Aerial view of the Clinical Research Center of the National Institutes of Health. Photo: NIH

Trump cuts U.S. research on bat-human virus transmission over China ties

By Sarah Owermohle 27 April 2020 (Politico) – The Trump administration abruptly cut off funding for a project studying how coronaviruses spread from bats to people after reports linked the work to a lab in Wuhan, China, at the center of conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic’s origins. The National Institutes of Health on Friday […]

A healthcare worker stands in a crosswalk to block hundreds of pro-death pro-Covid protesters in Denver, on 19 April 2020. Photo: Alyson McClaran / Reuters

Are we finally seeing science denialism for the death wish it is? “Denying the severity of COVID-19 is tantamount to denying the worth of the thousands who have died and the thousands more who will”

By Heather Houser 16 April 2020 (the Austin Statesman) – Every day it seems we read headlines that connect science denialism to cruel indifference and death. Just recently, when talking about the initial COVID-19 response, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi asserted that ”[Trump’s] denial at the beginning was deadly.” In Arizona, some residents called […]

Protesters shout outside the Ohio Statehouse Atrium where reporters listen during state officials’ coronavirus update Monday, 13 April 2020. About 100 demonstrators assembled outside the building, upset that the state remains under a stay-at-home order and that non-essential businesses remain closed. Photo: Joshua A. Bickel / Dispatch

Attacks on press credibility endanger U.S. democracy and global press freedom

WASHINGTON, D.C., 16 April 2020 (CPJ) – When President Donald J. Trump initially minimized the danger of the COVID-19 virus in the first two months of 2020, he attacked news media reporting about the growing threat and his administration’s slow response. “Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make […]

Trump during a daily press briefing on the coronavirus crisis, 10 April 2020. An attack ad for Donald Trump's campaign for reelection showed Gary Locke, a former governor of Washington state and U.S. ambassador to China, as a Chinese official. Photo: Reuters

Masha Gessen: We won’t know the exact moment when democracy dies – “Autocracy creeps in, staking one claim after another, but it does not firmly and finally announce its own arrival”

By Masha Gessen 16 April 2020 (The New Yorker) – In the early days of the Trump Presidency, there was a lot of speculation about when, if, and how we would pass the point of no return, when we would know that American democracy had been destroyed. That conversation faded after a while, drowned out by the […]

Andrew R. Wheeler, Trump’s administrator of the E.P.A., continued his mission of dismantling environmental regulation in the U.S. by formally revising a proposal that would significantly restrict the type of research that can be used to draft environmental and public health regulations. Experts say the measure, made public on 3 March 2020, amounts to one of the Trump’s most far-reaching assaults on science. Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Trump E.P.A. updates plan to limit science used in environmental rules – “They’re putting in nonscientific criteria to decide what science the agency can use”

By Lisa Friedman 4 March 2020 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – The Trump administration has formally revised a proposal that would significantly restrict the type of research that can be used to draft environmental and public health regulations, a measure that experts say amounts to one of the government’s most far-reaching restrictions on science. […]

In Kastanies, Greece, with tear gas clouding the air, thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe clashed with riot police officers on the Greek border with Turkey on Saturday morning, 29 February 2020, signaling a new and potentially volatile phase in the migration crisis. About 4,000 migrants of various nationalities were pressed against the Turkish side of the border and an additional 500 or so people were trapped between two border posts, but still on the Turkish side. Photo: Bulent Kilic / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images

Thousands of migrants in Turkey face off with riot police at Greek border – President Erdogan says, “We opened the doors”

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Carlotta Gall 29 February 2020 KASTANIES, Greece (The New York Times) – With tear gas clouding the air, thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe clashed with riot police officers on the Greek border with Turkey on Saturday morning, signaling a new and potentially volatile phase in the migration crisis. The […]

Oregon state Senate President Peter Courtney pauses after declaring in the state Senate on Tuesday, 25 February 2020, that amid a boycott by Republican senators, not enough lawmakers were present to reach a quorum. The drastic move by Republicans in Oregon highlights how pitched the debate over how to respond to global warming is becoming, with the GOP saying leaving the Capitol was the only way to halt legislation they view as too extreme in a Legislature dominated by Democrats. Democrats warn that doing nothing at this point is too dangerous. In an interview with The Associated Press, Courtney, the longest-serving legislator in Oregon history, said he has not found a way out of the impasse and is broken hearted. Photo: Andrew Selsky / AP Photo

Republican lawmakers walk out after Oregon climate bill advances

By Andrew Selsky 25 February 2020 SALEM, Oregon (AP) – A rebellion by GOP politicians in liberal Oregon intensified Tuesday when Republican members of the House joined their Senate counterparts in a walkout, freezing legislation on climate change, wildfire mitigation, homeless assistance and a landmark compromise between the timber industry and environmentalists. [cf. last year’s […]

Naomi Seibt poses for a portrait near her home in Munster, Germany. Seibt, 19, uses YouTube to denounce “climate alarmism,” countering the arguments of young climate activist Greta Thunberg. Seibt uses her media platform to spread long-debunked arguments used by people who deny climate science. Photo: Sebastien Van Malleghem / The Washington Post

The anti-Greta: A conservative think tank sponsors teen who denies climate science – “It does bear resemblance to a model we use called the 4d’s: dismiss the message, distort the facts, distract the audience, and express dismay at the whole thing”

By Desmond Butler and Juliet Eilperin 24 February 2020 (The Washington Post) – For climate skeptics, it’s hard to compete with the youthful appeal of global phenomenon Greta Thunberg. But one U.S. think tank hopes it’s found an answer: the anti-Greta. Naomi Seibt is a 19-year-old German who, like Greta, is blond, eloquent and European. […]

Screenshot of a trollbot account on Twitter, named “PrinceA06779972”, that was used to spread disinformation about climate science. The account was suspended on 25 November 2019. Graphic: DesdemonaDespair.net / Twitter

Revealed: quarter of all tweets about climate crisis produced by bots – “It is terrifying to ponder the possibility that the President of the United States was cajoled by bots into committing an atrocity against humanity”

By Oliver Milman 21 February 2020 NEW YORK (The Guardian) – The social media conversation over the climate crisis is being reshaped by an army of automated Twitter bots, with a new analysis finding that a quarter of all tweets about climate on an average day are produced by bots, the Guardian can reveal. The […]

Email on 6 September 2019 from Craig McLean, NOAA’s acting chief scientist, to Weather Service and NOAA leaders, stating: “What’s next? Climate science is a hoax? Flabbergasted to leave our forecasters hanging in the political wind.” Graphic: NOAA / The Washington Post

New emails show how Trump roiled NOAA during Hurricane Dorian – “You have no idea how hard I’m fighting to keep politics out of science”

By Andrew Freedman and Jason Samenow 1 February 2020 (The Washington Post) – A trove of documents released on Friday evening provides the clearest glimpse yet into how President Trump’s inaccurate statements, altered forecast map and tweets regarding Hurricane Dorian’s forecast path rattled top officials along with rank and file scientists at the National Oceanic […]

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