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The unlikely author pairing of President Bill Clinton and James Patterson has proved successful, making Clinton part of a rare club of authors who have sold a million copies of fiction and nonfiction titles.

The big picture: Barnes & Noble buyer Sessalee Hensley released a statement saying the thriller has achieved success from "very strong word of mouth" among readers, but critical reviews have been less forcefully in favor of its literary credentials. The book plot is focused on cyber security threats and dangers.

Go deeper: Considering general weariness with the Clintons after the 2016 presidential campaign, this bookselling achievement is impressive. 

Showtime acquired the rights to a television series based on the novel last fall, which  dives into how a fictional president facing impeachment proceedings disappears in the face of a cyberattack that dismantles Secret Service protections.

Bill Clinton's thriller sells a million copies in two months

These numbers make him a million-seller in the genres of fiction and nonfiction.

Bill Clinton and James Patterson's book, The President is Missing

Politics

Books

Business

The unlikely author pairing of President Bill Clinton and James Patterson has proved successful, making Clinton part of a rare club of authors who have sold a million copies of fiction and nonfiction titles.The big picture: Barnes &amp; Noble buyer Sessalee Hensley released a statement saying the thriller has achieved success from &quot;very strong word of mouth&quot; among readers, but critical reviews have been less forcefully in favor of its literary credentials. The book plot is focused on cyber security threats and dangers.

Underdog Wesley Bell upset incumbent Robert McCulloch in the democratic primary for top prosecutor of St. Louis County, bucking the prosecutor of nearly 30 years on the promise of criminal justice reform.

The big picture: The criminal justice system in St. Louis has been under fire since unarmed teenager Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in 2014 and charges against the officer were dropped. There's no Republican challenger for the general election in November. 

Why it matters: Bell is more liberal than McCulloch and has run a campaign focused on upending the criminal justice system in the city. His victory shows that residents are still deeply dissatisfied with the way prosecutors handled Brown's case, and they're eager to see change. 

Bell, 43 and previously a municipal court judge, focused on specific, popular pledges in his campaign:

Eliminate cash bail for nonviolent offenses.

Oppose proposed legislation that would develop mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes.

Work with criminal justice reform advocates to develop new policies.

New prosecutor in St. Louis County promises criminal justice reform

Residents are still deeply dissatisfied with the way prosecutors handled Michael Brown's case.

A young girl holds a sign on August 8, 2015 in Ferguson, Missouri. As the embattled community celebrates the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown Jr. by a Ferguson police officer.

A young girl holds a sign as the embattled community remembers the shooting of Michael Brown Jr. by a Ferguson police officer. Photo: Michael B. Thomas/Getty

St. Louis

Underdog Wesley Bell upset incumbent Robert McCulloch in the democratic primary for top prosecutor of St. Louis County, bucking the prosecutor of nearly 30 years on the promise of criminal justice reform.The big picture: The criminal justice system in St. Louis has been under fire since unarmed teenager Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in 2014 and charges against the officer were dropped. There&#x27;s no Republican challenger for the general election in November.

A tick species new to the U.S., called the longhorned tick or Haemaphysalis longicornisa. has been found spreading along the East Coast, state and federal officials say.

Why it matters: They have the ability to carry serious diseases — sometimes ones causing death in other countries — but officials say there have been no reports of human infections in the U.S. yet, per the New York Times.

Four things to know about longhorned ticks:

The first one was found in America last summer on a sheep in New Jersey, although how the tick got there remains unknown. Since then, they've been found in at least 7 states along the eastern seaboard: Arkansas, New York, West Virginia, New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

In its original home in Asia, the longhorned tick transmits a disease called severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) that kills 15% of its victims, NYT says. But New Zealand and Australia say the ticks don't appear to cause SFTS there — instead, the ticks have transmited babesiosis and theileriosis, which can be damaging for cattle but don't usually harm humans.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operates a lab in Colorado with 10 live longhorned ticks that they hope to grow to maturity to test for further possible diseases. That will take about a year.

Female longhorned ticks can reproduce asexually. After they feed, they can lay 2,000 eggs, which can swarm an animal, sucking enough blood to cause anemia or death, Business Insider reports. Young longhorned ticks are extremely small, and have been compared to a speck of dust or a poppy seed.

The big picture: Officials say they are keeping a watchful eye on this new species, particularly as it comes amid a concerning growth in other tick populations across the U.S., primarily due to warmer temperatures and a greater mobility of people and animals.

What you need to know about America's newest tick

There are no U.S. reports yet of human infections from the tick.

Close-up Haemaphysalis longicornis on leaves

An engorged longhorned tick. Photo: Aukid Stock photo

Science

Vector-borne illnesses

A tick species new to the U.S., called the longhorned tick or Haemaphysalis longicornisa. has been found spreading along the East Coast, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="state" data-vars-click-url="https://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/news/hottopics/topics171123.html" data-vars-content-id="8d981b79-2cc3-499e-a14f-79af09486b31" data-vars-headline="What you need to know about America&#x27;s newest tick" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/news/hottopics/topics171123.html" target="_blank">state</a> and <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="federal officials say" data-vars-click-url="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/fs-longhorned-tick.pdf" data-vars-content-id="8d981b79-2cc3-499e-a14f-79af09486b31" data-vars-headline="What you need to know about America&#x27;s newest tick" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/fs-longhorned-tick.pdf" target="_blank">federal officials say</a>.Why it matters: They have the ability to carry serious diseases — sometimes ones <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="causing death" data-vars-click-url="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/10/15-0126_article" data-vars-content-id="8d981b79-2cc3-499e-a14f-79af09486b31" data-vars-headline="What you need to know about America&#x27;s newest tick" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/10/15-0126_article" target="_blank">causing death</a> in other countries — but officials say there have been no reports of human infections in the U.S. yet, per the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="New York Times" data-vars-click-url="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/health/asian-long-horned-tick.html" data-vars-content-id="8d981b79-2cc3-499e-a14f-79af09486b31" data-vars-headline="What you need to know about America&#x27;s newest tick" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/health/asian-long-horned-tick.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>.

Viewers who click on YouTube videos about climate change, climate science and global warming may now see a small pop-up at the bottom of their videos providing facts on the issue at hand, as reported by Zahra Hirji at Buzzfeed News.

Why it matters: YouTube does not make the full list of conspiracies that it wishes to mediate with third-party information publicly available, but Buzzfeed News' reporting shows that climate-related hoaxes are part of that set. 

Climate hoax videos aren't the only target. Disclaimers have also been found on videos published by RT, a Russian television network funded by the Russian government.

The messages will also accompany videos on Dulce Base, Lilla Satsjöbadsavtalet, the 1980 Camarate air crash, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Kecksburg UFO incident, and the MMR vaccine. 

The big picture: Many social media platforms, like YouTube and Facebook in particular, have been criticized for creating news echo-chambers for consumers. 

For example, if a viewer were to watch a video challenging the broadly-accepted scientific consensus on climate change, they would be presented with more videos of a similar vein, with no guarantee of an encounter with accurate scientific material. 

In an effort to get around this problem, while also avoiding making editorial judgement calls to censor some of the content on their platforms, several companies are opting to give users more context around certain topics so they can broaden their perspective.

Still, the efficacy of these efforts, which will be measured in part by clicks on the disclaimers, remains to be seen.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced in March that the site would begin displaying facts from Wikipedia and other third-party sources alongside controversial or hoax videos that challenge widely accepted facts, like the moon landing, details on school shootings, and now climate change. 

Facebook has a similar fact-checking partnership with Wikipedia and other organizations. 

The system isn't perfect, and YouTube and other platforms are still working to refine the effort. 

Buzzfeed News reports that the disclaimers also appear below videos that propagate accurate scientific information about climate change. 

Similarly, a time lag exists between the time a Wikipedia page is updated and when the change appears in the pop-ups.

What's next? YouTube seems to have chosen to use Wikipedia's material without consulting them first, but the two are forging ahead with the experimental partnership nonetheless, according to Engadget.

Editor's note: the photo caption has been corrected to remove a reference to Stossel's statements about climate change.

YouTube uses Wikipedia partnership to combat climate hoaxes

YouTube is using small pop-ups to relay facts on disputed issues like climate change.

A Youtube video of Fox News host Tucker Carlson's show.

Technology

YouTube

Big Tech

Viewers who click on YouTube videos about climate change, climate science and global warming may now see a small pop-up at the bottom of their videos providing facts on the issue at hand, as reported by <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Zahra Hirji at Buzzfeed News" data-vars-click-url="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/youtube-climate-change-denial" data-vars-content-id="c361740e-832b-46e3-9fb0-92b44c8bc005" data-vars-headline="YouTube uses Wikipedia partnership to combat climate hoaxes" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/youtube-climate-change-denial" target="_blank">Zahra Hirji at Buzzfeed News</a>.Why it matters: YouTube does not make the full list of conspiracies that it wishes to mediate with third-party information publicly available, but Buzzfeed News&#x27; reporting shows that climate-related hoaxes are part of that set.

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

NASA is set to launch the first space mission to enter the sun's corona, with the launch slated for Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The big picture: The Parker Solar Probe stands out for just how close to the sun it plans to reach: less than 3.82 million miles away. By comparison, we live a comfortable 93 million miles away from our solar system's star. Assuming a successful launch, the probe will also become the fastest-moving man-made object ever, traveling at 340,000 miles per hour.

Why it matters: At a press conference on Thursday, project scientist Nicola Fox said that engineers and scientists have been waiting 60 years to be able to develop the right technology to build this type of probe. "We know a lot about the sun," she said, but there are key mysteries that will be unsolvable until a spacecraft can reach closer to its surface.

"The corona that we all saw during the total solar eclipse is 300 times hotter than the surface of the sun, and we want to figure out why that’s happening. Why is this atmosphere continually expanding and accelerating away from the star?"

Answering these questions will improve scientific understanding and also help build resiliency on Earth against volatile space weather.

The probe also honors by name Eugene Parker, a 91-year-old solar astrophysicist who developed meaningful (but initially rejected) theories about the solar corona, solar wind and the magnetic fields between Earth and the sun. 

Parker is the first namesake of a mission to be alive at the time of launch, NASA said.

How it works: The probe will encounter incredibly hot temperatures of up to 2,500°F as it travels close to the sun, and extremely cold temperatures on the other end of its orbit as it travels near Venus. Most of the probe is shielded by a 4.5-inch-thick carbon composite foam material "umbrella" that will keep it at tolerable operational temperatures. 

But other parts of the probe will be exposed directly to whatever temperature extremes the spacecraft passes through. Fox said the solar probe cup, which "peeps around the heat shield" is the "bravest" piece of the probe. It's made materials like molybdenum, niobium and tungsten. 

Image: Greg Stanley/Johns Hopkins University

The details: The probe is set to launch at 3:33 AM on Saturday aboard a ULA Delta IV Heavy rocket, but there's a 65 minute launch window in case conditions are not ideal. 

 The probe is 233 feet tall, making it almost as tall as a football field is long. It will gradually shed layers as it travels into outer space. At launch, it weighs approximately 1,400 pounds.

In all, the project has been a long time coming, with thousands of dedicated workers that, by project manager Andy Driesman's calculations, have worked more than 4 million hours over ten years. 

You can watch the launch live on NASA TV here.

NASA's Parker solar probe to launch on a mission to touch the sun

 Parker Solar Probe sits in a clean room on July 6, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, after the installation of its heat shield.

The 233-foot tall probe. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

NASA

U.S. News

Energy

World

Space

NASA is set to launch the first space mission to enter the sun&#x27;s corona, with the launch slated for Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.The big picture: The Parker Solar Probe stands out for just how close to the sun it plans to reach: less than 3.82 million miles away. By comparison, we live a comfortable 93 million miles away from our solar system&#x27;s star. Assuming a successful launch, the probe will also become the fastest-moving man-made object ever, traveling at 340,000 miles per hour.

A look at the scientific breakthroughs changing the world, explorations in space and in worlds beyond our own and the threats posed to us by our own planet, both out of our control and of our own making.

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Henrietta Reily

Stories

NASA's Parker solar probe to launch on a mission to touch the sun

YouTube uses Wikipedia partnership to combat climate hoaxes

Bill Clinton's thriller sells a million copies in two months

New prosecutor in St. Louis County promises criminal justice reform

What you need to know about America's newest tick