Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

This Ancient Practice Could Help Revitalize America’s Corn Belt – Mother Jones

Agroforestry2.0_final.jpg?w=1200&h=630&cBringing trees to the region now known as the Corn Belt, known for its industrial-scale agriculture and largely devoid of perennial crops, might seem like the height of folly. On closer inspection, however, agroforestry systems like Haslett-Marroquin’s might be a crucial strategy for both preserving and revitalizing one of the globe’s most important farming regions. And while the corn-soybean duopoly that holds sway in the US heartland produces mainly feed for livestock and ethanol, agroforestry can deliver a broader variety of nutrient-dense foods, like nuts and fruit, even as it diversifies farmer income away from the volatile global livestock-feed market. In recognition of this potential, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), in late 2022, launched a $60 million grant program to help farmers adopt such practices.

Source: This Ancient Practice Could Help Revitalize America’s Corn Belt – Mother Jones

Biden says ‘working’ to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border — Naharnet

Biden added that it was crucial to keep pushing for a Gaza ceasefire to underpin regional peace, despite a media report that his administration had given up hope of securing a truce before he leaves office in January.

Speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting in the White House, Biden told reporters he wanted to “make sure that the people in northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon are able to go back to their homes, to go back safely.”

“And the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, our whole team are working with the intelligence community to try to get that done. We’re going to keep at it until we get it done, but we’ve got a way to go,” Biden said.

Source: Biden says ‘working’ to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border — Naharnet

Mark Robinson: Republicans absorb political shockwave in must-win North Carolina

The furniture maker-turned-politician, who is running to be the state’s first black governor, had called himself a “black Nazi” on a porn website more than a decade ago, according to a report by CNN.

Robinson, who identifies as an evangelical Christian, branded the report “tabloid lies”. The BBC has not independently verified CNN’s claims.

But when the news finally did break, it barely caused a stir, at least not among this polite gathering of women in Johnston County.

“If the accusations are accurate, it’s something for him and his wife to deal with. It’s not my business. It’s a marital issue,” said Adele Walker, 52.

Soon afterwards, the group discussed their planned $200 donation to his campaign, in which he is already trailing the Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general.

“What we decided is that we’re going to donate even more money to Mr Robinson,” she said.

(Me: Self-delusion is epidemic in GOP) Source: Mark Robinson: Republicans absorb political shockwave in must-win North Carolina

New genetic analysis points to Wuhan market as COVID origin – Los Angeles Times

A new analysis of genetic material gathered from a live-animal market in Wuhan in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic strengthens the case that the outbreak originated there when the coronavirus jumped from infected animals to humans, scientists said.

The findings, reported the journal Cell, do not identify any specific infected animal that brought the SARS-CoV-2 virus to a Chinese city inhabited by more than 11 million people. Nor do they definitively prove that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was Ground Zero for a pandemic that has resulted in more than 7 million deaths.

But the genetic evidence shows the market met the conditions necessary to spark an outbreak and makes it increasingly difficult to explain how the coronavirus could have emerged from a laboratory, a farm or even from another of the city’s four live-animal markets, the study authors said.

Source: New genetic analysis points to Wuhan market as COVID origin – Los Angeles Times