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AP News
January 6 hearings to stretch into July, chairman says
The House’s Jan. 6 committee plans to continue its public hearings into July as its investigation of the Capitol riot deepens.
The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters Wednesday that the committee is receiving “a lot of information” — including new documentary film footage of Trump’s final months in office— as its yearlong inquiry intensifies with hearings into the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election that Democrat Joe Biden won.
Thompson, D-Miss., said the committee’s Thursday hearing, which is set to highlight former Justice Department officials testifying about Trump’s proposals to reject the election results, would wrap up this month’s work. The committee would start up again in July.
The Washington Post
Jan. 6 probe expands with fresh subpoenas in multiple states
Federal agents investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday dropped subpoenas on people in multiple locations, widening the probe of how political activists supporting … Donald Trump tried to use invalid electors to thwart Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Agents conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity Wednesday morning at different locations, FBI officials confirmed to The Washington Post. One was the home of Brad Carver, a Georgia lawyer who allegedly signed a document claiming to be a Trump elector. The other was the Virginia home of Thomas Lane, who worked on the Trump campaign’s efforts in Arizona and New Mexico. The FBI officials did not identify the people associated with those addresses, but public records list each of the locations as the home addresses of the men.
Among those who received a subpoena Wednesday was David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, who served as a Trump elector in that state, people familiar with the investigation said. Shafer’s lawyer declined to comment.
UPI
Judge delays Proud Boys trial amid House committee probe
The Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial stemming from the Jan. 6 capitol insurrection, scheduled for August, was delayed Wednesday by a federal judge. The DOJ joined defendants in requesting the delay.
Judge Timothy Kelly granted the delay during a hearing after several of the defendants asked for the delay, citing the ongoing work of the House Jan. 6 Committee.
The Department of Justice joined the defendants in requesting the delay.
"The government joins all defendants in urging this court to continue the trial," prosecutors wrote in a court filing. "Moving the trial is necessary to avoid the potential constitutional and due process issues that have been presented in the parties' filings, " federal prosecutors said in the filing.
MSNBC
Rusty Bowers' Jan. 6 testimony made him a hero. These three sentences ruined it.
Arizona House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers’ voice wavered as he spoke to the House Jan. 6 committee Tuesday about his belief in a divinely inspired Constitution. His conviction was clear when describing the offense he took at … Donald Trump asking him to break the law. In testimony that’s being likened to Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Bowers said violating the Constitution “because somebody just asked me to is foreign to my very being.” […]
It was easy to get lost in the moment that Bowers created — but then reality comes crashing in. In an interview with the Associated Press, Bowers said of Trump: “If he is the nominee, if he was up against Biden, I’d vote for him again. Simply because what he did the first time, before Covid, was so good for the county. In my view it was great.”
The Atlantic
Tom Nichols: What Trump Has Taken From Us
I am appalled, as so many Americans are, that Donald Trump and his team assaulted our elections, but today I’m thinking about how the assault on election officials across the nation is an even deeper wound that will take years to heal.
[…] The testimony of Rusty Bowers, Brad Raffensperger, Gabriel Sterling, Shaye Moss, and Ruby Freeman… [and] their stories of being targeted with threats, harassment, and vile accusations are a reminder of how much Trump and his team of malignant election fabulists have taken from the civic life of the United States. […]
Our elections work because they are run by ordinary citizens at the state and local level who either were elected or volunteered to help administer the vote as a matter of civic duty. […]
Trump and his people, however, have made it clear that democracy is a meaningless word. They want what they want and they will hurt anyone who gets in their way. Their goal is to make public service a hazardous undertaking, to create an environment in which people working on elections—their fellow American citizens—fear for their lives if they don’t cough up the results they want.
Salon
Amanda Marcotte: Trump's Big Lie was always about white supremacy
Wandrea "Shaye" Moss's abuse at the hands of Donald Trump is terrifying for the same reason serial killers are terrifying: Because the victims feel so randomly selected. Ted Bundy roamed beaches and college campuses looking for any long-haired white girl he could torture and kill. Moss did not speculate, during her short but powerful testimony before the January 6 committee on Tuesday, on why Trump and his odious sidekick Rudy Giuliani picked her and her mother, Ruby Freeman, for a vicious smear campaign falsely accusing them of injecting fake ballots into counting machines. She didn't need to speculate, because it was painfully obvious. Trump and Giuliani wanted their victims to be Black women because their conspiracy theories about a "stolen" election are all about tickling the lizard brain racism of the GOP base.
Moss and Freeman were singled out for the same reason that Fox News runs endlessly ridiculous segments villainizing Vice President Kamala Harris for every sneeze or smile. She was targeted for the same reason Republicans turned the confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson into a circus of white resentment. Trump zeroed in on these two women for the same reason he spent years hyping the ridiculous conspiracy that President Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen of the United States. It's all a head nod in the direction of the unspeakable but clearly animating belief of MAGA nation: People of color are not legitimate American citizens.
NBC News
A former West Virginia lawmaker who stormed the U.S. Capitol on behalf of … Donald Trump while livestreaming his felonious activity on Facebook was sentenced to three months in prison on Wednesday.
Derrick Evans, who had been sworn in as a Republican state delegate just a few weeks before the Capitol attack, was arrested and charged just after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. He pleaded guilty in March 2022.
Justice Department prosecutors had sought the three-month sentence for Evans, saying he cheered on rioters and told his followers, "The revolution has started!” His attorney told the court that being arrested and pleading guilty to a felony "has been a humbling experience for him" and noted that, as a result, he can no longer possess a weapon.
Mother Jones
Justice Department Questions Sidney Powell’s Funding for January 6 Defendants
The US Justice Department on Wednesday questioned payments to high-profile January 6 defendants from a nonprofit run by Sidney Powell, the infamous “Kraken” lawyer who helped promote Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. The DOJ asked if those payments create a conflict of interest.
In a motion filed on Wednesday, federal prosecutors cited reporting by Mother Jones as well as from Buzzfeed that Powell’s organization, Defending the Republic, has funded legal defenses for at least four Oath Keepers facing charges related to the January 6 attack on Congress. That includes the group’s founder Stewart Rhodes, and Florida Oath Keepers Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson, who face seditious conspiracy charges, as well as Meggs’ wife, Connie Meggs, who faces other conspiracy charges.
“Defending the Republic may have interests that diverge from these defendants,” prosecutors said in a June 16 letter to defense lawyers in the case.
CNN
Top investigator leaving January 6 committee early
John Wood, a senior investigator for the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, is leaving his position this week…
Wood is being encouraged to run for Senate in Missouri, after the recent controversy over GOP Senate candidate Eric Greitens' ad, in which he suggested hunting political opponents. Wood previously worked for former US Sen. Jack Danforth, a Republican from Missouri.
Wood is the senior investigative counsel on the committee, as well as counsel to Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican. His departure comes as the committee continues to hold hearings as well as investigate and receive new information.
NBC News
Russia closes in on key twin cities as Ukraine suffers eastern setback
Russia appears to have dealt Ukraine a significant setback in the battle for the country’s east, breaking through the defenses around a key city and opening the possibility that Kyiv’s troops in the area could be surrounded.
In recent days, Russian forces have gained ground around Lysychansk, according to Ukrainian officials and Western military analysts, closing in on the city while fighting for full control of its battle-scarred twin, Sievierodonetsk.
The advance puts Russia in sight of capturing or surrounding the last two holdout cities in Luhansk province, which, together with neighboring Donetsk, form the eastern industrial region of the Donbas, which has become the focal point of the war.
BBC News
Half Russian separatist force dead or wounded - UK
Russian and Russian proxy forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine have suffered heavy casualties, according to UK intelligence officials.They estimate the Donetsk militia alone has lost 55% of its original force.
Russian forces are focused on conquering all of neighbouring Luhansk, aiming to encircle the city of Lysychansk, say Ukrainian leaders.
Regional chief Serhiy Haidai said there had been "colossal destruction" in the city. He said the situation in its sister city of Severodonetsk was "hell", and quoted the mayor as saying some 7,000-8,000 civilians remained there.
The Kyiv Independent
Ukraine is set to receive EU candidate status, but when is membership coming?
Membership in the European Union has long been Ukraine’s key aspiration. The EuroMaidan Revolution of 2013-2014 was spurred on by the popular desire to get closer to the European Union and, ultimately, gain membership. Ordinary Ukrainians took to the streets and overthrew pro-Russian rule under the stars of blue EU flags. […]
However, EU membership does not come easily, or quickly. Balkan nation Montenegro first applied for membership in 2008. It now expects to join by 2025, at the earliest.
Despite suffering around $4.5 billion of damage every week and hundreds of casualties on the front lines, Ukraine will still have to prove its readiness to adapt to EU institutions, operate within the common market, and reform its institutions at breakneck speed.
USA Today
Ukraine claims ‘significant losses’ to Russia in Snake Island airstrike attacks
Ukrainian forces claimed late Tuesday that airstrike attacks on Snake Island in the Black Sea resulted in "significant losses" to Russian forces.
The Ukrainian military’s southern operational command said in a post on Facebook it had dealt “significant losses” to Russian forces “with the use of various forces," the Washington Post reported. The New York Times reported the military said it destroyed a Russian air defense system as well as vehicles on the island. […]
Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry said on its Telegram channel that Ukraine made “another crazy attempt” to reclaim the island and that Russia had undermined the attack and "destroyed all enemy weapons" aimed at the island.
Reuters
Russian refinery says it was struck by drones from direction of Ukraine
Two drones flying from the direction of Ukraine hit a major Russian oil refinery near the border on Wednesday, the plant said, sending a ball of flame and black smoke billowing into the sky and prompting the plant to suspend production.
Russian regions bordering Ukraine have reported numerous attacks and shelling after Moscow sent its troops into its former Soviet neighbour on Feb. 24 for what it calls a "special military operation".
The Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia's Rostov region said the first drone struck at 8.40 a.m. (0540 GMT) hitting acrude distillation unit, triggering a blast and ball of fire.
US News & World Report
Russia Appears to Begin ‘Purge’ of Battlefield Commanders in Ukraine
The Russian government appears to have fired top commanders for its invasion of Ukraine and replaced them with lower ranking officers, an unusual shake-up in the midst of an ongoing military operation that analysts say represents a “possible purge.”
The Institute for the Study of War in an analysis note published early Wednesday assessed that Russia will appoint a new commander for the headquarters overseeing operations in the region that includes Ukraine while also replacing the commander for the war itself – which Russian President Vladimir Putin insists on calling a “special military operation” – with a senior officer not currently commanding combat troops.
Similarly, the Kremlin appears to have fired the current head of the elite Russian airborne forces and replaced him with Colonel-General Mikhail Teplinsky, the current chief of staff for the military headquarters overseeing operations around central Russia – the region stretching from the Ural mountains to Siberia.
Newsweek
Warships, F-35s, Drones: Finland Prepares To Become Russia's NATO Neighbor
Finland is bolstering its military with warships, F-35s and drones, in preparation for becoming Russia's NATO neighbor.
Finland and fellow Nordic nation Sweden are seeking to join the military alliance imminently, in what would mark a major policy shift for the countries following Russia's decision to invade Ukraine in February.
Amid Russian warnings of "serious political consequences" should the countries join NATO, Finland's armed forces chief General Timo Kivinen told Reuters that the country is prepared to fight Russia if attacked. Finland and Russia share an 800-mile border.
South China Morning Post
At BRICS forum, China’s Xi Jinping takes aim at West over Russia sanctions
Chinese President Xi Jinping lashed out again at the West over sanctions against Russia, saying measures imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine had turned the global economy into a weapon.
“It has been proven again that sanctions are boomerangs and double-edged swords that politicise, instrumentalise and weaponise the world economy,” he said in a video address at the start of the BRICS Business Forum in Beijing on Wednesday.
“The crisis in Ukraine has again sounded an alarm bell to the world: obsessing over one’s position of strength, expanding military alliances and seeking security for oneself at the expense of the security of other countries will only lead to a security dilemma,” he said, without naming the targets of his criticism.
CBS News
Lithuania's decision to ban the transit of certain goods between Russia and its isolated exclave of Kaliningrad has provoked wrath among top officials in Moscow, and even a threat of retaliation against the European nation. Kaliningrad shares land borders with two NATO nations, Lithuania and Poland, but not Russia. Captured from Nazi Germany by the Soviet Red Army in 1945 and later ceded to the Soviet Union, the Russian territory is home to about 500,000 people.
While it is surrounded on two sides by NATO nations, it's a strategically vital patch of ground for Moscow as it provides Russia's only Baltic Sea coastline. It is home to the Russian military's Baltic Fleet, and a number of advanced nuclear-capable Iskander missile installations. […]
On June 18, European Union member Lithuania prohibited the transit of all goods subject to EU sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine via the rail link. That includes coal, metals, electronics, and construction materials.
NPR News
Powell says recession 'a possibility' but not likely
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell says the central bank is committed to regaining control over inflation, even as he acknowledged the Fed has little power to address its most visible symptoms at the gas pump or the supermarket.
Powell addressed the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday, a week after the Fed ordered the largest interest rate increase since 1994. The central bank is under growing pressure to combat inflation, which hit a four-decade high of 8.6% in May.
"We need to get inflation back down to 2%," Powell told lawmakers. "We're using our tools to do that. And the public should believe that we will get inflation back down to 2% over time."
Bloomberg
The World’s Bubbliest Housing Markets Are Flashing Warning Signs
A world economy already contending with raging inflation, stock-market turmoil and a grueling war is facing yet another threat: the unraveling of a massive housing boom.
As central banks around the globe rapidly increase interest rates, soaring borrowing costs mean people who were already stretching to buy property are finally reaching their limits. The effects are being seen in countries such as Canada, the US and New Zealand, where once-hot residential real estate markets have suddenly turned cold. […]
Taming frothy home prices are a key part of many policy makers’ goals as they seek to quell the fastest inflation in decades. But as markets shudder from the prospects of a global recession, a slowdown in housing could create a ripple effect that would deepen an economic slump.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Workers commuting into Philly aren’t coming back. What does that mean for the city?
[…] The permanent trend toward remote work is contributing to Philadelphia’s tepid economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and a decline in the total workforce overall, Pew found. The full report, the latest in a series on Philadelphia’s Fiscal Future, published in partnership with the William Penn Foundation is available on Pew’s website.
The report raises concerns that Philly could experience an uneven, inequitable recovery inflicting particular pain on some of the city’s residents, especially people of color, said report coauthor Larry Eichel. […]
Most of the decline — $105 million — came from white-collar sectors: finance and information, professional services, and education, all of which pay relatively high wages and employ a high proportion of nonresident workers, Pew found. […]
Philly’s slow recovery is not unique. New York, Washington, and Baltimore have all lagged the rest of the country in job creation, and both New York and Washington have underperformed their respective regions. Midwest cities also haven’t recovered all the jobs since before the pandemic, Eichel said.
New York Magazine
The National Labor Relations Board Takes On Starbucks
Officials with the National Labor Relations Board have asked the U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, to reinstate seven fired Starbucks employees and to order the coffee chain to stop anti-unionization efforts nationwide. The petition filed on Tuesday accuses Starbucks of numerous legal violations, including the firings of union supporters, the New York Times reports. Federal labor regulators argue that the court must stop Starbucks’s “virulent, widespread and well-orchestrated response to employees’ protected organizing efforts” and that without intervention, the chain will “accomplish its unlawful objective of chilling union support, both in Buffalo and nationwide.”
The Times notes that while it’s not unusual for the NLRB to demand the reinstatement of fired workers, the “breadth” of the injunction it is seeking is “far less common.” From the agency’s perspective, radical violations require radical remedies.
CBC News
Canada will ban some single-use plastics over the next 18 months
The federal government is banning companies from importing or making plastic bags and takeout containers by the end of this year, from selling them by the end of next year and from exporting them by the end of 2025.
The move will also affect single-use plastic straws, stir sticks, cutlery and six-pack rings used to hold cans and bottles together.
"Our government is all-in when it comes to reducing plastic pollution," Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Monday at a news conference on a St. Lawrence River beach in Quebec City.
Deutsche Welle
Afghanistan struck by deadliest earthquake in 2 decades
An earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has killed at least 1,000 people, a local official said on Wednesday.
"The number is increasing. People are digging grave after grave," Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of the Information and Culture Department in Paktika, said in a message to journalists. […]
The magnitude 6 quake struck around 44 kilometers (27 miles) from the city of Khost, located near the border with Pakistan.
The Guardian
Somalia: ‘The worst humanitarian crisis we’ve ever seen’
Only a “massive” and immediate scaling-up of funds and humanitarian relief can save Somalia from famine, a UN spokesperson has warned, as aid workers report children starving to death “before our eyes” amid rapidly escalating levels of malnutrition.
In a message to G7 leaders who are meeting from Sunday in Germany, Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) regional director for east Africa, said governments had to donate urgently and generously if there was to be any hope of avoiding catastrophe in the Horn of Africa country. […]
The Horn of Africa has suffered four consecutive failed rainy seasons and is experiencing its worst drought in four decades, a climate shock exacerbated by ongoing conflict and price rises caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Across the whole of east Africa, 89 million people are now considered “acutely food insecure” by the WFP, a number that has grown by almost 90% in the past year.
EuroNews
Saudi crown prince visits Turkey for first time since Khashoggi murder Access to the comments
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has arrived in Turkey for his first visit to the country since the killing of dissident columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The trip is aimed at repairing ties between Ankara and Riyadh that were strained following the murder in 2018.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said talks with Prince Mohammed -- commonly referred to as MBS -- would focus on advancing Turkish-Saudi relations to a “much higher degree.”
Efforts to improve their ties also come as Turkey faces its worst economic crisis in two decades and is trying to draw investments from wealthy Gulf Arab states.
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
The South Dakota Senate has voted to remove Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg from office during his impeachment trial Tuesday.
The Senate voted to convict and remove Ravnsborg from office after hours of testimony, questioning and closing arguments for his role in the death of Joe Boever in September 2020.
The group of lawmakers needed a two-thirds majority vote or more for each of the two separate impeachment articles Ravnsborg faced, including crimes causing death and malfeasance in office, which were passed by the South Dakota House of Representatives earlier this year.
Al Jazeera
Bangladesh floods: Experts say climate crisis worsening situation
The worst floods in Bangladesh in more than a century have killed dozens of people so far and displaced nearly 4 million people, with authorities warning the water levels would remain dangerously high in the north this week.
Experts say the catastrophic rain-triggered floods, which submerged large part of the country’s northern and northeastern areas, are an outcome of climate change. […]
Saiful Islam, director of the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), analysed 35 years of flooding data and found that rains were getting more unpredictable and many rivers are rising above dangerous levels more frequently than before.
Los Angeles Times
California wildfires caused by humans are more dangerous than fires sparked by lightning
The sheer acreage consumed by fire in California in recent years is numbing: more than 2.5 million acres last year, and 4.3 million acres the year before that. Already in 2022, before peak fire season has descended upon this drought-parched state, fire has burned nearly 17,000 acres.
Yet not all fires are equal. New research from UC Irvine shows that fires caused by human activity — be it arson, a neglected campfire, sparking electrical equipment or ill-conceived gender reveal parties— spread faster, burn hotter and destroy more trees than those caused by lightning strikes.
“The physics behind the fire is of course the same, but humans increase the risk of having these kinds of ignitions at really bad times during the year,” said Stijn Hantson, the study’s lead author. A project scientist in the lab of UCI Earth systems professor James Randerson at the time of the study, Hantson is now an Earth systems scientist at Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia.
The Texas Tribune
Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told a state Senate committee Tuesday that the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting was an “abject failure” and police could have stopped the shooter at Robb Elementary School three minutes after arriving were it not for the indecisiveness of the on-scene commander, who “decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children.”
McCraw said the inexplicable conduct by Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo was antithetical to two decades of police training since the Columbine High School massacre, which dictates that officers confront active shooters as quickly as possible.
“The officers had weapons; the children had none,” McCraw told the Tribune in an interview. “The officers had body armor; the children had none. The officers had training; the subject had none. One hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds. That’s how long children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued.”
The Dallas Morning News
Uvalde officer trying to save dying wife was detained, had gun taken and was escorted away
In another stunning revelation about the Uvalde school massacre, state officials confirmed in testimony to a state Senate committee that a school district police officer trying to save his dying wife was stopped, detained and escorted away.
Officer Ruben Ruiz was on the scene after the gunman entered the school and opened fire on May 24. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw confirmed in testimony Tuesday. There were 19 students and two teachers killed by the gunman.
Ruiz told officials on site that Eva Mireles, who was a fourth grade teacher at Robb Elementary School, had called him to tell him “she had been shot and was dying,” McCraw told senators in Austin.
“And what happened to him,” McCraw explained, “is he tried to move forward into the hallway. He was detained and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A ‘Stacey Sweep’: Abrams’ runoff gamble pays off in Georgia
Stacey Abrams took a risk when she tried to shape the Democratic ticket by endorsing three statewide candidates in unpredictable runoffs. Her gamble paid off Tuesday with huge victories by the trio of contenders on her slate.
Had any of them lost their races, Abrams would face the difficult prospect of campaigning on the same ticket as a fellow Democrat she actively opposed. Instead, Abrams successfully engineered the group of candidates who will share the ballot with her in November.
The three she endorsed — attorney Charlie Bailey for lieutenant governor, state Rep. William Boddie for labor commissioner and state Rep. Bee Nguyen for secretary of state — defined an otherwise sleepy Democratic runoff campaign. Each won by big margins.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minnesota's heat waves are getting more humid, climate scientists say
Minnesota's 101-degree reading on Monday broke records, but the real story was the swampy air.
Heat waves are getting more humid. That's the subtle change that has been observed by climate scientists, said Kenny Blumenfeld, a senior climatologist with the Department of Natural Resources' State Climate Office. […]
Almost all of Minnesota's recent warming trends, by contrast, have shown up in the colder parts of the year. Winters are warming several times faster than summer, Blumenfeld said. But noticeable changes in summer heat will start to show up, at the latest, by the middle of this century.
The winter warming is significant, however, because it can lead to a feedback loop that makes warming happen faster, according to Stefan Liess, a climate researcher at the University of Minnesota.
Vox
This could be the coolest summer of the rest of your life
Summer only just started, but much of the world is already experiencing brutal heat. In the last two weeks, extreme heat waves have struck many parts of the US, Europe and China, threatening lives, increasing the risk of wildfires, and testing the limits of electric grids. […]
This isn’t normal for June, or for any part of the summer, for that matter, compared to past averages. It’s an extreme. But “normal” has become something of a useless word in meteorology — and “extreme,” something of a mundane one — as fossil fuels continue to heat up the planet. In the years to come, heat waves like these are likely to get worse, not better. So while this summer might be unbearably hot, it may be one of the coolest summers for decades to come. […]
Heat waves are becoming more common, they’re lasting longer, and the temperatures they bring are more extreme. In the 1960s, there were an average of about two heat waves per year, whereas in the most recent decade there were an average of six, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Space.com
NASA applauds Artemis 1 moon rocket's fueling milestone, mulls readiness for launch
Monday (June 20) was a big day for NASA's Artemis 1 mission.
The agency's huge new moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), wrapped up a more than 50-hour launch simulation known as a "wet dress rehearsal" on Monday evening (June 20). Following several failed attempts in April, mission team members were able to fully fuel SLS for the first time on Monday, wrapping up a series of crucial prelaunch tests.
It was a big milestone for the Artemis 1 moon mission, but there were some snags along the way.
Ars Technica
Impact of reading about climate science goes away almost instantly
For decades, the scientific community has been nearly unanimous: Climate change is real, it's our doing, and its consequences are likely to be severe. Yet even as it gets more difficult to avoid some of its effects, poll after poll shows that the public hasn't gotten the message. There's very little recognition of how strong the scientific consensus is, and there is a lot of uncertainty about whether it's our doing—and none of the polling numbers seem to shift very quickly.
Over these same decades, there have been plenty of studies looking at why this might be. Many of them have found ways to shift the opinions of study subjects—methods that have undoubtedly been adopted by communications professionals. Yet the poll numbers have remained stubborn. Misinformation campaigns and political polarization have both been blamed, but the evidence for these factors making a difference is far from clear.
A new study offers an additional hint as to why. While polarization and misinformation both play roles in how the public interprets climate science, the biggest problem may be that the public has a very short memory, and anything people learn about climate science tends to be forgotten by a week later.