Political conservatism was associated with heightened susceptibility to believing fake news about COVID-19 in the early stages of the outbreak in the United States, according to new research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science. The study provides preliminary evidence that support for President Donald Trump plays a role in viewing COVID-19 as less of a personal threat and less severe in general.

The June 6 edition of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel described Donald Trump as a “fire devil” and a president who “sets fire to his country.” The English edition of Der Spiegel continues with this damningly accurate description of America in the Age of Trump: Should we be worried about the United States?

Journalist Rami Khouri says the Beirut explosion that killed at least 135 and injured thousands is the latest "body blow" to the Lebanese after decades of crisis, but it could prompt political change. "Whether it's no garbage collection, no electricity, salty water, no jobs, poor education, closed banks, inflation, no money, poverty rising — all of these have been happening in succession and simultaneously in the last year," said Khouri, a professor of journalism and director of global engagement at the American University of Beirut.

Seventy-five years after the dropping of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima, one nuclear non-proliferation after the other is lapsing. A new arms race is already taking shape between Russia, the United States and China.

As if he weren’t unlikeable enough already, Adolf Hitler was a preachy vegetarian. He subjected his guests to rambling lectures on the health benefits of a meatless lifestyle, and he berated his wife for using lipstick containing animal products. He forced his companions to hear his graphic descriptions of the violence in slaughterhouses, and then triumphantly accused them of moral cowardice for being unable to listen. Hitler, a man without an ounce of virtue, took great pleasure in virtue-signaling.

At the end of last week, the $600 federal unemployment insurance supplement expired after a congressional deadlock on passing a new stimulus bill, leaving millions of laid-off workers without income that was helping them support themselves and their families.

Famous actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio has told his 45 million Instagram followers that animals are worth more alive, as he called for an end to the wildlife trade. DiCaprio recently re-shared an Instagram post by wildlife protection organization WildAid, announcing the news of Vietnam’s wildlife trade ban.

The 70-year-old white supremacist had over 53,000 followers on Twitter as of Thursday.

A massive study finds that regional differences in how slaves were treated throughout the Americas are reflected in the DNA of present-day Americans of African descent.

Many wealthy Americans insist they aren’t rich, and that has profound implications in electoral politics as well as economic policy. On July 11, MarketWatch published a letter, presumably real, from a reader complaining that she and her husband didn’t qualify for a stimulus payment because they make too much money. Said the upset letter writer:

Bitcoin can benefit the black community and help create leverage against the current financial system, author Isaiah Jackson told the Decrypt Daily podcast.

Idris Elba has an issue with the handful of films and television programs being removed from streaming platforms and the airwaves over racist content such as blackface. Over the last couple months, episodes of “30 Rock,” “The Golden Girls,” “The Office,” “Scrubs,” and more have been pulled for featuring blackface. Elba says in a new interview with Radio Times that these controversial episodes should not have been erased but updated with a warning or rating to ensure viewers know what racist content the programs contain.

America today faces a terrifying danger: political correctness. It is an existential threat not just to the United States, but all of human civilization. By this, obviously, I mean right-wing political correctness. Maybe you’re surprised to hear this. In the U.S. media, there’s no shortage of lamentations about political correctness and how it chills debate — but they’re almost always about the threat of left-wing PC.

IN times of great peril, man turns to his deity or the unknown for his survival. This is how religion evolved over the millennia: The primordial longing to be extricated from whatever difficulties he is faced with. This is, perhaps, also the evolution of prayer, starting as incantations to implore the gods for a “deus ex machina.” These are the miracles, inexplicable events attributable to those greater than him.

We cannot much longer ignore the discomforting truth that the economies we’ve inherited from the twentieth century are poorly designed for the production of human beings. As digital technologies weave economic logic deeper into the temporal fabric of everyday life, we’re debasing economic society’s most complex, valuable, and neglected production: human consciousness.

The sun rose again this morning on a state emerging from a “stay-at-home” spring caused by a pandemic that has claimed over 3,500 of our family members, neighbors and friends. Since COVID-19 hit Connecticut, we have seen and heard about inspiring acts of humanity, we have practiced this newly found — and lifesaving— practice of social distancing, we have self-isolated and now we all await the return to work call so we can rebuild our lives and fire up our state’s economy.

Since the pandemic began, pollution levels have dropped, animals are returning to areas they had previously abandoned and more people have taken to travelling on foot and by bicycle. Although short-lived, we have already seen some of the effects changing our behaviour can have on our own lives and on the natural world.

Our nation is in the midst of the greatest crisis in generations, with the Covid-19 pandemic impacting Americans’ physical and emotional well-being, while plummeting the nation’s economy into the worst economic downturn in our lifetimes. As the country begins what is likely to be a slow climb out of economic morass, federal, state, and local governments will be looking for new sources of revenue to replenish dwindling budgets and provide jobs to millions of Americans who find themselves out of work.

In 2016, I was coming back to my apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, after a long afternoon of playing basketball with old friends. I was about to head upstairs, but I saw a missed call that I figured I’d return outside rather than annoy my roommates through the thin walls. A few minutes later, I looked up and saw that two NYPD officers had cornered me. They wanted to see my ID, which I didn’t have.

An important lesson of the #MeToo movement has been that perpetrators of sexual assault include people who have been previously dismissed as potential predators — that sexual assaults can be and are committed by respected members of elite communities, including beloved comedians, Hollywood power players and prominent, well-paid journalists. No one, by virtue of their social or economic status, should be written off as incapable of assault.