‘I’ve never seen anything like these photos before. In October 2024, Rachel Moore had a close encounter with a humpback whale in French Polynesia and took these photos of the whale’s eye.…’ (Jason Kottke via Kottke)

‘The Justice Department said Friday that it was moving to expand the execution methods used to carry out federal death sentences beyond lethal injections, including by making firing squads and electric chairs available in some cases.

The announcement was the latest in a series of moves President Donald Trump’s administration has taken demonstrating support for the death penalty. Trump has long been an avid supporter of capital punishment, and during his first term, the Justice Department carried out its first federal executions in nearly two decades.

Since Trump’s return to the White House last year, his administration has lifted a moratorium on federal executions and pushed for more death sentences. Trump and other officials have also repeatedly castigated President Joe Biden for commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shortly before he left office.

In its announcement Friday, the Justice Department said that in addition to seeking other ways of carrying out death sentences, it was directing federal officials to restore the execution protocol adopted during Trump’s first term, which uses the drug pentobarbital for lethal injections. This protocol — which some death row inmates had challenged in court, saying it would cause them severe suffering — was used to carry out 13 executions during the last year of Trump’s first term…’ (Mark Berman via Washington Post)

‘The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have spent the last year trying to defang the Endangered Species Act, the country’s bedrock conservation law. But one of the most aggressive and far-reaching attempts just faced a major setback—and concerns from within the party were at least part of the reason.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives abruptly canceled a vote that had been scheduled for Wednesday—Earth Day—on legislation that aims to codify into law many of President Donald Trump’s moves to weaken endangered species protections. Some lawmakers, mostly in tourism-dependent areas along the Gulf of Mexico, expressed concerns about the bill.

“Don’t tread on my turtles. Protected means protected,” US Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wrote in a social media post on Monday ahead of the then-pending vote.

The vote cancellation came weeks after the Trump administration issued a controversial—and legally dubious—exemption for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from conservation measures required by the Endangered Species Act.…’ (Inside Climate News via Ars Technica)

‘Climate change and rapid population growth are shrinking the lake, creating a bowl of toxic dust that could poison the air around Salt Lake City.…’ ( via Salt Lake Tribune)

‘Tomorrow is the White House correspondents’ dinner, where in 2011 Trump was infamously mocked by Barack Obama and Seth Meyers – an event some say was the moment that convinced him he had to run for president. The “nerd prom”, once a staple in the calendars of presidents and Washington power brokers, has been shunned by Trump throughout his time in office. But this year the anti-free press president will be the guest of honour in a room full of news executives and journalists; a bizarre and troubling dynamic explored in this column by Margaret Sullivan.…’ ( via The Guardian)