Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

Happy Pride Month! 🌈

It's a time to honour the struggles for LGBTQ+ equality and come together in solidarity.

Although progress has been made, LGBTQ+ people still face oppression, discrimination, and even death in some countries.

That is why we're committed to protecting LGBTQ+ rights. With our LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025, we're creating an EU where acceptance and equality for all is the norm.

Celebrate love, reject hate - today and every day!

#EU4LGBTIQ #PrideMonth #UnionOfEquality

The Government of New Zealand has just published a national space policy, which calls for "assessing the impact of space activities on space environments the New Zealand government operates in including, but not limited to; the Earth’s atmosphere, the night sky, orbit around Earth, and cislunar environment".

https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/space/national-space-policy/

This Cop Got Out of 44 Tickets by Saying Over and Over That His Girlfriend Stole His Car
==

#Chicago police officer Jeffrey Kriv used the same alibi to contest dozens of traffic tickets over the years. A deeper look at his career sheds light on Chicago’s troubled history of police #accountability.

(Co-published with the Chicago Tribune)

#Police #Courts

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-chicago-cop-got-out-of-44-traffic-tickets?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

Good for them:

"Thousands of early-career researchers at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) have kickstarted the process to form a union. They are calling on the NIH — the world’s largest biomedical funder — to raise pay and improve benefits, as well as to bolster its policies and procedures against harassment and excessive workloads."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01845-w

Evolution, environmental sustainability and the periodic table of the elements have been cut from science textbooks in India. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/india-cuts-periodic-table-and-evolution-from-school-textbooks/

‘It healed me’: the Indigenous forager reconnecting #NativeAmericans with their roots https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/03/indigenous-foraging-native-americans-mental-health?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other #indigenous #foraging

None of this is a surprise to anyone who followed Syngenta's years-long efforts to smear Prof. Tyrone Hayes and his research on the impacts of atrazine on reproductive health.

Revealed: The secret push by Syngenta to bury a weedkiller’s link to Parkinson’s disease | US news | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/02/paraquat-parkinsons-disease-research-syngenta-weedkiller

If you were wondering why Elon Musk's #trans daughter Vivian doesn't want to be related to him "in any way, shape, or form," his promotion of a vicious anti-trans propaganda film made by numbskulls on the first day of #Pride month probably doesn't help. #LGBTQ+ https://newrepublic.com/post/173184/elon-musk-personally-elevates-transphobic-video-originally-flagged-hate-speech

***** Google's worst decision *****

The decision for #YouTube to allow 2020 election disinformation denial videos, a decision already being celebrated among the supporters of the Jan 6 insurrection, is in my opinion the single worst and likely most negatively consequential decision in the history of #Google.

Just a reminder that Clarence Thomas let a GOP megadonor take him on lavish trips, buy his mom's house and let her live there rent free, pay for his grandnephew to attend a private boarding school — all in secret until now.

How is he still on the Supreme Court?

5/31/1921 was one of this country's most horrifying episodes of racist mob violence. Hundreds of Black residents were killed in the #TulsaRaceMassacre. Survivors lost their livelihoods as a white mob set fire to 35 blocks of the #Greenwood District (aka #BlackWallStreet). 1,256 homes were destroyed. In recent years, historians & descendants of survivors have worked hard to revive memories of this all but forgotten chapter.

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/30/1178773425/tulsa-race-massacre-ramifications-of-what-happened-in-1921-can-still-be-seen-tod

#history #race #racism #RacisminAmerica #Tulsa

In a huge victory for civil liberties, a district court judge in New York ruled that a warrant is required for a cell phone search at the border. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/federal-judge-makes-history-holding-border-searches-cell-phones-require-warrant

Law enforcement officials in California want to stop a bill that would end the use of keyword warrants and geofence warrants. Help us pass it to protect privacy for those seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care:
https://eff.salsalabs.org/digitaldragnet/index.html

Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day, has roots in a tradition established by Black-Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War. On May 1, 1865, the formerly enslaved, with profound gratitude for Union soldiers who fought and died for their emancipation, began commemorating that sacrifice by decorating Union graves. This remembrance and gratitude eventually gained support from communities across America.

1/4

@blackmastodon@a.gup.pe
@BlackMastodon@chirp.social
#BlackMastodon #Histodons #History #MemorialDay

Only in America

http://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/may/29

I’m grateful that we have a president who honors and pays tribute to our fallen heroes, and doesn’t consider them “losers” and “suckers.”

Within my own lifetime, the last 50 years, nearly 80% of the CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels, and close to 60 percent of all GHG emissions have been released.

There's been a near 70% decline in populations of existing wildlife species; and across the 8 million animal and plant species on earth, the human-induced extinction rate is now estimated at tens to hundreds of times greater than natural rates.

#BiodiversityDay reminds us that the profound crises we confront are just different sides of the same coin, and that our future is truly in our hands. The planet doesn't need us: we are the ones who rely on it for all the air we breathe, the water we drink, the resources we need. That's why our choices matter more today than ever: the path to a better future lies through these crises.

Read my essay here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/one-planet-two-crises-tackling-climate-change-and-biodiversity-in-the-fight-for-our-future/

Yesterday in 1887, a group of horse thieves killed over 30 Chinese gold miners in Hells Canyon in far eastern #Oregon.

#history

https://opb.org/article/2023/05/27/oregon-experience-massacre-of-chinese-miners-at-hells-canyon-1887/