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A hot new high-stakes competition show went viral on the internet this week that had fans placing bets, joining fantasy leagues, tweeting live updates, and posting daily recaps. But it wasnt Love Island or Survivor. It was the conclave. The conclave is the Catholic Churchs traditional process for picking a new pope. It involves sequestering dozens of cardinals in a locked-down Sistine Chapel for an indefinite period, during which time they use a series of votes to elect a new pontiff. After each ballot, an old-fashioned system is used to let the world know whether a pope has been chosen: If the decision has not been made, black smoke issues from the Chapels chimney; if it has, the smoke is white. This afternoon, white smoke issued after less than two days, announcing that Robert Francis Prevost, who has taken the papal name Leo XIV, had been chosenand marking an end to a brief subculture of ultradedicated conclave fans. Weeks before the conclave began, fans were already turning the election into a quasi-sporting event, analyzing each of the 133 contenders and placing bets on their chances of success. Once the conclave was actually underway, cardinal fever only became more intenseand more strange. These are four of the oddest ways that conclave-watchers kept up with the news: 24/7 chimney watch For the most dedicated of pope watchers, the official Vatican News channel hosted a 24/7 close-up livestream of the Sistine Chapels chimney, where the much-awaited smoke issues after each ballot. Despite the fact that the video was largely unchangingexcept for the occasional seagull sounds or chatter from the street belowit consistently held the attention of thousands of viewers since going live yesterday. By the time white smoke was issued around noon ET Thursday, viewership nearly topped 300,000. Pope Crave For anyone whos a frequent X user, youre probably familiar with the account Pop Crave, which updates followers with pop culture news every few hours. Well, now theres that, but for the next pope. Pope Crave is keeping pope enthusiasts in the loop with a near-constant stream of conclave-related memes, photos, and, of course, real-time updates. The account started as a fan page for the film Conclave, but has since turned into a full-on conclave news outlet in its own right, working with ad hoc correspondents on the ground in Rome to deliver forthcoming details about the election process to its more than 70,000 followers. In an interview with Time magazine, the accounts main administrator, Susan Bin, said her long-term goal for the account is for the Holy See to hire us so we can make official Vatican memes. Today, Pope Crave broke the news that a new pope had been selected minutes before many major news networks. Polymarket Thousands of people have already joined conclave-based fantasy leagues and put down their hard-earned cash on the cardinal they like best. On the crypto trading platform Polymarket, Who will be the next Pope? was the current top trending query on Tuesday, amassing over $27 million in trade volume. A handy color-coded chart kept track of how each candidate was faring among bidders. Just after white smoke issued from the chapel, but before Prevost’s election was announced, bids on Cardinal Pietro Parolin shot into a significant lead, followed by the internets favorite, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. Prevost’s election evidently came as a shock to most bidders, considering that his chances to win were hovering around 1% (and sometimes even edging closer to zero) in the days leading up to the decision. Conclave Island Frequent reality TV-enjoyers may have found it difficult to ignore that the conclave has a striking number of features in common with their favorite shows: a select group of individuals, sequestered from the rest of the world in an intense competition, which is also clouded in layers of mystery and drama. This certainly was not lost on many fans of the drag competition show RuPaul’s Drag Race, who took to captioning iconic images of the show with the conclave and speculating about what kind of cash prize the next pope might receive. Over on TikTok, creator Rob Anderson (@heartthrobert) took the reality TV comparison to the next level with a series of videos he called the Pope Games. Each installment was dedicated to explaining how the conclave works, as well as digging into all of the juicy gossip surrounding this years election, in a style that evoked the reality TV show Love Island. In his “Day 1 recap,” posted yesterday evening, Anderson began: Day one of the Pope Games is complete. 133 of these singles have entered the villa: no technology or contact with the outside world, leaving the ring light at the door, losing their Duolingo streaks. He went on to explain a shocking smear campaign, touched on reports that cardinals watched the Conclave movie to prepare for the election, and foreshadowed the schedule for day two.
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In the run-up to the annual U.N. climate conference, set to take place in Brazils Amazon in November, the construction of a road is drawing attention, with critics arguing it will lead to environmental degradation. Before the talks, called COP30, the state government of Para is building a 13-kilometer (8-mile) avenue designed to ease traffic on a major highway that runs parallel. The road was planned long before Belem, a metropolitan area of 2.5 million people that sits on the edge of the Amazon, was chosen as conference host. That hasn’t spared it sharp criticism, however, because the road is expected to cut across the last remnants of rainforest in Belem. Road building in the Amazon, which historically has often led to deforestation and development of surrounding areas, also stands in stark contrast to a central aim of climate conferences, and in particular this one: conservation of biodiversity. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has made the slowing of deforestation a central focus of his administration, has frequently boasted that this will be the first such conference in the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon is key to regulating the climate, because trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that heats the planet when released into the atmosphere. We will hold the best COP in history because the topic of all the ones held in other countries was the Amazon,” Lula said while visiting Belem worksites in February. This one will be in the Amazon. An official project map shows a straight line dividing a green area through the citys outskirts. This protected area is slightly larger than Manhattan. It was designated in 1993 to protect two lakes, a river basin and to restore a degraded rainforest. However, its rules allow private properties, government-approved deforestation and public works. Two university campuses are located within its limits. Even with measures to reduce the damage, there are tough issues to address, said Roberta Rodrigues, a professor of architecture at the Federal University of Para. Its hard to imagine a road being built along the banks of the Guama River without it leading to illegal development. It may lead to the end of this protected area.” The project dates back to 2020. Construction began in mid-2024, despite criticism over its impact on one of the citys few remaining green areas. The project drew wider attention in March, when the BBC reported that the avenue was “being built for COP30. As the story was picked up by news outlets around the world, Brazils government issued a statement saying the avenue wasn’t among the 33 infrastructure projects planned for COP30. In a statement to The Associated Press, the state government of Para said that the avenue, named Liberdade, or Freedom, will be an expressway and development around it won’t be permitted. The chaotic growth of Brazilian cities, however, suggests it’s a promise that will be hard to keep. Countless public areas have been occupied for the irregular construction of housing from modest structures to luxury condos with the expectation that they will eventually be legalized, which often ends up happening. Belem is the capital of Para, which is run by Gov. Helder Barbalho, a politician from a traditional family who is an ally of Lula. Both support oil drilling in the nearby mouth of the Amazon River, likely a point of contention during COP30. The road is scheduled to be inaugurated just before the conference kicking off on Nov. 10. ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Fabiano Maisonnave, Associated Press
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The woman behind Instacarts successful IPO, Fidji Simo, is joining OpenAIs C-suite. On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Simos new role as CEO of applications. She will report directly to him after transitioning out of her current role at Instacart later this year. “In her new role, Fidji will focus on enabling our traditional company functions to scale as we enter a next phase of growth,” Altman said in a blog post. “Fidji brings a rare blend of leadership, product, and operational expertise, and genuine commitment to ensuring our technology benefits everyone.” Before joining OpenAIs executive team, Simo served as a member of its board of directors. She will now concentrate on scaling the companys traditional functions as it moves into its next phase of growth. Simos addition signals OpenAIs potential expansion beyond ChatGPT. Previous reports have suggested the company is exploring ventures into social media platforms. This organization has the potential of accelerating human potential at a pace never seen before, and I am deeply committed to shaping these applications toward the public good, Simo said in the blog post. Heres everything you need to know about Silicon Valleys latest executive. Who is Fidji Simo? The 39-year-old is a first-generation high school graduate from the fishing village of Ste in France. As Fast Company previously reported, Simo was named after a perfume worn by her mother, a boutique owner. She graduated from one of Frances most prestigious business schools, HEC Paris, and began her career at eBay in 2007. Facebook alumna Prior to Instacart, Simo served as a senior executive at Facebook, working closely with her former mentor Mark Zuckerberg and eventually leading the Facebook app prior to the companys rebrand to Meta. During her tenure there, from 2011 to 2021, she held roles including director of product management and vice president of video, games, and monetization. Leading Instacart In January 2021, Simo became CEO of Maplebear Inc., Instacarts parent company. She went on to lead Instacarts highly anticipated IPO in 2023, which raised $660 million and valued the company at $9.9 billion. A healthcare initiative While serving as CEO of Instacart, Simo cofounded the Metrodora Institute after being diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and endometriosis. The clinic and research center is dedicated to treating women with neuroimmune axis disorders by collecting data from consenting patients and sharing it with partner research institutions, in hopes of finding a cure. These disorders include conditions in which the immune system attacks the nervous system, such as lupus, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and long COVID.
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