On July 12, 2011, crew from the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy retrieved a canister dropped by parachute from a C-130, which brought supplies for some mid-mission fixes. The ICESCAPE mission, or "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment," is NASA's two-year shipborne investigation to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems. (Photo by NASA/Kathryn Hansen/ flickr CC 2.0)
Reporting you might have missed
Ice on Fire
Temperatures rose above 100 degrees in the Arctic Circle on Saturday. Verkhoyansk, a town in northeastern Siberia, recorded a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. The Washington Post reports “The Siberian Arctic, like the Arctic as a whole, is seeing rapidly increasing temperatures as a result of human-caused global warming. This is in part because of accelerating feedback loops between melting snow and ice and air and ground temperatures, as well as other features of the region’s climate.”
Facebook has decided that global warming is still a matter of opinion, thus opening the door for climate change deniers to spread misinformation on the platform.
Meanwhile, Facebook has decided that global warming is still a matter of opinion, thus opening the door for climate change deniers to spread misinformation on the platform. According to reporting from E&E News, climate scientists working as approved fact checkers for Facebook flagged as false a Washington Examiner op-ed written by a senior fellow at the CO2 Coalition, a prominent climate denial organization with ties to the White House. The fact check rating didn’t last long. “A ‘conservative’ Facebook employee quietly intervened, overturning the fact check, and the misinformation was no longer labeled as false, according to the CO2 Coalition. The post was free to be shared, and a new loophole was created for the coalition and other groups that attack mainstream climate science. After the quiet decision by Facebook, the coalition says it and other groups that attack consensus climate science can share content that climate scientists have labeled as misleading because Facebook will consider it opinion’ and therefore immune to fact-checking.”
Advertisers are starting to take note. A growing number of companies including REI, Patagonia and North Face say they will no longer advertise on the platform.
Follow The Money
Immediately after Donald Trump was inaugurated, people with ties to the Chinese state began pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into his reelection campaign. A Wall Street Journal investigation reveals
“The effort had early success in gaining access for those involved, helping them meet the president or top Republicans at fundraisers or at an internal GOP leadership meeting. It reveals how China seeks to build inroads into U.S. politics, gather information on U.S. leaders and if possible affect policy-making. Several of those involved worked closely with China’s national-security apparatus, including organizations linked to its military, and briefed prominent Chinese political figures about their efforts….Unlike his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, whose positions on international issues were well known from her time as secretary of state, Mr. Trump entered office as an unknown quantity to China whom its leaders urgently needed to understand. The Journal also examined campaign-finance records for Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy and for the presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. It didn’t find similar efforts involving the two by people linked to China’s government.”
Meanwhile, Mother Jones reports Trump and the Trump Organization have nearly $500 million in loans coming due and that might represent Trump’s biggest conflict of interest to date.
To Our Knees
COVID-19 has “brought the nation to its knees,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, told Congress on Tuesday. On Thursday, the CDC announced that only 1 in 10 cases of coronavirus have likely been identified, meaning that the number of Americans infected with the disease is likely 10 times higher than 2.4 million diagnosed cases. More than 124,000 people have died from the disease and cases are increasing in 30 states.
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration will stop funding some test sites across five states on June 30. Nebraska Gov. Pete Rickettes told local governments they will not receive any federal money if they require residents to wear masks in public buildings. And the EU may bar American travelers from its borders because of the US’s failure to contain the spread of the virus.
Headlines To Keep An Eye On
Vast Federal Aid Has Capped Rise in Poverty, Studies Find
“But researchers caution this does not mean low-income families are escaping hardship. And they warn that when the aid expires next month, families could again be vulnerable.”
Democrats unveil $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan
And A Headline To Make You Smile
Devin Nunes can’t sue Twitter over statements by fake cow, judge rules
