Here are some of today’s top stories:
- Scientist warn that the Earth is headed to 1.5° C warming soon.
- Mass shooting in San Jose, California.
- Texas leads the nation in insurrectionists.
- Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, died.
- Shareholders elect two new Exxon Mobil board members pledged to move to cleaner fuels.
- Dutch court orders Shell to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030.
- President Biden orders investigation of COVID-19 lab leak theory.
- Pentagon fast-tracking Afghanistan withdrawal.
- Republicans to offer $1 trillion in bipartisan infrastructure compromise.
- Russia spreading lies about Pfizer vaccine with social influencers.
Details and links to sources below the fold.
This is an open thread. Everyone is encouraged to share articles, stories, and tweets in your comments.
590,739 PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS IN THE U.S. 165.1 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.S. HAVE RECEIVED A VACCINATION DOSE
NPR News
Earth Is Barreling Toward 1.5 Degrees Celsius Of Warming, Scientists Warn
The average temperature on Earth is now consistently 1 degree Celsius hotter than it was in the late 1800s, and that temperature will keep rising toward the critical 1.5-degree Celsius benchmark over the next five years, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization.
Scientists warn that humans must keep the average annual global temperature from lingering at or above 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the most catastrophic and long-term effects of climate change. Those include massive flooding, severe drought and runaway ocean warming that fuels tropical storms and drives mass die-offs of marine species.
The new report from the WMO, an agency of the United Nations, finds that global temperatures are accelerating toward 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. The authors of the new report predict there is a 44% chance that the average annual temperature on Earth will temporarily hit 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming at some point in the next five years. That likelihood has doubled since last year.
100 Years After A White Mob Destroyed It, Tulsa's Black Wall Street Is Coming Back
Tulsa is booming again. The first boom came at the turn of the twentieth century, when oil was discovered in and around Oklahoma's second-largest city. Back then, Tulsa was slick with oil wealth — so much so it was often called the "Magic City," thanks to the sudden profusion of so much money.
And it wasn't just white Tulsa. Black folks had also flocked to the city during the boom, making Tulsa home to the second-largest African American population in the state by 1921. And although segregation relegated the approximately 10,000 Black Tulsans to Greenwood, a neighborhood north of the railroad tracks that divided the city, Black leaders found a way to make that work. […]
But all that prosperity vanished on the night of May 31, when a mob of white men — including some in law enforcement—rampaged through the neighborhood.
San Francisco Chronicle
The gunshots broke out just after 6:30 a.m. Wednesday and continued as the first of dozens of law enforcement officers rushed into the light-rail facility near downtown San Jose on a rescue mission for survivors.
By the time the shooting stopped, eight people and the gunman, a male employee at the site, were dead. Several more suffered injuries, some critical. It was the deadliest such shooting in the Bay Area since one in San Francisco’s Financial District in 1993.
NBC News
'Enough': Biden renews calls for gun control bill after San Jose rail yard shooting
President Joe Biden urged Congress to pass stricter gun control measures after the latest mass shooting at a Northern California rail yard Wednesday, in which eight people were killed. […]
"Enough," he said.
"Once again, I urge Congress to take immediate action and heed the call of the American people, including the vast majority of gun owners, to help end this epidemic of gun violence in America. Every life that is taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation. We can, and we must, do more."
The Oklahoman
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter announces resignation
Attorney General Mike Hunter announced his resignation on Wednesday, less than a week after filing for divorce from his wife, Cheryl.
The Oklahoman submitted questions to Hunter on Tuesday night about an extramarital affair that the newspaper confirmed through people familiar with the situation. The sources said the affair was with a state employee, who did not work in the attorney general's office.
Houston Chronicle
'You can't stop us': FBI timeline depicts roles Texans played in Capitol siege
Texans are leading the nation in the number of arrests for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as supporters of … Donald Trump violently disrupted a joint session of Congress convened to certify President Joe Biden’s election.
Months later, the U.S. Department of Justice is still investigating and arresting accused rioters, including Adam Weibling, a Katy area man the FBI arrested on Tuesday. Congress may launch its own independent investigation into the insurrection through a 9/11-style, bipartisan commission, though the measure's prospects in the Senate appear dim.
Meanwhile, some on the right are playing down the violence of a riot that left five people dead, including a U.S. Capitol police officer, and about 140 police officers injured.
The New York Times
Eric Carle, Author of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar,’ Dies at 91
Eric Carle, the artist and author who created that creature in his book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” a tale that has charmed generations of children and parents alike, died on Sunday at his summer studio in Northampton, Mass. He was 91. […]
“The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” Mr. Carle’s best-known book, has sold more than 55 million copies around the world since it was first published in 1969, its mere 224 words translated into more than 70 languages. It is one of more than 70 books that Mr. Carle has published over his career…
Climate Activists Defeat Exxon in Push for Clean Energy
Big Oil was dealt a stunning defeat on Wednesday when shareholders of Exxon Mobil elected at least two board candidates nominated by activist investors who pledged to steer the company toward cleaner energy and away from oil and gas.
The success of the campaign, led by a tiny hedge fund against the nation’s largest oil company, could force the energy industry to confront climate change and embolden Wall Street investment firms that are prioritizing the issue. Analysts could not recall another time that Exxon management had lost a vote against company-picked directors.
Pentagon Accelerates Withdrawal From Afghanistan
United States troops and their NATO allies intend to be out of Afghanistan by early to mid-July, well ahead of President Biden’s Sept. 11 withdrawal deadline, military officials said, in what has turned into an accelerated ending to [the] war.
But the race to the exits, which has picked up steam as planeloads of equipment and troops are flown out of the country, leaves the United States grappling with huge unresolved issues that officials had thought they would have more time to figure out.
Bloomberg
Shell Loses Climate Case That May Set Precedent for Big Oil
Royal Dutch Shell Plc was ordered by a Dutch court to slash its emissions harder and faster than planned, a ruling that could have far-reaching consequences for the rest of the global fossil fuel industry.
Shell, which said it expects to appeal the ruling, has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% within a decade, and to net-zero before 2050. That’s not enough, a court in The Hague ruled Wednesday, ordering the oil producer to slash emissions 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels.
The court said the ruling applies to the entire Shell group, which is headquartered in the Dutch city and incorporated in the U.K.
Amazon Agrees to Buy MGM Film Studio for $8.45 Billion
Amazon.com Inc. agreed to buy the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie company for $8.45 billion, a bet that a nearly century-old Hollywood icon can feed an insatiable demand for streaming content. […]
Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos has made no secret of his desire for movie moguldom, and MGM’s vast backlog provides an abundance of streaming material, not to mention an opportunity to mine the iconic James Bond and Rocky franchises for new films and television shows.
Los Angeles Times
Biden administration unveils offshore wind plan for California
The federal government plans to open more than 250,000 acres off the California coast to wind development, the Biden administration announced Tuesday, as part of a major effort to ramp up the nation’s renewable energy and cut its climate-warming emissions.
Under the plan, the administration would allow wind power projects to be built in federal waters off the coast of Central California northwest of Morro Bay, as well as at a second location west of Humboldt Bay. Officials estimate that the two areas combined could generate 4,600 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.6 million homes.
Scientists discover ‘eternal’ green sea turtles living year-round off La Jolla
A tiny group of East Pacific green sea turtles has permanently settled in the waters off La Jolla Shores, where they’re socializing with snorkelers and divers, a subtle change in nature that’s left scientists a bit puzzled.
The four resident turtles are living in a largely unprotected stretch of coastline, which also is unusual. And they are swimming in water that sometimes gets colder than the reptile’s typical habitat.
“We appear to be seeing the result of 30 years of conservation efforts that has increased the population of green sea turtles, and some are expanding into new territories to forage,” said Megan Hanna, a UC San Diego-trained marine biologist who just published a study on the La Jolla turtles in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
AP News
Biden orders more Intel investigation of COVID-19 origin
President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered U.S. intelligence officials to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including any possibility the trail might lead to a Chinese laboratory.
After months of minimizing that possibility as a fringe theory, the Biden administration is joining worldwide pressure for China to be more open about the outbreak, aiming to head off GOP complaints the president has not been tough enough as well as to use the opportunity to press China on alleged obstruction.
Defiant Belarus leader slams EU sanctions on plane diversion
Belarus’ authoritarian president lashed out Wednesday at Europe for trying to “strangle” his country with sanctions over the diversion of a passenger jet, and he accused a dissident journalist arrested after the flight landed in Minsk of working to foment a “bloody rebellion.”
In a long, rambling speech to lawmakers and top officials, President Alexander Lukashenko defended his decision to tell the Ryanair flight to land in his country, maintaining his contention that there was a bomb threat against it. He called it an “absolute lie” that a fighter jet he scrambled forced the plane to land.
Reuters
U.S. steps up pursuit of far-right activists in 2016 voter suppression probe
The indictment of a far-right internet activist on charges of interfering with the 2016 U.S. election reflects a strategic shift by the Department of Justice and sets the stage for new cases against more prominent right-wing actors, according to people familiar with the matter.
Federal prosecutors debated for years whether and how to pursue criminal cases against Americans suspected of disseminating false voting instructions to manipulate the election, three people with knowledge of the discussions said.
While some officials wanted to bring a multitude of charges, others felt it would be too difficult to bring a voter-suppression case based on online messaging, the people said. The hurdles include free-speech rights, the difficulty in establishing intent and the challenge of showing that anyone failed to vote because a specific person misled them.
China braces for summer floods as 71 rivers exceed warning levels
China is bracing for a heavy flood season with 71 rivers already exceeding warning levels, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday, as meteorological authorities warned that global warming is fuelling more extreme weather.
Rain in some parts of central and southern China has hit record highs in recent weeks even though overall precipitation is about 10% lower this year compared with last year, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.
Water levels on the Yangtze and its tributaries were expected to rise further over the next week, the ministry said, and it warned of major floods throughout the country from June to August.
The Guardian
Prepare for disorderly shift to low-carbon era, firms and investors told
Major businesses and investors in the world’s largest economies should brace themselves for a turbulent transition to a low-carbon future because none of the G20 countries are on track to meet their climate ambitions, according to a new report.
There is “no longer any realistic chance” for an orderly transition for global financial markets because political leaders will be forced to rely on “handbrake” policy interventions to cut emissions, according to research from risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.
At the same time, the report added, investors will face the “increasingly disruptive” impact of severe weather events – made worse by the global climate crisis – which are expected to take a heavier toll on the global economy in the years ahead.
Afghanistan’s doctors braced for rapid spread of India Covid variant
Doctors in Afghanistan have expressed fears that the Covid-19 variant first discovered in India could now be spreading quickly in the country.
At Kabul’s main Covid hospital, where all 100 beds are occupied, doctors said that many critically ill patients had recently returned from India. Up to 10 people die here every day.
The health ministry reported more than 500 new Covid infections on Friday, but actual numbers are likely to be much higher, as many people continue to recover at home without seeking medical care.
The Hindu
India reports over 2.11 lakh new COVID-19 cases, more than 3,800 deaths on May 26, 2021
India recorded 2,11,275 new COVID-19 cases and 3,841 deaths on May 26. The country has so far reported a total of 2,73,67,935 cases and 3,15,263 deaths.
Tamil Nadu reported 33,764 new infections, followed by Kerala (28,798) and Karnataka (26,811). Maharashtra recorded 992 casualties on the day, followed by Karnataka (530) and Tamil Nadu (475). Maharashtra’s fatalities include backlog deaths which were missed in the previous reports. […]
This is the first instance when the daily tests have crossed the 22-lakh mark. India’s average daily test positivity rate (positive cases identified for every 100 tests) continues to decline. It was 11.4% on May 25 compared to 16.9% recorded a week before.
BBC News
AI emotion-detection software tested on Uyghurs
A camera system that uses AI and facial recognition intended to reveal states of emotion has been tested on Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the BBC has been told.
A software engineer claimed to have installed such systems in police stations in the province. […]
"The Chinese government use Uyghurs as test subjects for various experiments just like rats are used in laboratories," he said.
Swiss abandon years of EU talks and reject treaty
After years of talks, Switzerland has scrapped efforts aimed at agreeing an over-arching treaty with the EU. Switzerland is not in the European Union but has signed up to many of its policies, such as freedom of movement.
The relationship is currently governed by more than 120 bilateral deals, and a failure to replace them with one framework deal could harm ties. […]
The Swiss government has highlighted three issues: protection of wages, rules governing state aid, and the right of EU citizens working in Switzerland to claim Swiss welfare benefits as part of freedom of movement.
Galápagos tortoise found alive is from species thought extinct
Genetic tests have confirmed that a giant tortoise found on the Galápagos Islands is from a species which scientists thought had died out more than a century ago.
The single female was discovered during a 2019 expedition to Fernandina Island.
To prove the link, scientists took samples from the female to compare to the remains of a male from the species Chelonoidis phantasticus. The last previous sighting of the species had been in 1906.
Deutsche Welle
COVID: India's 'white fungus' infections raise new health concerns
India's Health Ministry is asking pharmaceutical companies to ramp up production and distribution of antifungal medications after a new type of fungal infection was found in recovering COVID-19 patients last week.
In Ghaziabad, a city in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, as many as seven recovering COVID-19 patients have been diagnosed with invasive aspergillosis, a severe form of white fungus infection. Similar cases have been detected in cities in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bihar.
White fungus infections are considered by health experts to be more dangerous than black fungus infections, called "mucormycosis."
EU proposes stricter anti-disinformation code
The EU has announced plans to beef up its code of practice on online disinformation, with the aim of preventing digital ad companies from earning profits from fake news.
The new proposals from the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, come amid concerns about the role of social media and tech giants in the spread of false information online, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.
"Disinformation cannot remain a source of revenue. We need to see stronger commitments by online platforms, the entire advertising ecosystem and networks of fact-checkers," EU industry chief Thierry Breton said.
The Atlantic
George Floyd’s Murder Changed Americans’ Views on Policing
[…] In the weeks following Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death in Minneapolis, the country saw an astonishing shift in public opinion. The number of Americans saying that Black people face serious discrimination, holding unfavorable views of the police, and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement spiked in the weeks after his murder. But since that peak, views have tempered somewhat, with support settling below the highs of that summer. Notable shifts persist, but they’re unevenly distributed within the population.
The most significant changes have come among white Americans, with reactions diverging based on partisanship. Black Americans didn’t require any epiphanies on race in the United States: They live it, and polls have long shown that Black people, while hopeful about the future of the country, hold a more negative—or more realistic—view of race relations. […]
Since then, support has subsided among most groups, but it hasn’t done so evenly. White progressives remain supportive: Navigator found that three-quarters approved of BLM in April, down slightly from 82 percent in June 2020. This parallels a broader shift in views among white liberals, with the group now to the left of even Black voters on some racial issues (though notably not policing).
What Biden Didn’t Realize About His Presidency
Joe Biden had been president for less than two weeks when he told me something he’d heard from a friend after the election. Biden was like the dog that caught the car, the friend told him—after a lifetime of dreaming of becoming president, he’d finally done it. “I said, ‘No, I think I got the bus,’” Biden told me, reflecting on the combined crises of the pandemic, the economic collapse, and the shaky future of American democracy. “I’m the dog that caught the bus.” […]
Although Biden critics have long said that he was naive to expect any bipartisan cooperation, the president did go into the White House prepared to face some GOP obstructionism—after all, he was vice president during the Obama years. But he’s been disheartened to see many Republicans confirm his worst assumptions.
The Washington Post
White House to face key decisions on climate, elder care if bipartisan deal with Republicans emerges
President Biden is expected to soon face crucial decisions over his domestic agenda as his commitment to aggressive action on climate change and care for the elderly collides with his push for a bipartisan infrastructure deal.
In multiple rounds of talks, Republican lawmakers have held firm in opposition against key White House plans to address the changing climate, add $400 billion in funding for elder care, and a slew of other domestic priorities the administration is pushing for families and children. The GOP is set to affirm its opposition on Thursday about 9 a.m., when lawmakers led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) are expected to present Biden their latest counter-offer. This could amount to a plan as large as $1 trillion that Republicans have said would be focused on roads, bridges, pipes and other forms of traditional infrastructure.
A second bipartisan group of lawmakers, meanwhile, is readying its own backup plan that is also likely to jettison some key climate and elder-care policies pushed by the White House.
Birds are going blind in the Washington region, and wildlife experts don’t know why
In the video, the young grackle takes a few wobbly steps along a sidewalk, pauses and then wobbles some more. The bird’s eyes appear completely closed.
When Alexandra Dimsdale found the stumbling creature on the ground outside her D.C. home on Saturday morning, she wasn’t sure whether it was a crow or some other type of black bird. All she knew for certain was that it needed help. […]
“When something is happening on a large scale in nature, it’s frightening to think about,” she says. “I’m worried this is the canary in the coal mine.”
Al Jazeera
Blinken claims progress in effort to boost Israel-Hamas truce
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up a two-day visit to the Middle East, winning diplomatic support and hundreds of millions of dollars of pledges from Arab countries as he moved to shore up the ceasefire that ended an 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group which rules the Gaza Strip.
But the mission made little headway in resolving the deeper issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the tensions in occupied East Jerusalem that played a key role in triggering the latest violence.
Iraq militia commander arrested under ‘anti-terrorism’ law
Iraqi security forces have arrested senior militia commander Qasim Muslih under the country’s anti-terrorism law, the military said.
Muslih was arrested early on Wednesday and is being questioned by a joint investigative committee about the criminal charges against him, a military statement added, without giving further details.
Mongabay
Giant otter thought to be extinct in Argentina resurfaces. Literally
Ten days ago, Sebastian di Martino was kayaking along the Bermejo River in Argentina’s Impenetrable National Park when he heard a splash. He looked around and saw a brown-furred animal swimming through the water, occasionally dipping below the surface and then reappearing. It was a giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), a species believed to be extinct in Argentina.
“I was surprised and excited,” Di Martino, director of conservation at Fundación Rewilding Argentina, told Mongabay in an interview. “At the beginning, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
Ars Technica
Russia tried to spread dangerous lies about Pfizer vaccine, France suspects
French authorities are investigating whether the Russian government is behind an effort to spread dangerous lies about Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine as part of a disinformation campaign peddled to French bloggers and influencers.
In recent days, several French influencers have publicly noted receiving partnership proposals from a dodgy agency, called Fazze, over email or social media. The proposals, written in broken English, offered enticing lumps of money if the influencers spread entirely false claims and doubts about COVID-19 vaccines. Among the proposed claims is the dangerous falsehood that people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have a death rate three times higher than those who received the vaccine by AstraZeneca.