Today's IMMIGRATION story

ICE scraps age limits amid hiring push

What happened
The Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday it was dropping its age requirements for new ICE applicants as it rushes to hire 10,000 agents following a massive infusion of funding from Congress. Previously, applicants had to be between 21 and 40, but DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on Fox News there was no longer a "cap on how old you can be" and anyone 18 or older could apply.

Who said what
DHS said it was waiving age limits "so even more patriots" could join President Donald Trump's mass deportation effort, though all recruits must still undergo a "medical screening, drug screening and complete a physical fitness test." ICE is touting an "eye-catching bonus of up to $50,000" and other perks for new recruits, The Associated Press said, and it "promoted the age-limit changes on social media with enthusiastic tones," casting deportation raids as "epic and even cinematic."

The new policy has "prompted questions" about whether ICE was "having trouble attracting qualified candidates," said The Hill. Many other law enforcement agencies are "also struggling to attract new hires," Scripps News said, "and ICE has a more controversial mission."

What next?
More than 100 FEMA employees have been "involuntarily reassigned" to ICE to "help vet and process new hires," The Washington Post said. DHS said the reassignment would last 90 days and would not "disrupt FEMA's critical operations," but several "officials said forcing this many people to take reassignments during hurricane season, when the agency is already stretched thin," could "greatly slow operations."

Today's SCIENCE Story

Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's study

What happened
Researchers at Harvard Medical School reported yesterday that the depletion of lithium in the brain appears to play a significant role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. The findings, published yesterday in the journal Nature, open up possibilities for new treatments using small amounts of the common metal, found in several foods and drinking water.

Who said what
The Harvard study could be the "holy grail that prevents and even reverses Alzheimer's," The Boston Globe said. Feeding a small dose of lithium orotate to lithium-deprived "aging mice" with fading memories "actually reverted their memory to the young adult, six-month level," study leader Bruce Yankner (pictured above), a professor of genetics and neurology, told The Washington Post. "It seems to somehow turn back the clock," he told the Globe.

Yankner's team found that lithium was the only trace metal significantly depleted in the brains of people with early-stage memory loss, bolstering previous studies that tied lithium to lower dementia rates. Genetics and lifestyle also play a role in Alzheimer's, said MIT neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai, but Yankner's "very exciting" study "provides a very important piece of the puzzle."

What next?
"The obvious impact is that because lithium orotate is dirt cheap, hopefully we will get rigorous, randomized trials testing this very, very quickly," Matt Kaeberlein, a University of Washington expert on the biology of aging, told the Post. Yankner said that in his lab, the Trump administration's freeze on federal funding to Harvard "will significantly limit our progress going forward."

It's not all bad

Amsterdam is building small wooden staircases along its canals so small animals that fall in can get back out. The city council allocated $115,000 in funds for the project, and officials will work with the animal welfare group Dierenambulance Amsterdam to ensure that the staircases are in spots where cats have drowned before. This plan "demonstrates that as a city, we take responsibility for protecting the lives of animals," said Judith Krom, a member of the Party for the Animals.

Under the radar

Illicit mercury is poisoning the Amazon

One of the deadliest chemicals on Earth is being smuggled across Latin America — and it's poisoning the environment along the way. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin, and its use is banned or heavily restricted throughout the world. But it is "essential" to the illegal gold mining trade, one of the Amazon's "most destructive criminal economies," said The Associated Press.

Once extracted from the Earth's crust, mercury "persists in the environment indefinitely," said The Guardian. Those who drink water and consume food contaminated by it are gradually poisoned. But with gold prices now at record highs, selling mercury has become "so lucrative that one of Mexico's deadliest cartels has entered the business."

Mercury trafficking is having a "particularly profound impact" on the health of Indigenous people, said Mongabay, a nonprofit environmental media organization. Communities that live near mining sites in the Amazon have been exposed to high concentrations of the element. In Peru's Madre de Dios region — an "epicenter of illegal mining" — mercury contamination has been detected in drinking water and even breast milk, said the AP. Long-term exposure can cause "irreversible damage to the brain and nervous system, particularly in children and pregnant women."

Equipment and methods exist to replace mercury's role in the gold mining process and reduce the risk of contamination, but there is currently little market incentive to adopt them. The issue is "expected to take center stage" at the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention in November, where advocates "hope to eliminate legal loopholes" and enforce phase-out timelines.

On this day

August 7, 1782

George Washington ordered the creation of the Badge of Military Merit, believed to be the first time that military honors were established for common soldiers. The badge was originally a heart-shaped purple cloth; it eventually evolved into the modern Purple Heart, awarded to U.S. service members who are wounded or killed in action.

TODAY'S newspaperS

'America's deportation capital'

"Hiroshima marks a somber 80th anniversary" of the dropping of the first atomic bomb, The Wall Street Journal says on Thursday's front page. "Trump, Putin to meet on Ukraine," The Washington Post says, while in the U.S., the "fight over Texas' map has gone nationwide." "Courts could thwart Texas," the Los Angeles Times says. "America's deportation capital," in Louisiana, is "set up like a logistics hub for packages, but it's for people," The New York Times says. "5 shot at Fort Stewart" before "soldiers tackle gunman," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says. Research with lithium offers "new hope in fighting Alzheimer's," says The Boston Globe.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Taking the fight to predators

To keep wolves from attacking livestock in Oregon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is deploying drones that blast loud noises, including a fight between Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver from the movie "Marriage Story." The goal is for wolves to "respond and know that hey, humans are bad," Paul Wolf, a USDA district supervisor, told The Wall Street Journal. The drones have heat cameras, and once a wolf is detected, a light turns on and a loudspeaker starts blaring offensive sounds.

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.