Home United States USA — mix Bush Funeral, Emissions, Facebook: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

Bush Funeral, Emissions, Facebook: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

409
0
SHARE

Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up .)
Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. Five living presidents, plus family, friends and dignitaries from around the world, gathered in Washington National Cathedral, above, for a memorial service to honor George Bush, the 41st president.
In a eulogy for his father, former President George W. Bush remembered him as an imperfect, but beloved man who bestowed wisdom. “To us, his was the brightest of 1,000 points of light,” Mr. Bush said, invoking a phrase the elder Mr. Bush used.
A generation of Cold War-era leaders has now receded. Only Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader, is alive — and he was too ill to attend the funeral. With those leaders, our White House correspondent writes, the world order they helped build is also fading.
In addition to winding down the Cold War, the elder Mr. Bush is credited by historians with helping in the reunification of Germany and Europe and the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union, and laying the groundwork for the World Trade Organization.
But critics argue that he didn’t do enough to address the AIDS epidemic raging during his time in office.
_____
2. Facebook gave special access to users’ data to favored companies like Airbnb, Lyft and Netflix, emails and other internal Facebook documents show.
The documents, released by a British parliamentary committee investigating the company, shine a light on Facebook’s internal workings from roughly 2012 to 2015, as it determined how to manage the mountains of data it was accumulating on users. Above, Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.
In a statement, Facebook said the documents were part of a “baseless” lawsuit and “only part of the story.”
In Opinion: A historian of Silicon Valley argues that the end of privacy began in the 1960s, when Congress made choices that allowed tech giants to become as powerful as they are.
_____
3. Emissions are rising faster.
Worldwide carbon emissions are expected to rise by 2.7 percent this year, according to studies in three scientific journals. Emissions rose by 1.6 percent last year.
The spike was driven primarily by stronger demand for natural gas and oil, which surprised the researchers. “We thought oil use had peaked in the U. S. and Europe 15 years ago,” one said. Above, fracking near Epping, N.

Continue reading...