Foreign policy experts weigh in on Trump’s Iran strategy

PBS NewsHour

Published on Jan 7, 2020

The U.S. killing of one of Iran’s top military leaders has prompted questions about whether the Trump administration has an effective strategy for Iran, Iraq and the larger Middle East. As Iran announces it has fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops, Nick Schifrin talks to Mara Karlin of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Hudson Institute’s Michael Doran

Iran says it has launched ballistic missiles at American air bases in Iraq

PBS NewsHour

Published on Jan 7, 2020

After trading threats with the U.S., Iran said Tuesday night it launched ballistic missiles on Iraqi facilities housing U.S. troops in retaliation for the American killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The attacks come after President Trump and top U.S. officials defended the Soleimani strike, which has been blamed for pushing the U.S. and Iran closer to war. Judy Woodruff and Nick Schifrin report

Louisiana researchers tackle a changing Mississippi Delta

PBS NewsHour

Jan 5, 2020

An effort to reconnect Louisiana wetlands to historical levels is taking place at Louisiana State University, where a 10,000-square-foot replica of the Mississippi Delta is now housed. Researchers are working to understand how man-made changes are impacting the Mississippi River and surrounding wetlands. Nexus Media News’ Josh Landis reports as part of our climate change series, “Peril & Promise.”

WATCH LIVE: Schumer holds weekly news briefing amid Iran, impeachment tensions

PBS NewsHour

Streamed live 3 hours ago

Meet Brittany Kaiser, Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Releasing Troves of New Files From Data Firm

Democracy Now!

Jan 7, 2020

New details are emerging about how the shadowy data firm Cambridge Analytica worked to manipulate voters across the globe, from the 2016 election in the United States to the Brexit campaign in Britain and elections in over 60 other countries, including Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil. A new trove of internal Cambridge Analytica documents and emails are being posted on Twitter detailing the company’s operations, including its work with President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton. The documents come from Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser, who worked at the firm for three-and-a-half years before leaving in 2018.

We speak with Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, co-directors of the Oscar shortlisted documentary “The Great Hack”; Brittany Kaiser, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower featured in “The Great Hack” and author of “Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower’s Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again”; and Emma Briant, a visiting research associate in human rights at Bard College whose upcoming book is titled “Propaganda Machine: Inside Cambridge Analytica and the Digital Influence Industry.”

“The Great Hack”: Big Data Firms Helped Sway the 2016 Election. Could It Happen Again in 2020?

Democracy Now!
Jan 7, 2020

The documentary “The Great Hack,” which was shortlisted from the Oscars, explores how the data firm Cambridge Analytica came to symbolize the dark side of social media in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Cambridge Analytica collapsed in May 2018 after The Observer newspaper revealed the company had harvested some 87 million Facebook profiles without the users’ knowledge or consent. Cambridge Analytica then used the data to sway voters to support President Trump during the 2016 campaign. We speak with “The Great Hack” co-directors Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim, as well as Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser.

Propaganda Machine: The Military Roots of Cambridge Analytica’s Psychological Ma nipulation of Voters

Democracy Now!

Jan 7, 2020

We continue our discussion of data harvesting, targeted advertising and voter manipulation — practices used by firms like Cambridge Analytica. The secretive data firm collapsed in May 2018 after The Observer newspaper revealed the company had harvested some 87 million Facebook profiles without the users’ knowledge or consent to sway voters to support Trump during the 2016 campaign. A new trove of internal Cambridge Analytica documents and emails are being posted on Twitter detailing the company’s operations, including its work with President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton.

We speak with Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, co-directors of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary “The Great Hack”; Brittany Kaiser, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower featured in “The Great Hack” and author of “Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower’s Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again”; and Emma Briant, a visiting research associate in human rights at Bard College. Her upcoming book is titled “Propaganda Machine: Inside Cambridge Analytica and the Digital Influence Industry.”

“The Great Hack” documentary reveals how Cambridge Analytica helped sway the 2016 election

Democracy Now!

Jan 7, 2020

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser has recently shared a trove of previously unreleased documents detailing the company’s covert operations around the world, including its work with President Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton. The data company worked closely with Trump’s presidential campaign and the Trump super PAC that ran the “Crooked Hillary” campaign ahead of the election. There were “red flags here and there,” she recalls, but the last straw for her was the two days of debriefing that occurred after Trump’s victory in the 2016 election. “They showed us how much data they collected, how they modeled it, how they identify people as individuals that could be convinced not to vote and the types of disinformation they sent these people in order to change their minds,” Kaiser says. “It was the most horrific two days of my life.” Kaiser worked at the data company for three years before leaving in 2018.

Cambridge Analytica would close down in 2018 after an investigation by a U.K. newspaper revealed how they used information from 87 million Facebook users without permission to sway voters during the 2016 presidential election. Could the same happen again in 2020? “Absolutely,” Kaiser says. “I think if anybody thinks this is different than 2016, they are sorely mistaken. … There are hundreds of Cambridge Analyticas around the world, especially in the U.S. elections right now.” The company’s role in the 2016 election and the United Kingdom’s Brexit campaign is explored more in the 2019 Netflix documentary “The Great Hack,” which was shortlisted for an Oscar.

Arctic Sea-Ice Loss and Literal Darkening of the Arctic Causing Warming Amplification

Paul Beckwith

Jan 7, 2020

I am back after my much needed holiday break. I am chomping at the bit and ready to go. Here I discuss how the Arctic region (from 80 to 90 degrees N) albedo (reflectivity) declined from reflecting 52% of sunlight in 1979 to reflecting only 48% of the sunlight in 2011. This decline occurred mostly in regions where the Arctic sea ice melted out, and was not compensated by cloud cover since the latter did not increase significantly. Arctic temperatures thus increased by 3x the global average.

Darkening Arctic with Loss of Sea-Ice and Snow Cover, Consequences of Blue-Ocean State: Part 2 of 2

How much Arctic darkening will occur with an ice-free Arctic Ocean (Blue-Ocean State)? How much more warming will occur? To get a handle on the answers I continue to delve into the scientific literature. According to a recent paper, the annually-averaged Arctic Ocean planetary albedo under ice-free and cloud-free conditions would be 14% over the region. Compare this to the estimated cloud-free albedo of 39% in 1979. The Arctic is becoming a much Darker place; cloud growth does not compensate for ice loss.

Kevin Trenberth PhD and Lijing Cheng PhD on Total Earth Energy Imbalance

greenmanbucket

Published on Jan 7, 2020