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The Global Effort to Genetically Map 70,000 Animal Species (Maria)
The author writes, “The Vertebrate Genomes Project [is] an ambitious effort by an international group of scientists to create a ‘Genome Ark’ by sequencing the genomes of about 70,000 animal species. The hope is that through all of this gene sequencing, scientists will be able to answer some basic but important questions. … Plus, with so many species on the verge of extinction, can scientists record their genetic information before they go extinct — or better yet, maybe help save the population from going extinct?”
Illinois Has Put an End to the Injustice of Cash Bail (Dana)
From The Nation: “A blue-carpeted, neon-lit courtroom in downtown Joliet, Illinois, a former steel town about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, fills with the sounds of clinking metal as a handful of people in handcuffs are led in on the afternoon of August 28. Only three people sit in the pew-like wooden benches at the back that are reserved for the public. At 1:45 pm, the first defendant, a Black woman with blond hair, is called to stand at a podium facing the judge’s dais. This court appearance will determine whether she will be put in jail or go free while awaiting a trial. Just a year ago, her fate would likely have been determined by whether she had enough money to post bail. But Will County Judge Matthew Bertani … tells her simply that she is ‘going to be released today.’ She responds, ‘Thank you,’ before being led out to freedom less than a minute later.”
French Government Felled in No-Confidence Vote, Deepening Political Crisis (Sean)
The authors write, “French lawmakers passed a no-confidence vote against the government on Wednesday, throwing the European Union’s second-biggest economic power deeper into a crisis that threatens its capacity to legislate and tame a massive budget deficit. Far-right and left-wing lawmakers joined forces to back a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Michel Barnier, with a majority 331 votes in support of the motion. Barnier now has to tender his resignation and that of his government to President Emmanuel Macron, making his minority government’s three-month tenure the shortest lived in France’s Fifth Republic beginning in 1958.”
Will Trump Be the President of Vice? (Al)
The author writes, “Mr. Trump’s moderation on pot, crypto — which some social conservatives see as closer to gambling than a serious investment — and other vices appears to have been part of a calculated effort to turn out young men, who, surveys suggest, helped propel him to victory. Pushing forward with liberalization in these areas could help establish vice voters as part of the new, post-Trump Republican coalition. But it would also have dangerous social consequences — consequences that could help fuel an already growing backlash against both Mr. Trump and addictive, harmful goods of all kinds.”
No Room for Emergency (Laura)
From The Intercept: “In December, Bridget Rochios, a nurse practitioner and midwife at the University of California, San Francisco, showed up to work wearing a keffiyeh. Later, she and other co-workers started coming to work wearing ‘Free Palestine’ pins, as well as hospital ID badges shaped like a watermelon, a pro-Palestine symbol. Rochios, whose work includes addressing health disparities within reproductive health care, had been moved by reports of Israel’s targeting and destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and health care system, and started wearing the items as a show of solidarity with Palestinian women and babies, as well as her medical colleagues in Gaza. Supervisors ordered Rochios and her colleagues to remove the pins, threatening them with suspension or termination. Most complied, but Rochios refused.”
Climate Solution: Sails Make a Comeback in Shipping, to Dent Its Huge Carbon Footprint (Reader Jim)
The author writes, “The international merchant fleet of more than 100,000 ships transports more than 80% of global trade. But it’s also responsible for about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Without a quick switch from dirty fuels to cleaner energies, its pollution is forecast to soar. Mariners pushing for wind power say investors used to view them as something of a joke. But as they pioneer a comeback for sail-powered cargo ships, they’re having the last laugh.”
World’s Oldest Known Wild Bird Lays Egg at 74 (Mili)
From the BBC: “The world’s oldest known wild bird has laid an egg at the approximate age of 74, US biologists say. Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, was filmed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge in the Pacific Ocean with her latest partner looking after the egg. Members of the species usually only live for 12-40 years, but Wisdom was tagged in 1956 when she was about five. Her last offspring hatched in 2021. She is thought to have had more than 30 chicks in her lifetime.”
