Reading archive 2022-05-08

Clarence Thomas says he worries respect for institutions is eroding

Meat grown from fungus? It could save the world’s forests.: A study in Nature suggests that eating meat made from microbes could stave off half the world’s deforestation — but at a certain point, the land-saving effect is diminished

Opinion  Kevin McCarthy is a shining symbol of democratic decay - "Let’s take a moment from the lightning pace of the news cycle to reflect on a disturbing fact of American life: The likely next speaker of the House of Representatives is a liar, a hypocrite and an enabler of democratic decay.

"Trump’s main moral damage to the country is not his incitement of the MAGA faithful. It is his extraordinary talent for turning regular GOP pols into hollow men."

Opinion  Russia’s top propagandist in Latin America has a change of heart

Reading archive 2022-05-06

Sen. Collins voices opposition to Democratic legislation that would create statutory right to abortion

How millions of Russians are tearing holes in the Digital Iron Curtain: A tremendous surge in VPN downloads represents a challenge to Putin and his version of the Ukraine war

U.S. provided intelligence that helped Ukraine sink Russian warship

Herschel Walker’s insulting campaign is the worst kind of sports idolatry

A race against time in Ukraine as Russia advances, West sends weapons

Reading archive 2022-05-05

The new Supreme Court’s iron fist: If the right of a woman to decide whether to have a baby won’t qualify as a guaranteed right, then neither will most of the rights you have long assumed are yours. - "If the right of a woman to decide whether to have a baby — a right that arises from the simple idea that everyone owns their own bodies — won’t qualify, then neither will most of the rights you have long assumed are yours.

D.C. mayor’s race: Robert White proposes boarding schools for at-risk students

Those flamingos aren’t the first National Zoo animals to come to grief

Muriel Bowser takes on her challengers in latest D.C. mayoral debate

Reading archive 2022-05-04

In Ukrainian villages, whispers of collaboration with the Russians: Rumors about traitors run rife as invading forces have seemed to know in advance which residents have guns and which are said to be wealthy

THE AMAZON, UNDONE: DEVOURING THE RAINFOREST - "Cattle are not tracked individually in Brazil, as they are in neighboring Argentina and in Europe. All that ranchers with embargoed land have to do is ship their cattle to properties with clean environmental records. Once the animals reach a ranch that doesn’t have a history of deforestation, they are effectively born again — cleansed and ready to be sold to producers such as JBS for slaughter and shipment.

...

"Every time cattle are moved in the country, a shipment log called a 'Guide of Animal Transport' is created. The purpose of the document is sanitary: to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases and ensure proper cattle vaccinations. But those records, current and former government officials say, can be used to create a cattle-tracking tool and illuminate even the murkiest sections of the supply chain.

"Researchers have done it. But not the federal government."

Reading archive 2022-05-03

Roberts directs investigation into leaked draft of abortion opinion: The document is authentic but not final, the chief justice said in a news release Tuesday

Collins and Murkowski are put on defensive after leaked Roe draft

Opinion  How Russia’s grim demographics could thwart Putin’s global ambitions

Mass flight of tech workers turns Russian IT into another casualty of war: About 10 percent of the tech workforce is projected to leave Russia before the end of May

Hacking Russia was off-limits. The Ukraine war made it a free-for-all.: Experts anticipated a Moscow-led cyber-assault; instead, unprecedented attacks by hacktivists and criminals have wreaked havoc in Russia

In the capital of Blue State America, a new ferment over homelessness - "But there is something happening here where two major California rivers converge, currents placing Democrats of various shades of blue against each other. One approach is being promoted by the state and local governments, which want to focus more resources on the mentally ill, the most visible and defining characteristic of the crisis. 

"Another is being advocated by business leaders, neighborhood groups and angry voters, who have watched the expanding homeless population fill in the city’s public spaces and now want local officials to force people to accept housing, getting them off the streets. Those who decline an offer of an available bed, of which there are none now, would no longer be allowed to live on the street. The proposal, highly popular with the public, will come before voters in November."

Reading archive 2022-05-02

The drug trade now flourishing in Afghanistan: Meth Long a hub for opium production, the country could fuel a new global drug crisis

The ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ was never alive, Ukrainian air force says

After recession, a Black business boom: Black entrepreneurs who expanded during covid now face the challenge of labor shortages, supply chain delays and inflation

Israel wants apology after Russia’s Lavrov compares Zelensky to Hitler: ‘So what if Zelensky is Jewish,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a television interview

Trump makes closing pitch for Nebraska candidate accused of groping: The former president is campaigning for Charles Herbster for governor with less than two weeks until the primary - "He mentioned his preferred candidates in other states including Ohio, which is holding a closely watched Republican Senate primary Tuesday. Trump recently endorsed author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance but on Sunday appeared to momentarily conflate his name with Josh Mandel, a rival Republican candidate. 'We’ve endorsed J.P., right? J.D. Mandel,' said Trump, who in the same rally mocked President Biden for stumbling over his words."

They support Ukraine. So they can’t support Alex Ovechkin.

Same name, new world: This basketball star’s uncle ran a polygamist cult. He hopes to help bring his small Utah town into a more modern world.

Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows: "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court.

Reading archive 2022-05-01

How Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine pushed Finland toward NATO

Western artillery surging into Ukraine will reshape war with Russia

How the ‘jack-in-the-box’ flaw dooms some Russian tanks