Headlines

NEWSLINKS:

• Putin says risk of world conflict is ‘high’; Moscow official calls for ‘de-Satanization’ in Ukraine (CNBC)

• Putin has been watching and waiting for this moment in Washington (CNN)

• Don’t be fooled: sanctions really are hurting Russia’s war against Ukraine (Guardian)

• Estonia’s PM: Russia nearing ‘breaking point’ in war (Politico)

• Russian forces are digging in for the "heaviest of battles" in the strategic southern region of Kherson, a senior Ukrainian official said, as the Kremlin prepares to defend the largest city under its control in Ukraine. (Reuters)

• Amid Backlash, Liberal House Democrats Retract Call to Pursue Ukraine Ceasefire (NYT)

• For Fetterman, verbal struggles, contentious exchanges in debate with Oz (WP)

• Russia’s Recruiting Afghan Commandos (FP)

• Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff, ordered to testify in Georgia election investigation (NYT)

• A man who was attacked while canvassing in Florida this week appears to be an activist with a prominent history of violence and racist comments. Christopher Monzon attended the white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and later charged at a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators with a Confederate flag. He was also on the Florida Republican Party's payroll this summer. [HuffPost]

• Two in five U.S. voters say they are worried about threats of violence or voter intimidation at polling stations. (Reuters)

• Nevada county begins conspiracy-inspired ballot hand count (AP)

• Gov. Gavin Newsom’s re-election campaign looks more like a run for president. (CalMatters)

• DOJ asks judge to force Trump White House lawyers to testify in Jan. 6 probe (CNN)

• Trump bragged about new US nuclear weapons, Woodward tape shows (Guardian)

• Three men convicted of aiding plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer (WP)

• The 19-year-old gunman who killed a 61-year-old physical education teacher and a 15-year-old girl at a St. Louis high school was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and what appeared to be over 600 rounds of ammunition, police said. [AP]

• The International Space Station had to move to dodge space junk (NPR)

• More than 1 million vote early in Georgia, a dramatic increase from 2018 (WP)

• In lawsuit over student loan forgiveness, 6 states slam Biden for overreach (USA Today)

• The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program just got more flexible (NPR)

• The United States, Japan and South Korea warned that an "unparalleled" scale of response would be warranted if North Korea conducts a seventh nuclear bomb test. Washington and its allies believe North Korea could be about to resume nuclear bomb testing for the first time since 2017. (Reuters)

• Microsoft’s Struggles Enter the Metaverse (WSJ)

• Climate Pledges Are Falling Short, and a Chaotic Future Looks More Like Reality(NYT)

• Greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere hit record high in 2021 (NBC)

• Swarming honeybees can produce as much electricity as a thunderstorm, study shows (CNN)

• Indonesian woman swallowed whole by python (Independent)

• Possible RSV, Covid-19 and Flu Collision Has Doctors Worried. What to Know. (WSJ)

• Omicron keeps finding new evolutionary tricks to outsmart our immunity (NPR)

• Vague New Dating Site Caters To People Who Like To…You Know, Do That Certain Thing (The Onion)

In Whose Name?

(The U.S. war in Iraq lasted from 2003-2011. I published the first version of the following essay in 2007, about the midpoint of that war.).

Reading more books about Islam, I’ve been trying to piece together histories never taught in school. Somewhere around 25-30 books are under my belt now, but I'm not sure I'm making much progress. The latest was The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, by Amin Maalouf, which left me horrified at the wanton bloodshed caused by both sides during that inglorious era.

This account is the reverse of the history taught in the West. It maintains that some of the Crusaders acted as cannibals, hunting Arab villagers down for food. Do you know how the Cult of the Assassins came about? This book documents that and other atrocities. 

I often find myself speculating how those populations of Jews, Christians, and Moslems persisted side by side in the Middle East for millenia, albeit with major pogroms launched against Jews, and wars between the other two now and again. But, still, in the in-between times, the regular times when there was no great war, how did they get along?

Unfortunately, this book doesn’t help answer that question.

The Jews, the Christians, the Moslems, each with their holy books, all overlapping and originating in the same cradle of civilization. And now very much at war, in our time, with an American president who summoned the awful cry of the Crusaders in his call to action following 9/11, apparently not knowing how his words would reverberate throughout the Islamic world. 

Or maybe he did know.

The political leaders of both major parties in the U.S. cannot summon the courage to admit this country has made a major mistake by invading Iraq, and that is frightening evidence that the war was never about anything more than securing our massive supply of oil, rationalized as a mission to "democratize" the Middle East.

A thousand years ago, when Crusaders entered Jerusalem, massacred the Moslems, burned the Jews alive in their synagogue, and killed even their fellow Christians, it was in their quest for economic conquest under the cover of missionary zeal.

Sound familiar?

NEWSLINKS:

• Sunak takes over as UK prime minister amid economic crisis (AP)

• Rishi Sunak Wins Contest to Lead U.K. and Confront Economic Storm (NYT)

• Britain's new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said he would try to fix the mess left by his predecessor, restore faith in politics and tackle a "profound economic crisis" but warned the country there would be difficult decisions ahead. Here are highlights of Sunak's first speech as prime minister. (Reuters)

• How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe (Atlantic)

• IAEA preparing to inspect two sites in Ukraine over 'dirty bomb' claims (Reuters)

• Where Russians Retreated, Ukrainians Find Devastation (NYT)

• Mercenary chief vented to Putin over Ukraine war bungling (WP)

• Russian Oligarchs Obscure Their Wealth Through Secretive Isle of Man Network (WSJ)

• Brittney Griner: Russian court rejects appeal over jail term (BBC)

• Afghanistan: with civil war on the cards, the west needs to identify a moderate ally to support (The Conversation)

• The midterm elections are two weeks away. Every seat in the House and 35 in the Senate are up for grabs. Republicans can take the majority from Democrats by flipping five seats in the House and one in the Senate. (WP)

• Pelosi’s Last Dance? Speaker Sprints Across U.S. as Republicans Close In. (NYT)

• Political, legal battle heats up over student loan forgiveness (The Hill)

• Fearing a New Shellacking, Democrats Rush for Economic Message (NYT)

• Democrats growing anxious — again — over Black turnout (Politico)

• The Latino vote shifted toward Republicans in 2020. Will it again? (WP)

• Conspiracy pushers target races for local election posts (AP)

• Charlie Christ, the Democratic nominee for Florida governor, came out attacking Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in the sole debate between the two candidates, his last real chance to turn the race around. Crist attempted to use DeSantis’ presumed interest in a White House bid to fight back. While DeSantis did not rule out a 2024 run, he suggested he's not interested in challenging President Joe Biden. [HuffPost]

• The Justice Department is reportedly looking to further question an aide to former President Donald Trump who moved classified documents from a storage room in the Mar-a-Lago estate to understand how the records came to be relocated. [AP]

• Frustrated With Polling? Pollsters Are, Too (NYT)

• You’re Not Imagining It: There Are Fewer Polls This Cycle (538)

• North Atlantic right whale population drops to about 340, worrying scientists (WP)

• Omicron keeps finding new evolutionary tricks to outsmart our immunity (NPR)

• Men Died From Covid-19 at Much Higher Rate Than Women at Pandemic’s Start (WSJ)

• Bookstores vanish from Japan as population falls (Japan Times)

• Editors at Bartlett’s work to keep up with what’s quotable (AP)

• By the time he was 49, the “Friends” actor Matthew Perry had spent more than half of his life in treatment centers or sober living facilities, he writes in his new book, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” (Cal Today)

• Climate change threatens emperor penguins with extinction, officials say (WP)

• What exactly is left in this doomed world for young people to applaud? (The Onion)

 

Afghan.45: Land of Despair

Note: This is the latest in an ongoing series of discussions I have been having with a young Afghan friend about life under Taliban rule. I am concealing his identity for his safety.

***

Dear David:

I have been struggling with depression for a long time, at least since I was a teenager. Now as I am entering my third decade of life, I find I am depressed four or five days a week. 

I have tried to discover the root of this suffering. That's probably why I got into philosophy and literature and started reading so many books, especially novels. Each author made me aware of one of the causes of my depression. Schopenhauer, Camus, and Dostoevsky had the greatest impact, although I have not yet read all of their works. In the process I have realized that my suffering is rooted in poverty and deprivation, personal failures, and a pervasive sense of despair. 

Poverty is commonplace in Afghanistan. According to WFP's statistics, published on Twitter a few days ago, 9 out of 10 people in Afghanistan cannot get enough food to eat. That is true for my family. Our inability to meet our basic needs is probably the main cause of my depression. 

Meanwhile there have been many failures in my life. As a student in high school and college, I did not succeed in being able to study in my favorite field, business administration, which led me to underachieve in academics generally.

After school, I applied to work in international institutions more than 50 times, but due to corruption, I was only shortlisted for the exam once or twice. I never got one of those jobs.

My emotional failures cannot be ignored either. They have also been common in my life. When I look back on my memories, I remember mainly a series of failures and humiliations. 

Everyone has dreams and aspirations that they strive to achieve. For those of us who fail to reach any of our dreams, despair easily overwhelms us. My main personal dream has always been quite small but still unattainable: It is to escape from this place. 

I wish to escape from a country where hunger, religious beliefs, and crazy people have joined hands and torn apart the peaceful and peaceful society we were trying to build. 

But escape seems to be impossible.

This is not a complaint. This is the reality of an Afghan's life. Any Afghan who wishes to save himself from this misery feels as I feel. 

It may be hopeless to get out but I will never stop trying because I am grateful for the things I do have – a nice family, kind friends, a healthy body, and someone whom I love.

***

Note: A recent survey of mental health in Afghanistan documentd a “highly traumatized population.”

NEWSLINKS:

• Depression in Afghanistan (BMC)

• Let’s Not Kid Ourselves: Afghanistan’s Taliban Regime Will Not Become More Inclusive (Lawfare)

• Afghan girls’ will to learn is powerful. Even a bomb won’t crush it. (WP)

• CNN is out with two new polls containing generally good news for Dems in two of the tightest Senate races in the country:

  — Pennsylvania: Democrat Fetterman leads Republican Oz, 51% to 45%.

  — Wisconsin: Republican Sen. Johnson holds only a slim one-point lead over Democrat Barnes, 50% to 49%. Likewise, encouraging numbers for Dems in three swing-state gubernatorial races: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. 

• ‘Nation’s Report Card’ shows new evidence of Covid-19’s devastating impact on US children’s education (CNN)

• Math Scores Fell in Nearly Every State, and Reading Dipped on National Exam (NYT)

• Rishi Sunak will be Britain's next prime minister (NBC)

• Clarence Thomas freezes order for Lindsey Graham to testify before Georgia grand jury investigating 2020 election (CNN)

• In contests for various secretary of state and attorney general posts, victories for GOP election deniers could put U.S. democracy itself at risk. The problem is particularly stark in places like Arizona, one of three swing states ― along with Michigan and Nevada ― where election deniers won GOP nominations for both secretary of state and attorney general. To vanquish the threat that Republicans pose, Democratic candidates need to win every race ― at least in major battleground states. [HuffPost]

• Democrats are losing Latino voters as Republicans eye opportunities these midterms (NPR)

• ‘Trump is an unparalleled danger’ Woodward warns, following hours of interviews (Guardian)

• Jury selection begins in the Trump Organization tax evasion trial (NPR)

• Trump’s Business, Under Threat, Faces a Tough Test in Court (NYT)

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told a New York Times reporter several times that she’s in “continuous” discussions with Trump about being his running mate if he decides to run for the presidency. Over the weekend, Trump alluded to running in 2024, saying he “will probably have to do it again.” [HuffPost]

• Russia says it is preparing for contamination after ‘dirty bomb’ claims (Financial Times)

• West rejects Russia’s ‘dirty bomb’ claim as Moscow activates counter-WMD forces (Politico)

• Western countries also accused Russia on Monday of plotting to use a threat of a bomb laced with nuclear materialas a pretext for escalation in Ukraine. (Reuters)

• Arshad Sharif killing: Prominent Pakistani journalist shot dead in Kenya (BBC)

• Their America Is Vanishing. Like Trump, They Insist They Were Cheated. (NYT)

• Forgotten U-2 pilots helped end the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago (WP)

• Ethnic group says Myanmar air attack kills 80 at celebration (AP)

• Sept. 11 Case Awaits Biden Administration’s Reply on Plea Deal (NYT)

• U.S. home prices could fall as much as 20% next year (CBS)

• Japanese currency continues to weaken in London (NHK)

• 1 in 10 Americans over 65 have dementia, study finds (CNN)

• NASA proved it can deflect an asteroid. But spotting them is tricky. (WP)

• 3 killed in shooting at St. Louis high school (AP)

• Scientists Find an Ancient Stellar Catalog Written by Hipparcus Hidden in a Medieval Tome (Universe Today)

• Swedish archaeologists find 17th-century warship (Guardian)

• Nation Attempts To Fall Asleep By Doing Little Impression Of Sleeping (The Onion)

 

Non-Conspiracy Theories

When we were writing our textbook, Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets the Story, my colleague Dan Noyes and I described the hypothesis-driven method of journalism that we and many others practiced.

It's a tricky business, this hypothesis methodology. You've got to have some basic evidence that indicates some sort of pattern plus a suspicion, an instinct, a guess about what you'll find as you keep searching.

But a hypothesis is not a conspiracy theory, which may frustrate true believers who wish reporters would try to substantiate their theories. An example is the JFK assassination. Perhaps no other event inspired more complex yet unfounded theories.

How could something like this have happened without a conspiracy? As years passed, even though no credible evidence emerged to substantiate any of the wilder theories, enough provocative details became public to keep the conspiracy fires burning.

Oliver Stone exploited this more skillfully than anyone else, imagining how the conspiracy might have unfolded in his movie, “JFK”, which has shaped subsequent generations' views about the event. That he patched in real footage, including the Zapruder footage that is the only known visual evidence of the shooting, made his docudrama feel more realistic than it actually was.

As a result, if you ask people, say, in their 50s or younger today about the assassination, they probably believe it was seen on television as it happened. But that is incorrect: There was no live coverage at all. In fact we never saw any video until a decade later, when the Zapruder film of Kennedy's head exploding was finally released to the public.

All of this only complicated the effort of journalists to investigate the assassination. Maintaining the rigor of sticking to the facts for journalists is similar to that for a lawyer, a homicide inspector, or a scientist. All we can do is stay alert and adjust our hypothesis in light of the new evidence as it emerges. We can't afford to get wedded to any one hypothesis until and unless the preponderance of evidence becomes overwhelming.

Otherwise all you end up with are conspiracy theories.

***

To this day, IMHO, the Kennedy murder case remains a mystery. 

NEWSLINKS:

• Rishi Sunak Wins Vote to Become U.K.’s Next Prime Minister After Liz Truss Resigns (WSJ)

• Democrats fear the midterm map is slipping away (WP)

• Fears Over Fate of Democracy Leave Many Voters Frustrated and Resigned (NYT)

• Early vote surges, but Dems worry about the map (Politico)

• Dems’ chances in Senate fall to 55% (538)

• Xi Jinping Secures a Third Term as China's Leader (WSJ)

• Anti-Xi protest spreads in China and worldwide as Chinese leader begins third term (CNN)

• What is the significance of Russia attacking Ukraine with Iranian drones? (PBS)

• Using Adoptions, Russia Turns Ukrainian Children Into Spoils of War (NYT)

• Russian forces could face 'rout' in Kherson; Ukraine facing blackouts as Russian missiles target energy (USA Today)

• Russia builds defensive lines to stem Ukraine’s advance (AP)

• Russia Hits Ukraine’s Power Infrastructure With Some of the Biggest Strikes in Recent Weeks (NYT)

• Resisting Israeli Efforts to Displace Them, Palestinians Move Into Caves (NYT)

• Florida needs workers to rebuild after Ian. Undocumented migrants are stepping in. (WP)

• Hurricane Roslyn brings brutal winds, flooding to Mexico's Pacific coast (Reuters)

• Trump company set for criminal trial in off-books pay scheme (AP)

• G.O.P. Voter Fraud Crackdowns Falter as Charges Are Dropped in Florida and Texas (NYT)

• Home prices are finally falling. But how low will they go? (CNN)

• A slaveholding senator, an 1879 wedding and a Black family’s mystery (WP)

• A Nearby Star Has Completely Blasted Away the Atmosphere From its Planet (Universe Today)

• God Wonders What Happens To Humans After They Die (The Onion)

 

Pennies: Each one has a story

 I found a penny the other day, or rather it found me.

It had been sitting in exactly the same place for many days; not even the recyclers who pass through this neighborhood much like thekochinomads in Central Asia, thought it worth their time to stoop and scoop it up.

Maybe out of pity for this cast-off coin, which over the course of my lifetime has lost almost all of its value and most definitely all of its self-respect, I bent to pick it up.

More likely, it was out of respect for my long-dead maternal grandfather, Alexander Anderson, who seemed to value one of my attributes as a little boy, and that was my uncanny ability to find lost things, especially money.

He urged me to keep an eye out for pennies and to save every one I found, and I did. Over the years, I amassed quite a collection, the residues of which now reside in a paper bag under my bed. The collection grew so heavy at one point it cracked the glass vase I had been using to house it, thinking it might make a pretty display of some sort, you know, on top of the fireplace or maybe the piano.

But neither of my wives agreed to this particular form of artistic display.

So, the collection has always been stuck away in corners, closets, under beds, where it occasionally grows still, long after I stopped following my grandfather's edict. Like everyone else, I pass these little copper coins by; I toss them in ashtrays at corner stores to serve as someone else's change, etc.

My first three kids grew up in an era when pennies did not exactly matter but could be poured into paper holders and then turned in at the bank for something that, to them, felt like real money. Thus, on many a rainy weekend, they packaged up $10 or $25 worth of pennies, learning their counting skills in the process, and when we went to the bank to reap their rewards, they came away with enough currency to buy a toy or a book or whatever it was they wanted at that moment in time.

Even with all of these withdrawals, the collection persisted to grow, mostly because more often than not until the past decade or so, I would scoop up cast-off pennies and take them home, like orphans welcomed into a foster home. Who knows how many pennies we now have here, but 10,000 seems like a reasonable guess.

In other words, one hundred dollars worth.

***

The penny I saved the other day was marked, as all coins are, with the date it was minted. In this case, 1971.

What a year that was! I quit my job as a pizza deliveryman for Cottage Inn Pizza in Ann Arbor; my wife quit hers as a waitress in said establishment, and we drove our old white Chevy van with "Ft. Myers, Fla." stenciled on the side, all the way across America, until we were chugging up Fell Street, turning right on Fillmore Street, until just before Pine Street, we arrived at the world headquarters of Running Dog, Inc., publisher of SunDance magazine.

Before we could publish this new magazine, we had to build out the office, and we did so, sheet-rocking walls, painting the space, refinishing and shellacking the floor. As a flourish of sorts, we sealed a penny into that newly shiny floor just before we finished preparing the space that would see an amazing menagerie of the famous and the crazy walk through its front door over the coming two years.

Many years later, when SunDance was a distant memory, I happened to be in what was by then known as the "Upper Fillmore," and I stepped into 1913 for the first time since our magazine dream had died, decades earlier.

The space was by then a boutique. I feigned interest in the women's clothes on the racks, but what I was actually seeking was the sweet spot in that floor, set long ago. The sheetrock walls had long since been dismantled, the walls repainted many times, the track lighting overhead much cooler than in our day, for sure.

Then I spotted it. There it was -- the penny, still imbedded in the hardwood floor. Its date: 1971.

(I first published this piece in 2007.)

NEWSLINKS:

• What would retreat from Ukraine’s Kherson mean for Russia? (Al Jazeera)

• Russia air strikes target more power facilities (BBC)

• Russian Troops in Belarus Spur Debate Over the Threat to Ukraine (NYT)

• Ukraine's power grid sustains record damage in Russian strikes, utility says (NPR)

• Former Chinese leader Hu Jintao unexpectedly led out of room as Party Congress comes to a close (CNN)

• Inflation protests across Europe threaten political turmoil (AP)

• Mar-a-Lago classified papers held U.S. secrets about Iran and China (WP)

• Senator Graham Asks Supreme Court to Spare Him From Testifying in Georgia (NYT)

• Trump Mar-a-Lago probe proceeds on two tracks: One public, one private (WP)

• Democratic Secretary of State Candidates Struggle Against Election Deniers (NYT)

• Trump: ‘Very disloyal’ if Pence, other Cabinet members run in 2024 (The Hill)

• Tim Ryan Is Winning the War for the Soul of the Democratic Party (NYT)

• In Nevada, election deniers prepare to sabotage the midterms (WP)

• GOP leaps back into contention in Arizona Senate race (Politico)

• Pro-Trump group gathers intel for its war on voting machines (Reuters)

• Biden's student debt relief plan is temporarily blocked. (NPR)

• After Ukraine, Biden administration turns to Musk’s satellite internet for Iran (CNN)

• Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Debt to Be Held by Banks Amid Turbulent Markets (WSJ)

• Twitter's general counsel told employees that the company had no plans for big layoffs after a Washington Post report said Elon Musk planned to get rid of nearly 75% of the staff if his bid to buy the social-media firm is successful. (Reuters)

• US might bail Musk out by blocking Twitter deal over national security (Ars Technica)

• Biden says he intends to run again in 2024, and has the first lady’s support (WP)

• Afghanistan Under the Taliban: Findings on the Current Situation (Stimson)

• West Africa floods destroy crops, worsening hunger fears (AP)

• A Monster Black Hole Has Been Discovered Nearby Silently Minding Its Business (ScienceAlert)

• Matthew Perry Credits Jennifer Aniston For Being There For Him In His ‘Friends’ Drinking Days (Deadline)

• A slaveholding senator, an 1879 wedding and a Black family’s mystery (WP)

• Man Forced To Venture Pretty Far Into Wilds Of Internet To Have Opinion Confirmed (The Onion)