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Wildflowers Could Be Absorbing Toxic Metals That Pass to Bees: Study (Maria)
The author writes, “Wildflowers could be absorbing toxic metals from soil in urban areas and passing toxins on to pollinators, a study has found. Researchers from the University of Cambridge found that common plants — including white clover and bindweed, which are vital forage for pollinators in cities — can accumulate arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead from contaminated soils. These metals have been found in previous studies to damage the health of bees and other pollinators, which feed on the contaminated nectar. This leads to reduced population sizes and death. Even low metal levels in nectar can hinder bees’ learning and memory, which degrades their foraging abilities.”
Meet the Miami Lobbyist Who Helped Bukele Seduce MAGA (Dana)
From Mother Jones: “The Salvadorian president, who has dubbed himself ‘the world’s coolest dictator,’ was already a Trumpworld darling partly because of his gift for authoritarian showmanship — and his apparent success reducing crime by jailing alleged criminals with little due process. But his US popularity is also the product of a years-long courtship of American right-wing influencers, media, and politicians organized by Damian Merlo, a 50-year-old Miami-based lobbyist who has become, as the Central American newspaper El Faro put it last year, ‘a sort of ambassador to the Trump-aligned Right’ for Latin American leaders.”
NOAA Scientists Are Cleaning Bathrooms and Reconsidering Lab Experiments After Contracts for Basic Services Expire (Reader Steve)
From ProPublica: “Federal scientists responsible for monitoring the health of West Coast fisheries are cleaning office bathrooms and reconsidering critical experiments after the Department of Commerce failed to renew their lab’s contracts for hazardous waste disposal, janitorial services, IT and building maintenance. Trash is piling up at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, staffers told ProPublica. Ecologists, chemists and biologists at Montlake Laboratory, the center’s headquarters in Seattle, are taking turns hauling garbage to the dumpster and discussing whether they should create a sign-up sheet to scrub toilets.”
Carney’s Checkmate: How Canada’s Quiet Bond Play Forced Trump to Drop Tariffs (Reader Pat)
The author writes, “Let’s talk about the moment Donald Trump blinked. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t a tweetstorm or a rally rant. When the tariff threats that had the world on edge — 125% on China, 25% on Canada’s autos, a global trade war in the making — suddenly softened. A ‘pause,’ he called it. A complete turnaround from the chest-thumping of the past week. And the reason? Mark Carney and a slow, deliberate financial maneuver that most people didn’t even notice: the coordinated Treasury bond slow bleed.”
‘An Existential Threat to Democracy’: The US Judge Facing a Challenge to Her Election Victory (Reader Jim)
From The Guardian: “Allison Riggs, a Democratic justice on the North Carolina supreme court, is battling to keep her seat after a recent court ruling paved the way to overturn her election victory, telling the Guardian in an interview: ‘This is not just a North Carolina problem. This is an existential threat to democracy.’”
Why Are Chinese Fashion Manufacturers Going Viral on TikTok Amid the Tariffs Chaos? (Sean)
From Fashionista: “Videos ‘exposing’ high-end Western labels — from Gucci to Birkenstock to Lululemon — for ‘secretly’ having their goods manufactured in China have made their way onto Americans’ FYPs, going viral across platforms over the weekend. This is seemingly in response to the United States’ ongoing trade war with China after Trump placed 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, to which China retaliated with 125% tariffs on U.S. imports. But who are these suppliers, what are the goals and are they seriously making Hermès bags in China?”
What Are the Rights of Nature? (Laura)
The author writes, “Here’s what you need to know about one of the fastest-growing environmental and social movements worldwide — to secure legal rights for ecosystems and other parts of the natural world.”
