Wally the walrus is set to get a ‘floating couch’ in an effort to prevent him from sinking more boats. The Arctic walrus, who was first spotted off Kerry last March, has spent the last two weeks cruising and feeding along the south-east and southern coast. But the 800kg male juvenile has left a trail of destruction in his wake – after hauling himself onto several small boats to rest, causing thousands of euro worth of damage and sinking at least two.

As the new Virginia Redistricting Commission prepares to start drawing new legislative and congressional maps, an increasingly political tone to its deliberations has some members openly speculating about whether the bipartisan body will be able to complete its job. The 16-member commission met for three hours Monday afternoon to discuss several issues it’s planning to vote on Tuesday morning, including the logistics of who should draw what maps and how much consideration to give to existing political districts and incumbent legislators. After sharp differences emerged over key aspects of the process, Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, suggested some of her General Assembly colleagues are losing hope the commission will work as advertised. “I fought very hard for us to have this commission,” Locke said. “But toward the end of our special session, the water-cooler discussion that I heard was that there’s no confidence in this commission to even come up with maps.”

The NAACP San Diego Branch is calling for an FBI investigation after a San Diego police officer purportedly took to an online forum to urge fellow officers to take a stand against COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates. Screenshots of the post show it was written on an online forum for members of the San Diego Police Officers Association. Mayor Todd Gloria has announced the city intends to make vaccines mandatory for employees when the Food and Drug Administration gives the vaccine its full approval, according to the mayor’s office. The FDA has only granted emergency-use approval of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Meanwhile, San Diego Police Department requires employees who are not vaccinated to wear masks on the job. “Myself and another God fearing Patriot on this Department are building up a coalition of cops who will stand up for our God given freedoms and are willing to risk it all,” the post states. “From this point forward we will never take the vaccine, be tested or wear another face diaper around our heads without our free will to make that choice.” The post called the vaccine, testing and masks: “harmful.” “This is the hill to die on, because I promise you if “WE THE PEOPLE” lose this fight there won’t be another hill to fight on,” the post continues. “What’s at risk? Your jobs! You have to be willing to get fired from this job to secure your rights and stand by your convictions,” the post states. “Our coalition is growing by the day and if the Department and City are willing to fire 100-500 cops then so be it. “For those who have taken the vaccine, been tested or choose to wear the mask, I support you 100% as you used your free will to make those decisions. Now I ask you to stand with your (colleagues’) free will as well.” The author, who identified himself as a 16-year veteran of the force, with a family and single income, asked officers to contact him so he could get a sense of how many officers were willing to “stand.” The post ends with the acronym “WWG1WGA,” presumably for the motto “where we go one, we go all” — a phrase often associated with QAnon conspiracy theories, including that former President Donald Trump was fighting against a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles who operate a global child sex trafficking ring.

The messaging is clear: If you see a Spotted Lanternfly, you must destroy it. While the invasive pest—a planthopper, which cannot actually fly too far—does not cause a direct threat to humans, it can be destructive to our surroundings and quality of life. In addition to infesting trees, they are considered a threat to a wide range of agricultural crops. And this little destroyer has been lurking around the entire state—according to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, it "could impact New York's forests as well as the agricultural and tourism industries." Alejandro Calixto, director of the New York State Integrated Pest Management program at Cornell University, recently warned: “Once these insects reach some of the state’s grape production areas, there’s going to be an impact." Same goes for walnuts, hops, apples, blueberries, and stone fruits.

New data from the U.S. Geological Survey shows where urban development and sprawl is happening across the United States.

Scientists have come tantalizingly close to reproducing the power of the sun — albeit only in a speck of hydrogen for a fraction of a second. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported on Tuesday that by using 192 gigantic lasers to annihilate a pellet of hydrogen, they were able to ignite a burst of more than 10 quadrillion watts of fusion power — energy released when hydrogen atoms are fused into helium, the same process that occurs within stars. Indeed, Mark Herrmann, Livermore’s deputy program director for fundamental weapons physics, compared the fusion reaction to the 170 quadrillion watts of sunshine that bathe Earth’s surface. “This about 10 percent of that,” Dr. Herrmann said. And all of the fusion energy emanated from a hot spot about as wide as a human hair, he said.

In historically Black neighborhoods, owners selling their homes on the open market have to grapple with the fact that accepting the highest bid could mean another step toward Black displacement.

Heat has killed hundreds of workers in the U.S., many in construction or agriculture, an investigation by NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations found. Federal standards might have prevented them.

This was first published as aRadio War Nerdsubscriber newsletter on May 21, 2021. Was there ever a plan there? So what was supposed to happen back in October 2001, when the US forces invaded? I’ve been going through the papers of record, the NYT and WaPo, to see what the official line was, year by year. The first years of an occupation are the most important, so I’ve focused on the first five full years of US occupation, 2002-2007. You can find a good timeline of these years here, but it’s much harder to find any trace of a plan. The US invaded both Afghanistan (October 2001) and Iraq (March 2003), but not all invasions are equal. For the DC elite, Iraq was a war of choice, while Afghanistan was just a grim preliminary chore. They had to invade Afghanistan quickly after the WTC attacks, because it was all over the news that Al Qaeda had its HQ there and the voters were angry. Public support for invading Afghanistan was higher than for invading Iraq. But those in the know, in the three-letter agencies and the DC elite, knew Afghanistan was hopeless. They knew this because the Taliban, officially the enemy in Afghanistan, was sponsored and protected by the Pakistani armed forces. And Pakistan was never going to hand over Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, to the Americans. The Pakistani intel elite, one of the scariest, murkiest groups in the world, cherished its pet jihadis as its one reliable weapon against the hated Indians. It was never going to help destroy them, or even cooperate in any serious pruning operation. A decade after the US invaded with the supposed help of Pakistan, Osama was found in a big compound inside Pakistan, a few hundred meters from a Pakistani military. At that point even us rubes knew that the Pakistani government had never intended to betray its Taliban allies. (Note: “Taliban” here means the “Afghan Taliban,” as opposed to the later “Pakistani Taliban,” which the Pakistani gov’t, or at least some elements of that gov’t, really does dislike. Like I said, it’s murky.) Nobody at the CIA or the 16 other US intel agencies really thought the Pakistani gov’t would give up their friends. And nobody in DC really thought that Afghans, as they imagined Afghans, would welcome American troops. So from the start, this was the poor stepchild invasion, while Iraq was coddled.

A new report finds violent militia groups have become “key” spreaders of vaccine misinformation on the platform.

Until last fall, there was not much public intel on Robert T. Brockman beyond that he was rich, private, and cheap. The 79-year-old billionaire lived with his wife in Houston, where he donated to Republicans and ran a company called Reynolds & Reynolds that makes car software. He owned a Bombardier jet and 209-foot yacht called “Turmoil,” but on work trips stayed in dingy hotels and ate frozen dinners. His staff was barred from smoking to cut insurance costs. He kept a collection of guns in the company’s Houston headquarters. He liked to fire people at random; something he called “[shooting] somebody between the eyes.” He refused all interviews and wouldn’t disclose his net worth. One estimate put him at around $10 billion. That changed last October, when federal prosecutors unsealed a 39-count indictment against Brockman, accusing him of an elaborate conspiracy to shield some $2 billion in income from the IRS using a network of offshore entities over two decades — the biggest tax evasion case against an individual in American history. The complaint alleged Brockman had hid his activity with an encryption service called “Evidence Eliminator” and a rolodex of largely fish-themed code names: “Snapper” and “Steelhead” for his main collaborators; “King,” “Bonefish,” and “Redfish” for staff; “the House” for the IRS. It claimed he’d destroyed illegal material with shredders and hammers, and sent one employee to a “money laundering conference” under a fake identity.

A former gendarme has been charged with fomenting revolt in the armed forces as part of a network of QAnon-linked conspiracy theorists looking to overthrow the French democratic system. Christian Maillaud, 53, who also served as a paratrooper, was found in hiding in central France, the last of four former gendarmes to be arrested over the past few months for allegedly running the so-called National Council of Transition, a fringe online group that advocates rebellion against the state.

Australia received about 500,000 Pfizer vaccine doses out of the global COVAX facility in June – double what the entire continent of Africa received in the same month.

The fallout of the investigation into Australia’s National Socialist Network has been swift, with talk of banning the group and some members under investigation by their employers.

Some Clemson University professors are planning to walk out of their classrooms Wednesday to protest the school administration’s decision to not require masks in classrooms. Kimberly Paul, an associate professor of genetics and chemistry, announced the protest on Facebook. “The lack of a mask mandate is endangering the health and lives of all of us. University leadership is not listening to us. It’s time to take action,” she wrote.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban spokesman has pledged to honor women’s rights, but within the norms of Islamic law. Zabihullah Mujahid made the comment Tuesday at his first news conference.

A British student spent the weekend live streaming and posting from what he claims is Afghanistan, saying he is stuck amid Taliban takeover.

I used to be a terrible person. Now it appears I am a short-sighted terrible person.

Based on expertise earned from decades of struggling to receive and cash checks from the military and foreign policy establishment, I am sorry to tell you, but...

Researchers were able to 'switch off' the genes behind the insect's famously long legs.