In November 2015, world leaders descended on Paris to negotiate a historic agreement to limit global warming. But on the summit’s opening day, attention turned to a private citizen slouched awkwardly in a chair on stage: Bill Gates.

Gates, with his characteristic flop of sandy hair, grinned impishly as President Barack Obama called him a “visionary” and a “driving force” behind a pair of pledges that both saw as key to the larger agreement. First the world’s largest economies would double their spending on research into clean-energy technologies. Then investors like Gates would back the startups that emerged. The Microsoft cofounder had already enlisted two dozen other billionaires to join the effort.

For Gates, who’d become increasingly consumed by this unprecedented threat to human well-being, the moment marked his arrival as a leading figure in the fight against climate change.

“If we back over 50 different breakthrough approaches, we know that several of those will give us the solution that we need,” Gates said during his own speech. He would invest at least $2 billion of his own money in companies developing geothermal wells, new kinds of nuclear reactors and machines that pull carbon from the air, to name just a few.

With much less fanfare, however, Gates has put more than double that amount into a very dirty, old-school industry. At the time of the Paris summit, he was already the dominant shareholder of America’s No. 2 landfill operator, Republic Services. He has since increased his stake to 38% of the company, a position worth $29 billion.

Broke my Leatherman today.

I won a raffle in 2008 I think.

The first prize was a gift card which I used to buy the most expensive leatherman that was available in the store at the time.

I have used it so much and still somehow taken way too good care of it. Never abused the blades. I bet the tool I have used the most have been the pliers and the screwdriver.

The leather holster that I used occasionally looks still almost like new.

Cutting hot dog buns for kids when out and about, fixing my bike…

F for respect 🫡

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/12395958

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The Chinese party-state uses all methods to varying extents, from abductions to espionage and harassment. The targets of the repression are all within the regime-critical diaspora, including members of the democracy movement, human rights advocates, Falun Gong, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, Hongkongers, and Taiwanese, according to a new study (pdf) conducted by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), a government agency.

A particularly common method is proxy punishment of friends or relatives in China in order to pressure the activist to cease their political activism. In the case of Sweden, despite being targets of China’s transnational repression (TNR), the interviewees generally felt safe. The Swedish authorities take TNR seriously and the security agencies have had contact with most of the interviewees.

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Some of the interviewees had experienced direct threats from Chinese authorities while residing in Sweden. Twelve of the 16 interviewees described incidents where relatives or friends in China have been harassed or punished by Chinese security authorities because of their connection to the interviewee.

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"Currently, because the domestic political situation is relatively stable and the regime has extensive means to monitor and control the population, the Chinese regime is not seriously threatened by regime-critical diaspora movements," the report says.

"However, this can quickly change if a major upheaval, what social movement researchers call a quotidian disruption, happens."

...

Diaspora activism can make a difference in individual cases. The Chinese regime cares about outside criticism; its massive TNR policy to silence the diaspora is evidence of that. Several interviewees pointed to the importance of maintaining media attention on the human rights situation in China in general and on individual cases in particular.

China will most likely continue to expand its TNR. It will be of increasing importance for liberal democracies such as Sweden to maintain focus on how to guard against TNR, to ensure the safety of refugees, and to make sure that members of the diaspora can continue their lawful political activities.

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Archived

These days, we know where almost everything comes from. Everyday items like food, clothes and pens all carry labels listing where things are grown, manufactured or even designed.

So why is it so hard to find where prescription drugs are made?

That question set off a 14-month investigation into where our medications are made, how the FDA polices drug manufacturers and what happens when inspectors report issues inside factories.

The vast majority of prescriptions filled in the United States are for generic drugs, which are often far cheaper than brand-name alternatives.

For years, Congress, doctors and watchdog groups have questioned the quality of generic drugs made overseas. India produces about half of all generics used in the U.S., but the labels on pill bottles often don’t list where a drug is manufactured. Inspection reports describe unsafe manufacturing conditions at generic drug factories, but the Food and Drug Administration redacts the names of the medications made in those factories. That means if drugs made in errant factories wind up in your medicine cabinet, you’d have no way of knowing.

Pete Hegseth is “very likely” to be impeached over his handling of the Iran war, according to a senior Republican.

Senator Ted Cruz said “the votes are there” to sanction the self-style Secretary of State for War.

But Cruz said he believed Hegseth will either stand down voluntarily or be sacked by Donald Trump before then.

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday.

Search and Rescue pupper training to find people in collapsed structures at a training rubble pile.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/48254256

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2009-06-10

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Bonus panel

Canadian Foreign Affairs Department also shortened draft social media post on massacre prior to publication.

Archived link

Chinese authorities blocked attempts by the Canadian Embassy to visually commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre for the last two years, CBC News has learned.

The second incident came just months after Prime Minister Mark Carney's trade trip to Beijing, where he touted improved relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"Late Saturday evening local authorities, working into the early hours of Sunday, planted two large, mature trees in an attempt to block the embassy's LED screen," noted an email by Diana Tan, a staffer at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, obtained by CBC News through an access to information request.

The message was dated June 1, three days before the Canadian diplomatic mission intended to display an image of a candle to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre's 37th anniversary.

"The trees were planted on municipal property, approximately 0.5-1 metre from the embassy wall," Tan noted.

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Another document released as part of the access to information package notes that in 2025, "the Chinese government sent a crane to suspend a large rectangular barrier in front of the screen of the embassy so that passersby could not see the candle."

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The documents obtained by CBC News, largely redacted, suggest 2024 was the first time the Canadian Embassy in Beijing displayed the image of the candle on its LED screen. Though the unredacted portions make no mention of the image getting blocked that year, they do state the projection "led to security officials contacting the embassy."

"The projector image of a candle in Beijing is an important tool for public communications used for the last two years to ensure some level of local visibility since social media posts in China will likely face some kind of censorship," the documents note.

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The documents also reveal Global Affairs initially intended to publish a two-paragraph statement on the social media platform X this year to commemorate the event.

In an email sent June 1, hours after the one from embassy staff sharing the news of the planted trees, senior communications adviser Meghan O'Brien sought clearance for the post's publication. The first paragraph of the draft post is redacted.

The response from Mike Williams, who is identified in the emails as deputy director for the Greater China Political and Coordination Division, reads: "Modified single tweet, rather than 2 short tweets. Also revised message to commemorative tone focused on victims/families."

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The post Global Affairs wound up publishing in full on X reads: "Today, Canadians honour the memory of all who lost their lives, were injured or went missing during the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989. Canada stands with the survivors and the families and loved ones who continue to demand accountability."

That post raised eyebrows online, many noting the use of the word crackdown instead of massacre. Former Alberta premier and federal Conservative defence minister Jason Kenney called it a "deliberate misuse of language to minimize the massacre."

Conservative MP Andrew Lawton wrote "stop letting [Liberal MP] Michael Ma write your tweets."

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The Canadian government has never publicly spoken about either attempts at blocking the LED screen, nor provided an explanation about the wording of the social media post published on X this year.

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Carney is expected to return to China this month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

He has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping twice so far in his capacity as prime minister. The two first attempted to reset relations during a one-on-one in South Korea in November 2025, on the margins of last year's APEC summit, before Carney's visit to Beijing in January.

Ties between Canada and China were fraught under Carney's predecessor Justin Trudeau, with Canada arresting Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou in December 2018 as she faced fraud charges in the U.S.

Days later, the Chinese government imprisoned Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig for alleged espionage — eventually releasing them in 2021.

The public inquiry into foreign election interference also found China to be one of the chief state actors attempting to intervene in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021.