Check out our #CGIAR Policy brief on digital sequence information/genetic sequence data: the Generation, Use, and Sharing of Digital Sequence Information in Crop Improvement, now available on the #PlantTreaty website
#DSI#benefitsharing#MultilateralSystem enhancement
🚨TODAY🚨
Working group reviewing a policy brief from @CGIAR on the role of DSI in crop improvement, covering its applications and the surrounding database ecosystem.
https://t.co/FAeZouiXKS
@FAOnews@IISD_ENB
When those who protest against genocide are accused of TERRORISM, and those accused of committing genocide are left roaming free...
***
... it is the time to unite to protect human rights, ethically and in the name and spirit of solidarity.
The Pentagon just threatened to BLACKLIST one of America's most valuable AI companies.
Not Huawei or some Chinese chip maker...
It's ANTHROPIC. The company behind Claude. $380 billion valuation.
And the reason is genuinely insane:
For months, the Pentagon has been pushing every major AI lab to remove their safety restrictions for military use.
The ask is simple: let us use your models for anything that's technically legal.
Weapons development, intelligence collection, battlefield operations, mass surveillance of American citizens.
OpenAI said yes.
Google said yes.
xAI said yes.
Anthropic said no.
Not to everything tho. They were willing to negotiate.
But they held firm on two things:
They don't want Claude used to build fully autonomous weapons that fire without a human in the loop, and they don't want it used to mass surveil American citizens.
That's it. That's the line they drew.
But Pete Hegseth's response was to threaten to designate Anthropic a "supply chain risk."
Here's why that matters:
That label isn't a contract cancellation. It's not a fine. It's not a strongly worded letter...
It means every single company that wants to do business with the US military has to certify they don't use Claude anywhere in their operations.
8 of the 10 largest companies in America use Claude.
Defense contractors, government suppliers, enterprise companies with any federal exposure...
ALL of them would have to cut ties with Anthropic overnight or lose their government contracts.
A senior Pentagon official told Axios:
"It will be an enormous pain in the ass to disentangle, and we are going to make sure they pay a price for forcing our hand like this."
That's a US government official threatening to financially destroy an American company because it doesn't want its AI used to spy on American people.
And it gets WORSE.
Last week, Anthropic's head of safeguards research resigned.
His parting message: "the world is in peril."
Elon Musk - whose xAI already handed the Pentagon a blank check - is now publicly attacking Anthropic calling Claude anti-human.
And the Pentagon official told Axios they're "confident" OpenAI, Google, and xAI will all agree to the "all lawful purposes" standard.
So what you're actually watching right now is every major AI company in America quietly handing the government unlimited access to the most powerful technology ever built.
With no guardrails.
No limits.
No company-imposed restrictions on what it can be used for.
One company tried to hold a line.
But the government is about to make an example out of them.
If Anthropic folds, it's over.
Every lab just learned what happens when you push back.
And every restriction, every safety policy, every ethical guardrail these companies spent years building gets negotiated away behind closed doors the second the government asks.
If they don't fold, a $380 billion company gets made radioactive in its OWN country.
Watch what happens next.
Because whatever Anthropic decides in the next few weeks, it sets the precedent for how much control AI companies actually have over their own technology.
Turns out the answer might be: none.
⬇️Statement by the OIC Group in Geneva regarding false allegations directed against the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Ms. @FranceskAlbs ⬇️
🇺🇳❗️UNRWA is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly: only the GA can decide its fate.
Israel is dismantling the UN system brick by brick, metaphorically and literally. Silence and inaction by member states and UN agencies deeply dishonours the UN itself.
The lack of pressure on Israel to release the thousands of Palestinian hostages (including CHILDREN) says a lot about what Peace that lays ahead, for the Palestinians.
There cannot be peace without justice, human rights and dignity of ALL.
Palestinian lives matter.
❗️ALERT❗️@gbsumudflotilla has been attacked 7 times in a short span! Boats hit with sound bombs, explosive flares, and sprayed with suspected chemicals. Radios jammed, calls for help blocked. Immediate international attention AND PROTECTION required!
Hands off the Flotilla!
🔴Breaking: Over twenty of the world's leading experts on the international arms trade have issued a statement in support of @FranceskAlbs's report "From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide"
I wonder what gives a state representative the right to speak so assertively against int'l law, 30+years of int'l consensus (mostly championed by his own country), UNSC and UNGA resolutions, and ICJ jurisprudence.
It would be splendid if the other 191 UN member states, understanding the risks of being complicit with int'l crimes, decided to join forces and reaffirm that no political alliance can be premised upon the flagrant and systemic violation of int'l law.
So powerful. Not to Rafah—imagined by some as the gateway to a second Palestinian exodus—but here, at the wall of the ghetto. This is where the international community must stand—not watch.
It is time to demand that Israel open its crossings into Gaza—and if there is something to undo: it's precisely its Walls of infamy.
I ran @USAID health programs for the last 3 years. Trump’s 90 day Stop Work Order on foreign assistance does serious damage to the world and the US. Examples:🧵
UN experts call for immediate end to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electricity system to avoid risk of nuclear disaster. Attacks on energy infrastructure indispensable for the survival of the civilian population are prohibited under int'l humanitarian law.
https://t.co/xPaOglb0OX
⚡️Intergovernmental Negotiating Body co-chairs said stakeholders play a catalytic role & urged them to keep pushing for solutions, particularly on PABS (Art 12) & prevention (Art 4).
🧬A full day of PABS is ahead w/an evening session on lingering tech transfer issues.
🚨 In a special press conference today Geneva, the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for a #PandemicAccord announced negotiations will not conclude this year and will continue through 2025.
🚦So no special Session of the World Health Assembly in December.
🧵
Back from the trenches in Cali: sharing some personal views on the CBD COP 16 outcome establishing a new Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism on DSI https://t.co/I0E8tt3Vdh
Against this kind of figure, I am hoping that the upcoming @UNBiodiversity#COP16Colombia will not be approached as business as usual. Mainstreaming biodiversity in the agriculture and food sector is key to tackle the most important driver of #biodiversity loss worldwide.
🚨 #BREAKING! Species population numbers have dropped by 73% on average since 1970
But there's hope as we have #EUGreenDeal solutions to transform conservation, food, energy & finance to tackle the climate & nature crises.
New Living Planet Report 👉 https://t.co/uCYvUQ4b4R
Key statement from @Ginitastar UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of assembly and association on obligations of universities to respect these rights in relation with pro-Palestine solidarity movements
One thing there is very little general understanding of, is that we have passed a critical phase with the climate and ecological crisis, which makes it far different, that it was before.
It is very difficult to define this critical phase, but I will try.
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