The Christian Nationalist Red-Green Scare Has Arrived.
In the Weekly Roundup, Brad Onishi examines how the American Right and MAGA are reacting to Abdul El-Sayed's victory in Michigan by calling him anti-American, communist, socialist, and more. As Brad explains, these rhetorical choices are strategies that correspond to a larger effort by the Trump administration to criminalize dissent. Brad traces the code words used by the American Right against Sayed, Mamdani, and others to NSPM7 and Project Esther.
This is about more than one Senate race in Michigan. It’s about who gets to define what counts as “American,” what kinds of political disagreement are considered legitimate, and what happens when the language of political opposition becomes the language of political persecution. Interview:
During an extraordinary career, Dr. Anthony Fauci led the federal response to HIV-AIDS, SARS, H1N1, Ebola, and Zika. He always advocated funding for pandemic preparedness, vaccine development, immunology and pathogen research. Then came COVID-19, which, unlike outbreaks past, was trapped in a politicized online disinformation and conspiracy-mongering stew.
As he was pushing 80, Fauci rode the dragon of a novel coronavirus pandemic that was leaving piles of bodies in Italy, India, and New York. He served as the interface between scientists, government, and the public, all while learning about the virus in real-time. Like any good public health communicator, he sought to save lives using the best available knowledge. Like any good scientist, he kept an open mind about what was not yet known.
But the pandemic-grievance industry made him the face of a conspiracy theory. Did he cause a catastrophically deadly pandemic, decimate American freedoms, or ruin the economy over a largely harmless flu? Today we discuss the release of his “diaries” and tune into last week's Senate hearings, where crackpots bullied, berated, and slandered the 85-year old public servant. Interview:
0:00 Intro
0:55 Annoying "Sky Evangelist" kicked off airline after scaring everyone with her preaching.
13:03 West Virginia pastor rejects food over LGBTQ support. Now his food bank is empty.
24:46 Missouri Republicans threaten to defund library over books about a rainbow dinosaur and a wig.
34:48 Florida AG threatens to defund Catholic schools unless they loosen vaccination rules.
46:20 Three Texas moms cite "religious freedom" to strike down state's Ten Commandments law.
Lisa Smart, a Liberal Democrat MP and the party’s Cabinet Office spokesperson, said: “Magna Carta aimed to limit the powers of tyrants and said everyone was subject to the rule of law, something for which Trump has repeatedly shown utter contempt.
“We have a proud tradition of liberty and freedom of speech in this country and we don’t need Trump’s Maga money meddling in our democracy.”…
Everybody does textual criticism — including the people who insist it's the devil's work.
This episode we dig into how scholars actually reconstruct the earliest recoverable form of the biblical text: why there's no original manuscript of any biblical book, what a credit-card-sized scrap of John can and can't tell us, and how a single letter in John 1:18 turns a unique Son into a unique God.
Plus, Erasmus back-translating Revelation out of Latin, the verses your Bible quietly dropped, and the paragraph of Samuel that the Dead Sea Scrolls handed back to us.
Interview:
Chapters:
0:00 Cold open
0:45 This week: textual criticism
1:59 KJV onlyism pushes back
3:11 Truth versus certainty
4:08 The KJV's own textual criticism
5:01 It started with Homer
6:00 The earliest recoverable text
7:17 No originals survive
8:33 The Hebrew Bible gap
10:17 Qumran and Origen's Hexapla
11:50 Erasmus and seven manuscripts
14:03 When it became a science
14:27 The harder reading wins
15:49 John 1:18: Son or God
20:00 The shorter reading rule
21:12 Griesbach, Lachmann, and after
23:40 The 1881 Revised Version
25:33 Verses added later
26:38 Diplomatic versus eclectic
28:48 Haplography and dittography
31:43 A lost paragraph in Samuel
32:52 Conjectural emendations
33:53 Wrap-up and thanks
Zephaniah is only three chapters long, and it comes out swinging: God announces plans to sweep every living thing off the face of the earth, and it escalates from there.
This episode, we're going cover to cover through one of the twelve minor prophets: what "the day of the Lord" meant before there was such a thing as eschatology, who exactly the "host of heaven" are, and why "minor" has nothing to do with quality.
Then, after forty verses of unrelenting devastation, the book pivots to "sing aloud, O daughter Zion" — so who tacked on the happy ending, and why?
Chapters:
0:00 Zephaniah, Cover to Cover
1:09 Three Chapters, No Mercy
2:06 What "-iah" Actually Means
3:53 Why "Minor" Prophets?
4:58 Dating It to Josiah
6:22 Later Editors at Work
7:48 Sweeping Away Everything
10:12 Baal, Milcom, and Rooftops
11:43 The Host of Heaven
12:54 Deuteronomy's Divine Council
15:07 The Day of the Lord
17:04 The Book's Three Movements
19:40 Oracles Against the Nations
21:15 Converting the Dead
23:19 No Messiah Here
24:18 Who Added the Happy Ending?
25:34 A Prophecy That Failed
27:51 Nobody Weaponizes Zephaniah
28:57 The Great Horned Omen
30:36 Wrap-Up
On July 30, 2026, philosopher Scott Coley interviewed me at a book event at Nooks Gallery & Book Shop in Lancaster, PA. The crowd was positive and supportive of The Christian Past That Wasn't and separation of church and state as a principle.
Scott covered several of the book's myths and allowed me to expand on the reasons why people are attracted to Christian nationalist stories. We covered just a few of the stories and concluded with a reading about a white man's history.
If you have read the book and enjoyed it, this will be a great supplement to that experience.
In this episode of It’s In the Code, Dan Miller tackles a question from a Jewish listener that cuts to the heart of Christian theology: if Jesus established a new covenant that fulfilled the Old Testament law, why do so many conservative Christians continue to rely on Old Testament verses to make moral arguments?
Dan explores the New Testament's teaching on grace, the Apostle Paul’s insistence that Christians are no longer bound by the Jewish law, and the complicated relationship Christians have with the Hebrew Bible.
Along the way, he explains why many conservative Christians selectively appeal to Old Testament commandments—especially on issues like sexuality—while disregarding countless other laws they believe no longer apply.
MS NOW senior reporter Brandy Zadrozny spent 10 months tracking the conspiracy theories that evolved online in the wake of the death of Charlie Kirk. She joins Derek to discuss what her investigation found.
After reporting problems created by — as well as victories against — Christian nationalism, we hear the co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaking at the third annual Congressional Reason Reception in Washington, D.C., co-sponsored by FFRF.
Progressive Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed won his Michigan primary this week, sending a strong message to the Democratic party establishment that backed his opponent.
Dr. Anthony Fauci was found in contempt of Congress on Thursday. The vote by the Senate Homeland Security Committee came after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right over 100 times during a recent hearing.
And reports indicate the U.S. missile stockpile is running low. President Trump and the Pentagon have denied the story.
Illegal settler activity is expanding across the occupied West Bank. And this week Israeli prosecutors charged a Jewish settler over the killing of a Palestinian community leader – the first such indictment in nearly three years.
Following a rush of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta, the Spanish prime minister is facing criticism from other European Union leaders over his country’s immigration policy.
And Russia is overhauling its military strategy, taking advantage of Ukraine’s current lack of missile interceptors. Interview:
In at least 15 applications for search warrants, an investigator with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said Fort had been chanting with protesters when they entered the church, her lawyers said. The justice department later conceded the claim was false. The error was insignificant, justice department lawyers later argued, because it ultimately didn’t make it into the indictment that they filed...
Oil is used to make plastics and petrochemicals, so higher prices are already starting to work their way into the cost of everything from stuffed animals, diapers, and baby wipes to crayons, bottled water, soft drinks, and clothing...
Critics decry proposed hyperscale projects, fearing overuse of water and electricity, and ‘appropriating rural, Black-owned land for industrial purposes’…
It was the second month in a row that the monthly jobs tally came in weaker than forecasters had expected.
"We are increasingly hearing from workers that they are anxious about their job security and they are frustrated by the fact that they are stuck in roles that are not necessarily good for them," said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at the job search website Glassdoor. "And that's on top of workers who are not in a job right now and feel frozen out of the job market."
Iran's parliament is reviewing a plan to ban ships linked to the U.S., Israel and other "hostile countries" from transiting the Strait of Hormuz until Tehran is compensated for war damage, according to Iranian state media.
The plan would impose fees of up to 7% of cargo value on commercial vessels that pass through the strait. It would also fine ships 20% of cargo if they violate Iran's conditions...
Judge Bryan Biedscheid said the bulk of the money – $420m – would be used for treatment services for young people in New Mexico. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years...
The letter from lawmakers to Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins cites a recent ProPublica investigation that found hundreds of therapists have left the agency and vets often aren’t getting the help they need...
“Trump’s declaration that big oil is ‘making too much money’ belies his accommodation and giveaways to the industry that have enabled its price-gouging – not to mention his disaster of a war of choice against Iran,” said Tyson Slocum, energy program director at consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen. “But like a broken clock that’s correct twice a day, the president is right that oil companies are ‘making too much money’, which means Trump should endorse a windfall profits tax.”…
This week, voters here in Michigan chose a man named Abdul El-Sayed to be Michigan's Democratic Senate candidate. Like him, don't like him. Like his policies, don't like his policies. Vote for him in November, don't vote for him. Your choice. But don't fall for the BS and demonize him because of his name.
Recently, we published our investigation that found one answer to that question in a little-known bureau of the State Department that has dramatically transformed under Trump. For decades, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, known as DRL, has supported human rights in some of the most oppressive countries in the world. Now, our reporting found, it’s planning to direct funds to controversial groups supporting right-wing causes in Europe and elsewhere…
The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday said the orders were another unconstitutional attempt to undo birthright citizenship after the administration’s defeat at the supreme court in June.
“The supreme court already decided this issue: birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the constitution,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one.”…
In a historic vote on Thursday morning, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines to overturn a key check against the consolidation of the television industry, throwing out a rule that prevented any one company from owning stations that collectively reach more than 39% of all US TV households.
The vote is a win for television conglomerates that aim to expand their reach across the country, particularly conservative-leaning companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar...
“The easiest and cheapest way for our opposition to stop our initiative to get money out of politics before facing Michigan voters at the ballot is by defeating us in court,” she said. “We are confident we are going to prevail and this is expected.”…
"The department will continue to monitor the situation closely and inform Michigan families if conditions change, or if signals are detected that suggest additional contaminated products have entered the food supply."…
The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 on Thursday to wipe out a longstanding limit restricting the reach of any one TV station owner to no more than 39 percent of U.S. households, setting the stage for bigger broadcast mergers in the years to come.
But the FCC is also bound to face court challenges, with many detractors arguing the agency is treading past its own statutory limits and warning about the potential ills of media consolidation...
Anduril, launched just nine years ago, has emerged as a major military contractor for the Trump administration, working on contracts for everything from drones to autonomous jet fighters to space-based interceptors.
In March, the US army awarded a $20bn sole-source contract to Anduril for a variety of drones it sells, though it is not clear which of its weapons systems are operational or have been deployed for combat in US operations.
Anduril, though it is not widely known as a space contractor, announced in May it would work, with a team of other companies, on what may be the mother of all contracting opportunities offered by the Trump administration, the so-called “Golden Dome” anti-missile space-based interceptor effort. Estimates for the Golden Dome range between $185bn and $1.2tn...
“This is just another example of boys gone wild, tearing loose from the mores of procedure, regular order, constitutional doctrine to vindicate some political vendetta,” Brand said. “And it’s going to fail like all the others have failed.”…
Hard Line on Payments: In her two years in the role, Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill has opposed almost all compensation claims by wrongfully convicted people.
Freed After Four Decades: Elvis Brooks’ murder conviction was thrown out after a prosecutor admitted he hid potentially exonerating evidence. Murrill maintains he’s guilty.
A Higher Bar: Twenty-three people have sought compensation after judges threw out their convictions. Murrill has asserted that 22 have failed to sufficiently prove their innocence…
Dr. Anthony Fauci recently invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during a contentious Senate hearing about the COVID-19 pandemic. Does that suggest wrongdoing—or has one scientist become a convenient scapegoat for an extraordinarily complex global crisis?
In this episode of From Bench to Bedside, Dr. Melanie Matheu and Dr. Zachary Rubin examine Fauci’s scientific legacy, the mistakes made during the pandemic, and the difference between legitimate criticism and political theater.
We discuss:
• Why no single person controlled America’s pandemic response
• What public-health officials got wrong about masks and messaging
• The vaccine reactions Zach actually encountered in clinical practice
• Fauci’s complicated but consequential role during the HIV/AIDS crisis
• The evidence surrounding a laboratory leak versus natural spillover
• What gain-of-function research actually means
• Why lockdowns were intended to prevent hospitals from collapsing
• How social-media misinformation overwhelmed public-health communication
• What we should be learning before the next pandemic arrives
The COVID-19 response deserves serious, evidence-based scrutiny. But meaningful accountability requires examining the entire system—not blaming every national, state, local, hospital, school, and law-enforcement decision on one person.
*CHAPTERS*
00:00 – We’re back—and there is a lot to discuss
02:24 – Fauci’s Senate testimony and the Fifth Amendment
04:05 – Fauci’s background in science and medicine
06:55 – Pandemic decisions were a team effort
11:18 – The personal and emotional toll of COVID-19
13:38 – COVID vaccine adverse events explained
17:15 – Fauci, HIV/AIDS, and changing scientific evidence
21:10 – Masks, shortages, and failed public messaging
25:55 – The lab-leak hypothesis versus natural spillover
29:08 – What gain-of-function research actually means
33:35 – Why pandemic preparedness still matters
35:18 – Why hospitals overflowed and lockdowns occurred
38:02 – Social-media misinformation and collapsing trust
40:34 – The pandemic’s lasting impact on patients and clinicians
42:25 – What history should remember about the response
43:28 – Cyclospora and upcoming episodes
A report from the Government Accountability Office found that the cost-cutting operation counted savings it didn’t secure and criticized its opaque methodology...
“After trying and failing to defund it altogether, Trump is putting the program to the torch by rolling back federal standards that ensure Head Start be high quality,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor earlier this week.
And Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee who has long been supportive of Head Start, said removing regulations could increase class sizes and lead to fewer services.
"[I]f this administration later points to struggling students as proof Head Start does not work, we should all understand what this is – a self-inflicted wound used to justify another round of cuts,” DeLauro said in a statement Wednesday…
With the victory of progressive Abdul El-Sayed over representative Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic primary, prepare yourself to hear enormous quantities of bullshit about the Democratic party now being “taken over” by the “left” or by “democratic socialists”.
Or as the reliably establishment New York Times put it: “Can an insurgent candidate, with unabashedly liberal positions, win a general election in a moderate state?”
Oh, p-l-e-a-s-e.
Michigan Democrats didn’t choose El-Sayed because he’s “unabashedly liberal”. Or because he’s a democratic socialist (in fact, he’s not)…
The Democrats argue that Trump’s decision on his first day back in office to rescind sanctions imposed on more than 30 settlers and organisations linked to violence has had profound consequences.
“Ending sanctions against those individuals and entities associated with West Bank extremism sent a clear message,” they write. “Settlers can use violent and deadly force with impunity against Palestinians and Americans while seizing land … and no one will face consequences.”…
Even as the move may protect U.S. solar companies, it risks upsetting a fragile status quo on trade ahead of Trump’s planned Sept. 24 meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The Chinese government this week instituted export controls in response to U.S. efforts to restrict trade from certain industries dominated by China...
The legislation would impose a levy on leading AI companies and channel the proceeds into a new Work Protection Administration for displaced workers...
I grew up evangelical. If you'd asked me back then, "are you religious?" — I would have said no. Not because I didn't believe in God, prayer, the Bible, salvation. I believed all of it. I would have said no because in evangelical culture, "religious" is basically an insult. It means you're going through the motions. It means you don't have the real thing.
It took me years — and a PhD studying the ancient world — to notice that this isn't just a quirk of vocabulary. It's a defense mechanism. And once you see it, you start seeing it everywhere: in how evangelicals talk about "conservative Bible scholars" as if that's a neutral category, in how they treat historians who study the resurrection, in how they frame prayer as something categorically different from what every other religious person on earth does when they pray.
In this video I break down the two core strategies evangelicalism uses to avoid admitting it's a religion like any other: rewriting history and science to make faith look like the product of neutral inquiry, and rebranding ordinary religious experience — hearing from God, feeling saved — as a unique phenomenon nobody else has access to. Both strategies point to the same underlying fear, and understanding it will change how you read a huge amount of apologetics, online debate, and evangelical self-description.
You know it makes sense!
Gods are silly.
Come and discuss!
Timestamps
00:18:22 – Icearic – Argues that a creator makes more sense than the Big Bang, but struggles to explain why God is a better explanation than “I don’t know”; discussion covers atheism, burden of proof, cosmology, and God-of-the-gaps reasoning.
00:33:03 – Progress of Addiction – Brings up an apologetic video claiming God exists outside space, time, and matter; the hosts argue that a timeless God could not think, act, or create, and the caller ends by appealing to a personal supernatural encounter.
00:39:12 – Ghost – Debates time, gravity, creation, DNA, abiogenesis, and whether humans being unable to fully recreate life would point to God; the hosts and Dr. Digg challenge the science and call it an argument from personal incredulity.
00:49:03 – Dr. Digg – Joins during Ghost’s call to explain that humans can synthesize DNA and that abiogenesis discussions are more complicated than “we cannot create life, therefore God.”
00:54:01 – Isaac – Asks about agnostic versus atheist labels; the hosts explain agnostic atheism as lacking belief in God while remaining open to evidence.
01:02:03 – Silas – Friendly caller is briefly brought in, then redirected to the new after-hours stream because this show is focused on debate.
01:07:49 – Daniel – Recently deconverted caller from Switzerland asks about the apparent size match between the sun and moon and speculates about ancient civilizations; the hosts explain coincidence, scale, and why it is not evidence of design.
01:13:22 – Flash – Christian caller says he cannot empirically prove God but has the testimony of the Holy Ghost; discussion covers salvation, faith, God revealing himself, free will, and whether God is unwilling or unable to establish a relationship with nonbelievers.
01:24:31 – Sinner/Saint – Tries to use Jung, subjectivity, the inner self, Einstein, quantum ideas, and thermodynamics to challenge atheism; the hosts push back on his definitions, claims about atheists, and misuse of Einstein’s God language.
01:53:33 – Various – Physicist is introduced as someone who can help with physics claims, especially thermodynamics, entropy, and early-universe arguments.
01:57:24 – Chris – Friendly caller asks about the new debate-only format versus the upcoming open after-hours format, then agrees to return on a Friday.
02:12:06 – Aaron – Deconstructing caller clarifies Einstein’s Spinoza-style God, then discusses Christianity, personal experiences, a suicide attempt, Bible contradictions, and memories that still keep him emotionally tethered to belief.
02:21:40 – Morgart Studio – Friendly TikTok caller joins by mistake, says she is on the hosts’ side, and is redirected to the after-hours show.
02:23:22 – Reason – Accidental/unclear caller struggles to form a point about energy, karma, yin-yang, and things happening for a reason; the hosts move on when the call does not connect to the topic.
02:26:58 – Matthew Davids – Debates atheism, agnosticism, knowledge, God as a cause outside space and time, infinite regress, and thermodynamics; Dr. Digg/Various is referenced as a better source for physics issues.
02:51:52 – Christopher – Thoughtful Catholic return caller asks what “belief is not a choice” means; discussion covers doxastic involuntarism, hell, free will, God revealing himself, heaven, salvation, and honest nonbelief.
03:28:03 – Rowando – Challenges the claim that belief is not a choice; discussion turns on whether accepting, choosing, and being convinced are the same thing, with the hosts using Superman-style belief tests.
03:45:19 – Nomad – Modern theist asks why atheism makes more sense; discussion covers lack of evidence, probability, belief thresholds, disbelief, and whether God should be treated differently from other unsupported claims.
03:58:56 – Joe – First attempt fails because the microphone/audio is not working; the hosts ask him to reconnect.
04:01:14 – Joe (return 2) – Muslim caller agrees belief is not a choice and explains an Islamic view where people without sufficient evidence receive another test; discussion covers Quranic punishment verses, sincere nonbelief, and why lack of belief means evidence was not sufficient.
04:17:14 – Son of Tarkata – Discusses whether religious belief is an evolutionary byproduct, pattern detection, agency detection, afterlife beliefs, and whether recurring human belief points to truth.
04:42:28 – Brian – Seen in the queue but redirected to the after-hours show rather than brought into the debate stream.
04:43:14 – Richard Beggs – Argues for creationism from consciousness and personal experience; discussion covers brains, animal consciousness, evolution, bipolar experience, and cross-cultural spiritual patterns.
04:56:44 – John Damon – Philosophy-interested caller criticizes “new atheists” as disconnected from philosophy of religion, then softens after discussion of evidence, God claims, and whether the hosts understand the arguments.
05:05:17 – Caleb – Christian caller challenges atheism versus agnosticism, asks for the best argument against the Bible, and debates Jesus, Old Testament violence, the problem of evil, thermodynamics, and the burden of proof.
05:29:58 – A Cadian – Friendly/mod caller requests by mistake, jokes briefly, and is redirected to the after-hours show.
05:30:45 – Rowando (return 2) – Returns to continue the belief-choice argument, but again refuses the “choose to believe the building will collapse” test and is dropped when the discussion repeats.
05:39:49 – Abbe – Shia Muslim caller asks why atheism makes more sense, describes struggling to accept a purely material view, and discusses personal incredulity, origin questions, and why gaps in science are not evidence for God.
05:50:18 – Lavi – Christian caller argues the Christian paradigm best explains reality and asks for the best argument against the Bible; the hosts challenge biblical violence, Christ as God, suffering, and the problem of babies with cancer.
06:07:17 – Lavi (return 2) – Returns after being dropped but still avoids answering why an all-powerful God allows or gives babies cancer, leading to another quick drop.
06:08:13 – Lavi (return 3) – Returns again to challenge the wording of “God gives babies cancer,” but the hosts argue that an all-powerful God is responsible for the state of the universe.
06:12:42 – Gado – Claims he can answer why God gives babies cancer, arguing from obscure Christian teachings that conception at forbidden times gives demons authority over children; the hosts condemn the idea as morally horrific.
06:32:43 – TX Postgrad – Polite Christian caller asks whether believers can be smarter than atheists, then discusses evolution, science, books versus evidence, common ancestry, humility before God, and why many deconverts sincerely sought God and got silence.
07:02:11 – Knowledge Is Power / Joe – Friendly caller agrees with the hosts that religious doctrine can make people justify suffering, then is redirected because the stream is meant for debate.
07:10:59 – Norbz – Theist caller first compliments the hosts, then argues from the Big Bang, Bible belief, and personal answered prayers; discussion covers atheism, gaps in knowledge, Exodus, foreskins, biblical inerrancy, and the call ends by kill switch.
07:41:01 – Wrap-up – After Norbz, the hosts react to his lack of Bible familiarity, read final super chats, joke about the “fruit incident” in Eden and Bacon and Bush’s corrected name, praise the stream’s wild caller lineup, review the call-rating leaderboard with Knowledge Is Power as best conversation and Lavi as worst, announce the next after-hours stream, thank the mods and viewers, mention 124k TikTok likes, and close by thanking Sean. Interview:
Supporters of the referendum had submitted hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in an effort to force a November election on whether to use a new US House map approved by the Republican-led state legislature. But the Republican secretary of state, Denny Hoskins, asserted on Tuesday that the petition was void because congressional redistricting plans cannot be subject to voter referendums…
“Secretary of State Hoskins is making a last desperate attempt to silence the people’s voice in Missouri,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said in a statement, while asserting there were more than enough signatures to qualify the referendum for the ballot.
Now, however, authorities are trying to keep traffic flowing on the Danube, which flows through 10 nations, as the dropping water levels create dangerous conditions. Experts have linked the unusually hot weather to global warming and other factors.
Krsta Brandic, a Prahovo resident, said the low water levels have almost stopped ship traffic: "As you can see, the (big) ships can't pass anymore."…
