhs-2025-homeland-threat-assessment-indicates-threat-domestic-and-foreign-terrorism)** released on October 2 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The department considers the three countries the most pressing foreign threats to U.S. critical infrastructure and expects them to remain so.
www.cbsnews.com
Employers [added](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm) 254,000 jobs in September, blowing away forecasts and reversing a slowdown in hiring that had prompted the Federal Reserve to make a jumbo rate cut at its meeting last month. Economists had forecast 140,000 new jobs, according to financial data provider FactSet. The unemployment rate inched down to 4.1%, versus 4.2% in the prior month.
abcnews.go.com
A historic United States port strike has been suspended and a tentative agreement was reached "on wages," according to the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance. "Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume," the ILA and USMX said in a joint statement Thursday evening. The tentative agreement would increase workers’ wages by **62% over the life of the 6-year contract**, sources familiar confirm to ABC News. This represents a significant increase from the shipping industry group’s offer of a 50% wage increase earlier this week. The union had been pushing for a 77% pay hike over six years. The tentative agreement would **bring the hourly wage for a top dockworker to $63 per hour at the end of the new contract**, up from $39 per hour under the expired contract.
www.theguardian.com
**_Analysis of satellite data finds plant cover has increased more than tenfold over the last few decades_** Plant cover across the Antarctic peninsula has soared more than tenfold over the last few decades, as the climate crisis heats up the icy continent. Analysis of satellite data found there was less than one sq kilometre of vegetation in 1986 but there was almost 12km2 of green cover by 2021. The spread of the plants, mostly mosses, has accelerated since 2016, the researchers found. The growth of vegetation on a continent dominated by ice and bare rock **is a sign of the reach of global heating into the Antarctic, which is warming faster than the global average**. The scientists warned that this spread could provide a foothold for alien invasive species into the pristine Antarctic ecosystem. Greening has also been reported [in the Arctic](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0688-1), and in 2021 [rain, not snow, fell on the summit](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/20/rain-falls-peak-greenland-ice-cap-first-time-on-record-climate-crisis) of Greenland’s huge ice cap for the first time on record.
www.theguardian.com
**_The former US president will campaign for Kamala Harris, starting in the crucial battleground state Pennsylvania that could decide the election_** Former president Barack Obama will crisscross the battleground states for Kamala Harris, with a kickoff in all-important Pennsylvania next week, according to a senior Harris campaign official. Obama will hold his first event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania next Thursday, the beginning of a blitz across the handful of [rust belt and sun belt states](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/16/kamala-harris-polls-key-states) that will probably decide the 2024 election. … Obama remains one of the Democrats most powerful surrogates, second perhaps only to [his wife, Michelle Obama](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/21/michelle-obama-dnc-speech-reaction). His return to the campaign trail follows a rousing speech at [the Democratic National Convention in August](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/23/democratic-national-convention-key-moments), in which he cast Harris as a forward-looking figure and [a natural heir](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/21/barack-michelle-obama-dnc-speech-harris-trump) to his diverse, youth-powered political coalition. --- 🗳️ **Register to vote:** https://vote.gov/
www.theguardian.com
**_Republican nominee claims Harris is threat to democracy in recording of top-dollar fundraiser in Colorado in August_** Donald Trump unleashed a foul-mouthed tirade about undocumented immigrants and predicted that this “could be the last election we ever have” if Kamala Harris wins during a private fundraising dinner this summer. The Guardian obtained a 12-minute recording of a speech that the Republican presidential nominee gave at a dinner on 10 August in Aspen, Colorado, where attendees were required to donate anywhere from $25,000 to $500,000 a couple. Trump devoted most of his address to border security and immigration, **recycling xenophobic claims now familiar from his rallies. “Radical leftwing lunatics” want people to come in from prisons, [mental institutions](https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/29/politics/fact-check-trump-mental-institutions-migrants-doctor/index.html) and insane asylums, he asserted without evidence, adding that the US was harbouring “a record number of terrorists”.** --- 🗳️ **Register to vote:** https://vote.gov/
www.bbc.com
The Indian government has opposed petitions in the top court that seek criminalisation of marital rape, saying it would be "excessively harsh". The federal home ministry told the Supreme Court that "a man does not have a fundamental right" to force sex on his wife, but there were enough laws to protect married women against sexual violence. The top court is hearing petitions **seeking to amend a British-era law that says a man cannot be prosecuted for rape within marriage**. Violence within marriage is rampant in India - according to a recent government survey, one in 25 women have faced sexual violence from their husbands.
www.dw.com
_An Afghan woman's gender and nationality can suffice as proof of persecution **to receive asylum status**, the European Court of Justice has said. The ruling came after Austria rejected refugee status for two Afghan women._ The [European Court of Justice (ECJ)](https://www.dw.com/en/european-court-of-justice-ecj/t-45002262), the highest court in the EU, ruled on Friday that women in [Afghanistan](https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan/t-18932080) are subjected to persecution by the Taliban. The [ruling](https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2024-10/cp240167en.pdf "External link — ruling") said that certain discriminatory measures adopted by the Taliban constitute "acts of persecution," citing forced marriage and lack of protection against gender-based violence. As such, the court sided with two Afghan women in Austria who had argued their [status as women under the Taliban](https://www.dw.com/en/how-talibans-new-rules-further-silence-women-in-afghanistan/a-70054470) regime justified receiving refugee status.
www.nbcnews.com
Hospitals across the U.S. are taking steps to conserve their supplies of IV fluids after [Hurricane Helene](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/north-carolina-mountain-town-wrecked-hurricane-helene-rcna173670) **struck a critical manufacturing plant belonging to the country’s biggest supplier**. Baxter International, a medical technology company responsible for making IV fluids for most U.S. hospitals, said Sunday that it [would temporarily close production at its North Cove, North Carolina-based facility ](https://www.baxter.com/baxter-newsroom/baxter-provides-update-north-cove-nc-facility-and-hurricane-helene-relief-plans)because of flooding from [Helene](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/volunteer-pilots-are-flying-supplies-trapped-hurricane-helene-victims-rcna173885), raising concerns about a potential nationwide shortage. IV fluids are used to deliver drugs or water with electrolytes directly into a patient’s bloodstream. They’re also critical for surgery, when a person is unable to eat or drink, to keep them hydrated. Baxter also makes specialty fluids, such as peritoneal dialysis fluid, which helps [patients with kidney failure](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/donating-kidney-safer-ever-new-research-finds-rcna168524) filter waste from their blood, as well as irrigation fluids, used during procedures to clean or flush wounds.
www.nbcnews.com
**_Robert Roberson is scheduled to be put to death Oct. 17. His case — based on a syndrome shrouded in legal uncertainty — has led the original detective to call for his release._** A condemned man in Texas is set to die this month in what would be the country's first execution for "[shaken baby syndrome](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4607942)," a scrutinized diagnosis that has been [successfully challenged](https://apnews.com/article/health-shaken-baby-syndrome-science-ab37f90d883df3f4a6465f9d285d8a50) in some criminal cases. After he filed a [clemency petition](https://drive.google.com/file/d/10tRZmfosl__j47r1Xn9QJuUvDeZ_LrYs/view) with the state ahead of his execution, which is scheduled for Oct. 17, Robert Roberson told NBC News anchor Lester Holt in an interview airing Thursday that he is urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to pardon him and "let me go home." "Look at the support I've got, Mr. Governor, and I'm just hoping, praying that you do the right thing," said Roberson, who was convicted of capital murder in his 2-year-old daughter's 2002 death.
www.nbcnews.com
The FBI and Microsoft have seized more than 100 web domains they say Russian intelligence used for cyber-espionage, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. The domains were alleged to be staging grounds for Russia’s FSB intelligence agency in its ongoing efforts to spy on targets of interest, ranging from the U.S. [Energy Department](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-341a) to [Russian nonprofit groups](https://www.accessnow.org/russian-phishing-campaigns/) and media outlets critical of the Kremlin. The FBI [said in an affidavit](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25183816-fsb-fbiaff) that **the websites were used as part of a “spear phishing campaign,” a term for targeted efforts to trick people into divulging sensitive information, usually email login credentials**. That information was sought “with the goal of gaining unauthorized access to the computers and email accounts of victims, to then steal valuable information and sensitive United States government intelligence,” the FBI said in the affidavit.
Before [Hurricane Helene’s](https://apnews.com/world-news/weather-general-news-domestic-news-1a071b5de822e51f741a193374a49c26) landfall last week, the National Weather Service began an **all-out blitz to alert emergency planners, first responders and residents** across the Southeast that the storm’s heavy rains and high winds could bring disaster hundreds of miles from the coast. Warnings blared phrases such as “URGENT,” “life threatening” and “catastrophic” describing the impending perils as far inland as the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. Smartphones buzzed with repeated push alerts of flash floods and dangerous winds. States of emergency were declared from Florida to Virginia. And the weather service reached back to 1916 for a precedent, correctly predicting Helene would rank among the “most significant weather events” the Asheville, North Carolina, area had ever seen. **But the red flags and cataclysmic forecasts weren’t enough to prevent the still-rising [death toll](https://apnews.com/article/helene-asheville-north-carolina-64fe5ca1b80f22fd2fd3b7c50b291d85)**. The number has soared to at least 215 across six states. At least 72 of those were in hard-hit Asheville and surrounding Buncombe County from flash floods, mudslides, falling trees, crumbled roads and other calamities.
www.independent.co.uk
**_A former Colorado county clerk has been sentenced to nine years behind bars for leading a scheme to breach voting system data in her county_** A judge sentenced a former Colorado county clerk to nine years behind bars Thursday for leading a voting system data-breach scheme inspired by the rampant false claims that fraud altered the 2020 presidential outcome. Judge Matthew Barrett handed down the sentence after jurors found Tina Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person’s identity. The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump.
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OP's own “article” is copying exact sections from this Ars Technica article without giving proper credit: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/09/dell-says-sales-team-must-work-on-site-5-days-a-week-to-drive-productivity/
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Yep and as recent as 2014:
The national campaign to ban geoengineering can be traced back to Rhode Island in 2014, when a lawmaker looked to the sky and saw a conspiracy.
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Ms. MacBeth’s beliefs are better known as the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory, which posits that airplanes are secretly emitting dangerous chemical trails, as opposed to water vapor naturally released as condensation from planes’ engines, which turns to visible trails of ice crystals in the cold air. There is no evidence supporting the chemtrails theory, which has attracted many followers through social media.
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TikTok is fighting a possible US ban in January 2025 and was in court last week to argue the questions that you're raising: https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/g-s1-23194/tiktok-us-ban-appeals-court
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Yeah, all vote tallies will not be released until after the polls close on Nov. 5.
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Exercise your rights and register to vote if you haven’t done so already!
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Welcome!
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This CNN article links to the clips: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/politics/jd-vance-kamala-harris-fascist/index.html
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It’s a bit more nuanced than that. The article doesn’t talk about it, but this NYT article touches on how these Chinese sites are exploiting the de minimis exemption loophole to circumvent US anti-forced labor law, which companies have to comply with to keep their supply chain free of slave labor (Uyghurs in Xinjiang for example):
Lawmakers are flagging what they say are likely significant violations of U.S. law by Temu, a popular Chinese shopping platform, accusing it of providing an unchecked channel that allows goods made with forced labor to flow into the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/business/economy/shein-temu-forced-labor-china.html
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Hah nice catch. Fixed.
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Huh? All federal judges in the US (Supreme Court justices, court of appeals judges, and district court judges) are nominated.
Even at the state level, it's a mix of election and nomination based on the vacancy.
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Agreed. ChatGPT doesn’t like to cite sources. Microsoft CoPilot and Google Gemini do link to some sources, though not as accurate or thorough like Wikipedia.
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Good catch. I’ve added it to the summary. Thanks.
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Wow, thanks for the kind words, @A_A@lemmy.world. It's nice to see such positivity on the internet, so keep it up!
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I used to be the only poster in health, so it’s refreshing to see you post here as well!
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Thanks. I’ve updated the post.
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Thanks treefrog!
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Appreciate the recognition, Flying Squid. And I'll try to make it easier for people who skim.
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The rescue’s reason:
“LDCRF does not re-home an owner-surrendered dog with its former adopter/owner,” Floyd said in her written statement. “Our mission is to save adoptable and safe-to-the-community dogs from euthanasia.”
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lemmy.worldHi. I'm a bit of a news junkie.