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AI hype is deflating. Can AI companies find a way to turn a profit ? - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/18/ai-bubble-hype-dying-money

Training bigger and better AI models has another crucial ingredient — electricity to power the warehouses of computer chips crunching all that data. The AI boom has already kicked off a wave of new data center construction, but it’s unclear whether the United States will be able to generate enough electricity to run them. AI, coupled with a surge in new manufacturing facilities, is pushing up predictions for how much electricity will be needed over the next five years, said Mike Hall, CEO of renewable energy management software company Anza, and a 20-year veteran of the solar power industry.

“People are starting to talk about a crisis, are we going to have enough power?” Hall said.

USAID’s Samantha Power confronted by staff over Biden’s Gaza policy - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/31/samantha-power-usaid-confronted-gaza

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Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development and a world-renowned scholar on genocide, was pointedly challenged by current and former USAID employees who during a public event Tuesday questioned her stance on the war in Gaza and complicity in the divisive U.S. policy.

“You wrote a book on genocide and you’re still working for the administration: You should resign and speak out,” said Agnieszka Sykes, a global health specialist who told The Washington Post she left her job at USAID late last week.

State Dept. official Josh Paul resigns over U.S.-Israel arms transfers - The Washington Post
By Michael Birnbaum | October 18, 2023
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/10/18/state-department-josh-paul-resignation-israel

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A State Department official who worked on arms transfers to foreign powers resigned Wednesday over the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Israel and Gaza, declaring he could not support further U.S. military assistance to Israel and calling the administration’s response “an impulsive reaction” based on “intellectual bankruptcy.” (...)

Opinion | In France, protests against police violence reflect rage - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/01/france-riots-burning-police-violence

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In a recent survey of Black and mixed-race residents of France, 9 in 10 said they had encountered racial discrimination, and roughly half said they had been stopped and asked for their identification — more than twice the share of the overall population who reported the same thing. In the first months of the pandemic lockdown, a survey by Reuters found that in France’s five departments with the greatest percentage of immigrants, police issued fines at a rate more than 50 percent higher than elsewhere in the country.

Such routine racial profiling is a quotidian reality for millions of residents who, even if they were born in France or have lived here for decades, often are made to feel not fully French. For years, researchers have documented discrimination in hiring and schools and on the streets.

Behind cancer-drug shortage in U.S., a fragile supply of generic drugs - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/27/cancer-drug-shortage-generics

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Commentaire dans Global health Now :

‘Lives Will Be Shortened’

When FDA inspectors visited an Intas Pharmaceuticals plant in India—producer of about half the US supply of a key chemotherapy drug—last November, they found a “cascade of failure” in quality assurance and attempts to hide the evidence by tearing up and dousing documents in acid, the Washington Post reports.

The discovery disrupted the production of the generic chemotherapy drug, cisplatin—and other manufacturers couldn’t make up the difference, The Atlantic reports.

70% of US cancer centers report shortages of cisplatin; 93% report shortages of carboplatin, a substitute—jeopardizing the care of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Substitute drugs may be less effective or more toxic, and even short delays in cancer treatment can up the odds of death. “Lives will be shortened,” Patrick Timmins III, a gynecologic oncologist at Women’s Cancer Care Associates, told The Post.

How could one manufacturer cause such a major disruption, asks The Atlantic? Overreliance on fragile international supply chains—and an “utterly dysfunctional” system, with little profit incentive for manufacturers to upgrade aging facilities.

What’s needed is nothing less than a fundamental shift in how generic drugs are made and bought—to encourage manufacturers to invest in improvements, and hospital buyers to pay for quality production, per The Post.

ICYMI: Even more wrenching, for LMICs, affordable chemotherapy has always been out of reach, as documented by a must-read Think Global Health commentary published earlier this month that calls on the global health community to help advocate for increased support.

#Médicaments #Qualité #Cancer #Néolibéralisme

CDC meeting, intended to mark covid progress, sees virus cases of its own - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/04/28/covid-cases-cdc-conference

The staff dedicated to investigating disease outbreaks for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received a reminder this week of the pandemic’s persistence: confirmed covid cases at their own conference.

“We’re letting you know that several people who attended the [Epidemic Intelligence Service] Conference have tested positive for COVID-19,” a CDC branch chief wrote in an email to staff on Friday and obtained by The Washington Post, adding that at least one person at the division’s recruiting event on Wednesday had tested positive.

Current and former CDC staff also told The Post that moderators at the conference warned staff several times that some attendees had tested positive for the virus.

A CDC official said the agency was “aware” of several confirmed cases that could be connected to the conference, but cautioned “the cases we’re aware of at this time should not be referred to as an ‘outbreak.’”

“These cases are reflective of general spread in the community. It’s not news that public health employees can get COVID-19,” CDC’s Kristen Nordlund wrote in an email.

Hosts use the Olympics to bolster police power — harming civil liberties - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/04/03/olympics-police-paris

When the French National Assembly approved the use of artificial intelligence video surveillance at the Paris 2024 Olympics on March 23, it made France the first European Union country to legalize such a wide-reaching AI-powered surveillance system and left civil-liberties advocates livid. They argued that the move not only undermines the E.U.’s AI Act regulating the technology, but also greenlights potentially massive privacy violations inside France.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard blasted the law’s potential to “amplify racist policing and threaten the right to protest.” Callamard’s fears are justified. In the past, the Olympic Games have opened the door for laws that infringe upon civil liberties and the right to protest.

Local and national security officials over the past several decades have used the Olympics to generate huge sums of cash and secure special tools and laws that would be difficult to acquire during normal political times. These new laws can stay on the books and technologies remain in the hands of the state after the Games, reinforcing police power and squelching political dissent. As a result, the Olympics help normalize technologies and practices that undermine human rights, despite the Olympic Charter’s stated commitment to “promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”

Macron’s bypasses parliament to raise retirement age with executive powers - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/16/france-retirement-age-vote-macron

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Macron has been pushing for changes to the country’s pension system since he was elected in 2017, as a way to shore up the financial position of a graying society and keep France competitive.

“This reform is necessary,” Borne said in Parliament, adding that a select group of lawmakers had previously reached a consensus on the law, and that “we cannot take the risk of seeing 175 hours of parliamentary debate collapse.”

Macron, who has largely stayed out of the parliamentary tug of war over his proposals, did not immediately comment on Thursday.

France has a lower minimum retirement age than many of its European neighbors, where laws similar to the one proposed by Macron have prompted less divisive debates. Germany, for instance, is preparing for an increase in the retirement age from 65 to 67, and lawmakers there have faced little public backlash.

Review of “Palo Alto” by Malcolm Harris - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/02/09/palo-alto-malcolm-harris-review

Here’s an enchanting myth: In Northern California lies a new Olympus, a metaphorical summit whose rarefied air sustains flip-flopped geniuses as they change the world with their brilliant, unconventional ideas. They’ve done it this way since they were LSD-dropping hippies, or maybe since they bailed out of Harvard and set up shop in their parents’ garages. This is their kingdom now, Palo Alto, with Stanford University at its core, the beating heart of Silicon Valley, a site of pilgrimage for aspiring disrupters, where the misunderstood can find room to grow.
(Little, Brown and Company)

Too good to be true? Malcolm Harris’s “Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World” cuts past the deceit, examining the histories the fable dresses up in heroic garb. Doing for Palo Alto — population 70,000 — what Mike Davis’s classic “City of Quartz” did for Los Angeles, Harris reconsiders 200 years of history that many in the town would rather forget. Over more than 600 concussive pages, Harris narrates the town’s evolution and influence throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. He theorizes, above all, that it is defined by its distinctive approach to capitalism and profit, known as the “Palo Alto System”: a rapacious, violently exploitative mode of capitalism that generations of would-be moguls have perfected. “Palo Alto” is a skeptic’s record, a vital, critical demonstration of Northern California’s two centuries of mixing technology and cruelty for money.

Harris, born and raised in Palo Alto, home to one of the most unequal and competitive school districts in the country, understands the consequences of a town obsessed with achievement and built on destruction. Most accounts of U.S. tech culture, like Stanford professor Fred Turner’s “From Counterculture to Cyberculture” or Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron’s landmark essay “The Californian Ideology,” follow technology’s trail to the military-industrial complex of the 1940s and ’50s and to the counterculture of the 1960s. Historians of California, for their part, have written extensively about the importance of the railroad and other technologies to the state’s brutal regimes of exploitation that catalyzed its furiously accelerated early development. Harris is interested both in the ideology of tech entrepreneurs and in the labor practices that underlie their ideas, ultimately rooting the dynamics that built Silicon Valley in practices old as the United States itself.

A Montana cowboy, troubled by the violence that ’won’ the West

In the 1830s, the region’s Anglophone settlers rebelled and declared themselves part of the United States instead of Mexico. Subsequently, the region’s Indigenous populations — named the Ohlone by anthropologists and settlers though there were dozens of distinct groups in the area — were nearly exterminated as the United States reneged on treaties, enslaving, displacing and slaughtering entire communities in the process. By 1850, in the throes of the Gold Rush, mass migration populated the West with Americans and spurred the Golden State’s first technological innovations. “California engineers,” experts in maximizing mining yields for the already wealthy who could afford to assemble large-scale, mechanized operations, were soon in demand the world over. Harris distills the settlers’ formula: “Anglos rule; all natives are Indians; all land and water is just gold waiting to happen.”

As easily accessible gold ran out, those lucky (or cutthroat) enough to survive the bust mostly pivoted to other endeavors. Here, Harris spots an incipient pattern that continues to play out: Wealthy investors pile their money into “promising” endeavors after being charmed by enchanting visionaries who grow fabulously rich — almost always before the venture has succeeded (or even begun operations). The investments raise the valuation of the business and facilitate further cycles of capitalization, so that executives need not worry about generating profits or revenue, or having a workable project. Environmental destruction, resource depletion and worker exploitation ensued in 19th-century California, Harris shows, and those same consequences recur in our time.

Criminals thought crypto was untraceable. They sure were wrong.

Even while attending to larger patterns, “Palo Alto” studiously works through the town’s history by focusing on its most famous and influential residents. Our first star is Leland Stanford, railroad baron and university founder. Stanford got his start by managing the Sacramento location of his brother’s dry-goods business, and expanded quickly throughout the area. Through sheer persistence and wealth, he became governor of California and a senior adviser to President Abraham Lincoln, whom he persuaded to greenlight a railroad linking California with the East Coast. The venture left Stanford one of the world’s wealthiest men, though not, Harris suggests, by his own merit, especially “given the amount of financial chicanery going on” and his reputation as a “big oaf.”

As time went on, disgruntled former employees kept protesting at Stanford’s San Francisco manor, so he bought a farm off the Santa Clara County train tracks called Mayfield Grange and renamed it Palo Alto after an imposing sequoia tree nearby. Racehorse breeding was Stanford’s passion, and he built out the facilities to host a top-level stable, with genetic optimization as his priority. Harris suggests that “the Palo Alto Stock Farm was really in the business of intellectual property,” like a Google or Apple of equine genetics. Stanford even hired photographer “Helios” (Eadweard Muybridge), whose groundbreaking visual experiments served as promotional materials affirming Stanford’s place on the cutting edge.

Stanford’s commitment to “disruptive” logic — efficiency uber alles — lives on as Palo Alto’s guiding principle, the aforementioned “Palo Alto System.” The system matured as West Coast capitalists emancipated themselves from Eastern funds and companies that financed the early generations of entrepreneurs. To this day, entrepreneurs and investors prioritize start-ups’ capacity to scale rapidly over profits, revenue or even functionality. Harris shows that monopoly, in Palo Alto’s imagination, is the only acceptable possibility. Latter chapters of “Palo Alto” feature failures such as Pets.com, as well as familiar giants such as Amazon and Facebook, all of which relied heavily on this system. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) With destructive conditions for factory workers, and payment systems that distribute stock options instead of wages to employees, highly valued start-ups often lumber on for years without profits or, sometimes, even a product.
A general view of White Plaza at Stanford University campus in Stanford, Ca., 1988. In the background is Hoover Plaza. (AP Photo)

Leland Stanford left his mark on the region in other ways, too. After his son, Leland Jr., died young, the former governor and his wife, Jane, founded Leland Stanford Junior University, and the institution soon became Palo Alto’s epicenter. In exploring Palo Alto’s history, Harris has an eye for scandals, often emerging out of the university itself — like the murder of Jane Stanford, in which the school’s first president, David Starr Jordan, was apparently involved — and hypocrisy, particularly around eugenics and military funding. Many of Stanford’s early luminaries, Jordan chief among them, were obsessed with eugenics, and Harris suggests that their inheritors — including Frederick Terman and William Shockley, regarded as the founders of modern-day Silicon Valley — kept up the game to varying degrees.
Herbert Hoover signs unemployment and drought relief bills in 1930. (AP Photo)

No alum better symbolizes Stanford, for Harris, than its first U.S. president: Herbert Hoover, “a representative of the worldwide ruling class, super-imperialism personified.” Hoover studied geology and graduated near the bottom of Stanford’s first class, but quickly became a world-renowned “California engineer” specializing in mining. Rising to the presidency, he perfected another Palo Alto trademark that Harris calls the “associative model” — “the free, voluntary association of businessmen in their common interest,” ensuring profits for the select few in the loop and freezing out everyone else. Hoover was Stanford’s perfect man, a relentless, self-made capitalist elitist who remained massively influential after the ignominious end of his presidency thanks to his membership in the San Francisco Bohemian Club, where he functioned as a “global kingmaker” until his death.
Malcolm Harris. (Julia Burke)

“Palo Alto” continues onward, ranging from San Francisco’s Black beat poet laureate Bob Kaufman to MK-Ultra, the Black Panthers, the Homebrew Computer Club, Sun Microsystems, Elon Musk, Amazon warehouses and beyond. Famous names give way to dark histories, including the redlining and subsequent ghettoization of East Palo Alto, but also stretching beyond the region to encompass the Iran-contra affair and more. Harris’s fervent argumentation sometimes feels repetitious or meandering, but conviction and research burn through the page and give coherence and urgency to a daunting subject. Alas, a concluding call for the restitution of Palo Alto to the descendants of its original inhabitants, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, feels underwhelming, partly because their struggle remains marginal throughout a book that more frequently focuses on the oppression of Latin American, Asian and Black workers and residents.

Harris demonstrates that the charming story with which we began, in which hippies freed the world by virtue of their genius and creativity, was always a convenient deception. That narrative avoids mentioning decades of profiteering in U.S. imperial pursuits, from Vietnam to Nicaragua to Iraq; the nepotism and exploitation that built these would-be saviors’ fortunes; and, above all, the murderous displacements that created present-day Palo Alto. Though the town’s ideologues aspire to sun-soaked ascension above earthly clouds, their Olympus was always shrouded in shadows. Only by acknowledging its failings can the damage be repaired — if it’s not too late.

Federico Perelmuter is a writer from Buenos Aires.
Palo Alto

A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

By Malcolm Harris

Little, Brown. 708 pp. $36

#Silicon_Valley #Stanford #Palo_Alto

10 tips to help loved ones with chronic illnesses enjoy the holidays - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/12/23/chronic-illness-holiday-tips

For many people with chronic illnesses, the holidays can be a lonely and exhausting time. Health limitations may keep them from joining celebrations, and participating in the festivities can quickly tire them.

The Washington Post asked people with chronic conditions for advice for family members, friends and colleagues to help make the holidays an enjoyable experience for everyone.

“It all begins with listening and validating,” said Ben HsuBorger, U.S. advocacy director of MEAction, a nonprofit advocating for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

Here are 10 more recommendations for a fun and inclusive holiday season.

1
Invite people with chronic illnesses to holiday parties, and be okay with hearing ‘no’

With certain chronic illnesses, people can become rundown quickly, and their fatigue can last for a significant period of time. Particularly during the holidays with multiple events to attend, they must use their energy strategically, so they may need to decline your holiday party.

Invite them anyway.

“For so many of us, we’ve constantly had to say no and then we feel like, ‘Oh, people are getting annoyed by that. They probably won’t call anymore,’ ” said Charlotte Florez, 36, of Raleigh, N.C., who has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and vasovagal syncope, both of which can cause a fast heart rate and dizziness, lightheadedness and fainting upon standing. “Continuing to invite them and giving them the opportunity and letting them know that you want them there is really important to them.”

2
Consider coronavirus testing and masking

Hosts and other guests could consider taking a coronavirus test, masking, or holding the event in a spacious, well-ventilated area, particularly when inviting those who are immunocompromised.

“Chronically ill people are not a burden; they’re a reminder,” said HsuBorger, 41, of Madison, Wis., who has ME/CFS, an infection-associate disease that causes severe fatigue. “Maybe these conversations can be touch points for thinking about the health of our entire community.”

3
Include people with chronic illnesses, but give them light tasks

Ask whether guests with chronic illnesses would like to contribute. If they want to pitch in, suggest bringing something store-bought, such as napkins, plasticware, or a premade dessert.

Shannon Koplitz, a 44-year-old from Clearwater, Fla., who has POTS, said she enjoys participating in festivities, but because of her limitations, her family gives her a simple side dish she can prepare in advance — and one that is not crucial to the meal in case she becomes too fatigued to finish it.

“My family is very understanding, and they know to give me only one assignment,” she said.

4
Create a space where guests can rest

Many people with chronic illnesses need time to rest and recover. Provide a comfortable, quiet space where they can take a moment to relax — a bed, a couch, or a recliner in a separate room. If you have a heated blanket, throw it over the chair for them to use since some guests may have conditions that cause achy joints, muscle pain, or problems regulating body temperature.

Let them know the space is there for them.

“I just want my family and friends to be mindful and give me some grace — don’t take it personally if I have to step away and rest,” said Shonda Berry, 42, of Chicago, who has an autoimmune condition called ulcerative colitis, which affects the gastrointestinal system.

5
If possible, designate a restroom for those with GI issues

Some chronic conditions cause GI problems, and it can be embarrassing, stressful and nearly impossible for people to wait for a restroom. If possible, have a separate bathroom — and let them know they can use it.

Berry said because of her condition, she must avoid gatherings where there is only one restroom. “If I can have a designated bathroom, that is most helpful,” she said.

6
Plan an inclusive menu

Ask ahead of time whether your guests with chronic illnesses have any new food allergies or intolerances. Have at least one dish they can eat, and let them know it is for them. Some guests may even prefer to bring their own food.

Also, have a festive, nonalcoholic beverage such as sparkling cider or mocktails for those who cannot drink alcohol because it may exacerbate their symptoms or interfere with certain medications.

7
Have adaptations for physical activities

Some holiday festivities are more physical. Be mindful that some guests may need special accommodations. For instance, when preparing a holiday feast or baking festive cookies, have a spot where they can sit to chop vegetables or roll cookie dough.

If you plan to go caroling, have one family member or friend bring a vehicle so people with chronic illnesses can sit down and rest, or be taken back home if they become too fatigued to continue.

Still, be prepared that you may go to the trouble to accommodate someone “and then they’re too sick to do it,” said Jaime Seltzer, director of scientific and medical outreach at MEAction who also has ME/CFS.

“That’s something, unfortunately, they have no control over,” she said.

8
Have considerate conversations

Some people with chronic illnesses may want to discuss it. Others may not. It is nice to give them the opportunity to tell you how they are doing, but leave space to chat about other things.

“Remember that we’re so much more than our illnesses,” said Florez, community engagement coordinator for the nonprofit group Dysautonomia International.

9
Offer to help with holiday preparations

Whether hosting or attending an event, do not force assistance on people with chronic illnesses, but certainly ask — at least twice — whether you can help, said Seltzer, 41, of San Jose.

And be specific with your offer. “If you’re asking if there’s anything you can do, that offloads the decision-making process — which is also a task — to the sick person,” Seltzer added.

Instead, ask to carry shopping bags, wrap gifts, set up for the festivities or clean up afterward.

10
If guests with chronic illnesses cannot be a part of the festivities, follow up

Despite their best efforts, family members or friends with chronic illnesses may not be able to attend the celebration. That does not mean they did not want to. Following up with them — calling them on the phone, paying them a visit, bringing them some holiday cookies — is a meaningful gesture.

“It’s very easy to be lonely and go into a dark place during the holidays,” said Sam Norpel, 48, of Blue Bell, Pa., who has long covid. “Find little ways to connect and reach out to them so that they don’t feel so alone.”

No conclusive evidence Russia is behind Nord Stream attack - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/21/russia-nord-stream-explosions

World leaders were quick to blame Moscow for explosions along the undersea natural gas pipelines. But some Western officials now doubt the Kremlin was responsible.

After explosions in late September severely damaged undersea pipelines built to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe, world leaders quickly blamed Moscow for a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage. With winter approaching, it appeared the Kremlin intended to strangle the flow of energy to millions across the continent, an act of “blackmail,” some leaders said, designed to threaten countries into withdrawing their financial and military support for Ukraine.

But now, after months of investigation, numerous officials privately say that Russia may not be to blame after all for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines.
“There is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage,” said one European official, echoing the assessment of 23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries interviewed in recent weeks.

Some went so far as to say they didn’t think Russia was responsible. Others who still consider Russia a prime suspect said positively attributing the attack — to any country — may be impossible.
In the months after the explosions, which resulted in what was probably one of the largest-ever single releases of methane gas, investigators have combed through debris and analyzed explosives residue recovered from the bed of the Baltic Sea. Seismologists have pinpointed the timing of three explosions on Sept. 26, which caused four leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
No one doubts that the damage was deliberate. An official with the German government, which is conducting its own investigation, said explosives appear to have been placed on the outside of the structures.
But even those with inside knowledge of the forensic details don’t conclusively tie Russia to the attack, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share information about the progress of the investigation, some of which is based on classified intelligence.

“Forensics on an investigation like this are going to be exceedingly difficult,” said a senior U.S. State Department official.
The United States routinely intercepts the communications of Russian officials and military forces, a clandestine intelligence effort that helped accurately forecast Moscow’s February invasion of Ukraine. But so far, analysts have not heard or read statements from the Russian side taking credit or suggesting that they’re trying to cover up their involvement, officials said.

Attributing the attack has been challenging from the start. The first explosion occurred in the middle of the night to the southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm. Scientists detected two additional explosions more than 12 hours later to the northeast of the island.
Given the relatively shallow depth of the damaged pipelines — approximately 80 yards at the site of one explosion — a number of different actors could theoretically have pulled off the attack, possibly with the use of submersible drones or with the aid of surface ships, officials said. The list of suspects isn’t limited only to countries that possess manned submarines or deep-sea demolitions expertise.

The leaks occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. European nations have been attempting to map which ships were in the region in the days before the explosions, in the hope of winnowing the field of suspects.
“We know that this amount of explosives has to be a state-level actor,” Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said in an interview this month. “It’s not just a single fisherman who decides to put the bomb there. It’s very professional.”
Regardless of the perpetrator, Haavisto said that for Finland, which isn’t a Nord Stream client, “The lesson learned is that it shows how vulnerable our energy network, our undersea cables, internet … are for all kinds of terrorists.”
Russia remains a key suspect, however, partly because of its recent history of bombing civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and propensity for unconventional warfare. It’s not such a leap to think that the Kremlin would attack Nord Stream, perhaps to undermine NATO resolve and peel off allies that depend on Russian energy sources, officials said.

But a handful of officials expressed regret that so many world leaders pointed the finger at Moscow without considering other countries, as well as extremist groups, that might have the capability and the motive to conduct the attack.
“The governments that waited to comment before drawing conclusions played this right,” said one European official.
Condemnation of Moscow was swift and widespread. On Sept. 30, four days after the explosions, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the BBC it “seems” Russia was to blame. “It is highly unlikely that these incidents are coincidence,” she said.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck also implied that Russia, which has consistently denied responsibility, was responsible for the explosions. “Russia saying ‘It wasn’t us’ is like saying ‘I’m not the thief,’” Habeck told reporters in early October.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the ruptures “a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression toward [the European Union].”
“No one on the European side of the ocean is thinking this is anything other than Russian sabotage,” a senior European environmental official told The Washington Post in September.
But as the investigation drags on, skeptics point out that Moscow had little to gain from damaging pipelines that fed Western Europe natural gas from Russia and generated billions of dollars in annual revenue. The Nord Stream projects had stirred controversy and debate for years because they yoked Germany and other European countries to Russian energy sources.
“The rationale that it was Russia [that attacked the pipelines] never made sense to me,” said one Western European official.

Nearly a month before the rupture, the Russian energy giant Gazprom stopped flows on Nord Stream 1, hours after the Group of Seven industrialized nations announced a forthcoming price cap on Russian oil, a move intended to put a dent in the Kremlin’s treasury. During Putin’s long stretch in office, the Kremlin has used energy as an instrument of political and economic leverage, employing the threat of cutoffs to bully countries into going along with its goals, officials said. It didn’t make sense that Russia would abandon that leverage.
Germany had halted final authorization of Nord Stream 2 just days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. But the pipeline was intact and had already been pumped full with 300 million cubic meters of natural gas to ready it for operations.
Putin, in defiant speech, threatens Western gas and grain supplies
European and U.S. officials who continue to believe that Russia is the most likely culprit say it had at least one plausible motive: Attacking Nord Stream 1 and 2, which weren’t generating any revenue to fill Russian coffers, demonstrated that pipelines, cables and other undersea infrastructure were vulnerable and that the countries that supported Ukraine risked paying a terrible price.

Haavisto noted that Finland has taken steps to strengthen infrastructure security since the explosions. Germany and Norway have asked NATO to coordinate efforts to protect critical infrastructure such as communication lines in the North Sea and gas infrastructure.
“But it’s at the same time true that we cannot control all the pipelines, all the cables, all the time, 24/7,” Haavisto said. “You have to be prepared. If something happens you have to think, where are the alternatives?”
The war prompted European countries to build up stockpiles of alternative energy, making them less dependent on Russian sources. But the Nord Stream attack has left many governments uneasy about the lengths to which Russia or other actors might go.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said his government was waiting for the country’s independent prosecutor’s office to complete its investigation into the explosions before reaching a conclusion. Sweden, along with Denmark, increased its naval patrols right after the attack.

“We have spoken about [the explosions] as part of the view that the security situation in the northern part of Europe has deteriorated following Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, with all the implications that it has,” Billstrom said in an interview this month.
The prospect that the explosions may never be definitively attributed is unsettling for nations like Norway, which has 9,000 kilometers (5,500 miles) of undersea gas pipelines to Europe.
A Norwegian official said Norway is attempting to strengthen security around its own pipelines and broader critical infrastructure. It is investing in surveillance; working with Britain, France and Germany to intensify naval patrols; and trying to find ways to keep oil and gas flowing in the event of another attack.
Norway is also investigating the appearance of unidentified aerial drones around its oil and gas facilities around the time of the Nord Stream attacks.
“It’s not a good thing,” the official said, of the possibility that the Nord Stream explosions may remain unsolved. “Whoever did it may get away with it.”

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II’s $800 million sales weekend, explained - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/11/04/call-duty-modern-warfare-2-sales

A Tuesday morning news release from video game publisher Activision included a staggering figure. Counting presales, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II,” the latest installment of Activision’s mega-popular military sim franchise, exceeded $800 million in sales in the three days following its Oct. 28 release.

#jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #business #activision_blizzard #jeu_vidéo_call_of_duty #succès #jeu_vidéo_grand_theft_auto_v #jeu_vidéo_gta #jeu_vidéo_fortnite #jeu_vidéo_world_of_warcraft #jeu_vidéo_wow #jeu_vidéo_overwatch #jeu_vidéo_candy_crush #microsoft #rachat #acquisition #finance #battle_net #sony #microsoft_xbox #sony_playstation #xbox #playstation

Microsoft leans on Game Pass, Call of Duty promises to calm regulators - The Washington Post
►https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/09/01/microsoft-activision-game-pass-call-of-duty-playstation

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/R5VDAOVM7ZGTBPT2LQBF5GGWVI.jpg&w=1440

Microsoft’s unprecedented $68.7 billion purchase of embattled video game giant Activision Blizzard has antitrust regulators sniffing the scene with eyebrows raised, prompting a response this week from the tech giant. Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty series, it said, will continue to launch on Sony’s PlayStation consoles as well as on Xbox, while Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service will bring franchises like Overwatch and Diablo to other devices, including phones, via streaming.

That latter point — repeatedly emphasized by Microsoft — glosses over an inconvenient fact: Game Pass is itself a platform, one that allows users to access a rotating selection of hundreds of games to download and play for a low monthly price. In spreading it far and wide, Microsoft is not performing some act of selfless magnanimity. Instead, it’s setting itself up to come out on top in the next video game console war, one in which apps and services win the day, not specific devices. (A U.K. regulator argued as much in a decision published Thursday, which amounted to the first real public challenge to Microsoft’s planned acquisition).

#jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #business #microsoft #xbox #jeu_vidéo_call_of_duty #jeu_vidéo_overwatch #jeu_vidéo_diablo #concurrence #game_pass #xbox_game_pass #netflix #sony #playstation_plus #abonnement

EU to investigate Microsoft, Activision Blizzard merger - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/11/08/eu-microsoft-activision-acquisition-call-of-duty

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/EDUYSXCGBVAWXJPH3DDUKZVZVQ.jpg&w=1440

The European Union has launched an investigation into Microsoft’s acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard, citing concerns that the tech giant “may foreclose access” to Activision’s games.

#jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #business #microsoft #activision_blizzard #concurrence #rachat #acquisition #sony #playstation #union_européenne #commission_européenne #jeu_vidéo_call_of_duty #jeu_vidéo_minecraft

Microsoft leans on Game Pass, Call of Duty promises to calm regulators - The Washington Post
►https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/09/01/microsoft-activision-game-pass-call-of-duty-playstation

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/R5VDAOVM7ZGTBPT2LQBF5GGWVI.jpg&w=1440

Microsoft’s unprecedented $68.7 billion purchase of embattled video game giant Activision Blizzard has antitrust regulators sniffing the scene with eyebrows raised, prompting a response this week from the tech giant. Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty series, it said, will continue to launch on Sony’s PlayStation consoles as well as on Xbox, while Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service will bring franchises like Overwatch and Diablo to other devices, including phones, via streaming.

That latter point — repeatedly emphasized by Microsoft — glosses over an inconvenient fact: Game Pass is itself a platform, one that allows users to access a rotating selection of hundreds of games to download and play for a low monthly price. In spreading it far and wide, Microsoft is not performing some act of selfless magnanimity. Instead, it’s setting itself up to come out on top in the next video game console war, one in which apps and services win the day, not specific devices. (A U.K. regulator argued as much in a decision published Thursday, which amounted to the first real public challenge to Microsoft’s planned acquisition).

#jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #business #microsoft #activision_blizzard #jeu_vidéo_overwatch #jeu_vidéo_diablo #microsoft_game_pass #xbox #console_xbox #console_playstation #sony #netflix #phil_spencer #jeu_vidéo_call_of_duty #playstation_plus #competition_and_markets_authority #cma #états-unis #royaume-uni #plateforme #concurrence

As a cancer patient, ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ frees me from my mental prison - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/07/27/cyberpunk2077-cancer

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/DKPUYB5TOFDERAZZWFUH4SSFYA.jpg&w=1440

I was diagnosed with cancer in early June. For some reason, since then, I haven’t been able to stop playing CD Projekt Red’s “Cyberpunk 2077,” a story about how you must navigate or defy terminal illness.

The terminal illness facing V, the game’s protagonist, is the all-but-certain erasure of their soul. Their personality, memories and cognitive functions are being overwritten by an artificial intelligence, Johnny Silverhand, a rocker and branded terrorist brought to virtual life by Keanu Reeves. They can only deny or accept their fate; either grasp at some way to sever their connection as Silverhand takes over, or leave this world on their own terms.

#jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo_cyberpunk_2077 #témoignage #maladie #cancer #cd_projekt_red #keanu_reeves #netflix #anime_cyberpunk_edgerunners #anime_akira #film_fight_club #steve_jobs #playstation_4 #xbox_one

‘They are preparing for war’: An expert on civil wars discusses where political extremists are taking this country - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/03/08/they-are-preparing-war-an-expert-civil-wars-discusses-where-politica

And what scholars found was that this anocracy variable was really predictive of a risk for civil war. That full democracies almost never have civil wars. Full autocracies rarely have civil wars. All of the instability and violence is happening in this middle zone. And there’s all sorts of theories why this middle zone is unstable, but one of the big ones is that these governments tend to be weaker. They’re transitioning to either actually becoming more democratic, and so some of the authoritarian features are loosening up. The military is giving up control. And so it’s easier to organize a challenge. Or, these are democracies that are backsliding, and there’s a sense that these governments are not that legitimate, people are unhappy with these governments. There’s infighting. There’s jockeying for power. And so they’re weak in their own ways. Anyway, that turned out to be highly predictive.

And then the second factor was whether populations in these partial democracies began to organize politically, not around ideology — so, not based on whether you’re a communist or not a communist, or you’re a liberal or a conservative — but where the parties themselves were based almost exclusively around identity: ethnic, religious or racial identity. The quintessential example of this is what happened in the former Yugoslavia.

Diablo Immortal’s pay-to-win monetization issues corrupt the franchise - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/14/diablo-immortal-pay-to-win-monetization

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/Y5TADJ5K7FEB3PRCPYQUOJOZHE.jpg&w=1440

Make no mistake: “Diablo Immortal” is a pay-to-win game, in that players can spend money to increase their power relative to other players, something that the previous three games had not done. Through its marketing, Activision Blizzard developers have tried to stay ahead of the controversy by claiming the game does not sell gear or level boosts; this is pure spin. There are many ways to spend money to gain more power ahead of players who engage with the game for free, much of it explained through hundreds of videos from YouTube creators capitalizing on the outrage against “Diablo Immortal.”

[…]

The conversation around “Diablo Immortal” has focused on the idea that a player must spend approximately $110,000 to max out a character’s power, according to one YouTuber’s calculations. But as appalling as that figure might seem in the abstract, it’s hard to imagine anybody actually spending that much on the game. To the Kotaku article’s point, most players simply don’t care about maximizing their character to that degree.

#jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo_diablo_immortal #pay_to_win #free_to_play #test #critique #microtransactions #jeu_vidéo_diablo_iii #david_brevik #jeu_vidéo_diablo_ii

Microsoft enters agreement to respect Activision Blizzard union - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/13/microsoft-union-activision-blizzard-cwa

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/DUQMCFJYMZG67DVHEVHLHYQVQU.jpg&w=1440

#jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #activision_blizzard #microsoft #business #finance #acquisition #ressources_humaines #syndicalisme #game_workers_alliance #raven_software #brad_smith #xbox #phil_spencer #christopher_shelton #bobby_kotick #keywords_studios #jeu_vidéo_dragon_age_dreadwolf #ea #electronic_arts #bioware #lacey_haines #margaret_o_mara #wilma_liebman #barack_obama #joe_biden

Massive wildfires helped fuel global forest losses in 2021 - Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/world-forest-loss-wildfires

Fires accounted for more than a third of the world’s tree
cover losses last year — the largest share on record