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The New York Times
Three days.
That’s how long it takes before the public’s anger begins to dissipate after a mass shooting, according to two scholars at Princeton University. It’s now over 24 hours after an 18-year-old gunman slaughtered 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and the national conversation over what to do next has already fallen into a familiar pattern. […]
On Thursday, a vote to close off debate on the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, a bill originally intended as a response to the other recent mass shooting, in Buffalo, is expected to run into a Republican filibuster. So would yet-to-be-scheduled votes on strengthening background checks, as Schumer seemed to acknowledge in his remarks on Wednesday.
Austin American-Statesman
'He was our baby': Families share stories of those who died in Uvalde school shooting
On Wednesday, the names of some of the people killed in a mass shooting the day before at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde began to emerge.
Authorities said a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at the school, the state's deadliest shooting in modern history and the country's third mass shooting within weeks. […]
Here's what we know about the victims of the mass shooting:
Eliahana Cruz Torres was anxious but excited to play in the final softball game of her season…
Jose Flores… “was a very happy little boy. He loved both his parents … and loved to laugh and have fun.” […]
Amerie Jo Garza… “was outgoing and funny and wanted to help everyone else out”. […]
Irma Garcia was a fourth grade teacher at the school… for 23 years…
Uziyah Garcia was… “the sweetest boy that I’ve ever known” […]
Ellie Garcia enjoyed going to church and was not afraid to discuss her views with anyone who would listen…
Xavier Lopez [had a smile that] would always cheer anyone up…
Miranda Mathis… “was very loving and very talkative”…
Jayce Luevanos… loved to wake up and make his grandparents a pot of coffee…
Eva Mireles [was] a fourth grade teacher… for 17 years…
Layla Salazar… loved to swim and dance to TikTok videos…
Jailah Silguero… was… the youngest of four children… and didn’t want to go to school the next day…
Maite Rodriguez… dream was to attend Texas A&M University to become a marine biologist…
Alexandria "Lexi" Aniyah Rubio… was recognized… for All-A honor roll. She also received the Good Citizen Award…
Houston Chronicle
AR-style rifles like the one used in Uvalde shooting often leave victims unrecognizable, experts say
The gunman who killed 21 people at a small south Texas school and wounded 17 others used a pricey assault-style rifle manufactured by the Georgia-based arms manufacturer.
The Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 rifle, which retails for $1,870, can be sold in Texas gun shops to anyone who is over the age of 18 and passes a background check at a federal firearms licensee (a gun shop). […]
Rifle-fired slugs also do far more damage when they hit a human body than many handgun caliber bullets, said one pediatric surgeon who spoke to the Chronicle.
“There's a really really wide blast effect,” said Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuriat, a pediatric surgeon and firearms violence researcher at the Baylor College of Medicine. “The injury is a much wider zone , and the hole is just the tip of the iceberg.” […]
“They are much more dangerous,” she said. “It’s much harder for a surgeon to save someone shot with one of those than a handgun.”
That is why medical staffers took swabs of victims’ family members Tuesday night. Victims of such weapons are often unrecognizable.
AP News
Onlookers urged police to charge into Texas school
Onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team.
“Go in there! Go in there!” nearby women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his house, across the street from Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde. Carranza said the officers did not go in.
Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting, arriving while police were still massed outside the building.
Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders.
“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he said. “More could have been done.”
“They were unprepared,” he added.
The Dallas Morning News
Beto O’Rourke confronts Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over Uvalde school shooting
An emotional Gov. Greg Abbott was interrupted by an equally emotional Beto O’Rourke as the Republican governor and other state officials sought Wednesday to discuss a school shooting in Uvalde a day earlier.
O’Rourke, Abbott’s Democratic rival in this year’s governor’s race, stepped forward to a lectern at Uvalde High School as Abbott was about to hand off the mic to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
O’Rourke warned another mass slaying would happen. That’s because Texas officials have done nothing of substance on gun safety, he said.
“You’re doing nothing. ... This is totally predictable,” O’Rourke said. […]
“You’re out of line and an embarrassment,” Patrick told O’Rourke.
“Sir, you’re out of line,” Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told O’Rourke three times, speaking louder each time.
“I can’t believe you’re a sick son of a bitch who would come to a deal like this to make a political issue,” McLaughlin said.
NBC News
Abbott calls Texas school shooting a mental health issue but cut state spending for it
Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the Uvalde school shooter had a "mental health challenge" and the state needed to "do a better job with mental health" — yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs.
In addition, Texas ranked last out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care, according to the 2021 State of Mental Health in America report. […]
His assertions drew rebukes from public health experts and scholars who study mass murderers…
“There is no evidence the shooter is mentally ill, just angry and hateful,” said Lori Post, director of the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at the Northwestern University School of Medicine. “While it is understandable that most people cannot fathom slaughtering small children and want to attribute it to mental health, it is very rare for a mass shooter to have a diagnosed mental health condition.”
The Texas Tribune
Texas has seen eight mass shootings over the last 13 years, and many of them sparked public debate about what legislation should be passed to prevent another one.
While University of Texas polls consistently show that Texans are divided about gun control — with 40% to 50% saying they want stricter gun laws — the vast majority of the laws passed over the past 13 years by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature have expanded where guns are allowed, who can have a firearm in schools and the right to openly carry guns.
Rolling Stone
The Right-Wing Lie That’s Killing Our Children
Republicans have twisted the 2nd Amendment to suit their extremist purposes, blocking sensible checks on gun ownership and enabling the unceasing procession of mass shootings […]
The lie at the heart of all of this insanity is the Right’s ludicrous perversion of the Second Amendment.
Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, until 2008, no federal court had held that the Second Amendment conveyed a right to own a gun. On the contrary, the Supreme Court clearly said that it didn’t.
Why? Because of the obvious language of the amendment, which reads, in full, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
For nearly two hundred years, there was widespread agreement that the Second Amendment meant what it said: that the right “of the people” meant the right to bear arms in well-regulated militias, which was how the nation protected itself prior to standing armed forces and police, and which slave-owners maintained to protect against possible uprisings.
Bloomberg
Houston Mayor Says He Can’t Cancel NRA Convention After School Massacre
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner rebuffed city council urgings to cancel the upcoming National Rifle Association convention on concern the fourth-largest US city would face lawsuits.
Turner also criticized pro-gun politicians planning to speak at the NRA gathering just days after 21 people, mostly children, were gunned down in South Texas in the worst US school massacre in almost a decade. … Donald Trump, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz are among the Republican[s] scheduled to address the event.
“Canceling the convention would leave the city subject to a number of legal issues,” Turner, a two-term Democrat, said during Wednesday’s council session. “The greater question is why are elected officials speaking there, and what message does that send? You can’t pray and send condolences on one day and go and champion guns on the next.”
CNN
Supreme Court may soon loosen gun laws as nation reels from massacres
While the Supreme Court has been working behind closed doors on its first major Second Amendment opinion in more than a decade…
A narrow ruling could impact only a handful of states with similar laws, but a more expansive ruling could open a new chapter in constitutional challenges to gun safety laws across the country.
“As a formal matter, the Supreme Court’s ruling on New York’s gun law doesn’t call into question gun laws restricting types of weapons or sensitive places where individuals can carry guns,” said Jacob Charles, executive director of the Center for Firearms Law at Duke University School of Law.
“But a broader ruling that changes the way courts evaluate gun laws could call into question a wider array of gun regulations like assault weapons bans and other restrictions like high-capacity magazine bans,” Charles added.
BBC News
Ukraine war: 'This is just the beginning, everything is still to come'
The Ukrainian army is under more pressure than at any time since the first desperate weeks after the Russian invasion. It could be fighting a losing battle in Luhansk, the northern part of Donbas region.
The Ukrainian General Staff says the Russians appear to be concentrating their forces for another push.
In the last day the Russians have intensified their attacks across the Donbas front line - getting closer to completing the encirclement of Severodonetsk, a city of 80,000 before the invasion. […]
They have slowed the Russians down but have not stopped the offensive grinding forward. The Russians are inflicting heavy casualties.
Reuters
Ukraine savages idea of concessions to end war, evokes appeasement of Nazis
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday savaged suggestions that Kyiv give up territory and make concessions to end the war with Russia, saying the idea smacked of attempts to appease Nazi Germany in 1938. […]
The New York Times editorial board said on May 19 that a negotiated peace might require Kyiv to make some hard decisions, given that a decisive military victory was not realistic.
And former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger this week suggested at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Ukraine should let Russia keep Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
"Whatever the Russian state does, you will always find someone who says 'Let's take its interests into account'," Zelenskiy said in a late night video address.
"You get the impression that Mr Kissinger doesn't have 2022 on his calendar, but 1938, and that he thinks he is talking to an audience not in Davos but in Munich back then." […]
"Perhaps the New York Times also wrote something similar in 1938. But let me remind you, it's now 2022," said Zelenskiy.
The Kyiv Independent
Mykolaiv holds on through Russian bombardment, lack of water
Days into Russia’s all-out war, the regional capital of Mykolaiv became a bastion of Ukraine’s southern defenses.
After Russia rapidly occupied Kherson in late February, Mykolaiv immediately became its next target. Their forces shelled, bombed and fired missiles at the regional capital, trying to encircle the city of half a million people.
By the end of March, however, Ukraine’s Armed Forces had pushed Russian troops back to the border with Kherson Oblast. The only occupied city in Mykolaiv Oblast is now Snihurivka, 70 kilometers east of the capital.
Even though Russian forces were thrown back from Mykolaiv, life there has yet to return to normal.
Deutsche Welle
Turkey threatens to stall Sweden, Finland in NATO talks
Delegations from Sweden and Finland were in Ankara on Wednesday seeking to address Turkish objections to their joining the NATO military alliance.
Turkey objects to the accession of the Nordic countries, citing their perceived support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as well as the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG. Ankara claims such groups are a threat to its security. […]
Ankara accuses the two countries of giving a safe haven to the PKK and refusing to extradite terrorists. Sweden and Finland, among others, also placed restrictions on arms exports to Turkey after its military offensive against the YPG in 2019.
EuroNews
Ukraine: Foreign minister slams NATO for doing "absolutely nothing"
Ukraine's foreign minister said that NATO was "sidelined and doing absolutely nothing" about the Russian invasion of his country, while the EU was taking "revolutionary decisions" to help Ukraine. The minister was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Fighting is intensifying around four cities in eastern Donbas, with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing Russia of throwing the full might of the Russian army against the cities of Liman, Popasna, Severodonetsk and Slaviansk.
Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill removing age limits for professional soldiers joining the military, which could pave the way for the Russian armed forces to expand recruitment.
The Oklahoman
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signs nation's strictest abortion ban. It starts immediately
Oklahoma on Wednesday implemented the strictest anti-abortion law in the nation, giving the country a preview of a possible post-Roe future.
Gov. Kevin Stitt signed legislation to prohibit most abortions beginning at fertilization.
Stitt signed House Bill 4327 that allows private citizens to sue anyone who "aids or abets" a woman seeking an abortion at any point in her pregnancy. The woman pursuing the procedure could not be sued.
The Washington Post
High inflation will persist into next year, CBO projects
High inflation is expected to persist for the rest of the year, saddling Americans with higher costs as price hikes continue, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday.
The nonpartisan budget office estimated that key measures of inflation will show signs of easing this year relative to last year, but will remain uncomfortably high as demand continues to outstrip supply, putting upward pressure on prices.
From the end of 2020 to the end of 2021, the consumer price index — one measure of inflation — grew by roughly 6.7 percent, the highest level in roughly four decades. The pace of that increase will come down, according to the CBO, but only to 4.7 percent — still far higher than policymakers want. Other measures of inflation cited by the budget office project that price hikes will remain roughly twice the Federal Reserve’s intended target of 2 percent. Price increases won’t fall back to targeted levels until 2024, the CBO said.
France 24
Four bomb attacks kill at least 12 in Afghanistan
Four bombs ripped through minibuses and a mosque in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, officials said, with at least some of the attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.
The number of bomb attacks have dropped across the country since the Taliban seized power last year in August, but several deadly bombings had rocked the country during the holy month of Ramadan.
On Wednesday, at least 10 people were killed when three bombs placed on board separate minibuses exploded in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a health official and police said.
El País
Doña Maria, enslaved for 72 years by three generations of a family in Brazil
Doña Maria is 85 years old, and she has lived all her life in her bosses’ house in Río de Janeiro. She is a servant, and for three generations, she was passed down from father to son. The woman’s world was turned upside down on the first Monday in May, when a stranger told her that she would not return to the family with whom she had lived since age 13. Her universe seemed to collapse. She didn’t understand. Distressed, she implored the stranger to let her go back: “The level of submission was clear when she began to say: ‘I have to go back because I have to feed Mrs. Yonne, I have to take care of her, I have to bathe her. If I don’t go back, she’s going to die. She felt absolutely responsible for the life of her employer,” says Alexandre Lyra, the labor inspector who rescued the woman after 72 years working for the Mattos Maia family without a salary or vacation time. Her entire world existed within the four walls of the home. Never in Brazil had such a prolonged case of contemporary slavery been discovered.
In all those years, Doña Maria—a fictitious name given by the authorities to protect her identity—never had a partner, children or friends, nor did she know anything about labor rights. The patron whose welfare was her main concern is also in her eighties. They matured and grew old together, but under wildly different circumstances. […]
Domestic workers are legion in Brazil. They are a pillar in privileged families. The majority are black and come from very poor families. Doña Maria, who is black, embodies the legacy of slavery in today’s Brazil: a crime based on a perverse power relationship.
EcoWatch
Monarch Butterfly Count Up 35% in WWF-Mexico Survey
After many years of plummeting populations of migrating monarch butterflies, a WWF-Mexico survey brings good news: during the 2021-2022 overwintering period, the monarch butterfly presence observed in the forests of Mexico was 35% higher than the previous year. While the butterflies are still vulnerable and require more conservation efforts, the survey gives some hope for recovery.
The survey, Forest Area Occupied by the Colonies of Monarch Butterflies in Mexico During the 2021-2022 Overwintering Season, measured the amount of forest the butterflies cover, since it is too difficult to count each butterfly. In total, WWF-Mexico noted that 10 colonies of monarch butterflies spanned 2.835 hectares (7.005 acres) of forest in late December 2021, up 35% from the 2.10 (5.189) hectares covered in 2020. Six colonies covered 2.174 (5.372 acres) hectares inside the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site. An additional 0.661 hectares (1.633 acres) of forest outside the reserve were also covered in butterflies.
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Federal investigation slows solar projects in Oregon
After several years of work, Ryan Sheehy’s company was ready to put money down this spring on the nearly 9,600 solar panels it needs for a community solar project in Ontario, Oregon.
The Verde Light Power Project is a new type of solar development in Oregon that will allow residents to purchase locally generated solar power from the utility company, rather than installing panels directly on their homes or offices.
Sheehy said his company, Enterprise-based Fleet Development, could typically count on ordering solar panels and having those orders fulfilled — especially for a relatively small project like Verde. He was surprised when he called the distributor to learn that his order for the project had been canceled.
“The rug got pulled out from underneath us,” Sheehy said. “It was totally unexpected.”
Sheehy is one of many in Oregon’s solar industry feeling the effects of a federal trade investigation into overseas manufacturers.
The Guardian
Scientists identify ‘trigger molecule’ for Covid-related changes to smell
Scientists have identified the “trigger molecule” that makes pleasant aromas smell like burning rubbish or sewage in people whose sense of smell is disrupted by Covid.
The loss of smell is a defining symptom of Covid-19, with about 18% of adults in the UK estimated to have been affected. Some people also experience disturbances in their sense of smell – a condition known as parosmia – but the biological basis for this has remained a mystery.
Now scientists have identified a highly potent odour molecule that appears to be a trigger for the sense of disgust experienced by many of those with parosmia. The molecule, called 2-furanmethanethiol, found in coffee, was described by those with a normal sense of smell as being coffee- or popcorn-like, but those with parosmia typically described its scent as disgusting, repulsive or dirty.
ProPublica
The U.S. Has Spent More Than $2 Billion on a Plan to Save Salmon. The Fish Are Vanishing Anyway.
The fish were on their way to be executed. One minute, they were swimming around a concrete pond. The next, they were being dumped onto a stainless steel table set on an incline. Hook-nosed and wide-eyed, they thrashed and thumped their way down the table toward an air-powered guillotine.
Hoses hanging from steel girders flushed blood through the grated metal floor. Hatchery workers in splattered chest waders gutted globs of bright orange eggs from the dead females and dropped them into buckets, then doused them first with a stream of sperm taken from the dead males and then with an iodine disinfectant.
The fertilized eggs were trucked around the corner to an incubation building where over 200 stacked plastic trays held more than a million salmon eggs. Once hatched, they would fatten and mature in rectangular concrete tanks sunk into the ground, safe from the perils of the wild, until it was time to make their journey to the ocean.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission under fire from members of his own party for refusing to entertain 2020 election distortions stunned his colleagues Wednesday by announcing his resignation from the oversight board and blasting the GOP's continued focus on … Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election.
Dean Knudson, a former state lawmaker who helped design the commission in 2015, said he was leaving the commission because it has become clear "I cannot be effective in my role representing Republicans on the commission."
His announced departure pushed the commissioners to delay the election of their next chair.
San Francisco Chronicle
California Senate passes Texas-style bill targeting assault weapons, ghost guns
Shortly after the nation’s latest mass shooting, which killed at least 18 children at an elementary school in Texas, the California Senate passed a bill Tuesday to allow private citizens to file suit for at least $10,000 — a bounty-hunter provision modeled on a Texas abortion law — against makers or sellers of untraceable ghost guns or illegal assault weapons.
“We do have some of the toughest gun laws in the country,” Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge (Los Angeles County), told his colleagues amid news of the slaughter inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. But public enforcement of those laws has not been enough to protect Californians against the “new wave of weapons,” he said, and private lawsuits would create “an incentive to get these dangerous weapons off the street.”
Los Angeles Times
California just adopted new, tougher water restrictions
California water regulators strengthened the state’s drought rules this week, ordering local suppliers to take steps to reduce water usage to stretch limited supplies this summer. Gov. Gavin Newsom warned that more stringent statewide water restrictions could come if the state doesn’t make more progress on conservation soon.
Acting on an order from Newsom, the State Water Resources Control Board voted to adopt emergency drought regulations that require water suppliers to activate their local drought plans to prepare for a shortage of up to 20%. Those water-saving measures vary for each area and are based on each city or water agency’s drought plan.
As part of the new rules, the state also banned the use of drinking water for irrigating grass that is purely decorative at businesses and in common areas of subdivisions and homeowners associations.
The Evening Standard
Boris Johnson urged to quit by some Tory MPs over ‘damning’ Sue Gray report
Boris Johnson faced fresh calls from Tory MPs to quit following the release of Sue Gray’s scathing report into raucous parties in Number 10 during lockdown restrictions.
Former minister Tobias Ellwood and backbencher Julian Sturdy described partygate as a “distraction” during a challenging time for the country.
Mr Sturdy joined the list of Tory MPs wanting Mr Johnson to quit, saying the report showed the PM “has presided over a widespread culture of disregard for the coronavirus regulations”.
Fast Company
Inside the gargantuan engineering feat of London’s $25 billion Elizabeth Line
One of Europe’s largest engineering projects has finally drawn to a close. Once known as Crossrail, the $25 billion Elizabeth Line counts 10 new stations, 73 miles of tracks, and more than 900 miles of cable supplying the new subway line with power, lighting, and air-conditioning. It opened to much fanfare yesterday, but the behemoth project began 13 years ago—when a gigantic 500-foot-long machine bore through the subterrane beneath the capital.
The Elizabeth Line is the biggest expansion to the London underground in more than a century. Five of the newly built stations are located in central London, each of them designed by renowned architects like Foster + Partners, WilkinsonEyre, and Aedas. Led by the city’s transit authority, Transport for London, it’s estimated to bring an additional 1.5 million people within a 45-minute commuting distance from London’s business centers.
NPR News
More cyclists are being killed by cars. Advocates say U.S. streets are the problem
[…] amid a sharp increase in fatalities and serious injuries among cyclists hit by cars and trucks, some cycling advocates say there's often a disconnect between efforts to encourage more biking and ensuring the safety of bicyclists who are using streets that are primarily designed to move cars and trucks through city neighborhoods and urban centers quickly. […]
Across the country, the number of cyclists that are seriously injured or killed is soaring. According to the National Safety Council, 1,260 bicyclists were killed in 2020, up 16% from the year before and an increase of 44% over the past decade.
Preliminary figures recently released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate cycling fatalities rose another 5% in 2021.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Two years later, Minnesotans gather to remember George Floyd
George Floyd's brother and his aunt came to the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue on Wednesday night, exactly two years after his killing, and quietly made official the name the intersection has carried almost ever since. […]
The anniversary of Floyd's murder had started quietly that morning at George Floyd Square, a cold spring rain falling. Maria Bertrand, who works down the street at a tenant advocacy organization, was worried the weather would keep people away.
"I think it's still really important to remember why we have this and to remember why this is all here, why the community came together," Bertrand said, as a small crowd gathered.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police killings continue to rise two years after George Floyd’s death
[…] Fear of interactions with law enforcement is not a new phenomenon, but the killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police two years ago was a breaking point for communities across the U.S. long concerned with the inequitable treatment of Black Americans by law enforcement officers and the criminal justice system.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters talked to metro Atlanta leaders about the substantial shifts that have taken place since Floyd’s killing, including increased scrutiny of law enforcement, new laws designed to make mental health care more accessible and the addition of behavioral health clinicians to assist police on calls.
While it is difficult to gauge whether any criminal justice reforms will improve the public’s trust, it’s clear that police budgets are bigger than ever and more people — civilians and law enforcement officers — are dying during violent confrontations.
The Atlantic
China Is Doing Biden’s Work for Him
If President Joe Biden’s trip to Asia—marked as it was by his comments on the defense of Taiwan, announcements on a proposed new regional trade pact, and meetings with leaders who exhibit similar levels of concern about a rising China—has shown the persistence of American global power, it has also revealed something of equal importance: Beijing’s failure to translate economic might into political dominance, even in its own backyard. […]
But as China seeks to expand its power, it seems to become more isolated. Biden’s new economic framework has attracted countries across ideological lines (from Communist Vietnam to democratic Australia) and some nations that try to carefully balance the two powers, such as Singapore. Beijing hasn’t weakened American bonds to its chief allies in the region—Japan, South Korea, and Australia. If anything, Washington appears to be drawing more countries to its side of the table, such as India.
All of this exposes the abject failure of Chinese foreign policy. Despite their constant pledges of “peaceful development,” China’s leaders have scared many of the country’s neighbors.
Al Jazeera
New Zealand’s Ardern urges US to return to regional trade pact
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has urged the United States to rejoin a sweeping trade deal it quit in 2017, in the latest signal by an Asia-Pacific leader that Washington’s efforts to engage the region are falling short.
Speaking on a visit to Washington, DC, on Thursday, Ardern said the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was the “gold standard” for fostering deeper economic ties.
“If the United States is looking to engage in our region economically, then that is the place to do it,” she said.
Ardern made her remarks two days after US President Joe Biden wrapped up his first official trip to Asia, during which he unveiled a new economic framework aimed at shoring up US engagement and countering rising Chinese influence in the region.
ESPN
Colin Kaepernick completes workout with Las Vegas Raiders, source says
Colin Kaepernick, who last played professional football in 2016 -- the year he started kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice -- worked out Wednesday for the Las Vegas Raiders, a league source told ESPN.
It marked Kaepernick's first workout with an NFL team since being exiled, and it was the first time the former star quarterback visited with a team since he flew to Seattle to meet with the Seahawks in May 2017 before they passed on the opportunity to sign him.
Kaepernick played at the University of Nevada, Reno, the only school to offer him a scholarship. Currently, the pro team in Nevada is the only one in the NFL that has given the civil rights activist another opportunity.
Ars Technica
More than 1 in 5 COVID survivors may develop long COVID, CDC study suggests
More than one in five adults in the US who have recovered from COVID-19 may end up developing a long-term condition linked to the viral infection, according to a study published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The post-COVID conditions span heart, lung, kidney, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neurological, and mental health conditions. Overall, COVID survivors had nearly twice the risk of developing respiratory and lung conditions, including pulmonary embolisms, compared with uninfected controls. The most common post-COVID conditions were respiratory conditions and musculoskeletal pain.
Inverse
The Best Star Wars Movie Happened in 1977. We’ll Never Get Over It.
Imagine there is no Empire. Before there was a Star Wars franchise, there was only Star Wars. For decades, a geeky dogma emerged that the 1977 film, while excellent, was simply the beginning of a much larger world. Many have believed the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, according to common dogma, supposedly improves upon and tops the original. But as we look back at 45 years of Star Wars, what if it’s not true? What if the Star Wars franchise actually peaked [in 1977]? […]
It wasn’t until 1981, after The Empire Strikes Back, that Star Wars was re-released in theaters with the subtitle “Episode IV: A New Hope” added to its opening text crawl. […]
Okay, I’m not calling Star Wars (the 1977 movie) “A New Hope” for the rest of this essay. I’m calling it Star Wars 77. And if you think that is some blasphemy, get ready for this: If you sit down and watch Star Wars 77 and only focus on how it connects to the rest of the saga, guess what? It doesn’t quite fit. You can tell all the mythology that came later was retrofitted to work with this movie.