Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Breaching whale tosses boat over

July 24 (UPI) -- Brothers Colin and Wyatt Yeager captured footage of a breaching whale flipping over a boat off the coast of Portsmouth, N.H.

Two fishermen were thrown overboard but were not hurt in the incident. The brothers witnessed the scene and rescued the men.

"I was actually shocked by their reaction," Wyatt Yeager told Fox Weather. "They were doing fine. They were smiling. They were like, 'Wow, this is crazy.' They were just happy that they were OK, the whale was OK."


Nine Just Stop Oil activists arrested near London's Heathrow Airport


Nine Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on Wednesday. Screen capture/Just Stop Oil/X


July 24 (UPI) -- Nine Just Stop Oil activists were arrested Wednesday near London's Heathrow Airport on suspicion of conspiring to interfere with key national infrastructure.

Airport operations were not disrupted. The arrests were made under Britain's Public Order Act.

"At around 9 a.m., seven Just Stop Oil supporters were arrested at two locations on the perimeter road outside Heathrow. At around 10:50am, the Metropolitan Police confirmed a further two had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to disrupt Heathrow," Just Stop Oil said in a statement.

The group is demanding Britain work with other nations to establish a treaty to end extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.

Related
Just Stop Oil activists paint Stonehenge orange; two arrested
COP28 climate agreement is a step backward on fossil fuels
U.N. review shows the world is falling short of climate goals, signs of progress

"Our new government must take swift and meaningful action to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030, by establishing a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels. Anything less is a death sentence," Sally Davidson, one of the arrested activists, said in a statement.

Metropolitan Police in London said the arrests "prevented significant disruption to the airport and the traveling public."

Just Stop Oil video posted on its X account showed police arresting the activists.



The activist group said the arrests in Britain came after German activists "blocked air traffic at Cologne Bonn Airport, causing international delays."

The German airport reported that its security area was violated by "unauthorized people" Wednesday morning.

"There has been absolutely no impact on operations whatsoever. Thanks to swift action from the police and airport colleagues, there is no disruption to passenger journeys. Heathrow continues to operate as normal today," A Heathrow Airport spokesperson said.

"We are in full agreement that the aviation industry needs to decarbonize, but unlawful and irresponsible protest activity will not be tolerated," the spokesperson said.

The Just Stop Oil Wednesday statement said, "We refuse to die for fossil fuels. Continued burning of oil, gas and coal, as we pass irreversible tipping points that threaten to spin our climate out of control in a rapidly accelerating way, is jeopardizing the stability on which our entire society depends."
US: Jewish demonstrators arrested in anti-Netanyahu protest

Jewish Voice for Peace protesters entered the US Capitol complex ahead of the Israeli prime minister's speech to Congress. Netanyahu is set to address a joint session of US lawmakers for the fourth time on Wednesday.


Jewish Voice for Peace was founded in 1996 by Jewish Americans, with members having mobilized to demand a cease-fire in Gaza in recent times
IMAGO/UPI Photo

DW
JULY 24,2024


Police arrested multiple protesters on Tuesday night as they sat inside the Cannon House rotunda, part of the US Capitol complex.

The demonstration, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), was called in opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the US Congress on Wednesday.

In an Instagram post that shows protesters holding banners as they sat on the rotunda floor, JVP wrote "today, 400 US Jews refused to leave Congress, demanding our government stops arming Israel. As the daily horrors against Palestinians in Gaza escalate, so too will our resolve and commitment to stand with Palestinians."



Police officials told reporters that protests are not permitted inside Cannon House, and so the arrests commenced when demonstrators refused to leave.
Netanyahu in Washington amid strained relations between the US and Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address US lawmakers later in the day, with his speech marking the first time a foreign leader has addressed Congress four times.

He is due to hold talks with President Joe Biden on Thursday as well as meet with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Likely Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is also planning to meet with Netanyahu. She will however miss his talk due to a previously scheduled campaign event.

His speech is likely to focus on the conflict in Gaza, which followed the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli civilians.

Kamala Harris to skip Netanyahu's address to Congress  02:45

es/rm (AP, dpa)

Wave of protests break out in Washington DC ahead of Netanyahu speech


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week has kicked off a wave of protests in the nation's capital. Police on Tuesday cracked down on Jewish Voice for Peace demonstrators who staged a sit-in at a congressional office building ahead of Netanyahu's address to Congress on Wednesday, and in protest at President Joe Biden's continued military support of Israel.


Issued on: 24/07/2024 - 
Demonstrators from Jewish Voice For Peace protest the war in Gaza at the Canon House Building on July 23, 2024 in Washington, DC.
 © Tierney L. Cross, AFP

Protesters against the Gaza war staged a sit-in at a congressional office building Tuesday ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress, with Capitol Police making multiple arrests.

Netanyahu arrived in Washington Monday for a visit that includes meetings with President Joe Biden and a Wednesday speech before a joint session of Congress. Dozens of protesters rallied outside his hotel Monday evening, and on Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators staged a flashmob-style protest in the Cannon Building, which houses offices of House of Representatives members.

Organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, protesters wearing red T-shirts that read “Not In Our Name” took over the building's rotunda, sitting on the floor, unfurling signs and chanting “Let Gaza Live!”



After about a half-hour of clapping and chanting, officers from the US Capitol Police issued several warnings, then began arresting protesters — binding their hands with zip ties and leading them away one-by-one.

“I am the daughter of Holocaust survivors and I know what a Holocaust looks like,” said Jane Hirschmann, a native of Saugerties, New York, who drove down for the protest along with her two daughters — both of whom were arrested. “When we say ‘Never Again,’ we mean never for anybody.”

The demonstrators focused much of their ire on the Biden administration, demanding that the president immediately cease all arms shipments to Israel.

“We’re not focusing on Netanyahu. He’s just a symptom,” Hirschmann said. “But how can (Biden) be calling for a cease-fire when he’s sending them bombs and planes?”

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday night, the Capitol Police said they did not have a final tally of the number of people arrested. But JVP claimed in a statement that 400 people, "including over a dozen rabbis," had been arrested.

Mitchell Rivard, chief of staff for Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., said in a statement that his office called for Capitol Police intervention after the demonstrators “became disruptive, violently beating on the office doors, shouting loudly, and attempting to force entry into the office.”

Kildee later told The Associated Press that he was confused why his office was targeted, saying he had voted against a massive supplemental military aid package to Israel earlier this year.

Netanyahu's American visit has touched off a wave of protest activity, with some demonstrations condemning Israel and others expressing support but pressuring Netanyahu to strike a cease-fire deal and bring home the hostages still being held by Hamas.

Families of some of the remaining hostages held a protest vigil Tuesday evening on the National Mall, demanding that Netanyahu come to terms with Hamas and bring home the approximately 120 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza. About 150 people wearing yellow shirts that read “Seal the Deal NOW!” chanted “Bring Them Home” and listened to testimonials from relatives and former hostages. The demonstrators applauded when Biden's name was mentioned, but several criticized Netanyahu — known by his nickname “Bibi” — on the belief that he was dragging his feet or playing hardball on a proposed cease-fire deal that would return all of the hostages.

“I'm begging Bibi. There's a deal on the table and you have to take it,” said Aviva Siegel, 63, who spent 51 days in captivity and whose husband, Keith, remains a hostage. “I want Bibi to look in my eyes and tell me one thing: that Keith is coming home.”

Multiple protests are planned for Wednesday, when Netanyahu is slated to address Congress. In anticipation, police have significantly boosted security around the Capitol building and closed multiple roads for most of the week.

Biden and Netanyahu are expected to meet Thursday, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the White House announcement. Vice President Kamala Harris will also meet with Netanyahu separately that day.

Harris, as Senate president, would normally sit behind foreign leaders addressing Congress, but she’ll be away Wednesday, on an Indianapolis trip scheduled before Biden withdrew his reelection bid and she became the likely Democratic presidential candidate over the weekend.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he would meet with Netanyahu on Friday.

(AP)

Calls for boycotts, threats of arrests precede Netanyahu's controversial speech to Congress


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Members of Jewish Voice for Peace hold a pro-Palestinian demonstration one day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress in the Cannon House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on Tuesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

July 23 (UPI) -- Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin will preside over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's joint address to Congress on Wednesday as he faces calls to boycott the speech.

The Maryland office of Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, urged the Maryland senator to boycott what the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization referred to as Netanyahu's "war criminal" address to Congress.

"It is deeply troubling that Sen. Cardin would choose to lend legitimacy and support to a war criminal who is responsible for egregious violations of human rights and international law," said CAIR's Maryland Director Zainab Chaudhry.

"Instead of providing a respectable platform to a war criminal engaged in the wholesale slaughter of possibly more than 186,000 civilians, Sen. Cardin and members of Congress must set an example, stand on principle and boycott Netanyahu's address," Chaudhry added.

Netanyahu arrived Monday in Washington, D.C., where he will hold meetings with the Biden administration and will address the joint session of the House and Senate on Wednesday, as he seeks bipartisan support for Israel just days after President Joe Biden announced he would end his re-election bid.

While it is the vice president who typically presides over joint addresses, Vice President Kamala Harris said she will not preside over Netanyahu's address Wednesday due to a campaign event in Indianapolis. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is the President pro temper of the Senate, has refused to preside over the address and plans to boycott the speech.

Cardin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is an orthodox Jew, has been a vocal advocate for Israel since Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack and Israel's ongoing war in Gaza.

"It is critical for the international community to remain focused on who perpetrated the Oct. 7th massacre -- Hamas," Cardin said in a committee report, released in May.

"Israel has a right to target Hamas leadership in Gaza, but there is a right way to pursue that goal," Cardin added. "Going into Rafah without a credible plan to deal with the humanitarian situation is not the right way. Any operation must take all measures to protect civilian lives."

On Tuesday, Hamas, Fatah and 12 other Palestinian factions signed a Chinese-brokered unification pact "ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity" following two days of negotiations, according to China's foreign ministry.

As Netanyahu addresses the joint Congress on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned lawmakers that there will be a "zero-tolerance" policy for anyone who disrupts the speech and that law enforcement "will remove ... offending visitors from the gallery and subject them to arrest."

On Tuesday, hundreds of members of the group Jewish Voice for Peace were arrested during a demonstration inside the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., according to the group.

"Arrests are beginning as over 400 American Jews refuse to leave Congress, but we won't leave until our government stops arming Israel and ends the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza!" the group wrote Tuesday in a post on X.

Many lawmakers, including Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are planning to boycott Netanyahu's address Wednesday over Israel's war in Gaza.

"It is a dark day in U.S. history when an authoritarian with warrant requests from the International Criminal Court is allowed to address a joint session of Congress," Ocasio-Cortez wrote Tuesday in a post on X. "I will be boycotting his address."

Following his joint address and meetings in Washington, D.C., Netanyahu will travel to Florida to meet with former President Donald Trump on Friday at Mar-a-Lago. The last time he met with Trump was at the White House in September 2020 to sign the Abraham Accords.

"Looking forward to welcoming Bibi Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach," Trump wrote Tuesday in a post on Truth Social.

"During my first term, we had peace and stability in the region, even signing the historic Abraham Accords -- and we will have it again."

Netanyahu will be the second world leader to meet with Trump in recent weeks. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited the former president at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month. Trump also spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week to discuss ending Ukraine's ongoing wear with Russia.
FREE PAUL WATSON!

Greenland arrests anti-whaling activist on Japan warrant


By AFP
July 22, 2024


Paul Watson, pictured here in 2015, founded the anti-whaling activist group Sea Shepherd - Copyright AFP Miguel MEDINA

Police in Greenland arrested prominent anti-whaling environmentalist Paul Watson under an international warrant issued by Japan, authorities and his foundation said.

His ship had just docked on Sunday in Nuuk to refuel on its way to “intercept” Japan’s new whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) said.

Video posted by CPWF on social media showed officers handcuffing Watson on the bridge of the John Paul DeJoria ship, putting him inside a police van on the dockside and driving him away.

Police said he would be brought before a district court where they will request his detention “before a decision is made on whether he should be extradited to Japan”.

Watson, who featured in the reality TV series “Whale Wars”, founded the Sea Shepherd and the CPWF organisations, and has drawn attention for direct action tactics, including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.

CPWF said it believed his arrest was in connection with an Interpol Red Notice related to Watson’s previous anti-whaling activities in the Antarctic.

The group added that the arrest was a “surprise” since its lawyers had reported that the Red Notice had been withdrawn.

“However, it appears that Japan had made the notice confidential to facilitate Paul’s travel for the purpose of making an arrest,” a statement said.















– Mothership –



Japan’s government on Monday made no comment but a spokeswoman for the Japanese coastguard told AFP it was aware of the arrest.

“The coastguard will continue to take appropriate steps based on coordination with related entities,” the spokeswoman said.

CPWF said the ship was en route to the Northwest Passage in its campaign of “intercepting Japan’s newly-built factory ship, the Kangei Maru, in the North Pacific”.

The 9,300-tonne “mothership”, which set off from Japan in May, butchers whales caught and killed by smaller vessels.

It boasts a powerful winch that can haul carcasses weighing as much as 70 tonnes up a ramp, as well as 40 freezer containers, each with a capacity of 15 tonnes of whale meat.

Tokyo argues that eating whale is part of Japanese culture and an issue of “food security” in the resource-poor country, which imports large amounts of animal meat.

But consumption of whale has fallen to around 1,000 or 2,000 tonnes per year compared to around 200 times that in the 1960s.



– ‘Scientific’ –



Activists aggressively pursued the Kangei Maru’s predecessor when, prior to 2019, Japan hunted whales in the Antarctic and North Pacific for what it said were “scientific” purposes.

That year Japan quit the International Whaling Commission and nowadays conducts commercial whaling, but only in its own waters, and on what it calls a sustainable scale.

The CPWF said however that it suspects Japan intends to resume high-seas whaling in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific by 2025.

It added that it believes the reactivation of the Red Notice against Watson is “politically motivated, coinciding with the launch of the new factory ship”.

The Red Notice was issued in 2012, with an Interpol statement at the same saying Watson was wanted by Japan on charges of causing damage and injury in two incidents in the Antarctic Ocean in 2010 against a Japanese whaling ship.





FREE PAUL WATSON
French star Brigitte Bardot slams Japan's 'manhunt' against anti-whaling activist

Agence France-Presse
July 23, 2024 

AFP/AFP/File - Animal rights activist Bardot wants the UN to take a stand against "trophy hunting"


Tokyo (AFP) – French film star Brigitte Bardot has slammed Japan for its "manhunt" of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, detained under an international warrant issued by Tokyo.

His ship had docked to refuel on its way to "intercept" Japan's new whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, according to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF).

French screen legend turned animal rights activist Bardot told Le Parisien in an interview published on Monday that "the Japanese government... launched a global manhunt" against Watson who was "caught in the trap".

"We must do everything to save Paul," she said.

Watson, who featured in the reality TV series "Whale Wars", founded the Sea Shepherd and the CPWF organisations, and has drawn attention for direct action tactics, including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.

CPWF said it believed his arrest was in connection with an Interpol Red Notice related to Watson's previous anti-whaling activities in the Antarctic.

Japan's government made no comment but a spokeswoman for the Japanese coastguard told AFP on Monday it was aware of the arrest.

"The coastguard will continue to take appropriate steps based on coordination with related entities," the spokeswoman said.

The Red Notice was issued in 2012, with an Interpol statement at the same saying Watson was wanted by Japan on charges of causing damage and injury in two incidents in the Antarctic Ocean in 2010 against a Japanese whaling ship.



CLIMATE CRISIS
Baby bull sharks are thriving in Texas and Alabama bays as the Gulf of Mexico warms

The Conversation
July 23, 2024 

Bull shark Photo by Malek Bee on Unsplash

In late spring, estuaries along the U.S. Gulf Coast come alive with newborn fish and other sea life. While some species have struggled to adjust to the region’s rising water temperatures in recent years, one is thriving: juvenile bull sharks.

We study this iconic shark species, named for its stout body and matching disposition, along the Gulf of Mexico. Over the past two decades, we have documented a fivefold increase in baby bull sharks in Mobile Bay, Alabama, and a similar rise in several Texas estuaries, as our new study shows.

Despite the bull shark’s fearsome reputation, baby bull sharks are not cause for concern for humans in these waters.

While adult bull sharks are responsible for an occasional unprovoked attack, baby bull sharks haven’t fully developed the skills needed to hunt larger prey. And you’re still far more likely to be killed by bees, wasps or snakes than sharks.
The fascinating life of a young bull shark

Most sharks are fully marine and spend their entire lives in the ocean. Bull sharks, however, are one of a handful of shark species that use freshwater environments as nurseries.

Baby bull sharks have been found in the Alabama River, 75 miles north of the ocean, and up the Mississippi River as far as Illinois. They have evolved to tolerate fresh water by reducing the need for salts and urea in their bodies compared to marine sharks, and actively taking in more salts through their food and across their gills.

In Texas, young bull shark numbers have been increasing in estuaries like Galveston Bay and Sabine Lake over the past 40 years, particularly where rivers like the Trinity, Sabine and Neches intersect with these ecosystems. These areas may offer protection from predators, such as bigger sharks.




In 2012-2023, Texas reported seven shark bites, and Alabama reported two, none of them fatal, according to the International Shark Attack File. After white sharks and tiger sharks, bull sharks have had the most reported unprovoked shark attacks on humans globally. Albert Kok via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

The presence of bull sharks in these estuaries also contributes to their health and stability.

Because bull sharks frequently move between freshwater and marine ecosystems, they can act as mobile links that connect these two aquatic environments. Bull sharks often feed in one environment, salty water for example, and then rest and excrete nutrients in freshwater bays. Feeding and resting in different locations can improve the ability of these ecosystems to withstand disturbances like warming weather conditions, because if one habitat is disturbed, the other is still supported.


Like a spider web, food webs are connected by many intersecting threads. The more threads, the stronger the web. The use of both freshwater and marine habitats by bull sharks increases the number of these threads through their predator-prey interactions, thereby strengthening the ecosystem.
Waters are warming

As the planet warms, coastal ocean temperatures are rising. In the Gulf of Mexico, water temperatures have risen more than 3 degrees Fahrenheit (more than 1.5 degrees Celsius) due to climate change.


On a global scale, warming waters are harming more fish species than they are helping. Higher temperatures increase food requirements and stress levels, while making fish more susceptible to disease and reducing the survival of their young. A variety of fish populations in the Gulf of Mexico, including mullet and flounder, have declined as warmer conditions affected their spawning.

At the same time, the waters used by baby bull sharks have expanded in part due to this warming, creating a dynamic habitat.

An easy way to understand how sharks use dynamic habitat is to capture them with nets and measure the characteristics of the surrounding environment. In our sampling data, we could see that the mean annual water temperatures on the Alabama and Texas coasts increased at the same time the bull shark populations rose.


In coastal Alabama, we found that the relative abundance of baby bull sharks has increased fivefold over the past 20 years. Slight increases in temperature over that time provided the best explanation for this population increase.

Of all the temperatures recorded in that study, there was no maximum temperature threshold detected for baby bull sharks. So far, at least since 2003, it’s been “the warmer the better” for a baby bull shark.


We observed a similar trend in coastal Texas from Sabine Lake to Matagorda Bay, where warming estuaries supported increased abundances of baby bull sharks up to eightfold over the past 40 years. Warmer waters allowed baby bull sharks to remain in their natal estuaries longer during their first year before overwintering in the Gulf of Mexico, increasing their survival to the next life stage.

Collectively, our recent studies indicate that warming waters are currently beneficial for young bull sharks. But just like your favorite dessert, too much of a good thing can be detrimental.


All animals, including bull sharks, have maximum and minimum temperatures at which they can function. If temperatures get too hot or too cold, this can lead to problems, whether through direct stress on the shark’s bodily functions or on its ecosystem at large.

Some of our previous work from Florida shows that baby bull sharks will leave coastal nurseries in response to episodic cold snaps to avoid cold-stress. Sharks that didn’t leave died. The same may be true for hot temperatures, although conditions have not yet reached that point in the Gulf of Mexico based on our research.
A changing world


It’s clear that climate change is altering coastal ecosystems. Our work shows the direct benefit to young bull sharks, but how the observed population growth is affecting other species in the coastal estuaries remains to be seen.



A bull shark swims in a seagrass bed. Saving the Blue


The rise in bull sharks may affect other fish species, including bull shark prey like mullets, drums, herrings and catfish. More bull sharks could eventually mean fewer of the fish that humans rely on. In warmer water, sharks burn more energy.

Ultimately, tracking how the distributions of species like bull sharks change over time remains a critical priority for understanding future shifts in fish populations and the health of our coastal ecosystems.

James Marcus Drymon, Associate Extension Professor in Marine Fisheries Ecology, Mississippi State University; Lindsay Mullins, Ph.D. Student in Marine Science, Mississippi State University, and Philip Matich, Instructional Assistant Professor of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
NOT THE BIG ONE
Hydrothermal explosion causes damage in area of Yellowstone National Park
Blair Miller, Daily Montanan
July 24, 2024 

Yellowstone National Park is a nearly 3,500- square-mile wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot. - Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

A hydrothermal explosion in Yellowstone National Park damaged a boardwalk and sent debris several stories into the air Tuesday morning in the Biscuit Basin area northwest of Old Faithful, according to the scientist-in-charge at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

The explosion, which Scientist-in-Charge Michael Poland said was a “small” one, happened around 10 a.m. Tuesday about 2.1 miles northwest of Old Faithful, likely in the Black Diamond Pool in Biscuit Basin, Poland said.

Poland said in an information statement early Tuesday afternoon there had so far been no injuries reported in the explosion.

Videos posted online by people who witnessed the explosion showed several people on the boardwalk close to where the explosion occurred, and videos of the aftermath show debris across the area and a damaged boardwalk.

Biscuit Basin’s parking lot and boardwalks are temporarily closed for safety; Yellowstone National Park geologists are investigating the explosion but say data shows no out-of-the-ordinary volcanic activity.

“Monitoring data show no changes in the Yellowstone region. Today’s explosion does not reflect activity within the volcanic system, which remains at normal background levels of activity,” Poland said in a statement. “Hydrothermal explosions like that of today are not a sign of impending volcanic eruptions, and they are not caused by magma rising towards the surface.”

He said these types of explosions happen when water quickly changes to steam underground and they are “relatively common” in Yellowstone National Park.

There was a similar explosion in Biscuit Bay in May 2009 and a smaller explosion in Norris Geyser Basin on April 15. Porkchop Geyser in Norris Geyser Basin exploded in 1989.

Hydrothermal explosions often send boiling water, steam, mud and rock into the air and can reach heights of up to 1.2 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It said in a 2018 report that large hydrothermal explosions happen on average every 700 years. At least 25 craters have been identified in the park that are at least 328 feet wide, according to the report.

“Although large hydrothermal explosions are rare events on a human time scale, the potential for additional future events of the sort in Yellowstone National Park is not insignificant,” the report says. “Based on the occurrence of large hydrothermal explosion events over the past 16,000 years, an explosion large enough to create a 100-meter (328-ft-) wide crater might be expected every few hundred years.

According to the National Park Service, Black Diamond Pool erupted black, murky water following an earthquake in July 2006 and saw “several explosive eruptions” in the days after, though eruptions have been “infrequent” since then. Its average temperature is 148.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

The public affairs office for Yellowstone National Park pointed the Daily Montanan to the news release from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory and said no further information was immediately available early Tuesday afternoon.

The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory said it would release more information as it becomes available.

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and X.


Officials: Damage to Yellowstone Park from hydrothermal explosion being assessed


A hydrothermal explosion occurred Tuesday morning at Yellowstone National Park. Photo courtesy of Yellowstone National Park/X
























July 24 (UPI) -- Officials of Yellowstone National Park are assessing the damage caused by a hydrothermal explosion that sent visitors running and forced a section of the park to close.

Park officials said in a statement that the explosion occurred at about 10:19 a.m. Tuesday near Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin, located just north of the park's iconic Old Faithful cone geyser.


Video of the incident circulating online shows a thick column of black debris being ejected hundreds of feet into the air. Visitors traversing a raised wooden boardwalk in vicinity of the explosion are then seen sprinting as the ejected debris rains down.

Following the explosion and the debris settling on the ground, a massive white plum is seen lifting into the air.

The park said no injuries were reported "and the extend of the damage is unknown at this time."

Park officials shared photos showing a damaged section of the raised boardwalk covered in rock and gray and black soot.

The Biscuit Basin has since been closed to the public and will be reopened when staff deem it safe, the park said, adding that staff from the park and the U.S. Geological Service will monitor its conditions.

"No other monitoring data show changes in the Yellowstone region," the park said. "Today's explosion does not reflect a change in the volcanic system, which remains at normal background levels of activity."

Yellowstone is "one of the most geologically dynamic areas on earth," according to the park, due its location near a shallow source of magma that causes volcanic activity.

The incident comes 10 days after five people were injured after a SUV went off road, crashed and then became submerged into a geyser at the park.
J.D. Vance opposes same-sex marriage — but lives '100 yards away' from gay bar: report

Leigh Tauss
July 23, 2024 

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance doesn’t want gays to get married, but he apparently lives “100 yards away” from a gay bar in northern Virginia, the Washington Blade reports.

Vance and his family live in a $1.6 million home on a side street near Mt. Vernon Avenue in Alexandria’s Del Ray district, the neighborhood’s main shopping district which in June became home to “Pride On The Avenue” – a gay bar pop up for Pride Month.

The bar’s owner, Bill Blackburn, told The Blade Vance lives “like 100 yards away” from Pride on the Avenue. The neighborhood was gentrified about three decades ago as it became popular among the LGBTQ community, Blackburn said. During June, many businesses and residents along the strip hang pride flags.

“Del Ray was kind of gentrified by a lot of the gay community in the ‘90s […] and there’s still a lot of residents in Del Ray from that early period who kind of reinvigorated Del Ray,” Blackburn told The Blade in an interview. “So, it’s interesting how this neighborhood evolved and how it’s become such a sought-after neighborhood that we even get right-wing Republicans who see the value of living here.”

Openly gay Virginia state Sen. Adam Ebbin said that living in Alexandria’s diverse gayborhood, “gives J.D. Vance an opportunity to experience what truly makes America great,” Ebbin said in an email to the Washington Blade.

Read also: 'Regret': Why Rachel Maddow thinks Trump is now kicking himself over J.D. Vance pick



Kim Davis’ counsel moves to make her appeal a springboard for overturning marriage rights

Sarah Ladd, Kentucky Lantern
July 24, 2024 

Rowan County Clerk of Courts Kim Davis waves to a crowd of her supporters at a rally in front of the Carter County Detention Center on September 8, 2015 in Grayson, Kentucky. (Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images)

A conservative legal group has filed a brief on behalf of a former Kentucky county clerk that it says could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Kim Davis, then the Rowan County clerk, made national headlines in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to several same-sex couples based on her religious beliefs.

Liberty Counsel, based in Orlando, Florida, and labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed the brief Monday with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, according to a news release from Liberty Counsel and first reported by Jezebel.

Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a Tuesday press release that “Kim Davis deserves justice in this case since she was entitled to a religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority.”

“This case has the potential to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and extend the same religious freedom protections beyond Kentucky to the entire nation,” Staver said.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning in 2015 ordered Davis to jail for five days for contempt for refusing to comply with a court order. Bunning earlier this year ordered Davis to pay $260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one of the couples she refused a marriage license. Bunning had earlier ordered Davis to pay the couple, David Ermold and David Moore, $100,000 in damages for violating their constitutional rights. Liberty Counsel is appealing Bunning’s decisions.

Davis lost her bid for reelection as Rowan County clerk in 2018.

Chris Hartman, the director of Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, told the Lantern Tuesday that the latest legal move on Davis’ behalf is “sad and desperate” but also within the realm of possibility under the current U.S. Supreme Court.

“The threat of anti-LGBTQ hate groups … is real, however, and it comes as no surprise that they are seeking to overturn LGBTQ marriage in America. With an arch-conservative Supreme Court that’s already upended half a century of abortion rights, anything is unfortunately possible.”

Court documents filed by Liberty Counsel point specifically to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, saying the court should overturn Obergefell for the same reasons. In the abortion case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion that the court could use the same rationale to overturn earlier decisions on same-sex marriage and access to contraception.

“Obergefell was wrong when it was decided and it is wrong today because it was based entirely on the legal fiction of substantive due process, which lacks any basis in the Constitution,” say court documents filed by Liberty Counsel.

Liberty Counsel has not yet responded to a Lantern inquiry seeking further comment.

Ermold and Moore were married Oct. 31, 2015 in an outdoor ceremony on the Morehead State University campus, which the student newspaper, The Trail Blazer, covered.

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U.S. public rapidly sours on Project 2025 as awareness grows
Julia Conley,
 Common Dreams
July 24, 2024 7

Donald Trump (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

New polling out on Tuesday suggests that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's best hope for Project 2025, the far-right policy agenda that at least 140 of his former administration officials helped craft, was that most Americans would remain unfamiliar with it.

Over the past month, though, a growing number of voters have learned more about the 900-page plan spearheaded by the right-wing Heritage Foundation—and public opinion of the agenda has plummeted as it's become more widely known.

Progressive polling firm Navigator Research found in a survey conducted between July 11-14 that 54% of Americans were familiar with Project 2025, which calls for the weakening and eradication of federal agencies and the consolidation of power with the president, the elimination of job protections of thousands of federal employees, and the withdrawal of mifepristone—a pill used in a majority of abortions in the U.S.—from the market.


That's an increase of 25 percentage points from Navigator's poll on Project 2025 just one month ago, said the firm.

Just 11% of people polled viewed the agenda favorably, while 43% had unfavorable views—a 24-point increase since June.

Project 2025 appears to especially be galvanizing Democratic voters, 71% of whom said they were aware of the document. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats said they had unfavorable views of Project 2025, and 62% said their opinion was "very unfavorable."

Nearly two-thirds of independent voters said they still didn't know enough about the project to have an opinion, but 28% of independent respondents said they had an unfavorable view of the agenda.

Overall, said Navigator, "the recent upsurge in conversations and news coverage about the plan" since June has resulted in a greater number of Americans having negative views of Project 2025.

Following President Joe Biden's announcement on Sunday that he was ending his campaign for reelection and instead endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, the vice president took direct aim at Project 2025 in her speech officially announcing her intention to seek the Democratic Party's nomination.

"I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda," said Harris.

The vice president linked Trump to Project 2025 despite his attempts to distance himself from the agenda. As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, another poll by Navigator Research showed that 63% of Americans believed Project 2025 described Trump's vision and plans even as he claimed he "knew nothing" about the agenda and didn't know who was behind it.

Former Trump administration officials Russ Vought, who led the Office of Management and Budget, and John McEntee, who served as the White House personnel director, are among the co-authors of Project 2025.

The poll released on Tuesday found that 45% of respondents said Project 2025 describes Trump's agenda, while only 16% said it does not describe his plans for the country.

Along with the focus Biden, Harris, and other Democratic politicians have increasingly placed on Project 2025 in recent weeks, the movement against the plan has gotten a boost from the BET Awards on June 30, when host Taraji P. Henson urged viewers to vote in the election and warned the audience about the Republican agenda.

"Pay attention, it's not a secret, look it up," the actress said. "They are attacking our most vulnerable citizens. The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!"

Stephen Colbert also explained the agenda on "The Late Show" earlier this month.

Eric Michael Garcia of The Independent shared on social media Tuesday that Project 2025 has "genuinely permeated the culture," judging from people who have mentioned it to him, unprovoked, during his reporting.



Journalist David Roberts said Democratic politicians "have been discovering somewhat to their surprise that Project 2025 is 'sticky.'"

"Make this election about it. Make it famous," he advised. "One of the biggest and most persistent problems in recent U.S. politics is that the right's agenda is so malign that most disengaged voters just flat don't believe it. Describing it sounds like partisan attack. Well, they wrote it down. All of it. Make it famous!"