Chemical plants in China and U.S. emit climate super-pollutant that’s 273 times more potent than CO2

Chemical plants in China and U.S. emit climate super-pollutant that’s 273 times more potent than CO2

Inside Climate News reports: Twelve chemical plants in China and the United States emit a potent climate pollutant with collective emissions equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 31 million automobiles, according to a report published on Thursday by Global Efficiency Intelligence, an industrial decarbonization research and consulting firm based in Tampa. The emissions, which also deplete the earth’s protective ozone layer, could be effectively eliminated at little cost, the report’s authors conclude. The 11 Chinese plants and one U.S….

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Global epidemic of type 2 diabetes driven by consumption of refined carbohydrates

Global epidemic of type 2 diabetes driven by consumption of refined carbohydrates

Science Alert reports: Over the last forty years or so, the number of people with diabetes has jumped from around 100 million to more than 500 million, with matching rises in associated health problems like obesity and cardiovascular disease risk. It’s a significant health problem that is getting worse, which is why researchers are investigating the underlying issues behind the trend. One of those issues is likely to be diet, according to a new study into type 2 diabetes – which accounts for 95…

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How a human smell receptor works is finally revealed

How a human smell receptor works is finally revealed

Wynne Parry writes: For the first time, researchers have determined how a human olfactory receptor captures an airborne scent molecule, the pivotal chemical event that triggers our sense of smell. Whether it evokes roses or vanilla, cigarettes or gasoline, every scent starts with free-floating odor molecules that latch onto receptors in the nose. Multitudes of such unions produce the perception of the smells we love, loathe or tolerate. Researchers therefore want to know in granular detail how smell sensors detect…

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How Scalia Law School became a key ‘friend of the court’

How Scalia Law School became a key ‘friend of the court’

The New York Times reports: In the fall of 2017, an administrator at George Mason University’s law school circulated a confidential memo about a prospective hire. Just months earlier, Neil M. Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge from Colorado, had won confirmation to the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia, the conservative icon for whom the school was named. For President Donald J. Trump, bringing Judge Gorsuch to Washington was the first step toward fulfilling a…

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This Supreme Court is slow to issue rulings — glacially slow

This Supreme Court is slow to issue rulings — glacially slow

NBC News reports: Back in 1923, the Supreme Court had issued 157 rulings by May 1 in a term that started the previous fall. On the same date a century later, the current justices, facing a firestorm of scrutiny on multiple fronts, have disposed of just 15 cases, fueling speculation about why they are falling behind. In fact, the court has decided fewer cases at this point of the term — which begins each October and ends in June —…

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It’s time to restore the distinction between disinformation and plain old lying

It’s time to restore the distinction between disinformation and plain old lying

Monika Richter writes: In 2014, Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine drove me to enter the field of disinformation research. Humiliated by the PR failure of its 2008 invasion of Georgia, the Kremlin had been quietly growing its global media influence and information strategy, in an effort that initially attracted little attention from the United States or other Western countries. With Ukraine, Putin was ready: Russia launched a massive disinformation campaign to justify the annexation of Crimea, undermine Western support for Ukraine, and engineer distrust…

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Black voting rights under threat in GOP supermajority states, lawmakers say

Black voting rights under threat in GOP supermajority states, lawmakers say

The Washington Post reports: State Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson was standing in front of the Florida House of Representatives, recounting being spat on for sitting at Whites-only lunch counters during the civil rights movement. The 75-year-old was trying to impress on her Republican colleagues how hard she and others had fought for voting rights and how a plan to eliminate a congressional seat held by a Black Democrat would again seriously diminish the political power of Black Floridians. When she…

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Sinn Féin to attend King Charles’ coronation in sign of changed times

Sinn Féin to attend King Charles’ coronation in sign of changed times

Politico reports: The Irish republicans of Sinn Féin — who once supported Irish Republican Army attacks on British royals — announced Wednesday they will send senior representatives to the coronation of King Charles III in a sign of radically changed times. Michelle O’Neill, the party’s deputy leader and first minister-designate for the mothballed Northern Ireland government, said she would represent Sinn Féin at the May 6 ceremony at Westminster Abbey. O’Neill, who wants the Democratic Unionists to end their year-long…

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Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk

Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk

Rest of World reports: It’s been exactly six months since Elon Musk took over Twitter, promising a new era of free speech and independence from political bias. But Twitter’s self-reported data shows that, under Musk, the company has complied with hundreds more government orders for censorship or surveillance — especially in countries such as Turkey and India. The data, drawn from Twitter’s reports to the Lumen database, shows that between October 27, 2022 and April 26, 2023, Twitter received a…

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Monist philosophy and quantum physics agree that all is one

Monist philosophy and quantum physics agree that all is one

Heinrich Päs writes: ‘From all things One and from One all things,’ wrote the Greek philosopher Heraclitus some 2,500 years ago. He was describing monism, the ancient idea that all is one – that, fundamentally, everything we see or experience is an aspect of one unified whole. Heraclitus wasn’t the first, nor the last, to advocate the idea. The ancient Egyptians believed in an all-encompassing but elusive unity symbolised by the goddess Isis, often portrayed with a veil and worshipped…

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Trump could definitely beat Biden

Trump could definitely beat Biden

Eric Levitz writes: Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 Republican primary is not certain. But it now looks more than merely likely. The former president boasts more than twice as much support as Ron DeSantis, leading the Florida governor by a 51-to-24 percent margin in FiveThirtyEight’s average of GOP primary polls. No other candidate is polling above 6 percent. And the gap between Trump and DeSantis has been growing steadily wider for weeks. Indeed, the Viktor Orbán of the Sunshine State appears to be wilting beneath the…

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This is what the right-wing takeover of a progressive college looks like

This is what the right-wing takeover of a progressive college looks like

Michelle Goldberg writes: When I first met Matthew Lepinski, the faculty chair of New College of Florida, he was willing to give the right-wingers sent to remake his embattled progressive public school a chance. This was in January, a few weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida appointed six activist conservatives, including the culture war strategist Chris Rufo, to New College’s board of trustees. Rufo, the ideological entrepreneur who made critical race theory a Republican boogeyman, was open about his…

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Inside Russia’s environmental influence operation targeting the Baltic Sea

Inside Russia’s environmental influence operation targeting the Baltic Sea

Michael Weiss and Holger Roonemaa report: In the first few days of October 2022, a group of Russians and Belarusians gathered in the Kaliningrad resort town of Svetlogorsk. The politicians, academics and activists discussed how the two countries, “truly striving for stability across the planet,” might resist the suite of international sanctions hitting both Russia and Belarus after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. One of the Svetlogorsk event’s most authoritative speakers was Alexander Dynkin, president of the prestigious Primakov National Research…

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Russian pilots tried to ‘dogfight’ U.S. jets over Syria, U.S. Central Command says

Russian pilots tried to ‘dogfight’ U.S. jets over Syria, U.S. Central Command says

CNN reports: Russian pilots tried to “dogfight” US jets over Syria, according to a spokesman for US Central Command, part of a recent pattern of more aggressive behavior. The attempts have happened in several of the most recent instances of aggressive behavior from Russian pilots, Col. Joe Buccino said. The Russian pilots do not appear to be trying to shoot down American jets, a US official told CNN, but they may be trying to “provoke” the US and “draw us…

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