Leonard Peltier, Native American activist, is released from prison after Biden commuted his life sentence
© Courtesy of Chauncey Peltier
© Courtesy of Chauncey Peltier
© Evelyn Hockstein
© Russian Foreign Ministry
© Diego Herrera Carcedo
©
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
©
© Kevin Lamarque
© Cole Burston
© Courtesy Blake Mallen
© Zerb Mellish for NBC News
© ATLAS
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Asked ChatGPT anything lately? Talked with a customer service chatbot? Read the results of Google's "AI Overviews" summary feature? If you've used the Internet lately, chances are, you've consumed content created by a large language model. These models, like DeepSeek-R1 or OpenAI's ChatGPT, are kind of like the predictive text feature in your phone on steroids. In order for them to "learn" how to write, the models are trained on millions of examples of human-written text. Thanks in part to these same large language models, a lot of content on the Internet today is written by generative AI. That means that AI models trained nowadays may be consuming their own synthetic content ... and suffering the consequences.
View the AI-generated images mentioned in this episode.
Have another topic in artificial intelligence you want us to cover? Let us know my emailing shortwave@npr.org!
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
(Image credit: Andriy Onufriyenko)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
© Courtesy Joan Maland via AP
The AI chatbot ChatGPT from Open AI has triggered the hype surrounding generative artificial intelligence and dominates much of the media coverage.
However, in addition to the AI models from Open AI, there are other chatbots that deserve attention. And unlike ChatGPT, these are also available for local use on the PC and can even be used free of charge for an unlimited period of time.
We’ll show you four local chatbots that also run on older hardware. You can talk to them or create texts with them.
The chatbots presented here generally consist of two parts, a front end and an AI model, the large language model.
You decide which model runs in the front end after installing the tool. Operation is not difficult if you know the basics. However, some of the chatbots offer very extensive setting options. Using these requires expert knowledge. However, the bots can also be operated well with the standard settings.
See also: What is an AI PC, exactly? We cut through the hype
What you can expect from a local large language model (LLM) also depends on what you offer it: LLMs need computing power and a lot of RAM to be able to respond quickly.
If these requirements are not met, the large models will not even start and the small ones will take an agonizingly long time to respond. Things are faster with a current graphics card from Nvidia or AMD, as most local chatbots and AI models can then utilize the hardware’s GPU.
If you only have a weak graphics card in your PC, everything has to be calculated by the CPU — and that takes time.
If you only have 8GB of RAM in your PC, you can only start very small AI models. Although they can provide correct answers to a number of simple questions, they quickly run into problems with peripheral topics. Computers that offer 12GB RAM are already quite good, but 16GB RAM or more is even better.
Then even AI models that work with 7 to 12 billion parameters will run smoothly. You can usually recognize how many parameters a model has by its name. At the end, an addition such as 2B or 7B stands for 2 or 7 billions.
Recommendation for your hardware: Gemma 2 2B, with 2.6 billion parameters, already runs with 8GB RAM and without GPU support. The results are generally fast and well structured. If you need an even less demanding AI model, you can use Llama 3.2 1B in the chatbot LM Studio, for example.
If your PC is equipped with a lot of RAM and a fast GPU, try Gemma 2 7B or a slightly larger Llama model, such as Llama 3.1 8B. You can load the models via the chatbots Msty, GPT4All, or LM Studio.
Information on the AI models for the Llama files can be found below. And for your information: ChatGPT from Open AI is not available for the PC. The apps and PC tools from Open AI send all requests to the internet.
Using the various chatbots is very similar. You install the tool, then load an AI model via the tool and then switch to the chat area of the program. And you’re ready to go.
With the Llamafile chatbot, there is no need to download the model, as an AI model is already integrated in the Llamafile. This is why there are several Llamafiles, each with a different model.
See also: The AI PC revolution: 18 essential terms you need to know
Llamafiles are the simplest way to communicate with a local chatbot. The aim of the project is to make AI accessible to everyone. That’s why the creators pack all the necessary files, i.e. the front end and the AI model, into a single file — the Llamafile.
This file only needs to be started and the chatbot can be used in the browser. However, the user interface is not very attractive.
The Llamafile chatbot is available in different versions, each with different AI models. With the Llava model, you can also integrate images into the chat. Overall, Llamafile is easy to use as a chatbot.
IDG
Simple installation
Only one file is downloaded to your computer. The file name differs depending on the model selected.
For example, if you have selected the Llamafile with the Llava 1.5 model with 7 billion parameters, the file is called “llava-v1.5-7bq4.llamafile.” As the file extension .exe is missing here, you must rename the file in Windows Explorer after downloading.
You can ignore a warning from Windows Explorer by clicking “Yes.” The file name will then be: “llava-v1.5-7b-q4.llamafile.exe.” Double-click on the file to start the chatbot. On older PCs, it may take a moment for the Microsoft Defender Smartscreen to issue a warning.
Click on “Run anyway.” A prompt window opens, but this is only for the program. The chatbot does not have its own user interface, but must be operated in the browser. Start your default browser if it is not started automatically and enter the address 127.0.0.1:8080 or localhost:8080.
If you want to use a different AI model, you must download a different Llamafile. These can be found on Llamafile.ai further down the page in the “Other example llamafiles” table. Each Llamafile needs the file extension .exe.
Chatting with the Llamafile
The user interface in the browser shows the setting options for the chatbot at the top. The chat input is located at the bottom of the page under “Say something.”
If you have started a Llamafile with the model Llava (llava-v1.5-7b-q4.llamafile), you can not only chat, but also have images explained to you via “Upload Image” and “Send.” Llava stands for “Large Language and Vision Assistant.” To end the chatbot, simply close the prompt.
Tip: Llava files can be used in your own network. Start the chatbot on a powerful PC in your home network. Make sure that the other PCs are authorized to access this computer. You can then use the chatbot from there via the internet browser and the address “:8080”. Replace with the address of the PC on which the chatbot is running.
Msty offers access to many language models, good user guidance, and the import of your own files for use in the AI. Not everything is self-explanatory, but it is easy to use after a short familiarization period.
If you want to make your own files available to the AI purely locally, you can do this in Msty in the so-called Knowledge Stack. That sounds a bit pretentious. However, Msty actually offers the best file integration of the four chatbots presented here.
IDG
Installation of Msty
Msty is available for download in two versions: one with support for Nvidia and AMD GPUs and the other for running on the CPU only. When you start the Msty installation wizard, you have the choice between a local installation (“Set up local AI”) or an installation on a server.
For the local installation, the Gemma 2 model is already selected in the lower part of the window. This model is only 1.6GB in size and is well suited for text creation on weaker hardware.
If you click on “Gemma2,” you can choose between five other models. Later, many more models can be loaded from a clearly organized library via “Local AI Models,” such as Gemma 2 2B or Llama 3.1 8B.
“Browse & Download Online Models” gives you access to the AI pages www.ollama.com and www.huggingface.com and therefore to most of the free AI models.
A special feature of Msty is that you can ask several AI models for advice at the same time. However, your PC should have enough memory to respond quickly. Otherwise you will have to wait a long time for the finished answers.
Msty
Pretty interface, lots of substance
Msty’s user interface is appealing and well structured. Of course, not everything is immediately obvious, but if you familiarize yourself with Msty, you can use the tool quickly, integrate new models, and integrate your own files. Msty provides access to the many, often cryptic options of the individual models, at least partially in graphical menus.
In addition: Msty offers so-called splitchats. The user interface then displays two or more chat entries next to each other. A different AI model can be selected for each chat. However, you only have to enter your question once. This allows you to compare several models with each other.
Add your own files
You can easily integrate your own files via “Knowledge Stacks.” You can choose which embedding model should prepare your data for the LLMs.
Mixedbread Embed Large is used by default. However, other embedding tools can also be loaded. Care should be taken when selecting the model, however, as online embedding models can also be selected, for example from Open AI.
However, this means that your data is sent to Open AI’s servers for processing. And the database created with your data is also online: Every enquiry then also goes to Open AI.
Chat with your own files: After you have added your own documents to the “Knowledge Stacks,” select “Attach Knowledge Stack and Chat with them” below the chat input line. Tick the box in front of your stack and ask a question. The model will search through your data to find the answer. However, this does not work very well yet.
GPT4All offers a few models, a simple user interface and the option of reading in your own files. The selection of chat models is smaller than with Msty, for example, but the model selection is clearer. Additional models can be downloaded via Huggingface.com.
The GPT4All chatbot is a solid front end that offers a good selection of AI models and can load more from Huggingface.com. The user interface is well structured and you can quickly find your way around.
GPT4All
Installation: Quick and easy
The installation of GPT4All was quick and easy for us. AI models can be selected under “Models.” Models such as Llama 3 8B, Llama 3.2 3B, Microsoft Phi 3 Mini, and EM German Mistral are presented.
Good: For each model, the amount of free RAM the PC must have for the model to run is specified. There is also access to AI models at Huggingface.com using the search function. In addition, the online models from Open AI (ChatGPT) and Mistral can be integrated via API keys — for those who don’t just want to chat locally.
Operation and chat
The user interface of GPT4All is similar to that of Msty, but with fewer functions and options. This makes it easier to use. After a short orientation phase, in which it is clarified how models can be loaded and where they can be selected for the chat, operation is easy.
Own files can be made available to the AI models via “Localdocs.” In contrast to Msty, it is not possible to set which embedding model prepares the data. The Nomic-embed-textv1.5 model is used in all cases.
In our tests, the tool ran with good stability. However, it was not always clear whether a model was already fully loaded.
LM Studio offers user guidance for beginners, advanced users, and developers. Despite this categorization, it is aimed more at professionals than beginners. What the professionals like is that anyone working with LM Studio not only has access to many models, but also to their options.
The LM Studio chatbot not only gives you access to a large selection of AI models from Huggingface.com, but also allows you to fine-tune the AI models. There is a separate developer view for this.
LM Studio
Straightforward installation
After installation, LM Studio greets you with the “Get your first LLM” button. Clicking on it offers a very small version of Meta’s LLM: Llama 3.2 1B.
This model should also run on older hardware without long waiting times. After downloading the model, it must be started via a pop-up window and “Load Model.” Additional models can be added using the Ctrl-Shift-M key combination or the “Discover” magnifying glass symbol, for example.
Chat and integrate documents
At the bottom of the LM Studio window, you can change the view of the program using the three buttons “User,” “Power User,” and “Developer.”
In the first case, the user interface is similar to that of ChatGPT in the browser; in the other two cases, the view is supplemented with additional information, such as how many tokens are contained in a response and how quickly they were calculated.
This and the access to many details of the AI models make LM Studio particularly interesting for advanced users. You can make many fine adjustments and view information.
Your own texts can only be integrated into a chat, but cannot be made permanently available to the language models. When you add a document to your chat, LM Studio automatically decides whether it is short enough to fit completely into the AI model’s prompt or not.
If not, the document is checked for important content using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and only this content is provided to the model in the chat. However, the text is often not captured in full.
While Chromebooks are generally limited compared to Windows and macOS laptops, I personally made the switch to Chromebooks full-time a while ago and haven’t looked back. One of the big reasons for that switch — and why I’m a big Chromebook advocate to this day — is just how effortlessly secure ChromeOS is for everyday users.
Google built ChromeOS to be as secure as possible, with features designed to limit your exposure to malware. Sure, you can find some of these features in other operating systems too, but all of these coming together in one overall package is what makes ChromeOS great.
Here are the core security features of ChromeOS that make Chromebooks safe and keep you protected while using your laptop.
Sandboxing is a technique where certain apps and processes are run in isolated environments, aptly called “sandboxes.” You can think of a sandbox as a virtual bubble that has limited access to the overall system. By running software in a bubble like this, you’re protected in case it’s infected with malware that tries to spread.
You may be familiar with Windows Sandbox, but you need Windows 11 Pro to access that feature. Meanwhile, in ChromeOS, sandboxing isn’t optional — everything from system services to browser tabs are run within their own separate sandboxes, and these sandboxes operate with the fewest possible privileges. They only have access to the resources they need, limiting the amount of damage they can do if compromised.
So even if you catch a malware infection, there’s little chance that the attack could escalate privileges and affect critical processes. In fact, over many years of using ChromeOS, I have yet to experience a single security issue, let alone a major put-me-in-full-on-panic-mode issue.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Verified Boot means that every time you start ChromeOS, it checks to make sure that the system hasn’t been corrupted or tampered with since the last time it ran. This is done using cryptographically signed system images, which ensure that everything running on your Chromebook is as expected and as it should be.
First, ChromeOS checks the firmware in a read-only partition (that attackers can’t access or change). Next, ChromeOS checks and compares the kernel and system files to ensure nothing has been altered.
If everything checks out, ChromeOS boots normally. But if something (anything) is out of place, ChromeOS either reverts to a previous (secure) version of the operating system or, in extreme cases, prompts you to reinstall ChromeOS in Recovery Mode.
As I mentioned above, ChromeOS has a read-only partition for core system files, including the kernel, system libraries, and other essential components. This partition can’t be altered. (ChromeOS has a separate read/write partition for settings, apps, user data, and the like.)
Doing this protects the core system files from things like malicious modification by hackers, but it also protects against accidental harm — by poorly written apps, rogue extensions, user error, etc.
What about when core system files need updating? ChromeOS first applies updates to an inactive partition while the system is being used. Then, when you next reboot your Chromebook, it switches partitions and applies the Verified Boot. If an error is detected, ChromeOS reverts to the previous version of the operating system.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
One thing I love about ChromeOS is the stress-free update process. Unlike Windows updates, ChromeOS updates are automatic, consistent, and in the background without any user involvement beyond restarting your Chromebook when updates are complete.
Regular system updates are so important for patching security flaws and vulnerabilities. When updating is a huge ordeal, you end up putting it off and putting it off until you have time for it. With ChromeOS, updates are frequent, which means each update is relatively small and painless, and then you restart in a matter of seconds. It’s easy!
Given how often Google updates ChromeOS, the operating system is able to combat existing and emerging threats quickly and seamlessly, and that keeps you protected.
Most operating systems have a recovery mode, so ChromeOS isn’t unique just for having one — but it does have one and Recovery Mode does keep ChromeOS secure. Plus, the big difference here is that Recovery Mode in ChromeOS is more user-friendly than in, say, Windows.
Recovery Mode is a way to restore the operating system back to factory settings (or an earlier version), which comes in handy when something goes wrong and the system stops working. That could happen due to corrupted system files, a failed update, performance issues, etc.
With ChromeOS, you can use Recovery Mode to reinstall the operating system while clearing all user data, and then you can restore that user data from your Google account. More recently, Google even implemented a new Safety Reset feature that lets you reinstall ChromeOS without losing your data.
Google’s cloud-first approach is divisive, but it does have some positive implications for security. For starters, cloud-based apps are less susceptible to malware versus traditional apps. They aren’t completely immune, but the difference is non-trivial.
Having sensitive data stored in the cloud also lessens the risks associated with loss or theft of your Chromebook. And if your Chromebook does get lost or stolen, you can easily revoke access to your data (so the thief can’t do anything with it) and you can recover your data by signing into your cloud accounts on a different device.
And for schools or businesses that manage hundreds of Chromebooks through Google Admin Console, cloud control can ensure that policies are enforced, apps are deployed (or blocked), and everyone’s devices are kept up-to-date at all times.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
For the most part, if you want to download and install apps on your Chromebook, you’re doing it through the Google Play Store. And while the Play Store isn’t perfect, it does have a vetting process that helps minimize the chance of running into malware.
Can you install third-party apps on your Chromebook? Yeah, but it’s risky. You can also install Android and Linux apps from some sources. Fortunately, Google warns you when you try to install unknown apps like this — and again, apps are run in sandboxes, which protects the rest of your system in case you somehow bring malware aboard.
Further reading: Chromebooks vs. laptops: What you need to know
TL;DR: Take back your time with Zario Pro for $39.99 — an AI-powered app that blocks distractions, sets focus goals, and helps you cut screen time.
Ever catch yourself scrolling mindlessly, only to realize an hour has disappeared? Zario Pro helps you stop the cycle with AI-powered app blocking, smart coaching, and strict accountability tools — all without ongoing subscriptions.
With features like Quick Block and Focus Scheduling, you can limit distractions and set healthy screen habits on your own terms. Need a reality check? Zario’s personalized pause screens and lighthearted roasts make you rethink mindless scrolling with a little humor. For those who need extra discipline, Strict Mode locks down distracting apps, and the only way out is an accountability fee.
Backed by research, Zario has helped 88.87% of at-risk users cut screen time in just one week.
Pay $39.99 just once and start reclaiming your time today with this lifetime subscription to the Zario AI Screen Time App.
Zario AI Screen Time App – Pro Plan: Lifetime Subscription (Android) – $39.99
StackSocial prices subject to change.
When the journalist and culture critic Amanda Hess got pregnant with her first child, in 2020, the internet was among the first to know. “More brands knew about my pregnancy than people did,” she writes of the torrent of targeted ads that came her way. “They all called me mama.”
The internet held the promise of limitless information about becoming the perfect parent. But at seven months, Hess went in for an ultrasound appointment and everything shifted. The sonogram looked atypical. As she waited in an exam room for a doctor to go over the results, she felt the urge to reach for her phone. Though it “was ludicrous,” she writes, “in my panic, it felt incontrovertible: If I searched it smart and fast enough, the internet would save us. I had constructed my life through its screens, mapped the world along its circuits. Now I would make a second life there too.” Her doctor informed her of the condition he suspected her baby might have and told her, “Don’t google it.”
Unsurprisingly, that didn’t stop her. In fact, she writes, the more medical information that doctors produced—after weeks of escalating tests, her son was ultimately diagnosed with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome—the more digitally dependent she became: “I found I was turning to the internet, as opposed to my friends or my doctors, to resolve my feelings and emotions about what was happening to me and to exert a sense of external control over my body.”
But how do we retain control over our bodies when corporations and the medical establishment have access to our most personal information? What happens when humans stop relying on their village, or even their family, for advice on having a kid and instead go online, where there’s a constant onslaught of information? How do we make sense of the contradictions of the internet—the tension between what’s inherently artificial and the “natural” methods its denizens are so eager to promote? In her new book, Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age (Doubleday, 2025), Hess explores these questions while delving into her firsthand experiences with apps, products, algorithms, online forums, advertisers, and more—each promising an easier, healthier, better path to parenthood. After welcoming her son, who is now healthy, in 2020 and another in 2022, Hess is the perfect person to ask: Is that really what they’re delivering?
In your book, you write, “I imagined my [pregnancy] test’s pink dye spreading across Instagram, Facebook, Amazon. All around me, a techno-corporate infrastructure was locking into place. I could sense the advertising algorithms recalibrating and the branded newsletters assembling in their queues. I knew that I was supposed to think of targeted advertising as evil, but I had never experienced it that way.” Can you unpack this a bit?
Before my pregnancy, I never felt like advertising technology was particularly smart or specific. So when my Instagram ads immediately clocked my pregnancy, it came as a bit of a surprise, and I realized that I was unaware of exactly how ad tech worked and how vast its reach was. It felt particularly eerie in this case because in the beginning my pregnancy was a secret that I kept from everyone except my spouse, so “the internet” was the only thing that was talking to me about it. Advertising became so personalized that it started to feel intimate, even though it was the opposite of that—it represented the corporate obliteration of my privacy. The pregnancy ads reached me before a doctor would even agree to see me.
Though your book was written before generative AI became so ubiquitous, I imagine you’ve thought about how it changes things. You write, “As soon as I got pregnant, I typed ‘what to do when you get pregnant’ in my phone, and now advertisers were supplying their own answers.” What do the rise of AI and the dramatic changes in search mean for someone who gets pregnant today and goes online for answers?
I just googled “what to do when you get pregnant” to see what Google’s generative AI widget tells me now, and it’s largely spitting out commonsensical recommendations: Make an appointment to see a doctor. Stop smoking cigarettes. That is followed by sponsored content from Babylist, an online baby registry company that is deeply enmeshed in the ad-tech system, and Perelel, a startup that sells expensive prenatal supplements.
So whether or not the search engine is using AI, the information it’s providing to the newly pregnant is not particularly helpful or meaningful.
The internet “made me feel like I had some kind of relationship with my phone, when all it was really doing was staging a scene of information that it could monetize.”
For me, the oddly tantalizing thing was that I had asked the internet a question and it gave me something in response, as if we had a reciprocal relationship. So even before AI was embedded in these systems, they were fulfilling the same role for me—as a kind of synthetic conversation partner. It made me feel like I had some kind of relationship with my phone, when all it was really doing was staging a scene of information that it could monetize.
As I wrote the book, I did put some pregnancy-related questions to ChatGPT to try to get a sense of the values and assumptions that are encoded in its knowledge base. I asked for an image of a fetus, and it provided this garishly cartoonish, big-eyed cherub in response. But when I asked for a realistic image of a postpartum body, it refused to generate one for me! It was really an extension of something I write about in the book, which is that the image of the fetus is fetishized in a lot of these tech products while the pregnant or postpartum body is largely erased.
You have this great—but quite sad—quote from a woman on TikTok who said, “I keep hearing it takes a village to raise a child. Do they just show up, or is there a number to call?”
I really identified with that sentiment, while at the same time being suspicious of this idea that can we just call a hotline to conjure this village?
I am really interested that so many parent-focused technologies sell themselves this way. [The pediatrician] Harvey Karp says that the Snoo, this robotic crib he created, is the new village. The parenting site Big Little Feelings describes its podcast listeners as a village. The maternity clothing brand Bumpsuit produces a podcast that’s actually called The Village. By using that phrase, these companies are evoking an idealized past that may never have existed, to sell consumer solutions. A society that provides communal support for children and parents is pitched as this ancient and irretrievable idea, as opposed to something that we could build in the future if we wanted to. It will take more than just, like, ordering something.
And the benefit of many of those robotic or “smart” products seems a bit nebulous. You share, for example, that the Nanit baby monitor told you your son was “sleeping more efficiently than 96% of babies, a solid A.”
I’m skeptical of this idea that a piece of consumer technology will really solve a serious problem families or children have. And if it does solve that problem, it only solves it for people who can afford it, which is reprehensible on some level. These products might create a positive difference for how long your baby is sleeping or how easy the diaper is to put on or whatever, but they are Band-Aids on a larger problem. I often found when I was testing out some of these products that the data [provided] was completely useless. My friend who uses the Nanit texted me the other day because she had found a new feature on its camera that showed you a heat map of where your baby had slept in the crib the night before. There is no use for that information, but when you see the heat map, you can try to interpret it to get some useless clues to your baby’s personality. It’s like a BuzzFeed quiz for your baby, where you can say, “Oh, he’s such, like, a right-side king,” or “He’s a down-the-middle guy,” or whatever.
“[Companies are] marketing a cure for the parents’ anxiety, but the product itself is attached to the body of a newborn child.”
These products encourage you to see your child themselves as an extension of the technology; Karp even talks about there being an on switch and an off switch in your baby for soothing. So if you do the “right” set of movements to activate the right switch, you can make the baby acquire some desirable trait, which I think is just an extension of this idea that your child can be under your complete control.
… which is very much the fantasy when you’re a parent.
These devices are often marketed as quasi-medical devices. There’s a converging of consumer and medical categories in baby consumer tech, where the products are marketed as useful to any potential baby, including one who has a serious medical diagnosis or one who is completely healthy. These companies still want you to put a pulse oximeter on a healthy baby, just in case. They’re marketing a cure for the parents’ anxiety, but the product itself is attached to the body of a newborn child.
After spending so much time in hospital settings with my child hooked up to monitors, I was really excited to end that. So I’m interested in this opposite reaction, where there’s this urge to extend that experience, to take personal control of something that feels medical.
Even though I would search out any medical treatment that would help keep my kids healthy, childhood medical experiences can cause a lot of confusion and trauma for kids and their families, even when the results are positive. When you take that medical experience and turn it into something that’s very sleek and fits in your color scheme and is totally under your control, I think it can feel like you are seizing authority over that scary space.
Another thing you write about is how images define idealized versions of pregnancy and motherhood.
I became interested in a famous photograph that a Swedish photographer named Lennart Nilsson took in the 1960s that was published on the cover of Life magazine. It’s an image of a 20-week-old fetus, and it’s advertised as the world’s first glimpse of life inside the womb. I bought a copy of the issue off eBay and opened the issue to find a little editor’s note saying that the cover fetus was actually a fetus that had been removed from its mother’s body through surgery. It wasn’t a picture of life—it was a picture of an abortion.
I was interested in how Nilsson staged this fetal body to make it look celestial, like it was floating in space, and I recognized a lot of the elements of his work being incorporated in the tech products that I was using, like the CGI fetus generated by my pregnancy app, Flo.
You also write about the images being provided at nonmedical sonogram clinics.
I was trying to google the address of a medical imaging center during my pregnancy when I came across a commercial sonogram clinic. There are hundreds of them around the country, with cutesy names like “Cherished Memories” and “You Kiss We Tell.”
In the book I explore how technologies like ultrasound are used as essentially narrative devices, shaping the way that people think about their bodies and their pregnancies. Ultrasound is odd because it’s a medical technology that’s used to diagnose dangerous and scary conditions, but prospective parents are encouraged to view it as a kind of entertainment service while it’s happening. These commercial sonogram clinics interest me because they promise to completely banish the medical associations of the technology and elevate it into a pure consumer experience.
You write about “natural” childbirth, which, on the face of it, would seem counter to the digital age. As you note, the movement has always been about storytelling, and the story that it’s telling is really about pain.
When I was pregnant, I became really fascinated with people who discuss freebirth online, which is a practice on the very extreme end of “natural” childbirth rituals—where people give birth at home unassisted, with no obstetrician, midwife, or doula present. Sometimes they also refuse ultrasounds, vaccinations, or all prenatal care. I was interested in how this refusal of medical technology was being technologically promoted, through podcasts, YouTube videos, and Facebook groups.
It struck me that a lot of the freebirth influencers I saw were interested in exerting supreme control over their pregnancies and children, leaving nothing under the power of medical experts or government regulators. And they were also interested in controlling the narratives of their births—making sure that the moment their children came into the world was staged with compelling imagery that centered them as the protagonist of the event. Video evidence of the most extreme examples—like the woman who freebirthed into the ocean—could go viral and launch the freebirther’s personal brand as a digital wellness guru in her own right.
The phrase “natural childbirth” was coined by a British doctor, Grantly Dick-Read, in the 1920s. There’s a very funny section in his book for prospective mothers where he complains that women keep telling each other that childbirth hurts, and he claimed that the very idea that childbirth hurts was what created the pain, because birthing women were acting too tense. Dick-Read, like many of his contemporaries, had a racist theory that women he called “primitive” experienced no pain in childbirth because they hadn’t been exposed to white middle-class education and technologies. When I read his work, I was fascinated by the fact that he also described birth as a kind of performance, even back then. He claimed that undisturbed childbirths were totally painless, and he coached women through labor in an attempt to achieve them. Painless childbirth was pitched as a reward for reaching this peak state of natural femininity.
He was really into eugenics, by the way! I see a lot of him in the current presentation of “natural” childbirth online—[proponents] are still invested in a kind of denial, or suppression, of a woman’s actual experience in the pursuit of some unattainable ideal. Recently, I saw one Instagram post from a woman who claimed to have had a supernaturally pain-free childbirth, and she looks so pained and miserable in the photos, it’s absurd.
I wanted to ask you about Clue and Flo, two very different period-tracking apps. Their contrasting origin stories are striking.
I downloaded Flo as my period-tracking app many years ago for one reason: It was the first app that came up when I searched in the app store. Later, when I looked into its origins, I found that Flo was created by two brothers, cisgender men who do not menstruate, and that it had quickly outperformed and outearned an existing period-tracking app, Clue, which was created by a woman, Ida Tin, a few years earlier.
The elements that make an app profitable and successful are not the same as the ones that users may actually want or need. My experience with Flo, especially after I became pregnant, was that it seemed designed to get me to open the app as frequently as possible, even if it didn’t have any new information to provide me about my pregnancy. Flo pitches itself as a kind of artificial nurse, even though it can’t actually examine you or your baby, but this kind of digital substitute has also become increasingly powerful as inequities in maternity care widen and decent care becomes less accessible.
“Doctors and nurses test pregnant women for drugs without their explicit consent or tip off authorities to pregnant people they suspect of mishandling their pregnancies in some way.”
One of the features of Flo I spent a lot of time with was its “Secret Chats” area, where anonymous users come together to go off about pregnancy. It was actually really fun, and it kept me coming back to Flo again and again, especially when I wasn’t discussing my pregnancy with people in real life. But it was also the place where I learned that digital connections are not nearly as helpful as physical connections; you can’t come over and help the anonymous secret chat friend soothe her baby.
I’d asked Ida Tin if she considered adding a social or chat element to Clue, and she told me that she decided against it because it’s impossible to stem the misinformation that surfaces in a space like that.
You write that Flo “made it seem like I was making the empowered choice by surveilling myself.”
After Roe was overturned, many women publicly opted out of that sort of surveillance by deleting their period-tracking apps. But you mention that it’s not just the apps that are sharing information. When I spoke to attorneys who defend women in pregnancy criminalization cases, I found that they had not yet seen a case in which the government actually relied on data from those apps. In some cases, they have relied on users’ Google searches and Facebook messages, but far and away the central surveillance source that governments use is the medical system itself.
Doctors and nurses test pregnant women for drugs without their explicit consent or tip off authorities to pregnant people they suspect of mishandling their pregnancies in some way. I’m interested in the fact that media coverage has focused so much on the potential danger of period apps and less on the real, established threat. I think it’s because it provides a deceptively simple solution: Just delete your period app to protect yourself. It’s much harder to dismantle the surveillance systems that are actually in place. You can’t just delete your doctor.
This interview, which was conducted by phone and email, has been condensed and edited.
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
While DOGE’s efforts to shutter federal agencies dominate news from Washington, the Trump administration is also making more global moves. Many of these center on China. Tariffs on goods from the country went into effect last week. There’s also been a minor foreign relations furor since DeepSeek’s big debut a few weeks ago. China has already displayed its dominance in electric vehicles, robotaxis, and drones, and the launch of the new model seems to add AI to the list. This caused the US president as well as some lawmakers to push for new export controls on powerful chips, and three states have now banned the use of DeepSeek on government devices.
Now our intrepid China reporter, Caiwei Chen, has identified a new trend unfolding within China’s tech scene: Companies that were dominant in electric vehicles are betting big on translating that success into developing humanoid robots. I spoke with her about what she found out and what it might mean for Trump’s policies and the rest of the globe.
James: Before we talk about robots, let’s talk about DeepSeek. The frenzy for the AI model peaked a couple of weeks ago. What are you hearing from other Chinese AI companies? How are they reacting?
Caiwei: I think other Chinese AI companies are scrambling to figure out why they haven’t built a model as strong as DeepSeek’s, despite having access to as much funding and resources. DeepSeek’s success has sparked self-reflection on management styles and renewed confidence in China’s engineering talent. There’s also strong enthusiasm for building various applications on top of DeepSeek’s models.
Your story looks at electric-vehicle makers in China that are starting to work on humanoid robots, but I want to ask about a crazy stat. In China, 53% of vehicles sold are either electric or hybrid, compared with 8% in the US. What explains that?
Price is a huge factor—there are countless EV brands competing at different price points, making them both affordable and high-quality. Government incentives also play a big role. In Beijing, for example, trading in an old car for an EV gets you 10,000 RMB (about $1,500), and that subsidy was recently doubled. Plus, finding public charging and battery-swapping infrastructure is much less of a hassle than in the US.
You open your story noting that China’s recent New Year Gala, watched by billions of people, featured a cast of humanoid robots, dancing and twirling handkerchiefs. We’ve covered how sometimes humanoid videos can be misleading. What did you think?
I would say I was relatively impressed—the robots showed good agility and synchronization with the music, though their movements were simpler than human dancers’. The one trick that is supposed to impress the most is the part where they twirl the handkerchief with one finger, toss it into the air, and then catch it perfectly. This is the signature of the Yangko dance, and having performed it once as a child, I can attest to how difficult the trick is even for a human! There was some skepticism on the Chinese internet about how this was achieved and whether they used additional reinforcement like a magnet or a string to secure the handkerchief, and after watching the clip too many times, I tend to agree.
President Trump has already imposed tariffs on China and is planning even more. What could the implications be for China’s humanoid sector?
Unitree’s H1 and G1 models are already available for purchase and were showcased at CES this year. Large-scale US deployment isn’t happening yet, but China’s lower production costs make these robots highly competitive. Given that 65% of the humanoid supply chain is in China, I wouldn’t be surprised if robotics becomes the next target in the US-China tech war.
In the US, humanoid robots are getting lots of investment, but there are plenty of skeptics who say they’re too clunky, finicky, and expensive to serve much use in factory settings. Are attitudes different in China?
Skepticism exists in China too, but I think there’s more confidence in deployment, especially in factories. With an aging population and a labor shortage on the horizon, there’s also growing interest in medical and caregiving applications for humanoid robots.
DeepSeek revived the conversation about chips and the way the US seeks to control where the best chips end up. How do the chip wars affect humanoid-robot development in China?
Training humanoid robots currently doesn’t demand as much computing power as training large language models, since there isn’t enough physical movement data to feed into models at scale. But as robots improve, they’ll need high-performance chips, and US sanctions will be a limiting factor. Chinese chipmakers are trying to catch up, but it’s a challenge.
For more, read Caiwei’s story on this humanoid pivot, as well as her look at the Chinese startups worth watching beyond DeepSeek.
Motor neuron diseases took their voices. AI is bringing them back.
In motor neuron diseases, the neurons responsible for sending signals to the body’s muscles, including those used for speaking, are progressively destroyed. It robs people of their voices. But some, including a man in Miami named Jules Rodriguez, are now getting them back: An AI model learned to clone Rodriguez’s voice from recordings.
Why it matters: ElevenLabs, the company that created the voice clone, can do a lot with just 30 minutes of recordings. That’s a huge improvement over AI voice clones from just a few years ago, and it can really boost the day-to-day lives of the people who’ve used the technology. “This is genuinely AI for good,” says Richard Cave, a speech and language therapist at the Motor Neuron Disease Association in the UK. Read more from Jessica Hamzelou.
A “true crime” documentary series has millions of views, but the murders are all AI-generated
A look inside the strange mind of someone who created a series of fake true-crime docs using AI, and the reactions of the many people who thought they were real. (404 Media)
The AI relationship revolution is already here
People are having all sorts of relationships with AI models, and these relationships run the gamut: weird, therapeutic, unhealthy, sexual, comforting, dangerous, useful. We’re living through the complexities of this in real time. Hear from some of the many people who are happy in their varied AI relationships and learn what sucked them in. (MIT Technology Review)
Robots are bringing new life to extinct species
A creature called Orobates pabsti waddled the planet 280 million years ago, but as with many prehistoric animals, scientists have not been able to use fossils to figure out exactly how it moved. So they’ve started building robots to help. (MIT Technology Review)
Lessons from the AI Action Summit in Paris
Last week, politicians and AI leaders from around the globe went to Paris for an AI Action Summit. While concerns about AI safety have dominated the event in years past, this year was more about deregulation and energy, a trend we’ve seen elsewhere. (The Guardian)
OpenAI ditches its diversity commitment and adds a statement about “intellectual freedom”
Following the lead of other tech companies since the beginning of President Trump’s administration, OpenAI has removed a statement on diversity from its website. It has also updated its model spec—the document outlining the standards of its models—to say that “OpenAI believes in intellectual freedom, which includes the freedom to have, hear, and discuss ideas.” (Insider and Tech Crunch)
The Musk-OpenAI battle has been heating up
Part of OpenAI is structured as a nonprofit, a legacy of its early commitments to make sure its technologies benefit all. Its recent attempts to restructure that nonprofit have triggered a lawsuit from Elon Musk, who alleges that the move would violate the legal and ethical principles of its nonprofit origins. Last week, Musk offered to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion, in a bid that few people took seriously. Sam Altman dismissed it out of hand. Musk now says he will retract that bid if OpenAI stops its conversion of the nonprofit portion of the company. (Wall Street Journal)
Later this month, Intuitive Machines, the private company behind the first commercial lander that touched down on the moon, will launch a second lunar mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The plan is to deploy a lander, a rover, and hopper to explore a site near the lunar south pole that could harbor water ice, and to put a communications satellite on lunar orbit.
But the mission will also bring something that’s never been installed on the moon or anywhere else in space before—a fully functional 4G cellular network.
Point-to-point radio communications, which need a clear line of sight between transmitting and receiving antennas, have always been a backbone of both surface communications and the link back to Earth, starting with the Apollo program. Using point-to-point radio in space wasn’t much of an issue in the past because there never have been that many points to connect. Usually, it was just a single spacecraft, a lander, or a rover talking to Earth. And they didn’t need to send much data either.
“They were based on [ultra high frequency] or [very high frequency] technologies connecting a small number of devices with relatively low data throughput”, says Thierry Klein, president of Nokia Bell Labs Solutions Research, which was contracted by NASA to design a cellular network for the moon back in 2020.
But it could soon get way more crowded up there: NASA’s Artemis program calls for bringing the astronauts back to the moon as early as 2028 and further expanding that presence into a permanent habitat in 2030s.
The shift from mostly point-to-point radio communications to a full-blown cell network architecture should result in higher data transfer speeds, better range, and increase the number of devices that could be connected simultaneously, Klein says. But the harsh conditions of space travel and on the lunar surface make it difficult to use Earth-based cell technology straight off the shelf.
Instead, Nokia designed components that are robust against radiation, extreme temperatures, and the sorts of vibrations that will be experienced during the launch, flight, and landing. They put all these components in a single “network in a box”, which contains everything needed for a cell network except the antenna and a power source.
“We have the antenna on the lander, so together with the box that’s essentially your base station and your tower”, Klein says. The box will be powered by the lander’s solar panels.
During the IM-2 mission, the 4G cell network will allow for communication between the lander and the two vehicles. The network will likely only work for a few days— the spacecraft are not likely to survive after night descends on the lunar surface.
But Nokia has plans for a more expansive 4G or 5G cell network that can cover the planned Artemis habitat and its surroundings. The company is also working on integrating cell communications in Axiom spacesuits meant for future lunar astronauts. “Maybe just one network in a box, one tower, would provide the entire coverage or maybe we would need multiple of these. That’s not going to be different from what you see in terrestrial cell networks deployment”, Klein says. He says the network should grow along with the future lunar economy.
Not everyone is happy with this vision. LTE networks usually operate between 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz, a region of the radiofrequency spectrum that partially overlaps with frequencies reserved for radio astronomy. Having such radio signals coming from the moon could potentially interfere with observations.
“Telescopes are most sensitive in the direction that they are pointing–up towards the sky”, Chris De Pree, deputy spectrum manager at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) said in an email. Communication satellites like Starlink often end up in the radio telescopes’ line of sight. A full-scale cell network on the moon would add further noise to the night sky.
There is also a regulatory hurdle that must be worked around. There are radio bands that have been internationally allocated to support lunar missions, and the LTE band is not among them. “Using 4G frequencies on or around the moon is a violation of the ITU-R radio regulations”, NRAO’s spectrum manager Harvey Liszt explained in an email.
To legally deploy the 4G network on the moon, Nokia received a waiver specifically for the IM-2 mission. “For permanent deployment we’ll have to pick a different frequency band,” Klein says. “We already have a list of candidate frequencies to consider.” Even with the frequency shift, Klein says Nokia’s lunar network technology will remain compatible with terrestrial 4G or 5G standards.
And that means that if you happened to bring your smartphone to the moon, and it somehow survived both the trip and the brutal lunar conditions, it should work on the moon just like it does here on Earth. “It would connect if we put your phone on the list of approved devices”, Klein explains. All you’d need is a lunar SIM card.
Original deadline in late January extended to 18 February by both Israel and Lebanon as both sides claim the other has violated ceasefire agreement
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, is giving a media briefing as Israeli troops remain in Lebanon beyond the agreed withdrawal date. You can watch the stream in the video at the top of this blog.
As we mentioned in a previous post, Israeli forces have withdrawn from border villages in southern Lebanon but have remained in five points inside the country for what the IDF describes as security purposes.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
John Healey is discussing his priorities for the future of Britain’s armed forces at the Institute of Government
Defence secretary John Healey is announcing significant changes to the management structure of the UK’s defence, with four new senior leaders appointed, and the changes to come into force by the end of March.
He has said it will streamline procurement and budget processes, with “three new centrally determined financial budgets, each with ministerial oversight.”
This new quad … will shift the approach as an organisation which too often has been obsessed with process, to one focused on outcomes, in which information flows quickly, accountability is clear, and results demanded.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as plans to restructure Thames Water are approved by a High Court judge
The increase in UK wage growth in the last quarter is likely to deter the Bank of England from rapid cuts to interest rates this year.
Currently, the City expect two more quarter-point cuts to Bank rate by the end of the year, to 4%, following the reduction from 4.75% to 4.5% earlier this month.
Having weakened over the course of 2024, there were no clear signs that the prospects for the jobs market are improving. At the same time, pay growth is still too high to get inflation back to the 2% target, and firms will soon face the extra cost burden of higher employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs).
Faced with this trade-off, we think the MPC will continue to lower Bank Rate gradually, with the next cut likely to come in May, and that the Bank of England will use this extra time to gauge just how sticky inflation will be.
“The further rise in pay growth, combined with signs of a gradual easing in employment rather than a collapse, will keep the Bank of England on its “gradual and careful” rate cutting path. We still expect the MPC to cut rates at every other meeting this year, which would leave interest rates at 3.75% by the end of the year.
An air of pessimism is befalling the UK jobs market right now, ahead of a sizeable increase in employer’s National Insurance (social security) in April.
The surveys on hiring are turning increasingly sour and there’s growing talk of redundancies as firms grapple with the combined hit of tax hikes and a near-7% increase in the National Living Wage. Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann, explaining her vote for a bumper rate cut this month, spoke of “non-linear” falls in employment.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Deal approved at high court gives company £1.5bn in upfront cash to stave off collapse
Thames Water has won court approval for an emergency debt package worth up to £3bn that should stave off the collapse of Britain’s biggest water company for at least another few months.
London’s high court said on Tuesday the deal could proceed, after hearing four days of complex arguments earlier this month over whether it should go ahead.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
European officials not part of discussions as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns his country will not recognise peace deals made without Ukrainian participation
Back when Europe was still looking to America with hope, and not despair and confusion, a US musical perfectly captured the nature of the conversations we are going to see today:
No one really knows how the game is played
The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in the room where it happens
When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game
But you don’t get a win unless you play in the game
Oh, you get love for it
You get hate for it
But you get nothing if you
Wait for it
I wanna be (Where it happens)
I’ve got to be, I’ve got to be (I wanna be in the room where it happens)
In that room (The room where it happens)
In that big ol’ room (The room where it happens)
© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/AP
© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/AP
Amazon’s hugely successful extreme competition series is the latest attempt to lure younger online viewers to TV
Beast Games, Amazon Prime Video’s reality competition series hosted by the YouTuber known as MrBeast, is not a well-made show. It is certainly an expensive show, something Mr Beast, the alter ego for 26-year-old Jimmy Donaldson of Greenville, North Carolina, likes to frequently remind viewers. The series is a feat of scale shocking to audiences outside the realm of YouTube, and especially Donaldson’s fiefdom: 1,000 contestants, filmed by a system of 1,107 cameras, battling each other for a $5m cash prize – the largest in entertainment history, according to Donaldson. For the competition, Donaldson and his posse designed a warehouse war zone modeled on the Netflix dystopian series Squid Game, constructed a bespoke city and purchased a private island (also to be given away, along with a Lamborghini and other lavish prizes). Contestants eliminated in the first episode are dropped through trap doors to unseen depths; there is a pirate ship with cannons.
Yet for all the ostentatious displays of wealth, the show still looks terrible – garishly lit, frenetically edited, poorly structured, annoyingly loud and tackily designed. Many have pointed out that the show’s central conceit – broke Americans duking it out and playing psychological warfare for luxury prizes, many in the name of paying their bills – is as dystopian as the Netflix series it’s based on, a depressing spectacle of aggro-capitalism for our neo-Gilded Age times, with Donaldson as a self-styled Willy Wonka figure.
Continue reading...© Photograph: PR
© Photograph: PR
The scorned woman thriller deftly reimagined, preposterously gripping murders at an ice skating training camp - and a frantic search for a missing daughter
The protagonist of Chris Bridges’s Sick to Death (Avon) is not your run-of-the-mill thriller heroine. Emma is sick with a neurological condition that leaves her crushed by fatigue, prone to blackouts, unable to work. Hers is a disease “without concrete evidence, without affirmative scans or validated cause”, and she is constantly having to justify herself to her family – her mother, cruel stepfather Peter, stepsister and daughter – with whom she shares a tiny council house. “Everyone has their limits of what they can tolerate. It turns out that they couldn’t take me being ill. I can’t stand their lack of care. Why wouldn’t I become angry?” says Emma. When she falls for her handsome neighbour Adam, a doctor, her vague plans to get rid of Peter start to take shape – particularly when she learns more about Adam’s wife, Celeste, and the trouble Adam is in. “My illness doesn’t mean that I have to be relegated to a supporting role, the background character who dies at the end or fades away. I can even be the villain if I want to.” Bridges, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2020, writes in an author note that he had had enough of the “tired tropes” around sickness in fiction, from the “sickly sweet ill woman”, to the unwell person who is shown to be a fraud. Sick to Death turns these tropes on their head: Emma is a force to be reckoned with, and although the plot does become increasingly tangled, this is deliciously dark and twisted, and a lot of fun.
Fun is also at the heart of CL Pattison’s First to Fall (Headline) – if you’re prepared to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy this tale of murderous figure skaters. We open with a newspaper report about deaths “at the home of legendary German figure skater, Lukas Wolff” during an extreme blizzard. Wolff, we’re told, is famous “for a spectacular sequence of skating moves called ‘the Grim Reaper’”. Our heroine is Libby, a promising but poor young skater who jumps at the chance to go to Wolff’s training camp in the Bavarian forest. Wolff puts Libby and her fellow trainees through their paces, a harsh but brilliant taskmaster, until the blizzard descends, the mobile reception goes, and Libby’s fellow skaters start dying. Pattison is a great writer, Libby a brave and brilliant character, and it turns out that reading about tricky skating moves is more fun than I’d anticipated. Throw in a corker of an escape down an icy river and you’ve got yourself a winner.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Patrick Seeger/EPA
© Photograph: Patrick Seeger/EPA
I’m campaigning for legal protection for cleaner fish, because no one has done a proper assessment of the impact of removing them from Scottish reefs
I was in my 50s when I first became aware that cleaner fish existed, when I met a fisher who sold them to Scottish salmon farms. Each year, around the world, such farms use more than 60 million cleaner fish to eat – or “clean” – parasites off other fish. But the natural habitat of the cleaner fish is the reef.
On a reef, each cleaner fish has clients that visit them to have their parasites removed – sometimes much bigger fish or predators such as sharks and rays. I was intrigued to discover the cleaner fish would gently massage these clients with their fins and make sure they were comfortable.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Lynne Kennedy/The Guardian
© Photograph: Lynne Kennedy/The Guardian
Given a boost by Jordan Peele, this hyped ‘lost’ movie from Eugenio Mira about freaky goings-on at a hotel finally gets a proper release
This amusingly overwrought mystery-horror-thriller is both a new release and a reissue all at once. Originally made in 2004, and shown at a few genre-specific film festivals, it never secured distribution. Still, it found a way to get seen on alternative platforms like YouTube and homemade DVDs. Frustrated with the lack of appreciation for his work, director Eugenio Mira started sending copies of the film to directors he admired like Quentin Tarantino and Guillermo del Toro among others, exactly the right kind of guys who like to champion neglected cult classics. Meanwhile, lead actor Corey Feldman (once a child star in the likes of Stand By Me and The Goonies back in the 1980s) was conducting his own under-the-radar campaign on the film’s behalf. After it ended up getting shown via a scratchy master print at a screening hosted by director Jordan Peele (Get Out, Nope) and praised to the heavens, funds suddenly became available for a 4K restoration and a limited worldwide release. Now we can all see what the fuss is about.
Was it worth the wait? Yes and no. The Birthday takes its sweet time getting going as we meet Feldman’s nebbishy protagonist Norman Forrester in a hotel room, all gussied up in a prom-king tuxedo while he bickers with his bossy girlfriend Alison (Erica Prior). (The whole movie, by the way, takes place in this old-fashioned hotel, the action unfurling in real time, an adherence to Aristotelian notions of classical unity that used to be quite popular in indie and arthouse films but you don’t see so often any more). Nervous about meeting Alison’s posh family for the first time at a birthday party being held in the function room downstairs, pizza-parlour employee Norman must navigate between various awkward social interactions – not just with his partner’s family but at another do on another floor being thrown by a friend from high school (Dale Douma) attended by some beefy pharmaceutical bros. Meanwhile, there’s definitely something weird going on with the hotel employees with their deadpan expressions, toiling away in the background.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Shudder
© Photograph: Shudder
It warned us of 11 hours a day building work at our booked ‘tranquil’ hotel and we wanted our money back
I booked a £609 package to Spain through easyJet Holidays. Shortly afterwards, easyJet notified me that there were building works at the hotel. I was given the option of going ahead with the trip, or changing the holiday and paying any difference in price. Equivalent packages cost more, and since I’ve been under a lot of stress the last thing I wanted was a week on a building site, so I asked for a refund, but easyJet refused.
JT, Brighton
Continue reading...© Photograph: IanDagnall Computing/Alamy
© Photograph: IanDagnall Computing/Alamy
A new book looks back in history to see how presidents including Reagan and Eisenhower were affected by war
In his new book, Presidents at War, Steven M Gillon considers how the second world war shaped a generation of presidents, a span that takes in eight men – but not all of them served in uniform between 1941 and 1945.
Gillon likes to “ask people, ‘There are seven men who served in uniform in world war two and who went on to be president: who are they?’ And most people think Jimmy Carter did, and they forget Ronald Reagan.”
Continue reading...© Photograph: Alamy
© Photograph: Alamy
The Barcelona manager Hansi Flick defended the use of the video assistant referees (VAR) after Rayo Vallecano were left fuming over a number of controversial decisions during Monday’s match in La Liga.
The Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski scored the winner from the penalty spot in the first-half following a long VAR review over a foul inside the box that the referee did not catch on first sight. Rayo also complained after they were denied a penalty and were further angered when they were denied an equaliser as they thought Jorge de Frutos’ strike was harshly ruled out in the 42nd minute.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters
© Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters
The chemical compounds that block UV rays may lead to bleaching of coral and a decrease in fish fertility
Urgent investigation is needed into the potential impact sunscreen is having on marine environments, according to a new report.
Sunscreens contain chemical compounds, known as pseudo persistent pollutants, which block the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays and can lead to bleaching and deformity in coral or a decrease in fish fertility.
Continue reading...© Photograph: ljubaphoto/Getty Images
© Photograph: ljubaphoto/Getty Images
It could be wildfires, a pandemic or a financial crisis. The super-rich will flee to their bunkers – the rest of us will have to fend for ourselves
Though we might find it hard to imagine, we cannot now rule it out: the possibility of systemic collapse in the United States. The degradation of federal government by Donald Trump and Elon Musk could trigger a series of converging and compounding crises, leading to social, financial and industrial failure.
There are several possible mechanisms. Let’s start with an obvious one: their assault on financial regulation. Trump’s appointee to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Russell Vought, has suspended all the agency’s activity, slashed its budget and could be pursuing Musk’s ambition to “delete” the bureau. The CFPB was established by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis, to protect people from the predatory activity that helped trigger the crash. The signal to the financial sector could not be clearer: “Fill your boots, boys.” A financial crisis in the US would immediately become a global crisis.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...© Photograph: Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
Exclusive: Whitehall source expects bills in England, Scotland and Wales to rise by about £9 a month over the next three months
Ed Miliband has urged the energy watchdog to take swift action as it emerged that the typical energy bill could soar by more than £100 a year amid a rise in global gas prices.
A Whitehall source said they expected bills in England, Scotland and Wales to increase by about £9 a month over the next three months in a blow to government plans to tackle the cost of living.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
Charred cabbage and crisp chorizo add depth of flavour to this creamy Spanish bean soup
Cabbage is often an afterthought, but here it takes centre stage by celebrating its natural sweetness and earthy flavour. When charred, cabbage develops a smoky depth that makes this soup wonderfully rich and comforting. In Spain, cabbage and chorizo have long been a winning combination found in all manner of hearty stews and rustic dishes. The addition of white beans not only makes this soup more satisfying and filling, but also gives it a gorgeous, creamy texture that helps to balance all the smoky notes going on. This is a simple and honest dish that’s full of warmth and great flavours.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: EMily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Lola Salome Smadja.
© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: EMily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Lola Salome Smadja.
A club that missed out on winning Afghanistan’s top division on goal difference has disbanded in protest at what it says is the national federation’s failure to properly investigate allegations of match-fixing.
Attack Energy were dissolved after Abu Muslim Farah were crowned champions for the first time in a competition set up in 2021 when the Taliban regained power.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Attack Energy FC
© Photograph: Attack Energy FC
In the Silicon Valley network of right-wing billionaire libertarians turned authoritarians, they are very open about the fact that they think that democracy is obsolete, that we're living in a post-constitutional America: The Constitution no longer fits, and they are trying to get everybody ready for a techno-monarchy. In their writings about it they suggest that seizure of the control of technology and computers and financial payments is the essence to moving from one form of government to another. So we're really talking about people who would like to abolish American constitutional institutions and representative democracy and the rights and freedom of the people. Their guy Yarvin[1,2,3] who's you know their big intellectual hero has said people have got to overcome their fear of the word dictator. He says a dictator is basically just like a corporate CEO. They're all dictators in their businesses and so we need a dictator that is the corporation that's the United States of America... Donald Trump has taken the position that his scholars call the "unitary executive" position which is that anything that is under the executive branch of government writ broadly, including the independent boards and agencies are not really independent but are rather subordinate and vertically reporting to the president so the president can fire any of them for any reason -- for political reasons, for reasons of retaliation -- and Congress cannot stand in the way with a statute which says, "no this is a six-year term" or "this is a four-year term that has gone into your administration." We learned last night -- this is really an historic and dreadful statement -- but the Department of Justice said they no longer will defend these statutes. So people are going to start to feel the consequences of this outrageous, monarchical and ideological assault on the laws of the people, the programs of the people, right? That's what government is. In a democratic society, government is just us, and the people we pay relatively low wages to go and do our work. What's the job of the president? Is it to be a king? Is it to be a monarch? Is it to do whatever he wants with the workforce? Is it to run roughshod over the laws of Congress or impound the money Congress has allocated? No. The core job of the president in Article Two is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. Take the laws that Congress has passed and implement them. That's the job of the president. So why do we have a civil service with air traffic controllers at the FAA and food and drug safety experts at the FDA and research scientists at NIH and weather people at the National Weather Service? Why do we have it? To implement the laws, the programs that the Congress has adopted. And who's directing Congress? The people. The people elect the Congress, we write the laws and then the people that we hire into the civil service implement the laws and the president is supposed to help that process, to take care of that process, not destroy it.maybe when you put it that way, and people can see what they're up against, the war over public opinion can shift:
Musk, Sacks, and Thiel all spent formative boyhood years in South Africa. As the historian Jill Lepore noted in The New Yorker, Musk's grandfather took the family to South Africa for the sake of apartheid, having left Canada after being jailed for his leadership activities in the Technocracy movement, "whose proponents believed that scientists and engineers, rather than the people, should rule." Thiel has made "freedom" his life's pursuit. Since 2009, he has argued that freedom is incompatible with democracy, and that "the fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism." [...] Who knows if the president intended this outcome, but leaders in the crypto space have long hoped for the replacement of nation-states with "network states" encompassing communities that come together on the blockchain. They are celebrating $TRUMP as the first crypto community to have gained control of a nation-state's powers by capturing the president's attention through control of his digital wallet. If what Trump has done is upheld as legal or becomes a norm, other global leaders have every incentive to do what he did, turning democratic governance into corporate governance.
None of this is an argument against democracy. Churchill was right: it is "the worst form of government, except for all the others." Instead, it's an argument for rethinking how democratic ideals should be implemented. Henry Farrell is dead right: "what we need are better collective means of thinking."[7] We need more institutional brains, as we might acquire - for example - from forms of deliberative democracy. Almost no mainstream politician or pundit is even asking how to do this. Why not? Part of the answer lies in the fact that ideas are shaped in our formative years: as Napoleon said, "to understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty." And in the formation of those of us over 50, western politicians saw democracy as a self-evidently good thing; it was contrasted to the "evil Empire" of the Soviet bloc. And so capitalism and democracy were conflated in the public mind. But this was an unhappy alliance because, as Jean Batou says, there has always been a tension between the two. Yes, capitalism needs democracy because popular consent, even if partial and ill-informed, helps legitimate inequality. But on the other hand, the power of the rich - even when they are not drug-addled neo-nazis - undermines the virtues of democracy. And this is becoming obvious to voters: a survey by the Fairness Foundation found that 63% of Britons think that the very rich have too much influence. For now, this opinion is latent and largely unarticulated except on the margins of political discourse. But it poses questions: can we build a better[8] democracy without challenging actually-existing capitalism? And if we cannot, which should give way?Using & misusing markets - "One of their great benefits is that they give us product variety. The USSR put a man into space but struggled to give people nice shoes. That's the merit and demerit of central planning."
Who is likely to be the better probation officer: the one drawn to the profession by a desire to rehabilitate offenders; or one who will earn a little more for hitting a contractual target? Who is likely to better look after vulnerable children: someone attracted to work in childrens' homes by a love of children; or one working for a profit-maximizing private equity firm? If the cash nexus comes to dominate, other motives such as professional pride recede not just because people change but because those with strong professional ethics simply leave the job. Which brings us to a problem. Markets are not merely a value-free technology, to be used or not depending upon the precise job in hand. They also have an ethical dimension. In Spheres of Justice Michael Walzer argues that there are some things which money should not be able to buy, because to do so would violate the very meaning of them: criminal justice; divine grace; political rights such as to vote and free speech; and so on. The Beatles were right: "money can't buy me love", even if it can get you some of its correlates. In this spirit, the buying of political influence via lobbyists and party donors is simply wrong; it denies what democracy is. Allocative efficiency is not the only value. Another argument for limiting markets comes from those with environmental or aesthetic motives, or those wanting to restrict the domain in which capitalism operates. Patrick Grant urges us to buy less disposable clothing from companies like Shein and fewer but better items. Jason Hickel proposes measures to reduce advertising and planned obsolescence. And in everyday activities such as allotments, repair cafes or early retirement people are reducing the realm of market activity. Colin Leys, echoing Marx, has shown how capitalism tries to expand markets in order to raise profits - but there is a backlash to this... On the other hand, though, the government seems keen on markets where it shouldn't be. It's showing little enthusiasm for ending the subcontracting of public services, or for stopping the sale of political influence. It is permitting a sham market in water, which is merely a front for theft. It is sympathetic to financial deregulation and cryptocurrencies, whilst doing nothing to promote useful financial innovations such as in GDP-linked securities. And in permitting lobbyists and rich donors to buy political influence it is enabling a market which undermines the value and meaning of democracy. What's more, it is doing nothing to promote decommodification. It has dropped the Corbynite interest in universal basic services (pdf), for example, and its desire to expand Heathrow and cajole the unwell into work is a sign of a desire to simply expand economic activity at all costs. This, however, is one of the drawbacks of social democracy: the need for tax revenue and to retain the cooperation of capitalists conflicts with the need to reverse commodification, be it on grounds of environmentalism, efficiency or ethics.What the left can learn from Richard II - "I've a feeling we're not in The West Wing any more. Educated technocrats have been in retreat against the likes of Trump and Meloni. And even where the anti-technocrat right are out of power, they have disproportionate influence over the agenda: culture war issues and immigration are more widely discussed than economic democracy, rentierism or the poor quality of management."
What matters is the building of groups of supporters, and the weakening of potential rivals. And once one has a growing band of supporters, there'll be a bandwagon effect as others jump onto the winning side: Shakespeare's Duke of York joining Bolingbroke's cause prefigured American newspaper bosses aligning with Trump... Marx - a great reader of Shakespeare - thought that emergent trends within capitalism would, from a socialist point of view, do the gardener's job. A decline in the numbers of petit bourgeois, he thought, would "wound the bark" by weakening a class hostile to socialism, whilst a growing working class would strengthen the "bearing boughs" that support socialism. He was too optimistic. Coalitions of interests don't just emerge. They must be created. It's in this context that policy matters. It is not merely a matter of technocratic fixes or hawking product like market traders, but a way of creating or weakening alliances... Here, we see another failure of the Democrats, pointed out by Dani Rodrik. Bidenomics, he says "paid too little attention to the changing structure of the economy and the nature of the new working class". In not doing enough to offer service sector workers good jobs, it did not sufficiently cultivate the "bearing boughs" that could be a wide working class base... Unless he can offer better public services, more affordable housing and better jobs, the answer might well be: not enough. Labour needs to achieve these not merely out of intellectual considerations of morality or economic efficiency, but because of the brute power politics of needing a client base beyond the media and a few rich donors.Hugh Howey:
The basic features ought to be obvious: employment and decent housing for all, lots of leisure time and paid holidays, universal healthcare generous maternity provision, inclusion for people with disabilities, free education and universal childcare, freedom to form a relationship and maybe a family with the person of your choice (straight or gay), a woman's right to choose, tolerance of everyone regardless of faith or race, political freedom and democratic elections under fair conditions, concern for the natural environment and so on. A vision of prosperity for all, even if some degree of inequality might be tolerated to provide incentives and so forth. This wasn't particularly an ideal limited to the left (in fact parts of the left would have rejected it for something more robustly socialist) but could have been embraced, in its rough outlines, by everyone from the centre-left to people on the centre right... Nobody currently thinks our future looks like Universal Scandinavia – and even in places where social democratic parties are in power, such as the UK – nobody thinks that they will advance even the tiniest step towards it. Rather, the likelihood is that even they will retreat. "Nice idea, but unaffordable." Meanwhile, we are being treated to endless homilies from the pundits about how Europe is being "left behind" by a dynamic United States. We are sclerotic, hidebound, unproductive and lazy. There is hardly a column by Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times that doesn't rehearse such points, but there are official reports too, such as a recent one by Mario Draghi about the need to boost Europe's competitiveness. Draghi is writing about the EU, of course, but what he says should be taken to apply, mutatis mutandis to all the other places that might once have aspired to Universal Scandinavia. The rhetoric of being "left behind", though, the tacit appeal to progress and to a direction of travel, raises the quest of where that travel is to, particularly in the context of a United States that is abandoning democratic norms, where the judiciary is politicized, where women are being deprived of the right to choose, where migrants are being deported en masse, where fascist mobs are pardoned by the President, where opponents are threatened with state persecution, and where a new oligarchy has both acquiesced to and encouraged a fresh authoritarianism. And of course this comes on top of much longer-standing horrors in the US such as crippling health care costs, tyranny on the workplace, miniscule leisure and vacation time, a racist carceral system, frequent mass killings with guns, chlorine-washed chicken, corn-syrup in everything, widespread nostalgia for white supremacy, to begin a long list. Make your own, I don't have space here. The progress we are in danger of missing out on if we don't pull up our socks is supposed to be towards growth and prosperity. If we don't abandon the few anticipatory relics of Universal Scandinavia that remain, we will fall further behind. We need to do this for the money and for the relative position of our states in some global race. Except that, as in the case of the United States itself, the people being asked to tighten their belts now, to accept longer hours, shorter holidays, worse health care, reduced food and environmental standards, are not, on the whole, the ones who will get to see the money. GDP per capita might rise, but since that's an average measure it is entirely compatible with all the benefits being harvested by the diminishing numbers of the highly advantaged, Meanwhile the professional middle class becomes proletarianized, even as its members are mocked as the "elites". What of those other aspects of Universal Scandinavia: the possibility of political community, the availability of art and culture, education and literacy, access to nature, opportunities to travel and the ending of artificial barriers between people, and the rights people enjoy as humans or as citizens? In fact all the goods that aren't easily assimilable to an increase in per capita wealth and income. One thing that has happened is that systems and institutions that are key components of a functioning social system have ceased to be considered as such. Either they have been reconfigured on the model of for-profit enterprises and expected to survive by generating their own revenue (e.g. universities) or they have been starved of funding in the interests of "efficiency" with short-term cost-reduction being very much in the minds of policy-makers but the cost of the long-term consequences — probably falling on someone else's budget — not so much. The human beings who run most public services have often compensated for fiscal neglect by working harder and self-exploiting out of a sense of professional committment. But that has diminished over time as people feel like suckers, especially when treated as punchbags by politicians and derided by right-wing pundits. And while the state can often count on the professional dedication of people who were recruited and trained when there was a proper service they were serving, those people are ageing, retiring, quitting. Attracting smart and competent new people to work in education, criminal justice, social work and so forth is a different matter. As for the rights our societies used to value for human being or for citizens well, many of those have been thrown away in Europe's attempt to seal itself off from outsiders. (Universal human rights are inconvenient when the population has come to be hostile to people who might invoke them.) But relatedly, I think there's also a sense in which the key values that define the non-economic aspects of Universal Scandinavia have been hived off by politicians into the accountability sink of human rights law... There's similarly a vast difference between certifying that a building meets official safety standards and working to ensure a building is actually safe. My point here isn't the argue for the full attainability of Universal Scandinavia. Indeed, I'm not unaware of the material, demographic, environmental and other constraints that we face, nor of the extent to which historic European prosperity rests upon the exploitation of others, past and present. It is rather that the very meaning of "progress" has been stripped of its, er, "progressive" content and reduced to growth in national wealth, income and power. British and European leaders are increasingly abandoning any positive vision of a functioning social system to which they aspire and which realizes human values and secures vital rights and freedoms. Even as the US regresses into barbarism and abandons all pretence at liberal ideals, it is rhetorically saluted as the future that risks leaving "us" behind.@interfluidity@zirk.us: "Guys, really. Our apparently brisk GDP growth is down largely to rentierism, attaching ever more, ever larger tolls to everything. It's not meaningful prosperity. We are miserable. Don't emulate us. Stick with Universal Scandinavia." How To Get to the End of History - "At the heart of this remarkable book is the idea of 'getting to Denmark.' By this, Fukuyama means creating stable, peaceful, prosperous, inclusive, and honest societies (like Denmark). As in his 'End of History' essay, Fukuyama treats this as the logical endpoint of social development, and suggests that Denmarkness requires three things: functioning states, rule of law, and accountable government.'" Bernie Sanders, über-feminist: Making America more Scandinavian would mark a gender equality breakthrough - "He wants to lead a 'political revolution' and make the United States more like Sweden or Denmark when it comes to healthcare, education and the social safety net."
"In those [Scandinavian] countries, health care is the right of all people," Sanders said... "College education and graduate school is free. Retirement benefits [and] child care are stronger than the United States of America. In those countries, by and large, government works for ordinary people and the middle class, rather than, as is the case right now in our country, for the billionaire class."What do American liberals get wrong about Denmark? - "'Getting to Denmark' entails more attention to the quality of public services and not just their existence or funding level: How did Denmark get to be so awesome? Taxes. Denmark does it with really high taxes... The flip side is that if you actually live in Denmark, then things like child care, college tuition, and health care are all much cheaper than they are in the United States. In total, Danes and Americans consume a similar quantity of taxes and services. But because of high levels of taxation and spending, the nature of the consumption is quite different. People enjoy more social and personal care services, and fewer cars and other consumer goods. The upper middle class has less, and the poor and the working class have more. But on the whole, Denmark's high taxes have not prevented it from being a wealthy, happy society."[18,19,20]
As immigration has increased, GDP has surged and unemployment has fallen to lowest level since 2008
From Madrid to Barcelona, restaurants and bars are brimming with people, and reservations have become essential for everything from fine dining to high-end hotels.
It’s a glimpse of how Spain has become Europe’s buzziest economy – named the world’s best by the Economist in 2024 – fuelled in part by what analysts have described as the government’s strikingly different approach to migration.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy
© Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy
The latest issue of Eyeshot magazine celebrates the serendipity of everyday life – where construction site sunbathers and hovering cemetery angels defy logic
Continue reading...© Photograph: Eyeshot
© Photograph: Eyeshot