NARSCISTIC PHANTASIA

Trump sticks to tale of scary helicopter ride, despite denials

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, US, Aug 9, 2024.
PHOTO: Reuters
PUBLISHED ON August 10, 2024 9:17 PM


Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday (Aug 9) insisted he was in a near-fatal helicopter ride with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, although Brown said the incident never happened and another politician said he had been on a similar flight with Trump decades earlier.

Trump on Thursday related the tale of almost dying on a helicopter with Brown, who had briefly dated Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris several decades ago.

"I went down in a helicopter with him," Trump said in a rambling press conference. "We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was, he was a little concerned."


Trump also asserted Willie Brown told him "terrible things" about Harris.

Brown, a longtime Democratic power broker who also served as speaker of the California State Assembly, told the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump's press conference that he was never in a helicopter with the former president. He also denied that he had ever said anything disparaging about Harris to Trump.

Another Black former California politician, Nate Holden, told Politico late on Friday that he had been in a turbulent helicopter ride with Trump in New Jersey, likely in 1990.


Earlier on Friday, Trump had dug in, insisting in posts on his Truth Social platform that his helicopter ride had been with Willie Brown and that it had occurred in New Jersey, not California.

"There were "Logs," Maintenance Records, and Witnesses. There was also a story on "Willie and Me," Trump said.

He did not provide any of the evidence he referred to in the post.

Asked to share the evidence Trump mentioned, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung referred Reuters to a post of his on X of a picture from a page in the 2023 "Letters to Trump" book. It contains a picture of Trump and Willie Brown, and quotes Trump as saying: "We actually had an emergency landing in a helicopter together."

Asked about Holden's account of being in a helicopter with Trump, Cheung said: "Sounds like Holden is either lying or is having memory issues."

Holden, a former city councilman and state senator from Los Angeles, scoffed at Trump's account, Politico reported.

"Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco," Holden was quoted as saying. "I'm a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles. I guess we all look alike."

Holden added that Harris was not brought up during the helicopter ride. "He either mixed it up. Or, he made it up," Holden said of Trump.

Holden did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.


As president in 2018, Trump also toured fire-ravaged portions of California by helicopter with then-California Governor Jerry Brown, NBC News reported. A representative for former Governor Brown, who is white, told the New York Times there was no emergency landing and Harris was not discussed during that flight.

Trump said he would "probably" sue the New York Times over its coverage of his comments on the helicopter story, according to a Times story on Friday. Trump disparaged the newspaper on Truth Social, attacking its reporter Maggie Haberman as "Maggot Hagermann."

The Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the apparent mix-up.

When 81-year-old President Joe Biden was still the Democratic candidate in the Nov 5 election, Trump, 78, frequently mocked his opponent's mental acuity and offered to take a cognitive test, arguing Biden was too infirm to be president.

Biden has since been replaced atop the ticket by the 59-year-old Harris, forcing Trump to scramble to find new lines of attack.

Republicans have insinuated that Willie Brown is in part responsible for Harris' rise in politics, although the two broke up in the mid-1990s and Harris did not win her first election until 2002. While the two were dating, Brown appointed Harris, then a young prosecutor, to two well-paying jobs on state boards.

Venezuela's top court: Opposition failed to submit proof in election dispute

August 10, 2024 
By Reuters

Presidential election tallies, or "actas," stream down a wall with the faces of prisoners detained amid a government crackdown, during a vigil in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 8, 2024.

Venezuela's supreme court said Saturday that it had not received evidence from the opposition coalition in the disputed July 28 presidential elections and warned that its decision in determining the winner would be final.

The South American nation's elections authority, which the opposition claims is loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, declared the leader had won reelection, while the opposition argues its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, won.

The electoral authority has not released a detailed vote count from the elections and its website has been down since the early hours of July 29.

The opposition has posted its ballot count online, which shows Gonzalez receiving double the number of votes as Maduro.

In Venezuela, voting machines print out three copies of voting records for the electoral authority, the ruling party and its challenger.

Maduro appealed to the supreme court last week to verify the electoral results, leading the court to summon all candidates who had run.

Gonzalez did not attend, saying he would be at risk of arrest if he went. Members of the opposition who did go pressured the electoral authority to release its ballots, and the coalition has previously said it has its ballots locked up for safekeeping.

"The members of the Unitary Platform (opposition coalition) did not submit any electoral material" to the court, Chief Justice Caryslia Rodriguez told journalists and diplomats Saturday.

The court did receive Maduro and the electoral body's vote counts, Rodriguez said.

The justice said that once the election investigation was concluded, the court's ruling would be "unappealable and compliance will be mandatory."

Brazil, Colombia and Mexico published a joint statement Thursday urging the electoral body to publicly present a detailed vote count and said that the supreme court was not a solution to the matter.

Other Latin American nations, as well as the United States, have rejected Maduro's win, while ally nations Russia and China have congratulated him.

'Always going to be a scab': Union chief blasts Trump

Anna Liz Nichols, Michigan Advance
August 10, 2024


U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz 

© Jim watson, Chris Kleponis, AFP

Vice President Kamala Harris told attendees at a rally in Detroit Wednesday where she stands in the upcoming election: with the middle class and on the picket line.

Harris was joined at the boisterous rally of about 15,000 at a hanger at Detroit Metropolitan Airport by union leaders, like UAW President Shawn Fain; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; most of the Democratic congressional delegation; and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. She announced Walz as her partner in the race Tuesday ahead of her tour of battleground states around the country

Detroit garnered the largest attendance for a rally since Harris began her campaign for president, Walz said. A rally earlier in the day in Eau Claire, Wisc. drew more than 12,000.

Michigan is a critical state in the presidential election in November, Harris told the crowd. With reproductive rights and the economic future of Americans on the line, she said another Donald Trump presidency would bring ruin.

“While fighting for a brighter future may take hard work, we all here know hard work is good work,” Harris said. “I am clear, the path to the White House runs right through this state and with your help, we will win in November, we will win.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris addresses a crowd in Detroit at a rally for her campaign for president on Aug. 7, 2024. | Anna Liz Nichols

Last month, the United Auto Workers Union endorsed Harris, citing her decision to walk the picket line with striking UAW workers in 2019 as more than 40,000 workers walked out on the job at dozens of General Motors plants for 40 days. The UAW’s endorsement carries weight in the Midwest where Harris is seeking votes, and there’s been a host of social media posts in support of Walz’s “Midwestern dad” energy.

Walz is the type of guy that would tell you to “always keep jumper cables in your car,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) said at the rally, adding that the Midwest recognizes men like Walz: a veteran, a former high school teacher and football coach, and “the dad making bad jokes.”

After walking out to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” Walz began lauding Minnesota culture, mainly the state’s golden rule of, “Mind your own damn business.”

“In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors’ personal choices. We may not agree with them or make them for ourselves. … It’s amazing what minding your own damn business does to make things work better. Don’t like a book? Don’t read it,” Walz said slamming Republican efforts to ban books, particularly those on racial and LGBTQ+ issues.

Minnesota, like Michigan, is full of individuals who support the Second Amendment, Walz said. But part of being a midwestern state is caring for your neighbors and supporting common-sense gun violence prevention laws.

What Harris represents is simple, but so needed, Walz said. After Republicans have done everything they could to “steal the joy” from the country, Harris emanates joy and hope for the presidency.

Walz railed against Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, for deviating from age-old Republican talking points on freedom and instead being solely interested in taking rights away from people. He referenced Project 2025, which aims to ban same-sex marriages and outlaw abortion, among other measures.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to a crowd in Detroit at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president on Aug. 7, 2024. Walz was announced as Harris’ running mate one day prior. | Anna Liz Nichols

“These ideas that they’re putting out there, they are weird as hell. No one’s asking for it. … We’re asking for health care and childcare. We’re asking for an education. We’re asking for safety in our streets. That’s what we’re asking for,” Walz said. “We’re gonna get it because that’s what this campaign is about. It’s about moving forward. …. You know that Kamala Harris believes that you should be making your own choices in your life. She believes that every person should have an opportunity to enter the middle class. She believes in something so beautiful and simple with joy. She believes in the promise of this great nation.”

Vance held a small event in Macomb County the morning before Harris’ rally, largely blasting Harris’ handling of law enforcement and illegal immigration.

“The failure to protect our communities is a law and is a policy choice,” Vance said. “It is a policy choice to defund the police, which is what Kamala Harris wants to do. It is a policy choice to open up the American Southern border and allow migrant criminals to come into this community and make it less safe. It is a policy choice to not deport people, to suspend deportations, which is what Kamala Harris did.”

Setting the tone for her remarks at the airport, Harris walked on stage to Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” cautioning Michiganders that the election is not simply her versus Trump, but a fight to build into a better future and not return the past.

“We fight for the future. We fight for a future where every worker has the freedom to join a union, where every senior can retire with dignity, a future with affordable housing, affordable childcare, affordable health care and paid leave,” Harris said. “Unlike Donald Trump, I will always put the middle class and working families first, because Coach Walz and I know the middle class built this great country of ours, and when the middle class is strong, America is strong.”

Trump is not interested in supporting the middle class and instead would seek to pad the pockets of billionaires like himself, Harris said. She said that as a prosecutor and California attorney general, she dedicated her time to pursuing justice, but Trump is a convicted felon with no regard for the law.

“The man has openly vowed, if reelected, that he will be a dictator on day one. Think about what that means when he said that he will even ‘terminate the Constitution of the United States,’” Harris said. “Let us be very clear, someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States. Never again."

Hoards of members of the UAW and other labor groups were in the crowd and Fain gave remarks leading up to Harris and Walz taking the stage.

In October 2023, The UAW took on the “Big Three” Detroit automakers — GM, Ford and Stellantis — by going on strike for 46 days in a successful effort to change the pay scale and increase benefits for workers. Fain said throughout the strike that it wasn’t just for autoworkers, but for every member of the working class to be treated fairly by their employer.

“As president of UAW, I have the honor of fighting for economic and social justice for our members, for the entire working class. From the bargaining table to the ballot box, what we bargained for can be taken away tomorrow in the halls of Congress,” Fain said. “To me, this election is real simple. It’s about one question. It’s a question we made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?”

“Donald Trump’s always going to be a scab,” Fain added, calling for support for Harris.

“This is our generation’s defining moment and this election is our opportunity to take our lives back. So, Michigan, let’s get to work,” Fain said.


Harris and Walz were scheduled to head to North Carolina on Thursday, before visiting Georgia, but those stops have been postponed due to a tropical storm. In the coming days the pair will go out West to Arizona and Nevada on their battleground states tour.

Before Harris and Walz took the stage, several elected officials also spoke in support of the campaign, including U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing), U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) and Whitmer, who said she woke up Wednesday in “Big Gretch mode.”

Michigan can send Trump “packing,” Whitmer said, but people are going to have to engage with new voters and help them to decide a side in the election.


“We need you to knock doors, because if you knock doors, we win. We need you to make calls, because if you make calls, we win. We need you to donate a buck or two. We can win. In fact, do everything short of biting the kneecaps,” Whitmer said, a reference to the Detroit Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell’s team philosophy when he took the position three years ago.

Despite the hot weather, where staff at the rally handed out water bottles and several individuals required medical attention, energy levels were high and the crowd was vocal.

During Harris’ speech, a small group of individuals began chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide! We won’t vote for genocide,” referring to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Harris initially said, “It’s all good. I’m here because we believe in democracy. Everyone’s voice matters, but I’m speaking now.”

And as the protest went on, Harris addressed the group saying, “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise, I’m speaking.”

Michigan had more than 100,000 “uncommitted” voters during the February primary, with many protesting President Joe Biden’s pro-Israel policy. Many uncommitted delegates want to see Harris adopt a more pro-Palestinian agenda. Harris has called for a ceasefire.

The protest went on for several minutes before the group was escorted out by police. Prior to the rally, Harris met with several Michigan leaders in the “uncommitted” movement about their concerns, the New York Times reported.



Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

'One answer to the threat we face': UAW says it knows how to defeat Trump

Jon Queally, Common Dreams
August 10, 2024 

"There is only one answer to the threat we face as a nation. The answer is solidarity."

That is the core message directed at the American working class from the United Auto Workers (UAW) in a new ad that frames the nation's current political battle as one between organized workers and the billionaire and corporate classes.

"We stand at a historic crossroads in this country right now," says UAW president Shawn Fain to begin the 2-minute video. "And it's clear Donald Trump represents the billionaire class—that's his base."

"We let working-class people lead the fight."

Calling Trump a "scab" who will "ruthlessly fight for a vision of America in which the wealthy rule everyone and everything, and the working class is left behind and forced to settle for the scraps," Fain argues that "what we win or lose now" will ultimately impact "whether we go forwards or backwards for a generation—everything is at stake."

"In the wealthiest country in the world, working class people shouldn't have to scrap to get by, paycheck to paycheck," Fain says before championing the UAW's historic strike last year in which the union's members stood up to the Big Three automakers—and won historic contracts.

"We united the entire working class," he added, "that's the winning formula."

"The dream of a man like Donald Trump is that the vast majority of working class people will remain divide," says Fain. "They divide us by race. They divide us by gender, by who we love, or where we were born. That's the game of the wealthy, divide and conquer."

The UAW's framing accumulated praise Friday and into the weekend from progressives who share the idea that working-class solidarity remains the key to defeating the fascist threat posed by Trump and that also must serve as the foundation for enacting the vision of more equal, just, peaceful, and sustainable society.

"This is brilliant. It's also true," said author and social justice activist Naomi Klein in response to the ad. "It's also the message we need to be sending non-stop."

Andy O'Brien, a columnist for The Bollard magazine, reacted with: "Holy shit this ad is powerful."

Fain's speech that acts as the narrative of the new video was delivered last month when the UAW leader spoke at the national convention of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) in Detroit.

"In the wealthiest country in the world, working class people shouldn't have to scrap to get by, paycheck to paycheck."

The UAW has endorsed the Democratic presidential ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Meeting with the candidates earlier this week at a local union hall in Wayne, Michigan, Fain said, "To me, this election is real simple. It's about one question, a question we've made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?"

"On one side, we've got a billionaire who serves himself and his billionaire buddies. He lies, cheats, and steals his way to the top. He is the lapdog of the billionaire class," said Fain. "On the other side, we've got a badass woman who has stood on the picket line with working-class people. Kamala Harris is a champion of the working class."

Though not featured in the new ad, Fain also told the APWU members in July that the key to the UAW's victory against the Big Three was that "we let working-class people lead the fight" against management.

"We gave our members the information, we gave them the tools, and we gave them the courage to stand up for themselves," he said. Like the broader concept of working-class solidarity, he said, that's the "winning formula" for workers and their families to take control of their economic and political destinies.

"If you follow those core principles," he told the postal service workers, "you will not lose. And I guarantee you, the UAW will have your back every step of the way."

'Stupidity of these people': Trump team mocked after admitting falling for 'phishing' scam

David McAfee
August 10, 2024 

Former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Donald Trump's political campaign became the subject of mockery on Saturday after reporting being "hacked" by someone using a commonly used email tactic known as a "phishing" scam.

The Trump campaign reportedly told Politico that the team experienced a hack after the news outlet started receiving what appeared to be internal communications from an anonymous individual by email. Among the items the outlet says it received was a "dossier" on Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance.

The campaign blamed "foreign sources" for the release, but declined to give details. The internet, however, was rife with speculation.

Conservative Army Iraq War Veteran Peter Henlein weighed in over the weekend.

"Lol, the Trump campaign has been hacked with a phishing email, and now internal campaign documents are being sent to Politico," he wrote. "The stupidity of these people. I can only imagine what type of cringe nonsense is going to come out."

A pro-Ron DeSantis account, @griftercallout, added, "Must've thought it was a Trump campaign email and couldn't tell the difference lol."

Former George W. Bush strategist Matthew Dowd said, "I don't believe anything the Trump campaign says."

"They lie like they [breathe]," the strategist added. "My sense is this came from a disgruntled staffer not some mythic foreign source."

Historian Aaron Astor said Saturday, "This is like a repeat of 2016, with Iran taking the place of Russia, and Trump being the target of the hack, rather than it being his opponent. The Trump campaign, like HRC, falling for a phishing attempt by a hostile foreign power."

Travis Akers, a retired Naval Intelligence Officer and Newsweek opinion writer, said, "Sounds like someone is about to be assigned some Cybersecurity CBTs [computer-based training]."

"The Trump campaign fell for a phishing attempt in an email from the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and now their internal campaign materials and data have been hacked," he added.

Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney and host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program, “The Dean Obeidallah Show," Saturday simply wrote, "Hmmm....Trump campaign was hacked, campaign says."

 

Trump campaign says hit by hackers after dossier on JD Vance leaked, implies Iranians as culprits

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, U.S., August 9, 2024. — Reuters pic

Sunday, 11 Aug 2024 

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 — Donald Trump’s campaign said Saturday it had been hacked, blaming “foreign sources” for distributing internal communications and a dossier on running mate J.D. Vance.

Trump’s campaign implied Iran was behind the move as news outlet Politico reported it had received emails with the campaign material from a source who refused to identify themselves.

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“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Cheung cited a report from Microsoft this week that said Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”

The materials received by Politico included research on vetting Vance, Trump’s vice presidential pick.

In 2016, a hack of Democratic National Committee emails — blamed on Russians — exposed internal party communications, including about candidate Hillary Clinton.

Trump, who would go on to win the election, was criticised for encouraging the hack. — 

AFP

Donald Trump campaign alleges hacking, blames Iran

Reuters
10 Aug, 2024

Iran’s foreign ministry has not commented on claims put forward by Donald Trump’s campaign that some of its internal communications have been hacked. Photo / Getty Images

The campaign of former US president and current Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump said some of its internal communications have been hacked and blamed the Iranian government, citing past hostilities between Trump and Iran without providing direct evidence.

The campaign statement came shortly after news website Politico revealed it began receiving emails in July from an anonymous source offering authentic documents from inside Trump’s operation, including a report about running mate JD Vance’s “potential vulnerabilities”.

“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement on Saturday.

Reuters has not independently verified the identity of the alleged hackers or their motivation.

The Trump campaign referred to a Friday report from Microsoft researchers that said Iranian government-tied hackers tried breaking into the account of a “high-ranking official” on a US presidential campaign in June.

The hackers had taken over an account belonging to a former political adviser and then used it to target the official, the report said. That report did not provide further details on the targets’ identities.

A Microsoft spokesperson declined to name the targeted officials or provide additional details after the report was published.

Iran’s foreign ministry and its United Nations representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. Photo / Getty Images

On Friday, in response to Microsoft’s findings, Iran’s mission to the UN in New York told Reuters its cyber capabilities were “defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces” and that it had no plans to launch cyberattacks.

“The US presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere,” Iran’s mission to the UN said.

The former president had tense relations with Iran while in office. Under Trump, the United States killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.

“The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said.

Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. While there have been no suggestions the suspect was linked to Iran, CNN reported last month that the US had intelligence about an Iranian plot against Trump. Iran has denied such charges.

Late last month, a senior intelligence official told reporters in a briefing that Tehran and Moscow maintain their same presidential preferences as in past cycles, where Iranian operatives will attempt to tear down the Republican ticket while Russia has made efforts to smear Democrats, according to prior intelligence community assessments.

Greeks try tropical crops in climate change experiment

Agence France-Presse
August 9, 2024 

More frequent and longer droughts are pushing Greek farmers to experiment with growing tropical fruits like mangoes (Aris Oikonomou/AFP)

Stirring the leaves of a shrub on his farm in Kyparissia, western Greece, Panos Adamopoulos spied the first soon-to-be-ripe mangoes -- his share of a state experiment against climate change.

"Right there!" he exclaimed.

For decades, this fertile land on the shores of the Ionian Sea has been mainly known for olives, in addition to watermelon and other crops.

But even this part of Greece that sees more rain than other parts of the country is grappling with the effects of drought.

After the warmest winter on record, Greece also experienced the hottest June and July since reliable data collection began in 1960.

"There is no winter," Adamopoulos, 38, told AFP, adding that his property has not received a drop of rain since March.

"No water, no cultivation," said the farmer, whose trees seem to grow right into the Ionian Sea.

Most of Adamopoulos' income currently comes from iceberg lettuce.

But with increasingly arid seasons in sight, he may soon have to give up on some of his lucrative, yet water-intensive crops, such as watermelon.

Adamopoulos is among a small number of Greek growers turning to tropical fruits -- mangoes, avocados, lychees, cherimoya and macadamia nuts -- which he says are "more resistant" to the increasingly intense heat in the Mediterranean region.

For now, he only grows a few dozen mango and avocado trees on his 80-hectare (198-acre) estate.

The exotic fruits are adapting so well to their new surroundings that Adamopoulos now plans to plant a further 300 trees. He he said he had already received orders for his first harvests, due later this month.

The initiative is part of a study by Greek state agriculture institute Demeter to determine whether tropical fruits could help address the country's looming drought problem.

- Not a miracle solution -

Study supervisor Teresa Tzatzani says the point is to "find new ways to face this climate change, and make it work in our favour".

"It is hotter all year round now, and this is good for these crops," she said.

Although avocado already grows on the island of Crete, scientists were unsure whether the tree would adapt to conditions on the Greek mainland.

And while mango trees need very little rainfall, the last two winters have been unusually dry, Tzatzani noted.

This type of innovation is essential to save the sector from future climate disasters, said Antonis Paraskevopoulos, head of agriculture for the local region of Triphylia.

But for now, tropical fruits are not a miracle solution.

The program currently has only a dozen farmers and around 10 hectares under cultivation.

And while it is not intended to replace staple local products such as olives or oranges, it can act as a complement, said Tzatzani, who plans to extend the experiment to other Greek regions.

Neighboring countries are experiencing similar problems. In Italy, Sicilian farmers have started producing mangoes, bananas and papayas.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the Mediterranean basin, one of the "hotspots" of climate change, will experience more frequent heat waves and droughts.

- A 'bad year'? -

Theodoros Dimitrakakis, another Greek farmer taking part in the initiative, estimates that it will take years for tropical fruit production to become profitable in Greece.

Despite his enthusiasm for the experiment, the 34-year-old says he can't afford to devote all his time to it, as his main source of income, olive trees, requires all of his attention.

His village, like many in Greece, is often without water for several hours during the day due to scheduled cuts.

Last year, his olive yield was 60 percent below average, Dimitrakakis said.

Despite being an environmental activist during his university years, Dimitrakakis acknowledges that he only recently realised that climate change would impact him so soon.


He now hopes to convince other local farmers, some of whom prefer to think it's just a "bad year".

Researchers discover 1,400-year-old seagrass in Finland

Agence France-Presse
August 9, 2024 

A diver plants eelgrass in Denmark's Vejle Fjord to help restore its damaged ecosystem © Helene-Julie Zofia PAAMAND / Underwater Ambassador/AF

Scientists have discovered the world's oldest known seagrass in Finland, using a new method to determine the age of aquatic plants that put it at 1,403 years old, they said this week.

By measuring the number of genetic mutations occurring over time in seagrass -- which reproduces by cloning itself over and over again, the scientists were able to determine the age of the original ancestor plant with groundbreaking precision.

"This is the first really reliable clone age estimate", study co-author Thorsten Reusch told AFP on Thursday.

The study was published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology and Evolution in June.

Researchers used the new method, dubbed a "genetic clock", at 20 sites across the world and found that a lush underwater meadow of eelgrass -- a species of seagrass -- in the Finnish coastal waters of the Baltic Sea was 1,403 years old, the most ancient marine plant currently known.

"In a way, we now have a clock that can determine to which seed and eventually which seedling a plant dates back to", Reusch said.

The ability to determine the age of plants unravels eye-opening information about how ecosystems function and about ageing processes in the natural world, he explained.

"It is interesting to understand how they avoid ageing symptoms over thousands of years.

"Ultimately it may even give us some clues on how to deal with ageing in humans", he continued.

- Valuable ecosystem -

"I am very positive that we will find clones that are 10,000 years or older".

Reproducing through flowers, seeds and rhizomes in the sediment, eelgrass populations provide important marine environments for other organisms and store carbon dioxide in stems and roots.

"Eelgrass is the most valuable ecosystem in the Baltic Sea," Reusch said.

Despite the staggering age and resilience demonstrated by the ancient plant, eelgrass is a threatened species in the Baltic Sea -- characterised by shallow, brackish waters and encircled by eight countries.

Nutrient pollution from industries like agriculture and forestry, coupled with rising sea temperatures due to climate change, have exacerbated the plight of the eelgrass populations.


"In the western Baltic Sea where I work, about 60 percent of the eelgrass has been lost in the last 100 years", Reusch said.

The sea is bordered by the three Baltic states, Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

U.S. health regulator rejects MDMA treatment for PTSD, for now

Agence France-Presse
August 10, 2024 


Ecstasy Pills (Shutterstock)

U.S. health regulators on Friday denied an application for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with the drug MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, saying more investigation needed to be done.

The company that submitted the application, Lykos Therapeutics, said in a statement that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had requested an additional Phase 3 clinical trial to study MDMA's "safety and efficacy."

A panel of experts convened by the FDA to evaluate clinical data on MDMA had overwhelmingly voted in early June to say there was insufficient evidence to prove it was effective.

While unsurprising, the decision announced Friday represents a blow to advocates of the novel treatment.

"The FDA request for another study is deeply disappointing, not just for all those who dedicated their lives to this pioneering effort, but principally for the millions of Americans with PTSD... who have not seen any new treatment options in over two decades, said Lykos CEO Amy Emerson.

PTSD is a debilitating mental health condition that develops after a person experiences or is threatened by traumatic events such as death, combat or sexual assault.

It affects an estimated five percent of Americans in any given year.

Pharmaceutical treatment options for PTSD are so far limited to two antidepressants that require three months of dosing to take effect, and response rates to the medications have been found to be uneven.

MDMA -- methylenedioxymethamphetamine -- is a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and approving it for medical use would have represented a major shift.

California-based Lykos based its request for regulatory approval on two clinical studies, each of which enrolled around 100 people, to evaluate MDMA used together with other psychological interventions such as talk therapy, against a placebo with talk therapy.

These two studies, published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine, indicated MDMA was indeed both safe and highly effective at treating PTSD.

But nine out of 11 experts on the FDA panel said available data was not enough to show the treatment was effective, and 10 out of 11 said the benefits did not outweigh the risks.

In a briefing document put together ahead of the meeting, FDA staff raised concerns about Lykos's clinical trial methodology and criticized the company for not gathering sufficient side effect data.

The company said it will "work diligently in the coming months to address FDA's concerns and to take advantage of agency processes to resolve scientific disagreements."

"We intend to work tirelessly and use all available regulatory pathways to find a reasonable and expeditious path forward," Emerson added.

Flood of 'junk': How AI is changing scientific publishing

Agence France-Presse
August 10, 2024 

Scientific sleuth Elisabeth Bik fears that a flood of AI-generated images and text in academic papers could weaken trust in science (Amy Osborne/AFP)

An infographic of a rat with a preposterously large penis. Another showing human legs with way too many bones. An introduction that starts: "Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic".

These are a few of the most egregious examples of artificial intelligence that have recently made their way into scientific journals, shining a light on the wave of AI-generated text and images washing over the academic publishing industry.

Several experts who track down problems in studies told AFP that the rise of AI has turbocharged the existing problems in the multi-billion-dollar sector.
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All the experts emphasised that AI programmes such as ChatGPT can be a helpful tool for writing or translating papers -- if thoroughly checked and disclosed.

But that was not the case for several recent cases that somehow snuck past peer review.

Earlier this year, a clearly AI-generated graphic of a rat with impossibly huge genitals was shared widely on social media.

It was published in a journal of academic giant Frontiers, which later retracted the study.

Another study was retracted last month for an AI graphic showing legs with odd multi-jointed bones that resembled hands.

While these examples were images, it is thought to be ChatGPT, a chatbot launched in November 2022, that has most changed how the world's researchers present their findings.

A study published by Elsevier went viral in March for its introduction, which was clearly a ChatGPT prompt that read: "Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic".

Such embarrassing examples are rare and would be unlikely to make it through the peer review process at the most prestigious journals, several experts told AFP.

- Tilting at paper mills -

It is not always so easy to spot the use of AI. But one clue is that ChatGPT tends to favour certain words.

Andrew Gray, a librarian at University College London, trawled through millions of papers searching for the overuse of words such as meticulous, intricate or commendable.

He determined that at least 60,000 papers involved the use of AI in 2023 -- over one percent of the annual total.

"For 2024 we are going to see very significantly increased numbers," Gray told AFP.

Meanwhile, more than 13,000 papers were retracted last year, by far the most in history, according to the US-based group Retraction Watch.

AI has allowed the bad actors in scientific publishing and academia to "industrialise the overflow" of "junk" papers, Retraction Watch co-founder Ivan Oransky told AFP.


Such bad actors include what are known as paper mills.

These "scammers" sell authorship to researchers, pumping out vast amounts of very poor quality, plagiarised or fake papers, said Elisabeth Bik, a Dutch researcher who detects scientific image manipulation.

Two percent of all studies are thought to be published by paper mills, but the rate is "exploding" as AI opens the floodgates, Bik told AFP.

This problem was highlighted when academic publishing giant Wiley purchased troubled publisher Hindawi in 2021.

Since then, the US firm has retracted more than 11,300 papers related to special issues of Hindawi, a Wiley spokesperson told AFP.

Wiley has now introduced a "paper mill detection service" to detect AI misuse -- which itself is powered by AI.

- 'Vicious cycle' -

Oransky emphasised that the problem was not just paper mills, but a broader academic culture which pushes researchers to "publish or perish".

"Publishers have created 30 to 40 percent profit margins and billions of dollars in profit by creating these systems that demand volume," he said.

The insatiable demand for ever-more papers piles pressure on academics who are ranked by their output, creating a "vicious cycle," he said.

Many have turned to ChatGPT to save time -- which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Because nearly all papers are published in English, Bik said that AI translation tools can be invaluable to researchers -- including herself -- for whom English is not their first language.

But there are also fears that the errors, inventions and unwitting plagiarism by AI could increasingly erode society's trust in science.

Another example of AI misuse came last week, when a researcher discovered what appeared to be a ChatGPT re-written version of one his own studies had been published in an academic journal.

Samuel Payne, a bioinformatics professor at Brigham Young University in the United States, told AFP that he had been asked to peer review the study in March.

After realising it was "100 percent plagiarism" of his own study -- but with the text seemingly rephrased by an AI programme -- he rejected the paper.

Payne said he was "shocked" to find the plagiarised work had simply been published elsewhere, in a new Wiley journal called Proteomics.

It has not been retracted.

Kroger's new dynamic AI pricing scheme is 'corporate greed is out of control': critics

Julia Conley, Common Dreams
August 10, 2024 

Photo by Joshua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash

Expressing doubt that a new artificial intelligence-powered "dynamic pricing" model used by the Kroger grocery chain is truly meant to "better the customer experience," Sens. Elizabeth Warren said Friday that the practice shows how "corporate greed is out of control."

Warren (D-Mass.) was joined by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) on Wednesday in writing a letter to the chairman and CEO of the Kroger Company, Rodney McMullen, raising concerns about how the company's collaboration with AI company IntelligenceNode could result in both privacy violations and worsened inequality as customers are forced to pay more based on personal data Kroger gathers about them "to determine how much price hiking [they] can tolerate."

As the senators wrote, the chain first introduced dynamic pricing in 2018 and expanded to 500 of its nearly 3,000 stores last year. The company has partnered with Microsoft to develop an Electronic Shelving Label (ESL) system known as Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment (EDGE), using a digital tag to display prices in stores so that employees can change prices throughout the day with the click of a button.

As Warren said on social media on Friday, digital price tags allow stores to "use surge pricing for water or ice cream when it's hot out," or raise the price of turkeys just before Thanksgiving.

Through its work with IntelligenceNode and Microsoft, Kroger has gone beyond just changing prices based on the time of day or other environmental factors, and is seeking to tailor the cost of goods to individual shoppers.

As the senators explained:

The EDGE Shelf helps Kroger gather and exploit sensitive consumer data. Through a partnership with Microsoft, Kroger plans to place cameras at its digital displays, which will use facial recognition tools to determine the gender and age of a customer captured on camera and present them with personalized offers and advertisements on the EDGE Shelf. EDGE will allow Kroger to use customer data to build personalized profiles of each customer... quickly updating and displaying the customer’s maximum willingness to pay on the digital price tag—a corporate profiteering capability that would be impossible using a mere paper price tag.

"I am concerned about whether Kroger and Microsoft are adequately protecting consumers' data, and that as Kroger expands the personalized customer experience, customers will ultimately be offered a worse deal," wrote Warren and Casey.

The lawmakers noted that the high cost of groceries is a key concern for workers and families in the U.S., as chains adopt numerous methods to price-gouge customers including "shrinkflation" and "greedflation"—filling packages with less product and keeping prices high even though supply chain issues have largely resolved since inflation was at high during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kroger, which could soon increase its number of stores by several thousand with a potential $24.6 billion acquisition of Albertsons, had an operating budget of $3.1 billion last year, with gross profit margins above 20% over the last five years.

Meanwhile, said Warren and Casey, U.S. households spent an average of 11.2% of their budgets on food in 2023.

"The increased use of dynamic pricing will drive company profits higher—leaving consumers with the bill," wrote the senators. "It is outrageous that, as families continue to struggle to pay to put food on the table, grocery giants like Kroger continue to roll out surge pricing and other corporate profiteering schemes."

Warren and Casey demanded the McMullen provide information about its use of ESL platforms including EDGE, asking how the company establishes prices using dynamic pricing and whether it has ever used EDGE to change the price of an item more than once in a day, among other questions.

The senators have previously introduced legislation to prevent shrinkflation, urged the Biden administration to use its executive authority to lower food prices, and proposed a bill to prohibit price gouging by empowering states and the Federal Trade Commission to enforce a federal ban.

Mysterious 'Unknown Boy' may be the youngest ever Olympic champion

Agence France-Presse
August 10, 2024 

Photo by Mia de Jesus on Unsplash

Paris (AFP) – "It's probably the biggest Olympics mystery of all," says historian Hilary Evans of the chaotic 1900 rowing race in Paris that may have produced the youngest-ever champion.

As the third Olympics hosted in Paris draw to a close, the identity of a child coxswain who steered two Dutch rowers, Francois Antoine Brandt and Roelof Klein, across the finish line first in Paris more than a century ago remains unknown.

In the constantly updated Olympic archives in Lausanne, he is recorded simply as "Unknown French Boy", infuriating researchers like Evans who at various times have come tantalisingly close to uncovering his name.

"People think they've made a breakthrough every decade or so and it feels like it's within reach, but we've never managed to solve it," Evans explained by phone from his home in Wales.

The story shines a light not only on the amateurish beginnings of the modern Olympics, which have since become a multi-billion-dollar industry, but also the work of a passionate group of researchers for whom no trivia question is too small.

Evans, who spends his days as a sheep farmer and his evenings poring over microfilm and old sports magazines, developed a theory earlier this year about the Unknown Boy and says "we actually thought we'd solved it conclusively".


Alas, it was another false dawn -- and a bitter disappointment for the 54-year-old who describes his biggest achievement as discovering the names of the 1900 gymnastics finalists.

"The ages didn't match up so we had to put the theory to bed," he added.

Evans was hoping that the latest Paris Olympics must prompt someone, somewhere to delve into some dusty Parisian rowing club archives, or find a yellowing photograph that cracks the riddle?

"If it doesn't happen this year, with all the publicity, it's going to be really hard, to be honest," Evans says.

- 'Obsessive' -

Only one photo exists of the Unknown Boy, unearthed by the late Dutch researcher Tony Bijkerk who spent nearly half a century on the conundrum.

In it, the boy is dark haired and small-framed, smartly dressed in long trousers and a shirt. He stands between the two victorious Dutch rowers and the top of his head comings up to their chests.

According to an account given by Brandt, he was picked out of the crowd shortly before the final of the two-man coxed pairs race to give a weight advantage to the Dutch rowers, who ended up winning by less than a metre.

"The young French cox stayed around long enough to be photographed with his new Dutch friends but then he vanished into the city," says "The Complete Book of the Olympics", a compendium of records and information about the Games.

Author David Wallechinsky, who co-founded the International Society of Olympic Historians, says "there just aren't that many large mysteries any more" in Olympic history and the Unknown Boy continues to fascinate "obsessive researchers" like him.

"The first reason this stands out is the photograph. Who is this guy?" Wallechinsky told AFP. "And secondly, was he the youngest person to win an Olympic event?"

If he was around eight years' old at the time, as some historians believe, it would make him the youngest champion of all time.

But others, including Bijkerk, believed he might have been 12 or 13.

The youngest recorded medal winner is Dimitrious Loundras, a 10-year-old Greek gymnast who took bronze in the first modern games in Athens in 1896.

- Chaotic -


The rowing race of 1900 took place on a stretch of the river Seine in northern Paris between the Pont de Courbevoie and Pont d'Asnieres, four kilometres (three miles) from the athletes' village for the July 26-August 11 Games this year.

The 1900 Olympiad was the second edition of the modern Olympics and was held on the sidelines of the World Fair which took place in Paris at the same time.

Scheduled over five months on a tiny budget, the Games were poorly organised, often improvised, and drew small crowds.

They had none of the pomp and pageantry that has been invented since, and winners did not even receive medals.

"There were some people who didn't realise they had competed in the Olympics," Wallechinsky explained.

The coxed four-man rowing was overshadowed by an argument about the qualification process for the final, while the athletics was held on an uneven, boggy field.


It was in this context that the Dutch rowers were able to swap their cox mid-competition and his name was never recorded.

"You would never have that happen now," Wallechinsky laughs. "Every athletes's got a profile."

- Theories -

Several names have been put forward for the Unknown Boy over the years, none conclusively.

Based on Bijkerk's research, he was assumed to be French and to have had a connection with a local rowing club, the Societe de la Basse-Seine.

But in 2016, the small world of Olympic historians was set aflutter by a new theory: the Unknown French Boy wasn't French at all. He was Georgian, and aged 12.

Tbilisi-based historian and Georgian National Olympic Committee member Paata Natsvlishvili claimed the cox was Giorgi Nikoladze, the son of a diplomat and journalist.

He based his claim, written up in the Journal of Olympic History, on a physical resemblance between Nikoladze and the Unknown Boy; that Nikoladze was in Paris at the time with his family; and that Nikoladze had told his sister he had won a rowing race in Paris.

"I am convinced that Giorgi Nikoladze was in that boat," Natsvlishvili told AFP by email. "Until there are convincing counter-arguments or if another more convincing version appears, for me, it will be Giorgi Nikoladze."

Others are unconvinced -- with the editor of the "Journal of Olympic History" saying at the time that "definitive proof is still lacking" to support the theory.

The official IOC records remain unchanged -- despite Natsvlishvili's best efforts.

In the meantime, the search goes on to resolve perhaps the most perplexing footnote in Olympics history.

"I won't give up hope," said Wallechinsky. "I feel that some day something's going to happen.

NIGERIA

Take-It-Back Movement Vows To Return With 10million-Man March If Tinubu Fails To Address Demands Of #EndBadGovernance


August 10, 2024

SAHARA NEWS
News

For the past 10 days, protesters have taken to the streets of Abuja and other major Nigerian cities, demanding the reinstatement of fuel subsidies and reduced electricity tariffs, among other grievances.

The Take It Back movement — one of the organisers of the just concluded 10-day nationwide #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests against hardship on Saturday vowed to return to the streets with a 10-million-person march if President Bola Tinubu fails to address their demands.

For the past 10 days, protesters have taken to the streets of Abuja and other major Nigerian cities, demanding the reinstatement of fuel subsidies and reduced electricity tariffs, among other grievances.

They have expressed frustration with President Tinubu's apparent disregard for their concerns, despite their persistent demonstrations.

Abiodun Sanusi, an activist, said the movement would pause protests temporarily, but vowed to return with a bigger and more determined crowd if demands are not met.

He said, “Earlier on, we declared 10 days of rage to end bad governance in Nigeria. However, it is now clear that President Bola Tinubu is not ready to listen to the demands of Nigerians.

“Today is the final day of the 10 days of rage, but we are promising the Nigerian government and President Tinubu that we will come back until he accedes to our demands."

“We will return to the streets, and this time, we will be more than this. We will be declaring a 10-million-person march across the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT,” Sanusi added.

Thousands of protesters flooded the major streets of Yola on Saturday, passionately calling for President Bola Tinubu's swift intervention to address the socio-economic crisis gripping the nation.

A group of concerned Nigerian women under the aegis of Women Against Hunger had also held a massive rally against the current economic crisis in Nigeria.

The women who were singing in front of the National Stadium in Abuja called the attention of the President Bola Tinubu's government to the hunger which Nigerians are currently facing due to his failed policies.

 

Smotrich fires back at Kirby, vows to maintain opposition to Gaza ‘surrender deal’

Far-right leader says he respects US but tells White House ‘to respect Israeli democracy,’ likens prospect of deal with Hamas to US reaching ‘agreement with al-Qaeda and Bin Laden’

By ToI Staff10 August 2024, 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a conference hosted by the Makor Rishon newspaper, in Jerusalem, June 30, 2024. (Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Saturday hit back against White House national security spokesperson John Kirby for singling him out for criticism a day earlier when Kirby said the US would not allow “extremists” to push the proposed Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal off course.

“I respect the US stance and thank it for its support of Israel in the face of regional threats, but I expect it to respect Israeli democracy and the stance of the Israeli citizens and its elected officials in relation to decisions that will affect the country’s security,” Smotrich wrote in a post on X.

“Just as the US would have rejected international pressure to reach a surrender agreement with al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, so Israel will not surrender to any external pressure that will cause harm to Israel’s security.”

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He went on to denounce the agreement as a “surrender deal to” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “that leaves most of the hostages to die, releases many murderers, returns terrorists to the northern Strip, abandons the border, and allows Hamas to smuggle weapons and rehabilitate its forces so it can go back to attacking Israel as an extension of Iran, is bad for Israel and endangers its security.”

“No criticism and no attack will divert me from the goal,” he added.

Smotrich, who heads the coalition’s far-right Religious Zionism party, has been consistently vocal about his opposition to a deal throughout negotiations and on Friday denounced the proposal as a “dangerous trap,” saying it creates a “delusional symmetry” between Israeli hostages and “despicable Jew-murdering terrorists” who would be freed.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (left) at a conference in Jerusalem, June 30, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) National Security Council spokesman John Kirby (right) speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Addressing these comments by Smotrich, Kirby said later Friday that the finance minister was spreading false claims and “ought to be ashamed” for questioning US President Joe Biden’s intentions.

“The idea that [Biden] would support a deal that leaves Israel’s security at risk is just factually wrong, it’s outrageous, it’s absurd,” he said.

The United States and its allies have been trying to arrange a ceasefire-for-hostages deal for months but have consistently run into obstacles from both Israel and Hamas.

US officials believed the latest proposal is the closest the parties have been to an agreement to free women, sick and elderly hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7 in exchange for at least six weeks of ceasefire, the first phase in an envisioned three-stage deal for ending the war.

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in an image released on August 10, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The war in Gaza broke out on October 7 with Hamas’s unprecedented surprise attack on Israel in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

It is believed that 111 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 24 hostages have also been recovered, including three abductees mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.