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IMPORTANT
| | | | | Deadly Toll | US Gun Deaths Reached Record High During First Year of Pandemic The firearm homicide rate surged 35% from 2019 to 2020, hitting the highest level since 1994, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nationwide gun homicide rate was 6.1 per 100,000 Americans, up from 4.6, while the firearm suicide rate increased slightly from 7.9 to 8.1 per 100,000 people. Amid the heightened stress of the pandemic and its economic fallout, some communities were hit notably harder: Counties with the highest poverty level saw dramatically higher rates, while the largest increases were seen among young Black and Indigenous men. (Sources: NYT, NPR, CNN) |
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| | | Pushing Back | Ukraine Throttles Russian Gas Supply, Repels Forces From Kharkiv Ukraine’s natural gas pipeline operator said beginning today it will cut Russian shipments through its Novopskov hub, which supplies almost a third of the fuel Russia pipes through Ukraine into Europe. Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces are gradually pushing Russian troops out of Kharkiv, a key city in the northeast that’s been under bombardment since the war began. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed confidence that Ukraine won’t just repel Russian forces. “If we are strong enough on the military front,” Kuleba said, “the victory for us in this war will be the liberation of the rest of our territories.” (Sources: The Guardian, AP) |
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| | | House of Horrors | Fullest Picture Yet Emerges of Conditions in Azovstal Bunkers The last group of Ukrainian civilians evacuated from the besieged steel plant near Mariupol have spoken of the two months they spent sheltering in Azovstal’s dank, unlit basements. By the end, a daily ration of two cups of macaroni in 2.5 gallons of water had to be shared among 30 adults and children and one dachshund. Even a simple trip to the toilet involved dodging Russian shelling. “No one came out of there unchanged,” said Oksana, an Azovstal employee who declined to give her surname. “They were one person when they went in, and another person when they came out.” (Source: The Guardian) |
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| | | Tweet Dreams | Elon Musk Would Reverse Trump’s Twitter Ban If his bid to buy the platform succeeds, Musk will open the door for former President Donald Trump to reclaim his audience of 67 million followers. Musk called the decision to ban Trump — for violating Twitter's rules against inciting violence by egging on Capitol rioters — “morally wrong and flat-out stupid.” The billionaire argued that if someone tweets something “illegal or otherwise destructive to the world” the post should be hidden and the user temporarily suspended. Trump has said he won’t return to Twitter anyway, preferring his own Truth Social, but many suspect otherwise: Trump’s floundering platform only has an estimated 2 million users. (Sources: CNN, BBC, Vox) |
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| | | Briefly | Here are some things you should know about today: Software glitch. Tesla is recalling around 130,000 cars due to an overheating issue that can cause the center touchscreen display to play up. (Source: Reuters) Father of the nation. Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine’s first president, has died aged 88. He played a pivotal role in disbanding the USSR and served as president from 1991 to 1994. (Source: AP) Just doing her job. Veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank early Wednesday. (Source: Al Jazeera) |
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INTRIGUING
| | | | | Something Fishy | One-Third of Global Fish Harvest Is Wasted So much for “teach a man to fish.” The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that around 35% of the 179 million tons of all fish, crustaceans and molluscs caught and farmed worldwide is wasted before it comes near a dinner table. For the 3 billion people whose diets rely on fish this constitutes a massive missed nutritional opportunity. Culprits include indiscriminate bottom trawling, discarded bycatch and inadequate cold-chain technologies — but fish are being hemorrhaged at every step of the supply chain. In the U.S., 63% of fish waste comes from consumers throwing out uneaten seafood. (Sources: The Guardian) |
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| | | Stick It to the Man | Actor James Cromwell Glues Hand to Starbucks Counter in Protest The Succession star, who has a long history of advocating for environmental causes and animal rights, livestreamed his protest as he superglued his hand to a New York City Starbucks Tuesday afternoon. The “glue-in,” organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, targeted the coffee chain’s policy of charging extra for vegan milk. Cromwell asked Starbucks to “stop punishing kind and environmentally conscious customers for choosing plant milks.” The Babe actor was previously arrested for a 2015 environmental sit-in and for protesting Sea World’s treatment of marine mammals in 2017. On this occasion he was unglued and released. (Sources: EW, Variety) |
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| | | Buzzing Bats | Bees Do It, Hornets Do It, Even Educated Bats Do It A paper published in Current Biology this week shows that the greater mouse-eared bat, a European species with a 15-inch wingspan, mimics the buzzing of hornets and honeybees, likely in a bid to deter barn owls from attacking. Fish and insects have long been known to indulge in Batesian mimicry — where a harmless species imitates a more dangerous one as a defense mechanism — but this is the first recorded instance among mammals. “Buzzing might deceive the predator for a fraction of a second — enough to fly away,” said study co-author Danilo Russo of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. (Source: The Scientist) |
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| | | Continental Drift | A British Play About Trump Has Audiences Divided The 47th — a play by Mike Bartlett that imagines Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection bid in Shakespearean iambic pentameter — has received rave U.K. reviews. Writing for The Times of London, Quentin Letts called it a “funny, outrageous production” and lauded its protagonist as “at last a Trump we can love.” But Americans in the audience at London’s Old Vic found it harder to see the funny side. Florida resident Jeffrey Freed said the portrayal “was darker than I expected … It accurately captured his endless thirst for power and utter disregard for American democracy.” Other U.S. visitors expressed similar sentiments. (Source: NYT) |
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| | | Gone Too Soon | Suspect Pleads Not Guilty in Shooting Death of Adreian Payne Police say Payne, a former Michigan State and NBA player, was killed while intervening in a domestic dispute early Monday morning in Orlando, Florida. Court documents show the 31-year-old went with his girlfriend to help a woman in an allegedly abusive relationship with the suspect, Lawrence Dority. The man confronted Payne, then retrieved a gun and fired a single fatal shot. Dority has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder with a firearm, telling police he interpreted Payne’s presence as a threat. However, Orange County Sheriff’s deputies said Payne, who was unarmed, “did not pose an immediate threat to Dority.” (Sources: Detroit Free Press, Yahoo Sports) |
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