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An Israeli Startup Says Its New Technology Will Save the Planet. Scientists Have Doubts. (Maria)

The author writes, “The startup Gigablue announced with fanfare this year that it reached a historic milestone: selling 200,000 carbon credits to fund what it describes as a groundbreaking technology in the fight against climate change. Formed three years ago by entrepreneurs in Israel, the company says it has designed particles that when released in the ocean will trap carbon at the bottom of the sea. … But outside scientists frustrated by the lack of information released by the company say serious questions remain about whether Gigablue’s technology works as described. Their questions showcase tensions in an industry built on little regulation and big promises — and a tantalizing chance to profit.”

JD Vance Accidentally Reveals How Badly Trump Is Screwing MAGA Voters (Reader Jim)

From The New Republic: “The Senate just passed President Trump’s big budget bill, which will cut $1 trillion from Medicaid to fund huge tax cuts for the rich. In a remarkable series of angry tweets, Vice President JD Vance downplayed the Medicaid cuts while saying what really matters is the bill’s massive funding for ICE and migrant detention. It was a striking and very revealing moment: Vance basically told MAGA voters not to think too much about losing their Medicaid benefits; instead, focus on how many migrants the bill will end up jailing and deporting! That scam — getting voters to hate on immigrants so they don’t notice that Republicans are massively redistributing wealth upward — is integral to getting the Medicaid cuts passed. But will voters buy it?”

An Offhand Remark About Gold Bars, Secretly Recorded, Upended His Life (Laura)

The author writes, “Brent Efron’s ‘boring’ Tinder date wanted to hear all about his work at the Environmental Protection Agency, so Mr. Efron talked. If only he’d seen the hidden camera.”

How to Turn the US Into an Immigration Police State in One Big Bill (Dana)

From The Bulwark: “Will July 1, 2025, be a date that will live in infamy? Probably not. There are too many competitors, too many other dates in recent months and years that have been signposts on our descent toward authoritarianism and indecency, too many other markers of national decline, for this one day to stand out all that much. Still, yesterday packed quite a one-two punch.”

Voters Favored Casting Early and Mail Ballots in Last Year’s Presidential Election, Report Shows (Reader Steve)

The author writes, “Casting mailed ballots remained popular among voters in last year’s presidential election, even as President Donald Trump has tried to undercut the process through a wide-ranging executive order. A report released Monday by the US Election Assistance Commission also found a surge in early in-person voting and robust use of ballot drop boxes, which have been a target of conspiracy theorists since the 2020 election. The findings, based on data collected at the local level and submitted by states, illustrate the sustained popularity of alternate voting methods even as they have come under attack in recent years from Republicans.”

Why Aren’t Italians as Obese as Americans? It’s Not Really What They Eat (Russ)

The author writes, “I had the great good fortune to spend the entire month of May in Italy. And if you’ve heard the reports of people going there on vacation, eating their way through the country, and miraculously coming home a few pounds lighter, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t always work out that way. Those folks, though, often come home scratching their head about why Italians are so much thinner than Americans. And, when you go to Italy, or even read about going to Italy, it does make you wonder. They eat cookies for breakfast. Lunch and dinner are typically multicourse meals, with a pasta or risotto as a first course and a meat dish as a second. There are sometimes antipasti as well. Even schoolkids often get multicourse meals.”

Microbe With Bizarrely Tiny Genome May Be Evolving Into a Virus (Sean)

From Science: “The newly discovered microbe provisionally known as Sukunaarchaeum isn’t a virus. But like viruses, it seemingly has one purpose: to make more of itself. As far as scientists can tell from its genome — the only evidence of its existence so far — it’s a parasite that provides nothing to the single-celled creature it calls home. Most of Sukunaarchaeum’s mere 189 protein-coding genes are focused on replicating its own genome; it must steal everything else it needs from its host Citharistes regius, a dinoflagellate that lives in ocean waters all over the world. Adding to the mystery of the microbe, some of its sequences identify it as archaeon, a lineage of simple cellular organisms more closely related to complex organisms like us than to bacteria like Escherichia coli. The discovery of Sukunaarchaeum’s bizarrely viruslike way of living, reported last month in a bioRxiv preprint, ‘challenges the boundaries between cellular life and viruses.’”