News Dump

Trump’s new Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, confirmed days ago, is now under investigation
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/16/trumps-new-interior-secretary-is-now-under-investigation.html

Notre Dame fire fund hits 300 million euros and rising as second billionaire Bernard Arnault offers to pay 200m
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/notre-dame-billionaire-pledges-200-million-euros-a4118781.html

Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq allegedly threatened to kill teammates if they talked, court documents show
https://www.businessinsider.com/seal-accused-of-war-crimes-allegedly-threatened-to-kill-teammates-2019-4

French arms including tanks and laser-guided missile systems sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are being used in the Yemeni war against civilians, leaked intelligence published by investigative website Disclose showed.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-france-arms/french-made-tanks-and-howitzer-canons-used-in-yemeni-war-disclose-idUSKCN1RR1D3

New Harvard study shows nitrous oxide emissions from thawing Alaskan permafrost about twelve times higher than previously assumed
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/melting-permafrost-releasing-high-levels-of-nitrous-oxide-a-potent-greenhouse-gas

DNA reveals origin of Stonehenge builders. The Neolithic inhabitants appear to have travelled from Anatolia (modern Turkey) to Iberia before winding their way north. They reached Britain in about 4,000BC. DNA reveals that Neolithic Britons were largely descended from groups who took the Mediterranean route, either hugging the coast or hopping from island-to-island on boats. Some British groups had a minor amount of ancestry from groups that followed the Danube route. When the researchers analysed the DNA of early British farmers, they found they most closely resembled Neolithic people from Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal). These Iberian farmers were descended from people who had journeyed across the Mediterranean.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47938188

Chinese authorities have seized 7.5 tonnes of ivory -- 2,748 elephant tusks -- in one of the biggest busts in recent years as the country cracks down on the sale of illegal wildlife products
https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/china-seizes-nearly-2750-elephant-tusks-huge-bust-doc-1fo5wz2

Democrats Who Really Like More Than One Presidential Candidate Have Found A Temporary Solution: Give Them All Money
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tariniparti/democratic-donors-2020-candidates

A white man in South Carolina has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to trying to hire a hit man to kill his black neighbor, hang him from a tree and leave a burning cross in his yard, prosecutors said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/us/hit-man-lynching.html