cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/58909207

Mass tree planting in China is turning one of the world's largest and driest deserts into a carbon sink, meaning it absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits, new research reveals.

"We found, for the first time, that human-led intervention can effectively enhance carbon sequestration in even the most extreme arid landscapes, demonstrating the potential to transform a desert into a carbon sink and halt desertification," study co-author Yuk Yung, a professor of planetary science at Caltech and a senior research scientist in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Live Science in an email.

The IDF has closed dozens of alleged war-crimes cases arising from the 2023-2024 period of the Israel-Hamas War, The Jerusalem Post can disclose exclusively.

Publication of the details of the case closures was extensively delayed by fears that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) would abuse such information in their politicized anti-Israel agendas.

Many of the cases closed relate to the deaths of allegedly as many as 98 detainees at the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention facility or at other detention facilities earlier in the war.

https://archive.is/av8TD

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has warned that Europe cannot be successful by adopting a protectionist agenda as promoted by France, ahead of an EU summit focused on how to revive the European economy and reverse widespread deindustrialisation.

Swedish premier said that a more protectionist agenda would not help: “We do not want to protect European businesses that are basically not competitive.”

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/58907690

In the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide forms sulfate aerosols, tiny particles that reflect incoming solar radiation back into space, leading to a cooling influence on the plane

The combined aerosol radiative forcing is thought to have offset approximately one-third of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. However, as emissions fall, fewer sulfate aerosols form, meaning less sunlight is reflected and more solar radiation reaches Earth's surface, contributing to global warming.

US state department’s Sarah B Rogers publicly attacks policies on hate speech and immigration in other countries

As Donald Trump redoubled his war of words on the European Union and Nato in recent weeks, a senior state department official, Sarah B Rogers, was publicly attacking policies on hate speech and immigration by ostensible US allies, and promoting far-right parties abroad.

Rogers has arguably become the public face of the Trump administration’s growing hostility to European liberal democracies. Since assuming office in October, she has met with far-right European politicians, criticized prosecutions under longstanding hate speech laws, and boasted online of sanctions against critics of hate speech and disinformation on US big tech platforms.

Rogers is undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, a top-10 state department role that was created in 1999 to strengthen relationships between the US and foreign publics, as opposed to foreign governments and diplomats.

Gisèle Pelicot’s brain froze as the French police officer revealed the unthinkable.

“Fifty-three men had come to our house to rape me,” she recalls him telling her.

Sharing details of the horror that until now had largely been reserved for French courts, Pelicot is publicly telling her story of survival and courage in her own words, in a book and her first series of interviews since a landmark trial in 2024 turned her into a global icon against sexual violence and imprisoned her husband who knocked her out with drugs so other men could assault her inert body.

The amended guidelines will take effect from 20 February and apply to major platforms including Meta, YouTube and X. They will also apply to AI-generated content.

critics worry the move is part of a broader tightening of oversight of online content and could lead to censorship in the world's largest democracy with more than a billion internet users

France’s parliament on Wednesday debates a petition against the Duplomb agriculture law, which would reauthorise the use of a pesticide banned in 2018. The issue has become a flashpoint between farming unions, scientists and environmental groups – with concerns for biodiversity and human health.

The French judiciary is investigating a 79-year-old man who is alleged to have sexually abused 89 minors over a period of nearly 60 years.

Adani Enterprises, led by billionaire Gautam Adani, filed the case in 2021 against India journalist Ravi Nair in a district court in Gujarat, accusing him of making statements suggesting "political patronage... financial irregularities and unethical conduct", according to a Tuesday court order seen by Reuters.

They finally did it. Microsoft has successfully over-engineered a text editor into a threat vector.

This CVE is an 8.8 severity RCE in Notepad of all things.

Apparently, the "innovation" of adding markdown support came with the ability of launching unverified protocols that load and execute remote files.

We have reached a point where the simple act of opening a .md file in a native utility can compromise your system.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Eilean Mor lighthouse fell silent. The light went out, its three keepers vanished, and no one answered the radio. As a reserve keeper, you are sent to investigate this mystery but beware: you may become the fourth to disappear. This is a single-player, first-person horror thriller developed by just two people.

And let me goon among the stars

Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2025: Findings and insights.

At a time of massive Gen Z–led protests against corruption and a dangerous disregard for international norms by some governments, the 31st edition of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index reveals a concerning picture of long-term decline in leadership to tackle corruption, alongside limited signs of progress

A Chinese naval flotilla came within 10 kilometres of Australia’s exclusive economic zone last year, and top defence officials warn further deployments are likely as Beijing flexes its military power.

Archive : https://archive.ph/1RsnQ

Newly released documents show businessman Francisco D’Agostino visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, and advised his investments in PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company.