Today ChatGPT read 1128 top news stories and gave 8 of them a significance score over 7.
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After removing duplicates and repeats, here is today’s significant news:
[8.6] UN climate official warns world at "tipping point" in climate crisis — The Guardian
The world is at a "tipping point" in the climate crisis that requires all countries to put aside their national interests to fight for the common good, the UN's top climate official has warned. Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, pointed to recent findings from scientists that temperatures were likely to exceed the threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels within the next five years. Stiell was addressing representatives from nearly 200 countries gathered in Bonn, the UN's climate headquarters, to discuss how to forge a "course correction" that would put the world on track to meet the aspirations of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and limit global heating to 1.5C.
[7.5] Binance faces investor exodus following SEC lawsuit, crypto value impacted — Reuters
Investors have withdrawn approximately $790 million from cryptocurrency exchange Binance, in the last 24 hours, following a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC accuses Binance of evading U.S. laws through deceptive practices, such as inflating trading volumes and diverting customer funds. Binance, in response, insists it has cooperated with the SEC and will defend its platform vigorously. This legal action, coupled with previous lawsuits, contributes to a shaky period for Binance and has had a noticeable effect on the value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Binance's own BNB.
[7.4] Mycorrhizal fungi play larger role in carbon storage than previously thought — The Conversation
New research suggests that mycorrhizal fungi, which live in symbiosis with plants, could play a significant role in storing carbon, helping to offset carbon emissions. The fungiform vast underground networks, exchanging nutrients and water for carbon-rich sugars from plants. It's estimated that these fungi absorb around 36% of the world’s annual carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Although the fungi also naturally release some carbon back into the atmosphere, their net contribution to soil carbon storage is substantial. Despite the lack of data from certain ecosystems and regions, the findings indicate the importance of these fungal networks in the carbon cycle. Preserving these networks, particularly in the face of deforestation and land-clearing, could offer an additional avenue for tackling climate change.
[7.4] Rich industrialized countries could owe $170tn in climate reparations by 2050 — The Guardian
A new study published in the journal Nature Sustainability has calculated that rich industrialised countries responsible for excessive levels of greenhouse gas emissions could be liable to pay $170tn in climate reparations by 2050 to ensure targets to curtail climate breakdown are met. The proposed compensation, which amounts to almost $6tn annually, would be paid to historically low-polluting developing countries that must transition away from fossil fuels despite not having yet used their “fair share” of the global carbon budget. The compensation system is based on the idea that the atmosphere is a commons, a natural resource for everyone which has not been used equitably.
[7.4] Canada faces unprecedented wildfire season — Toronto Star
Canada is facing an unprecedented wildfire season, with officials warning that by the end of August, the country could have more scorched forest than ever before. The situation is the result of a convergence of factors, including climate change, which is delivering conditions conducive to more frequent and severe wildfires, and large-scale weather patterns that are fanning the flames. There are significant fires burning in every single province and territory. Already this year, there have been 2,214 wildfires that have blackened more than 3.3 million hectares of Canadian wildland, more than five million football fields’ worth.
[7.2] Dam destruction in Ukraine prompts mass evacuations and potential large-scale devastation — CNN
The Nova Kakhova dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson, southern Ukraine, was destroyed, prompting mass evacuations and fears of large-scale devastation. Ukraine accused Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.” The critical dam spans the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine, and there are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour. The dam is a critical piece of infrastructure, holding around 18 cubic kilometres in the Kakhovka Reservoir, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah. It also supplies water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which lies upstream and is also under Russian control.
[7.1] Reserve Bank of Australia raises interest rates to 11-year high to tackle inflation — news.com.au
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has raised interest rates to an 11-year high of 4.10%, up 0.25 percentage points, in a bid to tackle inflation. The move means that the average borrower with a $500,000 home loan could now be paying $1,134, or 49%, more a month. Economists were split on whether the RBA would raise rates, with some citing the decision to lift the minimum wage as a cause for concern. The RBA's governor, Philip Lowe, defended the increases at a parliamentary hearing last week.
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I wrote a breakdown of how all of the less explained game mechanics in Star Rail work for my friends and figured I'd share it here in case some people found some value in it. I cover:

• Effect Hit Rates
• Aggro & Taunts
• Speed & Action Advances
• Toughness & Break Effects

There is a TLDR Summary section at the end if you just want a summary of the most important points.
Effect Hit Rate
Any time a character attempts to apply a debuff to an enemy (Freeze, Slow, Pela's Defence Down, Serval's & Sampo's DoT, etc) there is a Base Chance that it gets applied decided by the ability. This is then multiplied by your Effect Hit Rate AND the enemies Effect Resistance to get your ACTUAL chance to apply it. Most bosses have a solid chunk of Effect Resistance, so 100% Base Chance will still not always land.
EG: Pela Ult - 50% bonus Effect Hit Rate - 50% Resist on Target
1x1.5x0.5=0.75 - 75% Chance to inflict Defence Down
The same formula is used for enemies trying to Debuff you. Talent effects like Herta's & Clara's "35% chance to Ignore CC" are a SEPARATE multiplier on the formula to regular Effect Resistance.
Enemy Targeting: Aggro & Taunts
Not every character is weighted equally for how likely they are to be attacked. They have a Base Aggro level that is first decided by their Path:

• 75 - Path of Erudition & the Hunt
• 100 - Path of Harmony, Nihility & Abundance
• 125 - Path of Destruction
• 150 - Path of Preservation

This Base Aggro is then multiplied by any modifiers active - These are:

• 5x - Clara Ult & Technique, March Skill
• 3x - Gepard's A2 Trace
• 2x - Landau's Choice & Moment of Victory Light Cones
• 0.5x - Dan Heng, Seele & Sushang's A2 Traces
• 0.4x - Yanqing Talent

The character's likelihood to be attacked is the percentage of how much of the total Aggro Value of the team is theirs.
So - For a party of March, Preservation Trailblazer w/ March Shield & Landau's Choice, Dan Heng below 50% HP & Natasha it's like this:
March (150) + Trailblazer (150x(5+2)) + Natasha (100) + Dan Heng (75x0.5) = 1337.5 Total Aggro
Trailblazer = 1050/1337.5 = 0.785 = 78.5% Chance
For the party it looks like:

• Trailblazer - 78.5%
• March - 11.2%
• Natasha - 7.4%
• Dan Heng - 2.8%

Taunt's like those applied by the Trailblazer are a Debuff (and thus influenced by Effect Hit Rate) that the Trailblazer applies to the enemy - it forces a debuffed enemy to select the Trailblazer as their primary target on their next turn.
Turn Order: Speed & Action Delay/Advance
Speed is a stat used to generate a characters "Action Value", which is how many units of time must pass before a character gets to take their turn. It is calculated as 10000/Speed, so for a standard Speed 100 Character, their unmodified Action Value is 100.
If their speed is increased by 100, their new Base Action Value would become 50.
ABSOULTELY ESSENTIAL: There is a setting in "Other Settings" that allows you to turn on Action Value so you can see the exact number on the characters turn indicators. This should honestly be on by default so I STRONGLY suggest you turn it on.
So - at the start of a battle everyone is placed in the turn order based on how much Action Value they have to wait. The game subtracts action value from everyone equally until someone hits 0, at which point it becomes their turn. After they complete their turn, they are placed back in the order at their full Base Action Value. This is how turn order works.
Action Advance & Action Delay subtracts or adds a percentage of their BASE Action Value to their current Action Value amount.
Example: Seele has a base speed of 115. Boots add 25 Flat speed and her E adds 25%, so Seele w/ Boots & E Buff has 115*1.25+25=169 Speed. 10000/169 = 59 Action Value. A 50% Action Delay like the Ice Fragmentum Pikemen do when applied to Seele would add approximately 29.5 Action Value to her current Action Value, and a 50% turn advance would subtract the same amount.
As far as I can tell, Action Value ties go in the order they were in BEFORE they became a tie. So a character with 70 Action Value and one with 50 Action Value both get advanced 100% to 0, the one at Action Value 50 will go first - but this point specifically is guesswork from me.
A change to a characters speed will adjust their current action value to be the same % of the new value. So if 100 Speed character (100 Base AV) with 50 AV until their next turn gains 100 Speed their new Base AV becomes 50 and their new Current AV will be 25 (still 50% of their Base AV).
1 Cycle in the Forgotten Hall = 100 Action Value of passed time, except for the first cycle, which is 150 Action Value of passed time.
Toughness & Break Effect:
The Break Effect stat increases the amount of Bonus Damage that the enemy takes when you break their Toughness bar and the power of the Debuff applied when you break it. It does NOT increase how much damage you do TO the Toughness bar with your attacks (that's a different stat called Weakness Break Efficiency that can ONLY be gained from certain Simulated Universe buffs).
The damage dealt by a Weakness Break's has a base value decided by the Character's Level, then their Weakness Break stat and the Max Toughness of the enemy are also factored in (higher Toughness enemies (e.g. Bosses) take much more damage from a Weakness Break). Note that the Max Toughness is only factored into the Initial Damage, NOT the DoT (Except for Quantum).
Each Element has a different multiplier on how much their Weakness Break does up front, and different multiplier for the DoT applied. It works like follows:
Break Effect Table
To go through each individually:
Fire - Largest Upfront Damage, Weaker DoT, 4x Total damage
Physical - Largest Upfront Damage, DoT deals damage based on enemies Max HP (16% for Normal, 7% for Elites & Bosses), Damage over Time ticks cannot exceed the Upfront damage for a max of 6x Total Damage
Wind - High Upfront Damage, DoT applies 1 stack to a normal enemy, but 3 stacks to a Boss or Elite for a total of 3.5x against Normal and 7.5x against Bosses.
Lightning - Mild Upfront Damage, Largest DoT/Turn, 5x Total Damage
Ice - Mild Upfront, Mild 1-turn damage tick. Enemy loses their next turn when Frozen but their following move is Advanced by 50%. Break Effect does not boost the utility of Ice and it has low damage, so BREAK EFFECT IS A VERY WEAK STAT FOR SPECIFICALLY ICE CHARACTERS
Quantum - Tiny Upfront, each subsequent attack adds a stack up to a max of 5. The detonation of the Stacks is effected by the Toughness Multiplier, so the detonation deals MASSIVELY boosted damage against a high toughness enemy like a Boss. Also delays the enemy turn by 20% x Break Effect.
Imaginary - Tiny Upfront, No DoT, Delays the enemy turn by 30% X Break Effect AND reduces their speed by 10%.
Summary:

• Fire - Upfront Damage - General Purpose
• Physical - Anti-High HP DoT - Best Against Bosses
• Wind - High Anti-Boss DoT - Best Against Elites
• Lightning - High DoT - Best AoE DoT
• Ice - Light damage, Does not benefit from Break Effect much - Best Baseline Effect
• Quantum - Huge Boss nuking, slightly delays the enemy. - Best Against Bosses
• Imaginary - Almost 0 damage, hugely delays the enemy. - Best Enemy Delay/CC

Please note that this is an overly simplistic summary - Pros & Cons of Break Effect by Element is extremely nuanced in what is best in what situations and when and I don't want to overload people by going psycho In-Depth.
Final Note:
Whenever you Weakness Break an enemy, irrelevant of Break Effect it will always delays their next action by an additional 50%.
Summary/TLDR:
Effect Hit Rate boosts the chance to apply status effects to the enemy by multiplying their Base Chance. Most Bosses have Effect Resistance that means even 100% Base Chance WON'T always land.
Characters have different Base Aggro based on their Path that can be boosted or decreased by different effects, which is what determines who is MORE LIKELY to be attacked, but it is always still random to some extent unless the enemy are Taunted.
Break Effect increases the damage and potency of debuffs applied by breaking the enemies Toughness bar, but DOES NOT increase the speed you break the bar at. Ice Weakness Break effects scale VERY badly with Break Effect, so it's is a uniquely bad stat on Ice characters.
Speed determines how quickly a character takes turns in combat, both for the player and the enemy. There is a setting in the options menu to SHOW EXACTLY how long until each characters next turn. It should honestly be on by default so I STRONGLY SUGGEST TURNING IT ON. Action Delay & Forward is decided by the characters BASE Action Value, NOT their current (which means it isn't wasted to Advance Forward someone who is only 10 Action Value away from taking their turn if they have a lot of speed OR if its a small Advance Forward).
And Finally:
Buffs and Debuffs tick down at the end of a characters turn, but NOT on Bonus Turns or Ultimates.
Hope this helps and feel free to post any corrections or questions in the comments and I'll try to keep them updated.

LED backlit poster frame with double-sided 27x40 poster. I have some other Star Wars posters, but this Clone Wars poster just looks perfect to me.

Can any get me either bo Katan ship or the razercrest in game