Music: Aymée Nuviola & Gonzalo Rubalcaba — ‘Bemba Colora’
We’re learning the wrong lessons from the world’s happiest countries
Joe Pinsker writes: Since 2012, most of the humans on Earth have been given a nearly annual reminder that there are entire nations of people who are measurably happier than they are. This uplifting yearly notification is known as the World Happiness Report. With the release of each report, which is published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the question is not which country will appear at the top of the rankings, but rather which Northern European country…
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines likely to produce lasting immunity, study finds
The New York Times reports: The vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna set off a persistent immune reaction in the body that may protect against the coronavirus for years, scientists reported on Monday. The findings add to growing evidence that most people immunized with the mRNA vaccines may not need boosters, so long as the virus and its variants do not evolve much beyond their current forms — which is not guaranteed. People who recovered from Covid-19 before being vaccinated…
Virologist Danielle Anderson paints a very different picture of the Wuhan Institute
Bloomberg reports: From her first visit before it formally opened in 2018, Anderson was impressed with the institute’s maximum biocontainment lab. The concrete, bunker-style building has the highest biosafety designation, and requires air, water and waste to be filtered and sterilized before it leaves the facility. There were strict protocols and requirements aimed at containing the pathogens being studied, Anderson said, and researchers underwent 45 hours of training to be certified to work independently in the lab. The induction process…
Biden wants to dismantle two weapons the richest 0.1% use to avoid taxes
Bloomberg reports: An unpleasant surprise for wealthy Americans was lurking halfway through a 114-page document released by the U.S. Treasury late last month. Technical provisions in the proposal — not mentioned when President Joe Biden presented his plans to raise taxes on the rich in April — could disrupt or dismantle some of the most popular ways super wealthy people have legally avoided taxes for decades. One target is dynasty trusts, vehicles that wealthy families can use to benefit multiple…
Trump’s derangement
Michael Wolff writes: To the degree that Trump had, for four years, been running the government with scant idea of the rules and practices of running the government, he was now doing it virtually without anybody who did have some idea and desire to protect both him and themselves from embarrassment or legal peril. Jared Kushner was, to his own great relief, in the Middle East, wrapping up what he saw as his historic mission: his peace deals. The president…
Clarence Thomas says federal laws against marijuana may no longer be necessary
NBC News reports: Clarence Thomas, one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices, said Monday that because of the hodgepodge of federal policies on marijuana, federal laws against its use or cultivation may no longer make sense. “A prohibition on interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government’s piecemeal approach,” he wrote. His views came as the court declined to hear the appeal of a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary that…
Is reality a game of quantum mirrors? A new theory suggests it might be
Jurik Peter / Shutterstock By Peter Evans, The University of Queensland Imagine you sit down and pick up your favourite book. You look at the image on the front cover, run your fingers across the smooth book sleeve, and smell that familiar book smell as you flick through the pages. To you, the book is made up of a range of sensory appearances. But you also expect the book has its own independent existence behind those appearances. So when you…
Music: Gonzalo Rubalcaba — ‘Samba de Orfeu’
Summer is being replaced by the season of extreme heat
Kathy Baughman McLeod writes: Summer is hot. This is among the most basic weather concepts that we learn as children and accept without question. Heat and even heat waves have always been a reliable hallmark of the season between the June solstice and the September equinox. And yet recent weather has far outstripped that norm. For most of last week, the daily high temperature in Phoenix reached or exceeded 115 degrees, breaking records even in that desert city. This weekend,…
The Civilian Climate Corps is a big government plan that all Americans can embrace
The people are on our side and they know what’s at stake. ⁰⁰We need to pass an infrastructure bill that invests in communities and creates a robust #CivilianClimateCorps. Just so we're clear @POTUS, we’re coming to D.C. tomorrow. We’ll be the ones in black. Can't miss us 😈 pic.twitter.com/aAYuchnovC — Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) June 27, 2021 Jim Lardner writes: It was a rare case of Presidential understatement in the unveiling of a program: the Secretary of Agriculture and the…
Incursions into indigenous lands not only threaten tribal food systems, but the planet’s well-being
Georgina Gustin writes: For thousands of years Indigenous people have survived by hunting, fishing, foraging and harvesting in ways that sustain them while maintaining an equilibrium with nature. But a major report from the United Nations warns that this balance is being severely tested by climate change and by incursions into Indigenous lands—many of them illegal. And as these food systems come under threat, the world risks losing not only the tribes, but their service as crucial protectors of biodiversity…
Why Barr broke up with Trump
Jonathan D. Karl writes: Trump was sitting at the table. Meadows was sitting next to him with his arms crossed; the White House adviser Eric Herschmann stood off to the side. The details of this meeting were described to me by several people present. One told me that Trump had “the eyes and mannerism of a madman.” He went off on Barr. “I think you’ve noticed I haven’t been talking to you much,” Trump said to him. “I’ve been leaving…
Why the ‘Trump court’ won’t be like Trump
Peter S. Canellos writes: When Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, went before the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation in early 2017, he offered a surprising choice of role model. Gorsuch — a conservative member of the Federalist Society, carrying the personal imprimatur of Mitch McConnell — named John Marshall Harlan, the progressive 19th-Century justice best known as the sole member of the Supreme Court to stand up for Black rights and economic protections. “Justice Harlan got the…
They joined the Proud Boys looking for brotherhood. They found racism, bullying and antisemitism
USA Today reports: Daniel Berry said he was searching for camaraderie. The 40-year-old Army veteran yearned to forge the sort of bonds he had in the military: a brotherhood of like-minded men watching one another’s backs, holding one another up, united in a common goal. Last year, Berry said, he remembered a guy at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall asking him if he had heard of the Proud Boys. The group was vocal in its support for then-President Donald…
Colonialism is built on the rubble of false idea of ancient Rome
Jamie Mackay writes: At the dawn of the 20th century, Italian patriots were struggling to overcome a profound inferiority complex. Ever since 1861, when Giuseppe Garibaldi unified the country’s disparate regions into a nation-state, politicians and intellectuals had been anticipating the arrival of a glorious new era. Decades on, however, the economic, diplomatic and cultural results were wanting. Nationalists knew they needed a new mythos to boost public confidence, something to make Italy seem strong and competitive on the world…