Observations by the JWST have revealed exciting hints of an Earth-like atmosphere on a planet orbiting a relatively nearby star. The planet is likely to be cooler than Earth, but still warmer than Mars and possibly well-suited to life.The planet LHS 1140b has been causing excitement ever since it was discovered in 2017, having been dubbed the “Best place to look for life beyond the Solar System”. However, there are a great many tests a planet needs to pass to have good prospects for hosting life we can detect. LHS 1140b got the title by initially meeting a few of the requirements. Further observations have now confirmed some suspected aspects and provided the first positive signs for others.LHS 1140b is larger than Earth, with a radius about 70 percent greater than ours. That puts it near the point where it could be a super-Earth, composed of a mix of rock and ice and water, or a sub-Neptune, composed of gas at least until a depth where the pressure would crush you. However, its density is not that far below Earth’s and observations made by the JWST last December show no sign of the hydrogen-rich atmosphere expected of a gas planet. The most likely explanation for the lower density is that 10-20 percent of its mass is water, with the rest being rock and metal like Earth. The water would probably be a mix of liquid and ice; although the ratio is unknown, that’s a good place to start when looking for life.LHS 1140b is of such interest not only because of its intrinsic features but because it transits across its star from our perspective, allowing us to get a spectrum of an atmosphere as it blocks the starlight, if just an atmosphere exists. The JWST watched this happen twice last year.Although seekers of life want a planet that is not all gas, they do want one with some, enough to keep an ocean liquid and give something for lifeforms to breathe. The latest results suggest LHS 1140b hits that sweet spot."LHS 1140b is one of the best small exoplanets in the habitable zone capable of supporting a thick atmosphere, and we might just have found evidence of air on this world," said Professor Ryan MacDonald of the University of Montreal in a statement. The spectrum collected most closely matches a predominantly nitrogen-based atmosphere, like Earth’s, but as the uncertainty in MacDonald’s statement indicates, other explanations remain possible. The JWST will need to observe LHS 1140b passing between us and its star on more occasions for confirmation."This is the first time we have ever seen a hint of an atmosphere on a habitable zone rocky or ice-rich exoplanet. Detecting atmospheres on small, rocky worlds is a major goal for JWST, but these signals are much harder to see than for giant planet atmospheres," MacDonald said. Although LHS 1140b is thought to resemble Earth, at least approximately, in composition and temperature, it is very different in one way. It’s almost certainly tidally locked, with one side always facing the red dwarf star LHS 1140, and the other pointing outwards towards endless night. Were its star brighter, this might make one side of the planet too hot to inhabit and the other permanently frozen, leaving a narrow ring where liquid water could survive. However, unless the atmosphere is also rich in powerful greenhouse gasses, it’s more likely most of LHS 1140b is icy, with a liquid ocean directly facing the star, making it look like a creepy eyeball. The ocean is estimated to be about half the size of the Atlantic, and its center, where the star is directly overhead, might be around 20°C (68°F)."This is our first tantalizing glimpse of an atmosphere on a super-Earth in the habitable zone. Compared to other known habitable zone exoplanets, such as those in the TRAPPIST-1 system, the star LHS 1140 appears to be calmer and less active, making it significantly less challenging to disentangle LHS 1140 b's atmosphere from stellar signals caused by starspots," Macdonald said. “While we need more JWST observations to confirm the nitrogen-rich atmosphere, and to search for other gases, this is a very promising start."The other attractive feature of LHS 1140b from our perspective is its location 49 light-years away. TRAPPIST-1f and g, aside, this is the closest transiting planet at a temperature suited to liquid water.Even if there is no water at LHS 1140b’s surface, recent research suggests it could be well placed to have an internal ocean like Europa, but many times bigger.By chance, one of the JWST observations also caught LHS 1140c, a smaller but much hotter world, in the act of transiting.Although LHS 1140b orbits 15 times in an Earth year, many of its transits can’t be observed; for example, because the Sun is in the way. If we want to collect enough data to settle questions about the composition of its atmosphere before the JWST runs out of fuel, observing the planet for longer is required.The study has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, and a preprint is currently available on ArXiv.org. 

As much as we all might wish otherwise, COVID-19 just doesn’t want to go away. It keeps changing to survive and with that change, adds to the list of possible symptoms. Trouble is, some of those symptoms might be mistaken for something else doing the rounds at the moment – hay fever. So how can you tell the difference?There’s a lot of scope for confusion; over 25 percent of adults in the US were diagnosed with hay fever in 2021 and unfortunately for those people, pollen levels have been particularly high and early this year.At the same time, there are new variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, circulating that have typically milder – albeit still unpleasant – symptoms that can overlap with seasonal conditions like hay fever.There are, however, some key differences, between the most common symptoms of hay fever and the estimated most prevalent COVID variant circulating in the US right now, KP.3.While some people have been experiencing nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting as symptoms of the newer variants, a pollen allergy isn’t likely to trigger the same effects.On the other hand, a persistent cough is still a mainstay symptom of COVID, but though pollen might give you enough of a tickly throat that you feel the need to cough, it’s not likely to be the same extent as that with COVID.Sticking with the throat, you might also get a sore one with both COVID and hay fever, but it’s generally not so common to get one with the latter. If it doesn’t go away after spending a while away from pollen and getting relief from other pollen symptoms, it’s more likely to be caused by an infection.As for losing your sense of taste and smell, do you also have a blocked nose? If yes, then it’s possible that your inability to fully enjoy food and drink is from hay fever bunging you up.The newest symptoms of COVID-19 come courtesy of the so-called FLiRT group of variants – of which KP.3 is a member – which have become particularly widespread. All are offshoots of JN.1, an Omicron spin-off that popped up and caused trouble earlier this year.These variants are rather less saucy than they sound; the name comes from the amino acid mutations they’ve picked up in the spike protein, the part of the virus that latches onto the cells in our bodies and allows it to infect them.The immune system can learn to recognize spike proteins – either naturally or through vaccination – and get rid of the virus, but by evolving into slightly different forms, the virus can evade destruction.Though not always, viruses can often end up triggering much milder symptoms through this process – and that kids, is how we wound up in this confusing place.All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.  The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.  

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has flown a plane into a hurricane to learn about these tropical storms.NOAA regularly makes flights inside hurricanes to monitor them and make predictions about their progress. Using two aircraft – nicknamed "Kermit" and "Miss Piggy" – the hurricane specialists take data from inside the eye of the hurricane itself."The P-3s' tail Doppler radar and lower fuselage radar systems, meanwhile, scan the storm vertically and horizontally, giving scientists and forecasters a real-time look at the storm," NOAA explains.  "The P-3 [planes] can also deploy probes called bathythermographs that measure the temperature of the sea."The aircraft have been deployed to monitor Hurricane Beryl, which briefly became the earliest Atlantic Category 5 hurricane on record as it strengthened earlier this month.Flying through hurricanes is, of course, generally not recommended, and pretty difficult to prepare for. "It’s impossible to accurately simulate a hurricane eyewall penetration," NOAA Hurricane Hunter Commander Scott Price explained. "Doing it in the aircraft in a storm is the only way to experience the responsiveness of the plane, flight characteristics, crew coordination, and visceral response brought on by plowing through a wall of wind and rain while you’re at the controls."         As well as equipment on the plane, the team also launches tube-shaped sensor devices known as dropsondes, which transmit data back to the plane as they fall toward the ocean below."We use dropsondes to measure temperature, humidity, pressure and wind speed, and send back data every 15 feet [4.6 meters] or so all the way to the ocean surface," Jason Dunion, Research Meteorologist at the University of Miami explained in a piece for The Conversation. "All of that data goes to the National Hurricane Center and to modeling centers so they can get a better representation of the atmosphere."NOAA uses this data to make predictions about the path and intensity of hurricanes. Though spectacular, they are certainly not doing it for the view.

Brains may be the secret to humankind’s success as a species, but in the animal world there’s nothing sexier than brute force. In many cases, only the mightiest specimens ever get the chance to mate, making brawn an essential characteristic. But which creatures are stronger than the proverbial ox?The biggest of brutesFrom lions to polar bears, there are plenty of animals with a reputation for burliness and power, although it’s hard to gauge exactly how strong a particular specimen can grow. It’s been reported, for instance, that grizzlies may actually have more force than their Arctic cousins, yet no one knows for sure how much weight either species can move.In a series of experiments for a National Geographic documentary, researchers discovered that a grizzly bear can throw a 315-kilogram (700-pound) dumpster around “like a beachball”, and estimated that an average adult has the strength of between 2.5 and five humans. However, by their own admission, the scientists never got to see the bear in action when it was angry, yet they suspect that, when sufficiently irritated, the animal could probably exert considerably more force than this.Silverback gorillas, meanwhile, are thought to be stronger than any bear on the planet. Thanks to their incredibly powerful arms – which they use for walking, climbing, and swinging – the great apes are able to lift 800 kilograms (1,763 pounds) of dead weight.However, the strongest of all the animals is the African bush elephant, which is reported to be capable of carrying up to 9,000 kilograms (19,800 pounds). Using just their trunks, the colossal proboscideans can lift cars and fell trees, making use of the more than 40,000 muscles and tendons within the droopy appendage.Surprisingly, the African elephant is even stronger than the blue whale – the largest animal ever to have lived. By analyzing the mass and muscle size of 22 different cetacean species, researchers calculated that the gargantuan whale can exert around 6,300 kilograms (13,900 pounds) of force, leaving the elephant as the undisputed champ of both land and sea.Size doesn't matterWhile the enormous African bush elephant may be able to deadlift more than any other animal, it can only shift a meager one-and-a-half times its own body weight. In this sense, it’s actually pretty puny compared to certain insects.A species of dung beetle called the taurus scarab, for instance, can pull 1,141 times its own body weight, making it the strongest animal on the planet. Other diminutive critters with exceptional strength in relation to their body weight include leaf cutter ants and rhinoceros beetles, both of which are assisted by a remarkably durable exoskeleton.Thankfully, these insanely strong bugs are a fraction of the size of an elephant. It’s estimated that a human-sized taurus scarab would be able to lift six double-decker buses, which would make them pretty difficult to contain, even with our nerdy intelligence.

A new kind of scaffold for lab-grown meat might be able to give the cultured proteins the taste of real meat, according to new research out of South Korea.Despite much fanfare, it’s fair to say that cultured meat – that is, animal products that were grown in a lab rather than on a farm – hasn’t made the impact on our diets that it promised. The reasons for that are, in some cases, not unexpected: long but necessary regulatory processes have made them hard to buy, for example, even in the very few countries where they’ve been approved at all – but that hasn’t been the only problem facing the fledgling industry. Even among proponents of cultured meat, there’s still an acknowledgement that, frankly, the taste just isn’t there yet.“The experience was closer to eating tofu or seitan than chicken,” reported Joe Fassler in an essay for the New York Times back in February. “It would never satisfy a hard-core meat eater.”For those who tout cultured meat as a solution to the environmental and ethical issues associated with traditional animal agriculture, this is an urgent problem. And the solution, according to the new paper, is something that’s so far been relatively ignored in the industry: the flavor of the meat.Now, we know what you’re thinking: surely, when developing food, the flavor is the very first thing you would consider, right? But cultured meat is no ordinary product: it’s not really designed to be novel, or delicious in its own right – rather, it’s specifically intended to replace an already-ubiquitous foodstuff.As such, research into the development of lab-grown meat has generally concentrated on how to make it as close to the real deal as possible – with, so far, mixed results. “Most previous studies have focused on strategies to mimic the properties of meat depending on the cell mass and differentiation,” the new study explains. “However, several food-related characteristics of meat, such as texture and flavor, are associated with blood and various biological tissues such as muscle, fat, and connective tissues. Because research on cultured meat is still at the stage of cell culture scale rather than tissue culture level, there are limitations in mimicking the […] properties of meat.”Rather than the texture and structure of slaughtered meat, then, the team decided to concentrate on improving the aromatic and flavor profile of cultured meat – in particular, grilled beef. The key, they realized, would be in replicating the Maillard reaction – a chemical process that occurs when cooking, in which reducing sugars in the food react with amino acids, resulting in changes in color, flavor, and aroma.“Hundreds of different flavor compounds are created,” explains Science of Cooking. “These compounds in turn break down to form yet more new flavor compounds, and so on. Each type of food has a very distinctive set of flavor compounds that are formed during the Maillard reaction.”To achieve this transformation, the team developed a new, temperature-responsive scaffold for the cultured meat cells. Constructed from gelatin and containing a switchable flavor compound, the resulting cultured meat cells “release[s] the conjugated flavor group […] upon [being] heated at the cooking temperature, 150°C,” the paper reports.But did the beef cut the mustard? According to the researchers’ chemical analysis – which included, rather amusingly, the use of an “e-nose” to compare the lab-grown beef to some store-bought slaughtered beef – the answer was yes. “[Our] results confirm that the SFC [switchable flavor compound] can contribute to the controlled release of the meaty flavor compounds from the scaffold, eventually enabling the fabrication of flavor-rich cultured meat,” the authors write.So, are we about to see lab-grown beef hit the shelves in the near future? Probably not. More research is needed to make the flavor compounds more precise, the team concludes, and the recipe may need to be tweaked if various concerns about animal-derived components are taken into account.And, of course, there’s another little tidbit nestling in the paper which might kill your appetite. As “remarkable” as the breakthrough is, the team admits, “this study still encounters a critical limitation. It should be cautious to regard the used reagents as food-grade.”Hm. Perhaps we’ll have the tofu after all.The study is published in the journal Nature.

Despite their popularity, public knowledge of the brainy capabilities of goldfish (Carassius auratus) is limited. They are among the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species, and yet many people are unaware of their surprisingly sharp memories. So, if you think goldfish are just swimming around mindlessly, think again!The common misconception is that goldfish have a memory that lasts just three seconds, but countless studies have proven that not only do they have memories spanning, weeks, months, and even years – they are also exceptional problem solvers and pretty good motorists.First domesticated in China around 1,000 years ago, there are now over 125 breeds of goldfish. While they have an average lifespan of between 10 and 15 years, the oldest goldfish on record died aged 43 with a head full of memories (probably).How smart are goldfish?"We've known about the reasonably good memories of goldfish since the '50s and '60s," Culum Brown, an expert in fish cognition at Macquarie University in Australia, told Live Science back in 2021. "Despite what everybody thinks, they're actually really intelligent."Since research began looking into the intelligence and memory capacity of goldfish, findings have consistently suggested that they are capable of forming long-term memories, social learning, tool use, spatial awareness, and problem-solving.In 1966, a study was conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan in which goldfish showed improved shock-avoidance behaviors in a number of trials lasting multiple days, providing evidence for short-term memory formation.Anecdotal evidence suggests goldfish commonly remember the area of the tank they usually receive food from and will swim into position when feeding time comes. Similarly, they have been taught to escape nets and can even be taught to perform tricks.A study conducted at Oxford University even found goldfish to have the surprising ability to accurately estimate distances – something even humans struggle to do. By training the fish to travel exactly 70 centimeters (2.3 feet) before turning around to receive a food reward, the researchers found they could consistently and accurately swim the 70-centimeter distance even when the starting point and stimuli were changed.If you’re still not impressed by these tiny masterminds, one study event taught them how to drive a car. Watch the video to see them Fast and Furious their way around the lab.        Why do people think goldfish have a three-second memory?One of the assumptions about fish stupidity can be put down to their relatively small brain size compared to other vertebrates. But brain size doesn’t always correlate with species intelligence.Fish brains also differ from mammals as they don’t possess a hippocampus. The hippocampus in mammals works to form memories, so it was likely assumed that without one long-term memory would be affected. However, research has found that in fish the lateral pallium is the structure that functions to form connections between events and experiences.This area in the forebrain of fish has the same evolutionary origin as the parts of the mammalian brain that support learning, and structures similar to ones that contribute to the formation of emotions (the amygdala) have also been found.“I think the misconception comes, basically, from the fact that a lot of people — and I hope less and less — maintain fish in a circular bowl,” behavioral ecologist Adelaide Sibeaux, who researches navigation in animals at the University of Oxford, told Discover. “We haven't been giving fish [the chance] to just show us how smart they are.”The public perception of fish may also be as a result of mass cognitive dissonance. Believing goldfish have a three-second memory makes keeping them in a small, bare fish tank a lot less guilt-laden.Do other fish have good memories?It’s not just goldfish that have impressive cognitive abilities. Studies have been conducted on a wide variety of fresh and saltwater species and found unique and impressive capabilities in each of them.African Cichlids, another commonly kept fresh-water species, have been found to form associations and remember them for up to 12 days, while studies into wild fish have shown memory retention of up to 11 months for negative experiences.Zebrafish can understand quantities, and research into cleaner fish has shown that they can recognize their own faces in reflections.A number of species have been shown to be capable of escaping mazes, and fish have been observed in the wild hunting together (moray eels and groupers), protecting each other from predators (sticklebacks and guppies), and cleaning other fish in exchange for not being eaten (cleaner wrasse).Despite clear evidence in support of fish intelligence, they are still commonly mistreated both in the pet trade and in government policy. Animal welfare charity The Humane League explains that “Fish currently suffer in greater numbers than any other vertebrate animal, as they are not only farmed in the greatest numbers but also experience serious welfare issues including disease, sea lice, and overcrowding on these farms.”Currently, farmed fish are not generally included in laws – like the US's Humane Slaughter Act – surrounding the ethical slaughter of livestock to spare avoidable suffering, leaving the roughly 124 billion fish farmed annually vulnerable to mistreatment and undue suffering.

An FBI agent and Twitter lawyer who previously worked to censor election-related free speech has now joined a national election task force—just in time for the 2024 presidential election. Former FBI agent Jim Baker, whose bio appears on the National Task Force for Election Crises, might be engaging in more election interference. The National Task Force for Election Crises claims to work on securing elections and preventing fraud, including by rapid censorship of supposed disinformation. Baker’s tie to the group is particularly concerning because Baker previously helped coordinate the censorship industrial complex built up between federal government agencies and Big Tech companies like Twitter. Baker’s Task Force bio brags about his career, including roles as the FBI’s general counsel and the Justice Department’s senior staffer and associate deputy attorney general. During his time at the FBI, Baker helped initiatethe bureau’s investigation of former President Donald Trump’s supposed ties with Russia. What the profile does not mention is Baker’s role at Twitter, where he was allegedly complicitin election interfering censorship. Before being fired by Twitter (now X) owner Elon Musk, Baker was still reviewing the Twitter Files and even complicated the release of information on how Twitter censored the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop scandal. In a 2023 congressional hearing on the Twitter Files, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) grilled Baker about Twitter’s actions. Donalds challenged Baker on how Twitter essentially contributed to the Biden campaign by censoring the Hunter Biden scandal under FBI pressure, but Baker, despite his own apparent complicity in Twitter’s censorship policy, repeatedly and evasively replied, “I don’t know.” At the time, MRC President Brent Bozell argued, “Twitter did everything they could to deliver the 2020 election to Joe Biden.” According to a 2020 MRC poll, 9.4 percent of Biden voters indicated they would not have voted for him had they known about the censored scandal, giving Trump an election victory. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

Leftists appear conflicted about Western history. On the one hand, they have endeavored to sever ties with it, tearing down statues, renaming places and species, and digging up graves. Yet, they also appear keen to transmogrify Western history — to rewrite it and reimagine it in order to bolster their contemporary worldview, advance their agenda, or to accommodate the sensitivities of their peers. This latter impulse to transmogrify history appears to dominate in the United Kingdom where there is a burgeoning genre of revisionist agitprop aimed at either distorting facts to paint Caucasians uniquely as history's villains or to erase Caucasians from the isles' history. The British Broadcasting Corporation has contributed to this genre for years and has shown no signs of stopping. The Telegraph recently revealed that a forthcoming BBC historical drama series about the Battle of Hastings — between Anglo-Saxons and Norman-French forces for control of England in 1066 — will be played by a "diverse cast." "King and Conqueror," a CBS Studios coproduction picked up by the BBC, will apparently feature non-white actors as Anglo-Saxon characters. "Adding diversity to a high medieval period setting follows the BBC’s 'colour-blind' casting of non-white stars as Tudor courtiers in another upcoming historical drama, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light," reported the Telegraph. For instance, Elander Moore, an actor of Trinidadian decent, will play Morcar, son of Ælfgā, the earl of Mercia, and himself an earl of Northumbria, who fought against Viking and Norman invaders. Jason Forbes, a black English actor from Bristol, will reportedly play a fictional Anglo-Saxon aristocrat named Thane Thomas. 'A cynic might wonder whether such casting is part of a cunning ploy to reinforce the fashionable progressive message that, throughout its history, this country has always been ethnically diverse.' In the BBC's original announcement of the show, Lindsey Martin, senior vice president of international development and coproductions at CBS Studios — formerly of Netflix — indicated the show would be a "bold and fresh take on a story that has endured for nearly 1,000 years" with themes "as contemporary and relevant as ever." Historian Zareer Masani told the Telegraph, "Some of us, including people of color, grew up thinking actors ought to look like characters they played." Masani noted further that it was "absolutely crazy that they've applied this color-blindness to a period when Britain was at its least multicultural, before even the Norman Conquest," stressing further that this approach was "hugely confusing and downright misleading." David Abulafia, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Cambridge, noted, "Since the whole series will undoubtedly bear little relation to historical fact, I think we shall have to put up with the bizarre notion that there were black earls in Anglo-Saxon England." "All the more so, since we are no longer supposed to talk about 'Anglo-Saxons,'" continued Abulafia, alluding to the recent name change of University of Cambridge's historical journal Anglo-Saxon England to Early Medieval England and Its Neighbours. "If they didn't exist, we can do what we like," added Abulafia. British journalist Michael Deacon noted that, "A cynic might wonder whether such casting is part of a cunning ploy to reinforce the fashionable progressive message that, throughout its history, this country has always been ethnically diverse — which means that, if you object to mass immigration in the 21st century, you're not just racist, but historically ignorant." Deacon suggested, however, that it is premature to judge the show having not yet seen it but joked about the potential of Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king, being scripted in the show to dismiss the threat of a Norman invasion as "alarmist nonsense," and stating, "I don't want to hear any more of these far-Right conspiracy theories. In any case, it's vital that we remain open to the world. As any historian worth his, her or their salt will tell you, Britain has always been vibrantly multicultural — ever since the Windrush arrived, in 1948BC.” 'It must not be an up-ended seesaw.' The casting for "King and Conqueror" is par for the course at the BBC, whose program "Horrible Histories" released a song in 2021 called "Been Here from the Start," which suggested Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, the Aurelian Moors, and the early Britons were black. The second season of the BBC series "Wolf Hall," an adaptation of the Hilary Mantel novel of the same name about the court of Henry VIII, will reportedly have Edward VI's grandmother Lady Seymour played by an actress of Bahamian heritage. Thomas Wyatt, a Yorkshire man who was the first person to write sonnets in English, will be played by an Egyptian actor. British author Petronella Wyatt, who claims Thomas Wyatt as a distant ancestor, suggested that "diverse casting, if it is to work at all, must have a logical grounding, particularly in an adaptation of a novel that prides itself on historical authenticity." "It must also work both ways. It must not be an up-ended seesaw. If the logic of modern casting was followed across the board then white actors should also be given roles on the basis of colour-blindness," wrote Wyatt. "But in our cowardly new world there is no equity or freedom from moral indignation, no all-embracing tolerance, only snorts and objurgations. We have become incapable of imagining honourable intentions in those with whom we disagree." The genre of revisionist agitprop is not limited to film. In August 2023, the publisher British Bloomsbury released a children's book entitled, "Brilliant Black British History," which erroneously stated, "Britain was a black country for more than 7,000 years before white people came, and during that time the most famous British monument was built, Stonehenge." The book was promoted in the U.K. by a government-funded group. Leftists have also not limited their revisionism to matters of race. Last year, the North Hertfordshire Museum decided to retroactively make Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus "transgender" and assign him female pronouns. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Tractor Supply Co. is a farming supplies retailer headquartered in Tennessee, and it's just gone where no large modern company has gone before. The company is dropping the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals that it had previously set for itself. In addition, DEI roles will be eliminated, carbon emissions goals will be withdrawn, and the company will stop sending data to the Human Rights Campaign. Tractor Supply made the move after information began circulating that the company was deeply involved in DEI and ESG initiatives, and its stock price took a nosedive. “We work hard living up to our mission and our values every day, and represent the values of the communities and customers we serve,” the company wrote in a statement. “We’ve heard from our customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart.” The backlash began when conservative Robby Starbuck highlighted the company's actions on X, which included DEI hiring practices, in-office Pride Month decorations, climate change activism, and “funding sex changes.” “He decimated them,” Glenn Beck says. “Just took them apart with everything that they have.” Stu Burguiere is impressed by the company's response. “It’s very rare,” Burguiere tells Glenn. “Even Bud Light, who seemingly overtly changed directions, right? Like you could tell by their actions. They never came out and said, ‘And just so you know, we’re totally off the bandwagon.’ They just kind of did it and hoped you noticed.” Glenn, however, remains skeptical. “I’d like to see if this is just, you know, another customer service kind of thing and a campaign ad,” he says. Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The week of July 1, 2024: Degrowth, still growing, the administrative state, France, labor, antitrust, and much, much more.