The endless vomiting of lies by criminal Trump and his Frankenstein Vance about the rising crime rate under Biden are, in my view not only completely untrue, these lies are also dangerous to the social wellbeing of America society. Here is the actual data, and crime is going down.
Illustration: Maura Losch / Axios
New preliminary data from major U.S. cities shows a sharp drop in violent crime in the first half of the year — more than 25% in some communities — as the COVID-era crime wave recedes.
Why it matters: The drop in violent crime puts a serious dent in one of the most frequently used lines of attack by former President Trump and his allies, who have sought to tie Democrats to the issue since 2020.
It also gives Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor in San Francisco and California attorney general, a potent defense against attacks from the right on crime.
By the numbers: An Axios analysis of data from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found an overall 6% decline in violent crime among 69 cities during the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period last year.
54 of the 69 major cities in the report saw drops in violent crime — defined as homicide, rape, […]
As a research scientist who has published several hundred papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, I take this article quite personally. If AI, and personal corruption of scientists, destroys the integrity of scientific publications where does truth and integrity go? What kind of world would we have if facts no longer matter? Neo-medievalism would reign.
Scientific sleuth Elisabeth Bik fears that a flood of AI-generated images and text in academic papers could weaken trust in science Credit: 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.
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 […]
More AI evil. The fact is American society is being altered in a way that is degrading the wellbeing of Americans to the benefit of the rich. I thought it was very interesting to hear the good things Kamala Harris is proposing to do about the U.S. housing crisis that is so negatively impacting average middle class Americans, particularly younger couples. She didn’t mention the role AI is playing in this, too deep in the weeds I suspect. But to do what she is proposing she is going to have to deal with the use of AI described in this article.
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani
If you rent your home, there’s a good chance your landlord uses RealPage to set your monthly payment. The company describes itself as merely helping landlords set the most profitable price. But a series of lawsuits says it’s something else: an AI-enabled price-fixing conspiracy.
The classic image of price-fixing involves the executives of rival companies gathering behind closed doors and secretly agreeing to charge the same inflated price for whatever they’re selling. This type of collusion is one of the gravest sins you can commit against a free-market economy; the late Justice Antonin Scalia once called price-fixing the “supreme evil” of antitrust law. Agreeing to fix prices is punishable with up to 10 years in prison and a $100 million fine.
But, as the RealPage example suggests, technology may offer a workaround. Instead of getting together with your rivals and agreeing not to compete on price, you can all independently rely on a third party to set your prices for you. Property owners feed RealPage’s “property management software” their data, including unit […]
Given their own experience living through the Holocaust, I find it very hard to understand, how the Jews of Israeli have brought to power a fascist authoritarian, and his ultra-right cohort of minions who have authorized the murder of well over 40,000 Palestinians, mostly children, women, and the elderly. Or how their leadership can authorize torture of Palestinians as part of their governmental policy. Frankly, I think we should cut off all aid to Israel until the people of Israel wake up to what they have become, an inhumane fascist state.
A screenshot from the video that appears to show sexual assault of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman prison in Israel, as it aired on Israel’s Channel 12. Screenshot: Channel 12
As early as the first month of Israel’s war on Gaza, Sde Teiman, a secretive Israeli military prison in the Negev desert, had been raising alarm bells for Israeli human rights attorney Roni Pelli and other rights advocates.
Pelli and her colleagues started to hear reports from whistleblowers about poor conditions for Palestinians imprisoned inside Sde Teiman. They heard of instances of violence committed by soldiers against detained Palestinians, and, in one case, a Palestinian who died there.
Since then, media reports about the prison have mounted, quoting formerly detained Palestinians and Israeli whistleblowers, who spoke in more detail of the harrowing conditions inside the prison. A CNN investigation in May revealed that Palestinian detainees were restrained and blindfolded, forced to sit and sometimes stand throughout the night beneath flood lights; wounded Palestinians were strapped down onto beds, forced to wear diapers, and fed through straws; soldiers beat detainees motivated by revenge for the October 7 attacks; and prisoners’ limbs were amputated due to untreated […]
If you know anyone who is planning to vote for Trump or a MAGAt senator or representative candidate please tell them they are voting to destroy the earth’s ecosystems, and their own wellbeing. The media is simply not covering this election correctly. They are treating the candidates and parties in the usual horserace equivalents manner. The MAGAts and the Democrats from top to bottom are in no way equivalents. Project 2025 should be seen as a screaming alarm that if MAGAts are elected the world is going to change in very nasty ways that will degrade the lives of individuals Americans tragically.
Then-President Donald Trump delivers remarks at Double Eagle Energy oil rig in Midland, Texas, United States on June 29, 2020. Credit: Kyle Mazza/ Anadolu Agency / Getty
The California-based think tank Energy Innovation on Wednesday published a report showing that the right-wing Project 2025 manifesto, if implemented by a Republican administration, would increase U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2.7 billion metric tons by 2030 and cause there to be 1.7 million fewer jobs in that year, compared to the current trajectory.
The analysis illustrates the stakes of the 2024 presidential election. Project 2025 includes a 922-page plan of action written by right-wing groups, covering a wide array of public policy areas including energy and climate. Republican nominee Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from the plan, which has been the subject of extensive scrutiny over the last two months and has proven unpopular with the American public, but it’s broadly in keeping with his agenda, observers say.
The Energy Innovation report assesses the Project 2025 scenario against both current policies and a hypothetical […]
