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Climate Activists Pelt Microsoft Data Center With Balloons Full of Acid
As the public backlash to AI data centers continues to escalate, activists are resorting to extreme measures to send home an important message. The growing concern over environmentally damaging, yet rapidly growing, data centers has become an international phenomenon. In Amsterdam, climate activists affiliated with the group Extinction Rebellion claimed responsibility for some unique vandalism…
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This career criminal traded false confessions for freedom — and sent innocent men to death row
Paul Skalnik had a strange gift for being in jail when accused murderers suddenly felt the urge to spill their secrets. Skalnik was a petty con artist with a grimly reliable routine, writes Pamela Colloff in her riveting new book, “Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast.”…
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China’s Tech Bubble
Late last year, President Trump announced that Washington would loosen controls on chip exports to China, permitting Nvidia to sell its H200 AI chip to approved Chinese firms. The president’s decision raised the alarm among lawmakers that he was sacrificing American security and the country’s edge in AI for a trade deal with China’s leader,…
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It’s Laughably Easy to Poison Open-Weight AI Models, Researcher Finds
Good news, everyone: “open-weight” AI models that are available to anyone to download and run are comically easy to poison. Katie Paxton-Fear, a cybersecurity researcher at Semgrep, demonstrated this in an attack that took less than an hour and cost less than $100 to carry out, The Register reports, successfully manipulating the AI’s behavior by…
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How to slow down time when life keeps speeding up
Hi readers! Shayla Love here, science journalist and longtime fan of Your Mileage May Vary. I’m honored to be subbing for Sigal Samuel while she’s out on parental leave. I’m diving into your questions as a way to help understand human nature and our choices through multiple lenses: philosophical, psychological, and beyond. Please send in…
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‘Complete 180’: How the DOJ has redefined its civil rights mission and targeted California
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice civil rights division was created in 1957 with an initial focus on combating racial inequality and protecting voting rights. But in the first two years of President Trump’s second term, its mission has been reimagined. Now, the division is focused on combating diversity initiatives, rolling back pro-transgender policies and rooting…
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‘Chainsaw-wielding’: Insiders reveal secret DOGE team lurks behind Trump duds
Elon Musk’s notorious Department of Government Efficiency is alive and well and hiding inside a Trump administration outfit producing some of his bigger duds, according to a new Washington Post report. DOGE allies have remained within the National Design Studio, the outfit designed by the White House to pump out government websites and “brand initiatives,”…
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Air conditioning alone won’t save us from killer heat
From my desk in London, I’ve watched Los Angeles with a jolt of recognition. As dangerous heat settles over the city, it’s opening more than a hundred cooling centers and running air-conditioned buses to reach people with nowhere cool to go. It’s a life-saving response to a growing problem. It’s also a quiet admission: For…
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‘Couldn’t care less’: Trump finally weighs in on deadly Iran war flare up
President Donald Trump finally weighed in Saturday on the deadly U.S.-Iran flare-up that has killed at least two U.S. service members, telling a NewsNation reporter he “couldn’t care less” about reports that Iran walked away from the tentative ceasefire. “I couldn’t care less,” Trump told NewsNation’s Hannah Brandt by phone when asked about Iranian officials…
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A TV Show That’s Equal Parts Joy and Torture
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them…