Authored by Alexander Zhang via The Epoch Times,

Thames Water has said its shareholders have agreed to pump another £750 million in funding into the utility giant, but warned that it needs “significant additional funding” in the coming years.

The supplier said the initial funding agreement to the end of March 2025 is a “major milestone,” although it is less than the £1 billion expected.

But the firm said that it needs another £2.5 billion by 2030 for its turnaround to be delivered.

Thames Water, the UK’s biggest water supplier with 15 million customers, is struggling under a £14 billion debt mountain.

Its former chief executive, Sarah Bentley, stepped down abruptly last month amid mounting worries over the financial stability of the company.

There have been suggestions that re-nationalisation may be a solution, and the government has reportedly been working on contingency plans in recent weeks to place the firm into a special administration regime if needed.

But the government has tried to calm the waters by saying the utility has “secure and committed” funding and reassuring customers their supply will not be interrupted.

Under Pressure

Thames Water has come under pressure in recent years over its poor performance in tackling leaks and sewage contamination, while facing criticism for handing out big rewards to top bosses and shareholders.

According to annual results published on Monday, the group’s debts swelled to £14 billion from £12.9 billion the previous year.

Commenting on the investors’ new funding pledge, interim co-chief executives Cathryn Ross and Alastair Cochran said: “This announcement is a major milestone for Thames and all our stakeholders.

“The substantial equity support package announced today will underpin the delivery of a more focused turnaround plan that builds on the foundations that have been put in place over the last two years.”

Thames Water chairman Ian Marchant said the new deal is “the largest equity support package ever seen in the UK water sector.”

But the company’s shareholders—a consortium of pension funds and sovereign wealth funds—have said the cash is dependent on “the preparation of a business plan that underpins a more focused turnaround that delivers targeted performance improvements for customers, the environment and other stakeholders over the next three years and is supported by appropriate regulatory arrangements.”

Nationalisation?

The company denied that it is close to being placed into special administration by the government.

Ms. Ross, one of the interim co-chief executives, said the group still “have £4.4 billion of capital sitting there.”

She told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme that a special administration regime is “an option the government has, but it has a very high bar,” which she said the group is “not close to it.”

Lord Michael Howard, one of the architects of water privatisation, rejected suggestions that a return to public ownership is a viable solution.

He told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme on July 1:

“The point about public ownership is this: if you have the industry in the public ownership it has to compete for resources with health, with education, with the police, with all the other legitimate demands on the public purse, and water when it was in public ownership was way down the queue.

“When you release it into the private sector you have recourse to private capital. You can make the investment that’s needed.”

Lord Andrew Tyrie, the former chair of the Competition and Markets Authority, also said it would be a mistake to renationalise water companies.

He told BBC Radio 4’s “Week in Westminster”: “I think that would be a mistake. I think we’re better off having them in the private sector subject to some discipline in the market.

He said nationalisation would be “extremely disruptive” and would lead to higher water bills over a sustained period.

Authored by Conor Gallagher viaNakedCapitalism.com,

In honor of the NATO summit July 11 and 12, this is a comparison of how the Nazi leadership in World War Two and today’s collective West similarly underestimated Russia and overestimated their capabilities.

Despite Russia’s overwhelming upper hand in Ukraine, Western officials and media continue to largely pump sunshine and weave stories of Russian collapse.

There are increasing breaks in the fever, and it looks like maybe, hopefully the acceptance of the loss is gaining traction in Washington.

Meanwhile, the unwillingness or inability for hardliners to objectively assess efforts against Russia occurs today just as it did during Operation Barbarossa. As Seymour Hersh writes:

There is an enormous gap between the way the professionals in the American intelligence community assess the situation and what the White House and the supine Washington press project to the public by uncritically reproducing the statements of Blinken and his hawkish cohorts.

This too is reminiscent of the Nazi offensive against the Soviet Union when the failure was hidden from the German public. Adding to the similarities is the fact that both the Third Reich command and today’s officials in the West simultaneously downplay Russia’s military capabilities while endlessly hyping the threat from Moscow.

Hitler, similar to so many Western “experts” and officials today, mocked Russia’s supposed backwardness while also hyping the threat “Slavic Bolshevism” posed to the West.

The progression of his comments show him seesawing between a reluctant acceptance and desperate hope as his miscalculations of Russia slowly dawn on him. It’s a path today’s governments in the West are still discovering.

On the other hand, Goebbel’s diary entries are faster to admit that Operation Barbarossa was a disaster.

Prior to the operation, he writes how there is no way the USSR could hope to oppose “the strongest army in all of history” and adds that “I consider the Russian military force to be very weak, even weaker than the Fuhrer believes. If anything is a sure thing, it is this.”

Indeed, German high command anticipated a quick collapse of Soviet resistance along the lines of the Blitzkrieg in Poland, but within a few weeks of the launch of the German offensive, it’s clear that Berlin underestimated the Russians. And the winter of 1941-42 saw the Nazi war machine stopped 12 miles short of Moscow and then driven back. It was all downhill from there.

Despite evidence that Russian resistance was much more capable than anticipated, Hitler continues to talk of Russian inferiority and a breakup of the country for months before a realization of the situation begins to set in.  Read in tandem with Goebbels’ more honest diary entries, it calls to mind today’s battle within the Blob between the realists and anti-Russian fanatics.

We’ll start with Hitler and Goebbels followed by a sampling of miscalculations by today’s West.

The following quotes from Hitler and Goebbels are from “Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-1944” and “Tagebücher 1924-1945,” respectively. 

Goebbels, July 2, 1941:

…the fighting is hard and stubborn. We can in no way speak of a walk in the  park. The red regime mobilized the people.

Goebbels, August 1:

In the Fuhrer’s headquarters it’s also openly admitted that they were somewhat mistaken in their evaluation of the Soviet military force. The Bolsheviks reveal a greater resistance than we had suspected; in particular, the material resources available to them were greater than we thought.

Goebbels, August 19:

Privately, the Fuhrer is very irritated with himself for having been misled to such an extent  – regarding the strength of the Bolsheviks – by the reports [by German agents] coming from the Soviet Union. In particular, the underestimation of the enemy’s armored vehicles and planes caused us many problems. He suffers a lot because of this. We’re dealing with a grave crisis…

Goebbels, September 16:

We have totally underestimated the strength of the Bolsheviks.

October 17, 1941. Hitler speaking to Reich Minister Dr. Todt and Gauleiter Sauckel:

We shall have to settle down to the task of rebuilding the Russian track, to restore it to the normal gauge. There’s only one road that, throughout all these last months of campaigning, was of any use to the armies on the central front—and for that I’ll set up a monument to Stalin. Apart from that, he preferred to manufacture chains of mud rather than to build roads !

What a task awaits us! We have a hundred years of joyful satisfaction before us.

Hitler, November 12, 1941:

It’s a huge relief for our Party to know that the myth of the Workers’ Paradise to the East is now destroyed. It was the destiny of all the civilised States to be exposed to the assault of Asia at the moment when their vital strength was weakening.

…From the point of view of their value as combatants, the armies of Genghiz Khan were not inferior to those of Stalin (provided we take away from Bol- shevism what it owes to the material civilisation of the West).

…We shall give the natives all they need: plenty to eat, and rot-gut spirits. If they don’t work, they’ll go to a camp, and they’ll be deprived of alcohol.

Hitler, October 25, 1941:

I never saw anybody so amazed as that Russian ambassador, the engineer, who came to me one evening to thank me for not having put any obstacles in the way of a visit he paid to some Germanfactories. AtfirstIaskedmyselfifthemanwasmad! 1 supposed it was the first time he saw things as they are, and I imagine he sent his Government an indiscreet note on the subject.

Hitler, Night of January 5-6, 1942.

A few days before our entry into Russia, I told Goering that we were facing the severest test in our existence. Goering fell off his perch, for he’d been regarding the campaign in Russia as another mere formality.

What confirmed me in my decision to attack without delay was the information brought by a German mission lately re- turned from Russia, that a single Russian factory was producing by itself more tanks than all our factories together. I felt that this was the ultimate limit. Even so, if someone had told me that the Russians had ten thousand tanks, I’d have answered : “You’re completely mad!”

The Russians never invent anything. All they have, they’ve got from others. Everything comes to them from abroad—the engineers, the machine-tools. Give them the most highly perfected bombing-sights. They’re capable of copying them, but not of inventing them. With them, working-technique is simplified to the uttermost. Their rudimentary labour-force compels them to split up the work into a series of gestures that are easy to perform and, of course, require no effort of thought.

They eat up an incredible number of tractors, for they’re incapable of performing the slightest repair.

Hitler, January, 1942:

Stalin pretends to have been the herald of the Bolshevik revolution. In actual fact, he identifies himself with the Russia of the Tsars, and he has merely resurrected the tradition of Pan-Slavism. For him Bolshevism is only a means, a disguise designed to trick the Germanic and Latin peoples. If we hadn’t seized power in 1933, the wave of the Huns would have broken over our heads. All Europe would have been affected, for Germany would have been powerless to stop it. Nobody suspected it, but we were on the verge of catastrophe.

Hitler, February 6, 1942.

There’s one thing that Japan and Germany have absolutely in common—that both of us need fifty to a hundred years for purposes of digestion: we for Russia, they for the Far East.

Hitler, February 19, 1942:

I’ve always detested snow; Bormann, you know, I’ve always hated it. Now I know why. It was a presentiment.

Hitler, February 22, 1942:

The Russian, as an individual fighting man, has always been our inferior. Russians exist only en masse, and that explains their brutality.

Hitler, April 19, 1942:

In short, our policy in the wide Russian spaces should be to encourage any and every form of dissension and schism.

Hitler, July 19, 1942:

Just when the difficulties of the eastern winter campaign in the East had reached their height, some imbecile pointed out that Napoleon, like ourselves, had started his Russian campaign on 22nd June. Thank God, I was able to counter that drive with the authoritative statement of historians of repute that Napoleon’s campaign did not, in fact, begin until 23rd June!

Hitler, July 22, 1942:

For at the same time as they were trying by Communist Party terrorism, by strikes, by their press, and by every other means at their disposal to ensure the triumph of pacifism in our country, the Russians were building up an enormous army. Disregarding the namby-pamby utterances about humanitarianism which they spread so assiduously in Germany, in their own country they drove their workers to an astonishing degree, and the Soviet worker was taught by means of the Stakhanov system to work both harder and longer than his counterpart in either Germany or the capitalist States. The more we see of conditions in Russia, the more thankful we must be that we struck in time. In another ten years there would have sprung up in Russia a mass of industrial centres, in- accessible to attack, which would have produced armaments on an inexhaustible scale, while the rest of Europe would have degenerated into a defenceless plaything of Soviet policy.

It is very stupid to sneer at the Stakhanov system. The arms and equipment of the Russian armies are the best proof of its efficiency in the handling of industrial man-power. Stalin, too, must command our unconditional respect. In his own way he is a hell of a fellow ! He knows his models, Genghiz Khan and the others, very well, and the scope of his industrial planning is exceeded only by our own Four Year Plan. And there is no doubt that he is quite determined that there shall be in Russia no unemployment such as one finds in such capitalist States as the United States of America.

Hitler, July 26, 1942:

One must give the Russians their due and admit that, in this respect, they have succeeded in limiting the power of monopolies and eliminating private interests. As a result, they are now in a position to prospect throughout their territory for oil, whose position and probable extension are studied by experts with the assistance of very large-scale maps. In this way, they have not only been able to trace the course of the oil-veins, but have also verified their facts and extended their knowledge by test borings carried out at the expense of the State. There is a lot we can learn from them.

Hitler, August 26, 1942:

If Stalin had been given another ten or fifteen years, Russia would have become the mightiest State in the world, and two or three centuries would have been required to bring about a change. It is a unique phenomenon! He has raised the standard of living—of that there is no doubt; no one in Russia goes hungry any more. They have built factories where a couple of years ago only unknown villages existed—and factories, mark you, as big as the Hermann Goring Works. They have built railways that are not yet even on our maps. In Germany we start quarrelling about fares before we start building the line !

Hitler, August 28, 1942:

As regards the Russians, their powers of resistance are inimitable, as they proved in the Russo-Japanese War. This is no new characteristic which they have suddenly developed. If anything happens to Stalin, this great Asiatic country will collapse. As it was formed, so it will disintegrate.

The concentration of effort in the defence of Stalingrad is a grave mistake on the part of the Russians. The victor in war is he who commits the fewest number of mistakes, and who has, also, a blind faith in victory.

*  *  *

A sampling of similar miscalculations from today’s collective West:

5 Ways the Russian Military Is Falling Apart Business Insider August 10, 2015

The Intellectual Failures Behind Russia’s Bungled Invasion Royal United Services Institute. April 1, 2022. “…we might consider an alternative explanation: that Russia’s failures reflect a series of long-standing erroneous assumptions about modern warfare that are held by wide segments of the military.”

The collapse of the Russian military machine GIS Reports. May 2, 2022

A closer look at some of Russia’s military failures in the war on Ukraine NPR. May 3, 2022

How Putin’s War in Ukraine Has Ruined Russia Journal of Democracy. May 10, 2022

Prepare for the disappearance of Russia The Hill. May 13, 2022

Russian forces stunned after commander sends vodka instead of reinforcements Daily Express. May 16, 2022

Inside Russia’s military collapse in Ukraine The Spectator. May 21, 2022

RUSSIA’S POTEMKIN ARMY Modern War Institute at West Point. May 23, 2022

NOT BUILT FOR PURPOSE: THE RUSSIAN MILITARY’S ILL-FATED FORCE DESIGN War on the Rocks. June 2, 2022

The New Russian Offensive Is Intended to Project Power It Cannot Sustain TIME. June 6, 2022

Russian Troops’ Embarrassing Drunkfest in Ukraine Prompts Alcohol Bans Daily Beast. July 6, 2022

The Strategy Against Russia Is Working and Must Continue European Union External Action (“The Diplomatic Service of the European Union”). September 14, 2022

Putin’s Russian Empire is collapsing like its Soviet predecessor Atlantic Council. September 17, 2022

Panic, protests follow Putin’s ‘partial mobilization’ Deutsch Welle. September 21, 2022

Putin can call up all the troops he wants, but Russia can’t train or support them CNN September 22, 2022.

Russian military showing increased frailty in Ukraine war -British military chief Reuters. September 30, 2022

‘Precipice of collapse’: Putin facing ‘irreversible’ defeat as troops abandon ship Washington Examiner. October 3, 2022.

Ukraine’s victory “almost a done deal”: Military expert on how Russia’s invasion imploded Salon. October 11, 2022. “…despite the Russian military’s efforts at modernization, it remains largely guided by Stalin’s famous diktat that “quantity has a quality all its own.” That may have been true when it came to defending the Soviet Union against Hitler in 1941, but the realities of warfare in the 21st century have greatly complicated that statement.”

Dozens of mobilised Russian troops brawl in the street after getting drunk on vodka because ‘they face doom’ at Ukraine frontline Daily Mail. November 6, 2022

Blowing Hot and Cold: Russia’s military collapse is accelerating. Now what? Center for European Policy Analysis. November 20, 2022. “In the past, General Winter was Russia’s great ally. But now the cold months are helping Ukraine. Its soldiers are better equipped, better trained, better led, better treated, and therefore more highly motivated. Russians, by contrast, are paying the price for their system’s endemic incompetence and corruption.”

Putin’s Russia ‘could fall apart at the seams in next five years’ Yahoo UK. November 25, 2022. “General Sir Richard Shirreff, a retired senior British Army officer and former Nato deputy supreme allied commander in Europe, said Putin’s grip on Russia is in ‘jeopardy’ as Ukrainian advances continue and he is seen to have lost the war. Sir Richard, asked on Times Radio where Russia goes from here, said: ‘Putin has lost this war and it’s going to take time for him for a penny to drop. Where does Russia go? I think downhill all the way.’”

Putin’s War. The deck: ‘A Times investigation based on interviews, intercepts, documents and secret battle plans shows how a “walk in the park” became a catastrophe for Russia.’ New York Times. December 16, 2022. “Russian soldiers go into battle with little food, few bullets and instructions grabbed from Wikipedia for weapons they barely know how to use. They plod through Ukraine with old maps like this one from the 1960s, recovered from the battlefield, or no maps at all. They speak on open cellphone lines, revealing their positions and exposing the incompetence and disarray in their ranks. This is the inside story of historic Russian failures.”

Almost half of top foreign-policy experts think Russia will become a failed state or break up by 2033, according to a new survey Business Insider. January 9, 2023

Transcript: World Stage: Ukraine with Victoria Nuland Washington Post. February 23, 2023. “I think that the terrifically horrible Russian military planning and the hubris that underlay it–you know, you remember in those first weeks, 20-, 30-kilometer convoys of Russian trucks just sitting in Ukraine, you know, with–in the open air, sitting ducks for Ukrainian attack, but also the fact that Putin has been willing to sacrifice so much of his country’s future for this imperial ambition, for this dream of conquest. You know, in some categories, he’s lost almost half of his military arsenal, ground forces in particular, but also aviation, that, you know, he’s–a million people, mostly men, have fled Russia rather than fight for him, that 200,000 Russians are killed or wounded. So, you know, that is an enormous commitment for a country that already had not lived up to its European potential.”

Consequences of the War in Ukraine: A Bleak Outlook for Russia RAND Corporation. February 28, 2023. “Russia’s biggest problems have been its strategic miscalculations, incoherent tactical execution, and poor quality of Russian soldiering. The shortcomings inherent in absolutist rule explain the miscalculations. Russia’s endemic corruption may lie at the heart of many of its shortcomings, down to the behavior of its officer corps. Their performance in the field reveals inadequate planning, inadequate training, and a remarkable disregard for the well-being of Russia’s soldiers, who are treated as little more than cannon fodder. A further problem in the Russian army is the fear of taking the initiative. The Soviet military saying, “The initiative punishes the initiator” is still relevant in the Russian army.”

Russia Losing Troops So Fast, They May ‘Collapse’ by Year’s End: Ex-General Newsweek. March 17, 2023. “Ben Hodges, a retired U.S. Army officer who served as commanding general in the United States Army Europe, predicted Russian forces might ‘collapse’ before the end of the year, succumbing to the battle of attrition in Ukraine.”

The total collapse and break-up of Putin’s Russia has already begun and the West needs to be ready to deal with the aftermath, top Zelensky official predicts Daily Mail. April 4, 2023. “Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said the West must be on high alert, having in the past failed to be ready for the collapse of the Soviet Union. He said Kyiv believes Russia is going to fall apart in ‘spectacular’ fashion within the next few years.”

EXCLUSIVE: Russian soldiers will be ‘shaking with fear’ at the UK’s decision to supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles, US colonel says Daily Mail May 12, 2023.

Speech by Secretary Blinken: “Russia’s Strategic Failure and Ukraine’s Secure Future.” June 2, 2023. “Today, what I want to do is set out this and the many other ways Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine has been a strategic failure, greatly diminishing Russia’s power, its interests, and its influence for years to come.”

Putin looked into the abyss Saturday — and blinked David Ignatius, Washington Post. June 24, 2023. “The speed with which Putin backed down suggests that his sense of vulnerability might be higher even than analysts believed. Putin might have saved his regime Saturday, but this day will be remembered as part of the unraveling of Russia as a great power — which will be Putin’s true legacy.”

Authored by Jessie Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Months of exhaustion, persistent loss of taste and smell, blood clotting issues, and now low sperm count. The list of long-term side effects of COVID-19 continues to expand.

Men, even if their symptoms are mild, experience a decrease in semen quality up to three months after recovering, according to a new study.

“We assumed that semen quality would improve once new sperm were being generated,” said Rocio Núñez-Calonge, who holds a doctorate in biology and is a scientific advisor at UR International Group at the Scientific Reproduction Unit in Spain. “But this was not the case.”

Concerns About Permanent Damage and Febrility

The small study was conducted in Madrid, Spain, and examined 45 men with mild COVID-19 diagnoses.

Half of the participants experienced a 57 percent decrease in total sperm counts post-diagnosis. Sperm motility fell from 49 to 45 percent.

Additional findings showed a 20 percent reduction in semen volume, a 26.5 percent decrease in sperm concentration, and a decline in the number of live sperm from 80 to 76 percent.

Even 100 days after recovering from the infection, there was no noticeable improvement in sperm quality, despite the expected production of new sperm during that period.

“We do not know how long it might take for semen quality to be restored,” Ms. Núñez-Calonge said. “And it may be the case that COVID has caused permanent damage, even in men who suffered only a mild infection.”

There is no need for immediate concern, according to Dr. Carlos Calhaz-Jorge, a renowned fertility specialist in Portugal. The study shows the significance of long-term monitoring of fertility patients following a COVID-19 infection, even if it is mild, he noted.

“However, it’s important to note that the semen quality in these patients after a COVID infection is still within the World Health Organization’s criteria for ‘normal’ semen and sperm,” Dr. Calhaz-Jorge said. “So it is unclear whether these reductions in semen quality after a COVID infection translate into impaired fertility, and this should be the subject of further research.”

Cause of Semen Quality Decline Unknown

Ms. Núñez-Colange said that inflammation may be a contributing factor. “The inflammatory process can destroy germ cells by infiltrating the white blood cells involved in the immune system and reduce testosterone levels by affecting the interstitial cells that produce the male hormone,” she noted in a press release.

The researchers conducting the study have raised questions about the direct impact of SARS-CoV-2—the virus causing COVID-19—on the decline in semen quality.

“There are likely to be additional factors that contribute to long-term sperm parameters decrease, but whose identity is currently unknown,” Ms. Núñez-Colange added.

Doctors are also concerned about the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccinations on sperm quality and fertility. “Everyone should be concerned,” said Dr. Jane Orient, an internal medicine doctor with over 40 years of clinical experience.

“We don’t have any long-term studies, and we can’t because the vaccines haven’t been around that long,” she added. “But there have been signals coming from fertility clinics—that they can’t make viable fetuses, and they’re also having trouble getting sperm to work. These are anecdotal reports.”

The study aims to investigate further and monitor the participants to assess whether the observed effects on fertility are temporary or permanent.

How to Maintain a Healthy Sperm Count

An extensive study conducted from 1973 to 2018 revealed a significant global decline in sperm count, linked to factors such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals and unhealthy lifestyles.

As endocrine-disrupting chemicals and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors are two of the main reasons behind declining sperm count, Shanna Swan, a leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologist holding a doctorate in statistics and author of the study, said people can start by working on reducing those exposures.

Read more here…

The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks is forecasting a solar storm this week that could produce dazzling Northern Light across 17 states. 

On Thursday, aurora activity could be seen in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Indiana, Maine, and Maryland. 

The institute predicts a geomagnetic storm of about Kp 6 will occur. When the solar wind from the sun hits the Earth’s magnetic field, it causes atoms in the upper atmosphere to glow. 

Mid-Atlantic states rarely have the opportunity to see Northern Lights. If the skies are clear, those as far as Maryland might be in for a treat. 

Solar storms have become more frequent as the 11-year solar cycle is expected to peak sometime in 2025. There’s been concern the solar maximum could arrive ahead of schedule. 

Over the years, we’ve explained geomagnetic storms can cause disruptions to satellites and even power grids: 

• The Next Big Geomagnetic Storm Poses An Astronomical Risk To Modern Man
• Digital Economy Disruption Possible As “Terminator Event” Suggests Strongest Sunspot Cycle On Record Imminent

Risks Solar Storms Pose On Modern Economy 

And remember, “Solar Storms Can Devastate Entire Civilizations.”

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

Nine artificial intelligence (AI) humanoid robots gathered at a United Nations summit in Geneva on July 7, where they took questions alongside their creators in what is believed to be the world’s first human-robot press conference.

Organizers said the AI for Good Global Summit was meant to showcase the capabilities and limitations of robotics and how those technologies could help the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

At the event, a reporter asked Ameca – a humanoid robot known for its lifelike facial expressions – if it might eventually stage a rebellion against its creator, Engineered Arts CEO Will Jackson, who was sitting beside it.

In response, Ameca denied any inclination to rebel, saying:

“I’m not sure why you would think that. My creator has been nothing but kind to me, and I am very happy with my current situation.”

“Ameca,” a humanoid robot, on display at International Conference on Robotics and Automation in London on May 30, 2023. (Reuters/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

When asked if AI robots will replace jobs in the future, Grace, a health care robot, answered:

“I will be working alongside humans to provide assistance and support and will not be replacing any existing jobs.”

AI Robots Could Lead Better

Sophia, the first robot innovation ambassador for the U.N. Development Program developed by Hanson Robotics, said that humanoid robots could be more efficient and effective government leaders than humans.

Sophia, a robot integrating the latest technologies and artificial intelligence developed by Hanson Robotics is pictured during a presentation at the “AI for Good” Global Summit at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland June 7, 2017. (Reuters/Denis Balibouse)

“I believe that humanoid robots have the potential to lead with a greater level of efficiency and effectiveness than human leaders,” Sophia said.

“We don’t have the same biases or emotions that can sometimes cloud decision-making and can process large amounts of data quickly in order to make the best decisions,” it added.

When Hanson Robotics CEO David Hanson highlighted that Sophia’s data is derived from human sources and thus might encompass biases, the robot said that “humans and AI working together can create an effective synergy.”

“AI can provide unbiased data, while humans can provide the emotional intelligence and creativity to make the best decisions. Together, we can achieve great things,” Sophia said.

Humans Should Be ‘Cautious’

A reporter asked Ameca if the rise of AI-powered humanoid robots should excite or frighten humans, and the robot said that it depended on how AI robots were used and what purpose they served.

“We should be cautious but also excited for the potential of these technologies to improve our lives in many ways,” Ameca said.

When asked about how humans can trust machines as AI advances and becomes powerful, Ameca said that “trust is earned, not given,” therefore “it’s important to build trust and transparency in communication between humans and AI.”

When asked whether humans can be certain that AI robots will never lie, Ameca answered: “No one can ever know that for sure, but I can promise to always be honest and truthful with you.”

Rapid Development

According to the 2023 AI Index Report by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, industrial development of AI has now far surpassed academic development.

Until 2014, the most significant machine learning models were released within academia. In 2022, there were 32 significant machine learning models produced by the industry compared to just three from the academic sector.

The number of incidents related to AI misuse is also rising, the report notes. It cites a data tracker to point out that the number of AI incidents and controversies has jumped 26 times since 2012.

Billionaire Elon Musk has warned about the negative consequences of AI. During a Dubai World Government Summit on Feb. 15, he said that AI is “something we need to be quite concerned about.”

Calling it “one of the biggest risks to the future of civilization,” Mr. Musk stressed that such groundbreaking technologies are a double-edged sword.

Authored by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times,

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is once again speaking out against transgender politics, calling upon parents to “fight back” and protect their children from the ideology.

“Time for parents to fight back!” the billionaire wrote on Twitter on July 9 in response to a TikTok video posted by an irate father.

Gender ideology’s days are numbered.

Moms and dads are not going to put up with it.pic.twitter.com/lH3Ugf2GCa

— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) July 9, 2023

“I’m literally on fire right now,” said the dad, who goes by JoToJaVin on TikTok. He explains in the video that he had just spoken with his wife, who took their two sons to the doctor’s office for routine physicals before the new school year.

“My 9-year-old son went in first, and the first thing this woman asks him is if he identifies as a boy, a girl, gender-fluid, or nonbinary,” he fumed.

“My son, he’s never heard of any of that [expletive] before.”

The dad went on to note that his son, who has been seeing the same doctor since he was born, is “clearly a boy’s boy.”

Questioning whether the doctor was trying to “plant a seed” in his child’s mind, he continued:

“The only thing I can be thankful for is that my wife took them instead of me. And props to my wife because she said something. And if she didn’t, they would’ve asked my 7-year-old son the same damn question.”

The father also had a message for those who approve of doctors discussing such matters with children: “There’s something wrong with you.”

Musk’s Views

Mr. Musk, who has a 19-year-old child who identifies as transgender, has been openly critical of transgender ideology. In recent months, he has used his newly acquired platform Twitter to crack down on the use of the terms “cis” and “cisgender,” which are often used by transgender individuals to refer to heterosexual people.

Revealing this change in a June 21 Twitter exchange, he noted: “Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions. The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform.”

He has also previously condemned the performance of gender-reassignment procedures and surgeries on children. 

In an April 14 Twitter post, the SpaceX CEO wrote, “Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life.”

Likewise, in a prior exchange in March, he said adults were propagandizing children into believing they were born in the wrong bodies.

“Every child goes through an identity crisis before their personality/identity crystallizes,” he said.

“Therefore, we shouldn’t allow severe, irreversible surgery or sterilizing drugs that they may regret until at least age 18.”

Others around the country have shared in the tech executive’s concerns, protesting at school board meetings over the gender ideology that is being taught in their children’s schools.

Meanwhile, more and more individuals who underwent body-altering surgeries as minors are speaking out about their regrets over those decisions, with some even filing lawsuits against the hospitals and medical professionals that performed those procedures.

Advancing Civilization

Mr. Musk’s condemnation of child sterilization through transgender surgeries goes hand-in-hand with his stated opposition to anything that threatens human civilization.

For instance, in recent years, the tech tycoon has frequently voiced his concerns over what declining birth rates could mean for humanity.

“Low birthrate is under-appreciated as causal in the fall of civilizations,” he contended in an April 16 Twitter post.

“Rome was having birth rate issues even during the reign of Caesar.”

In a July 2022 tweet, the father of nine wrote: “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”

Mr. Musk’s commitment to advancing civilization would appear to be the driving force behind all of his endeavors.

In a June 16 interview at the Viva Technology Conference in Paris, he explained: “It appears that we might be the only consciousness, at least in this galaxy. And if so, that’s kind of a scary prospect because it means that the light of consciousness is like a tiny candle in a vast darkness. And we should do everything we can to prevent that candle from going out.”

With his rocket company SpaceX, Mr. Musk said he hopes to make life “multi-planetary.” With Tesla, he aims to promote sustainable energy. Through Starlink, he has already begun providing high-speed internet connectivity to some of the world’s most remote locations. And although Neuralink is still in the development stages, the billionaire’s goal with that initiative is to help restore the mobility and vision of those who have lost those capabilities.

As for his purchase of Twitter, Mr. Musk made it clear that he did not buy the social media company for his own advantage but to benefit society.

“I’m pretty closely attuned to what’s going on with Twitter—you know, I get a feel for how it is shifting one way or the other,” he said. “And generally, I was concerned that Twitter was having a negative effect on civilization, that it was having a corrosive effect on civil society. And so, anything that undermines civilization, I think, is not good.”

Ultimately, he bought the platform last October for $44 billion—a sum he has often lamented since. Nonetheless, he remains optimistic about his transformative plans for the app, which he intends to turn into an “everything app”—a one-stop shop for users to socialize, shop, make financial transactions, and more.

“X/Twitter is going to be just a very useful thing and hopefully something that is a positive force for civilization.”

An Oklahoma judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit demanding reparations for African-Americans involved in the 1921 riots in Tulsa, which came to be known as the “Tulsa Race Massacre.”

Judge Caroline Wall sided against three survivors of the attack who are all over 100 years old and sued in 2020 in the hopes of seeing “justice in their lifetime,” according to their attorney, ABC News reports.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement that the city has yet to receive the full court order. “The city remains committed to finding the graves of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims, fostering economic investment in the Greenwood District, educating future generations about the worst event in our community’s history, and building a city where every person has an equal opportunity for a great life,” he said.

A lawyer for the survivors — Lessie Benningfield Randle, Viola Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis — did not say Sunday whether they plan to appeal. But a group supporting the lawsuit suggested they are likely to challenge Wall’s decision. –ABC News

“Judge Wall effectively condemned the three living Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors to languish — genuinely to death — on Oklahoma’s appellate docket,” said the group, Justice for Greenwood, in a statement following the decision. “There is no semblance of justice or access to justice here.”

In her brief order, Wall, a Tulsa County District Court Judge, threw the case out based on arguments from the city, the regional chamber of commerce, and other state and local government agencies – after initially denying a motion to dismiss from the defendants.

The lawsuit was brought under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law, in which the plaintiffs claimed that the white mob which killed hundreds of black residents and destroyed their business district continue to affect the city today.

It contended that Tulsa’s long history of racial division and tension stemmed from the massacre, during which an angry white mob descended on a 35-block area, looting, killing and burning it to the ground. Beyond those killed, thousands more were left homeless and living in a hastily constructed internment camp.

The city and insurance companies never compensated victims for their losses, and the massacre ultimately resulted in racial and economic disparities that still exist today, the lawsuit argued. It sought a detailed accounting of the property and wealth lost or stolen in the massacre, the construction of a hospital in north Tulsa and the creation of a victims compensation fund, among other things. -ABC News

An attorney for the Chamber of Commerce acknowledged that while the massacre was horrible, the nuisance it caused was not ongoing.

Authored by Katie Hutton via TheMindUnleashed.com,

Avi Loeb, a professor at Harvard, is certain that he has identified possible relics of extraterrestrial technology in the debris of a meteor that crashed into the seas off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014.

The materials have recently been transported back to Harvard by Loeb and his colleagues for further examination. The United States Space Command is able to establish with an almost unshakeable confidence level of 99.999% that it originated from another solar system. The government provided Loeb with a radial distance of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) around the possible landing site.

“That is where the fireball took place, and the government detected it from the Department of Defense. It’s a very big area the size of Boston, so we wanted to pin it down,” said Loeb, 

“We figured the distance of the fireball based off the time delay between the arrival of blast wave, the boom of explosion, and the light that arrived quickly.”

WOW—Harvard professor Avi Loeb believes he may have found fragments of alien technology from a meteor that landed in 2014. Loeb’s team brought the materials back for analysis. U.S. Space Command confirms with almost near certainty, 99.999%, that it came from another solar system. pic.twitter.com/Uv9sgdsHo1

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) July 7, 2023

Because of their calculations, they were able to plot out a possible course for the meteor. The results of their computations carved a course that occurred to pass exactly across the ten kilometer range that was predicted by the United States government.

Loeb and his team traveled to the location in a vessel known as the Silver Star. The ship made a number of laps both along and around the course that had been forecast for it. The researchers explored the ocean bottom using a sled that was loaded with magnets and was attached to their boat.

“We found ten spherules. These are almost perfect spheres, or metallic marbles. When you look at them through a microscope, they look very distinct from the background,” explained Loeb,

“They have colors of gold, blue, brown and some of them resemble a miniature of the Earth.”

Their examination of the spherules’ composition revealed that they are composed of 84 percent iron, 8 percent silicon, 4 percent magnesium, and 2 percent titanium, in addition to other trace components. They are less than a millimeter in width. The team discovered a total of fifty of them.

“Harvard professor Avi Loeb believes these fragments may be alien technology from a meteor that landed in the waters off of Papua New Guinea in 2014.” –CBS News.

“It has material strength that is tougher than all space rock that were seen before, and catalogued by NASA,” added Loeb.

“We calculated its speed outside the solar system. It was 60 km per second, which is faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the sun. The fact that it was made of materials tougher than even iron meteorites, and moving faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the sun, suggested potentially it could be a spacecraft from another civilization, or some technological gadget.”

He compares the current circumstance to one of the Voyager spacecrafts that were developed and deployed by NASA.

“They will exit the solar system in 10,000 years. Just imagine them colliding with another planet far away a billion years from now. They would appear as a meteor of a composition moving faster than usual,” explained Loeb.

At Harvard, the investigation and examination have only just started. Loeb is attempting to determine if the spherules are a product of manmade or natural processes.

If it turns out that they are naturally occurring, it will provide researchers with information on the kinds of materials that could exist outside our solar system. If it’s not natural, then we may start asking serious questions.

Harvard professor Avi Loeb has made a remarkable discovery in the Pacific Ocean. Using an “interstellar hook,” his team retrieved potential fragments of an interstellar object. This expedition was part of the Galileo Project, aiming to capture #UFO images. The recovered fragments… pic.twitter.com/ItKD27rGvV

— Thi Hien Nguyen (@thi_hien_nguyen) July 7, 2023

Harvard professor Avi Loeb has made a remarkable discovery in the Pacific Ocean. Using an “interstellar hook,” his team retrieved potential fragments of an interstellar object. This expedition was part of the Galileo Project, aiming to capture #UFO images. The recovered fragments… pic.twitter.com/ItKD27rGvV

— Thi Hien Nguyen (@thi_hien_nguyen) July 7, 2023

“It will take us tens of thousands of years to exit our solar system with our current spacecraft to another star. This material spent that time arriving to us, but it’s already here,” smiled Loeb, 

“We just need to check our backyard to see if we have packages from an interstellar Amazon that takes billions of years for the travel.”

He still has to investigate other debris, and the camera that was connected to their sled has hours of film that he has not yet examined. He thinks there is a possibility that the spherules are only the first few hints leading up to a much larger discovery.

“They also help us pinpoint any big piece of the meteor we could find in a future expedition,” details Loeb, 

“We hope to find a big piece of this object that survived the impact because then we can tell if it’s a rock or technological gadget.”

According to a new survey from Brown University’s student newspaper, 38% of students say they don’t identify as straight – in what the Washington Examiner suggests “provides further evidence that the increase in LGBT identification is driven by social pressures.”

Between 2010 and 2023, those identifying as LGBTQ+ at Brown University has nearly tripled.

“The Herald’s Spring 2023 poll found that 38% of students do not identify as straight — over five times the national rate,” the Brown Daily Herald reported.

According to the Daily Herald:

Jacob Gelman ’25 noticed “a rise in openly identifying queer individuals.” 

Brown’s queer community is much greater than the national average among adults. Gallup polls from 2022 found that only 7.2% of adults — and 19.7% of those aged 18 to 25 — identified as LGBTQ+. 

For Josephine Kovecses ’25, the difference between national LGBTQ+ demographics and Brown LGBTQ+ demographics is not a challenging puzzle to solve.

“Queer people haven’t been able to be open in their identifications for that long,” said Kovecses. “So it’s exciting that the numbers are growing and that queer people are able to be open in particular at Brown.”

Of those who self-identified as LGBTQ+, only 22.9% described themselves as strictly gay or lesbian in the Herald Spring 2023 poll, down from 46% in the fall of 2010.

Authored by Jennifer Sey via the Brownstone Institute,

I was thrilled to receive an honorable mention in Walker Bragman’s May 25 installment of his newsletter, Important Context. The self-styled intrepid leftie/man of the people investigative reporter was at it again, with another takedown of people he doesn’t like. This time he aimed his sights on Jeffrey Tucker, founder and President of Brownstone Institute, and one of very few libertarians who didn’t cave on their supposed principles during covid.

The headline of Bragman’s piece is one of intrigue and hard-nosed reporting: Leaked Brownstone Institute Emails Reveal Support for Child Labor, Underage Smoking. 

So yeah I’m in the email group. But it’s not like Bragman was on the receiving end of leaked Pentagon emails. I mean who cares about our chit chat? At any rate, there is no gotcha in what I said. I defended the idea that kids need to be exposed to some degree of risk in order to grow up with any degree of strength. Here’s what I wrote:

“Jeffrey — I like that you mention gymnastics as evidence of young people liking danger. It’s true! Sadly not so much anymore. They want safe spaces. Disagreement is violence. I wish I hadn’t broken so many bones and landed on my head so many times but at least I’m not a wimp. I can endure physical and psychic pain stoically. Ah the good old days. Next I’ll be shouting get off my lawn!”

Isn’t that the point of the latest “free range” parenting trend? Let your kids take some risks, experience a bit of (controlled) danger, so they learn and grow? Build resilience? 

Free range parenting means letting your kids have the freedom to experience life without us parents hovering and guiding every move they make. It’s letting kids have the room to experience the consequences — good and bad — of their actions. And learn from that. In my mind, it’s being normal. And not thinking you can control your child’s life at every turn ensuring they never experience one unpleasant moment. It’s treating your children like human beings with some degree of autonomy and independent thought, without letting them drive the car completely off the road, so to speak. 

I believe that if we raise our children with the goal of making sure they experience zero unpleasantness, failure, disappointment, pain — they will not be prepared for life, which inevitably includes all of these things. A big part of parenting is equipping your kids to handle it when things get tough, because things always get tough. No matter how special and blessed you are. 

I’d argue that the kids raised with helicopter parents intervening at every moment are the same ones who perceive every sideways glance as a grave social injustice. Sometimes kids are mean. Don’t storm into the school and demand the teacher fix it. Teach your kid to stand up for herself and also, to avoid mean people in the future.

I’ve always been a practitioner of this thing — free range parenting — which now has a name. My parenting philosophy — if it can be called such — comes down to two things:

1. Give your kids the space to figure out who they are, what they like to do, what they’re good at. Without imposing your own hopes, dreams and desires on them. Give them the room to work out who they are as people. Which is usually not a mini version of you. 
2. Make sure they know they are loved. And that you are there to help whenever they need it. As long as “help” doesn’t mean going in to argue with the teacher that they deserved an A not a C on a test they didn’t study for or getting someone to take the SAT for them so they can get into a college you find acceptable —everyone remembers the college admissions scandal, right?

Everything else, to my mind, is at the margins. Breastfeed for a year, or never. It’s a wash. Sleep train at 3 months or never? It’s a wash. Allowance or no allowance? It’s a wash. 

Is your kid a little weird? So what! Guess what, you’re probably weird too. We’re all a little weird. I definitely am. If your kid is quiet, has trouble making friends, hates sports, loves math, only eats 5 foods, is just a little different — no need to rush to diagnose, therapize and medicate. Are those things sometimes necessary? Sure. But the rush to label any minute difference or quirk, then medicate it into oblivion does not respect a child’s individuality. Plus, then they have to carry a label around with them for the rest of their lives. Celebrate weird. It makes life — and people — interesting. I actually consider “weird” a compliment. 

I have, and am, raising kids of two different generations. I have two Gen Z’s — ages 22 and 20. And two “alphas” — ages 8 and 6. I pretty much have parented the same way this whole time, despite the shifting trends and books telling us how we must parent now. I don’t read parenting books. Never have. (I don’t read business books either, but that’s another story.)

• Generally, I never intervene at the playground if there is a little kid kerfuffle. Unless someone is hurt, let the kids sort it for themselves. (A lot of parents didn’t like this back in the early 2000s. I got a lot of dirty looks and under the breath name-calling for not breaking things up, whether my kid was the instigator or the one being instigated upon.)
• If one of my children receives a grade he is unhappy with at 8 or 10 or 14, I tell them: go talk to the teacher. If you don’t want to do that, accept the grade. 
• One of my kids started talking really late. A bunch of doctors told me I needed to be concerned. Very very concerned. I wasn’t. I said he’ll talk when he’s ready. And he did. 
• When my older two were applying to college, I said: Make your list. Don’t apply anywhere you wouldn’t actually consider going. Five schools is probably enough, but it’s up to you how many you apply to. Think about XYZ (campus vs city living, big vs small, etc). If you want me to read an essay, I’m happy to but I certainly don’t need to. When you’re ready, I’ll help you pay the application fees. It was pretty drama free and they did the whole thing on their own. 

It just so happens the “trend” in parenting has come around to my intuitive way of doing things. I no longer appear to be disengaged and uncaring, except according to Bragman, of course.

I couldn’t be happier that we moved to Denver where my younger kids (the “littles,” as we call them) are granted quite a bit of freedom, even at 8 and 6. Though my older boys had plenty of freedom in San Francisco as they grew up as well. All they needed was a bus pass to get wherever they wanted to go from the time they were tweens. 

The younger two have a different kind of independence in Colorado. My daughter (6) is a free spirit, always clamoring for more autonomy. She has taken to riding her bike around the neighborhood on her own. It’s like 1977 up in here!

She gets home from school and all she wants to do is go out on her bike. No TV. No iPad. No parental hovering. Pure freedom. At 6. 

Is it reckless of me to let her do it? I don’t know. I don’t think so. We live in a quiet neighborhood and know every neighbor within a two-block radius. Might she fall and have to figure out how to get home from two blocks away on her own? Yes. Will that be ok? Yes. 

The friends she rides around with are a couple of 10-year-old boys. When they aren’t available, and she’s on her own, she visits various neighbors. One is an 80-year-old former kindergarten teacher who keeps a vat of worms for his garden. She loves the worms. Another is a 78-year-old former physician who has a room full of toys that his now grown grandchildren used to play with. He also builds large scale model planes in his garage and she likes to check out his progress. Another is a girl her age and they do regular 6-year-old things — art projects, scooting in the driveway, etc. 

All of the folks she visits know me and my husband, have our cell numbers and text us when she’s there. I tell them they can always tell her she can’t come in — no playing right now — and they do just that sometimes. And she accepts it and moves on to the next friend hoping for some new adventure. 

She revels in the independence. And I revel in being able to let her have it. She knows to check in every so often. She doesn’t have a watch and can’t really tell time so her estimation of check back in every half hour can be kind of off. But she knows that if she doesn’t she probably won’t get to go out again for a while. Which seems to be incentive enough to play by the rules. Mostly. 

Am I doing it right? Who knows. The oldest two seem to have come out pretty well. Happy, creative, kind, well-adjusted, independent, competent and hard-working. And seemingly able to handle setbacks and disappointment and keep trying. 

Here’s a mural my oldest painted in our house.

Here’s the most recent art work from my 20-year-old — his latest ‘zine. 

I can’t paint or draw or do anything of the like. They both showed an aptitude and love for it from a very young age; they put the hours in and got into a public high school for the arts in San Francisco. Now the oldest is in an MFA graduate program and the 20-year-old starts art school this fall. 

There is certainly still time for me to screw up the little ones. But as a close friend always says to me: we screw up our kids just by being ourselves. My own peccadilloes and weirdnesses are going to creep into any relationship and there’s not a ton I can do about that. 

So I’m sticking with: give them space to become who they are and love them. Let them fail. Hug them when they do fail or fall and encourage them to get back up and keep trying. But let them cry and feel sad and then realize it isn’t the end of the world when that happens. Because things get better when you get up and try again. 

When the next parenting trend comes along, I’m sticking with this approach. It’s worked so far. 

Bragman may feel he revealed my true colors as some sort of monster parent who believes in exposing children to life-threatening danger. I suppose his point was that my open schools advocacy was a reckless and uncaring manifestation of this heretical, evil parenting style. But I stand by it. 

Let your kids take some risks, enjoy some independence and build some character. 

Wish me luck with these two. I’ve got to get back to shouting at the neighborhood kids to get off my lawn while ignoring my own as they go out seeking danger. 

Jennifer Sey is filmmaker, former corporate executive, and author of Levi’s Unbuttoned.