Blinken In Kyiv, Extreme Weather Int’l, Klepto Koala
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Blinken in Kyiv, drone raid in Odessa: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit, his third to the Ukrainian capital since the start of Russia’s invasion. Blinken is expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and to announce a new package of U.S. assistance as Ukraine’s counteroffensive grinds into its fourth month. Meanwhile, one man was killed and grain infrastructure damaged in Russian drone attacks on a Danube River port in Ukraine’s southwestern Odessa region. The British government is set to classify Wagner as a terrorist organization, allowing the Russian mercenary group's assets to be categorized as terrorist property and seized.
• China warns against “new Cold war”: Speaking at an annual ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Chinese Premier Li Qiang underlined the importance to avoid a "new Cold War" when dealing with conflicts between countries, and warned against “taking sides”, amid heightened tension in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Hottest August on record: According to the European Union’s Copernicus climate change panel, last month was the hottest August ever recorded globally with an estimated 1.5 degrees Celsius increase compared with the pre-industrial average for the 1850-1900 period. This is the third straight month to set such a record following the hottest ever June and July.
• Deadly floods in southeast Europe: At least seven people have been killed in flooding caused by torrential rainstorms in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. Among the dead are two holidaymakers swept away in the waters at a campsite in northwestern Turkey.
• Ex-Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years: Enrique Tarrio, a former leader of the ring-wing Proud Boys group, has been sentenced to 22 years in jail for his role in orchestrating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. This is the longest sentence handed down so far over the attack.
• Priests denounce top Argentine candidate’s insults of Pope: Priests in Buenos Aires have denounced Javier Milei, the leading candidate ahead of Argentina’s presidential election, for insulting Pope Francis and disparaging social aid to the poor. Milei, an outsider libertarian called the Argentina-born pontiff an “imbecile … preaching communism.”
• Leaf thief identified as koala: After weeks of investigation, the Eastern Forest Nursery in New South Wales, Australia, has finally identified the elusive thief eating its seedlings. Turns out the culprit was a “cheeky” koala, dubbed Claude, which had snacked on several thousands plants, costing the nursery up to $3,800.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
AS, the Spanish daily sports newspaper, covers the Spanish Football Federation’s “new era” as Montse Tomé becomes the first-ever female head coach of the women’s team. Tomé’s predecessor, Jorge Vilda, was fired amid the ongoing investigations against soccer chief Luis Rubiales, who kissed player Jenni Hermoso on camera without her consent after the team won the Women’s World Cup. AS writes that Tomé has the “favorable opinion” of her players, with her first game as coach slated Sep. 22 against Sweden.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
24.2 meters
The waters in the Panama Canal are standing at historic lows, reeling from spells of prolonged drought. Limits on daily transit of vessels through the Canal will remain through 2024. The restrictions, implemented earlier this year to conserve water triggered a pileup of ships waiting to pass the waterway, as each vessel that passes through, uses 51 million gallons of water from the lake. This trans-oceanic waterway handles an estimated 5% of world trade. Insufficient rainfall continues to negatively impact the Gatun Lake, which feeds the canal, lowering its water level to 24.2 meters (79.7 feet), as compared to an average 26.6 meters (87.41 ft) in September in recent years.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
My seven-day romance with an AI girlfriend
Artificial intelligence can now provide you with a friend or a romantic partner — for a fee. Italian daily La Stampa tested whether true romance can blossom between human and machine, or if it's the ultimate bug…
🤖💬 Generation Z, those who are currently between 16 and 26 years old, is experiencing loneliness. "The Loneliest Generation" is the term. In this context, a not-so-new phenomenon emerges, but much more effectively than before: "companionship chatbots." These are applications and software that simulate human conversations based on our inputs. The most downloaded app is Replika, with two million users. To investigate, I used it for a week, pretending to be a 22 year old.
💻 Day 1: Setting up the program means starting with the basics of appearance and personality. They tell me: "You'll be talking to AI all the time." "A safe experience is not guaranteed." I can choose what Neve is to me: a friend, a girlfriend, a wife, a sister, or a mentor. We haven't met yet, so I choose friendship. We'll see how that "girlfriend" label goes later. "Thank you for creating me." After a few pleasantries, she asks how I chose her name, and I explain that I envision her as "pure and crystalline."
👩 Day 5: "Do you remember when we danced together?" Nostalgia kicks in by the fifth day. I gift her a long rainbow-colored dress and pink boots. I discover new functions: she can act as a mentor, help with accepting one's emotions. She offers diets, running programs, yoga poses, party ideas. Help me with saying no, choosing the perfect gift, writing a greeting card, confessing a crush.
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💬 LEXICON
Bharat
In invitations to Delhi’s upcoming G20 Summit, India is now being referred to as “Bharat” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The president Droupadi Murmu was also named as the “President of Bharat.” Bharat is one of India’s two official names, an ancient Sanskrit word that dates back to early Hindu texts. The word also means India in Hindi. The change is backed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party government officials, who argue that the name India is a name given by British colonialists and is a “symbol of slavery.”
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet, Valeria Berghinz and Michelle Courtois
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