Wood pellets sound renewable. Maybe they would be so if made from fast-growing tree farms, but they are being made by cutting down ordinary forests that would take a century to regrow.

That's if they ever do regrow. Global heating could prevent that. This is why I have always been skeptical of "carbon offset" schemes that rely on planting trees.

US spy officials say that North Korea is still enriching uranium, and say this is "deceiving" the US.

But it would not be a deception, rather a reflection of the fact that North Korea has not made a concrete deal with concrete commitments about nuclear weapons.

The California privacy law was passed to forestall a ballot question that would have gone further.

However, it looks like the ballot initiative was also limited to regulating businesses that collect data. Would it have done anything about government face recognition cameras?

Italy and Libya told a nearby rescue ship to stay away from a sinking boat with 125 people on it. Then they waited 90 minutes, until 100 of them had drowned.

The 2020 Census Could Overlook Millions of (low income) Kids, Report Finds.