Saturday 11.26.22

 NEWSLINKS:

• Empty Beijing streets as COVID cases hit record (Reuters)

• With record covid cases, China scrambles to plug an immunity gap (WP)

• After a year, omicron still driving COVID surges and worries (AP)

• New subvariants, family gatherings may bring more Covid-19 after holiday, but experts don’t expect severe surge (CNN)

• Under Missile Strikes, Ukrainians Haul Water, While Surgeons Work in the Dark (NYT)

• Merkel: There was nothing I could do about Putin (Politico)

• Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine is pushing out one of Russia's biggest tech giants (Insider)

• The Future of American Warfare Is Unfolding in Ukraine Aid to Ukrainian forces is achieving more than the long U.S. intervention in Afghanistan did. (Atlantic)

• United States Enters a New Era of Direct Confrontation With Iran (NYT)

• Afghans are bracing for a winter many fear will be even worse than the last (NPR)

• How did we end up in a world where Trump wanders about doing whatever he wants and nobody is shocked? (Guardian)

• Schumer proposes Dem leadership shake-up (Politico)

• Biden said his administration was involved in negotiations to avert a looming U.S. railroad strike that could shut down supply chains across the country. A rail traffic stoppage could freeze almost 30% of U.S. cargo shipments by weight. (Reuters)

• Six million Americans carried guns daily in 2019, twice as many as in 2015 (Guardian)

• Elon Musk said he plans to bring back all banned Twitter accounts.The reversal would begin next week, according to the platform’s new owner. Users are banned for things like violent threats, harassment, abuse and misinformation. (WP)

• Twitter has lost 50 of its top 100 advertisers since Elon Musk took over, report says (NPR)

• 525-million-year-old fossil defies textbook explanation for brain evolution (Phys.org)

• Avian flu has wiped out 50.54 million birds in the United States this year, making it the country's deadliest outbreak in history, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed. The deaths of chickens, turkeys and other birds represent the worst U.S. animal-health disaster to date. (Reuters)

• Maya Lin’s Vietnam memorial blazed a path in 1982, but no one followed (WP)

• An Ancient Language, Once on the Brink, Is a British Isle’s Talk of the Town (NYT)

• There’s Some Big College Football Game in Columbus, If You Care (WSJ)

• The World Cup's New High-Tech Ball Will Change Soccer Forever (538)

• Failure To Get Into Private College To Be Most Financially Responsible Act Of 17-Year-Old’s Life (The Onion)

Top News (11/25/22)

 News Links:

• China’s Covid cases hit record as dissent grows over tough restrictions (CNN)

• Beijing adds new COVID quarantine centers, sparking panic buying (NPR)

• There is now an imminent threat of measles spreading in various regions globally, as COVID led to a steady decline in vaccination coverage and weakened surveillance of the disease, the World Health Organization and the U.S. public health agency said. (Reuters)

• Bombed, not beaten: Ukraine’s capital flips to survival mode (AP)

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy demanded the United Nations punish Russia for air strikes on civilian infrastructure, after a missile barrage caused the worst nationwide power outages yet, plunging cities into freezing darkness. (Reuters)

• Ukraine’s energy systems are on the brink of collapse. Russia has intensely bombed key infrastructure for six weeks. (WP)

• Weapons industry booms as Eastern Europe arms Ukraine (Reuters)

• Russian Missile Barrage Cuts Power and Water Across Ukraine (NYT)

• Foxconn offers to pay workers to leave world’s largest iPhone factory after violent protests (CNN)

• Trump aides Bannon, Miller advising Bolsonaro’s inner circle on next steps in Brazil (WP)

• Afghanistan: Taliban’s cruel return to hardline practices with public floggings must be halted immediately (Amnesty)

• Afghanistan: 'I drug my hungry children to help them sleep' (BBC)

• Hunger fears stalk Afghanistan as winter arrives (Yahoo)

• Mass killing at Walmart restarts ritual of horror and grief in Virginia (WP)

• Shooting at Walmart in Virginia Adds to Nation’s Grim Gun Toll (NYT)

• Walmart shooting raises need for violence prevention at work (AP)

• After three major shootings in less than two weeks, a nation copes with collective trauma (WP)

• Trump’s Legal Problems All Converged Into One Day of Spectacular Failures (Daily Beast)

• Twitter, others slip on removing hate speech, EU review says (AP)

• What Were Elon Musk’s Lenders Thinking? (Atlantic)

• Democrat Mary Peltola, the 1st Alaska Native in Congress, wins a full term (NPR)

• Justice Dept. Seeking to Question Pence in Jan. 6 Investigation (NYT)

• New data on ‘hot Saturn’ exoplanet is a ‘game changer,’ scientists say (CNN)

• NASA’s Mars rover dug up clues in the hunt for alien life. Martian rocks that have the right chemical recipe to preserve evidence of ancient life on the planet, if it ever existed, according to new studies. (WP)

• Jail Is a Death Sentence for a Growing Number of Americans (NYT)

• Man Keeps Rock For Years, Hoping It's Gold. It Turns Out to Be Far More Valuable (ScienceAlert)

• App Knows It’s Gone Next Time Man Needs Space For Photos (The Onion)

Happy Thanksgiving

Thank you to everyone who reads this little newsletter. I am very grateful to you. May you have a happy, healthy Thanksgiving!

• For Ukraine, So Much Unexpected Success, and Yet So Far to Go (NYT)

• Ukraine war: Power cuts across the country and in Moldova as missiles hit (BBC)

• Ukrainian energy systems on brink of collapse after weeks of Russian bombing (WP)

• Missiles for Poland Raise Questions on NATO Stance in Ukraine War (NYT)

• Flow of Russian gas and cash entangled one German state in a dependent web (WP)

• Supreme Court clears way for House to get Trump’s taxes (CNN)

• Appeals panel grills Trump lawyer over FBI search of Mar-a-Lago (WP)

• Donald Trump reported losses of nearly $1 billion over 2-year period, accountant says (ABC)

• Republicans have asked Georgia’s highest state court to overturn a ruling that will allow early voting to take place Saturday, 10 days before the Dec. 6 Senate runoff election between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. The Republican groups behind the appeal claim only “Democrat-leaning” counties plan to conduct early voting. [HuffPost]

• FTX was run as a "personal fiefdom" of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, attorneys for the collapsed crypto exchange said in its first bankruptcy hearing as they detailed ongoing challenges such as hacks and substantial missing assets. (Reuters)

• Senators alarmed over potential Chinese drone spy threat (Politico)

• Scotland blocked from holding independence vote by UK’s Supreme Court (CNN)

• Taliban lash 12 people before stadium crowd in Afghanistan (ABC)

• In Afghanistan’s shadowy new conflict, new displacement and new civilian abuses (New Humanitarian)

• The Crime Spike Is No Mystery (Atlantic)

• UN: Children in Haiti hit by cholera as malnutrition rises (AP)

• Walmart Chesapeake shooting: Manager opens fire in break room, killing six (Reuters)

• Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried-Up Mississippi River (Smithsonian)

• A Lasting Legacy of Covid: Far-Right Platforms Spreading Health Myths (NYT)

• Mars rover digs up intriguing clues in the hunt for life beyond Earth (WP)

• Cash-Flush FIFA Executives Note Every World Cup Host Has Had Slaves At One Point (The Onion)

 

Pie-Making

 

11/23/22 Headlines

• Supreme Court declines to block release of Trump tax returns to Congress (CBS)

• Previous charges, an assault-style rifle and a red flag law: More questions emerge about the Colorado Springs LGBTQ club shooting suspect (CNN)

• McConnell fight with GOP opponent shifts to new battleground (The Hill)

• Lindsey Graham testifies before Georgia grand jury in election probe (WP)

• Progressive Activists Ready Campaign to Counter New House G.O.P. Majority (NYT)

• Georgia court declines to halt Saturday early runoff voting (AP)

• Biden administration to extend payment pause on student loans until after June or when legal challenges resolve (CNBC)

• Accountant testifies Trump claimed decade of huge tax losses (AP)

• GOP downplays its Trump wing on the world stage (Politico)

• FTX Lawyer Says Substantial Amount of Assets Missing (WSJ)

• Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX, his parents and senior executives of the failed cryptocurrency exchange bought at least 19 properties worth nearly $121 million in the Bahamas over the past two years, official property records show. (Reuters)

• If the Supreme Court continues to suggest it's not serious about policing itself, Congress will step in, warned top Democrats on the House and Senate judiciary committees. They want Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to comply with an investigation into the court's ethics scandals. [HuffPost]

• Advertisers are dropping Twitter. Musk can’t afford to lose any more. (WP)

• Twitter has fired even more sales staff members as staff cuts approach 66 percent. (SFC)

• The personal Twitter account of extremist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was reinstated nearly a year after it was “permanently suspended” for violating the social media platform’s policies on COVID-19 misinformation. She did not immediately tweet from her reinstated profile, but acknowledged the decision on her congressional Twitter account. [HuffPost]

• Russia still controls about 17% of Ukrainian territory, mainly in the east and south, and both sides are gearing up to keep fighting well into next year. (WP)

• Harsh winter looms as Russian attacks hobble Ukraine's power capacity (Reuters)

• Critics lament exclusion of Afghanistan from COP27 (Al Jazeera)

• Why States Were Unprepared for the Sports-Betting Onslaught (NYT)

• 'Love Actually' Cast to Reunite for ABC Special as Holiday Classic Turns 20 (People)

• Twins born from embryos frozen 30 years ago (BBC)

• Enjoy the Last Michigan-Ohio State Clash That Could Actually Mean Something (SI)

• NASA’s Orion spacecraft reached the moon. The capsule passed within 81 miles of the lunar surface in an orbit around the moon, five days after launching from the Kennedy Space Center. (WP)

• Biography traces public support for J. Edgar Hoover in most of his 48 years in power (NPR)

• Phone Call With Dad Just Watered-Down Version Of Phone Call With Mom (The Onion)

 

11/22/22 Headlines

Note: During this holiday period, I will be publishing curated headline lists every day and essays occasionally .

NEWSLINKS:

• Democrats slam Kevin McCarthy over his vow to remove them from committees (NBC)

• Why the GOP's Biden probes could backfire (Politico)

• A Red Wave In Florida.A Blue Riptide In Michigan. (538)

• Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates has been moved to an “undisclosed” location amid safety fears over blowback linked to losers in the midterm elections in Arizona, according to the local Fox News station. There’s no evidence of any significant fraud in the elections. [HuffPost]

• Progressives, once skeptical of Biden, rally around his chief of staff (Politico)

• The Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which overturned the abortion rights precedent set in 1973 in Roe v. Wade, threw a wrench in Republican plans for a "red wave" in the midterm elections. And it ain't over yet, writes Paul Blumenthal. [HuffPost]

• Key Freight Rail Union Rejects Deal, Increasing Strike Risk (NYT)

• Was it sedition? Jan. 6 trial a major test for Justice Dept. (AP)

• Tensions bubbled to the surface at the first major gathering of possible Republican 2024 presidential candidates this weekend as party members voiced a desire to move on from Donald Trump, though even his detractors wondered if that would be possible. (Reuters)

• Trump in apparent Twitter snub after Musk lifts ban (Guardian)

• How Elon Musk’s Twitter Faces Mountain of Debt, Falling Revenue and Surging Costs (WSJ)

• 'Close call' in shelling near nuclear reactor on Ukraine's frontline (Reuters)

• Angry families say Russian conscripts thrown to front line unprepared (WP)

• Ukraine to civilians: Leave liberated areas before winter (AP)

• Magnitude 5.6 earthquake leaves at least 162 dead in Indonesia (CNN)

• Inside the Saudi Strategy to Keep the World Hooked on Oil (NYT)

• World still ‘on brink of climate catastrophe’ after Cop27 deal (Guardian)

• Taliban-led Supreme Court says 19 people lashed in northeastern Afghanistan (Reuters)

• Red Cross: Afghans will struggle for their lives this winter (AP)

• At Least 5 Dead and 25 Injured in Gunman’s Rampage at an L.G.B.T.Q. Club in Colorado (NYT)

• Nasa's Artemis spacecraft arrives at the Moon (BBC)

• How cooking food and gathering for feasts made us human (AP)

• Hidden audits reveal millions in overcharges by Medicare Advantage plans (NPR)

• Hospitals across the country are overwhelmed. A swarm of respiratory illnesses (RSV, coronavirus and flu), staffing shortages, and nursing home closures are combining to strain an already overburdened health-care system. (WP)

• MRI Reveals Significant Brain Abnormalities Post-COVID (Neuroscience News)

• The Judge and the Case That Came Back to Haunt Him (NYT Mag)

• Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel is reviewing "serious allegations" reported by The New York Times that a former anti-abortion leader knew in advance the outcome of a 2014 Supreme Court case involving contraception coverage. Justice Samuel Alito is the author of the majority opinion in the 2014 case at the center of the new report. Alito also wrote the abortion opinion that leaked in May. [AP]

• Elon Musk Criticized For Firing So Many Employees Rather Than Spending Decades Grinding Them Down (The Onion)

 

Killing the Messenger

A recent article in the Washington Post, “Online mobs are now coming for student journalists,” tells the story a young reporter at the University of Arizona who was targeted for abuse after publishing a critical profile of a fellow student’s TikTok posts.

The student journalist received thousands of hateful messages including death threats from fans of the TikTokker. They came in to her cellphone and were scary enough that she no longer feels safe walking across campus.

The article notes that harassment of student journalists across the country appears to have reached new levels in the age of social media. 

I’m sure this is probably true. But it is also the case that the best young journalists just starting out their careers on campus newspapers have always been vulnerable to threats and harassment. Well over 50 years ago now, my closest colleagues on the Michigan Daily were the targets of abuse after publishing an expose of the University of Michigan’s athletic department.

Their investigation led to the first-ever NCAA probe of the university’s practices, a major embarrassment at the time.

The point is that when journalists of any age do our jobs well we act as watchdogs on power, and we often are on the front line of exposing potential abuses of power, whether by institutions or individuals. This work often angers others and the consequences often include threats and harassment. You get used to it over the course of a career, but that doesn’t make it justifiable.

What happened to the reporter in Arizona is unacceptable. University officials should have spoken out forcefully against it much earlier than they did. Young journalists in particular need to be protected and encouraged to stay with the profession despite its risks and hazards.

But what happened in that case is not an exception but the rule — large elements of society continue to kill the messenger ( or at least threaten to kill her) when she is the bearer of bad news.

And bad news is mostly what journalists have to offer when we are doing our job well. In fact that is what’s protected under the concept known as Freedom of the Press.

NEWSLINKS:

• Online mobs are now coming for student journalists (WP)

• COP27 delivers climate fund breakthrough at cost of progress on emissions (Reuters)

• U.N. negotiators reach deal to help vulnerable nations with climate disasters (WP)

• COP27: Climate costs deal struck but no fossil fuel progress (BBC)

• Ex-Twitter employees are horrified by Elon Musk reinstating Donald Trump’s account: ‘Incredibly upsetting’ (Fortune)

• Biden, turning 80, faces an age-old question: How old is too old to be president? (NPR)

• Trump won’t magically disappear. Republicans will have to purge him. (WP)

• ‘It’s on the tape’: Bob Woodward on Donald Trump’s ‘criminal behavior’ (Guardian)

• Cigars, Booze, Money: How a Lobbying Blitz Made Sports Betting Ubiquitous (NYT)

• U.S. lawmakers to foreign allies: Midterm results show our democracy is safe (Politico)

• Nancy Pelosi was really, really good at her job (Vox)

• Despite dangerous pregnancy complications, abortions denied (AP)

• The End of Vaccines at ‘Warp Speed’ (NYT)

• There have been more than 600 mass shootings so far this year (WP)

• Renewed shelling threatens key Ukrainian nuclear plant (AP)

• Stressed-Out Americans Plan to Buy Fewer Christmas Gifts, Donate Less to Charity (WSJ)

• The tilt in our stars: The shape of the Milky Way's halo of stars is realized (Phys.org)

• VIDEO: EarthCam Video Shows Meteor Flying Over Toronto (EarthCam)

• College football winners and losers: Kickers save TCU and Michigan (WP)

• World Cup gets underway with stakes high for host Qatar (Reuters)

• Man Uses Weekend To Make Totally Different Mistakes Than He Did During Workweek (The Onion)

 

Curated News List

LINKS:

• DOJ announces special counsel for Trump-related Mar-a-Lago and January 6 criminal investigations (CNN)

• War-crimes expert joins Justice Dept. Trump probes (Reuters)

• Elon Musk restores Donald Trump’s Twitter account (CNN)

• Pelosi’s 5 Rules for Reigning Over Congress (Politico)

• Nancy Pelosi, a hate figure to right and left, is a political virtuoso who defined her era (Guardian)

• Gunman kills 5 at LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs before patrons confront and stop him, police say (CNN)

• How Democracy Survived the Midterm Elections (Reveal)

• As Republicans take the House, the crazies take the wheel (WP)

• Elon Musk Starts Twitter Poll On Reinstating Donald Trump’s Twitter Account Live (CNN)

• Musk summons engineers to Twitter HQ as millions await platform’s collapse (WP)

• FCC commissioner discusses TikTok's security threat to U.S. (CBS)

• Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave (NYT)

• How likely is a complete Twitter meltdown? (NPR)

• Elizabeth Holmes verdict live: Theranos founder to face restitution hearing after being jailed for 11 years (Independent)

• Coal mining is a dangerous job. In Afghanistan, kids often do much of the work (NPR)

• Iranian Protesters Attack Khomeini’s Childhood Home as Unrest Spreads (NYT)

• Nearly half Ukraine's energy system is disabled (Reuters)

• FTX is done — What’s next for Bitcoin, altcoins and crypto in general? (Cointelegraph)

• COP27 Deal in Jeopardy as Europe Pushes for Tough Action (Bloomberg)

• Saudi prince’s new title key to dodging lawsuit over killing (AP)

• Qatar offers a World Cup like no other (Reuters)

• Dangerous lake-effect snow wallops northern New York state (AP)

• This bird hadn’t been seen since 1882. Then scientists captured video of it in Papua New Guinea (CNN)

• Why We Eat Together Human food rituals are unique to our species. (Atlantic)

• Nasa expects humans to live on Moon this decade (BBC)

• Every One Of Man’s Priorities Unrecognizable To Grandfather (The Onion)