Saturday, June 3 — 5 significant news stories

Today ChatGPT read 959 top news stories and gave 8 of them a significance score over 7.

After removing duplicates and repeats, here is today’s significant news:

[7.7] Chemical companies to pay $1.2bn over water contamination settlement — The Guardian

Chemical companies DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva have agreed to pay around $1.2 billion to settle claims about water contamination brought by US public water systems. Another company, 3M, is considering a large settlement to avoid similar allegations. The issue at hand is a group of chemicals that have ended up in the drinking water, largely from a type of firefighting foam. A trial in South Carolina, including the city of Stuart, Florida and over 4,000 other plaintiffs, is about to start, where the city argues that 3M should cover the cost of a new water cleaning system and pay damages. The city alleges that 3M knew about the risks of these chemicals but didn't inform the public and kept producing them.

[7.5] BRICS bloc in talks with over a dozen countries for potential expansion — Reuters

Officials from over a dozen countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, have been in talks with the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies to forge closer links and potentially join the alliance. BRICS, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is considering expanding its membership, with a growing number of countries expressing interest. The bloc is positioning itself as a counterweight to the West and a champion of the developing world, which it says was abandoned by wealthy states and global institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[7.3] Amazon rainforest loss approaches critical threshold with potential disastrous consequences — The Guardian

The Amazon rainforest, which spans eight countries and is home to an enormous concentration of life and culture, has already lost about 17% of its area, replaced by vast cattle ranches, mines and soy fields. If that figure reaches 20% to 25%, scientists believe the rainforest will lose the ability to sustain itself, with disastrous consequences. Between 2004 and 2012, Brazil achieved huge drops in deforestation, but since then, the progress has been reversed, especially under the leadership of president Jair Bolsonaro. Illegal land mining and farming grew as the funding for environmental agencies was cut and protections removed, with an area larger than the size of Belgium being cleared.

[7.0] 170 countries agree to draft global treaty to curb plastic pollution — Reuters

Around 170 countries have agreed to develop a first draft by November of what could become the first global treaty to curb plastic pollution by the end of next year. The second round of UN talks toward a legally binding pact to halt the explosion of plastic waste, which is projected to almost triple by 2060, with around half ending up in landfill and less than a fifth recycled, took place in Paris this week. Though the first half of the five-day negotiations was spent arguing over procedural issues, delegations split into two groups to discuss the range of control measures that can be taken to stop plastic pollution as well as whether countries should develop national plans or set global targets to tackle the problem.

[7.0] COVID-19 continues to impact physical and mental health three years after outbreak — TheHealthSite (at the time of posting the site is down)

COVID-19, three years after its outbreak, continues to have a significant impact on physical and mental health. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation highlights long COVID and mental disorders as two conditions to watch in 2023. Long COVID, which can cause symptoms such as headache, memory loss, and confusion, can disrupt a person's ability to engage with school, work, or relationships. Mental health has also been affected, with depression and anxiety spiking 25% in the first year of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.

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