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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.
1. Russia and Ukraine intensified the information war.Presenting two narratives about Mariupol’s steel plant Nearly 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered.
Russia celebrated the surrender of its soldiers as a victory over what it falsely called Nazism. Ukrainians are awaiting results of secret negotiations over the captured soldiers, who have sent only cryptic messages saying they’re following orders. Some are members of the Azov Battalion, which has far-right origins; the Russian Supreme Court planned a hearing on whether to declare the group a “terrorist organization.”
Ukrainians saluted the soldiers and tried to draw attention to the trial of a young Russian soldier who is accused of killing civilians. Broadcast on YouTube, his trial had symbolic resonance in an effort to hold Russia responsible for war crime allegations.
The front linesUkrainian doctors are available to work in skeleton crews around the clock.
In diplomatic news,The E.U. was stalled by strongmen in Turkey, Hungary, and other countries. NATO.
3. The Buffalo shooting suspect has revealed his plans for a massacre online.
Payton Gendron invited a group to join Discord just 30 minutes before the attack. The posts in that room were only visible to Gendron, except for maps he had drawn of the grocery store, which he openly stated he was going to attack.
The police did not alert anyone he invited to the shooting. Although someone who encouraged mass shooting could be criminally responsible, the stakes for bringing charges would be high.
New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, said today she wanted to strengthen “red-flag” laws by ordering the State Police to seek emergency orders barring weapon possession by people believed to be a threat to themselves or others.
4. A study of private insurance claimsEven mild Covid may experience debilitating symptoms, known as long Covid.
Out of 78,252 patients with long Covid symptoms, 76% were not sufficiently sickened by the initial infection to need hospitalization. Nearly one third of patients had no pre-existing conditions. Nearly all were younger than 65.
Long Covid appears to affect between 10 and 30 percent of adults who have the virus. The researchers had planned to continue tracking patients to see how long their symptoms last but decided to publish data from the first four months now, “given the urgency” of the issue.
North Korea Kim Jong-un said his country should emulate China in dealing with a Covid outbreak — but Pyongyang doesn’t have the resources to sustain a “zero Covid” policy.
The U.S.Officials stated that about a third (33%) of Americans live in areas where infection risks are so high that they should consider moving indoors.
5. Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary warned, at a Group of 7 meeting this week, of global “stagflationary effects.”
Yellen spoke in Bonn (Germany) and suggested that the U.S. is capable of enduring turbulence given a strong labor marketplace and healthy household finances. Europe, she said, is more vulnerable because of Russia’s dependence on energy. She’s expected to press at G7 for continued Russian sanctions and has signaled that the pressure will intensify, as Russia’s future as a top energy exporter is in doubt.
The U.S. poor results from retailers like Target and Walmart gave the S&P 500 its biggest drop since June 2020. Nasdaq dropped 4.7 percent. Chaos is affecting millions upon millions of amateur investors.
6. Murder, she wrote The question is being decided in Portland, Ore., Courtroom.
Nancy Brophy, a romance novelist, once wrote a blog post titled “How to Murder Your Husband.” To do it, she said, a wife must “be organized, ruthless and very clever.” Now Brophy is on trial, accused of murdering her own husband. In 2018, he was shot to death at the Oregon Culinary Institute.
Investigators found that Brophy had bought a “ghost gun” kit that could be used to modify the gun she had turned over to investigators. Brophy stated that it was research. “It was for writing,” she said. “It was not to, as you would have it, murder my husband.”
7. A doctor selected the only outdoor public funeral pyreThe U.S. for his perfect end.
Dr. Philip Incao passed away in February at the age 81. A practitioner of “anthroposophic” medicine and a believer in reincarnation, he moved to Crestone, Colo., in 2006. The public pyre was built in the former gold mining town of Crestone, Colo., more than a decade before. Bodies are kept on ice for several weeks before being burned.
More than half of Americans prefer cremation to burial. However, community cremation is still considered taboo. “Burial as a practice in the U.S. is basically designed so that the American family doesn’t have to deal with the dying,” Dr. Incao said before his death.
8. In a landmark agreement, top males and top females were able to agree on a landmark agreementPlayers of the U.S. national soccer teams are now guaranteed equal pay for international matches.
They’ll also share any World Cup prize money. The U.S. Soccer Federation’s decision ends years of litigation. The deal comes months after a group of top women’s players settled a gender discrimination lawsuit and six months before the men’s team plays at the World Cup in Qatar.
The deal also includes a provision through which teams will pool unequal payments from FIFA, the world soccer’s governing body. For the most prominent U.S. women’s players, the agreement could result in a $24 million payout.
Other sports news, Colin Kaepernick is teaming with Scholastic to publish a graphic novel about his life called “Colin Kaepernick: Change the Game.”
9. Are airline climate offsets effective?
Many people do this when they book flights.
We asked readers for questions about climate change. One of the topics they were interested in was offsets. Are they “just guilt money?” To some extent, the answer is yes.
Experts believe that offsets can limit some damage while the world transitions towards renewable energy. Many others feel that offsets can distract from more effective solutions. One argued that carbon credits highlight “the whole trading approach of companies being able to buy their way out of their responsibility to reduce their own emissions.”
10. And last but not least, Barnum & Bailey — and no animals.
Five years ago, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus said it was folding its tents after 146 years, facing tepid sales and a public unhappy about animal acts.
Source: NY Times
