Linkee-poo Monday June 6

"For the last two years, the notion that no kid should ever have to go hungry in the US has gotten closer to a reality, thanks to federal waivers that have expanded children’s access to food. The waivers resulted in a simple but revolutionary outcome: free lunch, year-round, for every American schoolchild… But that will come to an end in weeks, as Congress has failed to include an extension of the waivers, which have allowed schools to offer school lunches as well as summer lunch handouts, enabling an estimated 10 million more students to get a free meal."

"This case, argued over six weeks before a seven-person jury and judge, and a noisily expanding online audience, drove much of the internet crazy with guilty pleasure. Thus ensued a collective hurling of feces at Amber Heard, despite the evidence gathered meticulously in a 2020 British libel case also focused on Depp’s spousal abuse. The only quarter of the media that seemed reluctant to engage in the facts of the case was the progressive press, or the liberal media. There you could find coverage of the social media chaos, but not the underlying reality. This bothered journalist Michael Hobbes, host of the podcast Maintenance Phase, who observed that usually reliable outlets tended to steer around the facts, and sold an already victimized woman down the river." An On the Media short podcast on the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial.

"Scientists at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution announced today that ribonucleic acid (RNA), an analog of DNA that was likely the first genetic material for life, spontaneously forms on basalt lava glass. Such glass was abundant on Earth 4.35 billion years ago. Similar basalts of this antiquity survive on Mars today."

"A weekly dose of a diabetes drug appears to lead to significant weight loss in people with obesity, in a development experts have hailed as gamechanging… Now researchers say a diabetes drug, used alongside such interventions, can help people with obesity. Participants in a 72-week trial lost as much as 20% of their body weight." But in the US off label use is strictly regulated. Ask me how I know.

"Thousands of UK workers are starting a four-day work week from Monday with no cut to their pay in the largest trial of its kind… The pilot, which will last for six months, involves 3,300 workers spanning 70 companies, ranging from providers of financial services to a fish-and-chip restaurant… During the program, workers receive 100% of their pay for working only 80% of their usual week, in exchange for promising to maintain 100% of their productivity." I mentioned somewhere that we are now in a societal conversation regarding work/life balance. I know healthcare work places that had been resistant to 10 and 12 hour work days are now experimenting (or have promised to experiment).

"The technology necessary to turn nuclear waste into energy is known as a nuclear fast reactor, and has existed for decades. It was proven out by a United States government research lab pilot plant that operated from the 1960s through the 1990s… For political and economic reasons, the technology has never been developed at commercial scale." The resulting "waste" is plutonium. Which, while low grade, is something we generally didn't want more of (even though it will be produced eventually).

"Oil prices topped $120 a barrel in choppy trade on Monday buoyed by Saudi Arabia raising its July crude prices but amid doubts that a higher output target for OPEC+ oil producers would ease tight supply."

"Anti-monopolists blame inflation on price-gouging. This is a persuasive argument. After all, CEOs of companies in highly concentrated industries keep giving investor presentations where they chortle, rub their hands, twirl their mustaches, and announce that their profits are sky-high thanks to their ability to raise prices…" Cory Doctorow on the current inflation bubble. Also this… "The collapse of onshore manufacturing capacity was a choice, not an accident. It was part of the financialization of our economy, which was heralded as a source of efficiency and abundance." Lived through that, can confirm.

"Solar energy stocks soared Monday after a report that the Biden administration will suspend tariffs on solar panel components from four countries… President Joe Biden declared a 24-month tariff exemption for solar panel products from several Southeast Asian nations, and announced the use of the Defense Production Act to promote domestic production."

"U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's job is at stake in a no-confidence vote Monday night local time. Johnson's supporters say he's certain to stay in office — but the rebellion within his own Conservative Party opens a new front in Johnson's fight to overcome a string of scandals and hold onto power."

"The battle for Ukraine has turned into a slugfest of dueling artillery. It's not the lightning-quick takedown Russian President Vladimir Putin intended. But former CIA Director David Petraeus says there's no denying Russian progress… 'They have made grinding, costly, but substantial gains,' he said. 'They now control at least 20 percent of the country, if you include the areas, of course, that they took control of back in 2014.'" I appreciate that in a war of attrition there's little to report, but can we stop covering the same ground with different talking heads?

"Ukrainian partisans in occupied areas of the country are increasing attacks and sabotage efforts on Russian forces and their local collaborators, with organised underground efforts appearing to spread."

"India is facing major diplomatic outrage from Muslim-majority countries after top officials in the governing Hindu nationalist party made derogatory references to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, drawing accusations of blasphemy across some Arab nations that have left New Delhi struggling to contain the damaging fallout." I wonder when we'll have the conversation about former colonized nations having learned the wrong lessons while throwing off the colonizers.

"A Uvalde mom who says she was handcuffed by law enforcement while trying to rescue her sons from the school shooting has claimed that authorities warned her not to speak to the media about her experience."

"Confusion, chaos and wrong information appear to have contributed to law enforcement's delay in stopping the gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas… The gunman spent more than an hour inside the school while police waited outside, authorities say. This was because the incident commander, school district police chief Pete Arredondo, treated the scene as a barricaded-person situation rather than as an active shooter situation."

"The House select committee will hold its first public hearing this week, on June 9 at 8 p.m. ET. Sources told CNN this hearing will be a broad overview of the panel's 10-month investigation and set the stage for subsequent hearings, which are expected to cover certain topics or themes… While the setup of the hearings has been a work in progress and evolving, sources note, the presentations will likely feature video clips from January 6, as well as some of the roughly 1,000 interviews the committee has conducted behind closed doors."

"The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack will unveil new evidence at Watergate-style public hearings this week showing Donald Trump and top aides acted with corrupt intent to stop Joe Biden’s certification, according to sources close to the inquiry… The panel intends to use the hearings as its principal method of revealing potential crimes by Trump as he sought to overturn the 2020 election results, the sources said, in what could be a treacherous legal and political moment for the former president."

"This week, On the Media looks ahead to the January 6th committee hearings that will air live in primetime this month. Find out which questions reporters hope the hearings will answer — like what really happened inside the White House that day. Plus, how a lie about a suitcase full of fake ballots took on a life of its own."