Russian 'trophy' tank flies American flag as it attacks Ukraine

Matthew Chapman
August 18, 2025 
RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as they meet to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

In the wake of President Donald Trump's summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Kremlin propagandists are going wild with a new video intended to humiliate Trump, The Daily Beast reported on Monday.

In the video, broadcast by the Russian propaganda network RT, Russian troops in Ukraine can be seen "cruising into battle in a captured American M113 APC, which they described as a 'trophy,' while flying both the U.S. and Russian flags in tandem."

The display of an American flag was not lost on Ukrainian observers.

“How should this be understood? Russian propagandists are showing a video where Russian equipment goes on the attack with flags of Russia and the USA,” said Ukrainian Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak, a close associate to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “In fact, Russians are using United States symbols in their own terrorist, aggressive war with the killing of civilian people. Maximum audacity.”

The summit, which took place at the end of last week, was wildly criticized for giving Putin literal red-carpet treatment, and not substantively moving forward any peace talks.

Indeed, Trump appears to have softened his posture against Russia, which had been growing more hawkish for weeks as Putin refused to make any concessions. Before the meeting, Trump warned there would be "very severe consequences" and potential new economic measures against Russian trading partners if Russia did not agree to a ceasefire. However, Trump emerged saying a ceasefire did not need to happen immediate

Watch the video below or at this link.

Drought, dams and diplomacy: Afghanistan’s water crisis goes regional


By AFP
August 17, 2025


Over four decades of war, Afghanistan wielded limited control over five major river basins that flow across its borders in all directions into downstream neighbouring nations - Copyright AFP Mohammad Faisal NAWEED
Susannah Walden

Over four decades of war, Afghanistan wielded limited control over five major river basins that flow across its borders into downstream neighbouring nations.

But as Taliban authorities swept to power and tightened their grip on the country, they have pushed for Afghanistan’s water sovereignty, launching infrastructure projects to harness precious resources in the arid territory.

Dams and canals have sparked tensions with neighbouring states, testing the Taliban authorities’ efforts to build strong regional ties, as they remain largely isolated on the global stage since their 2021 takeover.

At the same time, the region is facing the shared impacts of climate change intensifying water scarcity, as temperatures rise and precipitation patterns shift, threatening glaciers and snowpack that feed the country’s rivers.

Here are key points about Afghanistan’s transboundary water challenges:



– Central Asian states to the north –



Afghanistan is emerging as a new player in often fraught negotiations on the use of the Amu Darya, one of two key rivers crucial for crops in water-stressed Central Asia, where water sharing relies on fragile accords since Soviet times.

Central Asian states have expressed concern over the Qosh Tepa mega canal project that could divert up to 21 percent of the Amu Darya’s total flow to irrigate 560,000 hectares of land across Afghanistan’s arid north, and further deplete the Aral Sea.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are likely to face the biggest impact, both joined by Kazakhstan in voicing alarm, even as they deepen diplomatic ties with the Taliban authorities — officially recognised so far by only Russia.

“No matter how friendly the tone is now,” water governance expert Mohd Faizee warned, “at some point there will be consequences for Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan when the canal starts operating”.

Taliban officials have denied that the project will have a major impact on the Amu Darya’s water levels and pledged it will improve food security in a country heavily dependent on climate-vulnerable agriculture and facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

“There is an abundance of water, especially when the Amu Darya floods and glacial meltwater flows into it” in the warmer months, said project manager Sayed Zabihullah Miri, during a visit to the canal works in Faryab province, where diggers carved into a drought-ridden plain dotted with camels and locusts.



– Iran to the west –



Iran is the only country with which Afghanistan has a formal water sharing treaty, agreed in 1973 over the Helmand river, which traverses Taliban heartland territory, but the accord was never fully implemented.

Longstanding tensions over the river’s resources have spiked over dams in southern Afghanistan, particularly in periods of drought, which are likely to increase as climate shocks hit the region’s water cycle.

Iran, facing pressure in its parched southeastern region, has repeatedly demanded that Afghanistan respect its rights, charging that upstream dams restrict the Helmand’s flow into a border lake.

The Taliban authorities insist there is not enough water to release more to Iran, blaming the impact of climate pressures on the whole region.

They also argue long-term poor water management has meant Afghanistan has not gotten its full share, according to an Afghanistan Analysts Network report by water resources management expert Assem Mayar.

Iran and Afghanistan have no formal agreement over their other shared river basin, the Harirud, which also flows into Turkmenistan and is often combined into a single basin with the Morghab river.

While infrastructure exists on the Afghan portions of the basin, some has not been fully utilised, Faizee said.

But that could change, he added, as the end of conflict in Afghanistan means infrastructure works don’t incur vast security costs on top of construction budgets, lifting a barrier to development of projects such as the Pashdan dam inaugurated in August on the Harirud.



– Pakistan to the east –



Water resources have not topped the agenda in consistently fraught relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s Kabul river basin, which encompasses tributaries to the greater Indus basin and feeds the capital and largest city, is shared with Pakistan.

The countries, however, have no formal cooperation mechanism.

With the Afghan capital wracked by a severe water crisis, the Taliban authorities have sought to revitalise old projects and start new ones to tackle the problem, risking fresh tensions with Pakistan.

But the lack of funds and technical capacity means the Taliban authorities’ large water infrastructure projects across the country could take many years to come to fruition — time that could be good for diplomacy, but bad for ordinary Afghans.

Tourism deal puts one of Egypt’s last wild shores at risk

By AFP
August 17, 2025


Ras Hankorab sits inside Wadi al-Gemal National Park, declared a protected area in 2003 - Copyright AFP Khaled DESOUKI

Lobna Monieb

In Egypt’s Wadi al-Gemal, where swimmers share a glistening bay with sea turtles, a shadowy tourism deal is threatening one of the Red Sea’s last wild shores.

Off Ras Hankorab, the endangered green turtles weave between coral gardens that marine biologists call among the most resilient to climate change in the world.

By night in nesting season, they crawl ashore under the Milky Way’s glow, undisturbed by artificial lights.

So when excavators rolled onto the sand in March, reserve staff and conservationists sounded the alarm.

Thousands signed a petition to “Save Hankorab” after discovering a contract between an unnamed government entity and an investment company to build a resort.

The environment ministry — which has jurisdiction over the park — protested, construction was halted and the machinery quietly removed.

But months later, parliamentary requests for details have gone unanswered, and insiders say the plans remain alive.

“Only certain kinds of tourism development work for a beach like this,” said Mahmoud Hanafy, a marine biology professor and scientific adviser to the Red Sea governorate.

“Noise, lights, heavy human activity — they could destroy the ecosystem.”

Hankorab sits inside Wadi al-Gemal National Park, declared a protected area in 2003.



– Coastal expansion –



The UN Development Programme (UNDP) describes it as home to “some of the last undisturbed natural beaches on the Southern Red Sea coast” — an area now caught between environmental protection and Egypt’s urgent push for investment.

Egypt, mired in its worst economic crisis in decades, is betting big on its 3,000 kilometres of coastline as a revenue source.

A $35-billion deal with the United Arab Emirates to develop Ras al-Hekma on the Mediterranean set the tone, and similar proposals for the Red Sea have followed.

In June, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi allocated 174,400 square kilometres (67,300 square miles) of Red Sea land to the finance ministry to help cut public debt.

The Red Sea — where tourism is the main employer — is key to Cairo’s plan to attract 30 million visitors by 2028, double today’s numbers.

Yet the UNDP warned as early as 2019 that Egyptian tourism growth had “largely been at the expense of the environment”.

Since then, luxury resorts and gated compounds have spread along hundreds of kilometres, displacing communities and damaging fragile habitats.

“The goal is to make as much money as possible from developing these reserves, which means destroying them,” said environmental lawyer Ahmed al-Seidi.

“It also violates the legal obligations of the nature reserves law.”



– Legal limbo –



At Hankorab, Hanafy says the core problem is legal.

“The company signed a contract with a government entity other than the one managing the reserve,” he said.

If true, Seidi says, the deal is “null and void”.

When construction was reported in March, MP Maha Abdel Nasser sought answers from the environment ministry and the prime minister -— but got none.

At a subsequent meeting, officials could not identify the company behind the project, and no environmental impact report was produced.

Construction is still halted, “which is reassuring, at least for now”, Abdel Nasser said. “But there are no guarantees about the future.”

For now, the most visible change is a newly built gate marked “Ras Hankorab” in Latin letters.

Entry now costs 300 Egyptian pounds ($6) — five times more than before — with tickets that do not name the issuing authority.

An employee who started in March recalls that before the project there were “only a few umbrellas and unusable bathrooms”.

Today, there are new toilets, towels and sun loungers, with a cafe and restaurant promised soon.

The legal and environmental uncertainty remains, leaving Hankorab’s future — and the management of one of Egypt’s last undisturbed Red Sea beaches — unresolved.

Myanmar junta sets December 28 poll date despite raging civil war


By AFP
August 18, 2025


Myanmar's junta has touted elections as a way to end the civil war and offered cash rewards to opposition fighters willing to lay down their arms ahead of the vote - Copyright AFP/File STR

Myanmar’s junta said Monday that long-promised elections will start on December 28, despite a raging civil war that has put much of the country out of its control, and international monitors slating the poll as a charade.

Myanmar has been consumed by conflict since the military deposed the government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, making unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.

Swathes of the country are beyond military control — administered by a myriad of pro-democracy guerrillas and powerful ethnic armed organisations which have pledged to block polls in their enclaves.

“The first phase of the multi-party democratic general election for each parliament will begin on Sunday 28 December 2025,” Myanmar’s Union Election Commission said in a statement.

“Dates for the subsequent phases will be announced later,” the statement added.

Myanmar’s civil war has killed thousands, left more than half the nation in poverty, and more than 3.5 million people living displaced.

The junta has touted elections as a way to end the conflict and offered cash rewards to opposition fighters willing to lay down their arms ahead of the vote.

However Suu Kyi remains jailed, while many opposition lawmakers ousted by the coup are boycotting it and a UN expert has branded the vote a “fraud” designed to rebrand continuing military rule.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is currently ruling Myanmar as acting president, also serving as the chief of the armed forces which has ruled the country for most of its post-independence history.

Analysts say the election will likely see Min Aung Hlaing maintain his power over any new government.

Meanhile, they say, the vote may cause further splits in already fractious array of opposition groups as they weigh whether to participate in the poll.

A census held last year as preparation for the election estimated it failed to collect data from 19 million of the country’s 51 million people, provisional results said.

The results cited “significant security constraints” as one reason for the shortfall — giving a sign of how limited the reach of the election may be amid the civil war.

Rain halts rescue operation after Pakistan floods kill hundreds


By AFP
August 18, 2025


Flash floods killed more than 200 people in worst-hit Buner district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - Copyright AFP Abdul MAJEED
Ahmad KHAN with Lehaz ALI in Peshawar

Rain on Monday halted search and rescue operations in northern Pakistan after flash floods that have killed nearly 350 people with around 200 still missing, officials said.

Torrential rains across the country since Thursday have caused flooding, rising waters and landslides that have swept away entire villages and left many residents trapped in the rubble.

Most of the deaths — more than 320 — were reported in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the provincial disaster agency, which warned of new flash floods “till Thursday”.

Volunteers had been assisting hundreds of rescue workers in their race against time to find possible survivors and retrieve bodies as fresh rains started lashing the province.

“This morning fresh rains forced a halt to relief operations,” said Nisar Ahmad, 31, a volunteer in worst-hit Buner district, where “12 villages have been completely wiped out and 219 bodies have been recovered”.

“Dozens of bodies are still buried under the mud and rocks, which can only be recovered with heavy machinery. However, the makeshift tracks built to access the area have once again been destroyed by the new rains,” he added.

Around 200 people are still missing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local authorities.



– ‘We feel scared’ –



Many people fled to seek shelter under damaged infrastructure and in the mountains in Buner, an area with difficult terrain.

“Even if it rains a little now, we feel scared because there was light rain that day. And then the unsuspecting people were swept away by the storm,” said Buner resident Ghulam Hussain, 35.

“Children and women are running and screaming up the mountains to escape,” Hazrat Ullah, 18, told AFP.

Volunteer Ahmad said there were also fears for the future due to a lack of food supplies and clean water.

“Many livestock have also perished in the cloudburst, and their decomposing bodies are spreading a foul odour in several places. Right now, our most urgent need is clean drinking water, and I appeal to the government to provide it,” he said.

The monsoon season brings about three-quarters of South Asia’s annual rainfall, which is vital for agriculture and food security but also causes widespread destruction.

According to the National Disaster Agency, the intensity of this year’s monsoon is about 50 to 60 percent higher than last year.

Landslides and flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which typically begins in June and lasts until the end of September.

The heavy rains that have battered Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon have claimed the lives of more than 650 people, with over 920 injured.

Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is increasingly facing extreme weather events.

In 2022, monsoon floods submerged one-third of the country and resulted in approximately 1,700 deaths.

Hopes for survivors wane as landslides, flooding bury Pakistan villages

By AFP
August 17, 2025


People gather near a damaged vehicle and debris after flash flooding wiped out a road in monsoon-hit northern Pakistan - Copyright AFP Mehboob UL HAQ
Lehaz Ali

Thousands of Pakistani rescuers battled rain and knee-deep mud Sunday, digging homes out from under massive boulders in a desperate search for survivors after flash floods killed at least 344 people in the country’s mountainous north.

Most of the deaths were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where monsoon rains that are only expected to intensify in the days ahead drove flooding and landslides that collapsed houses.

In hardest-hit Bunar district, at least 208 people were killed and “10 to 12 entire villages” partially buried, a provincial rescue spokesman told AFP.

“The operation to rescue people trapped under debris is ongoing,” said Bilal Ahmed Faizi of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s rescue agency.

“There is still concern that dozens of people may be trapped under the rubble… the chances of those buried under the debris surviving are very slim”.

He said that around 2,000 rescue workers were engaged in recovering bodies from the debris and carrying out relief operations across nine districts, where rain was still hampering efforts.

AFP journalists in Buner saw half-buried vehicles and belongings lying strewn in the sludge, with mud covering houses and shops.

Flooded roads hampered the movement of rescue vehicles, as a few villagers worked to cut fallen trees to clear the way after the water receded.

“Our belongings are scattered, ruined and are in bad shape,” local shopkeeper Noor Muhammad told AFP as he used a shovel to remove mud.

“The shops have been destroyed along with everything else. Even the little money people had has been washed away,” he added.

The provincial government has declared the severely affected mountainous districts of Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra and Battagram as disaster-hit areas.

“This disaster has spread everywhere and surrounded us from all sides. We were trapped in our homes and could not get out, another Buner resident, Syed Wahab Bacha, told AFP.

“Our entire poor community has been affected. The shops in the lower bazaar have been destroyed. This road was our only path, and it too has been washed away,” he added.



– Mass funerals –



On Saturday, hundreds of locals gathered for mass funerals, where bodies wrapped in blood-stained white shawls were laid out on the village ground.

Fallen trees and straw debris were scattered across nearby fields, while residents shoveled mud brought in by the floods out of their homes.

Pakistan’s meteorological department has forecast that “torrential rains” with monsoon activity were “likely to intensify” from Sunday onwards.

The department warned of more flash floods and landslides in the country’s northwest and urged people to avoid exposure to vulnerable areas.

The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall, vital for agriculture and food security, but also brings destruction.

Landslides and flash floods are common during the season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September.

The national disaster agency’s Syed Muhammad Tayyab Shah told AFP that this year’s monsoon season began earlier than usual and was expected to end later.

The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon, described as “unusual” by authorities, have killed at least 650 people, with more than 910 injured.

Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency.

Monsoon floods in 2022 submerged a third of the country and killed around 1,700 people.

Another villager in Buner told AFP on Saturday that residents had spent the night searching through the rubble of their former homes.

“The entire area is reeling from profound trauma,” said 32-year-old schoolteacher Saifullah Khan.

“I helped retrieve the bodies of the children I taught. I keep wondering what kind of trial nature has imposed on these kids,” he said.

Decision-making by people: How this improves teamwork and cross-cultural relations


By Dr. Tim Sandle
August 17, 2025

DIGITAL JOURNAL


Many exiled Tibetans accuse China's ruling Communist Party of repression and eroding their culture - Copyright AFP Santiago MAZZAROVICH

When it comes to the crunch, we are happy to ignore artificial intelligence and resort to our own reasoning, according to a new Canadian study. A study has revealed that when faced with complex decisions, people across cultures—from bustling megacities to remote Amazon communities—tend to rely on their own judgment rather than seeking advice.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo sought to learn how people from diverse cultures make decisions. This work is described as the broadest test of decision-style preferences across cultures to date.

The research, spanning over 3,500 participants in 12 countries, challenges our reliance on advances in machine learning as well as the long-held belief that self-reliance is primarily a Western trait.

Cultural differences

While cultural values influence how strongly individuals lean on their inner voice, the preference for private reflection remains a shared human tendency.

The researchers observe that by understanding that even in interdependent societies most people prefer to go with the decision made by themselves, irrespective of what others say, can help clarify cross-cultural misunderstandings and realize that we all appear to be juggling similar internal debates.

According to lead researcher Dr. Igor Grossmann, professor in the Department of Psychology at Waterloo: “Realizing that most of us instinctively ‘go it alone’ helps explain why we often ignore good counsel, be it for health tips or financial planning, despite mounting evidence: that such counsel may help us make wiser decisions…This knowledge can help us design teamwork better by working with this self-reliant tendency and letting employees reason privately before sharing advice that they might reject.”

In essence, the study upends the belief that westerners work things out themselves while the rest of the world leans on others, as does artificial intelligence.

In fact, intuition and self-reflection beat out advice from friends or crowdsourcing in all countries studied. The amount of that preference varied, depending on the level at which a culture values independence or interdependence.

Grossmann adds: “Our take-home message is that we all look inward first, yet the wisest moves may happen when solo reflections are shared with others… What culture does is controls the volume knob, dialling up that inner voice in highly independent societies and softening it somewhat in more interdependent ones.”

What does this mean for AI?

The same appears true with AI. While AI is increasingly used to assist and automate decision-making, humans still make the ultimate choices, especially in critical situations. Many experts believe that the most effective approach is a “human-in-the-loop” model, where AI provides support, and humans make the final decisions.

The research appears in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Science, titled “Decision-making preferences for intuition, deliberation, friends or crowds in independent and interdependent societies.”

Rooms of their own: women-only communities thrive in China

By AFP
August 17, 2025


Chen Yani (R) eats lunch with friends and guests at her women's co-living space 'Keke's Imaginative Space' in Hangzhou - Copyright AFP Jade GAO
Ludovic EHRET

Laughter erupts over a board game and coffee at a rural cottage in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, one of a growing number of women-only co-living spaces far from social pressures and male judgment.

Women come to share mutual support and “talk freely about intimate stuff” while others seek companionship or refuge from harassment, participants told AFP after making steamed buns in a bright kitchen overlooking the mountains.

“An all-women environment makes me feel safe,” said Zhang Wenjing, 43.

“Among women, we talk more easily about certain things,” she added.

Chen Fangyan, 28, said she felt less self-conscious without men around.

“Not being forced to wear a bra is already a kind of freedom.”

Demand for single-gender spaces — including bars, gyms, hostels and co-working hubs — has grown in China, as women flex increasing economic power to secure peace of mind and physical safety.

At “Keke’s Imaginative Space”, participants pay 30 yuan ($4.17) a night, with costs going up to 80 yuan from the fourth day.

Founder Chen Yani, nicknamed “Keke”, told AFP she was motivated to open the space after bad experiences with men in the workplace.

“I encountered various degrees of harassment from men, to the point where I often found myself unable to work normally,” the 30-year-old said.

“I started thinking about what a safe and relaxed work environment would look like… a place where I wouldn’t feel apprehensive.”

– ‘Just be themselves’ –

Chen started by renovating a house in Lin’an, a suburb of Hangzhou, roughly 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Shanghai.

Believing that other women might share her desire for somewhere they could feel at ease, she organised a stay over Chinese New Year on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu, also known as Rednote.

Twelve women showed up.

Some wanted a change of scenery for the holidays, others were keen to escape intrusive questioning or pressure from relatives, including to get married and have children.

“Within the family, women often have to take care of grandparents, children and household chores. Not to mention work responsibilities,” she said. “They need a place where they don’t have to play a role and can just be themselves.”

Women’s increasing economic independence — as well as educational opportunities — means a wider scope of options, said Yuan Xiaoqian, 29, a participant.

“They can focus more on themselves… and on new needs,” she said.

Social media is also exposing women to alternative lifestyles — particularly Rednote, which offers a growing number of options for seeking community.

In Xiuxi, a village in Zhejiang, Yang Yun opened “Her Space” in June to offer women a “spiritual haven”.

With its rustic furniture and calligraphy on the walls, the property has the feel of a boutique hotel.

The idea, she said, was to ensure women always have a place to go.

“If (a woman) loses her job, her parents, has an argument with her husband, or feels exhausted by city life, she knows she can come here and find some warmth,” said Yang.

So far, 120 women have paid the 3,980-yuan membership fee to join the quickly expanding club.

“Whether they come or not is not important. The important thing is that this place exists. It gives them mental strength,” Yang said.

– Women still lack places –

Critics claim that single-gender communities foster antagonism between men and women.

At Keke’s Imaginative Space, Chen Yani denies that anyone is harbouring antipathy towards men and insists women have a right to spaces of their own.

“Women constitute a social group with shared life trajectories and problems. It’s often easier for them to understand each other and show empathy,” she said.

While she has yet to turn a profit, Chen said that was beside the point.

“As long as there’s demand, this place will continue to exist,” she said.

Founder of the all-women cultural space “Half the Sky” in Beijing, Lilith Jiang, said these community-oriented facilities fill a void.

“Men have plenty of opportunities to socialise, while drinking or while exercising,” she said.

“Women don’t have that.”

Down the line, she said non-traditional structures could offer an alternative for single women worried about ageing alone.

“Women are constantly told: ‘If you don’t get married, what will become of you when you get older?'” said Jiang.

“But long-term, all-female shared co-living spaces where women can grow old together could be a solution.”

Cross-cultural currents: Studying Wikipedia browsing habits shows people learn


By Dr. Tim Sandle
August 17, 2025

DIGITAL JOURNAL


Wikipedia has inked a partnership with Google - Copyright Sputnik/AFP Alexei Druzhinin

Wikipedia maintains a very special place on the Internet. The site features exclusively free content and no commercial advertisements. This raises the question of how much we are in charge of where our curiosity takes us in online contexts beyond Wikipedia.

Researchers have examined how nearly half a million people around the world use Wikipedia’s knowledge networks. This reveals clear differences in browsing habits between countries offering insights into cultural differences and potential drivers of curiosity and learning.

The researchers examined the habits of 482,760 Wikipedia readers from 50 different countries, using a form of information acquisition is called the “busybody.” This is a term reserved for someone who goes from one idea or piece of information to another, and the two pieces may not relate to each other much. In simpler terms, going down digital rabbit holes.

According to lead researcher, University of Pennsylvania’s Dani Bassett: “The busybody loves any and all kinds of newness, they’re happy to jump from here to there, with seemingly no rhyme or reason, and this is contrasted by the ‘hunter,’ which is a more goal-oriented, focused person who seeks to solve a problem, find a missing factor, or fill out a model of the world.”

Through this, the researchers established stark differences in browsing habits between countries with more education and gender equality versus less equality, raising key questions about the impact of culture on curiosity and learning.

Bassett recollects:

“We observed that countries that had greater inequality, in terms of gender and access to education, had people who were browsing with more intent — seeking closely related information, whereas the people in countries that had more equality were browsing expansively, with more diversity in topics — jumping from topic to topic and collecting loosely connected information.”

Adding: While we don’t know exactly why this is, we have our hunches, and we believe these findings will prove useful in helping scientists in our field better understand the nature of curiosity.”

The researchers cite three main hypotheses driving the associations between information-seeking approaches and equality.

Hypothesis one: It is possible that countries that have more inequality also have more patriarchal structures of oppression that are constraining the knowledge production approaches to be more Hunter-like. Countries that have greater equality, in contrast, are open to a diversity of ideas, and therefore a diversity of ways that we’re engaging in the world. This is more like the busybody — the one that’s moving between ideas in a very open-minded way.

Hypothesis two: A second possibility is that browsers go to Wikipedia for different purposes in different countries, citing how someone in a country with higher equality may be going to the site for entertainment or leisure rather than for work.

Hypothesis three: The third scenario contends that people in different countries who come to Wikipedia may have different ages, genders, socioeconomic status, or educational attainment, and that those differences in who’s actually coming to Wikipedia may explain the differences in the browsing patterns.

The dancer?.

One of possible finding from the study is the emergence of a third curiosity style — the “dancer,” which had previously only been hypothesized. The dancer is someone who moves along a track of information but, unlike the busybody, they make leaps between ideas in a creative, choreographed way.

Bassett says: “It’s less about randomness and more about seeing connections where others might not.”

The research features in the journal Science Advances titled “Architectural styles of curiosity in global Wikipedia mobile app readership.”

Recalibrating the moral compass: AI now meets the conditions for having free will


By Dr. Tim Sandle
August 17, 2025

DIGITAL JOURNAL


Image: — © AFP Kazuhiro NOGI

AI is advancing at a rapid speed. This has led some researchers to worry, drawing upon speculative moral questions, about the future position of machines in relation to humanity.

According to philosopher and psychology researcher Frank Martela, generative AI is close to meeting all three of the philosophical conditions of free will — the ability to have goal-directed agency, make genuine choices and to have control over its actions.

The question of whether AI can have free will is a complex philosophical and scientific debate. Current AI systems tend to operate based on algorithms and data, raising questions about whether their actions are truly self-determined or predetermined by their programming.

However, some researchers argue that AI, especially those using probabilistic methods or exhibiting unpredictable behaviour, might possess a form of free will.

This development, Martela contends, brings us to a critical point in human history, as we give AI more power and freedom, potentially in life or death situations.

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Martela’s latest study finds that generative AI meets all three of the philosophical conditions of free will — the ability to have goal-directed agency, make genuine choices and to have control over its actions.

Drawing on the concept of functional free will as explained in the theories of philosophers Daniel Dennett and Christian List, the study examined two generative AI agents powered by large language models (LLMs): the Voyager agent in Minecraft and fictional ‘Spitenik’ killer drones with the cognitive function of today’s unmanned aerial vehicles.

“Both seem to meet all three conditions of free will — for the latest generation of AI agents we need to assume they have free will if we want to understand how they work and be able to predict their behaviour,” says Martela.

He adds that these case studies are broadly applicable to currently available generative agents using LLMs.

This development brings us to a critical point in human history, as we give AI more power and freedom, potentially in life or death situations. Whether it is a self-help bot, a self-driving car or a killer drone — moral responsibility may move from the AI developer to the AI agent itself.

“We are entering new territory. The possession of free will is one of the key conditions for moral responsibility. While it is not a sufficient condition, it is one step closer to AI having moral responsibility for its actions”, Martela adds.

It follows that issues around how we ‘parent’ our AI technology have become both real and pressing.

“AI has no moral compass unless it is programmed to have one. But the more freedom you give AI, the more you need to give it a moral compass from the start. Only then will it be able to make the right choices,” Martela says.

The recent withdrawal of the latest ChatGPT update due to potentially harmful sycophantic tendencies is a red flag that deeper ethical questions must be addressed. We have moved beyond teaching the simplistic morality of a child.

Martela observes: “AI is getting closer and closer to being an adult — and it increasingly has to make decisions in the complex moral problems of the adult world. By instructing AI to behave in a certain way, developers are also passing on their own moral convictions to the AI. We need to ensure that the people developing AI have enough knowledge about moral philosophy to be able to teach them to make the right choices in difficult situations.”

The research appears in the journal AI and Ethics, titled “Artificial intelligence and free will: generative agents utilizing large language models have functional free will.”

 

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Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit national medical ethics group, applauds Colorado State University for its decision to shutter a nutrition study for which the university had approved the killing of 17,766 animals. The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the university, claimed to investigate the effect of legumes on the human gut microbiome. Public records reveal the primary investigator had to date used 1,587 mice.

An initial USDA grant of $498,500 funded the experiments. A subsequent USDA Cooperative Agreement, active through Dec. 31, 2025, shared ongoing costs with the university.

Over the past two months, the Physicians Committee wrote to Dr. Cassandra Moseley, vice president for research at CSU, and to CSU President Amy Parsons to express scientific and ethical concerns about the studies and request an investigation into the need to kill thousands of animals. The nonprofit also reached out directly to the primary investigator.

“Dietary studies investigating the effects of pulse-rich diets on the gut microbiome and noncommunicable disease outcomes are ethically and effectively conducted using human volunteers,” Janine McCarthy, acting director of research policy for the Physicians Committee, wrote in the letter to Parsons.

Additionally, she wrote, although a search for alternatives to animals is required by federal regulation and the university’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), the search conducted by the researcher was flawed, resulting in the primary investigator’s failure to consider viable alternatives to animal use. The IACUC failed to challenge the faulty search.

In response to a Physicians Committee public records request, the university wrote in an email to Ms. McCarthy on Aug. 11, 2025, that the primary investigator had shut down the experiment on July 15, 2025, and that he did not have any active protocols to conduct animal experiments.

“We are grateful that CSU reconsidered these experiments and decided to stop them,” said Ms. McCarthy. “We hope other universities across the country will follow suit by ending animal experiments and shifting to research approaches that are more accurate, cost-effective, and most importantly, more relevant to humans. We also call on the USDA to end funding for animal experiments for human nutrition and instead invest in modern, human-specific science.”

Note to reporters: To arrange an interview with Ms. McCarthy, please contact Kim Kilbride at 202-717-8665 or kkilbride@pcrm.org.

Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research and medical training.

 

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Subject of Research

Animals

 

New survey: College students feel coerced into participating in animal experiments despite objections; 83% oppose such exercises

Results arrive amid court fight over deadly animal experiments at Macalester College

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eighty-three percent of U.S. college students believe that animals should not be used in classroom teaching laboratories if the animals are killed afterward and if other methods can teach the same material without using animals, according to a new OpinionWorks survey. Among those majoring in the sciences, 90% believe animals should not be used.

The survey, which was conducted online among 1,043 U.S. undergraduate college students from Aug. 8 to 10, 2025, also posed the hypothetical scenario in which such an animal laboratory was offered as an optional experience, along with a nonanimal alternative. In that case, although most students did not want to participate, 20% stated they would do so anyway to avoid problems, and another 24% stated that they would be nervous asking for the alternative activity. The survey also found an overwhelming majority of students, 79%, expressed concern about the welfare of animals.

“The vast majority of college students don’t want to participate in deadly animal experiments in the classroom but feel subtly coerced because they are fearful of the consequences of not taking part,” says Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “Colleges with old-fashioned animal labs put students in an awful position that many interpret as a choice between killing or flunking.”

The survey results arrive amid an ongoing lawsuit against fatal animal experiments at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., where students will begin arriving for the new school year on Aug. 25.

In psychology courses at Macalester, live animals are deprived of water for prolonged periods, then placed in “Skinner boxes,” where they have to work for water. Some experiments involve drugging animals and placing them in mazes. All are killed at the conclusion of the experiments. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, and other leading universities stopped the Macalester-style fatal experiments long ago.

The new survey found that 76% of college students do not approve of the use of live animals in psychology classes when the animals are killed afterward and when there are alternative teaching methods.

Macalester’s website says that its “animal welfare standards and ethical principles are applied at the highest possible level in any animal use or research conducted at or in association with the college” and that it follows the federal Animal Welfare Act, which incorporates ethical principles called the Three Rs—for the for replacement, reduction, and refinement of animal use in research.

The lawsuit against Macalester, brought by alumnus Dr. Barnard on June 3, calls on the college to stop needlessly killing animals in psychology classes’ “show and tell” exercises, citing the college’s posted ethics commitment. The psychology department has killed thousands of animals for more than 50 years.

The college stated in its motion to dismiss, which Dr. Barnard responded to in court papers, that its own ethics statements are mere “generic phrases”—known legally as “puffery.” The college wrote, “These statements are, at most, ‘vague or highly subjective’ statements of superiority—not representations of material fact,” drawing comparisons with statements used to sell dog food or breakfast cereal.

“Given that animals’ lives are at stake, Macalester’s brazen statement that it did not really mean its ethics policy is an affront to students, donors, the faculty, and the public,” Dr. Barnard said.

The lawsuit seeks, among other actions, an order compelling Macalester “to cease its use of animal laboratories in psychology instruction and in all other areas for which nonanimal methods are available.”

Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in education and research.