"Nuclear Risks" DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Senator “It’s Time to Wake Up” Whitehouse drops his climate change mic A few weeks ago, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse literally dropped the mic, after a nearly eight-year streak of weekly speeches calling for action on climate change. In this interview with Bulletin deputy editor Dan Drollette, Whitehouse gives his reading of the prospects for dealing with climate change in the Senate and elsewhere. Read more. French report grapples with nuclear fallout from Algerian War A January report commissioned by France's President Macron signaled that radioactive fallout from the Algerian War has remained a thorn between France and Algeria. Here's a look at the countries' nuclear history — and possible steps toward reconciliation. Read more. DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES Regulating military AI will be difficult. Here’s a way forward If the international community doesn’t properly manage the development, proliferation, and use of military AI, international peace and stability could be at stake. Read more. "They keep growing back" design now available! Nuclear Disaster Compensation: A Call for Action Join Northwestern University and the Bulletin on March 9 for an event highlighting the human toll of nuclear catastrophes worldwide. We'll discuss actions scientists, policymakers and citizens can take to prepare for future nuclear accidents as the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster approaches and the Doomsday Clock hits 100 seconds to midnight. Register here.

Paul Krugman

Where have all the unions gone?Unionstats.com Why did this happen? You often hear assertions to the effect that globalization killed the labor movement, because unionized firms couldn’t cope with international competition. But this story doesn’t hold up in the face of the facts. First, while unions have lost some ground in many countries, the collapse of organized labor in America is unique. Denmark is every bit as integrated with the global economy as we are, yet two-thirds of its workers are union members. A quarter of Canadian workers are unionized, which is only a modest decline from the proportion half a century ago. Also, while a global competition story might seem to make sense for manufacturing firms, there’s no reason unions have to be restricted to manufacturing. These days America’s biggest private employers are Walmart, Amazon, Kroger and Home Depot. (Amazon may look to consumers like a virtual company that exists only in cyberspace, but those quick deliveries are made possible by more than a million workers, mainly employed in a vast network of warehouses, and a complex delivery system.) And the services provided by today’s giant service-sector companies aren’t subject to global competition: You can’t get two-day delivery or fresh produce from a factory in Guangzhou. There is, in other words, no inherent economic reason for the implosion of the U.S. labor movement. So what did happen? Politics. Unions could have remained an important force in American life, even as we transitioned from a manufacturing to a service economy. But to do so they would have had to organize workers in rapidly growing service companies like Walmart and now Amazon. And they generally failed to do so, because the transition to a service economy took place in an era of conservative political dominance.

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou will return to the British Columbia Supreme Court

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou will return to the British Columbia Supreme Court on March 1 for the next phase of extradition proceedings, said a statement from Huawei Canada on Saturday. The next-phase extradition proceedings will revolve around "the four branches of abuse of process," including "political motivation, unlawful detention, material omissions and misstatements, and violations of customary international law", said Huawei Canada. The case against Meng violates customary international law and Meng's Charter rights, said the statement. "The court will be seized with whether these constitute an abuse of the Canadian judicial process sufficient to order a stay of the extradition proceedings," it added. "As the case enters its next phase, Huawei remains confident in Meng Wanzhou's innocence. We will continue to support Ms. Meng's pursuit of justice and freedom," said the company.