- The US hit three Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday; they claim that this is "not about regime change" but merely to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. This sounds kind of odd given that Trump tore up an agreement during his first term that actually seemed to be working in that regard, but I guess we're not supposed to talk about that. They claim that Iran's nuclear weapons capacity has been "totally obliterated"; one hopes that this is a pretext to not get involved any further, but that might be too much to hope for. Iran and Israel continue to bombard each other in any case.
- Israeli tanks fired into a crowd of people lining up for food aid in Gaza last Tuesday, killing 59 people. The IDF says it "regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals". Wording is key, of course, because people who were harmed by the attack are "involved" by definition. So really they have no regrets whatsoever I guess.
- The US Senate's parliamentarian, an official advisor who is responsible for interpreting the upper house's rules, has ruled that the Trump regime's plans to eliminate two federal agencies (the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of Financial Research) cannot be included in the "one big, beautiful bill". This ruling can be ignored if a 60-vote supermajority votes to do so, or if the chair of the Senate really wants to ignore it (or is sufficiently afraid of Trump's brownshirts to do so regardless of their own preferences). Interestingly, though, this isn't the only problem the bill has encountered in the Senate - three hardline fiscal conservatives are threatening to vote against it because it doesn't go far enough for their liking.
- New modeling has concluded that even under a "moderate" emissions scenario, significant declines can be expected in the production of six staple crops - maize (corn), soybean, rice, wheat, cassava, and sorghum. The changes will not be distributed evenly (either by crop or by geography); there will be increases in some crops in some places, for instance. Most alarming though is the fact that there will be significant declines in production in areas that are major global producers. For instance, wheat production in Canada, the US, Europe, and Russia is expected to show modest declines - which will probably be addressed by reduction in exports and an increased hostility to immigration. I'm certainly not seeing any reason to doubt Gwynne Dyer's gloomy prediction that this will end with rich countries shooting migrants at their borders.
- France is considering prohibiting social media access for children under 15. They, along with Spain and Greece, are proposing an EU-wide policy, but say that they will move ahead unilaterally if there is no progress within a few months. This is a good policy if it can be enforced, but that's a big if.
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