Photographer captures lightning strike on Christ the Redeemer: 'Like a dream come true'

Fernando Braga went viral recently for his stunning photo of lighting striking Rio de Janeiro's iconic statue.

Garin Flowers

·National Reporter and Producer

Tue, March 7, 2023 

Lightning strikes on the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Fernando Braga)

Not everyone can look outside their window and have a direct view of a wonder of the world. But that’s the reality for Rio de Janeiro resident Fernando Braga.

The Brazilian lives with his wife and kids and a direct view of the nearly 100-foot Christ the Redeemer structure, which portrays Jesus Christ with his arms open wide.

But Braga’s view isn’t the reason he went viral a month ago. It was his determination as a photographer, capturing a stunning time-lapse video and screenshots of lightning striking the sculpture, after more than 30 attempts.

“It was unbelievable at first. Like a dream come true, since I was trying for a long time. At that moment, I was expecting to get some lightning around the frame, but not like this one,” Braga told Yahoo News.

The Christ the Redeemer monument sits atop Mount Corcovado in Rio in the Tijuca Forest National Park, a rainforest within the city’s boundaries.

The breathtaking sight was caught during a flash storm that rocked the Brazilian coast on Feb. 10. The bolt of lightning struck the statue's head, making it the perfect moment to catch fire on social media.

Notably, the Christ the Redeemer monument, the biggest representation of Jesus in the world, is more than 2,000 feet above Rio.

“Photography for me is just a hobby. I love to spend my spare time photographing," Braga said. "At home, I have a really nice view of Christ the Redeemer, so I took a lot of photos of it. In sunsets, sunrise[s], with the moon, the sun, airplanes, helicopters, birds, etc. ... So I decided to get one with lightning too.”

Social media reaction

Braga’s photo lit up social media. He made several posts on Instagram and Twitter but the most popular one garnered more than 171,700 “likes” and over 3,200 comments on Instagram.

“I wasn't expecting that much reaction, since technically, this is not a difficult kind of photo,” he said.

His post includes three photos, one a close-up with lightning striking the head of the statue, illuminating it like a halo.

“I am completely in awe of this.. 🙌,” wrote @sweetygrace2.

@Barbaramarchon said “FOTOS PERFEITAS! To arrepiada!❤️,” which translates to “PERFECT PICTURES! I got goosebumps.”

“Fantastic shot 🙌❤️❤️❤️ Hello from the USA,” said @wanderingnotlost88.

User @hen_ry5463 added: “God has sent the world a message!!”

Fun facts about Christ the Redeemer

According to Britannica, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro commissioned the statue and proposed that it be built atop Mount Corcovado so that citizens could see it from anywhere in Rio. The idea was first suggested in the 1850s, but it wasn’t until 1921 that the church introduced the proposal.

Construction started in 1922, and a ceremony to lay the foundation stone of the base was held on April 4 of that year.

“Polish-French sculptor Paul Landowski created the statue. Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa built the statue in collaboration with the French engineer Albert Caquot. Romanian artist Gheorghe Leonida created the statue’s face,” according to enjoytravel.com.

The website continues: “The original sketch was of Christ carrying a large cross in one hand and a globe in the other. The statue earned the nickname ‘Christ with a ball.’ In the end, after surveying the land, a design was decided upon of Christ with his arms wide open in an Art Deco style.”

Construction was completed a little less than 10 years later, and it was dedicated on Oct. 12, 1931. Weighing 635 metric tons, it is the largest Art Deco statue in the world.

In 2007, people from all over the world voted Christ the Redeemer onto the list of the New Seven Wonders of the World, through a campaign launched by the Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation. With hundreds of millions of votes, it made the cut, from 21 finalists.

“A symbol of Christianity across the world, the statue has also become a cultural icon of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil,” the foundation said.

The monument, made of reinforced concrete and soapstone, is accessible by train or car. It now has elevators and escalators to reach its feet, but previously, the only option for visitors was to climb the 220-step staircase.

Lightning strikes are not uncommon

Lightning quite frequently hits Christ the Redeemer, reinforcing Braga’s point that it was not a difficult shot. Lightning rods have been installed to divert strikes that could damage the statue. In fact, lightning struck right before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, damaging the statue’s head and a fingertip. Officials rushed to repair it before the first game kicked off in Rio.

“I just want to say that people who try to take lightning photos [should put their] own safety first. I was shooting at home. ... Protection and safety should always be [a priority]. Once you get that, give it a try! It's really not difficult to take some great shots,” Braga said.

UK
Leather-clad biker Freemasons accelerate membership drive


Patrick Sawer
Sat, 4 March 2023

Members of the Buckinghamshire Motorcycle Lodge, a branch of the Freemasons, gather with their bikes - Christopher Pledger/Telegraph

For centuries the Freemasons have been regarded as a secretive society with ancient and arcane initiation ceremonies, whose adherents rarely discuss their membership.

But a surge in enquiries from people hoping to become initiated into the order is being spearheaded by a very unexpected group of Masons – leather-clad bikers.

Among the most high-profile and colourful of the Freemason’s specialised lodges are those on two wheels. Their powerful machines and dramatic appearance along Britain’s roads have helped drive up the number of enquiries about joining the Masons from 12,000 in 2020 to 18,000 in 2021.

There has also been a significant hike in the number of visitors to the website of The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), up from 65,000 in 2020 to 83,000 in 2021 – a rise of almost 30 per cent.

Among the most high-profile and colourful of the Freemason’s specialised lodges are those on two wheels like the Buckinghamshire Motorcycle Lodge - Christopher Pledger/Telegraph

The Widows Sons Masonic Bikers Association (WSMBA) said: “Our chapters have helped to increase Masonic membership through our presence and visibility during public motorcycle events and rallies.”

There are nearly a dozen motorbike lodges, gathering together to support charitable causes and raise awareness of the order among other bikers.

These include the Mike Hailwood Lodge in Warwickshire, named after the world champion Grand Prix motorcyclist and racing car driver killed in a road traffic accident in 1981; the Freewheelers Lodge in Lincolnshire; and the Chevaliers de Fer in Leicestershire and Rutland.

Their initiatives included distributing food to vulnerable members of the community during the Covid pandemic.

But the motorcycling Masons are at pains to point out that although they wear patches and other identifying regalia on their leathers they are not biker gangs.

“They are bound by the Masonic Book of Constitutions and are expected to represent the fraternity positively at all times,” said the UGLE, the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of Freemasons in England, Wales and the Commonwealth.

Ian Chandler, a former police detective and now provincial grandmaster of the Surrey Lodge, told The Telegraph: “Motorcycle lodges might be a long way from people’s idea of the Freemasons, but it’s the reality now.”

Other specialised, trade- or hobby-based lodges include those for the armed forces, classic-car enthusiasts, farmers, golfers and rugby players.

Biking leathers have been added to the traditional garb of Freemasons - Christopher Pledger/Telegraph

The growing interest in membership comes as the organisation urges existing Masons to be open about their affiliation and encourage others to join.

Jonathan Spence, pro grand master of the UGLE, said: “We want to be a thriving membership organisation that people aspire to join.

“We have only recently been recording the number of enquiries given our new use of social media and this year was higher than last year, and we are extremely pleased with the volume we have received.”

There is a waiting list of 6,000 people expecting to become members of UGLE, with more than 8,800 membership enquiries received in less than three months.

Mr Spence added: “We have been experiencing, post-Covid, an increasing trend of new joiners. We are certainly seeing the positive impact of converting enquiries into actual memberships.

Today’s Freemasons insist the organisation’s reputation for secrecy is far from the truth and is simply a hangover from the 1930s, when Freemasons were persecuted under the Nazis and maintained a low profile for self-preservation.

“We are not a secret society. We are about getting the best out of yourself as a human being while at the same time contributing to society at large,” said Mr Spence.

New George Michael documentary tells how the singer was outed

Miranda Norris
Sat, 4 March 2023 

George Michael (Image: NQ staff)

A new documentary explores how Oxfordshire resident George Michael bravely defended his sexuality with 1998 single 'Outside' and became a gay icon.

The superstar, who had a home in Goring, was arrested in 1998 for a lewd act in a LA public toilet.

The two-part documentary to mark the quarter-century since the story broke tells the story of "how a potentially career-crushing event became a defining moment for gay liberation".

The singer stood up to the press and told CNN in 1998: “I’m a very proud man. I want people to know that I have not been exposed as a gay man.

“I feel stupid and I feel reckless and weak for having allowed my sexuality to be exposed this way, but I don’t feel any shame whatsoever. And neither do I think I should.”

The same year, he released the hit song Outside which satirised his arrest and had a video set in a men’s toilet with Michael dressed as an LAPD police officer.

This summer George Michael fans will flock to the Oxfordshire village the singer loved to celebrate what would have been his 60th birthday.

The Wham! star, who had a 16th century £3.4million home by the river, died on Christmas Day in 2016 aged 53.

Oxford Mail:

Three lifelong fans have collaborated with tribute artist Steve Mitchell to put on a celebration event at Goring Village Hall this June.

All the money raised by the GM60 event will go to the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, a charity which George supported.

Rachel Alderton, from Bury, Lancashire, said: “Many of the fans meet in Goring village every year but this year we wanted to do something special and not only celebrate George’s 60th birthday together but raise money for one of his charities.

"He was an exceptionally generous man and his charitable work meant so much to him, so it’s important for the fans that we continue to do this for him.

"It was also important for us to thank the lovely locals for welcoming us to Goring, so we decided to make a donation to the Goring Village Hall fundraising appeal in support of the local community.”

A limited number of tickets can be purchased at www.gm60.co.uk

George Michael: Outed airs at 9pm on Channel 4 on March 6 and 7.

Women's World Cup 2023: FIFA in talks for One Love armband solution

Sat, 4 March 2023 


England captain Leah Williamson could be allowed to wear a One Love armband at the Women's World Cup after FIFA President Gianni Infantino revealed he is trying to find a solution to the dispute that dominated the start of Qatar 2022.

England abandoned plans for Harry Kane to wear the multicoloured garment highlighting LGBTQ rights at the men's World Cup in November after being threatened with sanctions by FIFA.

But when asked about them being worn at the Women's World Cup, Mr Infantino said today in London: "We are looking for a dialogue and we will have a solution in place well before the Women's World Cup. I hope so."

Williamson said she wants to be allowed to wear the One Love armband in Australia when the European champions open their World Cup campaign in July, saying it would be a "great stage and a great time to promote the values we believe in so much".

Unlike Australia and New Zealand, Qatar has laws prohibiting same-sex relations and some fans were blocked from having rainbows on their clothing during the World Cup.

England and Wales were among seven nations that announced last September they wanted to wear One Love armbands in Qatar.

Read more:
England to face Denmark and China at Women's World Cup

But there was no clear response from FIFA for two months until the days before their opening games when they were warned "sporting sanctions" could be imposed because the armbands were not an approved piece of equipment under the World Cup tournament regulations.

"I think we all went through a learning process there," Mr Infantino said after a meeting of football's lawmaking body.

"What we will try to do better this time is to search and look for dialogue with everyone involved - the captains, the federations, the players generally, FIFA, from all over the world - to capture the different sensitivities to explain, to exchange and to see what can be done in order to express a position, values or whatever feeling that somebody has without hurting anyone else in a positive way."

The Women's World Cup features openly gay players - something that has never been the case at a men's tournament.

Williamson wore the One Love armband while playing for England in the Arnold Clark Cup - a mini-tournament not organised by FIFA.

Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said: "I think nobody enjoyed the circumstances we had at the men's World Cup.

"That was difficult for all of us. We have started a conversation to make sure we can resolve the situation a long time before the [women's] World Cup and we will absolutely be involving a broad range of people in that conversation. But the intention is to agree something."

Mr Bullingham was attending the meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) that sets the laws of the game.

The IFAB was formed 137 years ago by the FAs from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who still feature on the board alongside FIFA.

At the Qatar World Cup, England and Wales said they were prepared to "pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations" but they could not "put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play".

A statement added: "We are very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented - we wrote to FIFA in September informing them of our wish to wear the One Love armband to actively support inclusion in football, and had no response."

Cameroon charges tycoon in reporter killing case

Sat, 4 March 2023 


A prominent Cameroonian businessman was charged on Saturday with complicity in the torture of a journalist who was murdered in a high-profile case that has rocked the country, his lawyer told AFP.

Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, reputedly close to ministers and senior officials, was arrested on February 6 and brought before a military court in the capital Yaounde on Friday before being remanded, his lawyer said.

A source at the court confirmed the report to AFP on condition of anonymity. The authorities did not respond to requests for comment on the charges Amougou Belinga faces.

Radio journalist Martinez Zogo, who was kidnapped and brutally murdered in January, was outspoken against graft and financial sleaze and had often faced threats over his work.

Amougou Belinga, owner of L'Anecdote media group, "was arrested... at dawn" last month, the company said.

The tycoon has holdings in banking, finance, insurance and property, as well as L'Anecdote, which owns a daily newspaper of that name and several pro-government TV and radio stations.

Belinga's lawyer said his client was "not charged with the murder of Martinez Zogo", adding: "It is only an indictment, the judicial investigation has only just begun".

Belinga "was placed under a detention order... at the main prison in Kondengi" after being "presented before an investigating judge at the military court," a media group he owns said in a statement.

- Suspects -

Several people suspected of involvement in the case were also brought before the military court on Friday evening, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

Leopold Maxime Eko Eko, head of the General Directorate for External Investigations (DGRE) and its director of operations, Justin Danwe, are among those suspected, a communication ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity, alongside other official sources who also requested confidentiality.

Denis Omgba Bomba, head of the National Media Observatory, a unit attached to the communications ministry, previously confirmed the arrest and said the tycoon had been "named a suspect in the killing of Martinez Zogo".

Zogo, 50, was the manager of the privately-owned radio station Amplitude FM and host of a daily show called Embouteillage (Traffic Jam).

He had frequently named Amougou Belinga in his corruption accusations.

Zogo was abducted on January 17 outside a police station in the suburbs of the capital Yaounde, and his mutilated corpse was found five days later.

Just days before he was killed, he had told listeners about threats he faced.

The murder sparked outcry, including a protest by 20 leading Cameroonians over the government's "long tradition of trivialising impunity and accepting atrocities."

RSF's Press Freedom Index ranks Cameroon a lowly 118th out of 180 countries.

The government has insisted Cameroon is "a state of law, where liberty is guaranteed, including the freedom of the press".

jrn-tg/gw/bp/lcm/gw

Treasures from new digs reveal that Pompeii is far from ‘frozen in time’

Natalie Haynes
Sat, 4 March 2023 

Photograph: Alamy

The first sign was smoke rising from the mountain and it was Pliny’s mother who noticed it. They didn’t know which mountain this cloud came from, Pliny the Younger says, but it rose in the air before spreading out like a pine tree. Pliny wrote two letters to his friend, the historian Tacitus. They are quietly devastating: my uncle died in a disaster that destroyed some of the most beautiful places there are.

Related: Discoveries in Pompeii reveal lives of lower and middle classes

The younger man lived to write about the eruption which would destroy whole towns in a day because he refused to join his uncle on a rescue boat heading towards Vesuvius. Pliny preferred to stay at home reading a history book. The story of Pompeii is full of such moments: lives preserved and destroyed, objects saved and lost, stories told or forgotten. And every new excavation produces more.

For as long as Pompeii has lain under volcanic debris – since 79 AD – people have been digging it up. Some of the earliest were treasure-hunters, some were disaster-tourists, and some were probably Pompeii’s former residents trying to get back their lost possessions.

A dig in region five of Pompeii in 2018 reveals a fresco of Leda and the swan. Photograph: Cesare Abbate/EPA

Although the popular image of Pompeii is of a town frozen in time, it has always been in a state of flux. With roughly a third of the town still unexcavated, there is understandable excitement at this week’s news that archaeologists have started to dig a new area of the site. Not least because recent finds in Region 5 (another newly excavated area) have been wonderful: the House of the Dolphins with its gorgeous entrance hall painted with birds as well as the dolphins that named it; brightly painted political graffiti on the façade of a house; and not omitting the fresco of Priapus, weighing his gigantic erection on a set of scales. Once seen, I doubt that’s ever forgotten.

Before 79, Pompeii was not a particularly well-known place. It’s rarely mentioned by historical sources of its time. A small town in Campania, it was too unfashionable for Rome’s elite to summer there: instead they went to Baiae, across the Bay of Naples. And when Pompeii came to Rome’s attention, it was rarely for a good reason. In 59AD, it held gladiatorial games in which the violence spilled onto the streets from the arena. People visiting Pompeii from nearby Nuceria were so badly beaten that survivors dragged their battered bodies to Rome to protest. Pompeii was banned from holding games for 10 years.

Ironically it was the obliteration of the town – along with others nearby – that put it on the map. And at least in part that’s because we have Pliny’s eye-witness account. But there is still a huge amount we don’t know. Even the date of the fateful eruption is contested. Pliny tells us that cloud rose into the sky on the ninth day before the Kalends of September (which would be 24 August, as we count it). But the archaeological evidence of plant matter from the area disputes this date, implying it was later in the autumn. This isn’t to suggest Pliny couldn’t tell what time of year it was, but his letter has been copied by scribes through the ages and mistakes do slide into manuscripts this way. All this is just part of the beguiling mystery of Pompeii. Even things which seem certain rarely are.

A thermopolium – a Roman fast food joint – found in 2020.

 Photograph: Parco Archeologico Di Pompei/EPA

Plenty of people believe Pompeii was lost under a sea of molten lava, but it was pumice and ash that covered the city: that’s why if you want to see ancient buildings with more than one storey, you’re better off visiting Herculaneum. Herculaneum was hit by a pyroclastic surge of hot gas and ash – which killed its inhabitants very quickly – but its buildings received less damage than Pompeii, where most upper levels were demolished by huge flying lumps of rock.

When Pliny’s uncle paused in his attempted evacuation mission of those who lived near the volcano (he rushed to the place others fled from, Pliny tells Tacitus), he stopped to sleep. The friends he had come to rescue had to wake him so they could get him out of the room, as the courtyard outside filled with stones. If they’d waited any longer, says Pliny, they wouldn’t have been able to open the door. But it doesn’t matter in the end, as his uncle does not survive the eruption.Interactive

The number of those who died is also open to debate. About 1,100 bodies have been found in Pompeii so far, and roughly two-thirds of the site has been excavated. So perhaps 2,000 people may have died there. The rest of the population – estimates range between 7,000 and 30,000 – must have escaped when the earth tremors that preceded the eruption (as Pliny also reports) proved impossible to ignore.

There is so much to look forward to discovering over the next few years that I feel a bit of a killjoy reminding myself that the primary purpose of these new excavations is to keep the site safe from further harm, rather than to uncover incredible frescos of Greek myths, or revelations about first-century snack bars. Although recent finds have provided both of these at once, with the uncovering in 2020 of a thermopolium (a shop serving hot snacks). The counter of this fast-food joint was decorated with pictures of a rooster and ducks, which may have reflected the type of food served. But there was also a much grander fresco depicting a nereid (sea-nymph) riding a seahorse through fish-filled waters. Even if that counter served fish, it is a grandiose way of saying so.

Our relationship with remains from the ancient world has changed a great deal in the time that Pompeii has been drawing tourists. Once, archaeologists would “hide” recent discoveries near the surface of a site for visiting dignitaries to find. And while we would frown on this kind of behaviour now, it’s impossible to be too judgemental of those who were trying to keep resources flowing to their dig from whichever royal or other VIP came visiting.

While the new dig is about preservation rather than discovery, revelations and increased understanding of Pompeii will occur just the same. Archaeologists will be digging earth out of Region 9, preventing collapses that could easily damage the ruins that remain. Will they find another eye-catching fresco of Leda and Jupiter (in his disguise as a swan) as they dig? Or further proof of the little town’s contact with a much wider world? One of the most remarkable finds from Pompeii is an ivory statuette of the Indian goddess Yakshi.

Interactive

The letter of Pliny the Younger that describes the eruption of Vesuvius reads like a disaster movie: the earth shuddering beneath carriage wheels so their vehicles suddenly jump across the road; a thick fog of smoke and debris so no one can see even a short distance; the island of Capri shrouded in ash, invisible to Pliny on the mainland. Some thought there were no gods anymore, he says, only endless night. And yet, Pliny survives, as does his mother and their friend. The story of this disaster will live for ever, he tells Tacitus: semper victurus. And as the archaeologists dig up a little more of Pompeii, and the world waits and watches, he is right.

UK

Five medical discoveries made in Worcestershire

Matt Hancock-Bruce
Sat, 4 March 2023 

Flower remedies, hydrotherapy and Worcestershire Sauce are just some of the medical discoveries made in Worcestershire (Image: NQ/Getty)

Worcestershire has a rich medical history that has helped influence health across the world.

A new chapter will be added to that history later this year with the opening of the Three Counties Medical School.

Ahead of this, Dr Jason Seewoodharry, a Worcester City GP based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has taken a look back at five pioneering medical discoveries made in the county.

The British Medical Association

Sir Charles Hastings (Image: Newsquest)

The British Medical Association (BMA) was founded here in Worcester by the famous English physician, Sir Charles Hastings (1794 - 1866).

Sir Charles Hastings was educated at Royal Grammar School and saved thousands of lives in Worcester during the cholera and typhus outbreaks that engulfed our city in 1832 and 1849.

He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1850 for his pioneering work and the medical education centre at Worcestershire Royal Hospital is named after him with a medical museum inside that contains collections spanning over three centuries.

Bach flower remedies

Flower remedies (Image: Getty/Heike Brauer)

The founder of the Bach flower remedies, a form of alternative medicine inspired by classical homeopathic traditions, was Dr Edward Bach, a microbiologist from Worcestershire.

Bach flower remedies are solutions of brandy and water - the water containing extreme dilutions of flower material.

Dr Edward Bach claimed the dew found on flower petals retained the supposed healing properties of that plant.

Hydrotherapy

The Malvhina fountain in Malvern (Image: NQ)

Hydrotherapy originated in our country.

Malvern water, a natural spring from the Malvern hills, led to Malvern becoming famous for the “water cure”, which is now referred to as hydrotherapy, namely, a branch of alternative medicine that involves the use of water for pain relief.

The term encompasses a broad range of therapeutic methods that take advantage of the physical properties of water to stimulate blood circulation and treat the symptoms of certain diseases.

Dr Richard Morton

Dr Richard Morton played a key role in the first diagnosis of TB (Image: Getty/anyaberkut)

The famous English physician, Dr Richard Morton (1637 - 1698) was from Worcester and played a pivotal role in elucidating the cause of tuberculosis (TB), which at the time accounted for over 18 per cent of all deaths in the City of London.

His research and publications are also significant in that it also contains the first recognised medical descriptions of the wasting condition now known as Anorexia Nervosa.

Worcestershire Sauce

Worcestershire Sauce (Image: NQ)

And last but not least, our most famous product, Worcestershire Sauce, is a medical discovery in its own right!

Every five-gram serving contains small quantities of iron, zinc, vitamin C, potassium, copper, niacin, antioxidants and vitamin B6 to keep your nervous system, bone marrow, immune system, skin and gut healthy.

The week in audio: The Witch Trials of JK Rowling – review


Miranda Sawyer

THE GUARDIAN
Sat, 4 March 2023 

Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The Witch Trials of JK Rowling (The Free Press)

Gary Davies (BBC Radio 2)

The Witch Trials of JK Rowling is a strange podcast. Rowling’s careful, crisp mind contrasts with host Megan Phelps-Roper’s mushy Christian desire to be as kind and evenhanded as possible. That’s not to say that the podcast isn’t interesting – it is – just that it’s uneven and reeeally streeetched out. It needs a far tougher editor.

A bit of background. Phelps-Roper is known for being brought up in, and then leaving, the virulently homophobic Westboro Baptist church, her fundamentalist views changed by Twitter (I know!). Landing Rowling as an interviewee is a huge coup for Phelps-Roper, as Rowling is private, and we understand why when, in episode one, she recounts how her ex-husband tried to break into her home. We should also note that The Witch Trials comes from a production company started by Bari Weiss, a journalist who fell out with the New York Times over her provocative “anti-woke” stance on cancel culture. Because of this, and given the title, we assume that the podcast exists because Rowling has been disowned by many – some of her fans and others – for her views on women’s and trans people’s rights and how they can conflict. Perhaps we will get to this subject; however, it appears, only once Phelps-Roper has gone through every single US cultural permutation of the past 20 years.

The programme is in chronological order and follows Rowling’s professional history (her personal life is included to show how it shaped her work and how her work changed her life). The longueurs occur because we are also given the context in which her work was published. By work, of course, we mean Harry Potter, or Hairy Podder, as every American insists on calling it. There are a lot on this show. The second episode spends what seems like days on 1990s US Christian evangelists and their mad belief that the Harry Potter books truly promote witchcraft to children, that kids might “drink unicorn blood”. It’s hard to maintain interest throughout this lunacy.

Safer still are the hands of the unacknowledged Gary Davies, there to smooth things over in between Ken Bruce and Vernon Kay

The third episode, out last week, about the rise of internet message boards and their overspill into the mainstream, was much better. The two examined are Tumblr (essentially sweet and lefty) and 4chan (like a racist, Columbine-loving Andrew Tate). Tumblr gave many young people the space to define their own gender queer identities. And 4chan allowed its members to rail against societal norms in a different manner, paving the way for self-promoting feminist-baiters such as Milo Yiannopoulos.

This is Jon Ronson-style stuff, though Phelps-Roper is less sharp, journalistically. Really what The Witch Trials highlights is what happens to both artist and fans when a creation balloons into something unmanageable. Harry Potter – and via Harry, Rowling – became so popular that everyone, even those who with no stake in the game, decided on an opinion and all subtleties were lost. Rowling, as she says, may have hoped that the books’ message that humans are flawed, complicated, a mixture of good and bad, is what would resonate. But – and she sees this – that’s not what’s happened. Harry and Rowling became too famous for that. Now they’re seen as entirely good or utterly bad. There are four episodes to go.

Is the US government ready for the rise of artificial intelligence?

Robert Reich
Tue, 7 March 2023 



We’re at a Frankenstein moment.

An artificial intelligence boom is taking over Silicon Valley, with high-tech firms racing to develop everything from self-driving cars to chatbots capable of writing poetry.

Yet AI could also spread conspiracy theories and lies even more quickly than the internet already does – fueling political polarization, hate, violence and mental illness in young people. It could undermine national security with deepfakes.

In recent weeks, members of Congress have sounded the alarm over the dangers of AI but no bill has been proposed to protect individuals or stop the development of AI’s most threatening aspects.

Most lawmakers don’t even know what AI is, according to Representative Jay Obernolte, the only member of Congress with a master’s degree in artificial intelligence.

What to do?

Many tech executives claim they can simultaneously look out for their company’s interests and for society’s. Rubbish. Why should we assume that their profit motives align perfectly with the public’s needs?

Sam Altman – the CEO of OpenAI, the company responsible for some of the most mind-blowing recent advances in AI – believes no company, including his, should be trusted to solve these problems. The boundaries of AI should be decided, he says, not by “Microsoft or OpenAI, but society, governments, something like that”.

But does anyone trust the government to do this? If not, how can “society” manage it? Where can we look for a model of how to protect ourselves from the downsides of an emerging technology with such extraordinary upsides, without stifling it?

One place to look is Herbert Hoover. Seriously. Not when Hoover was president and notoriously failed to do anything about the Great Depression, but when he was US secretary of commerce between 1921 to 1929.

One of Hoover’s great achievements a century ago, largely unrecognized and unremembered today, was managing the development of a new and crucial technology in the public interest.

That new technology was electricity. Thomas Edison and other entrepreneurs and the corporations they spawned were busily promoting all manner of electric gadgets.

Those gadgets had the potential to make life easier for millions of people. But they could also pose grave dangers. They could destroy buildings, and injure or kill people.

Hoover set out to ensure that the infrastructure for electricity – wires, plugs, connectors, fuses, voltage and all else – was safe and reliable. And that it conformed to uniform standards so products were compatible with one another.

He created these standards for safety, reliability, and compatibility by convening groups of engineers, scientists, academics, experts and sometimes even journalists and philosophers – and asking them to balance public and private interests. He then worked with the producers of electric gadgets to implement those standards.

Importantly, the standards were non-proprietary. No one could own them. No one could charge for their use. They were, to use the parlance of today, “open source.”

Much of today’s internet is based on open-source standards. We take them for granted. Computers could not communicate without shared models, such as HTTP, FTP, and TCP/IP.

Although digital standards haven’t protected the public from disinformation and hate speech, they have encouraged the creation of services such as Wikipedia, which are neither privately owned nor driven by profits.

In fact, you could view our entire system of intellectual property – copyrights, patents, and trade names – as premised on eventual open-source usage. After a certain length of time, all creations lose their intellectual property protections and move into the public domain where anyone is free to use them. (Not incidentally, when he was secretary of commerce, Hoover advanced and streamlined the intellectual property system.)

So what would Hoover have done about AI?

He wouldn’t wait for the producers of AI to set its limits. Nor would he trust civil servants to do it. Instead, he’d convene large and wide-ranging panels to identify AI’s potential problems and dangers, come up with ideas for containing them, and float the ideas with the public.

If the proposed standards stood the test, he’d make them voluntary for the industry – with the understanding that the standards could be modified if they proved impracticable or unnecessarily hobbled innovation. But once in place, if corporations chose not to adapt the standards, their AI products would lose intellectual property protections or be prohibited.

Hoover would also create incentives for the creation of open-source AI products that would be free to the public.

In other words, Hoover wouldn’t rely solely on business or on government, but on society to gauge the common good.

AI has the potential for huge societal benefits, but it could also become a monster. To guide the way, we need the leadership and understanding of someone like Herbert Hoover when he was secretary of commerce.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

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'Total embarrassment': Denmark slams climate fund failure



Tue, 7 March 2023 at 5:01


Denmark, an active foreign aid donor, on Tuesday slammed as a "total embarrassment" the fact rich nations have failed to raise a promised $100 billion a year to help poor countries battle climate change.

Dan Jorgensen, Denmark's development minister, told the UN Least Developed Countries summit that "trillions" would be needed in coming decades to control the fallout from rising temperatures.

The impact of a heating planet on the world's 46 poorest nations has been a key topic at the summit in Doha that ends Thursday.

Least developed countries account for four percent of polluting emissions but suffer more than two thirds of deaths from floods, storms and other climate related disasters, according to Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"It is a total embarrassment that the developed world has not yet delivered on the $100 billion that was promised in 2009," Jorgensen said.

Rich nations promised at a climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009 that the sum would be given annually by 2020 but have so far only reached about $83 billion.

Denmark is one of a handful of Scandinavian-dominated countries that have passed a UN target to give 0.7 percent of gross national income in foreign aid.

Some developed nations have cut aid budgets because of the coronavirus pandemic while some European countries, including Denmark, have diverted foreign aid money to support refugees from the Ukraine war and other international crises.

Denmark is "delivering more than our share," said Jorgensen.

At a global level "we need to step up that financing," he added, arguing that "we need trillions, so 100 billion really should not be a problem".

France's minister of state for development Chrysoula Zacharopoulou said that her country wanted to step up negotiations on aid financing at a summit in Paris on June 22-23.

Stiell said that the COP28 climate conference to be held in the United Arab Emirates this year would be key for setting "milestones" and "targets" for future years.

He said his office was ready to help all LDC countries set up national action plans on climate change before the conference in November.

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