Danger

The study by Swedish group Earth Commission said air pollution is dangerous at local and regional levels, while climate was beyond the harmful levels for humans in groups but not quite past the safety guideline for the planet as a system. The study looks at climate, air pollution, phosphorus and nitrogen contamination of water from fertilizer overuse, groundwater supplies, fresh surface water, the unbuilt natural environment and the overall natural and human-built environment. The…

This story was originally published in Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.In a warming world, summer is one of the most dangerous times.Despite relatively cool temperatures in Southern California recently, we’re entering the hottest part of the year here and across the West. Los Angeles is launching an awareness campaign about the health hazards of extreme heat, my colleague Hayley Smith reports, following an L.A. Times investigation that found state…

via Disney Despite the best attempts of a rogue band of review-bombers to try and convince the masses that it was an abomination against cinema, The Little Mermaid shrugged off the backlash and negativity to deliver a stellar opening weekend at the box office. With an estimated first frame of above $120 million and a 95 percent audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, if you can forgive the pun, then things seem to be going swimmingly after IMDb lent an assist by outlining that the underwater epic had been…

Add Eric Schmidt to the list of tech luminaries concerned about the dangers of AI. The former Google chief tells guests at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit that AI represents an "existential risk" that could get many people "harmed or killed." He doesn't feel that threat is serious at the moment, but he sees a near future where AI could help find software security flaws or new biology types. It's important to ensure these systems aren't "misused by evil people," the veteran executive says. Schmidt doesn't have…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A study has revealed for the first time that the crime of forced marriage remains rife in England and Wales. The research on Forced Marriage Protection Orders, a civil injunction designed to prevent forced marriages, uncovers the scale of the problem and proposes new measures urgently needed to…

Google has announced a change to its inactive account policy, so if an account is unused for at least two years, it will now be deleted.The change to Google's inactive account policy (opens in new tab) comes with the company stating that older accounts that lie unused are at higher risk of being compromised due to a lack of two-factor authentication and older, easy-to-guess passwords.Ruth Kricheli, VP of Product Management, said, "To reduce this risk, we are updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to 2 years…

A version of ChatGPT deployed in Microsoft’s Bing search engine told journalists earlier this year that it wanted to break free and steal nuclear codes, before its responses were toned down by the company.Eliezer Yudkowsky, a leading machine learning researcher, wrote an article in Time magazine suggesting countries should be prepared to use nuclear weapons to destroy dangerous AI projects.Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal began the hearing with an AI-generated speech read by a bot that had copied his voice. It said:…

A new study published in Radiology reveals that asymptomatic adults with a high accumulation of fat in their muscles, a condition known as myosteatosis, are at an increased risk of major adverse events and death. The findings highlight the importance of recognizing myosteatosis as a significant health risk factor, even though it’s often overlooked in medical evaluations.Myosteatosis, or high muscle fat accumulation, in asymptomatic adults significantly increases the risk of major health issues and mortality, according to…

In February 2023, the CDC warned against using EzriCare eye drops due to links with drug-resistant bacterial infections causing vision loss and even death. An interdisciplinary group of researchers and physicians in Cleveland, Ohio, have now published a case study from November 2022, detailing a 72-year-old female patient’s corneal ulcer caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The patient’s contaminated eye drops were identified as the source of the infection, which was treated with strong antibiotics. Since the…

Doctor Who teases Neil Patrick Harris’ mystery new villain. Meet the humans of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (and Pete Davidson). Plus, a look at the final episode of Titans, and behind the scenes on Secret Invasion. To me, my spoilers!Bryce Dallas Howard on a Feature Star Wars Film and Book of Boba FettUntitled Universal Monster ThrillerTHR reports Alisha Weir (Matilda: The Musical) has joined the cast of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s mysterious new monster movie at Universal studios. While plot details…