Cats are in the rubble and snakes are causing trouble, but first: a cartoon about the internet frontier.
Here’s the news you need to know, in two minutes or less.
Want to receive this two-minute roundup as an email every weekday? Sign up here!
Today’s News
Cats are making Australia’s bushfire tragedy even worse
Animals trying to escape Australia’s fires now face a new adversary: cats. Cats are attracted to bushfire scars (one study found a feral cat journeying 19 miles to one), and when these brilliant hunters find their vulnerable victims they kill with merciless impunity—sometimes not even bothering to eat the carcass afterward. Because wild cats are not native to Australia, native species haven’t adapted to avoid and escape them. In response, the Australian government has launched a large-scale feline eradication effort with the goal of killing 2 million of the 2 to 6 million feral cats on the continent to try to save the native birds, rats, and rabbits from extinction.
Why Elizabeth Warren’s social media is flooded with snake emoji
If you look at the social media posts of presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren today, you’ll find they are flooded with comments of snake emoji alongside hashtags like #WarrenisaSnake and #NeverWarren. The snake swarm seems to be the result of a disagreement between Warren and Bernie Sanders over whether or not he told her in a private conversation that a woman could not win the presidency. Are you experiencing a feeling of deja-snake? Yes, Taylor Swift’s Instagram comments got flooded with serpents during a feud between herself and Kanye West in 2016.
Fast Fact: 4,700
That’s how many kinds of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are currently in existence. PFAS were originally conceived as a wonder chemical, able to resist stains, repel water, extinguish oil-based fires, and keep eggs from sticking to the pan. Today, we know them as toxic zombie chemicals that will not die, and that’s why scientists are developing new ways to break them down
WIRED Recommends: Google Chrome
The team at Google Chrome is finally taking on one of the internet’s most annoying problems: browser notifications. You know the ones: “This website wants to send you notifications, do you give it permission to do so?” But when the next version of Chrome comes out, you can finally kiss those annoyances good-bye.
News You Can Use
We asked every presidential candidate (including the president!) what it would take to reverse the country’s devastating polarization. Here’s what they said.
This daily roundup is available as a newsletter. You can sign up right here to make sure you get the news delivered fresh to your inbox every weekday!
