It has been claimed that during the late time history of our universe, the fine structure constant, α, has been increasing [1],[2]. However, other teams has claimed a discordant result [3],[4]. Also, the current precision of laboratory tests is not sufficient to either comfort or reject any of these astronomical observations. Here we suggest that a nonlinear electrodynamics (NLED) interaction of photons with the weak local background magnetic fields of a gas cloud absorber can reconcile the null result of refs.[3] and [4] with the negative variation found by refs. [2] and [1] and also to find a bridge with the positive variation found later by Levshakov et al.. [5]–[7]. Moreover, NLED photon propagation in a vacuum permeated by a background magnetic field is actually in full agreement with constraints from Oklo natural reactor data.

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