Public Health Threat: How Industries Spent Years Fighting Who Measures Toxic Air

Public Health Emergency Threat: How US Industries Spent Years Fighting Who Measures Toxic Air (Maria)

The author writes, “In 2023, after years of coping with the noxious odors, Kyereh began collecting air samples in her yard for a local environmental justice group. But soon after, Louisiana passed an industry-backed law that sharply restricted how that kind of data could be used. So she stopped. … A Floodlight/Guardian analysis found that Louisiana’s public air monitors are often located miles from major industrial polluters and fail to test for some of the most dangerous chemicals.”

Trump’s Truth Social Posts Move Markets. Is Selling Early Access to Them Legal? (Bethany)

From Straight Arrow News: “Wall Street firms will soon have the ability to see the president’s social media posts before most. Some of those announcements move major markets. Truth Social now plans to sell those firms early access to those market-moving posts, according to Trump Media and Technology Group. That first-look access raises several questions about the legality and ethics of this decision.”

US-Israeli Bombing Has Harmed Iran’s Wildlife, Farms, and Water Supply (Sean)

From Truthout: “Just a few days before Tehran and Washington signed a now-defunct ceasefire agreement, local media in Iran reported that 25 goitered gazelles were killed in US airstrikes on Kharg Island in the northern Persian Gulf. The small coral island is a key terminal for Iran’s oil exports and its unique wildlife includes white-headed seagulls, hawksbill sea turtles, and ospreys. It also hosts the ruins of a Dutch fort built in 1753. On multiple occasions, US President Donald Trump has brandished the possibility of invading the island of 8,000 people. The US-Israeli war on Iran opened with the most intensive bombing campaign in modern history. Some 23,800 airstrikes were carried out in a span of 39 days, and one of its most consequential impacts was the environmental damage inflicted on Iran’s ecosystems.”

‘Sees Only White’: Hawaii Supreme Court Burns Down John Roberts for ‘Naked Racism’ (DonkeyHotey)

The author writes, “Hawaii’s highest Court launched a rare attack on the US Supreme Court, accusing the John Roberts-led bench of enabling ‘naked racism’ and bending the Constitution to ‘whatever the Court needs it to be.’ The broadside came buried inside a ruling handed down this week that threw out the controversial 1990 rape conviction of a Maui man. The court found that discredited FBI hair-and-fiber testimony was false and denied Daniel Granillo a fair trial, and ordered a new trial. Using the ruling as a vehicle, Justice Todd Eddins explained why Hawaii no longer takes its cues on constitutional rights from Washington, and he opened with race.”

Police Keep Losing Their Jobs for Using Flock Cameras to Stalk People (Dana)

From Mother Jones: “Flock cameras — solar-powered, automated license plate readers, weighing less than 3 pounds and designed to be unobtrusive — can be found on 80,000 street corners throughout the country. The company behind the cameras built an $8.3 billion business empowering officers to track people’s movements. Nationwide, Flock cameras log billions of license plates each month. And now dozens of reports are emerging of police using the cameras not to solve crimes, but to stalk their partners and exes. Over a two-month period in 2025, Milwaukee police officer Josue Ayala searched the license plate number of someone he was dating over 200 times, according to court documents. He also searched for his partner’s ex. … The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm, identified at least 24 similar cases nationwide of officers using automated license-plate reader (ALPR) cameras like Flock to stalk romantic interests over the past two years.”

Europe Should Look to Africa for Heatwave Solutions (Mili)

The authors write, “As Europe faces repeated, dangerous heatwaves, the question is no longer whether rich countries need climate adaptation. It is whether they are willing to learn from places that have been adapting to climate instability for decades. Across the continent, record temperatures are straining hospitals, disrupting transport and turning ordinary public spaces into health risks. … But in Africa, communities have lived with rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, drought, water stress and fragile public infrastructure for generations. They have had to adapt under constrained conditions, often without the financing, insurance coverage or recovery systems available to wealthier countries. The continent has developed behavioural, architectural, technological and institutional approaches that offer real lessons for a rapidly warming Europe.”

The Animal Behind Most Aggressive Wildlife Encounters May Surprise You (Laura)

From Science News: “A bear might seem like the scariest thing you could run into in a national park. But a new study suggests maybe you should be more worried about elk. Out of nearly 3,000 wildlife incidents in Canadian national parks, more than half involved an elk, researchers report July 2 in Frontiers in Conservation Science. But the risk of tangling with a given species also depended on what people were doing. … Camping out? Be wary of elk grazing near your campsite. Quietly hiking or wildlife watching? Watch out for bears using the same trails.”