EXCLUSIVE BY OLIVER HOLT: The Premier League clubs that have taken a stand against playing out the season in neutral venues have been labelled by some as cynical and pragmatic.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened Saturday to pull the company's factory and headquarters out of California in an escalating spat with local officials who have stopped the company from reopening its electric vehicle factory. On Twitter, Musk also threatened to sue over Alameda County Health Department coronavirus restrictions that have stopped Tesla from restarting production its factory in Fremont south of San Francisco. Frankly, this is the final straw, he tweeted. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. He wrote that whether the company keeps any manufacturing in Fremont depends on how Tesla is treated in the future. Musk has been ranting about the stay-home order since the company's April 29 first-quarter earnings were released, calling the restrictions fascist and urging governments to stop taking people's freedom. An order in the six-county San Francisco Bay Area forced Tesla to close the Fremont plant starting March 23 to help prevent the virus'

Elon Musk has been pushing to re-open Tesla's Fremont, California, factory after Alameda County's health department said the carmaker must not reopen because local lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus remain in effect.

The COVID-19 lockdown has caused several psychological impacts on people. The negative effect of quarantine and restrictions such as stress, depression, confusion, post-traumatic disorder, fear of infection, boredom, the fear of financial stability and stress about the health of loved ones

Tesla Inc sued local authorities in California on Saturday as the electric carmaker pushed to re-open its factory there and Chief Executive Elon Musk threatened to move Tesla's headquarters and future programs from the state to Texas or Nevada.

Several MPs came to the Upper House wearing masks and demanded curtailment of the ongoing Budget session, which is due to end on April 3, in view of the novel coronavirus scare, but the government seemed unwilling.

Tesla said the county's position left it no choice but to take legal action to ensure Tesla and its employees can go back to work

He wrote that whether the company keeps any manufacturing in Fremont depends on how Tesla is treated in the future.

Climate change and urbanisation 'threaten groundwater', say scientists  ENDS Report

Should global warming cause sea levels to rise as predicted in coming decades, thousands of archaeological sites in coastal areas around the world will be lost to erosion. With no hope of saving all of these sites, three archaeologists—Leslie Reeder of Southern Methodist University, Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon and Torben Rick from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History—have issued a call to action for scientists to assess the sites most at risk around the world.

The post Scientists issue call to action for archaeological sites threatened by rising seas, urban development appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A groundbreaking study by Harvard University’s Harvard Forest and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute reveals that, if left unchecked, recent trends in the loss of […]

The post Sprawl threatens water quality, climate protection, and land conservation in Massachusetts appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Eaten raw and thinly sliced, the dark-red belly meat of the Pacific bluefin tuna is highly prized—and priced—for its rich oily flavor by sashimi and […]

The post Desire for Pacific bluefin puts fish on red list of threatened species appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Invasive European earthworms could prevent roughly half a North American forest’s orchid seeds from even germinating, ecologists from Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Johns Hopkins […]

The post Invasive earthworms threaten wild American orchids appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Mexico is the fourth largest honey producer and fifth largest honey exporter in the world. A Smithsonian researcher and colleagues helped rural farmers in Mexico […]

The post Genetically modified soybean pollen threatens Mexican honey sales appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Dead zones affect dozens of coral reefs around the world and threaten hundreds more according to a new study by Smithsonian scientists published in the […]

The post Dead Zones May Threaten Coral Reefs Worldwide appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Policymakers’ efforts to reduce threats from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) should include greater oversight of precursor chemicals sold at the retail level – especially over the Internet – that terrorists, violent extremists, or criminals use to make homemade explosives, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The emergence of inexpensive small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) that operate without a human pilot, commonly known as drones, has led to adversarial groups threatening deployed U.S. forces, especially infantry units.

Representatives from the national academies of sciences of the G20 countries handed over recommendations for improving marine conservation to the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

WASHINGTON — In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to establish a Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats.

Over the next five years, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) should encourage and be among co-leaders in the federal government’s development of an enduring interagency mechanism to address an array of biological threats – including natural disease outbreaks, accidental releases, and intentional attacks -- to deployed U.S. forces and to the nation itself, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

A view of the Q1 2020 threat landscape as seen by ESET telemetry and from the perspective of ESET threat detection and research experts

The post ESET Threat Report appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Scammers rehash old campaigns, create credit card-stealing websites and repurpose information channels to milk the COVID-19 crisis for all it's worth

The post It’s no time to let your guard down as coronavirus fraud remains a threat appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Groundwater is the earth’s largest freshwater resource and is vital for irrigation and global food production. In dry periods farmers pump groundwater to water crops, this is already happening at an unsustainable level in many places — exceeding the rate at which rain and rivers can refill the groundwater stores. This study seeks to identify where groundwater pumping is affecting stream flows and estimates where and when environmentally critical stream flows — required to maintain healthy ecosystems — can no longer be sustained.

In Sweden, 63% of areas designated as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for endangered birds are impacted by major roads or train lines, according to a new study. The research showed that 126 000 hectares (ha), or 4.2% of the SPAs, fall within 1 km of a road or train line, leading to a predicted 1% loss in bird abundance. The problem is greater in the south of the country, where 25.8% of land designated as SPA falls within 1 km of a road or rail line, representing an estimated 4 to 7% reduction in birds’ abundance within SPAs.

A new framework to help decide whether to translocate species that are threatened by climate change has been developed. The framework provides a simple method of assessing different strategies and ensuring that limited budgets are used effectively.

New research has predicted that, if current warming continues, an important type of coral in the central Red Sea could stop growing by 2070. Although the same coral has recovered after previous short-term warming events, it appears that the current continuing trend in warming is likely to be more damaging.

The threat of possible death from climate change may paradoxically reduce our motivation to protect the environment, according to a new psychology study conducted in Germany. However, this negative impact on the environment could be reduced if people’s environmental motivations stemmed from a desire to benefit humans rather than a desire to protect nature itself.

The rapid decline of Arctic sea ice has had dramatic effects on seals, polar bears, whales and other marine mammals. Changes in distribution, body condition, reproduction and abundance are all consequences of reduced sea ice that may escalate over the coming decade, according to a recent analysis.

Warming of coastal areas due to climate change is already having an important impact on fishing catches in the North Atlantic, according to a new study. The study also suggests that rising levels of nitrogen pollution, due to run-off from farming and sewage disposal, will pose a serious threat to fisheries in the near future if left unchecked.

Warmer sea temperatures are increasing the toxic effect of sulphides on seagrass meadows in the Mediterranean Sea, new research reveals. Higher sea temperatures in the region, as projected using climate modelling, will therefore further threaten these habitats which are already declining from the damage caused by other human activities.

Climate change, tourism and population growth are all accelerating land degradation in the Mediterranean region, according to recent research. This can have severe impacts: the amount of available agricultural land per capita in the region could have dropped by half by 2020, compared with 1961, the study estimates. This article was updated 6.11.14 to correct an error in the valuation of ecosystem services provided by Mediterranean coastal wetlands.

Alongside fines, prison sentences are important punishments for environmental crime, but there is uncertainty about how often they are used. This study summarises evidence from several countries, showing that prison is indeed a genuine threat for environmental criminals, but that more needs to be done to improve its credibility.

The joint threat posed by climate change and invasive alien species can have different effects on endangered native species, new research suggests. This European study predicts that the invasive zebra mussel may benefit from climate change, negatively affecting native mussel populations; but both invasive and native crayfish could suffer declines.

Intensive irrigation of agricultural land in a Mediterranean water basin is altering the habitats of associated wetlands and changing the balance of the bird population living there, according to a recent study.

Human pressures on freshwater resources have seriously reduced the security of water for people and river biodiversity across the world, according to a recent study. Almost 80 per cent of the world's population is at high risk from threats to water security and 65 per cent of river habitats are under threat.

A new European study has assessed whether seed banks are successfully conserving European plant species threatened by extinction. The findings indicate that threatened species are only partly conserved by seed banks, and that these facilities need to focus their future efforts on filling gaps in their collections.

According to new research, several areas of the Antarctic are at considerable risk from the establishment of 'alien' plants accidentally carried by visitors to the region. The findings demonstrate that invasive species pose risks even in remote areas and that these risks are likely to increase as the climate changes.

A synthesis of 192 studies has provided a quantitative estimate of the impact of the loss of plant biodiversity on ecosystem primary production, showing that this impact could be as great as that of other major environmental changes, such as climate warming, rising ozone levels and ocean acidification. They examined the effects of biodiversity loss on primary plant production of biomass and decomposition of plant litter, both of which underpin the carbon cycle and provision of key ecosystem services.

Intensive agriculture is widely recognised as a major cause of declining farmland bird populations. New research has identified which aspects of agricultural intensification are most damaging to farmland bird numbers, examining bird populations at seven farmland sites across Europe. The researchers found that simplified landscapes created by intensive agriculture reduced bird numbers at the sites.

Over the next 30 years, there is a vital need for planners to shape urban expansion to minimise the impact on biodiversity and carbon losses from land-use change, according to a recent study.

Reducing the extinction risk to all threatened bird species by at least one category on the IUCN Red List by 2020 would cost US$0.875 - 1.23 billion (???0.671-0.94) per year, according to a recent study. To achieve this level of support would require an additional US$0.769 ??? 1.08 (???0.59- 0.82) billion per year over and above existing conservation funding for threatened birds.

Little is known about the organisms that live within soil, although they play a vital role in the biological processes that support life on Earth. In a recent study, researchers calculated the relative risk of pressures caused by human activity on soil biodiversity in the EU, showing that intensive land use has the greatest impact.

Although cities are typically low in biodiversity, they can provide important refuges for native species, new research shows. Urban planning making use of green infrastructure can enhance city habitats and may help reduce the loss of biodiversity that follows urban expansion, the researchers say.

The IUCN Red List criteria perform well as an early warning system for short-lived species threatened by climate change, according to recent research. Using the Red List criteria, the study identified Assa darlingtoni, an Australian frog, as being at risk of extinction up to 85 years before a model predicted it was likely to become extinct.

Intensive trawling could turn seafloor ecosystems into ‘deserts of the sea’, new research warns. The study found that continuous bottom trawling for shrimp in a deep-sea Spanish canyon has damaged the foundations of marine ecosystems by dramatically reducing seafloor biodiversity and nutrients in sediment.

Britain’s freshwater ecosystems are on the brink of an invasional meltdown, a new study concludes. Examining 23 freshwater species from south-east Europe, researchers investigated whether individual species in the group would ‘pave the way’ for others, resulting in a rapid increase in establishment of invasive species. The results showed that 76% of the interactions between the species were positive or neutral, highlighting the possibility of severe consequences for Britain’s freshwater ecosystems.