Listen To This Story

1.5M-Year-Old Antarctic Ice To Be Melted to Unlock Climate Mystery (Maria) 

The author writes, “An ice core that may be older than 1.5 million years has arrived in the UK where scientists will melt it to unlock vital information about Earth’s climate. The glassy cylinder is the planet’s oldest ice and was drilled from deep inside the Antarctic ice sheet. Frozen inside is thousands of years of new information that scientists say could ‘revolutionize’ what we know about climate change.”

“We Were Kidnapped” (Dana) 

From Mother Jones: “Alvarado’s case…was emblematic of the cruelty of the Trump administration’s decision to send hundreds of Venezuelans to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison. Like many others, Alvarado, who worked as a baker in the Dallas area, appears to have been targeted simply because he was a Venezuelan man with tattoos. It did not matter that his most prominent tattoo was an autism awareness ribbon adorned with the name of his teenage brother.”

Millions Stolen, Death Threats: Should Banks Do More To Fight ‘Pig Butchering’? (Reader Jim) 

The author writes, “Now that investment scams, sometimes called pig butchering, are booming global operations, some Americans are demanding their banks and financial advisers do more to prevent the scams from happening. Pressure is also spreading to telecoms and social-media platforms such as Facebook, where scammers find their marks. In 2023, Anamarie sued Arvest Bank, the Arkansas-based regional lender that processed Craig’s wire payments. Similar lawsuits have sprung up around the country, seeking damages from the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo and alleging they didn’t do enough to investigate their customer’s suspicious behavior or to block payments to scammers.”

MAGA AI Bot Network Divided on Trump-Epstein Backlash (Sean) 

From NBC News: “A previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X is using artificial intelligence to automatically reply to conservatives with positive messages about people in the Trump administration, researchers say. But with the MAGA movement split over the administration’s handling of files involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the accounts’ messaging has broken, offering contradictory statements on the issue and revealing the AI-fueled nature of the accounts.”

There’s a Bigger Story Behind Colbert’s Cancellation (Laryn) 

The author writes, “The network’s stated reason for canceling the show has the sheen of believability. It’s true that the late-night ecosystem is struggling. Still, Colbert’s show has consistently led the ratings for its time slot. CBS and Paramount Global, The Atlantic contended on Thursday, no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt. On Truth Social, Trump — a frequent target of Colbert’s jokes — is celebrating. ‘I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,’ Trump posted Friday morning. ‘His talent was even less than his ratings.’

Dogs Can Detect Parkinson’s Years Before Symptoms — With 98% Accuracy (Mili) 

From ScienceDaily: “Dogs trained to detect Parkinson’s disease using scent have shown remarkable accuracy in new research. In a double-blind trial, they identified skin swabs from people with Parkinson’s with up to 80% sensitivity and 98% specificity, even when other health conditions were present. The findings offer hope for a simple, non-invasive diagnostic method using biomarkers that appear long before traditional symptoms, potentially allowing earlier treatment and slowed disease progression.”