'Where truth flourishes'

'This momentum is just getting started'

'A physical therapist by day and a jihadist saboteur by night'

'a very incisive questioner'

An image shared on X claims to show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu watching Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s speech. Netanyabou Watching Sayyed Nasrollah’s speech!!!! ? pic.twitter.com/BCxZaD0m9p — LEYLA (@LeylaRostami) June 20, 2024 Verdict: False The image of Netanyahu is from 2020, not recent. It does not show Netanyahu watching a Nasrallah speech. Fact Check: The United States […]

“The greatest conservation opportunity on the planet,” isn’t in the Amazon, the Andes, Australia, or anywhere else you’d likely imagine. It’s in South Sudan. In a story that truly demonstrates how much there is left to explore in the world, the world’s largest migration of land mammals is now understood to take place in South […] The post South Sudan’s Epic Effort to Protect the World’s Little-Known Largest Mammal Migration appeared first on Good News Network.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. We now live in a world where “fact-checkers” organize “annual meetings” – one is happening just this week in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These censorship-overseers for other companies (most notably massive social platforms like Facebook, etc.) have not only converged onto Sarajevo but have issued a “statement” that includes the town’s name. The Poynter Institute is a major player in this space, and its International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) serves to coordinate censorship for Meta, among others. It was up to IFCN now to issue the “Sarajevo statement” on behalf of 130 groups in the “fact-checking” business, a burgeoning industry at this point spreading its tentacles to at least 80 countries – that is how many are behind the said statement. No surprise, these “fact-checkers” like themselves, and see nothing wrong with what they do; the self-affirming statement refers to the (Poynter-led) brand of “fact-checking” as essential to free speech (will someone fact-check that statement, though?) The reason the focus is on free speech is clear – “fact-checkers” have over and over again proven themselves to be either inept, biased, serving as tools of censorship, all three, or some combination of those. That is why their “annual meeting” now declares, with a seemingly straight face, that “fact-checking” is not only a free-speech advocate but “should never be considered a form of censorship.” But who’s going to tell Meta? In the wake of the 2016 US presidential elections, Facebook basically became the fall guy picked by those who didn’t like the outcome of the vote, accusing the platform of being the place where a (since debunked) massive “misinformation meddling campaign” happened. Aware of the consequences its business might suffer if such a perceived image continued, Facebook by 2019, just ahead of another election, had as many as 50 “fact-checking” partners, “reviewing and rating” content. In 2019, reports were clearly spelling out how the thing works – it’s in stark contrast with the “Sarajevo statement” and the “… never censorship…” claim. And this is how it worked: “Fact-checked” posts are automatically marked on Facebook, and videos that have been rated as “false” are still shareable but are shown lower in news feeds by Facebook’s algorithm. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also said that warning labels on posts curb the number of shares by 95%. “We work with independent fact-checkers. Since the COVID outbreak, they have issued 7,500 notices of misinformation which has led to us issuing 50 million warning labels on posts. We know these are effective because 95% of the time, users don’t click through to the content with a warning label,” Zuckerberg revealed. That was before the 2020 vote. There is not one reason to believe that, if things have in the meanwhile changed, they have changed for the better – at least where free speech is concerned. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Fact-Checking Network Says Online Fact Checks Aren’t Censorship appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Did SCOTUS Start Dismantling the Bureaucratic State?

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In a world first, Denmark will tax farmers for the greenhouse gas emissions belched out by their cows, pigs, and other livestock. The agreement was announced on June 24 by the Danish government after months of discussions between politicians, farmers, business leaders, and other parties. “Agriculture is Denmark's largest emitter of CO2. It cannot continue. That is why we are the first country in the world to introduce a climate tax and speed up green measures, so that we are more certainly on track to reach the 2030 target. Now there is a lot of work to be done to realize the agreement," Lars Aagaard, Denmark’s Climate, Energy, and Supply Minister, said in a statement.Under the agreement, farmers will be taxed 120 Danish kroner (around $17) per ton of carbon dioxide emitted from livestock in 2030, increasing to 300 Danish kroner ($43) per ton in 2035.The return of proceeds will then be pumped back into the agricultural sector as a “transition support pool” to assist the green transition of the industry.   Under another part of the policy, over 30 billion kroner ($4.3 billion) will be set aside for the conversion of swathes of carbon-rich lowland soil and the planting of 250,000 hectares (6.2 million acres) of forest. Famous for its cured bacon, Denmark is one of the world's largest pig meat exporters, as well as a prominent producer of beef and dairy. According to its government, the new agreement hopes to maintain its place as a world leader in agriculture and food production in the 21st century, while being good to the planet. “Today we are writing a new chapter in Danish agricultural history," said Minister for Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries, Jacob Jensen. "Denmark is a proud food-producing nation, where we have some of the world's most skilled farmers, for whom we now ensure a stable framework to continue producing world-class food for many years into the future. With the agreement, we create growth and jobs throughout the country, while taking good care of our climate, environment and nature."  Livestock are responsible for 14.5 percent of all global greenhouse gases, according to UC Davis. Much of this is generated by the burps of cows, as well as other ruminant animals like goats and sheep. As these animals digest grass and other plants, a process occurs called “enteric fermentation” that creates methane – a potent greenhouse gas – as a byproduct. The greenhouse gas is then emitted by the animal, from where it enters Earth’s atmosphere and traps heat, contributing to climate change.While Denmark’s latest announcement doesn’t directly mention methane, it will help to address this problem by targeting carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas that’s also emitted in significant quantities by agriculture.Many countries around the world are looking to tackle the problem of livestock-related emissions. One often floated idea is a “meat tax” to put levies on high-emission foods like beef and dairy. Some believe these kinds of policies are almost inevitable in the decades ahead – although they are likely to meet some intense resistance. Earlier this month, New Zealand U-turned on its plan to tax livestock burps due to concerns it could devastate their world-famous farming industry.