We have severely undercounted the number of COVID deaths, scientists say

In North America’s Great Lakes region, river otters are coming back from the brink thanks to decades of effort on both sides of the border.

A critical fertiliser shortage threatens global food security amid Iran war. (...) Nearly half of the world’s traded urea – the most widely used fertiliser – and large volumes of other fertilisers are exported from Gulf countries via the Strait of Hormuz, making global agriculture highly exposed to any disruption there. Recent disruptions to gas supplies and shipping have already forced fertiliser plants, which use natural gas to manufacture fertiliser, in the Gulf and beyond to shut or cut their output. After its LNG facilities were attacked, Qatar’s state-run energy firm, QatarEnergy, halted output at what is the world’s largest urea plant after it shut down gas output. Since LNG output from Qatar has dropped off, India has cut output from three of its own urea plants. Bangladesh has also shut four out of its five fertiliser factories.

Johnson said he’d schedule a vote next week on a clean extension of the nation’s surveillance laws, despite work from two top committee chairs to reform FISA ahead of its looming expiration.

The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to the U.S. Congress to fund the war in Iran, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a senior administration official.

A coin advisory committee called the design for the America 250 coin something only produced by "kings or dictators."

In a court filing, an attorney for the city said it has now determined Adams "was not acting within the scope of his City employment" at the time of the alleged 1993 assault.

As Bryce Harper rounded the bases on his game-tying two-run homer in the eighth inning of Tuesday night's World Baseball Classic final, he exchanged a salute with his commanding officer, third base coach Dino Ebel, then moved to point at the American flag patch on his uniform. He looked at the wrong arm at first, mixing up the Stars and Stripes with the slightly larger Capital One patch on his other sleeve. That was a fairly representative moment of how unpleasant it was to watch Team USA in this tournament, and why it was a small mercy to watch them lose to Venezuela, 3-2. With all due respect to Comrade Ratto, the nationalistic pride on display by the Americans carried a different tenor than the WBC's other contenders. Of course it would. This game featured a nation that had recently bombed and invaded its opponents'. Rather than making an effort to keep that association at arm's length, Team USA embraced it. They saw what the U.S. men's hockey team did at the Olympics and thought to follow that but have even less fun in the process.

Everywhere you look, Democrats are trying to raise taxes on the superrich. It’s the right economic policy—but more than that, it’s the right democracy policy.

At the outset of the hearing, Paul said he was not sure about the Oklahoma senator for the role of Homeland Security secretary, given Mullin’s comments. Mullin called the Kentucky Republican a “freaking snake” in February for trying to block the passage of a funding bill and had said he understood why a neighbor attacked Paul in 2017, leaving him with broken ribs and serious respiratory complications. “Tell it to my face, tell the world why you believe I deserved to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken and a damaged lung,” Paul said in his opening statement. “And while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to” lead DHS.

I called him Rondale Green. Most vets, when they mentor a younger player, it’s that classic big brother / little brother dynamic. But Rondale Moore was never my Little Bro. It was something deeper than that. He got drafted by Arizona in 2021, the same offseason I signed there as a free agent — and his first two years in the league ended up being my last two. So for us, our relationship, it was almost this “NFL circle of life” type thing. I’d always joke with him about how he’s “Rondale Green, my third and oldest kid.” And looking back, that’s probably one of those jokes where it’s funny because it’s based in a feeling that’s true. Man, I swear….. sometimes he really did feel like my son. I hope he knew I really did love him that way. And I guess I just wanted to share a few thoughts with y’all, now that he’s gone.

Submitted for dat photo.

Cesar Chavez, the iconic labor leader, is accused of sexually assaulting two under-aged girls in the 1970s as well as fellow farmworker leader Dolores Huerta in the 1960s, according to an investigation from the New York Times.

More than 400 people were killed in a Pakistan air force strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, the Afghan Taliban administration said on Tuesday, in the deadliest incident since the two neighbours began fighting late last year.

Cycle lanes, electric cars and other interventions have helped 19 global cities slash levels of pollutants by more than 20%

In 2022, police in Adams County, Ohio raided the home of Afroman, the musician who had a huge novelty hit with the 2000 song "Because I Got High." The cops suspected him of drug possession and kidnapping, but they found no evidence in the raid, and no charges were filed. Afroman wasn't hope during the raid, but his wife filmed it, and he used that footage, as well as security camera footage, while singing about the raid on viral songs like "Will You Help Me Repair My Door" and "Lemon Pound Cake." Soon afterward, some of those cops sued Afroman for using their images without permission, and the ACLU filed an amicus brief in Afroman's support. Now, the case is going to trial, and the video of Afroman's testimony is the kind of thing you might really want to see. In the run-up to the trial, Afroman has been putting out more songs and videos about the raid, and he's been using them to name his police adversaries directly. On Monday, for instance, he shared a DIY funk song called "Randy Walters Is A Son Of A Bitch," all about one of the officers involved in the raid. It's going to be stuck in my head for a while.

Arizona's attorney general is accusing Kalshi of operating an illegal gambling business in the first-ever criminal charges filed against the wildly popular prediction market site, where people bet billions of dollars a week wagering on sports, elections and what politicians will say during public appearances. State prosecutors allege that Kalshi, which is based in New York City, is running an unlicensed online gambling operation that lets residents bet on sports and elections without ever having received approval from Arizona regulators. Sports betting is regulated by an Arizona gaming commission and gambling on elections is illegal in the state.

“It’s all hands on deck for the legal community.”

For years, Trump has been throwing hefty charges at protesters and seeing if he can win convcitions. He always failed — until now.

WASHINGTON — Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the Trump administration’s war in Iran. Kent said on social media Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”