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Did Omicron come from mice?

Did Omicron come from mice?

Carolyn Kormann writes: Last Thanksgiving, Rilu, an eleven-year-old snow leopard and father of seven, began sneezing and wheezing. Snow leopards are native to the Himalayas, but Rilu was born in a zoo in Oklahoma City, then moved to the Miller Park Zoo, in Illinois, in 2011, to form part of the Species Survival Plan—the zoos’ matchmaking effort to maintain a genetically diverse “insurance” population of endangered animals. A PCR test in early December confirmed that Rilu had Covid-19. He developed…

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CIA is collecting in bulk certain data affecting Americans, senators warn

CIA is collecting in bulk certain data affecting Americans, senators warn

The New York Times reports: The Central Intelligence Agency has for years been collecting in bulk, without a warrant, some kind of data that can affect Americans’ privacy, according to a newly declassified letter by two senators. The C.I.A. kept censored the nature of the data when it declassified the letter. At the same time, it declared that a report about the same topic, which had prompted the letter, must remain fully classified, except for some heavily redacted recommendations. That…

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Most public activity on Facebook comes from a tiny, hyperactive group of abusive users

Most public activity on Facebook comes from a tiny, hyperactive group of abusive users

Matthew Hindman, Nathaniel Lubin, and Trevor Davis write: If you want to understand why Facebook too often is a cesspool of hate and disinformation, a good place to start is with users such as John, Michelle, and Calvin. John, a caps-lock devotee from upstate New York, calls House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “PIGLOSI,” uses the term negro, and says that the right response to Democrats with whom they disagree is to “SHOOT all of them.” Michelle rails against the “plandemic.” Calvin…

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Can Trump be barred for running for president because he flushed papers down a toilet?

Can Trump be barred for running for president because he flushed papers down a toilet?

David Corn writes: The latest Donald Trump scandal is about as surprising as finding mold on pizza left in the fridge for a month. A few days ago, the Washington Post revealed that when Trump vacated the White House he took 15 boxes of presidential documents and other items with him. That was a possible violation of the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of all documents—memos, letters, notes, emails—related to a president’s official duties. It was enacted in…

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Do gaps in White House logs of Trump’s January 6 calls point to an attempted cover-up?

Do gaps in White House logs of Trump’s January 6 calls point to an attempted cover-up?

The New York Times reports: The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has discovered gaps in official White House telephone logs from the day of the riot, finding few records of calls by President Donald J. Trump from critical hours when investigators know that he was making them. Investigators have not uncovered evidence that any official records were tampered with or deleted, and it is well known that Mr. Trump used his personal cellphone, and those…

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Will Biden restore Trump-era policy and trigger a historic famine in Yemen?

Will Biden restore Trump-era policy and trigger a historic famine in Yemen?

HuffPost reports: President Joe Biden’s national security team is in a complex tug of war over a decision that could push millions of people into starvation — weighing the advice of humanitarian experts, most government officials and top Democrats against arguments from hawks who want Biden to restore one of former President Donald Trump’s most controversial policies. Biden is considering slapping the U.S. government’s “foreign terrorist organization” label on the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia that has been fighting American-backed forces…

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Pro-Israel groups are still able to intimidate some progressive candidates

Pro-Israel groups are still able to intimidate some progressive candidates

HuffPost reports: The Austin, Texas, chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America announced on Sunday that it was effectively withdrawing its endorsement of Democratic congressional candidate Greg Casar after he made clear that he supports U.S. aid for Israel’s “self-defense” and opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel. “Austin DSA’s elected leadership finds that these statements are not reconcilable with DSA’s stance in solidarity with Palestine,” the group wrote. The break with Casar, a longstanding DSA…

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Former police and military officers may be helping Ottawa convoy protest dig in

Former police and military officers may be helping Ottawa convoy protest dig in

CBC reports: For nearly two weeks anti-vaccine mandate demonstrators and their big rigs have entrenched themselves in Ottawa’s parliamentary district and its neighbourhoods. Despite a strategic strike by police to cut off supplies to truckers encamped in the city’s downtown core, protesters appear to still have the upper hand on police. It’s a success that experts partly attribute to the deep knowledge of law enforcement and military tactics that exist in the convoy’s organizational structure. The group Police on Guard,…

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New research suggests modern humans lived in Europe 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, in Neanderthal territories

New research suggests modern humans lived in Europe 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, in Neanderthal territories

The Grotte Mandrin rock shelter saw repeated use by Neanderthals and modern humans over millennia. Ludovic Slimak, CC BY-ND By Ludovic Slimak, Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès; Clément Zanolli, Université de Bordeaux; Jason E. Lewis, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York), and Laure Metz, University of Connecticut Perched about 325 feet (100 meters) up the slopes of the Prealps in southern France, a humble rock shelter looks out over the Rhône River Valley. It’s a strategic point…

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Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

Nature reports: Methane concentrations in the atmosphere raced past 1,900 parts per billion last year, nearly triple preindustrial levels, according to data released in January by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Scientists says the grim milestone underscores the importance of a pledge made at last year’s COP26 climate summit to curb emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas at least 28 times as potent as CO2. The growth of methane emissions slowed around the turn of the millennium,…

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Experiment demonstrates that nuclear fussion is no longer a pipedream solution for the climate crisis

Experiment demonstrates that nuclear fussion is no longer a pipedream solution for the climate crisis

CNN reports: There’s no silver bullet to the climate crisis, but nuclear fusion may be the closest thing to it. In the quest for a near-limitless, zero-carbon source of reliable power, scientists have generated fusion energy before, but they have struggled for decades to sustain it for very long. On Wednesday, however, scientists working in the United Kingdom announced that they more than doubled the previous record for generating and sustaining nuclear fusion, which is the same process that allows…

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The time to end pandemic restrictions is now

The time to end pandemic restrictions is now

Yascha Mounk writes: In March 2020, I wrote that America should “cancel everything” in response to the acute threat posed by COVID-19: Mass events should be postponed, companies should send employees home from the office, and schools should move classes online. I remain convinced that this was the right thing to do. Before anyone was vaccinated, and before doctors had even a preliminary understanding of how to treat the disease, these measures were necessary to save lives and avert a…

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Can Ukraine and Russia be persuaded to abide by Minsk accords?

Can Ukraine and Russia be persuaded to abide by Minsk accords?

The Guardian reports: In the often acrimonious back-and-forth between Russia and Ukraine in recent years, “fulfilling Minsk” has become something of a meaningless mantra: all sides agree to abide by the 2015 Minsk accords in public, but neither has any real intention of implementing the provisions of the agreement. Yet in his intensive peacemaking efforts this week, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, appears to be pinning his hopes on a renewed attempt to breathe life into the seven-year-old agreement. “The…

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New report details the influence of Christian nationalism on the insurrection

New report details the influence of Christian nationalism on the insurrection

Religion News Service reports: A team of scholars, faith leaders and advocates unveiled an exhaustive new report Wednesday (Feb. 9) that documents in painstaking detail the role Christian nationalism played in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and calling it an unsettling preview of things to come. Christian nationalism was used to “bolster, justify and intensify the January 6 attack on the Capitol,” said Amanda Tyler, head of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which sponsored the…

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