"Accepting the Mark Twain Award, Stewart talked about the current state of comedy in American culture… 'Comedy survives every moment. Having Bassem here is an example of the true threat to comedy,' said Stewart. The real threat, Stewart believes, is 'not the fragility of audiences' or 'the pronoun police,' but rather, 'the fragility of leaders.'"
"In 1997, Hagel joined with the Democratic senator Robert Byrd to promote a resolution opposing the international agreement to limit greenhouse gases, on the grounds that it was unfair to Americans. The measure passed the US Senate without a single dissenting vote, after a vigorous campaign by big oil to mischaracterise the Kyoto protocol as a threat to jobs and the economy while falsely claiming that China and India could go on polluting to their heart’s content." Big Oil would lie to us? Shocked, shocked I am…
"U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff in North Carolina welcomed a litter of six red wolf pups into the world earlier this week. It's the first time in four years that a pair of wild red wolves — a species teetering on the brink of extinction — gave birth to a litter in the wild."
"A research study released on April 22, 2022, in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine shows that a booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine provides strong protection, roughly 80% to 90%, in the first few months against hospital admissions and emergency department visits caused by the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19. However, this protection against omicron deteriorates over time – even after a third vaccine dose."
"It's hard to overstate the disruptive impact the pandemic has had on people… Its effect on mental health is a big one, and for teenagers, that hit particularly hard… Almost half of teens reported consistently feeling sad or hopeless — almost every day for two weeks or more in a row, to the point that they stopped doing their usual activities — in the 12 months before taking the survey."
"Many states are scaling back on how often they report key Covid-19 statistics, a shift that some experts worry might hinder efforts to mitigate outbreaks and negative effects of the coronavirus… A year ago, all 50 states were reporting new Covid-19 cases on a daily basis. But that has gradually trailed off. This week, Pennsylvania will be the latest state to switch from daily to weekly updates, leaving just six states that will still be reporting new Covid-19 cases every day of the week."
"Authorities battling Shanghai's latest Covid outbreak have installed fences to restrict the population's movement… Green barriers have appeared without warning outside buildings where those inside are forbidden from leaving… One resident told the BBC a green fence appeared inside his locked-up compound three days ago without any explanation."
"The world's top palm-oil producer announced that it would ban exports of the commodity starting on Thursday, sending the prices of edible oils soaring… Indonesia accounts for about half of the world's supply of palm oil, the world's most widely used vegetable oil. Palm oil is used for cooking and for the production of thousands of consumer products, including biscuits, detergents, and lipsticks."
"Twitter's board and Tesla CEO Elon Musk negotiated into the early hours of Monday over his bid to buy the social media platform, The New York Times reported… Musk said last week that he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company's board to negotiate a deal."
"Oil prices fell sharply Monday as lockdowns in China stoked concerns that the country's zero-Covid strategy will sap energy demand in the world's second-largest economy… US oil dropped 5.6% to a two-week low of $96.33 a barrel Monday morning, while Brent, the world benchmark, fell 4.9% to $101.43 a barrel."
"French President Emmanuel Macron comfortably won reelection to a second term Sunday. The results brought relief to allies that the nuclear-armed power won't abruptly shift course in the midst of the war in Ukraine from European Union and NATO efforts to punish and contain Russia's military expansionism."
"Pathologists and coroners who are carrying out postmortems on bodies found in mass graves in the region north of Kyiv, where occupying Russian forces have been accused of atrocities, said they had found small metal darts, called fléchettes, embedded in people’s heads and chests." Motherfuckers. (Groked from Xeni Jardin)
"Civilians flee the port city of Odesa after a Russian strike kills at least 8 people."
"Large fires broke out early on Monday at two oil depots in the Russian city of Bryansk, less than 100 miles from the border with Ukraine, in a potential act of sabotage by Kyiv… Russian state media said the first fire occurred at a civilian facility in Bryansk holding 10,000 tons of fuel, followed by a second fire at a military fuel depot holding 5,000 tons." Remember when the Russians claimed Ukraine struck fuel depots in Belgorod at the beginning of the month, only to have it turn out to be a false flag operation? Good times. Good times.
"Ukraine has urged Russia to hold a “special round of talks” on evacuating fighters and civilians holding out in a vast steel plant in the shattered port city of Mariupol… The call from an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday came as new footage of people purportedly sheltering at the Azovstal steel plant showed women saying they only had water and food to last a few more days."
"The U.S. Supreme Court jumps back into the culture wars Monday in a case that involves a football coach's asserted right to kneel and pray on the 50-yard line at the conclusion of a public school football game… Joseph Kennedy, a coach for the Bremerton, Wash., High School Varsity and JV football teams began praying with his players before and after games in 2008. At the end of a game, he would take a knee and say a prayer with his players at midfield."
"The story of Exitos Capital, the current owner of Cannon’s home, shows the difficulty the city faces in reaching out-of-town investors – and the challenges those investors can encounter in keeping track of their holdings… The company jumped into the Cleveland market in March 2018. That month, Exitos bought 27 properties – all from the same seller – for $611,000, according to county records. The company obtained more houses through 2018, until it owned a total of 43, by my count… Then the citations came."
"The path to keeping the Democrats' majority in the House of Representatives in November's midterms runs right through the Valley of the Sun in Arizona. Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton, a former mayor of Phoenix, won his district handily in 2020, but a redrawn map landed him on the GOP list of targeted lawmakers in 2022."
"House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's latest vow of loyalty to ex-President Donald Trump offers the clearest signal yet about the character of the likely Republican House majority that could rock Washington next year… The Californian's quickly exposed denial last week of a true, private remark that he might ask Trump to resign after the January 6 riot was important not just because it added a new detail about the attack on US democracy in 2021… Rather, the choice he made -- between telling a blatant lie or destroying his own dream of being speaker by confirming the truth and alienating the ex-President -- reveals the vital power calculation underpinning the modern GOP. That dynamic hands Trump enormous potential proxy power if the party makes good on its strong prospects and wins the House of Representatives in November."
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