Here is a few of what I found for tonight’s digest
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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to visit closed Interstate 40 bridge
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US to swiftly boost global vaccine sharing, Biden announces
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Shrinking giants: North Atlantic right whales getting tinier
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‘Next big wave’: Radiation drugs track and kill cancer cells
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US traffic deaths up 7% last year, highest number since 2007
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Sri Lanka braces for ‘almost inevitable’ oil spill as ship sinks
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Cuba criticised over rapper jailed for ‘resistance’
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Belarus airs questioning of jailed journalist Protasevich
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Rights groups call for ban of ‘invasive’ face recognition tech
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Escaped Parrot In Decatur Finds His Way Home To Mom
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Veteran Donates 36 Acres of Land to Build Retreat for Homeless Vets Struggling With Addiction
This is an open thread, so please post news from your neck of the woods, Twees & picture are encouraged.
KATV News
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to visit closed Interstate 40 bridge
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg travels to Tennessee on Thursday to learn how the closure of the Interstate 40 bridge connecting that state and Arkansas has affected freight movement since it was shut down more than three weeks ago when a crack was found in the span.
Buttigieg was set to meet with officials at a FedEx Corp. facility in Memphis before a planned tour of the Hernando De Soto bridge and a news conference later Thursday. Shipping giant FedEx operates its massive fleet of airplanes and trucks out of its headquarters in Memphis, which has seen road traffic problems since the I-40 bridge spanning the Mississippi River was closed and vehicles were diverted to the nearby Interstate 55 bridge.
AP News
US to swiftly boost global vaccine sharing, Biden announces
President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will swiftly donate an initial allotment of 25 million doses of surplus vaccine overseas through the United Nations-backed COVAX program, promising infusions for South and Central America, Asia, Africa and others at a time of glaring shortages abroad and more than ample supplies at home.
The doses mark a substantial — and immediate — boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries.
The announcement came just hours after World Health Organization officials in Africa made a new plea for vaccine sharing because of an alarming situation on the continent, where shipments have ground to “a near halt” while virus cases have spiked over the past two weeks.
Overall, the White House has announced plans to share 80 million doses globally by the end of June, most through COVAX. Officials say a quarter of the nation’s excess will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners.
US jobless claims drop to 385,000, another pandemic low
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fifth straight week to a new pandemic low, the latest evidence that the U.S. job market is regaining its health as the economy further reopens.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims dropped to 385,000, down 20,000 from the week before. The number of weekly applications for unemployment aid, which generally reflects the pace of layoffs, has fallen steadily all year, though it remains high by historical standards.
The decline in applications reflects a swift rebound in economic growth and the job market’s steady recovery from the coronavirus recession. More Americans are venturing out to shop, travel, dine out and congregate at entertainment venues. All that renewed spending has led companies to seek new workers.
Shrinking giants: North Atlantic right whales getting tinier
One of the giants of the deep is shrinking before our eyes, a new study says.
The younger generation of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are on average about three feet (one meter) shorter than whales were 20 years, drone and aircraft data show in a study in Thursday’s journal Current Biology.
Scientists say humans are to blame. Entanglements with fishing gear, collisions with ships and climate change moving their food supply north are combining to stress and shrink these large whales, the study says.
Diminishing size is a threat to the species’ overall survival because the whales aren’t having as many offspring. They aren’t big enough to nurse their young or even get pregnant, study authors said.
In Syria camp, forgotten children are molded by IS ideology
At the sprawling al-Hol camp in northeast Syria, children pass their days roaming the dirt roads, playing with mock swords and black banners in imitation of Islamic State group militants. Few can read or write. For some, the only education is from mothers giving them IS propaganda.
It has been more than two years since the Islamic State group’s self-declared “caliphate” was brought down. And it has been more than two years that some 27,000 children have been left to languish in al-Hol camp, which houses families of IS members.
Most of them not yet teenagers, they are spending their childhood in a limbo of miserable conditions with no schools, no place to play or develop, and seemingly no international interest in resolving their situation.
Only one institution is left to mold them: remnants of the Islamic State group. IS operatives and sympathizers have networks within the camp, and the group has sleeper cells around eastern Syria that continue to wage a low-level insurgency, awaiting an opportunity for a revival.
Celebrity attorney F. Lee Bailey dead at 87
F. Lee Bailey, the celebrity attorney who defended O.J. Simpson, Patricia Hearst and the alleged Boston Strangler, but whose legal career halted when he was disbarred in two states, has died, a former colleague said Thursday. He was 87.
Bailey died at a hospital in the Atlanta area, according to Kenneth Fishman, Bailey’s former law partner who went on to become a Superior Court judge in Massachusetts.
Fishman did not disclose the cause of death but said Bailey had moved to Georgia about a year ago to be closer to one of his sons and had been dealing with several medical issues for the past few months.
“In many respects, he was the model of what a criminal defense attorney should be in terms of preparation and investigation,” said Fishman, whose legal association and friendship with Bailey dates to 1975.
‘Next big wave’: Radiation drugs track and kill cancer cells
Doctors are reporting improved survival in men with advanced prostate cancer from an experimental drug that delivers radiation directly to tumor cells.
Few such drugs are approved now, but the approach may become a new way to treat patients with other hard-to-reach or inoperable cancers.
The study tested an emerging class of medicine called radiopharmaceuticals, drugs that deliver radiation directly to cancer cells. The drug in this case is a molecule that contains two parts: a tracker and a cancer-killing payload.
Trillions of these molecules hunt down cancer cells, latching onto protein receptors on the cell membrane. The payload emits radiation, which hits the tumor cells within its range.
US traffic deaths up 7% last year, highest number since 2007
U.S. traffic deaths rose 7% last year, the biggest increase in 13 years even though people drove fewer miles due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government’s road safety agency reported Thursday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration blamed the increase on drivers taking more risks on less-congested roads by speeding, failing to wear seat belts, or driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol.
An estimated 38,680 people died in traffic crashes last year, the most of any year since 2007, the agency said in releasing preliminary numbers. Final numbers normally come out in the fall.
The increase came even though the number of miles traveled by vehicle fell 13% from 2019.
Al Jazeera News
Activists ‘hold space’ as Minneapolis reopens George Floyd Square
Activists are calling for people to “hold space” at the intersection where George Floyd was murdered more than a year ago after Minneapolis work crews took down barricades that had stopped most vehicles on Thursday.
City crews took less than four hours to clear the barriers, artwork, flowers and other items early Thursday morning from the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where Floyd was killed, informally known as George Floyd Square.
Activists quickly replaced them with makeshift barriers. They have put out calls for people to come to the intersection with art supplies.
Sri Lanka braces for ‘almost inevitable’ oil spill as ship sinks
An environmental disaster off the coast of Sri Lanka is getting worse after a large container ship carrying chemicals and plastic that had caught fire is now sinking.
Sri Lankan authorities on Thursday said they are preparing for the worst-case scenario of a possible oil slick from the ship sinking off Colombo’s main harbour.
The Marine Environment Protection Authority readied oil dispersants, booms and skimmers in case of a leak from the MV X-Press Pearl, which has nearly 350 tonnes of oil in its fuel tanks.
The vessel, which burned for 13 days within sight of the island’s west coast, has already caused the country’s worst maritime environmental disaster, littering the beaches with huge volumes of plastic pollution.
Cuba criticized over rapper jailed for ‘resistance’
A Cuban dissident rapper who co-authored a viral song denouncing the communist government has been in prison for two weeks, a friend said Thursday after the singer was allowed to make his first phone call.
Maykel Osorbo, who co-produced the track “Patria y Vida” (“Fatherland and Life”) is accused of crimes that include “resistance” and “contempt,” his friend Camila Lobon told AFP via WhatsApp.
The 37-year-old artist “was able to call after 14 days without being able to make a telephone call, and told us” where he was, she said.
The US embassy in Cuba retweeted a message from Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), criticising the detention of Osorbo “and many other artists who dare to demand human rights.
Global food prices surge again, stoking inflation fears
Global food prices extended their rally to the highest in almost a decade, heightening concerns over bulging grocery bills as economies struggle to exit the Covid-19 crisis.
A United Nations gauge of world food costs climbed for a 12th straight month in May, its longest stretch in a decade. The continued advance risks accelerating broader inflation, complicating central banks efforts to provide more stimulus.
Drought in key Brazilian growing regions is crippling crops from corn to coffee, and vegetable oil production growth has slowed in Southeast Asia. That’s boosting costs for livestock producers and risks further straining global grain stockpiles that have been depleted by soaring Chinese demand. The surge has stirred memories of 2008 and 2011, when price spikes led to food riots in more than 30 nations.
Toddler and man die as building collapses in Rio de Janeiro
A four-storey building collapsed in western Rio de Janeiro before dawn Thursday, killing at least one infant and one adult and damaging nearby residences, the city’s fire department said. Four people were rescued from the debris.
The irregular construction consisted of four small homes built atop one another. A spokesperson for the fire department said. City officials confirmed to The Associated Press in an email that the structure had no license.
Irregular constructions have long plagued Brazil. Latin America’s largest nation is suffering through one of the world’s worst outbreaks of coronavirus.
Belarus airs questioning of jailed journalist Protasevich
Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich has said in questioning, aired on state television on Wednesday, that there was no use in the country’s political opposition calling for street protests against longtime President Alexander Lukashenko.
Protasevich was arrested last month along with his girlfriend after the May 23 Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania the pair were on board was forced to land in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
In his second appearance since the incident, Protasevich appeared relaxed, smoking as he spoke with an unidentified interlocutor.
“There is simply no [protest] activity right now,” the 26-year-old said in the broadcast that repeated the Belarusian claim that the plane had to be diverted after a bomb threat from Hamas. The Palestinian group has denied any involvement.
UN warns nature is in dangerous decline
The foundations of our planet’s health are crumbling from pollution, climate change and loss of nature.
From oceans to forests and farmlands, the world’s ecosystems are being degraded and destroyed.
This story has a 25 minute video
Rights groups call for ban of ‘invasive’ face recognition tech
The New York Police Department is capable of processing images from 15,280 surveillance cameras through “invasive and discriminatory facial recognition software“, according to an Amnesty International investigation published Thursday.
The investigation identified the surveillance cameras in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, boroughs of the city, and was conducted by “[t]housands of volunteers from around the world”, according to an Amnesty press release.
Facial recognition technology (FRT) often works by scraping a vast amount of images from the internet – often without one’s knowledge – to feed an algorithm that attempts to match photos to a person’s identity.
Patch.com
Lincoln Way Barber Shop Celebrates 140 Years With $1.40 Haircuts
On Tuesday morning after Memorial Day, 140-year-old Lincoln Way Barber Shop on Lockport Street is bustling with activity. Don Kinley, the shop's fourth-generation owner, had to step into the shop's basement to take a phone call with Patch.
"The barber shop is busy, which is good," Don, 84, said as he went to find a quiet spot.
As summer returns to the Chicago area this week, Lincoln Way is also celebrating a milestone of its own. The barber shop turns 140, and it's marking the anniversary with $1.40 haircuts June 1-5.
Albert Worst, Don's great-grandfather, first opened the shop in 1881, when it was originally known as The Al Worst Barber Shop — though some nicknamed it "the Worst barber shop in Plainfield." Since then, the shop has remained in the family's hands, and Don and his wife, Sharon, are the current owners.
Navy Soldier Killed In Pearl Harbor Identified As St. Charles Man
The remains of a Navy sailor who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor nearly 80 years ago have been identified as a St. Charles native, a 21-year-old at the time that he died.
Navy Electrician's Mate 3rd Class Leslie P. Delles was aboard the USS Oklahoma when the battleship was hit with Japanese torpedoes, killing 429 of the ship's crewmen during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that jumpstarted United States' involvement in World War II.
Remains of the crew and some of the other 2,403 people killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor were buried in the Halawa and Nu'uanu cemeteries in Hawaii, none of them identified.
Escaped Parrot In Decatur Finds His Way Home To Mom
Decatur resident Laurie Sanii had been searching for her beloved parrot, Darwin, for two days.
Her voice was hoarse from calling his name and whistling to him. Her portable speaker, if it could talk, would be begging for a rest from playing Darwin's whistles over and over again. But Sanii couldn't give up on her baby — and now they're reunited.
Darwin, an 18-year-old Moluccan King Parrot, escaped from Sanii's home last week after she accidentally left the front door open too long. She's had Darwin since he was just a few months old, she told Patch, and thought of him as her child.
Good News Network.org
Veteran Donates 36 Acres of Land to Build Retreat for Homeless Vets Struggling With Addiction
Along with their devotion to one another, Marty Weber and his longtime partner Jeff Poissant shared many things in common. They owned a business together. Both loved nature. Both served in the U.S. Army, and both experienced firsthand some of the challenges military veterans can face.
When Poissant passed away four years ago from cancer, Weber could think of no better way to honor their 30-year union than by supporting military veterans in need.
In order to make that happen, Weber is donating 36 rural acres bordering New Jersey’s Pinelands National Reserve to be used as a rehabilitation center/retreat for mental illness and addiction. Its name? Jeff’s Camp.