Monday, August 8, 2022

And another day of FBI searches, fears of nuclear catastrophe, climate hazards connected to infectious diseases, salt water creeping into key waterways, self-generated sexual abuse of 7-10 year-olds, and Olivia Newton-John “I Honestly Love You” comes to a close:

“I can't help smiling when bad things happen to bad people.” -- Max Boot

Deaths

US: 1,059,210 (+472)

World: 6,438,413 (+1921)

Cases

US: 94,024,925 (+114,775)

World: 590,107,085 (+722,638)

Trump says FBI conducting search of Mar-a-Lago estate. The FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said Monday. Trump disclosed the action in a lengthy statement, asserting that agents had broken into his safe in a search he decried as evidence of “dark times for our nation.” The search, which the FBI and Justice Department did not immediately confirm, marks a dramatic escalation in law enforcement scrutiny of Trump and comes amid a separate but intensifying probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatens US Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Attorney General Garland: preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”

“The posts on these pro-Trump forums tonight are as violent as I've seen them since before January 6th. Maybe even moreso.” -- Ben Collins

“If Trump goes to jail, it’s the beginning of defeating fascism, not the end.” -- Nina Turner

“One powerful Republican gets served with a search warrant and the rest suddenly forget cops raid the homes of poor people literally every single day, shooting people and family pets, and in many cases it's not even the right house.” -- Brandon Friedman

Fears of nuclear catastrophe grow after attacks on power plant in Ukraine. The prospect of a nuclear catastrophe spurred growing international alarm Monday after shelling hit a Russian-controlled power plant in Ukraine that is almost twice the size of Chernobyl...“Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing,” he said Monday in Tokyo after a ceremony in Hiroshima to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing.

Study connects climate hazards to 58% of infectious diseases. Climate hazards such as flooding, heat waves and drought have worsened more than half of the hundreds of known infectious diseases in people, including malaria, hantavirus, cholera and anthrax, a study says. Researchers looked through the medical literature of established cases of illnesses and found that 218 out of the known 375 human infectious diseases, or 58%, seemed to be made worse by one of 10 types of extreme weather connected to climate change, according to a study in Monday’s journal Nature Climate Change. The study mapped out 1,006 pathways from the climate hazards to sick people. In some cases downpours and flooding sicken people through disease-carrying mosquitos, rats and deer. There are warming oceans and heat waves that taint seafood and other things we eat and droughts that bring bats carrying viral infections to people. Doctors, going back to Hippocrates, have long connected disease to weather, but this study shows how widespread the influence of climate is on human health.

In dry California, salty water creeps into key waterways. A drought that scientists say is part of the U.S. West’s driest period in 1,200 years plus sea level rise are exposing the fragility of that system, forcing state water managers, cities, and farmers to look for new ways to stabilize their supply of fresh water. The Delta’s challenges offer a harbinger of the risks to come for critical water supplies elsewhere in the nation amid a changing climate.

Weather agency: July was Spain’s hottest month on record. For the first time since weather records started in 1961, July registered an average temperature of 25.6 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit), that was 2.7 C (36 F) above the recorded average for any month of July.

Self-generated sexual abuse of children aged seven to 10 rises two-thirds. Incidents of children aged between seven and 10 being manipulated into recording abuse of themselves have surged by two-thirds over the past six months, according to a global report.

RIP Olivia Newton-John. She was 73. 

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.