IMPORTANT
| | | Nuclear Conflict? | Moscow Cites Real Risk of Nuclear War Asked on Russian state TV whether World War III was imminent, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said, “The risks now are considerable … NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Lavrov of scaremongering, saying that Russia had lost its “last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine … This only means Moscow senses defeat.” Britain’s Armed Services Minister James Heappey also played down Larvrov’s “bravado”: “I don’t think that right now there is an imminent threat of escalation,” said Heappey. (Sources: Reuters) |
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| | | Anything You Can Do | North Korea’s Kim Also Ramps Up Nuclear Rhetoric Speaking at a huge military parade in Pyongyang last night, Kim Jong Un said that North Korea will fortify its nuclear arsenal “at maximum speed.” U.S. and South Korean officials confirm signs of new construction at North Korea’s only known nuclear test site, which has been officially closed since 2018. Kim also hinted that North Korea might not stick to its previously stated intention of only using nuclear weapons for deterrence and defense. “If any forces try to violate the fundamental interests of our state, our nuclear forces will have to decisively accomplish its unexpected second mission,” he said. (Sources: Reuters, CBS News) |
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| | | | | Done Deal | Twitter’s Board Accepts Elon Musk’s $44B Takeover Offer Twitter, which hasn’t turned a profit in eight of the last 10 years, agreed to sell itself to the world’s richest man for $54.20 a share — 38% more than it was worth when Musk revealed he was the firm’s biggest shareholder earlier this month. In taking the platform private, Musk has vowed to “transform” it by promoting free speech, defeating spambots and “authenticating all humans.” Bridget Todd, of the women’s rights group UltraViolet, sees the acquisition as “a massively slippery slope,” as she fears Musk might not be in favor of Twitter’s community standards, which protect users against hate speech. (Sources: NYT, BBC) |
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| | | Sudan Tragedy | More Than 175 Killed in Violence in Darfur Since Thursday On Sunday alone, at least 168 people were killed and 98 wounded as fighting between Arabs and non-Arabs flared in West Darfur. The dead included a reported 17 children and 27 women. The violence first erupted Thursday when two Arab people were killed in the town of Kreinik and quickly spread to the provincial capital of Genena. In one incident, a hospital treating wounded people came under fire. The International Committee of the Red Cross blamed the latest attacks on the mostly Arab, government-backed Janjaweed militia. Which begs the question — can a military government ever bring peace to the region? (Sources: Al Jazeera, NPR) |
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| | | Briefly | Here are some things you should know about today: Bolsonaro’s back. After being lampooned for his COVID-19 response, President Jair Bolsonaro is touring Brazil in a bid to win back voters — sadly, it seems to be working. (Source: The Guardian) Beijing’s turn. Just as Shanghai’s 26 million residents emerged from the worst of their COVID-19 lockdown, curbs were imposed on parts of the Chinese capital. (Source: AP) Show of support. The U.S. is hosting around 40 countries at a defense conference at a U.S. military base in Germany. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said America and its allies will “keep moving heaven and Earth” to meet Ukraine’s security requirements. (Source: DW) |
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INTRIGUING
| | | | | India’s ‘Tuber Man’ | Combating Food Insecurity and Climate Change With Indigenous Tubers Shaji NM spent over 20 years traversing India to amass his collection of over 200 varieties of tuber, some of which are on the verge of extinction. Tubers, long a staple of Indian cooking, resist climate change by becoming dormant during drought or flood and “resuming tuber growth during favorable conditions,” according to a 2018 paper that deems them “very important for food security.” “I have developed an emotional relationship with the tuber,” said Shaji. “When we did not have anything to eat, we had tubers.” Now he’s returning the favor by giving tuber seeds “to anyone who wants them.” (Source: The Guardian) |
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| | | Sayonara | World’s Oldest Person Kane Tanaka Dies at 119 Tanaka — who was born in 1903, the year the Wright brothers made their inaugural flight — died of “old age” at a nursing home in Fukuoka, Japan, last week. In 2019 she was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living person, a title that now goes to Lucile Randon, a 118-year-old French nun who is also the world’s oldest COVID-19 survivor. Tanaka, who loved chocolates and fizzy drinks, credited her longevity to sleep, family, faith and keeping her mind active by studying math. Japan has over 86,000 centenarians, 90% of them women. (Sources: NPR, Reuters) |
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| | | In She Went | Woman Rescued After Falling into Pit Latrine Trying To Get Phone Things went awry for an unnamed woman who dropped her phone into an outhouse latrine in the Olympic National Forest near Seattle. Brinnon Fire Department Chief Tim Manly said she managed to remove the toilet seat and tried lowering herself into the pit secured with dog leashes. “They didn’t work very well and in she went,” said Manly. After trying to get herself out, she used her phone to call 911 and the fire department pulled her out. She was “strongly encouraged to seek medical attention after being exposed to human waste, but she only wanted to leave,” said Manly. (Sources: Sky News, AP) |
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| | | Put a Fling on It | Postcoital Catapulting Saves Male Spiders From Being Eaten by Mates The morning after can be awkward for humans, but for many spider species the male risks being eaten after sex. Defense mechanisms vary: Some males tear off their own legs as a food offering and others bind the female with silk before sex. A paper published yesterday in the journal Current Biology shows that males of the orb-weaving spider Philoponella prominens use their two front legs to catapult themselves to safety after sex. In 152 of 155 successful matings observed by Shichang Zhang of Hubei University, the males used this trick. The three who didn’t were eaten alive. (Sources: Smithsonian, The Scientist) |
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| | | Boxing Clever | Ukraine’s Usyk Will Use Joshua Rematch to Fund Relief Effort Olympic boxing gold medalist Oleksandr Usyk’s rematch with Britain’s Anthony Joshua won’t only be one of the year’s most anticipated fights. Usyk will also use the occasion to raise funds for his native Ukraine by selling a collection of 2,000 NFTs created by the artist Dosbrak. Usyk, who hopes to generate more than $1 million from the sale, will donate all funds to the Usyk Foundation, a charity he founded to “help Ukrainians affected by the Russian aggression.” Last September, the 35-year-old Ukrainian put on a boxing master class to dismantle former world heavyweight champion Joshua at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. (Source: Reuters) |
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