The Dream Factory: Inside the 'cruel' system behind Argentina's soccer empire
‘Yesteryear’ misses the real problem with the tradwife trend: When it comes to marriage and motherhood, traditional and biblical are not the same. - "As an evangelical mother of four who believes that husbands are the leaders of the household and that raising children is a high calling, I might be expected to find nothing valuable in 'Yesteryear.'" [ed. note: yeesh]
This Post Should Have Been Shorter
Study finds mRNA coronavirus vaccines prolonged life of cancer patients: Health records of more than 1,000 cancer patients receiving immunotherapy for lung and skin cancer showed they gained additional benefit after vaccination. - "'RNA preceded DNA evolutionarily, so cells don’t like RNA from the outside world coming in,' said Elias Sayour, one of the authors of the new paper and a pediatric oncologist at University of Florida Health. 'So when that happens, that sets off all the alarms of the human body. The 911 signals we’re in trouble.'"
Trump is ignoring the real threat matrix: A puzzling pivot to the Caribbean increasingly leaves Europe to answer Putin’s aggression on its own. - "'Great-power suicide' is how former CIA director William J. Burns described the self-inflicted damage to national security resources in a recent article for the Atlantic. 'We’ve put at risk the network of alliances and partnerships that is the envy of our rivals. We’ve even gutted the research funding that powers our economy,' he wrote.
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"This politicization of U.S. intelligence has begun to erode the confidence of partners. The two leaders of the Dutch intelligence agencies told a Dutch newspaper last week that they were reducing the amount of intelligence they shared with the CIA and National Security Agency. 'We sometimes don’t tell things anymore, that is true,' said Peter Reesink, head of the military intelligence agency. 'We are very alert to the politicization of intelligence and to human rights violations,' explained Erik Akerboom, head of the civilian spy agency."
Russia acquired Western technology to protect its nuclear submarine fleet: Russia secretly used front companies to buy Western technology and erect a surveillance net in the Arctic where its submarines operate, an investigation shows. - "At the center of the Harmony procurement network was a company, Mostrello Commercial Ltd., that was headquartered in Cyprus, which is part of the European Union, but served as a front for Russia’s military industrial complex, accounting for tens of millions of dollars in purchases of sensitive equipment, according to court records and other documents. Russia did not respond to requests for comment."
Elon Musk’s latest power grab points in a clear direction: His SpaceX deal could fundamentally alter the relationship between a state and its citizens. - "When citizens can communicate through networks that operate from international space, traditional regulatory tools become obsolete. Britain’s Online Safety Act, for example, requires platforms to remove harmful content and cooperate with regulators. But how do you enforce compliance when platforms can route traffic through orbital networks that bypass British infrastructure entirely?"
Surface-to-air missiles and deadly drones spread on Sudan’s battlefields: Fighters now possess antiaircraft weapons that could threaten civilian air traffic and what appears to be a Chinese surface-to-air missile system, experts said. - "'In 10 years, American and European leaders are going to regret their inaction on Sudan,' said Justin Lynch, the managing director of Conflict Insights Group. 'A failed state on the Red Sea that is awash with predatory Islamist militias, advanced weapons and genocidal leaders will imperil the region for generations.'"
At 50, ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ still brings the misfits together: The campy cult classic has been the world’s favorite midnight movie for a half-century, and it’s not going anywhere. - "Ever since a particularly animated midnight screening of the movie at Greenwich Village’s Waverly Theater on Labor Day weekend in 1976, a night at the 'Picture Show' equals a visit to another reality. All because a viewer named Louis Farese yelled 'Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch!' at Janet as she crooned 'Over at the Frankenstein place/ There’s a light' (in a rainstorm, with a newspaper draped over her head)."
Trees are spreading across the Great Plains. They're actually making climate change worse - "Trees darken the ground. So a place that otherwise would reflect more sunlight and send some of its heat straight back into outer space instead soaks up that heat. In some regions, this outweighs the trees’ potential carbon storage."
Opinion: Habitat for all — how housing and biodiversity can coexist even in a crowded future
‘Perfect storm’ of factors hits Washington apple farmers, driving bankruptcies, consolidation
White House is torn over Joe Manchin’s fury at climate law he crafted: As White House officials weigh how much to give in to his demands, rift grows between president and senator from West Virginia - "One of the most heated debates surrounding the law is how to award a very lucrative tax credit — valued at billions of dollars — to manufacturers of a new fuel called green hydrogen. The fuel can be used to power factories, trucks and planes without creating any carbon emissions. But it requires an immense amount of energy to make. If it is made with polluting energy such as natural gas or coal, researchers warn, producing large amounts of it could ultimately make global warming worse."
Cheating allegations in D.C. Little League put high-powered parents at war
Opinion This is how the U.S. is treating Afghans who helped us
Opinion Argentina’s angry polarization is a warning for the United States
Covid spreads and medical staff sicken after China relaxes restrictions
Ukrainian politician who idolizes Reagan tries to win over today’s Republicans
How I Left the Closet, Met My Husband — and Found My Life: One man’s journey to marrying his partner
Overview: From Mexican labs to U.S. streets, a lethal pipeline - "U.S. health officials do not have reliable estimates of the number of fentanyl users or recent deaths in the country. Key monitoring programs that could have alerted authorities to the increased flow of fentanyl were defunded by the federal government just as the drug was hitting U.S. streets.
"President Donald Trump told Americans that a wall along the border with Mexico would stop the torrent of drugs. But nearly all the fentanyl entering the United States passes through official border crossings — not through the deserts and mountains.
"Successive administrations failed to deploy technology to detect the drugs.
Cause of death: Washington faltered as fentanyl gripped America - "The Department of Homeland Security, whose agencies are responsible for detecting illegal drugs at the nation’s borders, failed to ramp up scanning and inspection technology at official crossings, instead channeling $11 billion toward the construction of a border wall that does little to stop fentanyl traffickers.
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"The roots of the epidemic reach back to the Bush administration, which did little as countless Americans became addicted to oxycodone and other prescription opioids while U.S. drug manufacturers, distributors and chain pharmacies made billions in profits.
"During the Obama administration, amid a wider questioning of the U.S. criminal justice system, the government defunded and dismantled key drug-monitoring programs in the years before fentanyl hit. President Barack Obama demoted the White House drug czar position, removing the role from the Cabinet. And when heroin use rose after the government crackdown on prescription opioids, authorities treated fentanyl as an additive, rather than a distinct threat requiring its own specific strategy.
"President Donald Trump took office just as the fentanyl epidemic was about to explode. He promised to build a wall along the U.S. southern border that he said would stop drugs. But Mexican traffickers were sneaking fentanyl right through the front door, hidden in passenger vehicles and commercial trucks passing through official ports of entry in California and Arizona. Today, the partisan border debate in Washington remains fixated on a physical structure that is virtually useless for stopping the deadliest drug U.S. agents have ever faced.
"Since President Biden took office, his administration has amplified a public messaging campaign to warn about fentanyl’s mortal threat — “One Pill Can Kill.” He has stepped up efforts to improve scanning technology at border crossings and repair a broken counternarcotics partnership with Mexico. But with Republicans blaming Biden’s border policies for record numbers of immigration arrests, the president and many of his top officials have said little about the skyrocketing amount of fentanyl entering the country.
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"For six years, the DEA went without a Senate-confirmed administrator. Michele Leonhart, a 35-year veteran, announced her retirement in 2015 following revelations that DEA agents were attending sex parties with prostitutes hired by Colombian drug cartels."
