Cipollone will testify behind closed doors to the Jan. 6 committee on Friday
Testimony in the panel's hearings so far has shown the former White House counsel present at key points in the lead-up to Jan. 6 and on the day of the attack.
New evacuations for communities near California forest fire
A wildfire that triggered expanded evacuation orders may have been sparked by fireworks or a barbecue on the Fourth of July in a region that's a top tourism destination.
How to be a little less judgmental
Being critical all the time is exhausting. Here?s how to dial it back. Casting judgment on others has never been so easy. Social media gives onlookers the opportunity to scoff at a person?s every choice, from how they dress to what they feed their children. How people have behaved during the pandemic has inspired plenty of judgment in its own right: At the height of restrictions, adherence ? or lack thereof ? to masking and social distancing measures practically became barometers of people?s characters, indicating a lack of personal responsibility and empathy or an abundance of hysteria and over-caution, depending on your views. While it gets a bad rap, in pre-modern times, judgment helped keep people safe. Judgments were alarm bells allowing humans to distinguish between toxic and harmless food, trustworthy and untrustworthy tribe members, and hardworking and lazy kinspeople, explains psychologist Carla Marie Manly, author of Joy From Fear: Create the Life of Your Dreams by Making Fear Your Friend. Judgment is also a signal that someone?s behavior is unusual or out of context to your particular in-group, says Adam Moore, lecturer of psychology at the University of Edinburgh, who studies judgment and decision making. ?The role that automatic judgment plays,? Moore says, ?is social signaling, social norm reinforcing.?But in today?s mobile, digitally facilitated world, judgment can take on new, toxic forms, Moore says. When you silently cast judgment on someone from afar based on an Instagram story, you don?t get feedback from other people ? or even the subject of your judgment ? and you don?t learn how to make comments or critiques in a constructive way. ?Normally in a social situation, you judge somebody?s behavior, and their response to you helps to calibrate your interaction with them, and also the responses of other people around you,? Moore says. ?Because so much of our lives are disconnected from each other ? we don?t perceive that body language and we don?t perceive that social feedback anymore.? Digital platforms also incite and prioritize outrage and conflict, making it easy to look down on others from your moral high horse. When people are constantly sneering at others on public platforms, the perception of what ?normal? social judgments should look like is skewed. ?In normal communities and in normal, functional families, passing judgment on other people?s behavior, it functions very well,? Moore says. ?Families rarely break up because somebody says, ?Hey, you?re acting like a jerk? at a Fourth of July party.?While judgments help signal social norms and allow us to identify our people, mean-spirited critiques are unproductive. Discernment, on the other hand, can help you identify unhealthy and toxic behaviors, Manly says. In today?s polarized world, it?s important to detect when someone?s attitudes and beliefs pose a threat to others? rights and well-being. Unless someone?s behavior is actively harming themselves or others (in which case, you should name the behavior, tell the other person how you?re feeling, and set boundaries on how you?d like them to act moving forward), learning to curb petty moral righteousness is possible, but requires slowing down your thoughts and having some empathy. Look inwardIf you?re motivated to stop hurtful critiques, you have to evaluate their source. When you feel a twang of annoyance when a friend impulsively books a vacation despite constantly complaining about money, ask yourself why you?re upset by this behavior or what purpose your anger or annoyance serves in this instance. Anger is often a signal that another person isn?t taking your well-being into consideration or there?s a conflict, Moore explains. Does your friend?s last-minute trip conflict with upcoming plans the two of you have or is it simply something you wouldn?t personally do? ?Do I have any reason to demand that other people in this situation care more about me than whatever signal they?re trying to send?? Moore says. ?Even if the answer to that question is yes, having to stop and think about it often turns the volume down on things.?In order to reframe judgmental thoughts, you need to catch them in the act. ?We have to pull back and go, ?I?m being judgy, I don?t really want to do that,?? Manly says. If you find yourself whispering a snide remark to your friend about a stranger?s shoes, try to reframe the judgment by complimenting the person?s confidence, for instance. Just as being judgmental is a practiced habit, so is stopping thought patterns that lead to hurtful observations and assumptions. ?If we come to notice we?re doing something that is unhealthy and pause and stop it, then we are far less likely to go down that path,? Manly says. ?That?s why I like compensating because if I do catch myself doing something that?s comparative, rather than just noticing, I give myself other positive hits [like] ?look at their beautiful smile.??Manly also suggests looking back on previous moments of judgment and thinking about what you could do better next time. Recall a moment you made a judgmental remark. What was the response? Would the statement make someone feel better about themselves if they heard it? Do you feel better about yourself having remembered it? If not, allow these reflections to guide you so the next time you see someone talking on speaker phone on the subway, for example, you can instead internally marvel at their interesting phone case instead of scoffing at having to hear their entire conversation.Practice curiosity, compassion, and empathyWhen people buck social conventions, those casting judgments are often quick to be offended before considering a reason why someone else is engaging in that behavior. Say your colleague is quitting their job before landing a new one and you?re outraged at their irresponsibility. Instead of jumping to conclusions, get curious and ask them about their reasons for resigning or what they hope to accomplish during their time off. ?Curiosity is the antidote for judgment,? Manly says. Manly suggests meeting those you?re unjustly judging with compassion: hoping they?re happy and doing well. When it comes to differences of opinion, it can be easy to assume that someone who doesn?t share your beliefs is ?evil or stupid,? Moore says. Instead of reacting aggressively in an attempt to change their mind, Moore suggests thinking of a good-faith reason why someone would think this way as a means to slow down the judgment process. What does the person you?re judging know about their behavior or beliefs that you don?t know? For example, when it comes to relatives with differing political opinions, Moore suggests thinking about how the loved one ended up believing what they believe: the media they consume, the people they surround themselves with. ?I find that helps me to not make toxic judgments about other people?s motivations,? he says. ?It?s really, really easy and very, very tempting to assume that people who disagree with you about something that you believe in very strongly or have very strong beliefs about are evil or stupid.? Of course, you should never compromise on important moral and social issues, Moore says. Relationships with people whose views are antithetical to your own will have to be renegotiated and you?ll need to decide how to move forward if you want to maintain contact. But you can control your initial assumptions of them based on their beliefs. ?What function is expressing those judgments serving right now?? Moore says. ?Am I trying to build consensus about an issue or am I just trying to wave my flag and say I?m of the red tribe or the blue tribe or the green tribe??Stay in your laneThere are very few things you can do to convince people your way of thinking and living is ideal. Save for the occasions where someone?s behavior is dangerous and harmful, Manly says to focus only on what you can control. ?We can only control our behaviors, our thoughts, and our actions.?Many human behaviors are actions signaling to others what kind of person you are or what groups you belong to, Moore says. Instead of criticizing your aunt for constantly sharing bizarre Minion memes on Facebook, consider she?s just vocalizing her membership in the coalition of Minion-lovers. Understanding actions? underlying meanings can help you avoid pointless arguments trying to sway someone to your side of an issue. Instead of judging and attacking and hoping others see your way, sympathize with others? reasoning for their actions, don?t feed into toxic thoughts, and lead by example. ?You can?t make somebody value the things that you value,? Moore says. ?All you can do is try to gently demonstrate that valuing the things that you value makes the world around you better and people will want to move there in some intellectual or moral sense.?Even Better is here to offer deeply sourced, actionable advice for helping you live a better life. Do you have a question on money and work; friends, family, and community; or personal growth and health? Send us your question by filling out this form. 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EU Starts Requiring Anti-Speeding Tech for New Cars - CNET
When you go over the speed limit, your car will have to let you know.
EU Starts Requiring Anti-Speeding Tech for New Cars - CNET
When you go over the speed limit, your car will have to let you know.
Prime Video's 'Paper Girls' trailer lets you meet the time-travelling gang
Everyone loves a time travel show right now, from The Umbrella Academy to Loki to Dark
Prime Video's 'Paper Girls' trailer lets you meet the time-travelling gang
Everyone loves a time travel show right now, from The Umbrella Academy to Loki to Dark
In a turbulent economy, here's how to weather the inflation storm
In a turbulent economy, here's how to weather the inflation storm. Experts offer ways to make better financial decisions as the government struggles to control inflation and head off a recession.
In a turbulent economy, here's how to weather the inflation storm
In a turbulent economy, here's how to weather the inflation storm. Experts offer ways to make better financial decisions as the government struggles to control inflation and head off a recession.
Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' series offers hobbit sneeze of a sneak peek
Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is one of the more anticipated shows of the year, and after some first-look images that polarised the internet over a t-shirt and the first epic trailer, we get another teeny-tiny look into Middle Earth.Well, you get 15 seconds. FIFTEEN. In it, you'll spy a few characters in costume and a stunning watchtower of some kind, looking over a valley.If you're a Prime member, you can see more of the clip
Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' series offers hobbit sneeze of a sneak peek
Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is one of the more anticipated shows of the year, and after some first-look images that polarised the internet over a t-shirt and the first epic trailer, we get another teeny-tiny look into Middle Earth.Well, you get 15 seconds. FIFTEEN. In it, you'll spy a few characters in costume and a stunning watchtower of some kind, looking over a valley.If you're a Prime member, you can see more of the clip
The man giving the California GOP its best shot at statewide office in years
Lanhee Chen isn?t the traditional Republican pick in California. That?s the point. On paper, Lanhee Chen seems like a perfectly fit candidate to be California?s top fiscal watchdog. The 44-year-old Bay Area denizen holds four degrees from Harvard; he teaches public policy at Stanford; he has deep policy experience working for both political parties; and he isn?t an average white guy. He was ? literally ? born on the Fourth of July.But there?s an elephant in the room: He?s running as a Republican.A Democrat has held the office of state controller since the 1970s, but Chen emerged as the top vote-getter in the June primary; he racked up about 2.4 million votes, or just under 40 percent of all votes cast. But it?s hard to say that that leaves him as the favorite for the general election. He faced a field of serious Democratic opponents who raked in about 60 percent of the vote combined and will face Malia Cohen, who serves on the state?s tax commission, like the last two controllers.Chen isn?t like other Republicans running in races around the country this year. His experience has been firmly in the party?s moderate establishment, television punditry, and, more recently, academia. He?s not swearing fealty to former President Donald Trump, and never challenged the legitimacy of President Joe Biden?s election. His immigrant, minority background gives him a different perspective on how the party should posture itself, and how the controller?s office should work. And he?s daring to offer a different vision for his state?s dying Republican Party ? even as it clings to pyrrhic victories in pockets of the West Coast.That his party will listen to his pitch is dubious. But that the state?s voters will care is a bet he?s willing to take.Who is Lanhee Chen?Chen is quick to list the ways he?s different from other Republicans in California. Born to Taiwanese immigrants, he grew up in Rowland Heights, a neighborhood with a large Taiwanese American community about 25 miles west of Los Angeles, and embedded himself in a world of civics, speaking, and political nerdiness. He founded his public high school?s chapter of the Junior State of America (a youth political education group), and competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate. While in college, he participated in Harvard Model Congress, an annual college conference that simulates how Congress works ? while also rooming with future Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). He says he felt motivated by his parents? immigrant experiences to understand how American government worked.?My parents didn?t have a family business to go into, they didn?t have a lineage,? Chen told me over a Zoom interview from his home in Mountain View, California, where he was recovering from a Covid-19 infection. ?That mentality from a very early age was something that I took on, that you have to work hard, you have to live by the rules, and you have to do your best to succeed in a society that gives you a lot of opportunity to do so.?He spent his post-college years as a political consultant, getting an education in advocacy at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in 2003, before a law degree and PhD at Harvard. He advised former President George W. Bush?s 2004 reelection campaign on health policy around that time, and when Mitt Romney prepared a run for the presidency in 2007, Chen jumped at the opportunity. It was a short-lived campaign, but Chen?s political future was just starting: he taught for a year at UC Berkeley in 2010 before joining Team Romney again in 2011, for Romney?s 2012 presidential campaign as its top policy director. By then he was described as a ?prodigy,? a ?dynamo,? and the campaign?s ?orchestra leader.??Here was a guy who was kind of wonky at heart, incredibly smart, and a very principled guy at his core,? Chen said. ?We didn?t agree on everything, obviously. But at the end of the day, I was really, really fortunate to have that experience working with him.?The two maintain a friendship, Chen said, and Romney emphasized Chen?s ?invaluable? counsel in a statement to Vox that also endorsed his run for state controller. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
The man giving the California GOP its best shot at statewide office in years
Lanhee Chen isn?t the traditional Republican pick in California. That?s the point. On paper, Lanhee Chen seems like a perfectly fit candidate to be California?s top fiscal watchdog. The 44-year-old Bay Area denizen holds four degrees from Harvard; he teaches public policy at Stanford; he has deep policy experience working for both political parties; and he isn?t an average white guy. He was ? literally ? born on the Fourth of July.But there?s an elephant in the room: He?s running as a Republican.A Democrat has held the office of state controller since the 1970s, but Chen emerged as the top vote-getter in the June primary; he racked up about 2.4 million votes, or just under 40 percent of all votes cast. But it?s hard to say that that leaves him as the favorite for the general election. He faced a field of serious Democratic opponents who raked in about 60 percent of the vote combined and will face Malia Cohen, who serves on the state?s tax commission, like the last two controllers.Chen isn?t like other Republicans running in races around the country this year. His experience has been firmly in the party?s moderate establishment, television punditry, and, more recently, academia. He?s not swearing fealty to former President Donald Trump, and never challenged the legitimacy of President Joe Biden?s election. His immigrant, minority background gives him a different perspective on how the party should posture itself, and how the controller?s office should work. And he?s daring to offer a different vision for his state?s dying Republican Party ? even as it clings to pyrrhic victories in pockets of the West Coast.That his party will listen to his pitch is dubious. But that the state?s voters will care is a bet he?s willing to take.Who is Lanhee Chen?Chen is quick to list the ways he?s different from other Republicans in California. Born to Taiwanese immigrants, he grew up in Rowland Heights, a neighborhood with a large Taiwanese American community about 25 miles west of Los Angeles, and embedded himself in a world of civics, speaking, and political nerdiness. He founded his public high school?s chapter of the Junior State of America (a youth political education group), and competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate. While in college, he participated in Harvard Model Congress, an annual college conference that simulates how Congress works ? while also rooming with future Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). He says he felt motivated by his parents? immigrant experiences to understand how American government worked.?My parents didn?t have a family business to go into, they didn?t have a lineage,? Chen told me over a Zoom interview from his home in Mountain View, California, where he was recovering from a Covid-19 infection. ?That mentality from a very early age was something that I took on, that you have to work hard, you have to live by the rules, and you have to do your best to succeed in a society that gives you a lot of opportunity to do so.?He spent his post-college years as a political consultant, getting an education in advocacy at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in 2003, before a law degree and PhD at Harvard. He advised former President George W. Bush?s 2004 reelection campaign on health policy around that time, and when Mitt Romney prepared a run for the presidency in 2007, Chen jumped at the opportunity. It was a short-lived campaign, but Chen?s political future was just starting: he taught for a year at UC Berkeley in 2010 before joining Team Romney again in 2011, for Romney?s 2012 presidential campaign as its top policy director. By then he was described as a ?prodigy,? a ?dynamo,? and the campaign?s ?orchestra leader.??Here was a guy who was kind of wonky at heart, incredibly smart, and a very principled guy at his core,? Chen said. ?We didn?t agree on everything, obviously. But at the end of the day, I was really, really fortunate to have that experience working with him.?The two maintain a friendship, Chen said, and Romney emphasized Chen?s ?invaluable? counsel in a statement to Vox that also endorsed his run for state controller. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
How conservatism conquered America — and corrupted itself
The past month?s conservative victories were decades in the making. Three books about the right reveal what it cost the movement. The January 6 committee has been investigating, among other things, how it is that such a grievous attack on the Capitol could have happened in the first place. A key answer to that question will not be found not in White House call records or intercepted Proud Boys texts, but in a document released publicly last week: the Supreme Court?s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.That Trump would incite violence in pursuit of power was not only predictable but predicted ? including by his Republican opponents in the 2016 primary. Yet Republicans elevated him to the world?s most important job, and have made no secret why. ?The first thing that came to my mind [after Trump?s general election win] was the Supreme Court,? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Washington Post in a recent interview. With Trump?s election, the conservative establishment succeeded in cementing its control over the Court. But this victory required that they cede control over their movement to an unstable demagogue.American conservatism is thus simultaneously ascendant and in crisis. The right has extraordinary political power, but its traditional leadership seems less capable than ever of imposing limits on how it is wielded. The GOP?s future belongs to the radical forces represented by Trump and the members of the establishment most willing to cater to them. Those few Republicans in power willing to stand up to the rot of Trumpism ? like Rep. Liz Cheney, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, and Sen. Mitt Romney ? find themselves on the outside looking in. This state of affairs is perhaps the inevitable endpoint of the American right?s decades-old strategy for attaining power. Conservative doctrine never truly captured the hearts of a mass audience; to attain power, the movement needed to ally itself with forces of far-right reaction who raged against the idea of equality at the heart of modern democracy. American conservatism was an attempt to tame the untamable: to domesticate this reactionary impulse and channel it in electoral politics in service of an elite-driven agenda. Its leaders managed to exercise some control over radicals in the specific context of Cold War America ? but the effort was fated to fail eventually.And now it?s threatening to bring American democracy down with it.The dark heart of reactionary politicsModern democracy is, at heart, premised on the liberal ideal of equality: that because no person is inherently superior to any other, all deserve to help shape the rules that govern society as a whole. That this idea will strike many readers as banal speaks to the success of the liberal democratic project, which has taken a premise that challenges every historical hierarchy and elevated it to the level of received wisdom.These hierarchies, however, are not without their defenders. Anti-egalitarian politics have regularly proven to be politically potent, with many citizens in seemingly advanced democracies repeatedly showing themselves willing to support political factions that challenge liberalism?s most cherished ideals.Matthew Rose?s recent book A World after Liberalism tells the story of a handful of ?radical right? thinkers who built intellectual foundations for anti-egalitarian politics. The writings of the people he highlights ? German cultural essentialist Oswald Spengler, Italian quasi-fascist Julius Evola, American Nazi sympathizer Francis Parker Yockey, French philosopher Alain de Benoist, and the proto-Trumpian pundit Sam Francis ? range from mystical treatises about cultural symbology to conspiracy theorizing to more conventional political journalism.But according to Rose, a scholar of religion by background, they share key traits in common: most fundamentally, a belief in the group as the primary unit of political life. The group they champion happens to be European peoples or, for some, the white race.Liberalism centers individuals, treating them as equals and granting them rights against the state in order to be able to live their lives in the way they choose. Radical right theorists see this as a terrible mistake. Brian Blanco/Getty Images
How conservatism conquered America — and corrupted itself
The past month?s conservative victories were decades in the making. Three books about the right reveal what it cost the movement. The January 6 committee has been investigating, among other things, how it is that such a grievous attack on the Capitol could have happened in the first place. A key answer to that question will not be found not in White House call records or intercepted Proud Boys texts, but in a document released publicly last week: the Supreme Court?s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.That Trump would incite violence in pursuit of power was not only predictable but predicted ? including by his Republican opponents in the 2016 primary. Yet Republicans elevated him to the world?s most important job, and have made no secret why. ?The first thing that came to my mind [after Trump?s general election win] was the Supreme Court,? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Washington Post in a recent interview. With Trump?s election, the conservative establishment succeeded in cementing its control over the Court. But this victory required that they cede control over their movement to an unstable demagogue.American conservatism is thus simultaneously ascendant and in crisis. The right has extraordinary political power, but its traditional leadership seems less capable than ever of imposing limits on how it is wielded. The GOP?s future belongs to the radical forces represented by Trump and the members of the establishment most willing to cater to them. Those few Republicans in power willing to stand up to the rot of Trumpism ? like Rep. Liz Cheney, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, and Sen. Mitt Romney ? find themselves on the outside looking in. This state of affairs is perhaps the inevitable endpoint of the American right?s decades-old strategy for attaining power. Conservative doctrine never truly captured the hearts of a mass audience; to attain power, the movement needed to ally itself with forces of far-right reaction who raged against the idea of equality at the heart of modern democracy. American conservatism was an attempt to tame the untamable: to domesticate this reactionary impulse and channel it in electoral politics in service of an elite-driven agenda. Its leaders managed to exercise some control over radicals in the specific context of Cold War America ? but the effort was fated to fail eventually.And now it?s threatening to bring American democracy down with it.The dark heart of reactionary politicsModern democracy is, at heart, premised on the liberal ideal of equality: that because no person is inherently superior to any other, all deserve to help shape the rules that govern society as a whole. That this idea will strike many readers as banal speaks to the success of the liberal democratic project, which has taken a premise that challenges every historical hierarchy and elevated it to the level of received wisdom.These hierarchies, however, are not without their defenders. Anti-egalitarian politics have regularly proven to be politically potent, with many citizens in seemingly advanced democracies repeatedly showing themselves willing to support political factions that challenge liberalism?s most cherished ideals.Matthew Rose?s recent book A World after Liberalism tells the story of a handful of ?radical right? thinkers who built intellectual foundations for anti-egalitarian politics. The writings of the people he highlights ? German cultural essentialist Oswald Spengler, Italian quasi-fascist Julius Evola, American Nazi sympathizer Francis Parker Yockey, French philosopher Alain de Benoist, and the proto-Trumpian pundit Sam Francis ? range from mystical treatises about cultural symbology to conspiracy theorizing to more conventional political journalism.But according to Rose, a scholar of religion by background, they share key traits in common: most fundamentally, a belief in the group as the primary unit of political life. The group they champion happens to be European peoples or, for some, the white race.Liberalism centers individuals, treating them as equals and granting them rights against the state in order to be able to live their lives in the way they choose. Radical right theorists see this as a terrible mistake. Brian Blanco/Getty Images
Nintendo Switch OLED Is Getting a Colorful Splatoon 3 Edition on Aug. 26 - CNET
It doesn't include the new game, which comes out Sept 9.
Nintendo Switch OLED Is Getting a Colorful Splatoon 3 Edition on Aug. 26 - CNET
It doesn't include the new game, which comes out Sept 9.
This Electric Air Fryer Is $20 Right Now (No, Really) - CNET
Save $30 on a small-yet-mighty air fryer and keep the big oven turned off until fall.
This Electric Air Fryer Is $20 Right Now (No, Really) - CNET
Save $30 on a small-yet-mighty air fryer and keep the big oven turned off until fall.
Bale, Robbie, De Niro, Etc: 'Amsterdam' Trailer Has Too Many Stars To Fit in This Headline - CNET
Olyphant, Salda?a, Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift... Check out the bonkers cast list for David O Russell's quirky crime flick.
Bale, Robbie, De Niro, Etc: 'Amsterdam' Trailer Has Too Many Stars To Fit in This Headline - CNET
Olyphant, Salda?a, Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift... Check out the bonkers cast list for David O Russell's quirky crime flick.
These Standards Could Protect Your Data From Quantum Computer Attacks - CNET
The US government is overseeing the design and testing of new post-quantum cryptography technology.
These Standards Could Protect Your Data From Quantum Computer Attacks - CNET
The US government is overseeing the design and testing of new post-quantum cryptography technology.
A U.S. uranium mill is near this tribe. A study may reveal if it poses a health risk
The Utah mill has long concerned a tribal community next door. They hope a new health study will answer their questions. "A lot of our people mysteriously started getting sick," a tribal member says.
A U.S. uranium mill is near this tribe. A study may reveal if it poses a health risk
The Utah mill has long concerned a tribal community next door. They hope a new health study will answer their questions. "A lot of our people mysteriously started getting sick," a tribal member says.
It's official: MacBook Air with M2 chip will be available to order on Friday
The rumors were right: Apple's new MacBook Air with M2 chip will be available to order on July 8, and it will start arriving to customers on July 15, the company has announced.The orders will open at Apple's online store on July 8 at 5 a.m. PT, Apple said. Next Friday, it will be available at "select Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers." The M2 MacBook Air, originally announced during Apple's WWDC event in June, was originally said to be launching in July, without a firm launch date. Prior to the event, reports said that the device might come later than expected, and be in short supply when it does launch, likely because of Covid-related factory shutdowns in China. The jury is still out on the second point; we'll see how quickly those delivery dates move into the future when the new MacBook Air becomes available to order. The new MacBook Air is a big step up from the last generation, with a new design that resembles the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, including a 13.6-inch display with thinner bezels.
It's official: MacBook Air with M2 chip will be available to order on Friday
The rumors were right: Apple's new MacBook Air with M2 chip will be available to order on July 8, and it will start arriving to customers on July 15, the company has announced.The orders will open at Apple's online store on July 8 at 5 a.m. PT, Apple said. Next Friday, it will be available at "select Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers." The M2 MacBook Air, originally announced during Apple's WWDC event in June, was originally said to be launching in July, without a firm launch date. Prior to the event, reports said that the device might come later than expected, and be in short supply when it does launch, likely because of Covid-related factory shutdowns in China. The jury is still out on the second point; we'll see how quickly those delivery dates move into the future when the new MacBook Air becomes available to order. The new MacBook Air is a big step up from the last generation, with a new design that resembles the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, including a 13.6-inch display with thinner bezels.
'Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith' Makes Luke Skywalker the 'Most Powerful Person in the Galaxy' - CNET
Author Adam Christopher reveals where Rey's parents' names came from, the fun of defining classic characters and how he jumped into weird Sith lore in his Star Wars novel.
'Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith' Makes Luke Skywalker the 'Most Powerful Person in the Galaxy' - CNET
Author Adam Christopher reveals where Rey's parents' names came from, the fun of defining classic characters and how he jumped into weird Sith lore in his Star Wars novel.
Save $60 on a Kindle Kids tablet for your little bookworm
SAVE $60: As of July 6, you can grab an Amazon Kindle Kids
Save $60 on a Kindle Kids tablet for your little bookworm
SAVE $60: As of July 6, you can grab an Amazon Kindle Kids
Everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2022, from dates to early deals
UPDATE: Jul. 6, 2022, 9:39 a.m. EDT This story has been updated with new predictions for Prime Day 2022, as well as information on current deals.Amazon's exclusive Prime Day sale is back for its seventh year in 2022, but record-high inflation rates have made it harder than ever to figure out which deals are actually worth adding to your cart. Below, we've rounded up some must-know Prime Day info that you can use to make smart shopping decisions and stretch your dollar against soaring prices.What is Prime Day?Prime Day is an annual sitewide sale that Amazon puts on for its Prime members. First held in 2015 in honor of Amazon's 20th anniversary (with mixed success), it was originally plugged as a "one-day-only event filled with more deals than Black Friday, exclusively for Prime members around the globe." In the years since, it's morphed into a 48-hour affair that's preceded by a couple weeks of teaser deals. "Prime Day" is a misnomer at this point.When is Prime Day 2022?After teasing the announcement in its first-quarter earnings report, Amazon confirmed in a press release that Prime Day will begin on Tuesday, July 12 at 3 a.m. ET and run through Wednesday, July 13 in 2022. (Can't wait 'til then? Early Prime Day deals and exclusive new offers began rolling out on Tuesday, June 21
Everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2022, from dates to early deals
UPDATE: Jul. 6, 2022, 9:39 a.m. EDT This story has been updated with new predictions for Prime Day 2022, as well as information on current deals.Amazon's exclusive Prime Day sale is back for its seventh year in 2022, but record-high inflation rates have made it harder than ever to figure out which deals are actually worth adding to your cart. Below, we've rounded up some must-know Prime Day info that you can use to make smart shopping decisions and stretch your dollar against soaring prices.What is Prime Day?Prime Day is an annual sitewide sale that Amazon puts on for its Prime members. First held in 2015 in honor of Amazon's 20th anniversary (with mixed success), it was originally plugged as a "one-day-only event filled with more deals than Black Friday, exclusively for Prime members around the globe." In the years since, it's morphed into a 48-hour affair that's preceded by a couple weeks of teaser deals. "Prime Day" is a misnomer at this point.When is Prime Day 2022?After teasing the announcement in its first-quarter earnings report, Amazon confirmed in a press release that Prime Day will begin on Tuesday, July 12 at 3 a.m. ET and run through Wednesday, July 13 in 2022. (Can't wait 'til then? Early Prime Day deals and exclusive new offers began rolling out on Tuesday, June 21
Inside Ukraine’s lobbying blitz in Washington
Meet the Ukrainian fighter jet pilots hobnobbing with Washington influencers.
At a white-tablecloth dinner on the second floor of an Italian bistro in Dupont Circle, two Ukrainian fighter pilots took a break from the battlefield to describe facing off with Russian jets above Kyiv to a rapt group of reporters.
The four journalists chimed in with questions. Do the Ukrainians really want MIGs, the outdated Soviet-designed fighter jets? What was their message for an American audience more concerned with high oil prices than Russian threats, one that might even blame gas prices on US support for Ukraine?
“Um, this is a tricky one,” an American PR executive interjected, “but answer carefully.”
“You tell me if it’s off the record,” one of the pilots said, to laughs.
“It’s just that Russia is a really big threat,” he continued. “If it’s not stopped right now, right here in Ukraine, on the ground, and with the sanction pressure, the rest of this democratic world could find themselves in a much, much worse situation.”
“Well said, bravo,” the PR executive said.
Ukraine has unleashed an incredible influence campaign in Washington. There’s a lag to the filing of lobbying disclosures. But even in the lead-up to the war last year, Ukraine’s lobbyists made more than 10,000 contacts with Congress, think tanks, and journalists. That’s higher than the well-funded lobbyists of Saudi Arabia, and experts on foreign lobbying told Vox they expect that this year’s number will grow much higher.
This spring, I’ve been invited to an elegant dinner with a parliamentary delegation and morning briefings (no breakfast, just coffee) at think tanks with Ukraine’s chief negotiator with Russia. Foreign policy reporters in DC have been inundated with requests. A journalist from another outlet, who asked for anonymity to be blunt, concurred: It’s been “a nonstop cycle” of Ukrainian visitors in Washington, they told me, “And think tanks that have basically become lobbyists but with a nonprofit status.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington and other parliamentarians pop up at foreign policy events. Their express purpose has been amplifying support for bigger weapons packages for Ukraine. The requests are very specific and have evolved as the war goes on: Right now, Kyiv wants F-16s and drones, more artillery and armored vehicles. The messages conveyed by Ukrainian politicians and members of the armed forces are remarkably disciplined.
Visiting officials and meals with journalists are part of how Washington works, and there’s an ecosystem of experienced power brokers operating largely within — but sometimes in the gray zone — of US laws regulating foreign influence. And Ukraine, of course, is under siege and has mobilized its most eloquent advocates to speak with Washington influencers. But the sheer intensity and coordination of the effort reveal how Ukraine views the US as an active participant in the war, and at times pushes the legal boundaries around foreign lobbying.
In the case of the Italian dinner, a public affairs firm called Ridgely Walsh hosted and paid for the event and assembled the journalist guest list. The fighter pilots, who go by their call signs, Juice and Moonfish, to protect themselves and their families, had also met with members of the House and the Senate, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State. The two pilots were quoted widely in news media, and appeared on CNN alongside actor Sean Penn, before returning to their units the following Monday.
According to the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), anyone working for a foreign entity must register, whether or not they’re being paid. Indeed, there’s been a major trend of PR and lobbying firms doing pro bono work for Ukrainians. In part because it is good PR.
Ridgely Walsh, according to Department of Justice filings, had not registered, and in response to Vox’s inquiry, the firm said it would change its status. “As a prudential matter, we’re gonna go ahead and register immediately to represent the Government of Ukraine on a pro bono basis,” Juleanna Glover, the founder and CEO of the firm, told me.
FARA is a peculiar law that requires voluntary disclosure, and it wasn’t all that well understood or enforced until the Trump era when some of then-President Donald Trump’s inner circle got caught without registering — Michael Flynn working for Turkey, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates lobbying for pro-Russia interests in Ukraine, and Tom Barrack allegedly acting as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates.
“The very small group of FARA lawyers who have been doing this for a long time were shouting from the rooftops to everyone: beware,” Joshua Rosenstein, a lawyer at Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, told me, “because FARA is more broad than you think.”
To understand the scale of Ukraine’s lobbying, it’s useful to review the history of a law that was meant to bring transparency to international activities at a time when, according to some metrics, there are more foreign agents registered than ever.
FARA: From obscurity to the front page
FARA was enacted in 1938 to combat Nazi propaganda and Soviet influence. It doesn’t regulate or censor speech as such, whether an individual represents the best of regimes or the worst of them.
It’s just registering and disclosing those interests, but any “informational materials” disseminated — like articles — must include a conspicuous statement of that work. The scholar Daniel Rice, who has registered to advise the Ukrainian president on a pro bono basis, is legally bound to add something like this to his articles: “This material is distributed by Daniel Rice on behalf of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Additional information is available at the US Department of Justice, Washington, DC.”
The 50 years before 2016 saw only seven criminal prosecutions for FARA violations. But during the Trump years, the once-obscure area of law became a front-page story. “Before that, you know, we were probably a little naive,” says Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “You start seeing how foreign government interests and other foreign entities are trying to influence US policy.”
David Laufman is a partner at Wiggin and Dana who oversaw FARA enforcement at the Department of Justice from 2014 to 2018. “It quickly became apparent to me, by as early as early 2015, that we were not fully meeting our enforcement responsibilities under FARA,” he told me. “So I set about energizing enforcement of FARA, and it has built upon itself steadily since then.”
The Justice Department now is likely paying more attention to unfriendly governments and potentially unregistered lobbying, according to Rosenstein. “I would imagine that doing lobbying work, for example, on behalf of, say, a Chinese entity is given more scrutiny than lobbying work on behalf of a Canadian company,” he said.
The FARA unit has grown to five attorneys, five analysts, two support staffers, an intern, and an FBI agent detailed to it, but it still has “finite resources,” a Department of Justice official familiar with its workings, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told me. “Certainly, the scope of the potential national security threat is always going to drive our choices.”
It’s not yet clear what renewed enforcement of FARA will mean for the army of Ukrainian lobbyists in Washington, especially since the DOJ likely doesn’t see Ukraine as a “potential national security threat.” But the US government does have the power to make sure readers and viewers have clarity about foreign interests. “One of the beautiful things about FARA and how we run things is everything goes online. So you’re seeing what we’re seeing,” another DOJ official said.
How Ukraine lobbies
The number of firms registered to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian clients has exploded this summer. Six new firms registered in June alone, bringing the total to 24 firms or individuals now registered to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian clients, up from 11 registered to work for Ukraine last year.
Ben Freeman, a researcher at the nonpartisan Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says that current Ukrainian efforts rank among the most active foreign government lobby he has ever analyzed.
He is particularly surprised that major lobbying and comms shops in DC are giving their services away. “That’s just unheard of in the foreign lobbying space,” says Freeman, who authored the book The Foreign Policy Auction. “There’s no such thing as a free lobbyist in DC.”
That’s because there may be a business motive behind gratis lobbying.
Take, for example, Mercury Public Affairs, a prominent consulting and PR group based in Washington. It’s now doing pro bono work for GloBee International Agency for Regional Development for Ukraine. Prior to that, Mercury worked for Russian firms. In January of this year, Sovcombank, one of Russia’s largest banks, hired Mercury for $90,000 monthly in the hope of preventing new sanctions against it. On February 25, a day after Russia’s invasion, Mercury dropped Sovcombank as a client.
Qorvis, another powerhouse communications firm, is now working for Ukrainian aid relief groups after years representing Russian interests in Washington. “In a matter of months, they’re sort of switching sides on who they’re representing in this lobbying fight,” Freeman said.
Shai Franklin is a lobbyist at Your Global Strategy who worked closely with Ukrainian groups before the Russian invasion in February. He registered as a pro bono lobbyist for Ukraine and has been connecting Ukrainian mayors with American mayors, and has also been working for GloBee. “The first week I was doing the work, I realized I better file,” he told me. “And that brought its own publicity, which was great, because it shows that Washington people are standing up for Ukraine.”
The negative association with registering as a foreign agent has perhaps made some less interested in registering. The American Bar Association recently recommended changes to the law, including replacing the phrase “‘agent of a foreign principal’ with a term that elicits less stigma.” As Franklin put it, “I tell foreign clients that there’s no shame in filing under FARA, but some of them are still pretty spooked by it, because of what happened over the last few years, because FARA has been associated with a crime.”
Even working for those who seem like heroes requires registration. “When it comes to foreign governments lobbying or lobbying on behalf of foreign interests, people have to realize that whether it’s a foreign interest we see as a good guy or a bad guy or an ugly guy, that’s not the US interest,” said Freeman. There is a narrow humanitarian carveout that exempts some from registering, and those lobbying on behalf of foreign companies register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
The Ukrainians were savvy to send fighter pilots to a country that made the film Top Gun twice. Over risotto drizzled with asparagus puree and saffron fondue, they talked about flying low over the country on risky missions last month, making eye contact with Ukrainian farmers on tractors in the fields of grain and waving to agricultural producers who they see as also fighting on the front lines. But the purpose of their trip was not merely to raise awareness about the plight of Ukrainian farmers amid an emerging global food crisis.
“Our main goal is self-explanatory,” Moonfish said. “We’re meeting media and lawmakers in order to push the weapon flow to Ukraine.”
Inside Ukraine’s lobbying blitz in Washington
Meet the Ukrainian fighter jet pilots hobnobbing with Washington influencers.
At a white-tablecloth dinner on the second floor of an Italian bistro in Dupont Circle, two Ukrainian fighter pilots took a break from the battlefield to describe facing off with Russian jets above Kyiv to a rapt group of reporters.
The four journalists chimed in with questions. Do the Ukrainians really want MIGs, the outdated Soviet-designed fighter jets? What was their message for an American audience more concerned with high oil prices than Russian threats, one that might even blame gas prices on US support for Ukraine?
“Um, this is a tricky one,” an American PR executive interjected, “but answer carefully.”
“You tell me if it’s off the record,” one of the pilots said, to laughs.
“It’s just that Russia is a really big threat,” he continued. “If it’s not stopped right now, right here in Ukraine, on the ground, and with the sanction pressure, the rest of this democratic world could find themselves in a much, much worse situation.”
“Well said, bravo,” the PR executive said.
Ukraine has unleashed an incredible influence campaign in Washington. There’s a lag to the filing of lobbying disclosures. But even in the lead-up to the war last year, Ukraine’s lobbyists made more than 10,000 contacts with Congress, think tanks, and journalists. That’s higher than the well-funded lobbyists of Saudi Arabia, and experts on foreign lobbying told Vox they expect that this year’s number will grow much higher.
This spring, I’ve been invited to an elegant dinner with a parliamentary delegation and morning briefings (no breakfast, just coffee) at think tanks with Ukraine’s chief negotiator with Russia. Foreign policy reporters in DC have been inundated with requests. A journalist from another outlet, who asked for anonymity to be blunt, concurred: It’s been “a nonstop cycle” of Ukrainian visitors in Washington, they told me, “And think tanks that have basically become lobbyists but with a nonprofit status.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington and other parliamentarians pop up at foreign policy events. Their express purpose has been amplifying support for bigger weapons packages for Ukraine. The requests are very specific and have evolved as the war goes on: Right now, Kyiv wants F-16s and drones, more artillery and armored vehicles. The messages conveyed by Ukrainian politicians and members of the armed forces are remarkably disciplined.
Visiting officials and meals with journalists are part of how Washington works, and there’s an ecosystem of experienced power brokers operating largely within — but sometimes in the gray zone — of US laws regulating foreign influence. And Ukraine, of course, is under siege and has mobilized its most eloquent advocates to speak with Washington influencers. But the sheer intensity and coordination of the effort reveal how Ukraine views the US as an active participant in the war, and at times pushes the legal boundaries around foreign lobbying.
In the case of the Italian dinner, a public affairs firm called Ridgely Walsh hosted and paid for the event and assembled the journalist guest list. The fighter pilots, who go by their call signs, Juice and Moonfish, to protect themselves and their families, had also met with members of the House and the Senate, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State. The two pilots were quoted widely in news media, and appeared on CNN alongside actor Sean Penn, before returning to their units the following Monday.
According to the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), anyone working for a foreign entity must register, whether or not they’re being paid. Indeed, there’s been a major trend of PR and lobbying firms doing pro bono work for Ukrainians. In part because it is good PR.
Ridgely Walsh, according to Department of Justice filings, had not registered, and in response to Vox’s inquiry, the firm said it would change its status. “As a prudential matter, we’re gonna go ahead and register immediately to represent the Government of Ukraine on a pro bono basis,” Juleanna Glover, the founder and CEO of the firm, told me.
FARA is a peculiar law that requires voluntary disclosure, and it wasn’t all that well understood or enforced until the Trump era when some of then-President Donald Trump’s inner circle got caught without registering — Michael Flynn working for Turkey, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates lobbying for pro-Russia interests in Ukraine, and Tom Barrack allegedly acting as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates.
“The very small group of FARA lawyers who have been doing this for a long time were shouting from the rooftops to everyone: beware,” Joshua Rosenstein, a lawyer at Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, told me, “because FARA is more broad than you think.”
To understand the scale of Ukraine’s lobbying, it’s useful to review the history of a law that was meant to bring transparency to international activities at a time when, according to some metrics, there are more foreign agents registered than ever.
FARA: From obscurity to the front page
FARA was enacted in 1938 to combat Nazi propaganda and Soviet influence. It doesn’t regulate or censor speech as such, whether an individual represents the best of regimes or the worst of them.
It’s just registering and disclosing those interests, but any “informational materials” disseminated — like articles — must include a conspicuous statement of that work. The scholar Daniel Rice, who has registered to advise the Ukrainian president on a pro bono basis, is legally bound to add something like this to his articles: “This material is distributed by Daniel Rice on behalf of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Additional information is available at the US Department of Justice, Washington, DC.”
The 50 years before 2016 saw only seven criminal prosecutions for FARA violations. But during the Trump years, the once-obscure area of law became a front-page story. “Before that, you know, we were probably a little naive,” says Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “You start seeing how foreign government interests and other foreign entities are trying to influence US policy.”
David Laufman is a partner at Wiggin and Dana who oversaw FARA enforcement at the Department of Justice from 2014 to 2018. “It quickly became apparent to me, by as early as early 2015, that we were not fully meeting our enforcement responsibilities under FARA,” he told me. “So I set about energizing enforcement of FARA, and it has built upon itself steadily since then.”
The Justice Department now is likely paying more attention to unfriendly governments and potentially unregistered lobbying, according to Rosenstein. “I would imagine that doing lobbying work, for example, on behalf of, say, a Chinese entity is given more scrutiny than lobbying work on behalf of a Canadian company,” he said.
The FARA unit has grown to five attorneys, five analysts, two support staffers, an intern, and an FBI agent detailed to it, but it still has “finite resources,” a Department of Justice official familiar with its workings, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told me. “Certainly, the scope of the potential national security threat is always going to drive our choices.”
It’s not yet clear what renewed enforcement of FARA will mean for the army of Ukrainian lobbyists in Washington, especially since the DOJ likely doesn’t see Ukraine as a “potential national security threat.” But the US government does have the power to make sure readers and viewers have clarity about foreign interests. “One of the beautiful things about FARA and how we run things is everything goes online. So you’re seeing what we’re seeing,” another DOJ official said.
How Ukraine lobbies
The number of firms registered to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian clients has exploded this summer. Six new firms registered in June alone, bringing the total to 24 firms or individuals now registered to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian clients, up from 11 registered to work for Ukraine last year.
Ben Freeman, a researcher at the nonpartisan Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says that current Ukrainian efforts rank among the most active foreign government lobby he has ever analyzed.
He is particularly surprised that major lobbying and comms shops in DC are giving their services away. “That’s just unheard of in the foreign lobbying space,” says Freeman, who authored the book The Foreign Policy Auction. “There’s no such thing as a free lobbyist in DC.”
That’s because there may be a business motive behind gratis lobbying.
Take, for example, Mercury Public Affairs, a prominent consulting and PR group based in Washington. It’s now doing pro bono work for GloBee International Agency for Regional Development for Ukraine. Prior to that, Mercury worked for Russian firms. In January of this year, Sovcombank, one of Russia’s largest banks, hired Mercury for $90,000 monthly in the hope of preventing new sanctions against it. On February 25, a day after Russia’s invasion, Mercury dropped Sovcombank as a client.
Qorvis, another powerhouse communications firm, is now working for Ukrainian aid relief groups after years representing Russian interests in Washington. “In a matter of months, they’re sort of switching sides on who they’re representing in this lobbying fight,” Freeman said.
Shai Franklin is a lobbyist at Your Global Strategy who worked closely with Ukrainian groups before the Russian invasion in February. He registered as a pro bono lobbyist for Ukraine and has been connecting Ukrainian mayors with American mayors, and has also been working for GloBee. “The first week I was doing the work, I realized I better file,” he told me. “And that brought its own publicity, which was great, because it shows that Washington people are standing up for Ukraine.”
The negative association with registering as a foreign agent has perhaps made some less interested in registering. The American Bar Association recently recommended changes to the law, including replacing the phrase “‘agent of a foreign principal’ with a term that elicits less stigma.” As Franklin put it, “I tell foreign clients that there’s no shame in filing under FARA, but some of them are still pretty spooked by it, because of what happened over the last few years, because FARA has been associated with a crime.”
Even working for those who seem like heroes requires registration. “When it comes to foreign governments lobbying or lobbying on behalf of foreign interests, people have to realize that whether it’s a foreign interest we see as a good guy or a bad guy or an ugly guy, that’s not the US interest,” said Freeman. There is a narrow humanitarian carveout that exempts some from registering, and those lobbying on behalf of foreign companies register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
The Ukrainians were savvy to send fighter pilots to a country that made the film Top Gun twice. Over risotto drizzled with asparagus puree and saffron fondue, they talked about flying low over the country on risky missions last month, making eye contact with Ukrainian farmers on tractors in the fields of grain and waving to agricultural producers who they see as also fighting on the front lines. But the purpose of their trip was not merely to raise awareness about the plight of Ukrainian farmers amid an emerging global food crisis.
“Our main goal is self-explanatory,” Moonfish said. “We’re meeting media and lawmakers in order to push the weapon flow to Ukraine.”
The secret life of biofluorescent sea creatures
One night, while photographing biofluorescent corals with his team, marine biologist David Gruber's camera was suddenly brightened by an unlikely sight: a turtle glowing in neon-like red and green colours. This accidental discovery set the beginning of Gruber's ambitious study of marine life's biofluorescence. From exploring the coral reefs of the Solomon Islands to diving beneath icebergs in the Arctic's frosty waters, Gruber has been travelling across the oceans to better understand their secrets.
The secret life of biofluorescent sea creatures
One night, while photographing biofluorescent corals with his team, marine biologist David Gruber's camera was suddenly brightened by an unlikely sight: a turtle glowing in neon-like red and green colours. This accidental discovery set the beginning of Gruber's ambitious study of marine life's biofluorescence. From exploring the coral reefs of the Solomon Islands to diving beneath icebergs in the Arctic's frosty waters, Gruber has been travelling across the oceans to better understand their secrets.
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