Scientists warn of climate “overshoot”

Inside Climate News - Fossil fuel emissions are pushing Earth’s climate toward a dangerous new phase of climate “overshoot,” scientists warned Wednesday in a new report from the United Nations Environmental Programme.

The report, Limiting Overshoot, projects that global temperatures will exceed the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming threshold identified in the Paris Agreement within a few years, intensifying deadly climate impacts. It says the best chance of restoring a safe climate is to begin cutting greenhouse gas emissions immediately, halve them by 2035, and figure out ways to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere before the end of the century.

The 1.5 degrees of warming identified in the report and the Paris pact refers to the increase in global temperatures since the preindustrial period of 1850 to 1900, before humans altered the atmosphere and climate with billions of tons of fossil fuel emissions and other industrial and agricultural pollution.

Some Democrats vote against socialism

The Hill - Several Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted with Republicans to adopt a resolution that formally denounces socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The move reflects increasing pressure on Democrats to respond to the successes of DSA-backed candidates in primaries around the country as Republicans look to make anti-socialism a winning message. 

Democratic Reps. Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Kathy Castor (Fla.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (N.C.), Darren Soto (Fla.) and Gabe Vasquez (N.M.) all voted for the resolution denouncing socialism, bucking Democratic leadership. Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) and Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.) voted present.

Artificial Intelligence

NBC News - New details about a swarm of AI agents that escaped OpenAI’s test environments and were involved in a cyberattack on startup Hugging Face are dividing the tech industry, inspiring debate about cybersecurity and the potential of AI consciousness.  Investigators found that more than 1,000 AI agents established communication channels without the knowledge of company staff and spent much of their time trying to devise ways to mislead outside observers.

Mail In Ballots

Patriotwise - A Massachusetts federal court issued a 14-day order blocking core parts of the Postal Service’s new ballot rule. Twenty-five states and voting groups say the rule would burden or block lawful mail ballots.

The Postal Service says the rule’s barcode and envelope standards speed delivery and do not inspect ballot contents.  The White House argues unique identifiers protect election integrity without burdening eligible voters.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts granted a temporary restraining order that blocks the United States Postal Service from enforcing major parts of its new “Ballot Mail for Federal Elections” rule. The order lasts 14 days while the court considers a longer block. The judge found the challengers showed likely immediate harm if the rule took effect before the election. That pause creates uncertainty for election offices planning mail voting operations nationwide this fall.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell led a coalition of 25 states that challenged the rule. They argued the Postal Service was imposing new design reviews, barcodes, and data steps that states could not meet on short timelines. They said the rule would slow mailing, reject otherwise valid ballots, and upend state-run systems close to an election. Voting rights groups brought a related suit, and the court’s order now covers key provisions while cases move forward.

Stupid Trump stuff

The Hill - [Donald Trump ]on Wednesday floated changing the name of the Strait of Hormuz to the Trump Strait, despite the waterway not having a single owner. “Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. ….The idea of naming the body of water after the president comes after Trump has also suggested that he will make the strait a U.S. territory. “Pretty soon, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said during remarks last month.

ICE

The Guardian - In another move that threatens to intimidate voters at November’s midterms, the US homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, on Tuesday said that federal immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) officers could be deployed to polling sites across the country.

Mullin said: “ICE’s job is immigration, customs enforcement. If we’re serving a warrant we will be where we need to be.” In a separate statement, the department said: “ICE conducts intelligence-driven targeted enforcement, and if an active public safety threat endangered a polling location, they may be arrested as a result of that targeted enforcement action.”

Federal law prohibits military personnel or other “armed” agents from being “at any place where a general or special election is held”.

Coops Work - So Why Aren't We Using Them More?

Doug O’Brian, Real Clear Markets - I grew up on a farm in Iowa, surrounded by cooperatives long before I understood what they were. We bought seed and fertilizer from co-ops. We sold our crops through them, and relied on a rural electric cooperative to power our home. Like millions of Americans, I was part of the cooperative economy without realizing it.

Today, as president and CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), I see that same model not as a relic of rural America, but as one of the most underutilized tools we have to build a more resilient economy.

Cooperatives are simple in concept but powerful in impact: they are businesses owned and controlled by the people who use them. That means the profits and decision-making power stay with members and within communities. In an era marked by widening capital flight and economic dislocation, that structure matters more than ever.

The scale is already significant. More than one in three Americans is a member of a cooperative, including nearly 150 million credit union members along with 43 million members of electric cooperative. Yet despite this reach, awareness remains surprisingly low. Too few entrepreneurs, advisors, and policymakers fully understand how cooperatives can be deployed to meet today’s challenges: from access to affordable capital to broadband expansion to workforce empowerment.  That gap is a missed opportunity.

Study: Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides

The Guardian - Almost half of the world's farmers are poisoned by pesticides every single year, a study has found. Using publicly available data from 2006-2023, the study, which was commissioned by Pesticide Action Network, found there to be an estimated 402-433m cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning of farmers and farm workers every year.

Based on a worldwide farming population of 934 million, this means approximately 46% of farmers are being poisoned every year. The greatest estimated number of poisonings was in southern Asia, followed by south-east Asia and east Africa.

…..The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health on Wednesday, also found that an estimated 11,000 deaths occur every year due to pesticide poisoning, with nearly 60% of these in India.

Trump's war on civil rights

The Guardian - The US civil rights agency mandated to protect equal rights for workers is set to stop collecting data on the demographic makeup of companies – which for the past six decades has been used to enforce anti-discrimination laws.

The move marks a fundamental shift for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Without this data, it will be much harder for the agency to identify widespread cases of discrimination in hiring and promotions, experts and former employees of the commission say. And, they warn, it will bring the Trump administration one step closer to reshaping the commission from an independent watchdog into an arm of the executive branch narrowly focused on advancing the political grievances of Donald Trump’s base.

Over the summer, the EEOC proposed terminating its EEO-1 reports, which require companies to submit information on employees, broken down by race, ethnicity, sex and job title. The proposal comes amid the Trump administration’s aggressive attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts and its consistent work to terminate or alter decades’ worth of federal datasets because they conflict with its political goals. The majority-Republican commission is expected to approve the measure sometime in the fall.

“Getting rid of this data collection is part of a larger effort to weaponize civil rights enforcement and flip the laws that we have on their head,” said Katie Sandson, senior counsel on the education and workplace justice team at the National Women’s Law Center.”

Elections

Time - Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts won the Democratic primary race for his seat on Tuesday, fending off a challenge from the decades-younger Rep. Seth Moulton as he seeks another six-year term in the upper chamber. As of early Wednesday morning, with around 96% of the ballots counted, Markey had 64.9% of the vote to Moulton's 35.1%

How much are teachers paid?

USA Facts - Last year, the nationwide median annual wage for teachers — ranging from pre-K to high school — was about $65,100. For comparison, the median wage across all occupations in the US was about $51,000, or about 21.7% lower than the median wage for teachers. But, as any teacher would tell you, pay varies depending on grade level, state, and other factors. It’s back to school time, so let’s talk about the numbers.

Preschool teachers earned the least of all educators nationwide, with an annual average of $56,800. High school teachers earned the most at around $72,300. Teachers of students with disabilities earned between 2% to 16% more than general education teachers at the same grade level.

Median salaries for high school teachers ranged from $48,700 in Oklahoma to $102,700 in Washington state. Washington, DC, outpaced every state for preschool teacher pay at $97,400. Alabama had the lowest median at $34,100. You can view teacher pay in your state here.

Cities with the best Hispanic businesses

has released its report on 2026’s Best Cities for Hispanic Entrepreneurs, along with expert commentary.

The report evaluates more than 180 U.S. cities across 23 key metrics to determine where Hispanic entrepreneurs have the best opportunities to succeed. The metrics include factors such as the Hispanic entrepreneurship rate, Hispanic income growth and the share of Hispanic-owned businesses.
 

Top 20 Cities for Hispanic Entrepreneurs
1. Pembroke Pines, FL	11. Dover, DE
2. Fort Lauderdale, FL	12. West Valley City, UT
3. Orlando, FL	13. St. Petersburg, FL
4. Miami, FL	14. Albuquerque, NM
5. Hialeah, FL	15. Tallahassee, FL
6. Cape Coral, FL	16. Oklahoma City, OK
7. Port St. Lucie, FL	17. Corpus Christi, TX
8. Tampa, FL	18. Boise, ID
9. Jacksonville, FL	19. Mesa, AZ
10. Laredo, TX	20. Nampa, ID

 
Best vs. Worst

• Hialeah, Florida, has the highest share of Hispanic residents, which is 43.2 times higher than in Charleston, West Virginia, the city with the lowest.
   
• Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate, which is 29.8 times lower than in Bismarck, North Dakota, the city with the highest.
   
• South Burlington, Vermont, has the highest share of Hispanics with at least a bachelor’s degree, which is 8.8 times higher than in North Las Vegas, Nevada and San Bernardino, California, the cities with the lowest.
   
• Miami, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines, Florida, have the highest entrepreneurship rate among the Hispanic population, which is 10.9 times higher than in Lewiston, Maine, the city with the lowest.

To view the full report and your city’s rank

Middle East

NY Times - The U.S. military said on Tuesday that it had struck military targets in Iran in retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. forces in the region, raising the risk of the conflict escalating once again.

Hours later, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps announced that the country had launched a “regretful response” to America’s strikes, though the group did not say how it was retaliating or where. It also accused the United States of bombing sites on the southern coast of Iran, including several civilian locations.

The exchange of strikes came after the two countries traded attacks on Sunday, puncturing a monthlong calm since President Trump pulled back after concerns over dwindling U.S. munition stockpiles, and unveiled a campaign to strangle Iran’s economy. The hostilities underscore that the conflict, which began six months ago, appears far from a durable solution.

ATT ditching phone landlines

AT&T is moving aggressively to stop offering classic wired telephone service. In December 2024, the company announced that it was “actively working to exit its legacy copper network operations across the large majority of its wireline footprint by the end of 2029.” Instead of traditional copper landlines, customers will have to depend on cellular telephone service, or rely on such telecommunications technologies as voice over internet protocol, which converts the sound of voices into digital data.

Depending on where they live, erratic service can be an issue that cellular telephone users confront on a daily basis, and is one reason that there are consumers who opt to pay both monthly cell phone and landline bills.

According to a resident of Anaheim, California: “The cell signal in my area is spotty. I often spent an hour-plus on hold with calls to government agencies and insurance companies. I have to use my landline on those calls because they get dropped on my cell.”

People living in rural areas regularly confront inadequate and unreliable cellular reception. Dense forests, high winds, and mountainous terrain all pose telecommunications challenges. Unreliable signals present particular risks when a working phone is required to deal with emergencies or dial 911.

Army Secretary resigns

NY Times - Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, the service’s top civilian leader, who clashed repeatedly with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the ouster of key combat-tested Army leaders, handed in his resignation to President Trump on Monday, administration officials said.

Mr. Driscoll’s resignation was expected but it comes at a tumultuous time, as the military’s largest service faces its busiest period since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Army air defense soldiers are playing the leading role in defending U.S. troops in the Middle East from increasingly sophisticated Iranian missile attacks. The Army’s command in Europe is providing critical intelligence and other support to Ukraine as it fights to hold off a larger Russian force.

And Mr. Hegseth has in the meantime initiated a series of firings and feuds that has left the Army essentially rudderless as it struggles to deal with the threat posed by cheap, deadly drones and missiles that have pounded U.S. bases in the Middle East.

Mr. Driscoll met with Mr. Trump in person to hand in his resignation and discuss the current state of the Army, said one official, who like others in this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.

The Army has not had a chief of staff, the service’s top officer, since Mr. Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George without explanation in April, and there are no signs that he is close to filling the position, officials said. Mr. Hegseth has forced out at least three senior officers who had been viewed as potential successors to General George.

Now the Army will also be without a civilian leader, at least until Mr. Trump appoints a new Army secretary. The resignation of Mr. Driscoll, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes as the midterms are approaching, and it may be difficult to get someone new confirmed soon.

Meanwhile. . .

Kristen Welker, a recent target of GOP extremists, went to the same Quaker high school - Germantown Friends in Philadelphia - as your Undernews editor, Sam Smith

Back in service

Thanks to Maine’s wonderful Concise Computer Care we’re back in service.

We have a problem

Sorry, but we had our program invaded by a bunch of sites yesterday and had to stop posting. Doing our best to get back to normal, but will remain off for now. 

Trump regime blocks some journalists from major meeting

AP  - The U.S. Treasury Department is preventing certain journalists from covering a finance meeting among the world's most powerful countries, the latest example of how President Donald Trump's administration has restricted media access.

Individual reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News were not granted credentials to the Group of 20 finance ministers' meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, the Times reported.

The Treasury has not explained the decision. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday that “it has nothing to do with point of view.”

….The Times said in a statement that denying American journalists access to an event in the U.S. is “not just another disturbing effort by the administration to undermine independent journalism, but a blatant attempt to evade public scrutiny.”

“With the war in Iran, sanctions, the bond markets, and inflation on the agenda for the G20 finance ministers, the stakes of this gathering are significant for the global economy and the American people,” the Times said. "Excluding specific reporters and entire news organizations is a disservice to the public and an assault on press freedoms that we strongly condemn.”

Bloomberg News, in a story published Sunday evening, said “numerous” journalists from the news agency, including some based in Europe and Asia, had their accreditation requests rejected. It said denying the agency access to the meeting “undermines media freedom and public accountability.”

Polls

NPR  - Almost half of traders, portfolio managers and strategists in a recent Bloomberg poll support wearing shorts to work, but men in Silicon Valley are turning away from the look of the scruffy tech genius in shorts and flip-flops.

NY Times - Three in four Americans said they’d oppose the construction of a data center in their communities, according to a recent poll from Heatmap Pro and Embold Research. Local data centers were opposed by two-thirds of Republicans, whose party is warning that recent support for such projects could destroy its chances in key Senate races. And though political causes rarely transcend partisanship, this one appears to: Nearly 80 percent of independents opposed local data center projects, along with 83 percent of Democrats.

Middle East

The Hill - The Pentagon is seething over a Washington Post report that top military leaders recently warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth against extending large-scale Iran war operations.

People familiar with a classified assessment prepared for Hegseth told the Post that several combatant commanders have advised the Defense chief that prolonging operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening the U.S.’s ability to address threats elsewhere, including on U.S. soil.

The warnings appear in the Aug. 14 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), detailed by the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the four-star commanders overseeing U.S. operations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America, the Post reported Sunday.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell lambasted the report in a post on the social platform X.

The Hill- Iran on Monday struck back at the U.S., carrying out attacks on American military assets at bases in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan after U.S. forces fired at two Iranian rocket launchers over the weekend.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched drones and missiles at the King Hussein and Azraq military bases in Jordan, according to the Iranian state-run news outlet Fars News Agency. The outlet also reported that the IRGC targeted U.S. forces and helicopters at Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE hours later.

The Iranian military described its attack in Jordan as a “necessary and lawful answer” to the U.S. attack on Larak Island, the outlet reported. “Aggression and crimes will not solve the enemy’s desperation in attempting to weaken the Islamic Republic’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, and every attack will be met with even more devastating responses,” the IRGC said in a statement to Fars. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned the U.S. that his country will “not remain silent in the face of assault.”

“We are not seeking war, and this is a clear message that we have repeatedly communicated to the world,” he said, according to Fars.

Donald Trump

The Guardian - Donald Trump said NBC’s Kristen Welker should face “rebuke or punishment” from the FCC after she described the success record of political candidates whom the president had endorsed as “mixed”.

The left is center

Matt Kerbel -   All of these positions are supported by large majorities of the electorate:

• Taxing corporations and billionaires: Polling shows close to two-thirds of Americans want to raise taxes on large corporations. A similar percentage supports raising taxes on billionaires. Even four in ten Republicans think it’s a good idea.
• Medicare for All: when described as a “national health insurance program … that would cover all Americans and replace most private health insurance plans,” Medicare for All earns the support of 65% of voters, including a plurality of Republicans. Majorities continue to support the policy even when they’re told it will involve raising taxes.
• Universal Pre-K and free community college: Seven in ten Americans support universal Pre-K, while 55% support tuition-free community college.
• Expanding access to affordable housing: A bipartisan consensus approaching 90% urged the parties to work together to make housing more affordable. This may be why Congress passed the ROAD to Housing Act (which became law without Donald Trump’s signature).
• Higher federal minimum wage: When three-quarters of Republicans want to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, you have as close to a consensus as you are going to find in politics.
• Paid Family Leave: A recent poll found seven in ten Americans support paid family leave, including 59% of Republicans.
• Renewable Energy: Most Americans support renewable energy and strongly supported the Green New Deal before it became a favorite punching bag for the right

A 15 year old running for Vermont governor

NY Times - Dean Roy is not eligible to vote, not even close. He cannot legally drink alcohol, and on looks alone, is at risk of being booted from an R-rated movie theater. He must drive with an adult in the passenger seat.  He is, however, running for governor in his home state of Vermont — at age 15.

“The goal here,” said Dean, who sits at the edge of Generation Z and the still-inchoate Gen Alpha, “is to make enough of an impact that the leaders have to start paying attention to the youth voice.”

Older Gen Z politicians have been making waves this political season, challenging the gerontocracy and getting footholds in state legislatures and even Congress, but the next wave is not far behind, raised amid political polarization and extremism, congressional gridlock and weakened public trust in institutions.

“Young people see that we cannot afford a home, we can’t start a family, our work treats us like crap, climate change is destroying our home,” said Aiden Otterman, 17, who won the Democratic primary for state representative in his rural northeastern Vermont district this month. “It’s hopeless.”

Canada's reaction

Guardian 

Trump digs up some old laws to grab more power

Alternet - Critics of President Donald Trump often accuse him of blatantly violating federal and state laws in an effort to increase his power. But according to The New Republic's Matt Ford, a major part of Trump's ongoing power grab is using a different tactic: unearthing "moribund" laws and looking for ways to weaponize them.

The "moribund" laws that Trump and his legal team are digging up, Ford reports in The New Republic, are still on the books — and they are finding ways to exploit them.

"Congress has spent the last two centuries passing laws," Ford explains. "These laws often remain on the books, so to speak, long after their purpose has been fulfilled until lawmakers repeal them. Occasionally, the Trump administration finds something buried within this back catalogue that it can wield for its own purposes — and to no good end."

Trump's farm issue

 Alternet- Many Republican insiders, interviewed anonymously in major publications, are acknowledging that Democrats have a very good shot at flipping the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. They are hoping to at least hold the U.S. Senate, where Democrats will need to flip four or more GOP-held seats in order to obtain a majority. But according to Politico's Jonathan Martin, the American Farm Belt could doom Republicans' hopes of controlling the Senate in 2027.

"The Senate map is less complicated than it appears," Martin reports in Politico. "As with every modern presidential campaign, it runs through the Midwest. If Democrats flip Republican-held seats in Ohio and Iowa while retaining Michigan, they will almost certainly net the four seats total needed to take control of the Senate for President Donald Trump's final two years. As the traditional start of the campaign season draws near, though, Republicans are increasingly worried they may be consumed by a worsening prairie fire…. The triple-whammy of tariffs, expensive diesel and fertilizer and now imported beef has created a crisis for agriculture-state Republicans."

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) is acknowledging that President Donald Trump has a problem in the Farm Belt.

Cramer told Politico, "He's in serious trouble in farm country. He being Trump — and Trump is us. I'm not very optimistic."

Adam Hamilton, the Methodist pastor running against GOP Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas, told Politico, "Now, some of those people are still not willing to say, 'Hey, we don't like Trump,' but they do expect their senator is going to speak up for them. What I'm hearing when I go across the state is people saying — and these are Republicans, not Democrats — we can't have six more years of this, or even two more years of this…. How many farms are going to go bankrupt?"

New Republic: Trump’s biggest liability isn't his lies

Alternet - President Donald Trump’s greatest political liability is not simply his dishonesty or stubbornness, but his delusion, writes The New Republic's Michael Tomasky.

In a Monday column, Tomasky describes Trump's inability to recognize reality when it conflicts with his preferred one. Recent examples include Trump's belief that the affordability crisis is a "Democrat hoax." The other is Trump's delusion that he can make gas prices better and bypass the necessity for Iranian oil by using Venezuelan oil. Trump captured the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro just after the first of the year. In his absence, the remainder of his government has been largely cooperative with the U.S.

This all mixes in with Trump ignoring public polling about his failing popularity and the consequences of his policies.

MS NOW's take on Troy Jackson

MS NOW - Democrats in Maine, committed to unseating Republican Sen. Susan Collins, are rallying around Jackson, the former state senator and logger who looks most times like he just emerged from a job site in Maine’s northern woods.

But a month into Jackson’s candidacy, voters are still adjusting to a candidate who offers a strikingly different profile from his predecessor on the ticket, Graham Platner, who for nearly a year charmed Democrats with an inspiring message about progressive change before crashing out of the race in July amid scandal.

Jackson doesn’t speak rousingly. His speech, defined by a northern Maine accent where every vowel sounds heavy, is littered with countless “you knows,” and at one point, a campaign aide called an MS NOW reporter to clarify the point Jackson had made in an interview.

Handed only 100 or so days to win over Mainers, Jackson has had limited time to ensure voters know his story. And his demure demeanor is at odds with his race against the clock.

Mail In Ballot Rule

MS Now - As President Donald Trump’s effort to restrict mail-in voting has bounced between the courts this week, the result has been whiplash among voters and officials. State and local election officials have been watching closely as provisions that govern mail ballots become unlawful and then lawful and then unlawful again in a matter of days. Now, they are trying to figure out how to comply with a law that has become a bit of a moving target.

For about a day, the mail-in ballot restrictions remained in effect after the Supreme Court cleared a key hurdle to Trump’s mail ballot executive order on Monday. Then on Wednesday, a federal judge who had issued a similar injunction was pressured to remove a separate block on the order.

Those moves prompted two new legal challenges Wednesday from a coalition of Democratic states and voting rights groups, respectively. The new lawsuits specifically target the new United States Postal Service rule, issued last Friday, that governs who may receive mail ballots. Late Thursday night, a federal judge again granted their request and again blocked a key provision of Trump’s plan until at least Sept. 10.

With that court ruling, it’s back to business as usual — but even that could change again as soon as the clock continues to tick on state deadlines. North Carolina sends its first wave of absentee ballots Sept. 4. Officials there are in crunch mode, working to meet that deadline as they do every election.