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More than half of the world's large lakes are drying up, study finds
Reuters
More than half of the world's large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s, chiefly because of climate change, intensifying concerns about water for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption, a study published on Thursday found.
A team of international researchers reported that some of the world's most important freshwater sources - from the Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia to South America's Lake Titicaca - lost water at a cumulative rate of around 22 gigatonnes per year for nearly three decades. That's about 17 times the volume of Lake Mead, the United States' largest reservoir.
Fangfang Yao, a surface hydrologist at the University of Virginia who led the study in the journal Science, said 56% of the decline in natural lakes was driven by climate warming and human consumption, with warming "the larger share of that".
Military Caught Airman Mishandling Secrets Before Arrest but Left Him in Job
The New York Times
Air Force officials caught Airman Jack Teixeira taking notes and conducting deep-dive searches for classified material months before he was charged with leaking a vast trove of government secrets, but did not remove him from his job, according to a Justice Department filing on Wednesday.
On two occasions in September and October 2022, Airman Teixeira’s superiors in the Massachusetts Air National Guard admonished him after reports that he had taken “concerning actions” while handling classified information. Those included stuffing a note into his pocket after reviewing secret information inside his unit, according to a court filing ahead of a hearing before a federal magistrate judge in Worcester, Mass., on Friday to determine whether he should be released on bail.
'Hostage-taking cannot be rewarded': Liberals worry Biden is caving in debt ceiling talks
USA Today
President Joe Biden faces unrest from progressive Democrats in Congress worried the White House might be conceding too much in debt ceiling talks with Republicans as negotiations begin a more accelerated pace before a June 1 deadline for a potential default.
Although Biden insisted for months he wouldn't negotiate over raising the debt ceiling, Republicans have successfully used the moment to force the White House into entertaining Republican proposals for spending cuts in parallel budget negotiations.
Debt ceiling talks have veered into Republican terrain: expanded work requirements for welfare programs, permitting reform for oil and gas projects, possible caps on future discretionary spending and rescinding unspent COVID-19 rescue funds.
Kamala Harris details 'real stakes' of default amid debt ceiling debate
UPI
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday detailed what she called the "real stakes" of an "unprecedented" default amid the ongoing debate over the country's debt ceiling.
Harris, who made her remarks during a phone-in briefing, accused Republican lawmakers of threatening to cause the United States to default on paying its debt.
"Default would be unprecedented. It has never happened before," she said. […]
"If they really cared about lowering our debt, they would not also fight to protect trillions of dollars in Trump tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations, tax cuts that would add three and a half trillion dollars," Harris said.
Harris said that a default "could trigger a recession" and stop military paychecks, as well as causing an increase in interest rates "for years to come."
As debt ceiling fight rages, Democrats bring up an old idea: Abolish it
The Washington Post
The first timeSen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) tried to abolish the debt limit, he pleaded with lawmakers to “stop these attempts to govern through threats” that put the economy at risk.
That was in 2017, the same year that a Republican revolt brought the United Stateswithin weeks of a catastrophic default. ButCongress did nothing to change the underlying law that September, nor when he and other Democrats tried again in 2019, and 2021, and just this past April, even while a wave of similar fiscal standoffs roiled Washington.
Now, the crisis that Schatz and other Democratic lawmakers have long labored to prevent has the country14 days away from running out of money to pay its bills. The potential for doomsday has affirmed for some Democrats the point they’ve been straining to make: The debt ceiling simply shouldn’t exist in the first place.
“I just always thought this was the stupidest thing we do, and we do a fair number of stupid things,” Schatz said this week.
Abudu narrowly confirmed to Atlanta appeals court by the U.S. Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nancy Abudu, a civil rights attorney who has worked at the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, was confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate for a seat on the federal appeals court based in Atlanta.
Abudu will become the first Black person to fill a Georgia-based seat in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also hears cases from federal courts in Florida and Alabama. She will replace former Judge Beverly Martin, who was considered one of the court’s most liberal jurists.
“I’m thrilled,” Martin said after theSenate vote. “I think Ms. Abudu will be a great addition to the court. It’s just terrific news.”
The final vote was 49-47 with all Senate Democrats in favor except West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who voted “no” with Republicans. Four senators did not vote.
Federal judge says Clarence Thomas ethics complaints mishandled more than a decade ago
The Dallas Morning News
The federal courts’ policymaking body in 2011 mishandled ethics complaints surrounding financial disclosures by Justice Clarence Thomas, a sitting federal judge testified Wednesday.
While those complaints are more than a decade old, how the Judicial Conference of the United States approached them has fresh relevance, with Senate Democrats pushing the same body to consider recent revelations about Thomas’ close ties with Dallas real estate billionaire Harlan Crow.
“The Judicial Conference actions then are the prequel to what is in front of it now,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., as he convened Wednesday’s subcommittee hearing on the topic.
Human-evolution story rewritten by new data and computing power
Nature
The widely held idea that modern-day humans originated from a single region of Africa is being challenged by modelling that has analysed a vast amount genomic data. The models suggest that humans arose from multiple ancestral populations around the continent. These ancient populations — which lived more than one million years ago — would have all been the same hominin species but genetically slightly different.
The models supporting this theory rely on new software and genomic sequencing data from current African and European populations, as well as Neanderthal DNA. Researchers published the results on 17 May in Nature.
The study contributes more evidence to the idea that there is “no single birthplace in Africa, and that human evolution is a process with very deep African roots,” says Eleanor Scerri, an evolutionary archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany.
Bumblebees Are Working Even Harder Than We Thought
Gizmodo
Bumblebees are fuzzy, rotund, and indisputably adorable. They’re also secretly swole. The insects can cart around loads up to 80% of their body weight during foraging flights, and new research demonstrates that doing so probably isn’t easy.
The heavier a bumblebees’ pollen haul, the hotter a bee’s body temperature is likely to get, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Biology Letters. As with most other animals, there’s a ceiling on how hot a bumbler can be before its body fails. Together with climate change, the thermal tax of lifting pollen could pose a threat to the important agricultural pollinators.
‘Uncharted territory’: Global temperatures could hit new records in next five years, report warns
The Sydney Morning Herald
Heat-trapping greenhouse gases and an El Nino weather pattern could push global temperatures to record levels in the next five years, a new update by the World Meteorological Organisation has found.
The report, published on Wednesday, notes there is a 70 per cent likelihood annual average global temperature between 2023 and 2027 will exceed 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for at least one year. If temperatures do exceed this threshold, it will be the first time.
The chance of temporarily exceeding 1.5 degrees has risen steadily since 2015, when it was close to zero. For the years between 2017 and 2021, there was a 10 per cent chance of exceedance.
“This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5-degree level specified in the Paris Agreement, which refers to long-term warming over many years. However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5-degree level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency,” the agency’s secretary-general Professor Petteri Taalas said.
Cleaning up ocean ‘garbage patches’ could destroy delicate ecosystems
Science
Removing trash from the ocean may not be as harmless as it seems. That’s the conclusion of new research, which finds that marine dumps known as “garbage patches” are home to countless delicate creatures that could perish when people scoop debris from the sea.
The oceans are home to five major garbage patches. They form far from land where strong currents swirl together, ferrying trash of all sizes. Some of it has been eroded by the churn into tiny debris known as microplastics.
The largest of these marine debris fields is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Spanning 1.6 million square kilometers midway between Hawaii and the coast of California, it was first observed in 1997 by Charles Moore, an oceanographer and founder of Algalita Marine Research and Education. The patch escaped notice for so long because most of its contents aren’t easily spotted from afar.
‘The city was underwater’: quarter of a million Somalis flee flooded homes
The Guardian
Floods have caused almost a quarter of a million people to flee their homes after the Shabelle River in central Somalia broke its banks and submerged the town of Beledweyne, even as the country faces its most severe drought in four decades, according to the government.
Aid agencies and scientists have warned that the climate crisis is among the most significant factors accelerating humanitarian emergencies, while those affected are some of the least responsible for CO2 emissions
.Seasonal rains in Somalia and upstream in the Ethiopian highlands triggered flash floods that washed away homes, crops and livestock, and temporarily closed schools and hospitals in Beledweyne, the capital of Hiiraan region, local residents said.
Italy floods leave 13 dead and force 13,000 from their homes
BBC News
More than 20 rivers have burst their banks in Italy, leaving 13 people dead and forcing thousands from their homes after six months' rainfall fell in a day and a half.
More bodies were found on Thursday after almost every river flooded between Bologna and the north-east coast 115km (70 miles) away.
Some 280 landslides have taken place.
The mayor of Ravenna, a city badly affected by flooding, told the BBC it was the worst disaster in a century.
Disney cancels plan to move 2,000 workers to Florida amid DeSantis fight
Los Angeles Times
Last week, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger issued a not-very-subtle challenge to the state of Florida and its Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been openly attacking the company as a “woke corporation” as he prepares for an expected presidential run. […]
“Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes, or not?” Iger asked rhetorically on a call with Wall Street analysts.
On Thursday, Disney gave Florida and DeSantis a more concrete idea of what Iger meant.
The company told staff it has canceled its plans for a new $1-billion campus in Central Florida, citing “new leadership and changing business conditions” and forsaking the prospect of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax benefits.
A total of 10 Oregon senators are potentially ineligible for reelection
Oregon Public Broadcasting News
The ongoing walkout by Senate Republicans hit a meaningful milestone Thursday, as the bulk of the chamber’s GOP members opted to remain absent and potentially forfeit their ability to run again.
Six Republicans — Sens. Tim Knopp, Lynn Findley, Bill Hansell, Kim Thatcher, Art Robinson and Suzanne Weber — did not attend a scheduled floor session, each notching their 10th unexcused absence of the session. That’s the threshold, approved overwhelmingly by voters last year with Measure 113, at which lawmakers are disqualified from serving their next term.
The six lawmakers join four others — Sens. Daniel Bonham, Cedric Hayden, Dennis Linthicum and Brian Boquist, a former Republican who is now a registered Independent — who hit the mark earlier this week.
The moment was not surprising, given Republicans’ insistence that they would not allow Democrats to pass bills on abortion, gender affirming care and gun safety that they deem extreme. It was, however, significant.
Hancock blasts Texas governor for sending busload of migrants near Denver’s Civic Center Park
The Denver Post
More than 10,000 migrants have made their way to Denver since December, but on Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the first bus of arrivals that the state of Texas directed to Denver. […]
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock called the move by Abbott “political theater and partisan gamesmanship pitting jurisdictions against each other,” further exacerbating the problem, rather than finding solutions to the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border.
“If Gov. Abbott thinks he’s going to win over allies to his cause here in Denver with this latest stunt, he’s going to be sorely mistaken,” Hancock said in a written statement. “And we’re more than happy to send him the bill for any additional support we have to provide now because of his failure at managing his own state.”
White House announces initiative to reduce homelessness in Seattle
The Seattle Times
President Joe Biden’s administration wants to accelerate efforts to get unsheltered people in Seattle into permanent housing as part of a federal initiative to reduce homelessness by 25% in two years, the White House announced Thursday.
Through the initiative, ALL INside, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness will partner with Seattle and five other cities and states: California, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and the Phoenix metropolitan area.
At a virtual event with White House officials Thursday morning announcing the partnership, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said the initiative provides an opportunity for different levels of government to “stop talking past one another,” and unite to get more people inside.
Chicago Tribune
Matthew Carlin moved from Albany Park with his pregnant wife and twin daughters to the Indianapolis area this month. Born and raised in Chicago, Carlin said the decision came down to education, cost of living and crime.
“It’s all over the place, and, unfortunately, there’s no consequences in Chicago,” Carlin said, citing the recent bat attack in his former neighborhood. “I just felt like it was time to get out of Chicago and start the next chapter of our lives for our family.”
People constantly come and go, but new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that Chicago lost about 81,000 people, or just under 3% of its population, from 2020 to 2022. Despite the decline, the city retained its position as the nation’s third most populous city, after New York City and Los Angeles, in 2022. Houston was ranked fourth.
Ukraine strikes back around Bakhmut as Wagner reaches last streets in the city
The Kyiv Independent
On the evening of May 9, just half a day after a single T-34 tank rolled through Red Square during Moscow’s subdued Victory Day celebrations, something unexpected happened.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, announced that units of the Russian regular army’s 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade had fled their positions southwest of Bakhmut, the destroyed city in Donetsk Oblast, that has been for nine months the site of the bloodiest battle of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
A few hours later, Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade confirmed Prigozhin’s claims that the 72nd was in flight, reporting their own capture of Russian positions west of a key canal running adjacent to Bakhmut.
Ex Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev claims Baltic countries belong to Russia
EuroNews
The former Russian Prime Minister referred to the three Baltic states as "our" on Tuesday, adding Poland was "temporarily occupied".
Firebrand Russian politician Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that the Baltics belong to Russia.
Writing on Twitter, the former Russian Prime Minister referred to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as "our" provinces, saying they had "soiled themselves" over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The G-7 is tightening up economic sanctions on Russia for its war on Ukraine
NPR News
The United States plans to blacklist about 70 companies and organizations for selling restricted U.S. products to Russia, part of a push by G-7 nations to try to exact more economic pain on Russia for its war on Ukraine.
Each of the G-7 countries has actions planned, said a U.S. official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcements by leaders. The public statements are expected sometime during their summit in Hiroshima, Japan, this weekend.
"This is going to be a significant effort that will extensively restrict Russia's access to goods that matter for its battlefield capabilities," the official said.
The Sudan crisis: A power struggle by design
Al Jazeera
The crisis in Sudan is in its fifth week with no end in sight. Neither the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) nor the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been able to gain decisive victories in the capital, Khartoum.
But their inability to overpower each other is not totally surprising. Instead, it is largely a byproduct of longtime President Omar al-Bashir’s strategy of rule in a country that has witnessed 16 failed and successful coup attempts since its independence.
Having come to power through a military coup himself in 1989, al-Bashir needed to keep his own army in check without rendering it too weak to maintain his hold on power. A sizable paramilitary is seen as reducing the risk of military coups because it shifts executive power away from a regular military to add a layer of protection against foreseeable mutinies.
China’s loans pushing world’s poorest countries to brink of collapse
AP News
A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China.
An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Laos and Mongolia — found paying back that debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel. And it’s draining foreign currency reserves these countries use to pay interest on those loans, leaving some with just months before that money is gone.
Behind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.
Grid monitor warns of blackout risks across U.S.
E&E News
Two-thirds of North America could face power shortages this summer during periods of extreme electricity demand and spiking temperatures, the nation’s grid reliability monitor warned Wednesday.
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) found that the number of regions with an “elevated risk” of power shortages has increased as temperatures rise and power plants retire. In a worst-case combination of severe heat and unexpected generation outages, the western United States, most of Texas, and the Carolinas face a heightened risk of rolling power blackouts, NERC said.
“The system is closer to the edge. More needs to be done,” said John Moura, NERC director of reliability assessment and performance analysis, in a news briefing Wednesday.
SCOTUS spares Section 230, rules Google, Twitter not liable for aiding ISIS
Ars Technica
Today the United States Supreme Court quashed tech industry fears that the nation's highest court might ruin the Internet by deciding that platforms should be held liable for recommending third-party content that has long been protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
In a pair of rulings, the Supreme Court found that plaintiffs failed to state a claim when arguing that online platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook should be held liable for aiding and abetting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist enterprise by recommending terrorist content ahead of attacks. As a result, both cases, Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google, have been remanded to a lower court, and at least for now, the Section 230 immunity shield remains fully intact.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion in the Twitter case. He concluded that allegations that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube knew for years that "ISIS was using their platforms but failed to stop it from doing so" were "insufficient"—even without considering Section 230 protections—to establish that the social platforms aided and abetted a specific 2017 terrorist attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey. That attack, carried out for ISIS by Abdulkadir Masharipov, killed 39 victims and injured another 69.