Greenhouse Gas Emissions Predicted to Fall Nearly 8% — Largest Decrease Ever: Report
Brazil Urged to Save Amazon Tribes From COVID-19 ; Police Find Body of Missing Pakistani Journalist ; and More Picks
‘We Are on the Eve of a Genocide’: Brazil Urged to Save Amazon Tribes From COVID-19 (Chris)
From the Guardian: “[An] open letter by photojournalist Sebastião Salgado and global figures warns disease could decimate indigenous peoples.”
Researcher Gives 4 Reasons Why a Coronavirus Leak Would Be Extremely Unlikely (Chris)
The author writes, “Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, asked intelligence agencies in January to look into the idea of a Wuhan lab leak, the New York Times reported. But CIA officers didn’t find any evidence. There’s a reason for that, according to Jonna Mazet, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Davis, who has worked with and trained Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers in the past.”
Why the US Government Stopped Funding a Research Project on Bats and Coronavirus (Gerry)
From NPR: “The U.S. government has suddenly terminated funding for a years-long research project in China that many experts say is vital to preventing the next major coronavirus outbreak. The project was run by a U.S. nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance. For more than a decade, the group has been sending teams to China to trap bats, collect samples of their blood, saliva and feces, and then check those samples for new coronaviruses that could spark the next global pandemic. … But since early this month, U.S. officials have been working to raise suspicions about a key collaborator on the project: the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Heads We Win, Tails You Lose: How America’s Rich Have Turned Pandemic Into Profit (Reader Jim)
The author writes, “As 26 million Americans lose their jobs, the billionaire class has added $308 billion to its wealth.”
Swedish Police Find Body of Missing Pakistani Journalist (Mili)
The author writes, “Police in Sweden say they have found the body of Pakistani journalist, two months after he went missing. Sajid Hussain, the editor of an ethnic Baloch news website, fled Pakistan in 2012 after getting death threats and was granted political asylum in Sweden. A press freedom charity had suggested Pakistani intelligence was behind Hussain’s disappearance in early March. But a Swedish police spokesman told the BBC their initial investigation did not suggest any foul play in the death.”
Japanese Aquarium Urges Public to Video-Chat Eels Who Are Forgetting Humans Exist (Inez)
The author writes, “When the garden eels at a Tokyo aquarium remove their heads from the sand, they are usually confronted by pairs of human eyes staring back at them through the glass. But like other animals around the world, the eels at Sumida Aquarium are finding their environment transformed by the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.”
