"Virgin Galactic's rocket-powered plane, carrying two pilots, soared into the upper atmosphere on its third mission to reach space Saturday morning… The success cues up Virgin Galactic to begin launching paying customers within the next year as the company works to finish its testing campaign at its new headquarters in New Mexico."
"Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo unleashed lava that destroyed more than 500 homes on the outskirts of Goma, but witnesses said Sunday that the city of 2 million had been mostly spared after the volcano erupted at night and sent thousands fleeing in panic."
"An elderly man had the wrong leg amputated during surgery, a hospital in Austria has admitted… The 82-year-old was due to have his left leg removed on Tuesday, but due to 'human error' the right leg was amputated above the knee instead, the Freistadt Clinic said Friday." Oopsie.
"Most of more than a million bees shipped by a Pennsylvania distributor died when they were left on a hot UPS truck for weeks, CBS Boston reports." What the fuck?
"John Oliver explains why the integrity of local news is so important, how sponsored content could damage that integrity, and why the Venus Veil is so much more than a blanket! (It’s not.)" Video link.
"A new study has found that two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine give effective protection against the Covid variant first discovered in India, however it underscored the need for two doses, as both vaccines were significantly less effective after only one shot."
"Home Secretary Priti Patel has denied claims the government pursued a herd immunity policy early in the pandemic… The prime minister's former aide Dominic Cummings claimed the UK's original plan was to let the virus spread through the population - thereby achieving so-called 'herd immunity'." They think no one has memory or that there isn't video of the press conferences. The story changed quickly once it was pointed out how many people would actually die pursuing that course, but yes, if memory serves, "herd immunity" was the UK government's first plan.
"Britain's early plan to combat COVID-19 was a 'disaster' and 'awful decisions' led to the government imposing lockdowns that could have been avoided, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's former top adviser said."
"Top U.S. health officials recommended further study into a rare heart condition possibly linked to COVID-19 vaccines… A statement dated May 17 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said some teens and young adults, mostly male, had developed an inflammation of the heart muscle called myocarditis after receiving their vaccine."
Incoming bullshit alert. Here is an example of the classic Post Hoc Ergo Prompter Hoc logic failure… "Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, a month before China reported the first cases of COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a U.S. intelligence report… The newspaper said the previously undisclosed report - which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader investigation into whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory." The report declines to mention why those researchers sought "hospital care." Secondly, while the report talks about the "first cases of what would eventually be known as COVID-19 were reported at the end of December 2019", but that's not true. We now know SARS-CoV2 was spreading earlier, as possibly early as August of that year (and shows up in pathology samples from November in Europe). This is a major push to change the narrative, to rewrite history. Unfortunately the people behind this push are just as ignorant as they people they intend to persuade. But let's say it's true. Let's say the report is true, that 3 people (from another report by the Independent) from the lab (that employs hundreds) went to the hospital with COVID-19 (note, no where have I found any report that states what they were "hospitalized" for). They lived and worked in Wuhan, the outbreak center. The outbreak began in earnest in November and was only identified as a novel virus at the end of December.
"It's been 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre — one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history. An armed white mob attacked Greenwood, a prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Okla., killing as many as 300 people. What was known as Black Wall Street was burned to the ground."
"An activist who has played a leading role in antiracism demonstrations in Britain is in critical condition after being shot in London, her political party says… The Taking the Initiative Party says Sasha Johnson was shot in the head on Sunday. It said Johnson, who played a leading role in Black Lives Matter protests last year, had received 'numerous death threats.'"
"But while some press coverage implied that Amazon took these actions in response to the database leak, internal employee messages viewed by Recode show that pressure from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) led to at least one of the notable bans. Communications between Amazon employees viewed by Recode also appear to expose an inconsistent punishment system in which employees need special approval for suspending certain sellers because of their sales numbers, while some merchants are able to keep selling products to Amazon customers despite multiple policy violations and warnings."
"Samoa was plunged into a constitutional crisis Monday when the woman who won an election last month was locked out of Parliament and the previous leader claimed he remained in charge. The fast-moving events marked the latest twist in a bitter power struggle that has been playing out in the small Pacific nation since it elected its first female leader. Not only is Samoa's peace and stability at stake, but also its relationship with China."
"Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to the Middle East to press the Israelis, Palestinians and regional players to build on last week’s Gaza cease-fire by laying the groundwork for an eventual resumption in long-stalled peace talks."
?"A leading Belarusian opposition activist has been arrested in Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a fighter jet to escort his Ryanair plane to Minsk, according to Pull Pervogo, Belarusian state broadcaster… Raman Pratasevich, in exile and a vocal critic of Lukashenko's regime, was detained at Minsk airport, the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs said Sunday… The original flight route was from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, a path that crosses through Belarus."
Just in case you think the US is an enlightened culture… "Yoga can legally be taught in Alabama public schools, after the southern state overturned a nearly 30-year ban… The state's department of education had barred yoga in 1993, citing its connection to Hinduism."
"CBS Jacksonville affiliate WJAX reports 80 students — all female — at Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns had their yearbook photos altered without their permission. Exposed shoulders and low necklines were covered up."
"The Texas Senate passed a bill early Saturday morning that would ban schools from requiring teachers to discuss polarizing current events or social issues in class. It now heads to the governor’s desk… One of those subjects is critical race theory, a relatively new concept that looks at how race relations have shaped the current social, cultural and legal world around us. The Texas House passed the bill on May 11, but will have to approve it again due to changes made by the Senate."
"Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called the US military 'woke' and 'emasculated' compared to Russia's military in a tweet on Thursday… Cruz based his criticism on a TikTok video comparing a Russian recruitment ad with a US Army commercial spot. While Russia's ad featured moody lighting and buff, shirtless men writing in the dirt, the US Army clip offered an animated telling of the life of US Army Corporal Emma Malonelord, who was raised by a lesbian couple in San Francisco." Because, ya know, the best comparison of military capabilities is by comparing their :: checks notes :: social media recruitment ads. But Cruz is very upset he never joined the military when he was young. Uh huh. Sure.
"California Democrats have no backup option if Gov. Gavin Newsom is voted out of office in his upcoming recall election — and they’re working hard to keep it that way… Democratic officials want Newsom to be the only prominent Democrat on the ballot this fall, even though it would mean forfeiting the governorship to Republicans."
"Republican lawmakers blasted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., over the weekend for comparing the House's mask mandate to the Holocaust… The Republicans who criticized Greene were among those who either voted to impeach President Donald Trump this year or, in addition, voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments."
"Washington’s Metropolitan police department recorded threats to lawmakers and public facilities in the wake of the 6 January attack on the Capitol, according to documents made public in a ransomware hack on their systems this month… The documents also show how, in the month following the Capitol attack, police stepped up surveillance efforts, monitoring hotel bookings, protests in other jurisdictions, and social media for signs of another attack by far-right groups on targets in the capital, including events surrounding the inauguration of Joe Biden as president." Oh those wacky tourists, again.
"With a showdown vote looming, Senate Republicans are misrepresenting the timeline of a proposed independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection."
"But in the end, the stance reflects the fear from McConnell and top Senate Republicans that extending their support to an inquiry likely to find Donald Trump at fault for inciting the Capitol attack could be used as a cudgel against Republicans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections."
"Published in 2012, that Washington Post piece demonstrates more than the foresight of its political scientist authors, Tom Mann of the center-left Brookings Institution and Norm Ornstein of the center-right American Enterprise Institute. It shows the disease within the Republican Party had spread long before Trump metastasized it."
Liz Cheney is not your friend. "The Republican pariah Liz Cheney has repeatedly refused to admit a link between Donald Trump’s lies about voter fraud and restrictive voting laws being introduced in Republican states, telling an interviewer on Sunday night she will 'never understand the resistance to voter ID'."
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