One of the most chilling pieces of evidence of the brutal Argentinian dictatorship, which lasted from 1976 to 1983, is a small airplane. The Skyvan, a British-made aircraft, was used by Argentina's military junta to make political opponents disappear. The "death flights" saw dozens of people killed when they were thrown from the planes into the sea. The location of the last Argentinian Skyvan was a mystery for decades. But it was recently found in Florida and returned to Buenos Aires: a powerful symbol for families of victims of the regime, as well as for survivors.

A severe heatwave is ongoing in Europe. Temperature records broken in France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

On 11 July 2023, the Land Surface Temperature (LST) in some areas of Extremadura (Spain) exceeded 60°C, as highlighted in this data visualisation derived from measurements from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) instrument. The ongoing heatwave in Spain this week is resulting in a total of 13 autonomous communities, being at extreme risk (red alert), significant risk (orange alert), and risk (yellow alert) due to maximum temperatures that, in some cases, will exceed 40°C and reach a maximum of 43°C.

For reference, "in areas where vegetation is dense, the land surface temperature never rises above 35°C. The hottest land surface temperatures on Earth are in plant-free desert landscapes."

xAI, Elon Musk’s newly formed AI company, has revealed itself with a new website detailing its mission and team at https://x.ai/. Musk tweeted the company’s intent is to “understand reality” without any other details or explanation.

“The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe,” according to the website. The team is headed up by Elon Musk and includes team members that have worked at other big names in AI, including OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, and DeepMind (which was recently folded into Google).

"The volcanic eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in the peninsula of Reykjanes (Iceland) has just started (10/7/2023), and we are lucky enough to have access to several webcams located in the area. Geologists like me (and generally anyone interested in our planet) from all over the world have been looking towards Iceland in the last days, and fortunately the Icelandic people take their geology and geohazards very seriously; the volcanic field is well monitored by the authorities, such as the Icelandic Met Office. So, I have quickly put together some of those Fagradalsfjall webcams."

"Digital advertising is a scam from top to bottom. In fact, it’s several scams stacked on top of each other, wearing a trenchcoat, and some of the foundations of fibs are so effective that otherwise reasonable people entirely buy into them."

Jk

A large fire broke out on an offshore Pemex platform in the Cantarell oil field in the Bay of Campeche early Friday morning, injuring six workers.

A press release by the state-owned oil company said that an explosion on the Nohoch-Alfa joining platform caused the blaze, which spread to a compression platform. More than 300 workers were evacuated.

Hundreds of scientists protested government efforts to restrict educational access to Western science theories, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, in June 2023 in India. Similarly, scientists in Mexico participated in a research strike in May 2023 to protest a national law they claimed would threaten the conditions for basic research. And during the same month in Norway, three scientists were arrested for protesting the nation’s slow-moving climate policy.

As these among many other actions show, scientists today are speaking out on a variety of political and social issues related to their own research fields and in solidarity with other social movements

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in favour of Germany’s anti-cartel watchdog, which had argued that it could take data privacy issues into account when considering antitrust cases.

One of the key issues in the case was Meta’s ability to link data across platforms, which allows it to closely target adverts at users, the principal way it makes money.

The German watchdog barred Meta from mixing personal data gathered on Facebook with details harvested from Instagram or WhatsApp, arguing that it amounted to an abuse of its dominant market position in Germany.

The European court said cartel offices were within their rights to carry out investigations under the EU’s huge data protection regulation (GDPR).

“The judgment will have far-reaching effects on the business models used in the data economy,” tweeted Andreas Mundt, head of the anti-cartel watchdog.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in favour of Germany’s anti-cartel watchdog, which had argued that it could take data privacy issues into account when considering antitrust cases.

One of the key issues in the case was Meta’s ability to link data across platforms, which allows it to closely target adverts at users, the principal way it makes money.

The German watchdog barred Meta from mixing personal data gathered on Facebook with details harvested from Instagram or WhatsApp, arguing that it amounted to an abuse of its dominant market position in Germany.

The European court said cartel offices were within their rights to carry out investigations under the EU’s huge data protection regulation (GDPR).

“The judgment will have far-reaching effects on the business models used in the data economy,” tweeted Andreas Mundt, head of the anti-cartel watchdog.

The Biden administration is expected to announce Friday it's providing Ukraine with controversial cluster munitions in a weapons package, U.S. officials told CBS News.

The decision to provide cluster munitions comes as Ukraine faces an ammunition shortfall in its slower-than-expected counteroffensive against dug-in Russian forces. The cluster munitions, which detonate dozens of submunitions called bomblets, could address ammunition concerns. The package is worth $800 million dollars, CBS News confirmed.

Ukraine has been asking for the weapons for months, but the U.S. has been reluctant to give them the munitions because of concerns about international unity. More than 100 countries ban cluster munitions because of potential harm unexploded bomblets can cause civilians during and after conflict.

Neither the U.S, Russia nor Ukraine ban the munitions, but U.S. law has restricted the transfer of cluster munitions if more than 1% of the bomblets they contain typically fail to explode — known as the "dud rate." The president may waive this requirement.

BBC News - Wagner boss Prigozhin is in Russia, Belarus ruler Lukashenko says https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66118007