Good morning.
More than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and more than 80,000 injured in five months of fighting in Ukraine, an acceleration in already heavy losses for Moscow, US intelligence officials estimate.
Most of the troops were killed in brutal trench warfare for the small eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia has repeatedly claimed it was on the brink of capturing, White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said when he revealed the new estimate yesterday, writes Emma Graham-Harrison.
“Russia’s attempt at an offensive in the Donbas, largely through Bakhmut, has failed … Russia has been unable to seize any really strategically significant territory,” Kirby said.
The losses are an acceleration in Russian casualties even from the bloody first days of the war, and overshadow some of the bloodiest allied battles of the second world war, Kirby added. That includes the Guadalcanal campaign, the first major allied offensive against Japan, which also lasted five months.
How were the losses calculated? Kirby did not detail how the US calculated Russia’s losses, but said about half of those who died were fighting under the Wagner mercenary group rather than with the Russian military. They were being sent into battle without proper training or leadership, he added.
What’s happening on the ground in Ukraine? Ukrainian forces are still holding out in a corner of Bakhmut. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces, said yesterday “the situation is quite difficult”, but Ukrainian forces are still counterattacking against Russians.
‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton quits Google and warns of dangers of misinformation
The man often touted as the godfather of AI has quit Google, citing concerns over the flood of fake information, videos and photos online and the possibility for AI to upend the job market.
Dr Geoffrey Hinton, who with two of his students at the University of Toronto built a neural net in 2012, quit Google this week, the New York Times reported.
Hinton, 75, said he quit to speak freely about the dangers of AI, and in part regrets his contribution to the field. He was brought on by Google a decade ago to help develop the company’s AI technology. Hinton’s research led the way for systems such as ChatGPT.
He told the New York Times that until last year he believed Google had been a “proper steward” of the technology, but that changed once Microsoft started incorporating a chatbot into its Bing search engine, and the company began becoming concerned about the risk to its search business.
Some of the dangers of AI chatbots were “quite scary”, he told the BBC, warning they could become more intelligent than humans and could be exploited by “bad actors”.
What else did Hinton say? “I’ve come to the conclusion that the kind of intelligence we’re developing is very different from the intelligence we have. So it’s as if you had 10,000 people and whenever one person learned something, everybody automatically knew it. And that’s how these chatbots can know so much more than any one person.”
In other news …
Thousands of film and television writers are to go on strike, throwing Hollywood into turmoil as the entertainment business grapples with seismic changes triggered by the global streaming TV boom. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) called its first work stoppage in 15 years, starting today.
The bodies of seven people, including two missing teenagers and a convicted sex offender, were discovered in rural Oklahoma yesterday, officials confirmed. Authorities found the bodies on a property near Henryetta, where the sex offender Jesse McFadden lived.
A bride leaving her wedding reception was killed moments after the ceremony when a drunk driver hit the newlywed couple’s golf cart on a South Carolina beach road, authorities said yesterday. Samantha Miller, 34, of Charlotte, North Carolina, died in the wreck, authorities said.
Sudanese medics have described seeing piles of bodies in the streets of the capital, Khartoum, people drinking polluted water, and doctors working under bombardments as the battle between the country’s two warring generals continues despite a threadbare ceasefire.
Stat of the day: ‘They can survive just fine’ – Bernie Sanders says income over $1bn should be taxed at 100%
The US government should confiscate 100% of any money that Americans make above $999m, the leftwing independent senator Bernie Sanders said last week. Sanders expressed that belief in an exchange on Friday evening with the host of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? on HBO Max. Wallace had asked Sanders about the general assertion in his book It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism that billionaires should not exist. “Are you basically saying that once you get to $999m that the government should confiscate all the rest?” Matthews asked the US senator from Vermont, who is an independent but caucuses with Democrats and has helped them attain their slim majority in the upper congressional chamber. “Yeah,” Sanders replied. “You may disagree with me but, fine, I think people can make it on $999m. I think that they can survive just fine.”
Don’t miss this: Pearls, pregnancy reveals and Karl Lagerfeld celebrated at the Met Gala
Serena Williams has confirmed she is pregnant with baby number two, telling reporters at the star-studded Met Gala in New York that there were “three of us” on the red carpet, where she arrived with her husband, Alexis Ohanian. Williams, a longtime friend of Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor-in-chief and Met Gala co-chair, is a frequent attender of the annual event to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and on Monday donned a form-fitting black gown with a white skirt. “Was so excited when Anna Wintour invited the three of us to the Met Gala,” Williams said in a TikTok post on Monday evening. Model Karlie Kloss also announced her pregnancy while Rihanna showed off her growing bump at the Met Gala 2023.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosts the fashion world’s biggest night of the year. The theme is Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, in tribute to one of the longest careers in contemporary fashion history. Lagerfeld’s legacy was on abundant display. Here are some of the stars on the red carpet.
Climate check: Green investment funds pushing money into fossil fuel firms, research finds
Investment funds branded as green or socially responsible are being used by some of the world’s largest asset managers to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in fossil fuel companies, according to a report. The research, by the Common Wealth thinktank, showed that the US fund managers BlackRock and State Street and the UK-based Legal & General were among asset managers to use funds with an “environment, social and governance” (ESG) label to invest in fossil fuel firms. The leftwing thinktank said despite claims that ESG funds offered a green and socially responsible option for investors, “the research shows these funds are significantly exposed to fossil fuel companies”. Between February and April this year, BlackRock, State Street and Legal & General alone were found to hold $1bn (£800m) in bonds issued by fossil fuel companies in their ESG funds.
Last Thing: Chilly willy – photo of phallic iceberg off Canadian coast prompts merriment
It was a calm spring day when the Canadian photographer Ken Pretty spotted an interestingly shaped 30ft iceberg off Newfoundland’s east coast. As he flew his drone overhead, Pretty, who hails from the town of Dildo, realized the hulk of ice bore a distinct resemblance to a characteristic part of the male human anatomy. “Looking from the land, it wasn’t quite clear,” said Pretty. “But once I got the drone out there, it was unreal how much it looked like – well, you know …” Pretty’s images of the phallic berg prompted an outpouring of hilarity on Facebook, where users speculated that the iceberg would probably soon drift past Dick’s Cove, Newfoundland, or suggesting it could provide ice for the “stiffest drink”. Pretty said that the resemblance was so marked that many had presumed the image was fake. “People don’t believe it’s real. They think it’s Photoshopped and all that,” he said. “I can tell you – it’s real.”
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