Johnson’s release of Jan. 6 video Feeds right-wing conspiracy theories
Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to publicly release thousands of hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6, 2021, has fueled a renewed effort by Republican lawmakers and far-right activists to rewrite the history of the attack that day and exonerate the pro-Donald Trump rioters who took part. Johnson’s move last week to make the footage available came as he tried to allay the anger of hard-line Republican lawmakers for working with Democrats to keep the government funded. Now, some of the same people who were irate about that decision are using the Jan. 6 video to circulate an array of false claims and conspiracy theories about the attack.
Turkeys were a marvel of conservation. Now their numbers are dwindling.
Wild turkeys were a 20th-century conservation triumph. After the birds dwindled or vanished across much of their ancestral range, decades of work helped re-establish healthy populations. As they multiplied, turkeys became a favorite target for hunters and a frequent sight along roadways. But over the past 10 or 15 years, wild turkeys have fallen into significant decline throughout the South and Midwest. Wild turkeys remain more common than they were several decades ago. But the speed, scale and breadth of recent declines have raised alarms. It is not quite time for existential panic, scientists said, but it is a puzzling moment.
Courts strike down gun control measures in two states
In the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that limits what the government can do to restrict guns, states led by Democrats have scrambled to test the limits of the ruling. But this week, supporters of the new gun measures suffered two setbacks. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Maryland law related to licensing requirements for handguns was unconstitutional. The same day, a state judge in Oregon concluded that an initiative approved by voters in 2022 that would prohibit high-capacity magazines and require background checks and training to obtain gun permits violated the state constitution.
Deaths From coal pollution have dropped, but emissions may be twice as deadly
Coal is far more harmful to human health than previously thought, according to a new report, which found that coal emissions are associated with double the mortality risk compared with fine airborne particles from other sources. The research linked coal pollution to 460,000 deaths among Medicare recipients ages 65 and older between 1999 and 2020. Yet the study also found that during that period the shuttering of coal plants in the United State, coupled with effort to “clean” coal exhaust, has had salubrious effects. Deaths attributable to coal plant emissions among Medicare recipients dropped from about 50,000 a year in 1999 to 1,600 in 2020.
In Biden’s climate law, a boon for green energy, and Wall Street
The 2022 climate law has accelerated investments in clean energy projects across the United States. It has also delivered financial windfalls for big banks, lawyers, insurance companies and startup financial firms by creating an expansive new market in green tax credits. The law, signed by President Joe Biden, effectively created a financial trading marketplace that helps smaller companies gain access to funding, with Wall Street taking a cut. Analysts said it could soon facilitate as much as $80 billion a year in transactions that drive investments in technologies meant to reduce fossil fuel emissions and fight climate change.
Long a bastion of liberalism, the Netherlands takes a sharp right turn
The Netherlands, long regarded as one of Europe’s most socially liberal countries, woke up to a drastically changed political landscape Thursday after a far-right party swept national elections in a result that has reverberated throughout Europe. Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom, which advocates banning the Quran, closing Islamic schools and entirely halting the acceptance of asylum-seekers, won 37 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, making it by far the biggest party. The results, tabulated overnight after Wednesday’s voting, give Wilders enough support to try to form a governing coalition. Centrist and center-right parties have left the door ajar to a possible partnership, giving Wilders a chance to become prime minister.
India faces questions about another reported foreign assassination plot
For the second time in recent months, India’s government is facing questions about whether it was involved in an assassination plot on Western soil, as U.S. officials said they had expressed concerns to New Delhi about a thwarted plan to kill a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen. The target was reported by news outlets to be Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a vocal advocate for Sikh separatism. U.S. officials did not publicly accuse India. But the revelation of a foiled plot comes just months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada accused the Indian government of involvement in the killing of another Sikh separatist on Canadian territory.
Rioters clash with police in Dublin after children hurt in knife attack
Three young children and a woman in her 30s were injured near a school in Dublin on Thursday, police said, in a knife attack that was followed by destructive riots that they blamed on the far right weaponizing “misinformation” about the episode. An adult woman in her 30s and a 5-year-old girl sustained serious wounds, police said, while a 5-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl were treated for less serious injuries. The boy was later released from hospital. A suspect in the case was in custody, according to the Irish police force. The police commissioner said the motive for the attack remained “entirely unclear.”
By wire sources