September 06 2024

1 Cyber attacks rank alongside terrorism and flooding as a major threat, say insurers 
2 UATX, a new university, opened its doors to the class of 2028
3 In AI precedent, court rules against Internet Archive’s Free Digital Library
4 Election roundup: Trump’s manufacturing plan, a big sentencing decision, debate rules, fundraising
5 Friday Ukraine roundup: Ukraine faces losses as Russia pushes ahead in east
Sports
9/6/1522 Magellan’s expedition circumnavigates globe

Traveling, no podcast 9/5-6

1 Cyber attacks rank alongside terrorism and flooding as a major threat, say insurers 

Cyber attacks pose a risk as big as terrorism and flooding, according to two of the world’s biggest insurance groups that are calling for state support to help the industry to absorb losses.  Insurer Zurich and Marsh McLennan, the world’s biggest insurance broker, say in a new report that cyber threats are “outpacing the ability of traditional insurance and risk management approaches to fully mitigate them”.  There are “limits to the amount of financial loss” the private sector can absorb, the report says, given the potentially huge losses that could be caused by a cyber attack on critical infrastructure. It proposes a number of steps to address this, including creating public-private partnerships to share losses from currently “uninsurable” events, such as a cyber attack that causes a widespread failure of key infrastructure. Some countries have already created state-backed schemes to share flood and terrorism losses.

Article Source: FT

2 UATX, a new university, opened its doors to the class of 2028

On November 8, 2021, a college professor named Pano Kanelos set off what felt like a bomb in these pages when he announced that in a country with more than 4,000 colleges and universities, he was moving to Austin, Texas, to start a new one. “We are done waiting. We are done waiting for the legacy universities to right themselves. And so we are building anew,” Kanelos wrote. “I mean that quite literally. As I write this, I am sitting in my new office (boxes still waiting to be unpacked) in balmy Austin, Texas, where I moved three months ago from my previous post as president of St. John’s College in Annapolis.” Many people said it was impossible. But yesterday, less than three years after that original essay, the University of Austin opened its doors to the class of 2028. In an era of so much brokenness—and it’s hard to think of an area of American institutional life more degraded than higher education—sometimes the only thing to do is to begin again. 

Article Source: Bari Weiss

3 In AI precedent, court rules against Internet Archive’s Free Digital Library

When libraries across the country temporarily closed in the early days of the pandemic, the Internet Archive, an organization that digitizes and archives materials like web pages and music, had the idea to make its library of scanned books free to read in an online database. The question of that library’s legality became a long-running saga that may have finally ended on Wednesday, when an appeals court affirmed that the Internet Archive violated copyright laws by redistributing those books without a licensing agreement. The decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan, is a victory for the major book publishers that brought the lawsuit in 2020, and could set a precedent over the lawfulness of broader digital archives. In its appeal, the nonprofit argued that its Free Digital Library was protected by so-called fair use laws, and that scanning the books was a transformative use of the material done in the public interest. The court firmly rejected that claim. “The defendant attempted to do what no one had done before, which was to call unauthorized distribution of entire books ‘lending’ without permission,” said Maria A. Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers Unlike traditional libraries, which pay licensing fees to publishers to make their books available for lending, the Internet Archive acquires copies through donated or purchased books to scan and put online. The nonprofit is also known for the Wayback Machine, a popular database of past web pages. Ms. Pallante of the publishers association said she hoped the ruling would have implications for artificial intelligence companies that scrape data from book publishers and elsewhere for their products, potentially undercutting a publisher’s so-called derivative rights of what is done with its works.

Article Source: NYT

4 Election roundup: Trump’s manufacturing plan, a big sentencing decision, debate rules, fundraising

Trump on manufacturing
On Thursday, Donald Trump pledged to New York’s business elite that he would “once again turn America into the manufacturing superpower of the world.” To do so, he said, he would cut the corporate tax rate to 15% from 21% for companies that make their products in the U.S., and expand tariffs on foreign-made goods.  The proposal raised immediate questions from economists, corporate leaders and others. Among them: What counts as American-made? And would his plan spur manufacturing, or launch a costly trade war? 

Trump’s sentencing

more than three months after a Manhattan jury convicted Mr. Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal, the veteran judge faces his greatest predicament: He must decide whether to sentence Mr. Trump as planned on Sept. 18 or wait until after Election Day, as Mr. Trump has requested. The decision could influence not only the election, but American politics for years to come. And it will almost certainly subject Justice Merchan to partisan second-guessing 

Debate rules

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump agreed to rules for their first debate, which takes place on September 10th. Ms Harris dropped her insistence that the microphones of both candidates remain on for the whole 90 minutes. Her campaign thought that muting candidates would help the former president—but said that they would rather concede than risk Mr Trump bailing on the debate on ABC News.

Fundraising

Vice President Kamala Harris in August raised almost triple the sum collected by former President Donald J. Trump, opening up a $110 million cash lead over her Republican rival once Ms. Harris took over the top of the Democratic ticket.xxx

Article Source: WSJ, NYT, Economist

5 Friday Ukraine roundup: Ukraine faces losses as Russia pushes ahead in east

Russia advances in east

the Kursk operation has failed to achieve its big aim of distracting Russian forces from their push towards Pokrovsk, a vital logistical hub for Ukrainian troops. Russia has moved some troops from the Kherson region in the south, and from the Chasiv Yar and Siversk lines in the east. But as Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Olesksandr Syrsky, admitted on August 27th, Russia has only intensified its focus on the crossroads town. Moreover, Ukrainian defences appear to be crumbling, with Russia making rapid gains along the main railway from the east. By the end of General Syrsky’s press conference, Russian forces had moved fully into the mining town of Novohrodivka, less than 9km from Pokrovsk.   

Last days of Pokrovsk

Pokrovsk, once home to 80,000, is steadily emptying out and shutting down as the Russians close in. In 2½ years of war, Russia has destroyed dozens of Ukrainian cities, with its army entering the ruins of front-line ghost towns that it pummeled with relentless artillery and aerial barrages. Pokrovsk is next. Ukraine has pressed its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region with the aim of diverting Moscow’s forces away from eastern Ukraine. But Russia has only doubled down on its push to seize Pokrovsk. After visiting troops there last week, Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, said Russia “is throwing anything that’s able to move and advance” into the fight for the strategic city. Pokrovsk, located on a road and rail line that Ukraine’s military uses to supply other parts of the front line, now awaits the same fate visited on other towns in Russia’s path. It still stands mostly intact, though Russia has intensified its bombardment, dropping a 1,000-pound glide bomb on its industrial zone in recent days.

Cabinet shuffle

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine pushed ahead with the broadest shake-up in his cabinet since the war began in 2022.  His party released the names of nine candidates for cabinet posts, and half a dozen senior figures tendered their resignations, the speaker of Ukraine’s Parliament said. Mr. Zelensky described the overhaul as an effort to bring “a new energy” to his government as Russia steps up its attacks.

Zelensky spin

The political upheaval came after a series of blistering Russian missile attacks and battlefield gains in recent weeks and before a vital trip by Mr. Zelensky to Washington, where he plans to reveal a “victory plan” for the war.

Ed. note: Western media’s focus on the Kursk incursion is misplaced, this war will be won and lost in the Donbas, where Ukraine is loosing. Ukraine’s front there is rapidly weakening, as is the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky

Article Source: Economist, WSJ, NYT

Sports

The NFL season kicked off last night. The Kansas City Chiefs held on to beat the Baltimore Ravens, 27-20. The Ravens missed a late touchdown by a toe. The Packers and Eagles play tonight in Brazil — the NFL’s first regular season game in South America. And there are 13 games Sunday, including Texans vs. Colts.

Article Source: WaPo

9/6/1522 Magellan’s expedition circumnavigates globe

Sources

1. https://www.ft.com/content/c2769c6d-8bec-4167-af5c-53c6cf139851

2. https://open.substack.com/pub/bariweiss/p/a-revolution-begins-in-austin-texas?r=d9vo5&utm_medium=io

3. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/04/technology/internet-archive-appeals-court-ruling.html

4. https://www.wsj.com/economy/trump-proposal-to-cut-tax-rate-for-u-s-manufacturers-spurs-flurry-of-questions-24ac5cee?mod=hp_lead_pos4; https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/04/nyregion/trump-hush-money-sentencing.html; Economist; https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/us/politics/harris-august-fundraising-trump.html

5. https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/08/29/even-as-it-humiliates-russia-ukraines-line-is-crumbling-in-the-donbas; https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/the-last-days-of-pokrovsk-ukrainians-dig-trenches-and-say-goodbye-to-their-city-as-russians-close-in-425436e1?st=igjtas638iktc7o&reflink=article_copyURL_share; https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/04/world/ukraine-russia-missile-attacks?campaign_id=7&emc=edit_mbae_20240904&instance_id=133432&nl=morning-briefing:-asia-pacific-edition&regi_id=61468173&segment_id=176893&te=1&user_id=02b32d846497687a8f0c061d7ffd16b1&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb; https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/04/world/europe/ukraine-reshuffle-zelensky.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

6. https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2024/09/06/what-to-know-for-september-6/