How the Sea Helps People Cope With Trauma, Anxiety and Addiction

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The Rise of Blue-Space Therapy: How the Sea Helps People Cope With Trauma, Anxiety and Addiction (Maria)

The author writes, “Watching the waves break across the vast, roaring ocean before him, Dave Phillips felt out of options standing on the cliff’s edge. The British army veteran walked away and sought professional help for PTSD, anxiety and depression. He was introduced to Turn to Starboard, a British charity that helps vets cope with trauma through sailing. It changed everything. The sea takes him away from ‘all the stresses and strains of life,’ Phillips said. ‘It’s got the power of calmness.’”

Officials Asked To Turn Over Phones at the White House as Wiles, Patel Lead Intensifying Leak Probe (Sean)

From CNN: “Chief of staff Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump’s closest aide, and FBI Director Kash Patel helped personally orchestrate a sprawling investigation last week at the White House aimed at determining who in the government leaked information about the security deficiencies of a Qatari-gifted airplane meant to be used as Air Force One – with some officials being asked to turn over their phones to investigators on White House grounds, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump had fumed over disclosures about the new plane, sources said, and his government quickly stood up an intense leak probe that roiled the government. As the investigation unfolded, at least one federal agency emailed employees warning that if they were contacted by outside agencies requesting information and devices, they needed to immediately contact their own agency’s attorneys.”

How To Show That Israel’s Sexual Violence Against Palestinians Is Systemic — and Has Gone on for Decades (Laura)

From The Intercept: “The months after the October 7, 2023, attacks saw a wave of questionable mainstream news stories about alleged sexual assault in Hamas’s attacks that day on Israel. It would be years before the American press began to deal with sex crimes against Palestinians imprisoned by Israel as part of its brutal occupation. It’s a reckoning that is long overdue. Sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinians in detention is both a systematic and a decades-old practice — a well understood dynamic that is being put in the spotlight this week in a new report from the Palestinian Feminist Collective, a group of Palestinian and Arab feminist researchers and organizers.”

The Mitch McConnell Mystery Is Solved. But It Doesn’t Look Good for America (Reader Jim)

The author writes, “Like any good proof-of-life photo, it featured that day’s newspaper. After a nearly month-long disappearance, when it was clear that he had been rushed to the hospital but not clear why or in what condition, Mitch McConnell broke his silence, as they say in the tabloids, by releasing a photograph of himself sitting upright in a hospital bed. … The picture was meant to put an end to the rampant speculation over whether the senator, aged 84, was dead or not. You would think this would be a simple enough question to answer. If the man himself wasn’t available to clear up the matter, couldn’t someone have held two fingers to the inside of his wrist to check for a pulse, or propped a hand mirror under his nose to see if it fogged? No such luck, apparently.”

RFK’s CDC Cut Back on Parasite Monitoring. Then an Outbreak Spiraled (Dana)

From USA Today: “An outbreak of an ‘explosive’ diarrhea-causing parasite is picking up steam across the United States as thousands of residents have reported falling ill. Cyclosporiasis, or the disease caused by the parasite cyclospora, has been identified in more than 1,600 confirmed cases, with 5,100 others being investigated, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on July 13. More than 100 people have been hospitalized and cases have been confirmed in 34 states. … The CDC has been unable to confirm a specific source of the parasitic infection, which is known to be found on fresh produce and in water in tropical regions. Cyclosporiasis cases tend to spike in summer months, the CDC says, or between May and August. But this time, health officials inside the agency and across the country are tackling the outbreak with fewer staff and resources.”

Climate Scientist Who ‘Proved’ Humanity Is Warming Earth Says Government Report Got It Wrong (Mili)

The author writes, “A pioneering climate scientist is challenging a US government report that cited his research while reaching what he says is the exact opposite conclusion. Benjamin Santer and his colleagues say decades of satellite data clearly reveal the atmospheric ‘fingerprint’ of human-caused climate change. Their new peer-reviewed analysis argues the report contains major scientific errors and should not be relied upon in climate policy decisions.”