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As war drags on, weary Russian civilians yearn for a return to normal life

As war drags on, weary Russian civilians yearn for a return to normal life

The Washington Post reports: For Russia’s urban middle class, the war on Ukraine has messed up plans, ruined longed-for vacations and stripped away joys like shopping for a favorite foreign clothing brand, turning the key in a new Japanese car, even biting into a Big Mac. As the war drags on, many yearn for life to go back to normal, before prices went crazy and foreign companies quit the country over Russia’s invasion. But these Russians are equally sure that…

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Trump on trial: A guide to the January 6 hearings and the question of criminality

Trump on trial: A guide to the January 6 hearings and the question of criminality

Norman Eisen, Donald B. Ayer, Joshua Perry, Noah Bookbinder, and E. Danya Perry, write: President Joe Biden legitimately won a fair and secure 2020 presidential election—and Donald Trump lost. This historical fact has been uncontroverted by any evidence since at least November 7, 2020, when major news outlets projected Biden’s victory. But Trump never conceded. Instead, both before and after Election Day, he tried to delegitimize the election results by disseminating a series of far-fetched and evidence-free claims of fraud….

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The gruesome images that the NRA and the GOP don’t want Americans to see

The gruesome images that the NRA and the GOP don’t want Americans to see

Kim Phuc Phan Thi writes: I know what it is like to have your village bombed, your home devastated, to see family members die and bodies of innocent civilians lying in the street. These are the horrors of war from Vietnam memorialized in countless photographs and newsreels. Sadly, they are also the images of wars everywhere, of precious human lives being damaged and destroyed today in Ukraine. They are, in a different way, also the horrific images coming from school…

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Inflation is poised to ease according to three key indicators

Inflation is poised to ease according to three key indicators

Bloomberg reports: Three of the key supply-side factors driving today’s global inflation levels have already turned around, meaning relief could be on the horizon for shoppers worldwide. A bellwether semiconductor price — a barometer of costs of finished electronics products as diverse as laptops, dishwashers, LED bulbs, and medical devices delivered worldwide — is now half its July 2018 peak and down 14% from the middle of last year. The spot rate for shipping containers — which tells us more…

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Russia seeks buyers for stolen Ukrainian grain, U.S. warns

Russia seeks buyers for stolen Ukrainian grain, U.S. warns

The New York Times reports: Russia has bombed, blockaded and plundered the grain production capacity of Ukraine, which accounts for one-tenth of global wheat exports, resulting in dire forecasts of increased hunger and of spiking food prices around the world. Now, the United States has warned that the Kremlin is trying to profit from that plunder by selling stolen wheat to drought-stricken countries in Africa, some facing possible famine. In mid-May, the United States sent an alert to 14 countries,…

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Saudi Arabia continues moving toward eventual official ties with Israel

Saudi Arabia continues moving toward eventual official ties with Israel

The Wall Street Journal reports: Saudi Arabia is engaging in serious talks with Israel to build business ties and create new security arrangements as the conservative Islamic kingdom senses a shift among its public in favor of establishing official ties with the majority Jewish state. Although Saudi Arabia doesn’t recognize Israel and has no diplomatic relations with its neighbor, the kingdom is expanding its secretive talks with Israeli leaders that could reshape Middle East politics and end decades of enmity…

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The long history of Glenn Greenwald ‘making common cause’ with the most evil regimes around the world

The long history of Glenn Greenwald ‘making common cause’ with the most evil regimes around the world

Cathy Young writes: In the months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, maverick journalist Glenn Greenwald has emerged as one of the loudest anti-Ukraine voices in the American media, with all the usual themes: transparent gloating over Russia’s apparent war gains in Eastern Ukraine; alarmism over United States support for Ukraine leading to World War III; even the flogging of “American biolabs in Ukraine” conspiracies in his Substack newsletter and in videos. While Greenwald has made overwrought claims about the “neo-Nazi…

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Climate groups join for first-of-its-kind, $100 million push to mobilize midterm voters

Climate groups join for first-of-its-kind, $100 million push to mobilize midterm voters

CNN reports: In an attempt to mobilize voters around the climate crisis, six climate advocacy groups are readying for the midterms with an arsenal of $100 million — the first coordinated spending of its kind. In a difficult political year for Democrats, the climate groups are forming the new Climate Votes Project, shared first with CNN and to be announced Monday. The $100 million will pay for multiple ad campaigns, as well as an in-person field organizing to contact hard-to-reach…

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Biden to waive tariffs for 24 months on solar panels hit by probe

Biden to waive tariffs for 24 months on solar panels hit by probe

Reuters reports: President Joe Biden will declare a 24-month tariff exemption on Monday for solar panels from four Southeast Asian nations after an investigation froze imports and stalled projects in the United States, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The move comes amid concern about the impact of the Commerce Department’s months-long investigation into whether imports of solar panels from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are circumventing tariffs on goods made in China. Biden’s action would allay companies’ concerns…

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Video: Covid and the brain — a neurological health crisis

Video: Covid and the brain — a neurological health crisis

  Brain fog. Memory lapses. Difficulties focusing or sustaining attention. All these cognitive issues have plagued some who have otherwise recovered from a bout of Covid-19. In this video, Stanford neurologist Michelle Monje describes her work showing how even mild respiratory infections with the SARS-CoV-2 virus may lead to lingering problems with the brain. Monje, who has long treated and studied cancer patients with similar symptoms following chemotherapy, says that the damage isn’t necessarily caused by the virus itself. Instead,…

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India’s war on journalists

India’s war on journalists

Zeba Warsi writes: An unsettling, eerie silence engulfed the streets of Khajuri Khas two days after the riots. The neighborhood is a Muslim ghetto and was one of the worst hit in the anti-Muslim violence that erupted in Delhi in late February 2020. Fifty-three people were killed, a majority of them Muslims. I walked through lanes covered in ashes. The air was thick with the toxic smell of burned refrigerators and charred vehicles. Broken pieces of furniture lined the streets….

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Ukraine is desperate for peace, but we won’t sign up to a bogus Russian deal

Ukraine is desperate for peace, but we won’t sign up to a bogus Russian deal

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defence minister, writes: We Ukrainians want peace more than anyone in the world. For about 100 days, we have been fighting Russian forces on the ground, in the sky, on the sea, and in cyber and information spaces. Defence experts originally gave us little hope of success. They changed their position when we showed our ability to resist. Now we need to demonstrate the strength to hold our course and resist the temptations of a…

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Estonia’s PM Kallas calls for new government talks as coalition collapses

Estonia’s PM Kallas calls for new government talks as coalition collapses

The Guardian reports: Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has called for talks on a new government after her ruling coalition fell apart, urging unity because of security concerns over neighbouring Russia. Kallas spoke to reporters after President Alar Karis accepted her request to dismiss seven Centre party ministers from the 15-strong cabinet, including the foreign minister, Eva-Maria Liimets. “More than ever, Estonia needs a functioning government based on common values,” Kallas said on Friday, according to the Baltic news agency….

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Ukraine anger as Macron says ‘Don’t humiliate Russia’

Ukraine anger as Macron says ‘Don’t humiliate Russia’

BBC News reports: Ukraine’s foreign minister has hit out at French President Emmanuel Macron after he said it was vital that Russia was not humiliated over its invasion. Mr Macron said it was crucial President Vladimir Putin had a way out of what he called a “fundamental error”. But Dmytro Kuleba said allies should “better focus on how to put Russia in its place” as it “humiliates itself”. Mr Macron has repeatedly spoken to Mr Putin by phone in an…

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