Today’s Big Story

Drug Overdose Deaths Plummet

After hitting staggering heights, U.S. overdose deaths fell sharply in 2024

Here’s some promising news: There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before—the largest one-year decline ever recorded. An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023.

The CDC has been collecting comparable data for 45 years. The previous largest one-year drop was 4% in 2018, according to the agency’s National Center for Health Statistics. All but two states saw declines last year, with Nevada and South Dakota seeing small increases. Some of the biggest drops were in Ohio, West Virginia and other states that have been hard-hit in the nation’s decades-long overdose epidemic.

The progress comes after drug deaths, which had been rising for more than a decade, soared to staggering levels during the coronavirus pandemic, surpassing 100,000 each year starting in 2021. The CDC said the 2024 death toll represents the lowest level since 2019, before the pandemic.

According to the New York Times, public health experts had been carefully watching the monthly updates, with skepticism at first, and then with growing hope. “This is a decline that we’ve been waiting more than a decade for,” said Dr. Matthew Christiansen, a physician and former director of West Virginia’s drug control policy. “We’ve invested hundreds of billions of dollars into addiction.”

Addiction specialists said that changes in the illicit drug supply as well as greater access to drug treatment and the use of naloxone to reverse overdoses seemed to be playing a role, but whether the country could sustain that progress was an open question. “Despite these overall improvements, overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44, underscoring the need for ongoing efforts to maintain this progress.”

The size of the population at risk of a drug overdose in the U.S. is likely much bigger than we realize, Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, a professor at the University of California, told CNN. But the number of people leaving the risk pool—either because of a fatal overdose or because they found treatment that works for them—may be higher than the number of new drug users who are joining the risk pool.

Have You Heard All the January 6th Chatter?

Trials, tours and pardoned rioters capitalizing on their newfound freedom

Upon taking office, President Donald Trump commuted the sentences of many January 6th defendants, granted pardons to everyone else who had already been convicted and told the DOJ to dismiss pending charges “against individuals for their conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” And one of the rioters from that day is attempting to use that dismissal order to get rid of other acts. Like getting arrested outside of former President Barack Obama’s home in June 2023 with firearms and ammunition in his van.

Trump had posted a street address for Obama on social media, and Taylor Taranto reposted it and then began live-streaming from his van in Obama’s neighborhood, according to prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, rejected Taranto’s attempt to use that dismissal order to get rid of all his charges. But Taranto raised the issue again ahead of trial, urging the judge to reconsider based on the DOJ’s inconsistent positions on various Jan. 6th cases. But even if he’s convicted, MSNBC says Trump could always issue a new pardon for Taranto.

Then he’d have even more of a story to tell. The Washington Post reports that many formerly incarcerated Jan. 6th rioters are now working to capitalize on the attention through podcasts, speaking tours and self-branded merchandise. One, who calls himself a “J6 Former Felon”, is soliciting donations for a personal “Freedom Fund” to support a cross-country RV tour with his wife to spread their message about what he describes as “corrupted” legal, law enforcement and prison systems. Another—the guy who paraded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern around the Capitol and later told a judge his “very stupid” actions had made “a mockery of a very intense” day—is selling $200 toy lecterns featuring his viral silhouette. There’s something uniquely American about that, isn’t there?

Poland Prepares for War

And orders the Russian Consulate in Krakow closed

Men and women from all over Poland have answered the call to volunteer for its military, in order to protect their country against Russia. This year, the country will spend nearly 5% of its gross domestic product on defense—more than any other NATO member, including the United States—in order to overhaul its military. As President Trump tries to end the war in Ukraine, Poland is doing all it can to prevent another Russian invasion.

As a neighbor of Ukraine and host to more than 2 million of its war refugees, Poland has seen, heard and felt what Russia is capable of, and it is now preparing for the worst. Poland also shares a 500-mile border with Russia and Kremlin ally Belarus, and it is not only building up defenses there. This year, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on all Polish men to begin military training, announcing to parliament in March that by the end of this year, the aim is for every adult male in the country to be trained in the event of war.

Poland’s foreign minister said Monday that he was ordering the closure of the Russian Consulate in the southern city of Krakow, after authorities blamed Moscow for a fire that destroyed a shopping center in Warsaw last year. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the accusations as being groundless and rooted in anti-Russia sentiment. He also said that Warsaw’s decision to close the consulate would damage bilateral relations between Russia and Poland, which Peskov described as already being in “a deplorable state.”

Fossilized Footprints Just Rewrote Reptilian History

The Australian find is forcing paleontologists to rethink the tetrapod family tree

Paleontologists are always digging deeper—both literally and figuratively—to uncover the past and shine new light on how species evolved. For instance, the origin of four-limbed animals known as “tetrapods” was fairly straightforward: Fish flopped onto land in the Devonian period (around 400 million years ago) and began evolving, eventually diversifying into the reptiles, birds, mammals and other creatures that cover the Earth today. But now, a slab of sandstone small enough to be carried by a single person has thrown that tidy timeline into chaos.

The slab is from southeastern Australia and dates to about 355 million years ago—shortly after the end of the Devonian. Discovered by two amateur paleontologists (co-authors of a new study describing the find), the rock preserves a set of remarkable footprints: long-toed impressions with unmistakable claw marks. These trace fossils now represent the oldest clawed tetrapod tracks ever found. The researchers’ findings, published in the Nature journal on Wednesday, describe the fossils and their significance for the tree of life.

Per Ahlberg, a researcher at Uppsala University and the lead author of the study, told Gizmodo that although scientists agree tetrapods evolved in the Devonian, those early creatures were believed to be fish-like, only beginning to adapt to life on land. “If we already have reptiles at the beginning of the Carboniferous, which is what our Australian trackways indicate, that can’t be true.” He pointed out that the claws are significant. They’re a signature of early amniotes—the group that includes reptiles, birds and mammals.

This Summer, Grow With the Help of a Therapist

Setbacks can be fresh starts.