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IMPORTANT
| | | | | ‘Disastrous Error’ | Pope Issues Historic Apology for Church’s Abuses in Canada As apologies go this was right up there. “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Pope Francis told survivors and members of Canada’s First Nations at a former Catholic residential school near Edmonton. In the first event of his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage,” Francis supersized his earlier apology for the “deplorable” acts of individual missionaries by taking institutional responsibility for his church’s embrace of Canada’s “catastrophic” assimilation policy. More than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend the schools, where physical and sexual abuse were rampant and mass graves have been discovered. (Sources: AP, CBC) |
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| | | Long Shadow | Trump Returns to DC for First Time Since Leaving Office Former President Donald Trump’s speech at an America First Policy Institute summit today will mark the first time he’s returned to the nation’s capital since storming aboard Air Force One and snubbing President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Trump’s strengthened his grip on the GOP and hinted strongly at another White House run — a prospect Rep. Liz Cheney warned against during the most recent hearing of the House investigation into the Capitol riot: “Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?” (Source: The Hill) |
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| | | ‘Gas Blackmail’ | Russia Reduces Gas Flow to Germany — Again Days after closing the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Europe for 10 days, Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom has announced it’s cutting flows to half of current levels — or 20% of capacity — for further maintenance. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy isn’t buying it: “The gas blackmail of Europe, which only gets worse every month, is needed by a terrorist state to make the life of every European worse,” he said. The situation underlines, once again, the need for Europe to wean itself from Russian gas sooner rather than later. European energy ministers are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the crisis. (Sources: BBC, Bloomberg) |
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| | | Pelosi and the Porcupine | White House Concerned About China Moving Against Taiwan The Biden administration is pressuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to cancel her upcoming trip to Taiwan over fears it may provoke China to take drastic action — perhaps by cutting off access to the Taiwan Strait, an important U.S. Navy thoroughfare. Both Beijing and Washington have been paying attention to events in Ukraine, with experts warning that China may try to avoid President Vladimir Putin’s mistakes and could be inspired to “go early and go strong” against the self-governing island. The U.S., meanwhile, seems keen to turn Taiwan into a “porcupine” that’s positively bristling with weapons and defense systems. (Source: NYT) |
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| | | Briefly | Here are some things you should know about today: Arrivederci. Paul Sorvino, the actor known for playing mild-mannered mobsters in films like Goodfellas, died in Florida Monday at the age of 83. (Source: NYT) Shooting the lights out. Police officers at Dallas’ Love Field Airport shot a woman in her “lower extremities” after she fired several gunshots — seemingly at the ceiling. She was arrested and taken to a local hospital for treatment. (Source: AP) Nasty hangover. A wildfire that’s sweeping Slovenia has caused scores of century-old WWI bombs to explode — to the immense concern of firefighters who’ve so far only been buzzed by shrapnel. (Source: Vice) |
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INTRIGUING
| | | Grammar Wars | Backlash as Buenos Aires Bans Gender-Neutral Language in Schools Never mind the feelings of adolescents struggling to come to terms with their place in the world. The head of education in Argentina’s capital says gender-neutral words like “amigues” (instead of “amigos”) are an assault on the strictly gendered Spanish language and hinder reading comprehension. The citywide policy is one of the world’s first to explicitly prohibit gender-inclusive language — and society is fiercely divided. Argentina’s education minister, Jaime Perczyk, said it’s akin to fascist dictator Francisco Franco’s ban on left-handed writing in Spain in the bad old days: “They thought they were correcting something, but it goes much deeper.” (Source: NYT) |
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| | | Bearing Witness | EyeWitness to Atrocities App Could Help Prosecute Putin The app was developed in 2015 to let citizen journalists encrypt and store uneditable footage stamped with the time, date and location of capture. Its popularity has risen exponentially this year, with more than 13,000 pictures and videos coming from Ukraine. The app’s already been used to secure convictions in Congo and the hope is that it’ll help prosecutors at the International Criminal Court investigating possible war crimes in Ukraine. “I think what we’re seeing in Ukraine is the original ideas behind eyeWitness kind of coming to fruition,” said Wendy Betts, director of the U.K.-based eyeWitness charity. (Source: The Guardian) |
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| | | What the Nose Knows | Trying to Understand the Link Between Smell and Memories Nothing evokes happy memories like the smell of freshly brewed coffee. But it works both ways: Auschwitz survivors say the odor of burning flesh is indelibly imprinted on their brains. Smell memories are so intense because unlike sound, which takes a circuitous route to the brain, smell neurons in the nose are hardwired to the brain’s olfactory bulb. And they’re very specific because humans have over 400 types of olfactory receptor. Neuroscientist Sandeep Robert Datta and colleagues at Harvard Medical School are exploring how our brains keep track of smells with the goal of someday using odor memories to heal our brains. (Source: Nature) |
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| | | | | Shakin’ Bacon | Could Listening to Music Reduce Stress Among Farmed Pigs? Belgian pig farmer Piet Paesmans first noticed the effect when his son started singing a ditty during a sluggish insemination session — and his sows instantly perked up and started wagging their tails. His interest piqued, he set about investigating. “Jolly dance songs are the biggest hits,” he found. “They really start wagging their tails and when it’s really dynamic they even start dancing around and frolicking. Rock music is too strong, they don’t like it.” Paesmans tipped off a team of researchers who hope they might be able to use music to relieve porcine boredom and thus reduce stress. (Source: Reuters) |
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| | | Mickey’s Mantle | Rare 70-Year-Old Baseball Card Could Fetch Over $10M at Auction More than 50 years after playing his last game, Mickey Mantle remains a god at Yankee Stadium. And the “finest known example” of his 1952 Topps rookie card may achieve similar status when an online auction closes Aug. 27. Card #311 is particularly scarce because hundreds of cases of Topps’ second series were dumped in the ocean — and this one has loads going for it, said Derek Grady of Heritage Auctions. “Four sharp corners, the gloss and the color jumps off the card.” Whatever it fetches, owner Anthony Giordano will make a hefty profit: He paid $50,000 in 1991. (Source: AP) |
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