Travel: Walking Tour Of Bilbao In Northern Spain

Tourister Films (July 20, 2023) – Bilbao, an industrial port city in northern Spain, is surrounded by green mountains. It’s the de facto capital of Basque Country, with a skyscraper-filled downtown.

It’s famed for the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which sparked revitalization when it opened in 1997. The museum houses prominent modern and contemporary works, but it’s the curvy, titanium-clad building that receives the most attention. 

News: New Russian Spies, Putin Skips BRICS Summit, Women’s World Cup 2023

The Globalist Podcast, Thursday, July 20, 2023: MI6 invites dissident Russians to spy for Britain and Putin agrees not to attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

Also in the programme: We discuss the anti-government protests in Peru and look ahead to the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The New York Times — Thursday, July 20, 2023

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Russia Hits Grain Ports and Threatens Ships Headed to Ukraine

Hospital staff cleaning broken glass at the regional oncological dispensary hospital, following a Russian strike in Odesa on Wednesday. It was the second straight night of concentrated attacks on Odesa, Ukraine’s largest port, and other shipping centers.

Ukraine accused Moscow of specifically targeting the infrastructure for exporting food, after Russia pulled out of an agreement allowing ships carrying grain to sail past its Black Sea blockade.

China’s Xi Rebuffs Kerry’s Call for Faster Climate Action

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, visiting a coal yard of a company in northwestern China’s Shanxi Province last year.

John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, emerges from talks in Beijing without a new agreement. But just talking is progress, he said.

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – July 20, 2023

Volume 619 Issue 7970

nature Magazine -July 20, 2023 issue: Launched in 2018, the Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) aims to map how cell types are arranged in the human body. The initiative is both developing and then deploying the necessary technology to create maps of organs at single-cell resolution.

This quiet lake could mark the start of a new Anthropocene epoch

An aerial view of Crawford Lake.

The dawn of a new geological epoch is recorded in the contaminated sediment at the bottom of Crawford Lake in Canada.

The official marker for the start of a new Anthropocene epoch should be a small Canadian lake whose sediments capture chemical traces of the fallout from nuclear bombs and other forms of environmental degradation. That’s a proposal out today from researchers who have spent 14 years debating when and how humanity began altering the planet.

How to introduce quantum computers without slowing economic growth

To smooth the path of the quantum revolution, researchers and governments must predict and prepare for the traps ahead.

Travel Tour: The Island Of Mykonos In Greece (2023)

Tourister Films (July 19, 2023) – A walking tour that starts in Mykonos Town, where you’ll see the iconic white buildings with their blue accents and charming alleyways. Then, the famous windmills and Little Venice, two of the island’s most photogenic spots.

Video timeline: 0:00:00 Intro Scenes 0:02:18 Mykonos

From there, we’ll venture out to some of the island’s beautiful beaches, including Psarou, Paradise, and Super Paradise.

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – July 21, 2023

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Times Literary Supplement (July 21, 2023) – Moral catastrophe – The great inflation in Germany in 1923 and the Hitler putsch; Pioneer’s in Women’s Sport; Colson Whitehead’s Harlem; Dangerous children; Dating The Tempest and Shakespreare’s tutor….

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – July 21, 2023

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The Guardian Weekly (July 21, 2023) – Hollywood on strike; extreme heat is here. Plus the Women’s World Cup kicks off.

When the result of the Hollywood actors’ strike ballot was announced last Thursday, the big-name stars of Oppenheimer left the film’s London premiere.

This show of solidarity by Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh was a demonstration of the far-reaching effects of creatives taking to the picket lines. For our big story, arts reporter  Vanessa Thorpe looks at what the historic joint walkout by writers and actors means for all of us as movie-goers and TV viewers as well as the stars, lesser-known actors and technicians struggling to make a living.

And we look at what lies behind the dispute with our film editors  Catherine Shoard and Andrew Pulver while Los Angeles reporter Lois Beckett hears from actors finding it ever harder to make a living in the age of streaming and the use of AI in the entertainment industry.

News: U.S. Soldier In North Korea, Nuclear Subs In Busan, Saudi Arabia-Turkey

The Globalist Podcast, Wednesday, July 19, 2023: A US national is detained in North Korea and Washington deploys submarines near Busan, South Korea. Hazel Smith of Soas University of London explains the situation.

Plus: Saudi Arabia signs a major arms deal with Turkey and Germany recommends an unusual solution for extreme heat.

#AI #UN #BBCNews #deepfake #russia #facts #trump #jacksmith

The New York Times — Wednesday, July 19, 2023

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Trump Says He’s Target in Special Counsel’s Investigation Into Jan. 6

Donald J. Trump speaks into a microphone against a dark background.

It would be the second time the special counsel has notified the former president that he is likely to face indictment, this time in connection with the criminal investigation of the Capitol attack.

Michigan Charges 16 in False Elector Scheme to Overturn Trump’s 2020 Loss

Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, is facing charges related to the 2020 election.

Among those facing felony charges was Meshawn Maddock, a Trump ally and a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

Phoenix Breaks Heat Record Set in 1974

As much of the South bakes, Phoenix blazed past a milestone set half a century ago for consecutive days with 110-degree or higher temperatures.

A Current War Collides With the Past: Remnants of World War II in Ukraine

World War II has been an ideological battlefield in today’s war in Ukraine, and it is cropping up on the actual battlefield as well.

Technology Quarterly – The Economist (July 2023)

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TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY (JULY 22ND 2023) – The most personal technology. Demand for, and expectations of, in vitro fertilisation are growing. The technology is struggling to keep up, write Catherine Brahic and Sacha Nauta.

In vitro fertilisation is struggling to keep up with demand

Developing the technology to change that is proving a difficult task

With the possible exception of Adam and Eve, all human beings born before 1978 were conceived inside a woman’s body. Today the world contains at least 12m people who started off in laboratory glassware. On average, four more are born every three minutes. That is a worldwide rate of roughly one newborn in 175.

IVF remains largely a numbers game

And plenty of clinics are taking advantage: the second of seven articles on the technology of fertility

Most healthy young couples seeking to get pregnant will try for a few months before they are successful. Those who are not will try for months more, or years, before concluding they need help and stepping into the waiting room of an ivf clinic. They often arrive in a state of acute emotional vulnerability, clutching at the hope that doctors will help.

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