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GOP commission refuses to certify New Mexico primary vote

GOP commission refuses to certify New Mexico primary vote

The Associated Press reports: New Mexico’s secretary of state on Tuesday asked the state Supreme Court to order the Republican-led commission of rural Otero County to certify primary election results after it refused to do so over distrust of Dominion vote-tallying machines. Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Olive’s request came a day after the three-member Otero County commission, in its role as a county canvassing board, voted unanimously against certifying the results of the June 7 primary without raising…

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Sweeping legislation aims to ban the sale of location data

Sweeping legislation aims to ban the sale of location data

Motherboard reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren and a group of other Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill that would essentially outlaw the sale of location data harvested from smartphones. The bill also presents a range of other powers to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and individual victims to push back against the multibillion-dollar location data industry. The move comes after Motherboard reported multiple instances in which companies were selling location data of people who visited abortion clinics, and sometimes making subsets…

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Simone de Beauvoir on facing old age and avoiding bad faith

Simone de Beauvoir on facing old age and avoiding bad faith

Kate Kirkpatrick and Sonia Kruks write: Old age is not exactly a time of life that most of us welcome, although globally speaking it is a privilege to reach it. In Western societies, the shocked realisation that we are growing old often fills us with alarm and even terror. As Simone de Beauvoir writes in her magisterial study of the topic, La vieillesse (1970) – translated in the UK as Old Age, and in the US as The Coming of…

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The brain has a ‘low-power mode’ that blunts our senses

The brain has a ‘low-power mode’ that blunts our senses

Allison Whitten writes: When our phones and computers run out of power, their glowing screens go dark and they die a sort of digital death. But switch them to low-power mode to conserve energy, and they cut expendable operations to keep basic processes humming along until their batteries can be recharged. Our energy-intensive brain needs to keep its lights on too. Brain cells depend primarily on steady deliveries of the sugar glucose, which they convert to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to…

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Russia’s oil revenue soars despite sanctions, study finds

Russia’s oil revenue soars despite sanctions, study finds

The New York Times reports: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered global condemnation and tough sanctions aimed at denting Moscow’s war chest. Yet Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels, by far its biggest export, soared to records in the first 100 days of its war on Ukraine, driven by a windfall from oil sales amid surging prices, a new analysis shows. Russia earned what is very likely a record 93 billion euros in revenue from exports of oil, gas and coal in…

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Ukraine has received 10% of arms pledged, defense ministry says

Ukraine has received 10% of arms pledged, defense ministry says

AFP reports: Ukraine has received just 10 per cent of the weapons pledged by the West to help Kyiv to fight off the Russian offensive, the deputy defence minister said on Tuesday. “From what we said we need, we got about 10 per cent,” Anna Malyar said in televised remarks, saying the West should speed up its delivery schedule. “No matter how hard Ukraine tries, no matter how professional our army is, without the help of Western partners we will…

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Beware the ruinous optimism of Democratic leaders

Beware the ruinous optimism of Democratic leaders

Jamelle Bouie writes: If you want a sense of what separates much of the leadership of the Democratic Party from many of its supporters — of what illustrates their profound disconnect from younger cohorts of liberal and progressive voters — you could do much worse than to read this recent statement from Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. “Some things take longer than others, and you can only do what you can do at a given time,” she said in an…

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The January 6 committee isn’t messing around

The January 6 committee isn’t messing around

Quinta Jurecic writes: The open hearing last week of the committee investigating the January 6 coup attempt plunged viewers back into the brutality and terror of that day. The committee featured footage of insurrectionists beating the law-enforcement officers who attempted to stop them from entering the Capitol, material disturbing enough that YouTube later labeled video of the hearing as “inappropriate for some users.” Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer who testified about her injuries at the hands of the rioters,…

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AG Garland and federal prosecutors are watching all of the January 6 hearings

AG Garland and federal prosecutors are watching all of the January 6 hearings

NPR reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland is watching the House hearings on the lead-up to and day of Jan. 6, 2021 — as are the Justice Department lawyers prosecuting cases related to the attack on the Capitol. “I’m watching and I will be watching all the hearings, although I may not be able to watch all of it live. But I’ll be sure that I’ll be watching all that. And I can assure you that the January 6 prosecutors are…

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Universal health care could have saved more than 330,000 American lives during the pandemic

Universal health care could have saved more than 330,000 American lives during the pandemic

Rachel Nuwer writes: Americans spend more on health care than people in any other nation. Yet in any given year, the piecemeal nature of the American medical insurance system causes many preventable deaths and unnecessary costs. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 only exacerbated this already dire public health issue, as evidenced by the U.S.’s elevated mortality, compared with that of other high-income countries. A new study quantifies the severity of the impact of the pandemic on Americans who did not have access…

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How Houston moved 25,000 people from the streets into homes of their own

How Houston moved 25,000 people from the streets into homes of their own

Michael Kimmelman writes: One steamy morning last July, Ana Rausch commandeered a shady corner of a parking lot on the northwest side of Houston. Downing a jumbo iced coffee, she issued brisk orders to a dozen outreach workers toting iPads. Her attention was fixed on a highway underpass nearby, where a handful of people were living in tents and cardboard lean-tos. As a vice president of Houston’s Coalition for the Homeless, Ms. Rausch was there to move them out. I…

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Ukraine fears defeat in east without rapid surge in military aid

Ukraine fears defeat in east without rapid surge in military aid

The Wall Street Journal reports: The war in Ukraine has turned into a grinding artillery contest where Russia is steadily gaining ground thanks to its overwhelming advantage in firepower. As the U.S. and allies gather Wednesday to discuss fresh military aid to Kyiv, Ukraine’s fate will largely depend on how fast and in what quantities these heavy weapons arrive. Without a broad and rapid increase in military assistance, Ukraine faces a defeat in the eastern Donbas region, Ukrainian officials warn….

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Putin’s grim journey from economic reformer to war criminal

Putin’s grim journey from economic reformer to war criminal

Anders Åslund writes: Vladimir Putin’s 22-year reign has been marked by a steady decline in the goals he has set for himself and his country. He initially embraced progressive notions of domestic reform and international integration, but has since led Russia deeper and deeper into authoritarian isolation. His recent comments comparing himself to Peter the Great and boasting of plans to seize Ukrainian lands represent a new low in this depressing journey from would-be reformer to war criminal. It is…

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Morocco counters Russia’s weaponization of the food-energy nexus

Morocco counters Russia’s weaponization of the food-energy nexus

Michaël Tanchum writes: After 100 days of war in Ukraine on Europe’s eastern flank, a critical new front has opened on Europe’s southern flank with the food crisis in Africa. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has accused Moscow of weaponizing famine and using it against Africa. Already on a near-war footing to counter Moscow’s westward advances in Ukraine, Europe is now pressed to prevent a famine-driven mass migration crisis coming to its southern shores from North Africa. As…

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