There are few symbols of the American West more iconic than the bison — shaggy giants that once roamed in the tens of millions before being nearly annihilated by European settlers.A new study published Thursday in Science finds that bringing North America’s largest land mammals back to their ancient stomping grounds is breathing new life into grassland ecosystems, with benefits cascading across the food web.Scientists have long known bison act as “keystone species,” shaping prairie landscapes through grazing, wallowing and seed dispersal. Previous research has even suggested their vast herds help lock carbon in the soil.But the latest findings, from Yellowstone National Park, reveal just how dramatic their influence can be for ecosystem health when they are allowed to roam freely through the wilderness.By munching through grasses, bison speed up the nitrogen cycle, supercharging plants with nutrients.The result: forage that is more than 150 percent richer in protein — a gift to every creature that feeds on the prairie, from elk and deer to pronghorn and bighorn sheep.”It truly is a reawakening of what had been there in the past,” said Bill Hamilton, a co-lead author of the paper and professor at Washington and Lee University.- Natural laboratory -Bison herds were once so vast in the western United States that their hoofbeats rumbled like distant thunder. Early 19th-century estimates put their numbers between 30 and 60 million.Then came the railroads. The building of the first Transcontinental line was accompanied by a ruthless extermination campaign — hunters shooting from trains, carcasses left to rot — aimed not only at supplying hides but at starving Native Americans, for whom bison were a cultural and economic lifeline.By the early 20th century, the species was teetering on the brink. Revival efforts eventually pushed their numbers back to roughly 400,000, but nearly all survive in small, tightly managed herds on private ranches or reserves.Only in Yellowstone National Park, home to about 5,000 animals, do bison still roam with something like their old freedom, covering nearly 1,000 miles a year on a 50-mile back-and-forth migration. For scientists, that makes the park a rare, living laboratory.Between 2015 and 2021, a study led by National Park Service biologist Chris Geremia tracked the animals’ movements and grazing patterns across their main habitats, measuring plant growth, nutrient cycling, soil chemistry and more.- Balance restored -They compared grazed and ungrazed patches, pairing field experiments with satellite imagery and GPS collar data to capture bison impacts across their migratory range.Results show roaming bison keep grasses and wildflowers short, dense and protein-rich — and plant communities surprisingly diverse.”Grasses exude carbon into the soil after being grazed, and that actually stimulates microbial populations for up to 48 hours,” explained Hamilton.That microbial burst translated to more ammonium and nitrates for new growth — a feedback loop that boosted both plants and animals. Bison dung and urine added another jolt of nitrogen, compounding the fertilization effect.”We took that 150 percent increase and we calculated it across the whole migration (area), and it provides over three million kilograms more crude protein if you have bison,” said co-author Jerod Merkle of the University of Wyoming.Even areas that looked “mowed flat” by bison remained ecologically vibrant, with productivity and diversity intact.The findings come at a fraught time for conservation, as President Donald Trump’s administration tilts heavily toward agricultural interests over wildlife.Ranchers argue that bison allowed to roam would smash fences, mix with cattle and spread disease.Merkle said there are social and political constraints, but the ecological payoff was undeniable.”My vision when I see the data from our paper is, let’s just pull out of the classic livestock thinking with bison, and think about them as a species that creates heterogeneity, that needs big space to move around — and it’s okay to have big groups of them sometimes,” he said.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday lashed out at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a day after its director was ousted, saying the renowned agency needs to be overhauled.Appearing on Fox News, Kennedy was asked about a statement from lawyers for fired CDC chief Susan Monarez, which accused him of endangering millions with his anti-vaccine agenda. He used the opportunity to attack the CDC’s competence and priorities.”We saw the misinformation coming out of Covid,” he said. “They got the testing wrong. They got the social distancing, the masks, the school closures that did so much harm to the American people today.”Kennedy then pivoted to attack a 1999 report from the CDC’s science journal which is still available online, saying it was wrong to list vaccination, water fluoridation and family planning as being among the 10 greatest US public health achievements of the 20th century.”We need to look at the priorities of the agency,” said Kennedy, claiming it suffered from a deeply embedded “malaise” that required “strong leadership” to restore gold-standard science.The remarks followed the dramatic removal of Monarez, a career scientist who had held the CDC’s top job for less than a month.”The president fired her, which he has every right to do,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.Monarez’s lawyers argue she was improperly dismissed, saying only the president had the authority to remove her, yet the notice came from a White House staffer.Kennedy’s deputy and right-hand man Jim O’Neill, a former technology investor, will be appointed as acting CDC director, the Washington Post reported.- Institutions under attack -For more than 80 years, the CDC has been central to public health, from leading the global campaign to eradicate smallpox to identifying the first clusters of HIV-AIDS and spearheading the fight against smoking.But health agencies have faced mounting attacks since Kennedy took office.He disbanded an independent panel of renowned vaccine experts, severely curtailed access to Covid-19 shots, and cut federal funding to mRNA vaccines, the technology credited with saving millions of lives during the pandemic.He has also announced a government study into the long-debunked “link” between vaccines and autism. Tensions within the agency have built since a man reportedly motivated by anti-vaccine misinformation opened fire outside CDC headquarters in Atlanta this month, killing a police officer.- Cheers for departing colleagues  -An employee union backed Monarez, saying she “chose science over politics.” Several senior officials resigned, including chief medical officer Debra Houry and the head of the national center for immunization and respiratory diseases, Demetre Daskalakis, who oversaw the mpox response.On Thursday afternoon, CDC workers held a “clap out” for their departing colleagues, waving signs and cheering as they left the building. “You are the people that protect America, and America needs to see that you are the people that protect America, and we are going to be your loudest advocates,” Daskalakis said to applause, before paying tribute to the slain policeman.Before Monarez, the agency had been without a director since President Donald Trump took office in January. His original nominee, former congressman and Kennedy ally Dave Weldon, was withdrawn on the morning of his US Senate hearing amid fading political support. Senators will have the chance to grill Kennedy over the turmoil at a panel next Thursday.

A man convicted of the 1992 murders of three people has been put to death by lethal injection in Florida on Thursday in the 11th execution in the southern US state this year.Curtis Windom, 59, was sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend Valerie Davis, her mother Mary Lubin, and Johnnie Lee, a man who allegedly owed him a gambling debt.The execution was carried out at 6:17 pm (2217 GMT) at the Florida State Prison, and his last words were unintelligible, according to US media witnesses.The US Supreme Court rejected his final appeal Wednesday. Windom’s defense attorneys had argued his initial trial lawyer was not qualified.Windom was convicted of killing Lee over a $2,000 debt, before fatally shooting his girlfriend at her apartment, and shooting her mother while she was stopped at a stop sign nearby, CBS News reported.Advocacy group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty released a statement from relatives and friends of the victims which decried the execution.”We are heartbroken that the State of Florida didn’t listen to our pleas,” the statement said. The statement criticized the state for asking the families to witness Thursday’s “dog-and-pony show.”The relatives of the victims described celebrating “graduations and weddings over the phone” with Windom over the years, even bringing their grandchildren to visit him in prison.”We have forgiven him.”There have been 30 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2014 when 35 inmates were put to death.Florida has carried out the most executions — 11 — followed by South Carolina and Texas with four each.Twenty-five of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and three by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment, and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”Trump said earlier this week that he would seek the death penalty for murders in Washington as part of a crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.

Venezuela has breathed new life into independence hero Simon Bolivar and other long-dead historical figures, using their artificial intelligence avatars to drum up military reservists in view of a feared US invasion.Along with Bolivar, independence-era military hero Francisco de Miranda, 20th century novelist Romulo Gallegos and poet Andres Eloy Blanco address Venezuelans on social media or on state TV as part of the “I enlist” campaign. “A people who love freedom will be free. Today, freedom is defended with your voice and your presence. I enlist,” states an AI-generated Bolivar — the father of post-colonial Venezuela — as soldiers battle behind him. President Nicolas Maduro has urged civilians to join the Venezuelan militia — a civilian backup to the standing army — as he warns of a “threat” from the United States. Washington has dispatched five warships and thousands of Marines toward the Caribbean country for what was labeled an anti-drug operation, though Caracas fears there is more to the deployment. Venezuela has deployed warships and drones to patrol its coastline and Maduro said he would activate 4.5 million militia members — a number questioned by observers — to confront “any threat.” The United States does not recognize Maduro’s 2024 reelection to a third term in what which was rejected by the opposition and much of the rest of the world as a stolen vote. Maduro accuses Washington of seeking regime change.  

A man who threw a sandwich at a federal immigration agent deployed by President Donald Trump in the US capital was charged with a lesser offense on Thursday after prosecutors failed to secure a felony indictment.Sean Dunn, 37, a former Justice Department employee, was arrested on August 10 after hurling a footlong sub sandwich at a US Customs and Border Protection agent patrolling the city.The incident was captured on video and went viral, showing Dunn shouting at agents, throwing the sandwich and fleeing on foot.Dunn has been embraced by supporters as a symbol of resistance to the federal takeover of the Washington police force and the deployment of National Guard troops in the city.Dunn, who has earned the nickname “Sandwich Guy” in the media, was promptly fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi from his job at the Justice Department.The US Attorney for Washington initially charged Dunn with felony assault but a grand jury declined earlier this week to return an indictment on that charge.Prosecutors refiled the charge against Dunn as a misdemeanor on Thursday, accusing him of “assaulting, resisting or impeding” a law enforcement officer in the performance of his duties.Trump ordered a federal takeover of the Washington police force and the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops earlier this month to counter what he alleged was out-of-control crime in the capital.Federal law enforcement personnel — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement — have also increased their presence on Washington’s streets, drawing protests from some residents of the overwhelmingly Democratic city.Trump and fellow Republican politicians claim that the capital is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.Data from Washington police showed significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, though that was coming off a post-pandemic surge.

An approaching US deadline to end tariff exemptions on small parcels has tripped up global deliveries to the world’s biggest economy, with some businesses halting shipments to American consumers and mulling price hikes.Come Friday, President Donald Trump’s administration is abolishing a rule that allows packages valued at $800 or below to enter the United States duty-free.Instead, packages will either be subject to the tariff level applicable to their country of origin, or face a specific duty ranging from $80 to $200 per item.Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters that closing this “loophole” helps restrict the flow of “narcotics and other dangerous and prohibited items” while bringing fresh tariff revenues.But the monthlong lead time Trump’s order provided has sparked a frenzy.Postal services, including in France, Germany, Italy, India, Australia and Japan, earlier said most US-bound packages would no longer be accepted.The UK’s Royal Mail, which took a similar step, announced new services Thursday for customers to continue sending goods to the United States.On Tuesday, the United Nations’ Universal Postal Union said 25 member countries’ postal operators had suspended outbound postal services to the country.”Foreign post offices need to get their act together when it comes to monitoring and policing the use of international mail for smuggling and tariff evasion purposes,” Navarro added Thursday.US officials maintain that just five percent of duty-free small package shipments arrived via the postal network, while most went through express couriers.Yet, the impending change has brought confusion and concern to small businesses.- Delays, cost hikes -UK retailer Liz Nieburg told AFP she had stopped shipping products to US customers while the Royal Mail worked out a system to honor the changes.US buyers form about 20 percent of sales at her online business SocksFox, which sells socks, undergarments and sleepwear.She sees little choice but to hike prices if new duties are here to stay: “Our margins are too tight to be able to absorb that.”The Trump administration has imposed tariffs in rapid succession this year.Cornell University professor Li Chen warned that it takes time for postal services to establish systems for duty collection: “It’s not like there’s a switch you can turn on and turn off.””On the consumer side, there will be potential delays, because now all the parcels have to clear customs,” Chen added. Prices may also rise if businesses pass on the tariffs.He expects the impact on small businesses to be “much greater,” as larger firms can absorb shocks.These include businesses like Chinese-founded consumer platforms Shein and Temu, which were hit when Washington ended the exemption for China-origin products this year. They might have to raise costs, Chen said, but they are not fully dependent on US consumers.Ken Huening, whose California-based business CoverSeal manufactures outdoor protective covers in China and Mexico, has had to eliminate free shipping for customers.While he had benefited from the duty-free exemption, the hit to China and now Mexico is posing challenges.”Textile and manufacturing is not available in the US currently,” Huening said. “It might be in the future, but by that time, we’re all out of business.”- Confusion -“It’s a super confusing time for our customers,” said Haley Massicotte, who runs Canada-based cleaning products company Oak & Willow.She said US consumers do not always understand how tariffs work, and how they might have to bear added costs.”We are going to do everything in our power to not raise prices,” she stressed.Similarly, ceramics retailer Sarah Louise Jour in Bangkok is trying to keep shipping costs down after facing issues with Thailand’s postal service.This forced her to tap more expensive services for shipments to US buyers, constituting some 90 percent of her business.”I don’t have time to worry, because I have to think about my team,” she said. “I have rent I need to pay for the office.”While she expects sales to hold up over the holidays, the outlook is murkier afterwards.Massicotte said: “This tariff war is just going to hurt the American and the Canadian consumer, especially small business owners.”