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Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, Fast
The New York Times
The past three days were quite likely the hottest in Earth’s modern history, scientists said on Thursday, as an astonishing surge of heat across the globe continued to shatter temperature records from North America to Antarctica.
The spike comes as forecasters warn that the Earth could be entering a multiyear period of exceptional warmth driven by two main factors: continued emissions of heat-trapping gases, mainly caused by humans burning oil, gas and coal; and the return of El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern. […]
The sharp jump in temperatures has unsettled even those scientists who have been tracking climate change.
“It’s so far out of line of what’s been observed that it’s hard to wrap your head around,” said Brian McNoldy, a senior research scientist at the University of Miami. “It doesn’t seem real.”
Recent events that indicate Earth’s climate has entered uncharted territory
AP News
As a warming Earth simmered into worrisome new territory this week, scientists said the unofficial records being set for average planetary temperature were a clear sign of how pollutants released by humans are warming their environment. But the heat is also just one way the planet is telling us something is gravely wrong, they said. […]
Dying coral reefs, more intense Nor’easters and the wildfire smoke that has choked much of North America this summer are among the many other signals of climate distress.
“The increasing heating of our planet caused by fossil fuel use is not unexpected, but it is dangerous for us humans and for the ecosystems we depend on. We need to stop it, fast,” said Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
The Arctic Is Farting ‘Ancient’ Methane and It’s Scary as Hell
Rolling Stone
Rapidly receding glaciers are leaving new tracts of Arctic land uncovered and causing a potent greenhouse gas to bubble out of the ground, according to scientists studying the region.
The Washington Post reports that, thanks to climate change, glaciers on a Norwegian archipelago are retreating rapidly, exposing land that has long been covered by ice. Groundwater on the newly uncovered land is seeping up, and bringing “ancient” methane to the surface with it, the Post writes. Scientists found high concentrations of methane in 122 of the 123 groundwater springs they measured. […]
“This is a feedback loop that’s caused by climate change,” Gabrielle Kleber, a climate scientist and the lead author of the glacier methane study, told the Post. “Glaciers are retreating due to climate warming, and they are leaving these exposed forefields behind, which are encouraging methane gas to be released.”
Homeless crisis ruling creates bitter divide among West Coast appeals court judges
The Oregonian
A federal appeals panel Wednesday refused to allow the full 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals to rehear its ruling that prohibited the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, from criminally punishing homeless people who sleep in public places when they have nowhere else to go. […]
The original ruling placed a “straitjacket” on West Coast cities that are left with little recourse to deal with an insurmountable and widespread rise in homelessness, the dissenters wrote. […]
The two judges who wrote the majority opinion — Rosyln O. Silver, a U.S. District judge in Arizona designated to sit on the 9th Circuit and 9th Circuit Judge Ronald M. Gould — said the Eighth Amendment imposes “substantive” limits on what’s punishable as a crime.
The attempt by Grants Pass to punish people with nowhere to go for the “life-sustaining act of sleeping” outside rose to one of those circumstances and is consistent with U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Silver and Gould argued.
9th Circuit conservatives blast homelessness ruling, say issue is ‘paralyzing’ U.S. West
Los Angeles Times
Some of the most powerful conservative judges in the United States took collective aim Wednesday at the idea that homeless people with nowhere else to go have a right to sleep in public, excoriating their liberal colleagues for ruling as much.
Their scathing comments came in a set of responses to a decision Wednesday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals not to rehear a case in which a smaller three-judge panel affirmed such rights in September.
In their responses, the court’s conservative wing painted a dystopian portrait of an American West deprived of its public spaces and under siege by an overwhelming epidemic of homelessness. […]
Judge Milan Smith Jr., one of the court’s older conservative judges who was appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote in one dissent that homelessness is “presently the defining public health and safety crisis in the western United States.”
Canada still faces a high risk of wildfires for the rest of the summer, government warns
CBC News
With 2023 officially the worst wildfire season in Canadian history, the federal government is warning that the fire risk will remain very high across the country for the rest of the summer.
"Drought conditions, when coupled with above-normal temperatures across most of the country, means that the risk of fire activity is going to remain very high throughout the majority of the summer," Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told a media briefing Thursday.
"Quite apparently, 2023 now carries the unfortunate distinction of being Canada's worst wildfire season on record." […]
Blair was joined at the media briefing by Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam and Liberal MP for Davenport, Ont. Julie Dzerowicz.
"This summer, we are witnessing the effects of climate change first-hand as Canada continues to experience more intense and frequent severe weather events," Tam said.
Red flag, dry conditions, multiple wildfires worry Northwest fire managers after Fourth holiday
Oregon Public Broadcasting
There’s a red flag warning and heat advisories in several areas of the Northwest along with several growing wildfires. That makes a tough job for firefighters with the parched conditions and leftover fireworks still terrorizing neighborhood dogs.
“We’ve got several fires going on,” said Janet Pearce, a spokesperson with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. “We’re hoping there will be no more. I just hope folks can be a little safe. Fourth of July is over, maybe they can save their fireworks for January.” […]
“It’s the worst thing that we could possibly ask for,” Pearce said. “The winds are always a killer for us during fire season and when the landscape is this dry, and getting drier, with no rain in sight it’s going to be a big challenge.”
Many parts of both Oregon and Washington are also in a drought, making fuels
Biden: Republicans ‘bragging’ about energy investments it fought
E&E News
President Joe Biden… traveled to South Carolina on Thursday to trumpet clean energy investments at a plant that manufactures solar power technology. He touted the enactment of a climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act as well as massive infrastructure and manufacturing laws.
Since he took office, Biden said, “we’ve attracted half a trillion dollars — $497 billion — in private investment in American manufacturing, both here and around the world.”
Implementing all that legislation has had a “transformative impact,” he said. “All those members of Congress who voted against it suddenly realize how great it is. And they’re bragging about it. As my mother would say, ‘God love them.’” […]
Every Republican member of Congress voted against the climate law, Biden noted. And “every Republican member of the House in this state voted to repeal the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that attracted all these jobs,” he said at the South Carolina event.
What Climate Change Has to do With the Looming UPS Union Strike
TIME
These days, UPS driver Barkley Wimpee prepares for his daily route out of Rome, Ga., with the precision of a battlefield commander. He loads up his cooler with ice, and stocks it with sandwiches, a case of water bottles, and a couple of sports drinks. […]
Working all day in heat like this, he says from behind the wheel of his truck on a recent 100°F morning, “is physically painful. When your body starts to heat up, you don’t feel right.” As weeks-long, triple-digit heat waves smother the southern U.S. from California to Florida, not feeling right is starting to feel normal for Wimpee, 28. And it’s only going to get worse. “There’s no question that the globe is heating up,” he says. “Summers are getting hotter. Our [work] days are getting longer. I’m thankful that I have a job, but it’s an untenable situation that we’re in right now with the rising heat.” […]
On June 16, UPS’s 340,000 Teamsters union members voted to strike starting August 1, unless their demands for improved working conditions, including air-conditioned vehicles and company-provided ice for coolers at the cargo centers, were included in a new, five-year contract. While climate change was not specifically cited in the union demands, UPS’s unwillingness to adapt to the new realities of global warming by providing its employees with heat-adaptation strategies formed the subtext of the campaign.
Prosecutors in Trump classified documents case are facing threats
The Washington Post
Individual prosecutors involved in the classified documents case against … Donald Trump are facing substantial harassment and threats online and elsewhere, according to extremism experts and a government official familiar with the matter.
At the same time, two officials said, federal agencies have not observed a general increase in threats against law enforcement in the weeks since Trump was indicted in South Florida — a sharp contrast from the surge of violent rhetoric in the days after FBI agents searched the former president’s Florida property last August.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues. The FBI has called threats against law enforcement “reprehensible and dangerous,” and says it is working closely with other law enforcement agencies “to assess and respond to such threats.”
Lawsuits pile up against actions taken by Democratic-controlled Minnesota Legislature
Minneapolis Star Tribune
The Minnesota Legislature's historically productive session has prompted a flurry of legal challenges, many arguing that Democratic lawmakers overstepped their constitutional authority.
A national trade group representing generic drug manufacturers sued Minnesota on Wednesday over a new law meant to minimize prescription drug price increases. Two new election laws have also been challenged — including one that restored voting rights for felons, as well as another law relating to the state's Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program. […]
Democratic lawmakers and the state attorney general have expressed confidence that the new laws will prevail in court.
"We know from past experience that the pharmaceutical industry will challenge any attempt to rein in drug prices," said Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, who sponsored the prescription drug proposal. "They have every right to challenge this law, but I am confident that the law is both constitutional and necessary."
Wisconsin governor's 400-year veto angers opponents in state with long history of creative cuts
AP via Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin's governor attempted to lock in a school funding increase for the next 400 years by issuing a partial veto that angered his Republican critics and marks the latest creative use of the unique gubernatorial powers in the state.
Wisconsin allows governors to alter certain legislation by replacing words and letters wherever they see fit, and Gov. Tony Evers struck a hyphen and “20” to change the end date for a $325 per-student spending increase from 2025 to 2425.
With those seemingly simple changes, Evers enacted four centuries of funding increases that cannot be undone unless a court strikes it down or a future Legislature and governor intervene.
“Everybody will shout and scream," said former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, "but he’s got ’em.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene ousted from conservative House Freedom Caucus, Republican lawmaker says
USA Today
The House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., from the conservative group, according to Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., another member of the caucus.
“A vote was taken to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House Freedom Caucus for some of the things she’s done,” Harris said Thursday, according tomultiple reports. The lawmaker added that Greene may no longer be able to attend the group’s meetings. […]
Asked whether Greene's support for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., or her backing the debt limit deal earlier this year were factors in the move, Harris said “I think all of that mattered,” Politico reported.
Judge rules Trump can be deposed in lawsuit from ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok
CNN
A federal judge ruled Thursday that Donald Trump can be deposed in the lawsuit ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok brought against the Justice Department for his wrongful termination after the Russia investigation.
In the lawsuit, Strzok alleges Trump’s political vendetta against him – whom Trump criticized in tweets – led to his wrongful termination, and that the Justice Department wrongfully released text messages he exchanged with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Page is also suing. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed with the request to depose Trump.
“Given the limited nature of the deposition that has been ordered, and the fact that the former President’s schedule appears to be able to accommodate other civil litigation that he has initiated,” Jackson wrote in a brief order.
The Justice Department has argued that Trump’s public attacks were not the reason for Strzok’s firing.
The Republican Governor Appointing His Big Donors to State Positions
The Daily Beast
When Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves lifted the last of his state’s minimal COVID restrictions on April 30, 2021, the 2023 election was far from the thoughts of most of his constituents. But not Reeves.
He was fresh off a private flight to a fundraiser where lobbyists were eager to write his political operation checks. And the person who provided that flight—a $12,500 in-kind contribution—was a powerful businessman in the state whose son had been handpicked to advise Reeves’ COVID “Restart Mississippi” economic committee.
That flight, in addition to another flat $12,500 same-day contribution from the same businessman, would go on to account for $25,000 of the approximately $1.4 million the Reeves campaign has banked from his own government appointees, along with their immediate family members and associates, according to The Daily Beast’s review of Mississippi campaign finance filings.
That analysis expands on recent reporting from Mississippi Today, which identified a number of Reeves appointees who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the die-hard conservative’s campaign.
Republican presidential candidates canoodle with Moms for Liberty
The Economist
Born out of the pandemic anti-mask movement, the organisation now boasts 120,000 members. Its enthusiasts attend school-board meetings across 45 states to get books containing obscene images, critical race theory (CRT) or gender ideology stripped from library shelves. On June 29th hundreds of “mama bears” gathered in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was written and thus American liberty was born, to mobilise to protect their cubs from the “K-12 cartel”.
The country’s top Republicans came to court them. Five presidential candidates, including the front-runners, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, spoke at the four-day event. Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman-turned-politician, vowed to defund the Department of Education and Mr Trump promised to let parents fire principals. All committed to battling the “indoctrination” of children.
Their ringing endorsements came after Moms for Liberty was dubbed an anti-government extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), a non-profit civil-rights organisation, in June. It gives the designation to groups that traffic in conspiracy theories and believe the government is tyrannical. After a year’s monitoring it characterised Moms for Liberty’s work as a crusade to “dismantle public schools” and promote anti-LGBTQ curriculums while accusing the left of “grooming” children. Much of what is documented in the report, however, looks more like fairly regular right-wing organising. Nikki Haley, chasing a long-shot presidential nomination, tweeted: “If @Moms4Liberty is a ‘hate group,’ add me to the list”.
Harris County sues to stop new Texas law abolishing its elections office
Houston Chronicle
Harris County is headed to court to challenge a new state law that abolishes its elections office, County Attorney Christian Menefee announced Thursday.
The county's lawsuit aims to stop Senate Bill 1750 from going into effect Sept. 1, just 39 days before the voter registration deadline and 52 days from the start of early voting in the November election, which includes the Houston mayoral contest.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed the measure into law just over two weeks ago.
The state law eliminates the elections administrator position established by Harris County Commissioners Court in June 2021 and returns election duties to the two elected offices that previously held them, the county clerk and the tax assessor-collector.
Former U.S. officials have held secret Ukraine talks with prominent Russians
NBC News
A group of former senior U.S. national security officials has held secret talks with prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin — and, in at least one case, with the country’s top diplomat — with the aim of laying the groundwork for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, half a dozen people briefed on the discussions said.
In a high-level example of the back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov met with members of the group for several hours in April in New York, four former officials and two current officials said. […]
Meeting with Lavrov were Richard Haass, a former diplomat and the outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations, current and former officials said. The group was joined by Europe expert Charles Kupchan and Russia expert Thomas Graham, both former White House and State Department officials who are Council on Foreign Relations fellows.
Zelenskyy rallies for support, Wagner boss 'not' in Belarus, anti-Wagner campaign
EuroNews
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has continued to rally support for his hopes of being formally invited to join NATO.
A few days before the Vilnius summit, Ukraine's leader has taken his message to Bulgaria, where he offered thanks for the support he has received in the face of Russian aggression. […]
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was no longer in Belarus and had returned to Russia, contrary to reports. […]
"He's in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus," Lukashenko told reporters on Thursday.
Wagner Group: Russian state media takes aim at Prigozhin
BBC News
Russian state-controlled TV has embarked on an apparent campaign to discredit Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in the wake of his failed mutiny in late June.
Key channels showed what they said were images taken during searches at his opulent home outside St Petersburg, arguing that his riches reflected very badly on him.
They also recalled his criminal past and suggested that he was driven by greed, but failed to mention Prigozhin's persistent and often crude criticism of Russia's military and of how it pursues the war in Ukraine.
This is the first time that the state media machine's reporting of Prigozhin has been so prolific, so personal and so full of damaging details about his biography.
US expected to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine
The Guardian
[…] The White House said on Thursday that providing cluster munitions to Ukraine is under “active consideration”, and US officials told Reuters that the administration is expected to announce the new weapons aid package that will include these weapons on Friday.
Ukrainian and Russian forces have used cluster munitions that caused numerous civilian deaths and serious injuries, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday, calling on both sides to immediately stop using the “inherently indiscriminate” weapons.
US officials have claimed that any munitions provided to Ukraine would have a reduced “dud rate”, meaning there will be far fewer unexploded rounds that could later result in unintended civilian deaths.
US drones harassed by Russian jets over Syria for second time in 24 hours
Stars & Stripes
Russian fighter jets flew dangerously close to U.S. drones over Syria, setting off flares and forcing the American aircraft to take evasive measures for the second time in the last 24 hours, according to the Air Force.
The Russian aircraft harassed the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones at about 9:30 a.m. local time Thursday as the American aircraft conducted operations against Islamic State group targets, according to a statement from U.S. Air Forces Central.
Janet Yellen arrives in Beijing on mission to find common ground for U.S. and China
CNBC
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen landed in Beijing Thursday on a four-day trip aimed at finding common ground as rivalry between the U.S. and China becomes increasingly adversarial.
Yellen's trip marks a deepening thaw in ties between the U.S. and China and comes weeks after Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing in last month, which was the first high-level meeting between the two countries after months of tensions.
"The two sides are basically talking, trying to find the strategic space for both sides to operate, and this will be very good for the rest of the world," Andrew Sheng, a distinguished fellow at the University of Hong Kong's Asia Global Institute, told CNBC Thursday.
US wants coalition of nations to engage China in curbing synthetic drugs
Reuters
The U.S. wants other countries to engage China on limiting the flow of synthetic drugs, the State Department's top official on narcotics said on Thursday, as Washington complains of a lack of cooperation from Beijing to combat illegal trade in the dangerous substances.
On the eve of a U.S.-led conference on the issue, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Todd Robinson said China needed to do more to disrupt illicit synthetic drug supply chains, but that it was still unclear if China would join the meeting. […]
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday will host the first virtual meeting of at least 84 countries to set up a "global coalition" to combat synthetic drugs, part of a Biden administration policy to curb the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl that has fueled the country's opioid crisis.
Disinformation researchers under investigation: what’s happening and why
Nature
Researchers who study how disinformation spreads are under investigation in the United States for allegedly helping to censor conservative opinions about COVID-19 vaccines and government elections. Jim Jordan, a US representative for Ohio, is leading the charge against the scientists. He is also one of the Republican leaders who have suggested that the Democrats have stolen the 2020 presidential election from … Donald Trump, and who have made unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud.
The House of Representatives judiciary committee that Jordan chairs is one of at least three investigating an alleged ‘censorship regime’ that involves academic researchers, US government programmes designed to counter disinformation and social-media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. The committees have sent out letters demanding communications and records from numerous scientists and institutions — in some cases under threat of legal action. In parallel, a cadre of activist groups and Republican-led states that challenged the 2020 election results have launched lawsuits against the administration of President Joe Biden, as well as against individual researchers. […]
We have seen this playbook before, says Rebekah Tromble, who leads the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University in Washington DC. Many climate scientists, for instance, have been targeted by legal actions and information requests from conservative activists and leaders. “This is a practice that is going to touch more and more researchers’ lives.”
Biden Administration Appeals Judge's Ban on Government Asking for Social Media Takedowns
Gizmodo
The Biden administration is appealing a bombshell ruling from a federal judge barring government agencies from contacting social media companies to make takedown requests or recommend other content moderation. State Department officials had already halted routine meetings with Facebook in response to the July 5th ruling. Experts fear the lack of communication between the federal government and social media companies could delay responses to online disinformation campaigns ahead of upcoming elections.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed with Gizmodo that its Global Engagement Center postponed a meeting with Meta on July 5 while it reviewed the preliminary injunction. The spokesperson said that the meeting was intended to focus on information sharing with the goal of countering foreign disinformation overseas.
Pressure mounts on Labor to protect koalas by ending logging of their habitat
Sydney Morning Herald
Pressure is mounting on Labor to end logging in the proposed Great Koala National Park, as politicians and environmental groups say the plans fly in the face of biodiversity protections.
A coalition of peak environmental groups, including the Nature Conservation Council and World Wildlife Fund, and 13 local community conservation groups within the proposed area, gathered outside NSW Parliament on Wednesday to voice concerns over the logging practices.
The proposed national park would link together and protect existing national parks and state forests and add other critical habitats from South West Rocks, north of Coffs Harbour, to Woy Woy on the Central Coast, and areas inland over parts of the Great Dividing Range. But large parts of the proposed park are earmarked for logging in the coming months.
U.N. report lists ways to reduce ocean noise pollution
Mongabay
A recent U.N. report lists tactics and recommendations for reducing human-caused ocean noise, a form of pollution that impacts marine life from tiny plankton to colossal whales.
Published in June by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an environmental treaty of the U.N., the report outlines possible solutions to three primary sources of anthropogenic noise: shipping, seismic air gun surveys used to map the seafloor, and pile driving, which is the act of pounding structures into the seafloor to support offshore wind farms and other constructions. Many formal agreements, including the CMS, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and regional agreements like the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR Convention), refer to the adoption of “best available technologies” and “best environmental practices,” but don’t necessarily specify what these technologies or practices should be.
Lindy Weilgart, the report author and an underwater noise specialist at Dalhousie University in Canada, said the new report provides “a few possibilities” of these technologies and practices that can be applied to reduce ocean noise.
US maternal deaths more than doubled over two decades, study estimates
Ars Technica
The number of people in the US dying of pregnancy-related causes more than doubled over two decades, with Black, Native American, and Alaska Native people facing the highest risks, according to a new study in JAMA.
The US has the highest rate of maternal deaths compared to other high-income countries, despite spending far more on health care—both on a per-person and share of gross domestic product basis. And, while US maternal deaths have long been high, they've only gotten higher while other high-income countries have seen declines.
Still, digging into US maternal mortality data to understand the trend is difficult. States define maternal deaths differently, some have been slow to add a standard pregnancy-related question on death certificates, and some delay the release of their data.