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The World Is Ignoring the Other Deadly Kind of Carbon (Maria)
The author writes, “Once again, vast expanses of Canadian wilderness are on fire, threatening towns and forcing thousands to flee. It appears to be a breakout of ‘zombie fires’: wildfires from last year that never actually went out completely but carried on smoldering underground, reigniting ground vegetation again this year. They’ve been pouring smoke — once again — into northern cities in the United States. That haze is loaded with a more obscure form of carbon, compared to its famous cousin CO2: black carbon. By May 16, the fires’ monthly carbon emissions surpassed 15 megatons, soaring above previous years. … While there’s no way to stop northern fires entirely, there are ways to prevent them.”
After Backlash, Trump Pulls Social Media Post With Reference To ‘Unified Reich’ (Sean)
The author writes, “Donald Trump deleted a video posted to his Truth Social account that included reference to a ‘unified Reich’ after President Joe Biden’s campaign and others criticized the use of language often associated with the Nazi regime. The 30-second video, which was posted on Monday afternoon, was no longer available on the website by early morning on Tuesday. … The video portrayed a positive vision for the country should the Republican presidential candidate defeat Biden, a Democrat, in November’s election, featuring hypothetical newspaper headlines about a booming economy and a crackdown on immigration at the southern border. At two points in the video, text below a larger headline reads: ‘INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED… DRIVEN BY THE CREATION OF A UNIFIED REICH.’”
4 Ways Vaccine Skeptics Mislead You on Measles and More (Mili)
From CBS News: “Measles is on the rise in the United States. So far this year, the number of cases is about 17 times what it was, on average, during the same period in each of the four years before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half of the people infected — mainly children — have been hospitalized. It’s going to get worse, largely because a growing number of parents are deciding not to get their children vaccinated against measles as well as diseases like polio and pertussis. Unvaccinated people, or those whose immunization status is unknown, account for 80% of the measles cases this year.”
In a Place With a History of Hate, an Unlikely Fight Against GOP Extremism (Gerry)
The author writes, “Locals prefer not to talk about the hate that took root here a generation ago, when the Aryan Nations and other militants built a white supremacist paradise among the tall pines and crystal lakes of North Idaho. Community activists, backed by national civil rights groups, bankrupted the neo-Nazis in court and eventually forced them to move. … Now, however, North Idaho residents are confronting that history head-on as a new movement builds against far-right extremism.”
The Intelligence Community Is Spying on Student Protesters (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “The National Counterterrorism Center, created in the wake of 9/11 to combat al Qaeda, is now working overtime to find evidence of foreign funding of pro-Palestinian student protesters, [Ken Klippenstein has] learned. The effort follows repeated calls by Congress for the federal government to investigate university protesters’ purported links to Hamas, and coincides with a push by the FBI and homeland security bureaucracies to link the campus demonstrations to foreign actors. Tempting as it might be to laugh off the specter of foreign powers directing undergraduate protesters, evidence of this would provide the legal basis for the intelligence community to spy on Americans. Absent a foreign connection, the protests are constitutionally-protected speech.”
How the US Financial System Helps Shelter Profits From Environmental Organized Crime (Laura)
From The Hill: “Environmental organized crime is a massive global enterprise, bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars each year — and the U.S. financial system appears to be helping conceal its profits. Interpol estimates that environmental crime such as poaching and illegal logging generates up to $281 billion a year, making it the third-most lucrative illegal business worldwide. Although the crimes themselves take place in various parts of the world, America’s financial system makes it ideal for parking and laundering the proceeds due to weaknesses in its anti-money-laundering infrastructure.”
Oldest Known Human Viruses Discovered In 50,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Remains (Dana)
From Arkeonews: “Researchers from the Federal University of São Paulo have managed to uncover the oldest known human viruses in a set of Neanderthal bones dating from over 50,000 years and they could soon recreate them. Two Neanderthals had their DNA tested, and the results showed traces of the papillomavirus (a sexually transmitted virus) and the adenovirus (adenovirus, which causes cold sores), as well as other viruses. The two prehistoric humans were male and their remains were found in a cave in Russia. Experts have long speculated that viruses may have caused the extinction of Neanderthals, and this most recent discovery could support that theory.”
