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Panama Papers whistleblower speaks out: ‘Shell companies are Putin’s best friend’

Panama Papers whistleblower speaks out: ‘Shell companies are Putin’s best friend’

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project: The anonymous whistleblower behind the bombshell leak known as the Panama Papers has emerged anew to warn how offshore companies are enabling Russia’s war machine. John Doe, as the whistleblower insisted on being called, had only spoken out publicly once before, but reached out recently to the two German journalists who had received the leak of documents in 2015 concerning the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Those two reporters from Suddeutsche Zeitung, Frederik Obermaier…

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WHO declares monkeypox spread a global health emergency

WHO declares monkeypox spread a global health emergency

The New York Times reports: For the second time in two years, the World Health Organization has taken the extraordinary step of declaring a global emergency. This time the cause is monkeypox, which has spread in just a few weeks to dozens of countries and infected tens of thousands of people. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general, on Saturday overruled a panel of advisers, who could not come to a consensus, and declared a “public health emergency of…

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FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt U.S. nuclear arsenal communications

FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt U.S. nuclear arsenal communications

CNN reports: On paper, it looked like a fantastic deal. In 2017, the Chinese government was offering to spend $100 million to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington DC. Complete with temples, pavilions and a 70-foot white pagoda, the project thrilled local officials, who hoped it would attract thousands of tourists every year.       But when US counterintelligence officials began digging into the details, they found numerous red flags. The pagoda, they noted, would have been strategically…

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For Trump, loyalty is all that matters

For Trump, loyalty is all that matters

Jonathan Swan reports: Trump’s move in early 2020 to bring back [John] McEntee, the then 29-year-old former presidential body man abruptly fired in 2018 by then-chief of staff John Kelly, would become one of his more consequential decisions. McEntee had been one of his favorite aides and Trump had long regretted allowing Kelly, whom he had grown to despise, to have his way. After Trump’s Senate acquittal, he gave McEntee an astonishing promotion to run the White House Office of…

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Who dreams?

Who dreams?

Antonio Zadra writes: My fascination with dream characters began while I was in college. That’s when, in the midst of a dream in which I knew I was dreaming (a ‘lucid dream’), I had my first encounter with an older gentleman, who tried to convince me that, actually, my experience wasn’t a dream. Over the next two decades, this man appeared in several other of my lucid as well as non-lucid dreams. He always maintained he was real, one time…

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There’s a reason Trump could try to overturn the results of the 2020 election

There’s a reason Trump could try to overturn the results of the 2020 election

Jamelle Bouie writes: Sometimes, it seems, the Senate isn’t entirely useless. On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 16 senators, led by Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, released the text of a new bill intended to make it harder to overturn the results of a presidential election. A direct response to Donald Trump’s multipronged attempt to stay in power, the bill is meant to keep a future candidate for president, including a losing incumbent, from following…

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A plan to install an authoritarian regime staffed with thousands of Trump loyalists

A plan to install an authoritarian regime staffed with thousands of Trump loyalists

Jonathan Swan reports: Former President Trump’s top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his “America First” ideology, people involved in the discussions tell Axios. The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice…

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Ukraine’s Zelensky says a cease-fire with Russia, without reclaiming lost lands, will only prolong war

Ukraine’s Zelensky says a cease-fire with Russia, without reclaiming lost lands, will only prolong war

The Wall Street Journal reports: Any cease-fire that allows Russia to keep Ukrainian territories seized since the invasion in February would only encourage an even wider conflict, giving Moscow a badly-needed opportunity to replenish and rearm for the next round, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned. “Freezing the conflict with the Russian Federation means a pause that gives the Russian Federation a break for rest,” Mr. Zelensky said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in the heavily fortified presidential…

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U.S. considers supplying Ukraine with fighter jets, White House says

U.S. considers supplying Ukraine with fighter jets, White House says

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Pentagon is considering providing Ukrainian forces with fighter jets, the White House said Friday, marking what would be a significant expansion of U.S. involvement in the war and carrying with it a risk of more direct confrontation with Moscow. The Pentagon “is making some preliminary explorations into the feasibility of potentially providing fighter aircraft to the Ukrainians,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications. “But it’s not something that they’re…

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Vatican calls for immediate end to fossil fuels, bold action from world leaders ahead of COP27

Vatican calls for immediate end to fossil fuels, bold action from world leaders ahead of COP27

The Planetary Press reports: The Vatican is calling for an immediate phase-out of fossil fuels. A top Vatican official has signaled support for an agreement to cease fossil fuel expansion and phase-out existing production. During a press conference centered around Pope Francis’ World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, an initiative that aims to spur global support for a binding…

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Newsom signs California gun bill modeled after Texas abortion law

Newsom signs California gun bill modeled after Texas abortion law

CNN reports: California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill into law that allows private citizens to bring civil action against anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports or imports assault weapons or ghost guns, which are banned in the state. California Senate Bill 1327 is modeled after a Texas law that allows private citizens to bring civil litigation against abortion providers or anyone who assists a pregnant person in obtaining an abortion after as early as six weeks of pregnancy….

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Ant colonies resemble neural networks when making decisions

Ant colonies resemble neural networks when making decisions

ZME Science reports: New research from the Rockefeller University suggests that colonies of ants make decisions collectively, with outcomes dependent both on the magnitude of the stressor requiring a decision as well as the size of the ant group. The findings suggest that ants combine sensory information about their environment with parameters of their colony to arrive at a group response. Most interestingly of all, this process is similar to the way neural networks make decisions. “We pioneered an approach…

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America’s self-obsession is killing its democracy

America’s self-obsession is killing its democracy

Brian Klaas writes: I’ve spent the past 12 years studying the breakdown of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism around the world, in places such as Thailand, Tunisia, Belarus, and Zambia. I’ve shaken hands with many of the world’s democracy killers. My studies and experiences have taught me that democracies can die in many ways. In the past, most ended in a quick death. Assassinations can snuff out democracy in a split second, coups in an hour or two, and…

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America was in an early-death crisis long before Covid

America was in an early-death crisis long before Covid

Ed Yong writes: Jacob Bor has been thinking about a parallel universe. He envisions a world in which America has health on par with that of other wealthy nations, and is not an embarrassing outlier that, despite spending more on health care than any other country, has shorter life spans, higher rates of chronic disease and maternal mortality, and fewer doctors per capita than its peers. Bor, an epidemiologist at Boston University School of Public Health, imagines the people who…

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