Getting Warmer: Three days this week were likely the hottest in the history of Earth, climate scientists declared yesterday. 

  A surge of heat around the world shattered temperature records on July 3^rd through the 5^th from North America to Antarctica. The analysis is based on an average, so some parts of Earth were much hotter, spiking the overall temperature reading.

  Because of climate change, the kind term for global warming, the heat index in the southern United States and Northern Mexico has reached triple digits, about 5 degrees hotter than what used to be normal, according to scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

  Scientists say they’re shocked that even the water is warmer. In the North Atlantic, surface temperatures in May were 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual for that month. 

  This comes as forecasters warn that the Earth could be entering a multiyear stretch of exceptional warmth driven by burning of carbon fuels and the return of El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern.

China Syndrome: Visiting China, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen laid out US objections to the punitive measures the Chinese government has recently taken against foreign companies, including the imposition of export controls on some critical minerals. I’s ben part of the escalation of tensons between the two countries.

  Surrounded by executives from some of the most powerful American companies, Yellen suggested that such actions justify the Biden administration’s efforts to make US manufacturers less reliant on China.

  Yellen also said she delivered her objections to China’s top officials, including Premier Li Qiang, in what was the first visit to China by a Treasury secretary in four years. She said, “During meetings with my counterparts, I am communicating the concerns that I’ve heard from the U.S. business community — including China’s use of nonmarket tools like expanded subsidies for its state-owned enterprises and domestic firms, as well as barriers to market access for foreign firms.” 

THE WAR ROOM:  President Biden has approved giving Ukraine cluster munitions, a vicious weapon banned by many countries. With Ukraine’s stocks of regular artillery shells dwindling, the US will draw the cluster shells from its own supplies.

 Cluster munitions spread small bomblets over a wide area, in the case of the Ukraine war, making it easier to kill Russians dug into trenches. 

  The bombs also have historically killed and maimed a lot of civilians. The US State Department has been concerned that approving the weapons for shipment to Ukraine would put this country out of sync with its allies.  As many as 120 countries banned use of cluster bombs, in part because of high failure rates that litter the landscape with unexploded submunitions, leaving a lingering threat to friendly troops and civilians. 

  With Ukraine’s counter offensive barely making progress, the NY Times quotes one anonymous US official saying that the weapons are “100 percent necessary” to meet current battlefield needs.

ECON 101: Stocks took a dive yesterday on news of a strong job market. Investors are afraid that the federal reserve will keep interest rates high to keep curbing inflation.

  The Dow dropped 366 points, falling nearly 500 points earlier in the trading session, before posting its biggest one-day decline since May.

FOREVER: At least 45 percent of the nation’s tap water could be contaminated with at least one form of PFAS known as “forever chemicals,” says a newly released study by the US Geological Survey. PFAS “forever chemicals” are everywhere, used in such things as nonstick cookware and stain-resistant carpets. The chemicals are blamed for everything from cancer to increased obesity, high cholesterol, and decreased fertility. They break down slowly, building up in people, animals and the environment over time. 

THE OBIT PAGE: Coco Lee, the Chinese American singer and songwriter known for performing an Oscar-nominated song in the hit film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and for singing the theme song for the Disney movie “Mulan,” died Wednesday in a hospital in Hong Kong at 48. Her family said the cause was suicide.

  A statement from her sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, said “Coco had been suffering from depression for a few years, but her condition deteriorated drastically over the last few months.” They said, “Although Coco sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her.”

THE SPIN RACK: Lawyers for Walt Nauta, former president Donald Trump’s “body man,” entered a plea of not guilty for him in federal court on charges of conspiring to obstruct the government’s efforts to retrieve secret documents from Trump. Nauta was indicted along with Trump. — The financial services company Bankrate says that 2,500 American adults said they would need to earn, on average, $233,000 a year to feel financially secure and $483,000 to feel rich or to attain financial freedom. — A drug called Leqembi, the first that is believed to slow the effects of the memory-loss Alzheimer’s disease, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and should be eligible for Medicare coverage. —OceanGate, the company that lost its submersible killing five people on a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic, announced that it is suspending all commercial and exploration operations. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Your ice cream stock is melting. Stock in the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s has lost roughly $2.5 billion in value amid calls to boycott the Vermont ice cream maker because of their 4^th of July tweet condemning the US for existing on “stolen Indigenous land.” Ben & Jerry’s is owned by Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch multinational, but its board has independence in voicing its political opinions.  Ben & Jerry’s posted that “This 4th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it.” They might have more success giving the milk back to cows.

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