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Have a good night. This is the latest news as of late Tuesday.
1. The federal government proposes to reduce the amount of water evenly distributed from the Colorado River.
After months of fruitless negotiations between states dependent on the dwindling Colorado River, the Biden administration today released a plan that will steadily reducing water supplies to California, Arizona and Nevada by a quarter.
The proposal comes after decades of overuse and drought made worse by climate change. Without a deal, the river – which provides drinking water to 40 million Americans and irrigate millions of acres of farmland – could essentially dry up. The scale of the cuts and the ability of the federal government to unilaterally impose them on the states were unprecedented in American history.
The Biden administration considers whether the cuts should be based on states’ legal water rights or evenly distributed. The deputy secretary of the Interior Ministry, the river’s governing body, defended the government’s willingness to abandon age-old rules of water rights, arguing that shocks to the river cannot be predicted. climate change when those rights were agreed many years ago.
In other climate news, new federal emissions rules designed to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles have been adopted by automakers, but they will have a hard time making it.
2. The Manhattan District Attorney has sued a Republican lawmaker, accusing him of meddling in the Trump case.
Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump, filed a lawsuit alleging Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio for a “flagrant and unconstitutional attack” on the prosecution of the former president. The lawsuit is an extraordinary step toward preventing Republicans in Congress from interfering with the office’s prosecution and investigation.
Bragg’s attorneys are seeking to ban Jordan and his allies from enforcing subpoenas sent to Mark Pomerantz, who served as the head of the district attorney’s investigation into Trump.
In other political news, Chicago will hold the Democratic National Convention in 2024elevated a vast free city in the heart of the Midwest, an important battleground.
4. IMF warns of increasing risks to the global economy.
In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF said the risk of a severe recession, which could include a recession, has become bigger. The organization expects growth to hover around 3% over the next five years, the weakest medium-term growth forecast since 1990.
Today, the IMF suggested that a financial crisis could be averted, but warned that so-called hard landings, when economies around the world could slip into recession, are becoming increasingly relevant. physical.
In related news, California’s economy is on the brink as tech and entertainment troubles hit tax revenue, turning the state’s $100 billion surplus into a deficit.
5. The gunman in Louisville legally purchased the rifle he used to kill his accomplices.
The 25-year-old man killed five people at the downtown bank where he worked bought the AR-15 style rifle he used from a local dealer last week, officials said. The gunman also told at least one person that he committed suicide before committing the aggressive act.
Officials said four victims were still hospitalized this afternoon. Two of them – including Nickolas Wilt, a 26-year-old officer who recently graduated from the police academy and was on his fourth shift on the job – are in critical condition.
For more: This is part of the list of Mass shootings in the US this year.
7. An online Catholic school is looking to become the country’s first religious charter school.
Officials in Oklahoma are considering whether to allow public funds to be used for the St. Isidore of Seville or not, which plans to serve students primarily in rural areas across the state. Application of St. Isidore has the support of the Republican governor of Oklahoma, who has argued that the exclusion of religious charter schools violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against religious discrimination.
If approved, experts expect a national legal battle over whether taxpayer money can be used to directly fund religious schools. With conservative justices dominating the Supreme Court — and signaling support for the role of religion in public life — schools may be just the first of many religious institutions looking to seek public funding.
8. A new opera at the Met explores the tragic career of gay boxer Emile Griffith.
In the 1960s, Griffith lived a two-way life: By day, he was a star boxer known for his speed and power in regular fights at Madison Square Garden. At night, he frequented gay bars, eventually becoming a pioneer in the gay rights movement.
But Griffith, who passed away in 2013, is perhaps most famous for a fatal event that has haunted him for the rest of his life. During a title fight at the Garden, he delivered a series of fatal punches to an opponent who mocked him with a homophobic slur. That decisive moment – and the man behind it – was now the theme of “Champion”, a new production of the Metropolitan Opera Written by composer Terence Blanchard.
For more: Read our critical review of the production.
In other art news, an auctioneer admitted he helped create fake artworks was exhibited as the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat at a museum in Orlando.
10. And finally, Can intelligence be separated from the body?
In a sense, chatbots like GPT-4 and Bard are both intellectual: When properly equipped, they can talk about introspection and doubt, confidence and regret. But some researchers argue that computers will never attain true intelligence without the body.
They argue that the mind needs a body to interact with and learn from the physical world in order to gain a true understanding of the world. But that doesn’t mean real AI intelligence is impossible: Moxie, the bot pictured above, is one of the lab’s attempts to pair superhuman knowledge with a humanoid body.
Have a smart night.
Brent Lewis General image for this meeting.
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