All posts tagged: early days

The Long, Twisted History of Russia and ISIS

The Long, Twisted History of Russia and ISIS

Published by skeptic

The fault lines in Russian society have foretold yesterday’s atrocity for literally centuries. Stringer / AFP / Getty March 23, 2024, 12:23 PM ET A decade ago, when foreign fighters were flowing into Syria, the Islamic State’s capital, Raqqa, became a sort of Epcot of global jihad: New arrivals from different nations clustered together in their national groups. If you were a recent arrival from France or just wanted to know where to get a croissant, you could visit a café full of French people and ask. Tens of thousands of foreign fighters came from places as distant as Chile and Japan. Russia alone contributed as many as 4,000, according to President Vladimir Putin, and by all accounts, their cluster focused not on pastry but on warfare. The only countries that put up numbers to rival Russia’s were Tunisia and Turkey. Yesterday, terrorists murdered at least 133 concertgoers in suburban Moscow. The Islamic State’s news agency, Amaq, posted the group’s claim of responsibility, as usual in language balanced between wire-service precision and rabid derangement. The …

If Biden Wants to Win, He Needs to Talk About COVID

If Biden Wants to Win, He Needs to Talk About COVID

Published by skeptic

America is in a funk, and no one seems to know why. Unemployment rates are lower than they’ve been in half a century and the stock market is sky-high, but poll after poll shows that voters are disgruntled. President Joe Biden’s approval rating has been hovering in the high 30s. Americans’ satisfaction with their personal lives—a measure that usually dips in times of economic uncertainty—is at a near-record low, according to Gallup polling. And nearly half of Americans surveyed in January said they were worse off than three years prior. Experts have struggled to find a convincing explanation for this era of bad feelings. Maybe it’s the spate of inflation over the past couple of years, the immigration crisis at the border, or the brutal wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But even the people who claim to make sense of the political world acknowledge that these rational factors can’t fully account for America’s national malaise. We believe that’s because they’re overlooking a crucial factor. Four years ago, the country was brought to its knees by …

Stop Trying to Understand Trump Voters as if They Are Aliens

Stop Trying to Understand Trump Voters as if They Are Aliens

Published by skeptic

If Trump Wins In The Atlantic’s January/February issue, 24 contributors considered what Donald Trump could do if he were to return to the White House. Explore the April 2024 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. View More The Atlantic’s January/February issue performs a valuable service by raising the country’s awareness of what’s in store should Donald Trump be reelected president. In the same way, the United States ought to understand how reelecting Joe Biden might benefit Americans and improve world security. We also need to learn about the inner workings of the Biden administration, its future policies and programs, and how another four years could affect the quality of American lives. Todd EverettHealdsburg, Calif. Although the various articles in the “If Trump Wins” issue may have been accurate, I fear they didn’t go far enough in analyzing the real problem: the Republican Party. Few of Donald Trump’s successes as president could have been accomplished without the full support of nearly the entire GOP. Few of Trump’s second-term …

America’s false virus equivalence – The Atlantic

America’s false virus equivalence – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. This month marks four years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. My colleague Katherine J. Wu recently published an article about what is driving the U.S. government to frame COVID-19 as being flu-like—and the problems with that approach. I called Katherine to discuss the false equivalence of the diseases, and how America missed out on a chance to normalize protections against respiratory illness. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic: Not the Flu Lora Kelley: To what extent is COVID-19 being treated like the flu right now? Katherine J. Wu: In a lot of ways, this comparison has been present on public, private, and political levels since the first days of the pandemic. In 2020, some well-intentioned people were saying that, at least in some ways, you could expect COVID to behave like a lot of …

Have the Houthis Become Unstoppable?

Have the Houthis Become Unstoppable?

Published by skeptic

The Leader is a man of about 40, with a smooth, youthful face and a thin beard and mustache. In televised speeches, he wears a blazer with a shawl over his shoulders, his dark eyes menacing and humorless. Apart from that, so little is known about him that he might as well be a phantom. He has no birth certificate or passport and is said to have spent his formative years living in caves. No foreign diplomat has ever met him in person. He presides over a starving, brutalized people in northern Yemen and has sent an armada of child soldiers to their deaths. In January, one of his courts condemned nine men to be executed for homosexual behavior—seven by stoning, two by crucifixion. Yet Abdulmalik al-Houthi may now be the most popular public figure in the Middle East. Ever since his soldiers began attacking and boarding commercial ships in the Red Sea in November—ostensibly in defense of Palestine—he has been treated like a latter-day Che Guevara, his portrait and speeches shared on social media …

In Guatemala, At Least, Democracy Is Winning

In Guatemala, At Least, Democracy Is Winning

Published by skeptic

Democracy could use a win. All around the world, states have been taken over by strongmen dead set on extracting as much wealth as they can from the societies they rule. In Russia and Venezuela, Myanmar and Angola, weak electoral systems have given way to hyper-corrupt autocracies. And democrats haven’t really figured out how to fight back. Successful methods to get rid of criminal regimes are desperately needed but vanishingly rare. Which is why what’s happening in Guatemala right now demands attention. Over the past six months, Guatemalans have made an audacious gambit to take their government back. And against all odds, they’re winning. Nobody expected this. Until quite recently, Guatemala was arguably an excellent example of what the Venezuelan writer Moisés Naím calls a “mafia state”—a country run by a criminal syndicate focused mostly on enriching itself. Guatemalans call it the pacto de corruptos, or the “pact of the corrupt.” A nested set of criminal enterprises thoroughly colonized the state, infiltrating not just the government, but the courts, the election authorities, and crucially, the …

ChatGPT’s FarmVille Moment – The Atlantic

ChatGPT’s FarmVille Moment – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

ChatGPT has certainly captured the world’s imagination since its release at the end of 2022. But in day-to-day life, it is still a relatively niche product—a curiosity that leads people to ask questions that begin “Have you tried … ?” or “What do you think about … ?” Its maker, OpenAI, has a much more expansive vision. Its aim is seemingly to completely remake how people use the internet. For that to happen, the bot needs to be more than a conversation starter: It has to be a functioning business. The company’s launch of the new GPT Store on Wednesday was an ambitious step in that direction. Initially announced two months ago, the GPT Store allows the product’s business and “ChatGPT Plus” users—those paying $20 a month for an upgraded version of the service—to create, share, and interact with customized AI agents (called GPTs) that are tailored to specific tasks. The company claims that its users have built more than 3 million of these custom bots since they were granted the ability to do so …

Is This How Amazon Ends?

Is This How Amazon Ends?

Published by skeptic

When you’re shopping around for something on Amazon, you’re probably hoping to end up with a product that is good enough. Many of the site’s stock images and product descriptions have an unpredictable relationship to the objects you’ll actually receive; to guard against surprises, you frequently need to peruse the ratings and reviews left by the shoppers who came before you. In exchange for this low-stakes gamble, you get a huge selection of products, decent prices, and very fast shipping. Often enough, you also get a good enough result. This balance is part of what has made Amazon a fabulously profitable business. Over time, the company has transformed itself into something that functions more like a global flea market than a traditional retail store. Most of the products on Amazon’s website are sold by millions of third-party sellers, many of them outside the U.S., who construct their own product listings and mostly store their inventory in Amazon’s American fulfillment centers. Since Amazon launched its marketplace in 2000, sellers around the globe—and especially in China—have flocked …

I Removed the Internet From My House

I Removed the Internet From My House

Published by skeptic

Before our first child was born last year, my wife and I often deliberated about the kind of parents we wanted to be—and the kind we didn’t. We watched families at restaurants sitting in silence, glued to their phones, barely taking their eyes off the screens between bites. We saw children paw at their parents, desperate to interact, only to be handed an iPad to keep quiet. We didn’t want to live like that. We vowed to be present with one another, at home and in public. We wanted our child to watch us paying attention to each other and to him. The reality, after our son was born, was quite different. In those sleep-deprived early days, I found myself resorting to my phone as a refuge from the chaos. I fell into some embarrassing middle-aged-dad stereotypes. I developed a bizarre interest in forums about personal finance and vintage hats. I spent up to four hours a day looking at my phone while right in front of me was this new, beautiful life, a baby …

90 Minutes in a Van With Dean Phillips

90 Minutes in a Van With Dean Phillips

Published by skeptic

Like many politicians, Representative Dean Phillips likes to look people in the eye. And because he’s a politician, Phillips can glean things, just as President George W. Bush did when he peered into Vladimir Putin’s eyes and saw his soul. “I’ve looked Benjamin Netanyahu in the eye,” Phillips told a group of students at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, last week. And? “I did not like what I saw,” Phillips said of the Israeli prime minister. “I do not like his government. He’s got to go.” Philips has also looked into Donald Trump’s eyes. That, too, was ominous. It was a few years ago, and the former president had invited a bunch of new House members to the White House for an introductory visit. “I looked him in the eye for the better part of an hour,” Phillips told me. And? “I saw right through him,” Phillips said. “I know exactly how to handle weaklings like Donald Trump.” How? “You’ll see,” he said. “Why would I give away my special sauce?” Phillips was telling …