Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered an apology to former President Trump after a video of their phone call Monday was leaked. Trump spoke with Kennedy before he announced Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate during Day 1 of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. In the leaked call, Trump could be heard on speakerphone saying he agrees with some of Kennedy’s stances on vaccines. Trump...

Former President Trump appeared to share Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine skepticism during a phone call between the two candidates that was leaked on the social media platform X. Why it matters: Trump, in the phone call, also said he would "love" for Kennedy to "do something" with his campaign. "It would be so good for you and so big for you," Trump told Kennedy. Kennedy and Trump met on Monday, just two days after the attempted assassination...

Dr. Meryl Nass highlighted an “extremely important paper by Martin Furmanski, MD, that no one knows about.” “Yes, lab-made and lab-held viruses do jump out of the lab and have killed lots […]

from Revolver News: If you could travel back in time and prevent “baby Hitler” from growing up, would you do it? That’s a hot topic for many, and most answer, “Yes, I would.” Not from a desire to kill an infant, but because many people believe Hitler’s eventual evil justifies such drastic action. Imagine if […]

Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Let us know what you think at info@reasonstobecheerful.world. Power up RTBC Contributing Editor Michaela Haas has written many great stories for us about climate change solutions, from recycled glass restoring coastlines to carbon farming to “energy villages.” Naturally, she was thrilled to share some good climate news coming out of her home state: As the New Yorker story’s headline put it, “California Is Showing How a Big State Can Power Itself Without Fossil Fuels.” “Beginning in early March, for some portion of almost every day, a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower has been producing more than a hundred per cent of the state’s demand for electricity,” writes Bill McKibben. “California has the fifth-largest economy in the world and, in the course of a few months, the state has proved that it’s possible to run a thriving modern economy on clean energy.” Over the last few months, on some afternoons, solar panels more than covered California’s energy needs. Credit: Tom Brewster Photography / Bureau of Land Management Deep roots The forests of Vancouver Island’s Clayoquot Sound, full of trees that have been around for about a millennium, have a storied history. And now, they have a promising future: Thanks to the creation of 10 new conservancies, more than half of these old-growth forests are now protected, according to a story Editorial Director Rebecca Worby shared from The Narwhal. Becca says:   I have to admit I was not familiar with the 1980s-90s “war in the woods” that kicked off this fight. But it’s a conservation success story long in the making, requiring the collaboration of five First Nations — and a possible “model for other nations and communities looking to improve forestry practices as available old growth dwindles.” What else we’re reading And the Winner Is … the Slowest! — shared by Contributing Editor Michaela Haas from the New York Times More states enact salary transparency laws to fight gender, racial pay gaps — shared by Rebecca Worby from Stateline ‘It needs to stay in the loop’: German reuse schemes turn shopping upside down — shared by Michaela Haas from The Guardian In other news… We’re delighted that RTBC contributor MaryLou Costa has now got her whole household scouting out reading material for us — this week, she sent along a BBC story her husband recommended about how tourists in Copenhagen can take part in activities like litter picking to make their visit more environmentally friendly, and receive discounts and rewards.  “We are avid travelers and would love to take part in something like this to help offset the impact of our trip, as well as engage our kids in a meaningful activity,” MaryLou says. In case you missed MaryLou’s latest for RTBC, check out her story about how an iconic jam maker got smart about water use. The post What We’re Reading: California’s Clean Energy, Thousand-Year-Old Trees and More appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.

And guess who gets to pay for it? Hard-working British taxpayers.

69 years ago today, Disneyland was dedicated and opened in Anaheim, California. It is the most visited theme park in world history with 757 million visits since it opened as of December 2021. In 2022, the park had approximately 16.9 million visits, making it the second most visited amusement park in the world that year, […] The post Good News in History, July 17 appeared first on Good News Network.

Usually when exciting new finds are made in Pompeii, they’re the result of planned excavations. This time, construction of a ventilation shaft on the building of San Paolino, built in the 1840s and now the headquarters of the library of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, accidentally exposed the tomb of an important military official who served under the emperor Augustus (r. 27 B.C. – 14 A.D.) during his last wars of conquest in Spain. The construction first exposed two ends of a semicircular tomb of a type known as a “schola” tomb. Schola tombs have been found before in Pompeii. They consist of a semicircular bench made of volcanic tufa stone with lion paw terminals. The subsequent excavation revealed a large inscription on the curved back of the bench, expertly carved in very regular letters with remains of the original red paint inside them. At the time of the eruption in 79 A.D., the tomb was decades old and so neglected that the monument was buried up to the bench. Even disregarded and forgotten, however, the inscription was still evident and legible when Vesuvius covered the city in death. The inscription reads in large letters: N(umerius) AGRESTINO N(umerii) F(ilius)EQUITIO PULCHRO TRIB(une)MIL(itum) PRAEF(ectus) AUTRYGON(um)PRAEF(ectus) FABR(um) II D(uum) V(iro)I(ure) D(icundo) ITER(um) LOCUS It continues in smaller letters carved below the larger ones in the center of the back of the bench: SEPULTURAE DATUS D(ecreto)D(ecurionum) This translates to: “To Numerius Agrestinus, son of Numerius, Equitius Pulcher, military tribune, prefect of the Autrygoni, prefect of the military engineers, Duumvir for the jurisdiction (i.e. holder of the highest magistracy in the city of Pompeii) twice, the place of burial (was) given by decree of the council of the city.” Numerius Agrestinus appears in another inscription found in the necropolis of Porta Nocera, but it was created when he was still alive apparently by order of his wife, Veia Barchilla, a name of Spanish origin. Her husband’s funerary inscription, specifically the “praefectus Autrygonum” title, points to him having held important military positions during the Cantabrian Wars (29-19 B.C.), Augustus’ long and bloody conquest of the last independent Celtic peoples in Hispania, modern-day northwestern Spain. (The Autrygoni were tribespeople who inhabited northern Spain.) After his stellar military career, he retired to Pompeii where he repeatedly held the highest office in the city, duumvir jure. “Here we see the emergence of the network of power that connected the elites of the empire, whose members were asked to commit themselves in conflict areas, with the promise of economic rewards but above all of social prestige in the community of residence,” explains the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Gabriel Zuchtriegel . “Having held the highest office in Pompeii, the duumvirate, twice, and having been honored with a funerary monument on public land, are expressions of recognition and loyalty to someone who had literally fought on the front lines for the cause of the empire. The unexpected discovery of this monument is yet another example of how in Pompeii protection, research and enhancement are closely intertwined.” You can really see the inscription, including the traces of surviving red paint, in this video which follows it in the round after it is exposed. It also conveys a particular challenge of Vesuvian archaeology: having to remove feet upon feet of lapilli, small pumice rocks that showered Pompeii in the first stages of the eruption.

WASHINGTON —  A high-ranking U.S. official stressed Tuesday that the U.S.-South Korea alliance is a “nuclear alliance,” reinforcing the South Korean government’s description of the two allies,…