Freaky Dust Storm Turns Athens Orange

A dramatic orange haze has descended over Athens as clouds of dust have blown in from the Sahara desert. It is one of the worst such episodes to hit Greece since 2018, according to officials.

Greece had already been struck by similar clouds in late March and early April, which also covered areas of Switzerland and southern France. The skies are predicted to clear on Wednesday, says Greece's weather service.

Air quality has deteriorated in many areas of the country and on Wednesday morning the Acropolis in Athens was no longer visible because of the dust. The cloud has reached as far north as Thessaloniki.  Greeks with respiratory conditions have been urged to limit the time they spend outdoors, wear protective masks and avoid taking physical exercise until the dust clouds clear.

The Sahara releases 60 to 200 million tons of mineral dust per year. Most of the dust quickly descends to Earth, but some of the small particles can travel huge distances, sometimes reaching Europe.  The atmosphere especially in southern Greece has become stifling because of the combination of dust and high temperatures.

Dust plumes from the Sahara are not uncommon across Europe and can vary in intensity, however, they tend to occur most often during the spring and autumn. This current event across the Eastern Mediterranean was caused by an area of low pressure over Libya that brought strong southerly winds, drawing in high concentrations of dust and sand from North Africa into Greece. The southerly winds also brought hot desert air with them. Temperatures rose to well above the average for late April across the Greek mainland and islands, with 36.6C recorded in the Chania region of Crete. 

 

Brutal Takedown of Marjorie

“The Daily Show” guest host Dulcé Sloan tore into Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene amid the far-right lawmaker’s attempt to oust Mike Johnson as House speaker over his push for aid to Ukraine.  Greene has “the strongest Karen energy I have ever seen,” Sloan cracked after airing a montage of her attacks on Johnson.

“Damn,” said Sloan. “Last time I saw a white lady that pissed about a bill, she was getting kicked out of a Chili’s. I don’t know if she’s going to get Mike Johnson fired, but she’s definitely getting store credit for something.”

Sloan then debuted a new nickname for conspiracy theory-peddling Greene. “The crazy thing is if Capitol Hill Karen does get the speaker fired, that’ll be the second time in six months,” she noted, before telling Republicans the harsh truth that: “If you’re constantly firing speakers, maybe the problem is with you.”

India's Modi Accused of Hate Speech Against Minorities

India's opposition has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Islamophobic remarks after he claimed his opponents would distribute people's wealth to "infiltrators" if they won power.  Modi told a rally the opposition Congress wanted to distribute wealth to "those who have many children". His remarks were widely seen as referring to India's Muslim minority.

Modi made the comments during an election rally in Rajasthan state, when he was talking about the Congress party's manifesto.  He alleged that the manifesto said it would "take stock" of the gold women traditionally save in India and redistribute it. "And their earlier [Congress] government had said that Muslims have the first right over the nation's wealth," Modi alleged. "This means that they [the Congress] will collect people's wealth and distribute it to whom?" he asked the audience. "To those who have more children. To the infiltrators. Should your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators?"

Modi was referring to a 2006 speech by Manmohan Singh, who was then prime minister when Congress were in office, where he spoke about empowering minorities so they could share in the fruits of development.  The Muslim community has often been stereotyped as having many children. But experts say that this claim is distorted and opens the community up to prejudicial treatment.

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has often been accused of singling out India's minority communities, especially Muslims.  Rights groups say that they face discrimination and attacks, and have been forced to live as "second-class" citizens under Modi's rule.

Opposition leaders across parties have criticized the prime minister's comments. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge defended his party's manifesto, saying that it was "for every Indian" and it talks about equality and justice for all. He called Modi's remarks a panic-filled "hate speech" and a ploy to divert people's attention from the opposition having performed better than his BJP in the first phase of polling.  "In the history of India, no prime minister has lowered the dignity of his post as much as Modiji has," he said. Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP, Saket Gokhale, called Modi's remarks "hateful and divisive" against the Muslim community and urged people to lodge complaints about the speech with with India's electoral authorities.

The First American Victims of Zombie Deer Disease

Two Wyoming hunters have become the first Americans to die from "zombie deer disease" after eating infected venison.  

Experts have been warning for years that the nearly 100 percent fatal chronic wasting disease (CWD) - which leaves deer confused, drooling, and unafraid of humans - could jump from animals to people.  But a new study says that it has already happened - in two hunters who died in 2022 after eating contaminated venison.  One of the victims, a 72-year-old man, suffered 'rapid-onset confusion and aggression,' as well as seizures. He died within a month.

He was diagnosed after his death with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a brain-wasting condition similar to chronic wasting disease (CWD).  The hunter's friend also died from the disease but there were limited details about his condition in the research published last week in the journal Neurology.

 CWD is nicknamed "zombie deer disease'"because it causes parts of the brain to slowly degenerate to a spongy consistency and animals will drool and stare blankly before they die.  There are no treatments or vaccines, and the disease is 100 percent fatal.

The exact route of transmission is not fully understood, but it is thought that it is spread animal to animal by eating forage or water contaminated by infected feces or exposure to carcasses.  Direct contact, including saliva, blood, urine and even antler velvet during annual shedding may also contribute to the transmission of the pathogen. Any deer that dies on a farm must be tested for chronic wasting disease.  Because the disease is so contagious, if one animal test positive, the entire herd is considered infected.

Map of CWD-infected wild herds, based on March 2024 data from state wildlife agencies & the USGS

 The condition is thought to only infect animals like deer, elk, reindeer, caribou and moose.  Chronic wasting disease was initially discovered in 1967 in captive deer in Colorado.  It has now been found in animals in at least 32 states, four Canadian provinces and four other foreign countries, according to the CDC.   The three states with the largest distribution of CWD-infected deer are Kansas (49 counties), Nebraska (43 counties), and Wisconsin (43 counties).   The most recent case in deer was in Kentucky last fall, according to the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife. 

Social Media Goes Crazy Over Tay Tay's New Album

Slash and Chris Stapleton - Oh Well

If Being in Debt in China Isn't Bad Enough, the Government Kicks You While You're Down

Qin Huangsheng once imagined a better life in the city when she left her home village to become a factory worker at age 16.  Now, in her early 40s, she has $40,000 in personal debt and a base salary of $400 a month. Debt collectors are hounding her. She is blocked from buying tickets on China's high-speed rail, just one of the penalties the government is increasingly imposing on people who don't pay their bills.

People across China are being weighed down by their debts and a system that penalizes them for not paying the money back. Beijing is cracking down on delinquent debtors by seizing their salaries or restricting them from getting government jobs, as well as curbing their access to high-speed trains and air travel. Many are forbidden from buying expensive insurance policies and told they aren't allowed to go on vacation or stay in nice hotels. Authorities can detain them if they don't comply.

The number of people on a publicly available government delinquency blacklist has jumped by nearly 50% since late 2019 to 8.3 million today. Courts can put people on the blacklist when they don't fulfill judgments against them to pay money back or are deemed to be not cooperating with legal proceedings.

 

A black market has emerged to serve people on the blacklist. In one case, Shanghai authorities busted a ring of scalpers who were booking high-speed rail tickets on behalf of debtors who were barred from doing so themselves. In early 2021, authorities tracked down a debtor who had been using the service and took him into custody, according to a local court.