Trump and DeSantis stay quiet on Juneteenth as long shot 2024 GOP candidates celebrate
Long shot Republican presidential candidates Sen. Tim Scott and Asa Hutchinson celebrated Juneteenth Monday as former President Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP field kept quiet about the national holiday marking the end of slavery.
Scott, the only major Black candidate in the crowded race, suggested that remembering the end of slavery should be a way to celebrate the progress that America has made towards ending racism.
“We honor Juneteenth not to dwell on our original sin as a nation, but to showcase just how far we’ve come,” Scott said. Hutchinson praised Abraham Lincoln for righting the wrong of slavery: “We celebrate Juneteenth and the freedom that was wrongly taken.”
Trump, who is leading polls of the GOP race by a commanding margin, did not mention Juneteenth although he posted or reposted more than two dozen items on his social media site.
—New York Daily News
Here’s why the Indian Cultures Hall at Denver Museum of Nature and Science had to come down
DENVER — Donna Chrisjohn began visiting the Denver Museum of Nature & Science at age 6 with her history-loving parents. The North American Indian Cultures Hall, which has been there for 45 years, was of particular interest since Chrisjohn has Sicangu Lakota and Diné ancestry.
“There were photographs of my family’s tipi in this space,” she said this week, as she walked through the exhibit. “But I didn’t realize that until I was older and my mom told me about it.”
But not anymore. In May, the museum announced that it would permanently close the 10,000-square-foot exhibit to assess, restore and, in some cases, repatriate items. “We understand that the Hall reinforces harmful stereotypes and white, dominant culture,” museum vice president Liz Davis wrote in a recent letter to members.
That includes misnaming tribes; painting over historic artifacts; “Disney-fying” dwellings and textiles; creating stereotypical dioramas; and mashing together diverse cultures and languages as seen through the eyes of the federal government. The exhibit’s last day was Friday.
—The Denver Post
A cheap fix to global warming is finally gaining support
Global support for one of the cheapest and most powerful climate actions is accelerating — and it couldn’t come at a more urgent time.
Countries are starting to get more serious about slashing avoidable methane emissions from fossil fuel production, as the rapidly warming planet forces leaders to double down on solutions that can reign in scorching temperatures within decades.
Last month Bloomberg Green reported that U.S. officials are discussing with their Turkmenistan counterparts ways to help the central Asian nation cap some of the world’s worst methane emissions that spew from its aging oil and gas operations. Separately, European Union rules could pave the way for cuts to the greenhouse gas seeping out from the continent’s coal mines.
If all the gas that’s leaked or vented by Turkmenistan’s energy sector was salvaged and burned instead and the E.U. rules take effect, the combined measures would have roughly the same short-term climate effect as wiping out roughly 290 million tons of CO2 each year, according to calculations by Bloomberg and energy think tank Ember.
—Bloomberg News
Five dead and dozens wounded in Israeli raid in West Bank
TEL AVIV — At least five Palestinians were killed during a large-scale Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian health authorities said on Monday.
Several dozen people were also injured during the gunbattles, some of them critically, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. At least one of the dead is said to be a Palestinian fighter. According to media reports, a Palestinian journalist was among the injured.
The Israeli military said a prolonged exchange of fire took place during the arrest of two suspects earlier on Monday and at least one military vehicle was damaged by an explosive device.
Jenin, in the northern West Bank, has emerged as a stronghold of Palestinian militant factions. The city has seen frequent deadly confrontations between Israeli forces and militants.
—dpa
