What happened
Two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, sued in federal court yesterday to block anyone, including the rioters who beat them and other cops, from receiving payouts from his $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. House Democrats separately proposed legislation challenging the fund and promised a robust investigation if they win control in November. 

Who said what
Using Trump’s “taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name” would be “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century,” former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges said in their lawsuit. “No statute authorizes” this “corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law.” 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress that anybody could apply for compensation, including Jan. 6 rioters. “It’s abhorrent” to harm law enforcement, he told CNN yesterday, but “people that hurt police get money all the time” from suing the government.

What next?
Opponents of the fund “face high hurdles” in blocking the payouts if “Congress, controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, stays silent,” Reuters said. But if Hodges and Dunn can “demonstrate they have been harmed in some way,” they have several viable legal paths.

What happened
The United Nations General Assembly yesterday voted 141-8, with 28 abstentions, to endorse a 2025 International Court of Justice opinion that countries are legally obligated to take steps to fight climate change. That opinion, “while not legally binding,” is “expected to be cited in ‌climate-related ⁠legal cases worldwide,” Reuters said. 

Who said what
“The world’s highest court has spoken,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said, and “the General Assembly has answered” with a “powerful affirmation of international law, climate justice, science, and the responsibility of states to protect people from the escalating climate crisis.” The U.S. had engaged in “diplomatic efforts” to derail the resolution, The Associated Press said, and joined other big “oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters” in voting against it. The “highly problematic” text “includes inappropriate political demands relating to fossil fuels,” U.S. deputy U.N. ambassador Tammy Bruce (pictured above) said before the vote.

What next?
While the resolution called for limiting global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, “there’s no chance” of meeting that “1.5 to stay alive” goal anymore, the AP said, citing new scientific estimates. But thanks to “increasing use of green energies,” the “worst case scenario” is “no longer plausible,” either. 

The Naegleria fowleri amoeba can cause a rare but fatal brain infection that progresses quickly and can’t be cured. And it has been found in several recreational locations in the U.S., with the number of cases likely to increase as global temperatures rise.

Scientists tested 185 water samples from 40 recreational waterways across five National Park Service sites, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton, according to a study published in the journal ACS ES&T Water. N. fowleri was found in 34% of the samples, though there have been no cases of infection in these areas so far.

When “contaminated water enters a person’s nose,” the single-celled amoeba can “infect their brain with a fatality rate of 98%,” said USA Today. The infection, primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, advances quickly, destroying brain tissue and causing massive cerebral swelling, with most people dying “within one to 18 days after symptoms begin.”

The organism is “very widespread and found in many recreational waters, not just national park hot springs,” said study author Brent Peyton, a professor at Montana State University, to Outside. But there’s “no need to be alarmed,” because infection can “easily be prevented by keeping water out of one’s nose.” 

Experts suggest people “hold their nose or wear a nose clip if they are jumping or diving into fresh water,” and keep their "head above water in hot springs,” said Fast Company. They should also avoid splashing around in shallow water, as the amoeba is more likely to be found there.