Vermont is currently experiencing its worst flooding since Tropical Storm Irene hit the state in 2011. Rural communities are particularly at risk of the effects of the floods.

In the first study to delve beyond federal- and state-level statistics to look into county-level Covid-19 deaths in more granularity, researchers find that excess mortality was concentrated in nonmetropolitan areas of the country.

Elliot Abrams is set to be nominated for the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. David DeCamp, news editor for antiwar.com says, “Abrams is a neoconservative hawk who led the Trump administration’s failed Venezuela regime change effort… Abrams is notorious for his role in covering up atrocities committed by U.S.-backed forces in Latin America during the Reagan administration… Abrams also served in the George W. Bush administration as the deputy national security advisor from 2005 – 2009.”

Chernoh Alphah Bah, founder of Africanist Press, is living in exile in the US for calling out political corruption in Sierra Leone. He says, “The nexus between financial corruption and political corruption is always anchored in rigged elections. Politicians who steal public funds can’t organize credible elections.”

Regarding the recent murder of a 17-year-old kid of Algerian descent by French police, Jean Bricmont says, “Luckily, there are videos of the incident that prove that the policeman did not act in legitimate self-defense… starting in the 1970’s there was mass immigration that was of course favored by the employers, but also, in the name of diversity and multiculturalism… some of the descendants of these immigrants feel deeply alienated from French society, which leads to a dialectic of violence between them and the police as well as a large part of French society.”

American patients are currently being affected by shortages of various medicines, and earlier this month, U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation to identify the country’s pharmaceutical supply chain weaknesses. But pharmacists have critiques.

Regarding the Supreme Court’s recent decision against affirmative action in university/college admission policies, Kevin Kumashiro says, “Today’s SCOTUS decision is not surprising, but nonetheless a travesty… this decision perpetuates the myth of colorblindness that race no longer matters and that democracy is somehow advanced when we refuse to attend to long-standing and pervasive issues of racial injustices.”

June sea surface temperatures near Ireland and the U.K. are the highest seen in nearly two centuries.

A new meta-analysis of the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy found that CBT did not outperform other psychotherapies in the treatment of depression. 

In a new primer, researchers describe ‘wellness capitalism”––a model of public health involving the state, employers, and a wellness industry in which worker behaviors are monitored to improve society’s health.