One Sentence News / August 28, 2023
Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Thousands of emperor penguin chicks in Antarctica die due to record-low sea ice levels
Summary: An unprecedented breeding failure has been reported across four emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica, with as many as 7,000 penguin chicks believed to have died as a result of record-low sea ice levels in late 2022.
Context: Satellite images have shown that typically stable sea ice upon which these penguins mate, protect their eggs from the elements, and raise their chicks until they grow water-proof feathers and are thus able to survive the frigid waters under the ice, has broken up due to irregularly warm oceanic temperatures; current projections suggest that by the year 2100 about 90% of these colonies could be so small they’re essentially extinct, and though this year’s oceanic heating may be influenced by other variables, including a termination shock event from the decrease in sulfur pumped into the atmosphere from cargo vessels, which regulations have tempered substantially, and the El Niño phenomenon further north, this general warming is of a kind with what we’re seeing elsewhere, the temperature increase largely attributable to human amplified climate change.
—The Guardian
Anti-government protests in Syria continue for sixth day
Summary: A wave of anti-government demonstrations triggered by price increases have persisted across Syria for about a week, many of the protestors calling for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
Context: This is notable in part because these protests are similar to those that originally led to the Syrian uprising in 2011, which in turn led to the ongoing Syrian civil war when Assad responded to these protests with severe military crackdowns; the Syrian government has in recent years received a great deal of support from Iran and Russia, allowing it to push its opposition into the northwest corner of the country, but the past decade-plus of internal conflict has led to an estimated 600,000 deaths and the displacement of more than half the pre-war population of the country—so things are quite different now than back then, and these protests could thus be perceived by Assad’s stability-seeking government as a more significant threat than would otherwise be the case.
—Al Jazeera
Over 3,100 charged with pandemic relief fraud, justice department says
Summary: The US government has announced charges against 3,195 defendants for crimes related to pandemic relief fraud, seizing more than $1.4 billion in connection to these cases.
Context: The government has been cracking down on these sorts of cases, of late, as it’s become clear that a lot of money meant to be funneled into the pockets of American citizens and US-based businesses in the early years of the pandemic was instead fraudulently claimed by folks taking advantage of the relatively freewheeling distribution mechanisms; the justice department has said that some fraudsters are still trying to take advantage of the employee retention tax credit program, and that more charges and prosecutions are impending.
—The New York Times
Chrome, made by Google, has been the world’s most-used web browser since 2012 when it first overtook the previously dominant Internet Explorer (made by Microsoft); in the years since it has only widened its lead, and it’s reportedly in the process of a UI revamp meant to make it speedier and more intuitive on mobile devices—something its competitors have been experimenting with over the past few years.
—Chartr
€600 million
Approximate cost of the Human Brain Project, one of the biggest-ever research projects funded by the EU, which received its initial funding in 2013.
The goal of this project was to model the human brain inside a computer, and it has allowed researchers to create a virtual, 3D map of at least 200 brain regions, develop novel brain implants (including one that treats blindness), and model functions like memory and consciousness inside a supercomputer.
It did not, however, successfully simulate an entire virtual brain, which has led to a fair bit of criticism from those who were hoping to benefit from a whole-brain simulation, and who instead only have bits and pieces to use for research purposes.
—Nature
Trust Click
If you’ve found value in this missive, there are several things you can do to support my work:
You can become a paid subscriber to One Sentence News
Or you can support all my projects by becoming an Understandary member