IMPORTANT |  | Who Do You Trust? | Zelenskyy Skeptical as Russia Pledges to Scale Back Assault Ukraine and Russia will continue negotiations in Istanbul today after Moscow’s announcement that it would drastically pull back forces from Kyiv and Chernihiv to “increase mutual trust.” But while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian people that there had been “positive signals” in the talks, “they do not drown out the explosions of Russian shells.” Many Western leaders and diplomats shared his skepticism. British officials noted that battered Russian troops had been forced to return to Belarus and Russia to resupply, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Moscow’s moves may be intended to “deceive people and deflect attention.” (Sources: The Guardian, AP, Politico) |
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| | |  | Mind the Gap | Seven Hours Missing From White House Phone Logs During Capitol Riot The congressional committee investigating Jan. 6 has finally obtained former President Donald Trump’s records from the National Archive, but something isn’t quite right. During the insurrection, there’s a gap in phone activity from 11:17 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. — over seven hours. That runs counter to Republican lawmakers’ testimony saying they spoke to Trump that afternoon. Some speculate that Trump was communicating via unofficial channels or a secret personal phone. Others worry records have been withheld or destroyed, Watergate-style. Meanwhile, in a new interview Trump called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release damaging information on President Biden’s family. (Sources: BBC, CNN) |
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|  | Escalating Violence | Gunman Kills Five in Ultra-Orthodox Tel Aviv Suburb Israeli police say the man who opened fire in Bnei Brak, killing five, was a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank village of Yabad. Tuesday’s attack raises serious security concerns, coming two days after a shooting in Hadera that killed two police officers and a week after a stabbing in Beersheba left four dead. Both of those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group, and all of the attackers were killed. Israeli security forces raided the homes of at least 12 Arab citizens yesterday as part of a security crackdown, and two were arrested for suspected Islamic State connections. (Sources: AP, Al Jazeera) |
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|  | Seconds, Please! | CDC Expands Second Booster Eligibility for Americans Over 50 Many parts of America are scaling back their COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites as case numbers continue their downward trend. But experts warn that another wave of infections, driven by new variants, could be coming soon. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now expanded eligibility for second boosters to everyone over the age of 65 and those over 50 who are more at-risk or immunocompromised. The move comes after the Food and Drug Administration signed off on additional boosters yesterday, relying on data from Israel, where they’ve been in use since December. (Sources: NBC News, Axios) |
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|  | Briefly | Here are some things you should know about today: A royal remembrance. Queen Elizabeth II attended a service for her late husband, Prince Philip, at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday, assuaging worries over her recent health and mobility issues. (Source: BBC) Ezra Miller arrested. Hawaii police say the actor was charged with disorderly conduct and harassment after disrupting a local karaoke bar. (Source: NBC News) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants Justice Clarence Thomas to resign. Noting his wife’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his vote to block the Jan. 6 committee from obtaining Trump’s White House records, Ocasio-Cortez suggested the Supreme Court judge should be impeached if he won’t step down. (Source: ABC News) |
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| | | INTRIGUING | | | | | Something in the Water | Report: Half of US Water Unfit for Swimming, Fishing and Drinking The Environmental Integrity Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit, released an alarming new report suggesting that 55% of America’s lakes and 51% of river and stream miles are “impaired” with pollution. That means the water doesn’t meet standards set out by the 1972 Clean Water Act. That act has pushed over $1 trillion into improving water quality over the decades, and although it’s done a lot of good, the EIP says there’s still a long way to go, including better regulation of highly polluting industries and agricultural runoff. President Biden’s infrastructure bill includes provisions for fighting water pollution, allocating $43 billion to water infrastructure. (Source: The Hill) |
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| | | 404 Not Found | Retro Computer Museum in Ukraine Destroyed by Russian Bombing Almost 20 years ago, Dmitriy Cherepanov built a museum in Mariupol dedicated to old tech and called it IT 8-bit. The passion project became an internationally recognized institution honoring old gaming systems and Soviet-era computers, and was especially popular with the children of Mariupol. When the Russian offensive began battering Cherepanov’s city, he and his family were forced to flee — and his beloved private museum, which he joked was a “nursing home for elderly computers,” was destroyed. He says he’ll continue podcasting about retro computers and will maintain the museum’s website as a piece of computing history. (Source: NPR) |
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| | | Crunching Crypto | New Campaign Seeks to Slash Bitcoin Mining’s Carbon Footprint Change the Code Not the Climate, a new campaign by Environmental Working Group, Greenpeace USA and local groups battling bitcoin mining, says a simple change could reduce bitcoin’s massive carbon footprint by 99%. Bitcoin mining currently uses as much energy as all of Sweden because it relies on “proof of work” code requiring massive computer arrays to validate that miners have solved highly complex cryptographic puzzles. But the campaign’s organizers propose changing to the system used by rival cryptocurrency ethereum, which is shifting to a “proof of stake” model where miners pledge their coins to verify transactions under threat of penalties. (Source: The Guardian) |
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| | | Breaking Barriers | Environmentalist Hopes to Be Colombia’s First Afro-Colombian VP Francia Márquez has earned wide acclaim as well as deadly enemies. In 2019, the influential activist survived an assassination attempt after a series of death threats. Now she’s on the ticket with leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, the front-runner with a double-digit lead in the polls over right-wing Federico Gutierrez ahead of May’s election. Márquez, who has been vocal in fighting for social and environmental justice in a country where 138 human rights defenders were killed in 2021 alone, said, “This is a moment of racial justice, of gender justice, ecological justice — and a moment of social justice.” (Source: Al Jazeera) |
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| | | Making Space Off the Field | Every NFL Team Must Hire a Minority Offensive Coach for 2022 Season According to the official policy, minority means “a female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority.” The new requirement is the first hiring mandate in the history of the Rooney Rule, which was instituted in 2003 to increase diversity throughout the league, and the rule has now been expanded to officially include women. NFL owners agreed to the change, which aims to get more minorities into offensive coordinator roles and therefore widen the pool of candidates for head coaching positions. The NFL also announced a new Diversity Advisory Committee, which consists of outside experts to evaluate the league’s progress. (Source: ESPN) |
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