Anti-Defamation League calls for Tucker Carlson to be fired over ‘replacement theory’ remarks

Anti-Defamation League calls for Tucker Carlson to be fired over ‘replacement theory’ remarks

The New York Times reports: The Anti-Defamation League called on the Fox News host Tucker Carlson to resign in an open letter published on Friday, accusing him of giving “an impassioned defense of the white supremacist ‘great replacement theory.’” Mr. Carlson, in an appearance on Fox News on Thursday, referred scornfully to the term “white replacement theory,” which describes a racist conspiracy theory popular in far-right circles, while arguing that the Democratic Party was “trying to replace the current electorate,…

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Proud Boys and other far-right groups raise millions via Christian funding site

Proud Boys and other far-right groups raise millions via Christian funding site

The Guardian reports: A data breach from Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo has revealed that millions of dollars have been raised on the site for far-right causes and groups, many of whom are banned from raising funds on other platforms. It also identifies previously anonymous high-dollar donors to far-right actors, some of whom enjoy positions of wealth, power or public responsibility. Some of the biggest beneficiaries have been members of groups such as the Proud Boys, designated as a terrorist group…

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The Republicans calling for their party to reject QAnon conspiracy theories

The Republicans calling for their party to reject QAnon conspiracy theories

CNN reports: Republican Rep. Peter Meijer has a warning for his party: He fears baseless conspiracy theories like QAnon will destroy the GOP from within if Republicans don’t decisively and unequivocally condemn the false and dangerous beliefs and take action to stop their spread. “The fact that a significant plurality, if not potentially a majority, of our voters have been deceived into this creation of an alternate reality could very well be an existential threat to the party,” Meijer, who…

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Ukraine is attracting Americans to fight alongside far-right extremists. What happens when radicalized soldiers return home?

Ukraine is attracting Americans to fight alongside far-right extremists. What happens when radicalized soldiers return home?

Christopher Miller reports: The staccato crack of gunfire rang out across the cloudy night, startling residents of a modest enclave in southwestern Florida. Lee County sheriff’s deputies, responding to a flood of 911 calls, raced to the area, but in the dark they were unable to find where the shooting had taken place. It wasn’t until the next morning, when employees of a nearby business complex called the Galleria discovered the crime scene. Fifty-year-old Deana Lorenzo was found slumped over…

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Biden creating commission to study expanding the Supreme Court

Biden creating commission to study expanding the Supreme Court

The New York Times reports: President Biden on Friday ordered a 180-day study of adding seats to the Supreme Court, making good on a campaign-year promise to establish a bipartisan commission to examine the potentially explosive subjects of expanding the court or setting term limits for justices. The president acted under pressure from activists pushing for more seats to alter the ideological balance of the court after President Donald J. Trump appointed three justices, including one to a seat that…

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Trump officials celebrated efforts to change CDC reports on coronavirus, emails show

Trump officials celebrated efforts to change CDC reports on coronavirus, emails show

The Washington Post reports: Trump appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services last year privately touted their efforts to block or alter scientists’ reports on the coronavirus to more closely align with then-President Donald Trump’s more optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators. The documents provide further insight into how senior Trump officials approached last year’s explosion of coronavirus cases in the United States. Even as career government scientists worked to combat…

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Vaccine slots go unused in Mississippi and other states

Vaccine slots go unused in Mississippi and other states

The New York Times reports: When it comes to getting the coronavirus vaccine, Mississippi residents have an abundance of options. On Thursday, there were more than 73,000 slots to be had on the state’s scheduling website, up from 68,000 on Tuesday. In some ways, the growing glut of appointments in Mississippi is something to celebrate: It reflects the mounting supplies that have prompted states across the country to open up eligibility to anyone over 16. But public health experts say…

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Kati Kariko helped shield the world from the coronavirus

Kati Kariko helped shield the world from the coronavirus

The New York Times reports: She grew up in Hungary, daughter of a butcher. She decided she wanted to be a scientist, although she had never met one. She moved to the United States in her 20s, but for decades never found a permanent position, instead clinging to the fringes of academia. Now Katalin Kariko, 66, known to colleagues as Kati, has emerged as one of the heroes of Covid-19 vaccine development. Her work, with her close collaborator, Dr. Drew…

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Feeding cows a few ounces of seaweed daily could sharply reduce their contribution to climate change

Feeding cows a few ounces of seaweed daily could sharply reduce their contribution to climate change

A little seaweed with that? Cowirrie/Flickr, CC BY-SA By Ermias Kebreab, University of California, Davis and Breanna Roque, University of California, Davis Methane is a short-lived but powerful greenhouse gas and the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide. And the majority of human-induced methane emissions comes from livestock. About 70% of agricultural methane comes from enteric fermentation – chemical reactions in the stomachs of cows and other grazing animals as they break down plants. The animals burp out…

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Modern humanlike brains may have emerged about 1.7 million years ago

Modern humanlike brains may have emerged about 1.7 million years ago

Science News reports: Even after ancient humans took their first steps out of Africa, they still unexpectedly may have possessed brains more like those of great apes than modern humans, a new study suggests. For decades, scientists had thought modern humanlike organization of brain structures evolved soon after the human lineage Homo arose roughly 2.8 million years ago. But an analysis of fossilized human skulls that retain imprints of the brains they once held now suggests such brain development occurred…

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U.S. intelligence report warns of global consequences of social fragmentation

U.S. intelligence report warns of global consequences of social fragmentation

The New York Times reports: U.S. intelligence officials warned in a report issued on Thursday about the potential fragmentation of society and the global order, holding out the possibility of a world where international trade is disrupted, groups of countries create online enclaves and civic cohesion is undermined. The report, compiled every four years by the National Intelligence Council, mixes more traditional national security challenges like the potentially disruptive rise of China with social trends that have clear security implications,…

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Twelve months of trauma: more than 3,600 U.S. health workers died in Covid’s first year

Twelve months of trauma: more than 3,600 U.S. health workers died in Covid’s first year

The Guardian reports: More than 3,600 US healthcare workers died in the first year of the pandemic according to Lost on the Frontline, a 12-month investigation by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News (KHN) to track such deaths. Lost on the Frontline is the most complete accounting of US healthcare worker deaths. The federal government has not comprehensively tracked this data. But calls are mounting for the Biden administration to undertake a count as the Guardian/KHN project comes to a…

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Howard Dean pushes Biden to oppose generic Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries

Howard Dean pushes Biden to oppose generic Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries

The Intercept reports: Howard Dean, the former progressive champion, is calling on President Joe Biden to reject a special intellectual property waiver that would allow low-cost, generic coronavirus vaccines to be produced to meet the needs of low-income countries. Currently, a small number of companies hold the formulas for the Covid-19 vaccines, limiting distribution to many parts of the world. “IP protections aren’t the cause of vaccination delays,” Dean claimed in a column for Barron’s last month. “Every drug manufacturing…

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After pandemic, shrinking need for office space could crush landlords

After pandemic, shrinking need for office space could crush landlords

The New York Times reports: As office vacancies climb to their highest levels in decades with businesses giving up office space and embracing remote work, the real estate industry in many American cities faces a potentially grave threat. Businesses have discovered during the pandemic that they can function with nearly all of their workers out of the office, an arrangement many intend to continue in some form. That could wallop the big property companies that build and own office buildings…

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