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Phosphorus saved our way of life — and now threatens to end it

Phosphorus saved our way of life — and now threatens to end it

Elizabeth Kolbert writes: In the fall of 1802, the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt arrived in Callao, Peru’s major port, just west of Lima. Humboldt had timed his visit to coincide with a transit of Mercury, which he planned to observe through a three-foot telescope, in order to determine Lima’s longitude. He set up his instruments atop a fort on the waterfront, and then, with a few days to kill before the event, wandered the docks. A powerful stench emanating…

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Matthew Kacsmaryk falsified record of his publications provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee

Matthew Kacsmaryk falsified record of his publications provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee

The Washington Post reports: As a lawyer for a conservative legal group, Matthew Kacsmaryk in early 2017 submitted an article to a Texas law review criticizing Obama-era protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions. The Obama administration, the draft article argued, had discounted religious physicians who “cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male” and “cannot use their pens to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs designed to kill unborn children.” But a few months after the…

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In counties with more Black doctors, Black people live longer, ‘astonishing’ study finds

In counties with more Black doctors, Black people live longer, ‘astonishing’ study finds

STAT reports: Black people in counties with more Black primary care physicians live longer, according to a new national analysis that provides the strongest evidence yet that increasing the diversity of the medical workforce may be key to ending deeply entrenched racial health disparities. The study, published Friday in JAMA Network Open, is the first to link a higher prevalence of Black doctors to longer life expectancy and lower mortality in Black populations. Other studies have shown that when Black patients are treated…

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Alexei Navalny in ‘critical’ situation after possible poisoning, says ally

Alexei Navalny in ‘critical’ situation after possible poisoning, says ally

The Guardian reports: Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition politician, has been grappling with severe stomach pain in jail that could be the result of slow-acting poison, a close ally said on Friday. Ruslan Shaveddinov said an ambulance was called last week to the maximum security IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, about 155 miles (250km) east of Moscow, where he is being held. “His situation is critical, we are all very concerned,” Shaveddinov told the Guardian in a phone interview….

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Leak raises fresh questions about Pentagon’s internal security

Leak raises fresh questions about Pentagon’s internal security

The Washington Post reports: The leak of hundreds of classified intelligence documents about the war in Ukraine and U.S. spying on allies has left many officials asking: How did this happen again? Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old, low-level National Guard member assigned to an intelligence support squadron in Massachusetts, allegedly removed hundreds of classified documents from his office on base and brought them home. He then shared them with his friends in an online community united by their love of guns…

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India’s descent into authoritarianism shouldn’t be ignored by its democratic allies

India’s descent into authoritarianism shouldn’t be ignored by its democratic allies

Howard W. French writes: When a judge in India’s Gujarat state sentenced the country’s most prominent opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, to two years in prison last month for a remark personally offensive to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he was doing more than sanctioning speech in a narrowly censorious way. If it is upheld, his ruling, seemingly by design, would remove Modi’s rival from the parliament and dramatically marginalize his place in India’s politics. In most democracies, speech in general,…

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As world warms, droughts come on faster, study finds

As world warms, droughts come on faster, study finds

The New York Times reports: Flash droughts, the kind that arrive quickly and can lay waste to crops in a matter of weeks, are becoming more common and faster to develop around the world, and human-caused climate change is a major reason, a new scientific study has found. As global warming continues, more abrupt dry spells could have grave consequences for people in humid regions whose livelihoods depend on rain-fed agriculture. The study found that flash droughts occurred more often…

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Russia’s commando units gutted by Ukraine war, U.S. leak shows

Russia’s commando units gutted by Ukraine war, U.S. leak shows

The Washington Post reports: The war in Ukraine has gutted Russia’s clandestine spetsnaz forces, and it will take Moscow years to rebuild them, according to classified U.S. assessments obtained by The Washington Post. The finding, which has not been previously reported, is among a cache of sensitive materials leaked online through the messaging platform Discord. U.S. officials attributed their assessments to Russian commanders’ overreliance on the specialized units, which have been put to use as part of front-line infantry formations….

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Ukraine says U.S. intelligence leaks won’t impact its planned offensive

Ukraine says U.S. intelligence leaks won’t impact its planned offensive

The Wall Street Journal reports: A senior Ukrainian official played down the seriousness of the online leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents, saying they would have no impact on a critical Ukrainian offensive planned for the coming weeks. The leaked files “have no operational significance,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said in an interview. “They have no impact on the front line or the planning of the General Staff.” The documents published so far don’t contain any major intelligence…

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Why Jack Teixeira had access to so much classified information

Why Jack Teixeira had access to so much classified information

Fred Kaplan writes: One of the odd mysteries in the case of Jack Teixeira—the 21-year-old airman arrested on Thursday for pilfering and leaking hundreds of highly classified documents to pals online—turns out not to be so odd after all. The puzzle, as I noted in a column on Thursday, is why the Massachusetts Air National Guard, which is where Teixeira worked, would have access to such material in the first place. The answer is that Otis Air Base, the Cape…

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Israel’s one-state reality

Israel’s one-state reality

Michael Barnett, Nathan Brown, Marc Lynch, and Shibley Telhami write: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power in Israel with a narrow, extreme right-wing coalition has shattered even the illusion of a two-state solution. Members of his new government have not been shy about stating their views on what Israel is and what it should be in all the territories it controls: a Greater Israel defined not just as a Jewish state but one in which the law enshrines Jewish…

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How Tennessee illustrates the three rules of MAGA

How Tennessee illustrates the three rules of MAGA

David French writes: While Trumpism is a complex phenomenon, there are three ideas or principles that are consistently present: First, that before Trump the G.O.P. was a political doormat, helplessly walked over by Democrats time and again. Second, that we live in a state of cultural emergency where the right has lost everywhere and must turn to politics to reverse this cultural momentum. And third, that in this state of emergency, all conservatives must rally together. There can be no…

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A rural Texas county just blinked on library closures. Pressure worked

A rural Texas county just blinked on library closures. Pressure worked

Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent write: It isn’t every day that the ruminations of local bureaucrats in a small rural Texas county become national news. But when commissioners in Llano County — population 21,000 — voted Thursday to keep its three-branch library system open, the moment was closely monitored by the biggest news organizations in the country. That’s because Llano County has become a national symbol of local right-wing censorship efforts after officials threatened to close its libraries entirely rather than allow offending materials to remain on shelves….

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