Top Stories
TOP STORY
TOP STORY
French trains attacked before Games open
Saboteurs struck France's TGV high-speed train network in pre-dawn attacks ahead of today’s Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
The coordinated sabotage occurred as France rolled out an unprecedented peacetime security operation involving tens of thousands of police and soldiers to lock down the capital.
The state-owned railway operator said vandals had damaged signal boxes connecting Paris with Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west, and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack on the Paris-Marseille line was foiled.
Hundreds of thousands of people were left stranded at rail stations. Repairs were underway but traffic will be severely disrupted until at least the end of the weekend. No one has yet claimed responsibility.
Over 300,000 spectators are expected to line the banks of the River Seine when the athletes parade through Paris on a flotilla of barges and riverboats, expected to be watched by billions.
France is deploying 45,000 police, 10,000 soldiers, and 2,000 private security agents to secure the opening ceremony. Snipers will be on rooftops and drones keeping watch from the air.
Running Stories
US POLITICS
US POLITICS
Obamas endorse Kamala Harris for President
Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama endorsed VP Kamala Harris’ presidential bid today.
“Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Barack Obama said.
In a joint statement, the Obamas praised Harris and listed her accomplishments. “Harris has exactly what it takes to win this election and deliver for the American people.”
Democrats have been moving quickly to nominate Harris, with the party adopting rules on Wednesday to choose their nominee. Voting to officially nominate Harris is likely to begin on August 1.
Also, a team of lawyers and advisers are conducting one of the most accelerated vice presidential searches in modern American history to announce a nominee before August 7.
Bubbling Under
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
CrowdStrike strikes out on communications
A report says CrowdStrike's global outage affected not only its reputation but also major customers’ reputations.
Communications experts criticized CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz for his statements following the outage that shut down airlines, financial institutions, and medical facilities.
Kurtz initially identified the problem, described who was impacted, and let customers know where they could find updates, but didn’t say “sorry," many comms specialists pointed out.
While Kurtz did go on a small TV media blitz, appearing on the "Today" show and CNBC, the company mainly relied on lengthy, jargon-filled statements.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian provided updates across social media, saying on Wednesday, ”The worst impacts of the CrowdStrike-caused outage are clearly behind us.” He publicly apologized.
A commentator said CrowdStrike will have to rethink how it tells its corporate narrative to the general public moving forward. Its next opportunity will be Kurtz's congressional testimony.
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
SearchGPT—OpenAI-powered search engine
OpenAI’s SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine, will be used by 10,000 users as a prototype before being built into ChatGPT.
OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood said OpenAI is working with third-party partners and using direct content feeds to build its search results. The goal is to integrate the features into ChatGPT.
The search engine starts with a large textbox asking, “What are you looking for?” It returns a list of links that SearchGPT organizes to make sense of them.
OpenAI provides an example in which the search engine summarizes its findings on music festivals and then presents short descriptions of the events followed by an attribution link.
It’s the start of what could become a meaningful threat to Google, which has rushed to bake in AI features across its search engine, fearing that users will flock to competing products.
Last September, OpenAI released a way for ChatGPT to browse the internet called Browse with Bing, but it appears much more rudimentary than SearchGPT.
LAW
LAW
Supreme Court needs to ‘play by the rules’
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan accused her conservative colleagues of not playing “by the rules” on recent judgments.
The Supreme Court Justice said that the court's failure to respect precedent, make rulings beyond what’s before it, or use cases to make broad changes to governance structure made her “frustrated or saddened.”
Kagan didn’t specify which cases, but she said the right way to respond was to speak about her dissent from the bench. She noted that she and her liberal colleagues each did that this term.
Kagan read a dissent when the court struck down a long-held precedent known as “Chevron deference,” which gives federal agencies rulemaking power.
The ruling will significantly curtail federal agencies’ power and place much greater regulatory control in the hands of the courts.
Kagan criticized all colleagues for issuing too many concurring opinions with their own separate reasoning. She said that “muddies the waters” without clear guidance for lower courts.
SOCIETY
SOCIETY
Little sex education linked to more porn use
A study has found a relationship between the sex education women receive and their subsequent use of pornography.
The purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding to help policymakers and educators improve sex education programs to support healthy sexual development.
The study surveyed 866 women aged 18–34 who attended US public schools. They were asked about their pornography use and their high school sex education.
Participants were divided into abstinence-only (waiting until marriage for sex) and comprehensive sex education. Abstinence-only programs often exclude information on safe sex practices.
Women who received abstinence-only education reported using pornography more often compared with their counterparts who received comprehensive education.
A significant portion of women, 36.38%, were first exposed to pornography aged 12–15, 25.17% encountered it when 16–18, and 5.66% were exposed as early as 4–8 years old.
The researchers said policymakers must focus on comprehensive sex education “to prevent reliance on unreliable sources [and] prioritize sexual consent and safety in the digital age.”
OFFBEAT
OFFBEAT
Orphaned baby walrus rescued
A 165-pound, two-week-old walrus found alone on a beach in Utqiagvik in Alaska has been nursed back to good health.
Calves rely on their mothers for their first two years, and rescues are rare. Since starting in 1998, the Alaska SeaLife Center's Wildlife Response Department has helped just 11.
The rescue team acted as surrogates, going beyond the role of a mother walrus to provide the calf with emergency fluids and stabilizing treatments.
“There will be lots of weird sleeping hours ahead. We do it for the animals,” veterinary technician Jessica Davis said. “We want to set them up for success. This is all part of the job we love.”
The center said the rescued walrus will become used to human care and will not be a candidate for release back into the wild.
Otherweb Editorial Staff
Alex FinkTechie in Chief
David WilliamsEditor in Chief
Angela PalmerContent Manager
Dan KriegerTechnical Director