 Only 13% of Americans believe that the country is "on the right track," according to the latest New York Times / Siena College Poll of American voters. The only time that more Americans expressed such pessimism about the country's general direction was during the financial crash of 2008. More: - The pessimism revealed by the poll has had a negative impact on President Biden's approval rating.
- Biden's job-approval rating has dropped to 33% among all voters.
- Job-approval figures were very unevenly distributed between voting blocs, with Biden's approval rating among democrats standing at 70%.
- The poll also found that only 26% of Democratic voters want Biden to run for another term.
- 65% of Democratic voters said they would rather have someone other than Biden as the figurehead of the Democrat party.
- Many Democrats say they are concerned about Biden's age. At 79, Biden is already the oldest president in the country's history.
- Biden's term coincided with several global events that are likely to have impacted the results of the survey. These include:
- The global COVID-19 pandemic, which began during Trump's presidency.
- Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its subsequent impact on global energy prices.
- Despite the Biden administration's apparent struggle with negative public perception, 44% of voters would support Biden if he were to run against Donald Trump, who would have the support of 41% of voters.
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 Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Uber concealed information that was relevant to regulatory investigations into its business practices and its impact on taxi industries around the world, the Washington Post reports. The global transportation firm used methods including a "kill switch," which cut access to Uber's servers on computers in company branches that were under investigation. More: - Information concerning Uber's response to investigations was taken from company data acquired by The Guardian and circulated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
- The collected data has been called the "Uber Files."
- It contains information concerning documents circulated by Uber between 2013 and 2017.
- Uber's rapid growth after 2015 resulted in numerous regulatory investigations by countries around the world.
- A 2018 study on the impact that Uber's rise had on the taxi industry argued that regulators must "pay close attention to Uber's tax policy, and not only with Uber but also with every other multinational corporation."
- The company responded to regulatory action by circulating a "Dawn Raid Manual" which instructed employees on how they were to react to investigations.
- Employees were instructed to "move the regulators into a meeting room that does not contain files."
- They were also told to "never leave the regulators alone."
- Uber senior vice president Jill Hazelbaker said that the files uncovered reveal "past behavior that is clearly not in line with our present values."
- Through a spokesperson, former CEO of Uber Travis Kalanick responded to written requests for comments.
- He said that Uber was adhering to "common business practice" among global corporations, including the use of "tools that protect intellectual property and the privacy of their customers."
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 Image by Pexels from Pixabay Chinese authorities have tried to use a COVID-19 tracking app to prevent citizens from protesting recent restrictions placed on their ability to withdraw funds from local banks. The strategy to prevent the protestors from gathering failed, but was followed by efforts to disperse the crowd using intimidation and violence. More: - Over 1,000 Chinese citizens organized a demonstration in the city of Zhengzhou after six rural banks enacted measures that prevented customers from withdrawing their funds.
- The banks halted withdrawals after the head of their parent company was convicted of financial crimes.
- The banks served customers in the provinces of Henan and Anhui.
- After gaining information that the customers were soon going to protest, Chinese authorities took control of the COVID-19 tracking apps.
- The mobile apps then advised the bank's customers against traveling.
- The measure was intended to dissuade people from leaving their homes to join protests.
- Because of China's zero Covid policy, the status of the protestors' COVID-19 tracking apps gave authorities a pretense to question them individually.
- Five officials have been punished, possibly because of the misuse of the tracking app.
- After protestors arrived in the city of Zhengzhou and organized outside of the People's Bank of China, police and agents in civilian clothes arrived to violently disperse them.
- The crowd was informed by megaphone that their protest action was illegal.
- After the crowd refused to back down, several protestors were manhandled and attacked by security officials in plain clothes.
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 GOOD NEWS: Eight members of a species of parrot that had gone extinct in the wild are surviving after a breeding program successfully reintroduced them to their natural habitat. The program was inspired by the animated film "Rio." More: - The South American Spix macaw disappeared from the wild 20 years ago as a result of human activity.
- Since then, the last remaining members of the species have lived in zoos and private collections.
- The 2011 box-office hit "Rio" raised awareness of the parrot species, which inspired the establishment of a breeding program and new wildlife refuge.
- The film told the story of a Spix macaw returning to its Brazilian habitat after being bred in confinement.
- The new refuge for the rewilding program was established by Brazil's former President Michel Temer in 2018.
- The breeding program, which was organized by several institutions around the world, was assisted by new developments in artificial insemination.
- On June 11, eight adult Spix Macaws were released into the wild as part of the breeding program, which has so far bred hundreds of birds.
- The birds were microchipped to track their progress and seem to be doing fine.
- Twelve more Spix macaws are scheduled to be released in December.
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The tension between the harm caused by unpackaged food and the environmental dangers caused by plastic packaging may soon be resolved by a new biodegradable coating. The new technology was described as a "scalable, sustainable and cost-effective approach" by a study published in Nature Food in late June. More: - Food packaging is a necessary component of the global food supply chain because it reduces food spoilage.
- Even with modern packaging technologies, approximately one-third of the food produced by farmers goes to waste before reaching consumers.
- Preventing that food waste would generate additional supplies for food-insecure populations.
- Current agricultural practices cannot eradicate the spread of food-borne illnesses and may even contribute to it in certain cases.
- Worldwide, 420,000 people are estimated to die every year as a result of food-borne illness.
- Better practices for producing, processing, and distributing food are necessary to prevent future disease outbreaks.
- Packaging lowers the risk of food contamination at all stages of the food supply chain, but plastic is the substance most commonly used for this purpose.
- The presence of plastic throughout the environment and in human bodies has drastically increased since plastic production gathered pace in the second half of the 20th century.
- Because most plastics take between 20 and 500 years to decompose, the circulation and accumulation of plastic pose a steadily increasing risk to the environment and to human health.
- Food packaging is the largest contributor to plastic pollution worldwide.
- The new study describes a way of using a "focused rotary jet spinning," to apply a biodegradable, plastic-free, and contamination-resistant coating to food products.
- The substance could be applied at the point of harvesting, significantly increasing shelf life.
- The packaging could then be rinsed off by the consumer.
- After being washed off, the substance naturally decays in around three days.
- The proposed technology would join a number of biodegradable alternatives to plastic packaging, many of which are already in use.
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 Image by David Mark from Pixabay Russia has stopped supplying gas to Germany through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a decision that remains temporary for the time being. Nonetheless, German authorities are concerned that the gas supply will never be reactivated. More: - Russia initially reduced its gas supply to Germany by 40% in June.
- Moscow blamed the reduction on Germany's Siemens Energy delaying its return of a repaired gas turbine to Russia's Gazprom.
- Since Russian troops first attacked Ukraine in late February, Germany has decreased its reliance on Russian-supplied gas from 55% to 35%.
- Russia previously stopped supplying gas to Poland, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and Finland.
- Russia claimed that this decision was made in response to the countries failing to pay for their gas in Roubles.
- Poland claimed that it chose to cancel its gas agreement with Russia and not vice versa.
- Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, has warned that Europe must prepare for the possibility that Russia will cut its supply of gas to the entire continent.
- Germany is a major hub for machine and chemical manufacturing, industries that rely heavily on Russian gas.
- If Russia were to completely cut gas exports it could cause a major recession in Germany, the largest economy in the EU, which could undermine growth in the economic bloc.
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- A Florida man has attempted to escape police while riding a lawn mower. Police used a taser on the suspect, who was subsequently taken into custody. The man will now face charges that include vehicle theft and resisting arrest.
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- Ukraine is planning to build a "million-strong army" to push back against Russia and reclaim lost territory, the country's defense minister has announced. The troops would be equipped with NATO weaponry.
- London's Heathrow airport has requested airlines to cancel 61 flights. The request was made to counteract a shortage of staff. The airport claims that it is struggling to accommodate the rapid rise in summer travelers.
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 |  | Gregory Bridgman is a writer and researcher with an academic background in politics and the philosophy of science and technology. He holds a BA from the University of Cape Town, an MS from University College London, and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge. He is interested in climate issues, technological changes, and the implications of the fourth industrial revolution. Please feel free to contact me at gregory@inside.com! | | | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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