Thursday, July 2, 2026

“AI capabilities are outpacing both scientific understanding and governments’ ability to adapt,” Mr. Bengio said. “With growing evidence of deceptive AI behaviour, science currently cannot guarantee that as capabilities continue to increase, AI will not cause catastrophic harm, either on its own or due to malicious users...”

Unsplash/Aidin Geranrekab AI is currently revolutionising multiple industries, including smartphones.

‘The science is here’: UN chief welcomes first global AI assessment

1 July 2026 Culture and Education

Fresh scientific evidence and options for harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) were unveiled Wednesday following the launch of the first global, independent scientific assessment of opportunities, risks and impacts by a pioneering UN expert panel.

Key takeaways

The report outlines findings across seven key domains:

AI science, advances and trajectories
Societal applications in science, health, education and agriculture
Economic implications
Security, systems and environmental implications
Human rights, information and democracy
Cultural benefits, autonomy and child safety
Management, governance and reliability

“The science is here,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the report launch. “We can no longer say we did not know. What we do with it is now up to all of us.”

The more AI advances without shared rules, the less say governments and people will have in the outcome, the UN chief said, adding “my message to governments is simple: do not wait.”

Aiming to build a shared understanding and evidence at this critical juncture, the Preliminary Report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI: Evidence-based assessment of opportunities, risks and impacts of AI was penned by the first global, fully independent scientific body dedicated to assessing its real impacts across economies and societies.

Read the full report here.

Why it matters .... READ MORE https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/07/1167853

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Here are some of the panel’s warnings:

There are no scientific guarantees that AI agent systems will not violate instructions, and evidence is accumulating of cases where they already are
AI agent systems will soon complete tasks that currently take human programmers days or weeks, but their deployment raises urgent questions for labour markets, cybersecurity and the controllability of future AI systems
Sycophantic AI behaviour, where responses reinforce users’ existing beliefs regardless of accuracy, has been linked to several severe mental health incidents, including documented deaths
Criminals and bad actors have been documented using AI systems to assist in cyberattacks
Advanced technical abilities may allow novice private actors to use AI in malicious ways across a range of applications such as fraud and disinformation
Reliable methods for retaining control over highly autonomous AI systems are lacking

Many of these harms fall disproportionately on already disadvantaged populations, the report stated.

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

A generational shift is transforming the US-Israel relationship. The Iran war has accelerated the fraying of ties. An end to unconditional US support would force a reckoning with reality - Kenneth Roth in the Guardian

A generational shift is under way in the relationship between the United States and Israel. Tensions were already palpable because of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in pushing Donald Trump to join a counterproductive war against Iran was the last straw.

Stopping unconditional US support for Israel would certainly be important for curbing US complicity in Israeli war crimes. It may also be the best thing for Israel if it is to have any hope of avoiding the dangerous dead end of relentless military escalation. And it is a prerequisite for Palestinians to have any prospect of escaping Israel’s endless occupation.

The relationship between the two countries was not always as close as in recent decades. At Israel’s founding in 1948, Washington was supportive but with a certain reserve. President Harry Truman refused to send weapons to the new state. In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai.

But things changed when neighboring states attacked Israel in 1967 and 1973. Israel also benefited from portraying itself during the cold war as a bulwark against Soviet influence in the Middle East.

For many years, it became impossible to question Israel in discussions with most US officials. When in 2021 Human Rights Watch issued a report on Israel’s apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory, it was widely welcomed around the world but landed in Washington like a lead balloon.

That extreme deference was visible even as Israel committed genocide. President Joe Biden stopped delivering the 2,000lb bombs that Israel used to indiscriminately decimate Palestinian neighborhoods but kept billions flowing in other military aid and arms sales.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/30/us-israel-relationship-shift

Slavery was Legal. Colonialism was Legal. Jim Crow was Legal. Apartheid was Legal. Legality is a matter of Power, NOT Justice

Sunday, June 28, 2026

“In the midst of all of our scientific and technological advances, we still suffer the plague of racial conflict. We have not learned the simple art of loving our neighbors, and respecting the dignity and worth of all human personality.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from “The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation’s Chief Moral Dilemma,” April 25, 1957

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from “The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation’s Chief Moral Dilemma,” April 25, 1957

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center

@TheKingCenter

https://x.com/TheKingCenter/status/2071201952256414185

What is Ecocide? ...."unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts."

Ecocide

For the purpose of this Statute, “ecocide” means unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.
For the purpose of paragraph 1:
- “Wanton” means with reckless disregard for damage which would be clearly excessive in relation to the social and economic benefits anticipated;
- “Severe” means damage which involves very serious adverse changes, disruption or harm to any element of the environment, including grave impacts on human life or natural, cultural or economic resources;
- “Widespread” means damage which extends beyond a limited geographic area, crosses state boundaries, or is suffered by an entire ecosystem or species or a large number of human beings;
- “Long-term” means damage which is irreversible or which cannot be redressed through natural recovery within a reasonable period of time;
- “Environment” means the earth, its biosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, as well as outer space.
  https://www.stopecocide.earth/legal-definition
  Sector-specific networks in support of ecocide law
  https://www.stopecocide.earth/networks

Super-rich’s assets cause outsized amount of climate harm, study says. Greenpeace calculates that wealthiest contribute nearly $1tn of damage a year with ownership-based emissions... "By contrast, the bottom half of the world by wealth accounts for just 3% of ownership-based emissions."

Greenpeace said a large share of emissions was associated with the ownership of carbon-intensive assets and investments such as property developments. Photograph: A Amsel/Alamy

Fiona Harvey in Bonn

Wed 10 Jun 2026

Ultra-wealthy people zooming across the world on their private jets, lounging on yachts and conspicuous by their Instagrammable consumption are among the most easily identified individual culprits when it comes to the climate crisis – but new research argues that it is not just their heady lifestyles to blame, but also their bank accounts.

Through their ownership of companies and private financial and physical assets, from oil producers to property developments, the super-rich are responsible for an outsized slice of the greenhouse gases that are overheating the planet. The top 1% of people by wealth, through their shareholdings and investments, control about a quarter of global annual emissions in total.

Greenpeace has calculated the “climate debt” of these high net worth individuals, by attributing to them their share of the damage done to the climate by the assets they own. By this reckoning, the world’s richest cause nearly $1tn a year of damage to the climate.

Clara Thompson, the global lead campaigner on socioeconomic systems at Greenpeace International, said: “At a time when people are facing rising energy bills, rising living costs, and growing climate impacts, many are asking why ordinary households should shoulder so much of the burden, while some of the world’s wealthiest people continue to profit from the industries driving the crisis.”

Greenpeace estimates that the top 1% by wealth are responsible for about 40% of all “ownership”-based emissions – that is, the emissions produced by businesses and associated with privately owned financial and physical assets – which themselves make up 60% of global carbon output. Within that group, the top 0.1% account for about 17% of ownership-based emissions, and the top 0.01% about 9%. The top 1% is made up of people with wealth above about $2m, the top 0.1% people with wealth above about $7m, and the top 0.01% is people with wealth above about $38m.

By contrast, the bottom half of the world by wealth accounts for just 3% of ownership-based emissions.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/10/super-rich-assets-outsized-amount-climate-harm-study