Reading archive 2025-04-30 pt 2

The Maltese Falcon Poachers: How European hunters brought death and destruction to Egypt's migratory birds: 15-month-long investigation sheds light on how the EU is spending money to protect the same birds that are being gunned down in Egypt.

"I was shocked" by dominance of luxury brands in Milan says Philippe Starck

Which home energy upgrades will save you money? We did the math. Upgrades will cut carbon pollution, but even with tax credits, it can be difficult to save money.

These ferries speed commutes and cut pollution — and they fly: The battery-powered boats rise above the waves on hydrofoils, making them faster and better for the climate than traditional diesel ferries.

Trump is killing one of our strongest exports The president wants to balance U.S. trade deficits? He can’t do it without this industry he hates. - "Colleges and universities are among America’s most competitive international exporters. In dollar terms, last year, the United States sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined."

Colossal squid captured on video in deep sea for first time: The mysterious creature was filmed in the ocean near Antarctica. Scientists documented the juvenile, which could grow to more than 1,000 pounds.

Scientists work to save disappearing woodrats in eastern U.S.: Woodrats, which look like a cross between a rat and a hamster, are important to mountain ecosystems.

In a town inundated by flood water, one house remained dry: A family in western Tennessee built levees around their home -- and managed to keep floodwaters from deluging it earlier this month.

Trump’s D.C. U.S. attorney pick appeared on Russian state media over 150 times: Nominee Ed Martin did not initially disclose his RT and Sputnik appearances from 2016 to 2024 to the Senate. The State Department has said the networks act like arms of Russian intelligence. - "In early 2022, Martin told an interviewer on the same arm of RT’s global network that 'there’s no evidence' of a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s borders, criticizing U.S. officials as warmongering and ignoring Russia’s security concerns. Russia invaded nine days later, igniting a war that continues today.

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"Martin has omitted far more from his nomination materials than other recent U.S. attorney nominees, two people familiar with the process said Monday, one of them estimating omissions of about 350 events, interviews and media appearances."

The Harem of Elon Musk: The DOGE leader is offering the Republican Party a very different vision of fatherhood.

America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State: For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual—until they don’t. - "The list of measures purpose-built to cleave off a domain in which the law does not apply grows by the day: the pardons that bless and invite insurrectionary violence; the purges of career lawyers at the Justice Department and in the Southern District of New York, inspectors general across the government, and senior FBI agents; the attorney general's command that lawyers obey the president over their own understanding of the Constitution; the appointment of people such as Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who seem to view their loyalty to the president as more compelling than their constitutional oath; the president's declaration that he and the attorney general are the sole authoritative interpreters of federal law for the executive branch; the transformation of ordinary spending responsibilities into discretionary tools to punish partisan foes; the stripping of security clearances from perceived enemies and opponents; the threat of criminal prosecutions for speech deemed unfavorable by the president; and the verbal attacks on judges for enforcing the law."

‘This Is What We Were Always Scared of’: DOGE Is Building a Surveillance State - "Over the past 100 days, DOGE teams have grabbed personal data about U.S. residents from dozens of federal databases and are reportedly merging it all into a master database at the Department of Homeland Security. This month, House Democratic lawmakers reported that a whistle-blower had come forward to reveal that the master database will combine data from federal agencies including the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services. The whistle-blower also alleged that DOGE workers are filling backpacks with multiple laptops, each one loaded with purloined agency data."