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‘Blame Trump’ defense in Capitol riot looks like a long shot

‘Blame Trump’ defense in Capitol riot looks like a long shot

The Associated Press reports: While experts say blaming Trump may not get their clients off the hook, it may help at sentencing when they ask the judge for leniency. “It could likely be considered a mitigating factor that this person genuinely believed they were simply following the instructions of the leader of the United States,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney in Michigan who’s now a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. It could also bolster any…

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Evolution: lab-grown ‘mini brains’ suggest one mutation might have rewired the human mind

Evolution: lab-grown ‘mini brains’ suggest one mutation might have rewired the human mind

The brains of humans are subtly different from those of Neanderthals. Petr Student/Shutterstock By Itzia Ferrer, Lund University and Per Brattås, Lund University How we humans became what we are today is a question that scientists have been trying to answer for a long time. How did we evolve such advanced cognitive abilities, giving rise to complex language, poetry and rocket science? In what way is the modern human brain different from those of our closest evolutionary relatives, such as…

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The coronavirus is threatening a comeback. Here’s how to stop It

The coronavirus is threatening a comeback. Here’s how to stop It

The New York Times reports: Across the United States, and the world, the coronavirus seems to be loosening its stranglehold. The deadly curve of cases, hospitalizations and deaths has yo-yoed before, but never has it plunged so steeply and so fast. Is this it, then? Is this the beginning of the end? After a year of being pummeled by grim statistics and scolded for wanting human contact, many Americans feel a long-promised deliverance is at hand. Americans will win against…

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Five pandemic mistakes we keep repeating

Five pandemic mistakes we keep repeating

Zeynep Tufekci writes: When the polio vaccine was declared safe and effective, the news was met with jubilant celebration. Church bells rang across the nation, and factories blew their whistles. “Polio routed!” newspaper headlines exclaimed. “An historic victory,” “monumental,” “sensational,” newscasters declared. People erupted with joy across the United States. Some danced in the streets; others wept. Kids were sent home from school to celebrate. One might have expected the initial approval of the coronavirus vaccines to spark similar jubilation—especially…

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The false dilemma of post-vaccination risk

The false dilemma of post-vaccination risk

James Hamblin writes: Every day, more than 1 million American deltoids are being loaded with a vaccine. The ensuing immune response has proved to be extremely effective—essentially perfect—at preventing severe cases of COVID-19. And now, with yet another highly effective vaccine on the verge of approval, that pace should further accelerate in the weeks to come. This is creating a legion of people who no longer need to fear getting sick, and are desperate to return to “normal” life. Yet…

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American cynicism has reached a breaking point

American cynicism has reached a breaking point

Megan Garber writes: On Tuesday evening, at the start of his Fox News show, Tucker Carlson shared the results of an investigation that he and his staff had conducted into a well-known agent of American disinformation. “We spent all day trying to locate the famous QAnon,” Carlson said, “which, in the end, we learned is not even a website. If it’s out there, we could not find it.” They kept looking, though, checking Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Twitter feed and “the…

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How do you recalibrate with a murderer?

How do you recalibrate with a murderer?

Graeme Wood writes: Today the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its report on the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. If the report were the denouement of a dinner-theater murder mystery, most of the audience would be so confident of the conclusion that they would already be walking out to the parking lot. The crown prince ordered it. In the consulate. With the bone saw. Even the Saudi government admits most of these details—with the exception…

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Biden ordered airstrike after determining Iran supported rocket attacks

Biden ordered airstrike after determining Iran supported rocket attacks

The Politico reports: President Joe Biden’s decision to order a U.S. airstrike on a border crossing used by Iran-backed militia groups in eastern Syria on Thursday came after U.S. officials determined Tehran facilitated a series of recent attacks endangering Americans in Iraq, according to defense officials. Planning for a potential military response began soon after Feb. 15, when a dozen rockets targeted coalition forces outside Irbil International Airport, killing one non-U.S. contractor and wounding nine more people, including five Americans,…

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Nursing homes, once hotspots, far outpace U.S. in Covid declines

Nursing homes, once hotspots, far outpace U.S. in Covid declines

The New York Times reports: Throughout the pandemic, there has been perhaps nowhere more dangerous than a nursing home. The coronavirus has raced through some 31,000 long-term care facilities in the United States, killing more than 163,000 residents and employees and accounting for more than a third of all virus deaths since the late spring. But for the first time since the American outbreak began roughly a year ago — at a nursing care center in Kirkland, Wash. — the…

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The people giving the shots are seeing hope, and it’s contagious

The people giving the shots are seeing hope, and it’s contagious

The Washington Post reports: The happiest place in medicine right now is a basketball arena in New Mexico. Or maybe it’s the parking lot of a baseball stadium in Los Angeles, or a Six Flags in Maryland, or a shopping mall in South Dakota. The happiest place in medicine is anywhere there is vaccine, and the happiest people in medicine are the ones plunging it into the arms of strangers. “It’s a joy to all of us,” says Akosua “Nana”…

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How to understand Covid-19 variants and their effects on vaccines

How to understand Covid-19 variants and their effects on vaccines

Tara C. Smith writes: Viruses evolve. It’s what they do. That’s especially true for a pandemic virus like SARS-CoV-2, the one behind COVID-19. When a population lacks immunity and transmission is extensive, we expect viral mutations to appear frequently simply due to the number of viruses replicating in a short period of time. And the growing presence of immune individuals means that the viruses that can still transmit in these partially immune populations will be favored over the original version….

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Very few of world’s rivers undamaged by humanity, study finds

Very few of world’s rivers undamaged by humanity, study finds

The Guardian reports: Rivers in which fish populations have escaped serious damage from human activities make up just 14% of the world’s river basin area, according to the most comprehensive study to date. Scientists found that the biodiversity of more than half of rivers had been profoundly affected, with big fish such as sturgeon replaced by invasive species such as catfish and Asian carp. Pollution, dams, overfishing, farm irrigation and rising temperatures due to the climate crisis are also to…

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On climate, Wall Street out-Orwells Orwell

On climate, Wall Street out-Orwells Orwell

Bill McKibben writes: It was likely too much to hope that the Biden Administration, as it tries to get a handle on climate change, might find some help from Wall Street. Instead, last week, we saw financial heavyweights turn in a performance so rigid and so short-sighted that it makes one wonder whether capitalism in anything resembling its current form can, or should, survive. The scene was a virtual forum organized by the Institute of International Finance, and the participants…

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Australia’s move to tame Facebook and Google is just the start of a global battle

Australia’s move to tame Facebook and Google is just the start of a global battle

Michelle Meagher writes: Facebook and Google have become accustomed to an open world of information on which to build their closed ecosystems. Not any more. Australia is proceeding with a new media code that will force platforms to pay for news and bargain with news publishers. While Google has complied, Facebook called the regulators’ bluff by banning Australian news from its platform, before reaching a deal with the Australian government that allows it to avoid the new code, but only…

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