James' World 2

Click the link below the picture

.

NASA could soon go nuclear on the moon.

The space agency’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, has issued a directive to expedite building a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface. Duffy, a former Fox News host, is also head of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and he took over leadership of NASA in July after the Trump administration pulled its nomination of private astronaut and businessperson Jared Isaacman.

The directive, first reported by Politico, would accelerate NASA’s long-simmering—and, to date, largely fruitless—efforts to develop nuclear reactors to support space science and exploration.

The space agency has pursued various projects over the years, most recently in 2022, when it awarded three $5-million contracts to companies to craft designs for small space-ready reactors meant for lunar operations in the mid-2030s. Inspired in part by a space policy directive issued by President Donald Trump during his first term, those reactors were intended to produce 40 kilowatts of power—enough to sustain a small office building—and to weigh less than six metric tons. Duffy’s directive is more ambitious: it calls for NASA to solicit proposals for reactors that would yield at least 100 kilowatts of power and be ready for launch by late 2029. The space agency is tasked with appointing an official to oversee the effort within 30 days and to issue its solicitation within 60 days.

Lunar nights are very long—two Earth weeks—and perilously cold, making nuclear power desirable for surface operations. But according to the directive, the greater impetus for the fast-tracked plan is a burgeoning partnership between China and Russia to build a nuclear-powered outpost near the moon’s south pole by the mid-2030s. The sun never crests high above the horizon there, leaving some craters in permanent shadow—and valuable deposits of water ice lacing their eternally dark floors. Despite its cryogenic chill, this lunar region is hotly contested, with NASA’s Artemis program also targeting crewed landings there as early as 2027 as part of the Artemis III mission.

Besides providing abundant electricity for surface operations, a nuclear reactor on the moon could also allow for a strategic lunar land grab. Ownership of otherworldly territory is prohibited, according to the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, but the treaty also obliges spacefaring powers to exercise “due regard” in their activities, meaning that they should not encroach on or interfere with sensitive infrastructure built by others. A nuclear reactor placed on the lunar surface, therefore, could allow the declaration of what Duffy’s directive calls a “keep-out zone.”

Although the Trump administration’s acceleration of NASA’s nuclear-power efforts may be welcomed by many space-exploration advocates, it comes alongside other proposals from the White House that seek to radically reshape the space agency and that could be at cross-purposes with the new directive. These include plans for extraordinarily deep cuts to NASA’s science programs, as well as an active and ongoing culling of the space agency’s workforce. The president’s budget request for fiscal year 2026 notably zeroes out funding for a joint program between NASA and the Department of Defense to develop nuclear rocketry. It would also wind down the space agency’s ability to build and deploy radioisotope power sources, which offer nuclear-derived heat and electricity sans complex and heavy reactors for robotic missions to the outer planets and other sunlight-sparse parts of the solar system.

The biggest question facing NASA’s latest nuclear foray, however, may be what these notional new reactors would actually power. Many experts say a 2027 launch for Artemis III is unlikely and citing factors such as the ongoing difficulties of developing a requisite lunar lander based on SpaceX’s Starship rocket. With each logistical misstep or schedule delay, additional Artemis missions that would put more meaningful and power-hungry infrastructure on the moon slip further over the horizon, potentially making the entire program more vulnerable to additional rounds of budget cuts—or even outright cancellation by future administrations.

.

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

On Thursday, Florida put Edward Zakrzewski to death for the 1994 murder of his wife and children. He was the ninth person executed so far this year in the Sunshine State, surpassing its previous single-year high of eight executions in 2014.

Florida used lethal injection to execute Zakrzewski, one of two methods that, until recently, were the only ones allowed under state law. The other was electrocution, which an inmate could choose as an alternative to lethal injection.

There was nothing unusual about that law, as many other death penalty states specify more than one possible execution method. For example, Alabama law states that in death penalty cases, “lethal injection will be administered, unless the prisoner affirmatively chooses nitrogen hypoxia or electrocution.” There’s a similar law in South Carolina.

But Florida’s new law is the first of its kind. It gives the people in charge of carrying out executions, as the journalist Olivia Burke explains, “free rein to put prisoners who were given the ultimate punishment to death however they see fit.”

“The only condition,” Burke notes, “is that the technique is ‘not deemed unconstitutional’—which opens the floodgates to a host of barbaric ideas.”

.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Actress Loni Anderson, who starred as receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati, died on Sunday at the age of 79.

Her cause of death is from “an acute prolonged illness,” Anderson’s publicist Cheryl J. Kagan said, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Newsweek reached out to Anderson’s representative via email for comment on Monday.

Why It Matters

Anderson’s role on CBS’ WKRP in Cincinnati catapulted her to stardom. The sitcom, which aired from 1978 until 1982, earned her two Emmy nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.

The actress went on to star in films like A Night at the Roxbury, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Stroker Ace, where she fell in love with her co-star Burt Reynolds. The pair later married in 1988 and divorced in 1994.

What To Know

Anderson died on August 3 at a Los Angeles hospital just days before her 80th birthday.

“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother, and grandmother,” Anderson’s family said in a statement, The Associated Press reported.

In an interview with Fox News in 2021, Anderson addressed her sex symbol status on WKRP in Cincinnati.

“I remember we all did posters back then. Everybody always asks me, ‘What made you do a poster?'” she recalled. “I would say, ‘Because someday my grandchildren will look at this. And I’ll be able to tell them that I really looked like that.’ What you saw is what you got.”The Minnesota native added, “I never thought I would be Loni Anderson, sex symbol. But I embrace it. I think I was lucky enough to have been able to play so many different things and sex symbol was a part of it. I took whatever my career threw at me.”

What People Are Saying

Steve Sauer, president and CEO of Media Four and Anderson’s manager for three decades, said in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter: “Loni was a class act. Beautiful. Talented. Witty. ALWAYS a joy to be around. She was the ultimate working mother. Family first … and maintained a great balance with her career. She and I had wonderful adventures together that I shall forever cherish. I will especially miss that infectious chuckle of hers.”

I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden penned a sweet tribute to her “dear friend” on X: “The news just came through that my dear friend Loni Anderson has passed. Like many, I am absolutely stunned and heartbroken. Our friendship has spanned many years, and news like this is never easy to hear or accept.”

“What can I say about Loni that everyone doesn’t already know? She was a real talent, with razor smart wit and a glowing sense of humor… but, even more than that, she had an impeccable work ethic. Even beyond that, Loni was a darling lady and a genuinely good person … I am truly at a loss for words.”

“My condolences to her family, her husband Bob, and her children, Deidra and Quinton. Loni, you were one in a trillion, my friend, and even a trillion more.”

Morgan Fairchild, who starred alongside Anderson in the 2023 Lifetime movie Ladies of the ’80s: A Divas Christmas, wrote via X: “I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of the wonderful Loni Anderson! We did Bob Hope specials together & a Christmas movie 2 years ago. The sweetest, most gracious lady! I’m just devastated to hear this. Love & condolences to Bob (who was on set every day w her) & her kids and grandkids, who she adored. #RIPLoniAnderson”

Airplane! actor Robert Hays posted to X: “Today, my dear friend Loni Anderson passed away. She was an absolutely wonderful woman and friend, a wife, mother, and grandmother. Love and condolences to Bob, Deidra, Quintin, and all the grandkids. Loni is singing with the angels now. God bless her.”

Comedian Loni Love said on X: “Very sad to hear about the passing of Loni Anderson.. I grew up watching this Queen and was so thrilled to meet her. Condolences to her family and fans.”

What Happens Next?

Anderson’s funeral plans have not been publicly announced.

She is survived by her husband, Bob Flick, daughter Deidra, son Quinton Anderson Reynolds, stepson Adam Flick, her two granddaughters, and two step-grandchildren.

.

Actress Loni Anderson poses in a photo shoot on September 17,1986 in Los Angeles, California. Actress Loni Anderson poses in a photo shoot on September 17,1986, in Los Angeles, California.

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Devin Nunes, the former GOP lawmaker who now serves as chief executive for Donald Trump’s media company, has lost his defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal over comments MSNBC star Rachel Maddow made about his interaction with a pro-Russian operative.

In dismissing the lawsuit, which centered on remarks Maddow made during a March 2021 broadcast, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel concluded that “no reasonable jury could find” that Maddow engaged in “constitutionally-defined actual malice” against Nunes in the segment, which focused on a package he received from Ukrainian businessman Andrii Derkach.

When Nunes was still in Congress and served as the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee in 2019, Derkach – who intelligence agencies described as a Russian agent – addressed a package to Nunes. According to Nunes, the package was promptly handed over the the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In July 2020, however, Politico published a piece with the headline “Democrats: Packets sent to Trump allies are part of foreign plot to damage Biden.” The outlet reported that Nunes “declined repeated requests for comment” but that “one person familiar with the matter said the information was not turned over to the FBI.”

Eight months later, Maddow and her show’s executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, relied upon that Politico article for a segment that covered an ODNI report and Nunes’ conduct with the Derkach package.

Furthermore, in a separate appearance on MSNBC the day before the Maddow segment, then-Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY) remarked about Nunes: “And the fact is that [the Russians] were so comfortable using people like Devin Nunes that Andrii Derkach, a known Russian asset, sent information to Devin Nunes at the Intelligence Committee. We literally had the package receipt.”

Meanwhile, in the Maddow segment, the MSNBC host claimed that Nunes “has refused to hand it over to the FBI, which is what you should do if you get something from somebody who is sanctioned by the U.S. as a Russian agent.”

In the lawsuit, Nunes said that both Maddow and Gnazzo knew that he had handed the package over to the FBI right away, but they both asserted that they were unaware of other reporting that contradicted their segment. Maddow and Gnazzo were not named defendants in the case, as the complaint was instead directed at NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. MSNBC will soon be spun off from NBCU into a separate company called Versant.

Nunes, who left Congress in 2022 and is now the CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, contended in his complaint that Maddow and the network harbored “an institutional hostility, hatred, extreme bias, spite and ill-will” towards him.

However, Castel said that there was no clear evidence that the “defendant’s admitted political bias caused defendant to act with a reckless disregard of the truth” or that Maddow was aware of “probable falsity” as it related to a separate Politico article that reported the FBI received the package from Nunes.

The Independent has reached out to Nunes and Trump Media. MSNBC declined to comment.

Unlike his boss, Nunes hasn’t been quite so lucky when it comes to his many defamation lawsuits against media organizations and personalities. Between 2019 and 2021, judges tossed out three other complaints that Nunes filed against CNN, the Washington Post, and two parody social media accounts that mocked him online.

Derkach, meanwhile, was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in September 2020 for attempting to interfere on Trump’s behalf in that year’s presidential election. He was later indicted for sanctions violations by federal prosecutors in 2022.

.

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Relationships are messy, whether you are an adult with lots of experience or a kid navigating tough times with a best friend, boyfriend or girlfriend. You can’t predict moods, interests or desires. For teens learning the ins and outs of relationships for the first time, disagreements, fights, and breakups can be crushing. 

But what if your teen’s best friend wasn’t actually human? It may seem far-fetched, but it’s not. A new report from Common Sense Media says that 72 percent of teens surveyed have used AI companions, and 33 percent have relationships or friendships with these chatbots.  

The language that AI companions use, the responses they make, and the empathy they exude can make a user feel as though they truly understand and sympathize. These chatbots can make someone feel liked or even loved. They are programmed to help users feel like they’ve made a real connection. And as adolescents have a naturally developing fascination with romance and sexuality, if you feel ignored by the girls in your high school, well, now, on the nearest screen is a hot girlfriend who is constantly fascinated by you and your video games, or a super cute boyfriend whom you never had to engage in small talk with to form a bond. 

This may be perplexing to some parents, but if your child is navigating the complex worlds of technology, social media, and artificial intelligence, the likelihood they will be curious about an AI companion is pretty high. Here’s what you need to know to help them.  

Chatbots have been around for a long time. In 1966, an MIT professor named Joseph Weizenbaum created the first chatbot, named ELIZA. Today AI and natural language processing have sprinted far past ELIZA. You probably have heard of ChatGPT. But some of the common companion AI platforms are ones you might not be familiar with: Replika, Character.AI, and My AI are just a few. In 2024, Mozilla counted more than 100 million downloads of a group of chatbot apps. Some apps set 18 as a minimum age requirement, but it’s easy for a younger teen to get around that. 

You might think your kid won’t get attached, that they will know this chatbot is an algorithm designed to give responses based on the text inputs they receive; that it’s not “real.” But a fascinating Stanford University study of students who use the app Replika found that 81 percent considered their AI companion to have “intelligence,” and 90 percent thought it “human-like.” 

On the plus side, these companions are sometimes touted for their supportiveness and promotion of mental health; the Stanford study even found that 3 percent of users felt their Replika had directly helped them avoid suicide. If you’re a teenager who is marginalized, isolated or struggling to make friends, an AI companion can provide much-needed companionship. They may offer practice when it comes to building conversational and social skills. Chatbots can offer helpful information and tips.  

But are they safe? 

A Florida mother has sued the company that owns Character.AI, alleging the chatbot formed an obsessive relationship with her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, and ultimately encouraged him to attempt suicide (which he tragically completed). Another suit filed in 2024 alleges that the same chatbot encourages self-harm in teens and violence towards parents who try to set limits on how often kids use the app.  

Then there’s privacy: Wired, drawing on Mozilla’s research, labeled AI companions a “privacy nightmare,” many crawling with data trackers that might manipulate users into thinking a chatbot is their soulmate, encouraging negative or harmful behaviors. 

Given what we know about teens, screens and mental health, online influences are sometimes powerful, largely unavoidable, and potentially life-changing for children and families. 

So what do you do?  

Remind kids that human friends offer so much that AI companions don’t. IRL friendships are challenging, and this is a good thing. Remind them that in their younger years, play is how they learned new skills; if they didn’t know how to put LEGOs together, they learned with a new friend. If they struggled with collaboration and cooperation, play taught them how to take turns, and how to adjust based on their playmates’ responses. 

Friends give children practice with the ins and outs of relationships. A friend can be tired, crabby, or overexcited. They might be lots of fun, but also easily frustrated; or maybe they’re sometimes boring, but very loyal. Growing up, a child has to learn how to take into account their friend’s personality and quirks, and they have to learn how to keep the friendship going. Maybe most poignantly, they learn how incredibly valuable friends are when things get tough. In cases of social stress, like bullying, the support of a friend who sticks by you is priceless. In my study of more than 1,000 teenagers in 2020, keeping close to a friend was by far the most helpful strategy for kids who said they were the targets of bullies. Another study of more than 1,000 teens found that IRL friends can lessen the effects of problematic social media use. 

 If they are curious about AI companions, educate them. This can increase their skepticism and awareness about these programs and why they exist (and why they’re often free). It’s important to acknowledge the pluses as well as the minuses of digital companionship. AI companions can be very supportive; they’re never fuming on the school bus because their mother made them wear

a sweater on a cold morning, they’re never jealous when you have a new girlfriend, and they never accuse you of ignoring their needs. But they won’t teach you how to handle things when they drop you for a new best friend, or when they develop an interest that you just can’t share. Discussing profit motives, personal security risks, and social or emotional risks doesn’t guarantee that a teenager won’t go online and get an AI girlfriend, but it will at least plant the seeds of a healthy doubt.  

.

Malte Mueller/Getty Images

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

Last week, Senate Republicans narrowly confirmed Emil Bove to a lifetime seat on a federal appeals court over the objections of pretty much everyone who cares about preserving an impartial judiciary. Bove has performed a series of cartoonishly corrupt misdeeds on President Donald Trump’s behalf from his perch in the Department of Justice, manufacturing the crooked bargain to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and firing prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases. Multiple whistleblowers have alleged that Bove, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, instructed his staff to defy the courts if necessary to deport immigrants without due process and lied to Congress at his hearing. This egregious misconduct was not a deal-breaker for Senate Republicans, who rushed through his confirmation to avoid even more damning revelations from coming out before the vote.

But Bove will step into a judiciary that has not yet been entirely degraded by Trump’s influence. There are still plenty of courageous judges in the lower courts, and many of them have spent the past six months fighting vigorously against the president’s abuses of office. A trio of our finest district court judges, and their unflinching battle for equal justice, is the subject of Reynolds Holding’s new book Better Judgment: How Three Judges Are Bringing Justice Back to the Courts. Holding is a journalist, lawyer, and research scholar at Columbia Law School. On this week’s episode of Amicus, he spoke with Mark Joseph Stern about what we can learn from these three judges—Carlton Reeves, Martha Vázquez, and Jed Rakoff—in the shadow of Trump’s attempted transformation of the courts. An excerpt of their conversation, below, has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mark Joseph Stern: Emil Bove is one of Trump’s most corrupt hatchet men. More than 900 former Justice Department officials urged the Senate to vote him down, saying his confirmation would be “intolerable to anyone committed to maintaining our ordered system of justice.” And yet he has now been confirmed as a judge. We just talked about three judges who are the polar opposite of Bove, but now they’re serving in the same judiciary with him. What are we supposed to make of the courts as a whole when these two incredibly different kinds of judges are serving side by side in the system? 

.

Emil Bove. Jack Gruber/USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

However, Donalds recalled, Trump himself was unenthused about his medical head accessory when the pair met shortly after his convention speech. “I see the bandage, and the second thing [Trump says] is ‘what do you think of the bandage?’” Donalds said.

“I said, ‘I don’t like it. Take it off.’ That’s what I said. ‘I don’t like it. Take it off.’ I said, ‘let everybody see the ear.’”

“He was like, ‘you know, it’s not too bad. It’s not too bad’…”Doc Ronny [Jackson] says, I gotta wear the bandage.”

“I’m like, ‘so what? You’re the president, just take the thing off,” Donalds added.

The president’s bandage became the inspiration for many at the RNC, with one Arizona delegate, Joe Neglia, describing it at the time as “the newest fashion trend.”

“Everybody in the world is going to be wearing these pretty soon,” Neglia told CBS, while sporting a piece of white tape over his own ear. “When he came in [to the convention], and there was that eruption of love in the room, I thought, ‘what can I do to honor the truth? What can I possibly do?

“And then I saw the bandage, and I thought, I can do that. So, I put it on simply to honor Trump and to express sympathy with him and unity with him.”

At a rally shortly after the convention, Trump appeared to have downgraded his ear bandage, instead sporting a skin-colored band-aid covering the top part of his right ear.

.

Donald Trump, with a bandage on his ear from an assassination attempt foiled at his rally on Saturday, speaks at the RNC after accepting the 2024 Republican nomination for president. (Getty Images)

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article:

.

__________________________________________