In social-media exile, Trump has increasingly amplified extremism

In social-media exile, Trump has increasingly amplified extremism

The New York Times reports: In September, former President Donald J. Trump went on Truth Social, his social network, and shared an image of himself wearing a lapel pin in the form of the letter Q, along with a phrase closely associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory movement: “The storm is coming.” In doing so, Mr. Trump ensured that the message — first posted by a QAnon-aligned account — would be hugely amplified, visible to his more than four million…

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The DOJ’s antitrust case against Google is ambitious but risky

The DOJ’s antitrust case against Google is ambitious but risky

CNBC reports: The Department of Justice’s latest challenge to Google’s tech empire is an ambitious swing at the company with the potential to rearrange the digital advertising market. But alongside the possibility of great reward comes significant risk in seeking to push the boundaries of antitrust law. “DOJ is going big or going home here,” said Daniel Francis, who teaches antitrust at NYU School of Law and previously worked as deputy director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition,…

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How pharmaceutical companies inflate prices on their best-selling drugs at the expense of patients and taxpayers

How pharmaceutical companies inflate prices on their best-selling drugs at the expense of patients and taxpayers

The New York Times reports: In 2016, a blockbuster drug called Humira was poised to become a lot less valuable. The key patent on the best-selling anti-inflammatory medication, used to treat conditions like arthritis, was expiring at the end of the year. Regulators had blessed a rival version of the drug, and more copycats were close behind. The onset of competition seemed likely to push down the medication’s $50,000-a-year list price. Instead, the opposite happened. Through its savvy but legal…

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Trump’s killing spree: The inside story of his race to execute every prisoner he could

Trump’s killing spree: The inside story of his race to execute every prisoner he could

Rolling Stone reports: In the final moments of Brandon Bernard’s life, before he was executed by lethal injection at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Dec. 10, 2020, President Donald Trump picked up the phone to entertain a final plea for mercy on Bernard’s behalf. The call was not with Bernard’s family or his attorneys. Nor was it with representatives from the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney office, who had recommended just days earlier that Trump spare Bernard’s life….

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Facebook was a cash cow for Trump. It could end up being a ‘bronze goose’

Facebook was a cash cow for Trump. It could end up being a ‘bronze goose’

Politico reports: Trump was suspended from Facebook for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot in early 2021. But the suspension wasn’t permanent and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said earlier this week that it would be lifted soon. “President Trump should have never been banned, so getting back on this platform allows the campaign access to that universe once again,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “We are getting closer to the full spectrum of building…

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Supreme Court failed to disclose financial ties with expert brought in to review leak probe

Supreme Court failed to disclose financial ties with expert brought in to review leak probe

CNN reports: The Supreme Court did not disclose its longstanding financial ties with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff even as it touted him as an expert who independently validated its investigation into who leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. The court’s inquiry, released last week with Chertoff’s endorsement, failed to identify who was responsible for the unprecedented leak. The decision to keep the relationship with Chertoff quiet is a reflection of a pattern of opacity at the…

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The logic behind Biden’s refusal to negotiate the debt ceiling

The logic behind Biden’s refusal to negotiate the debt ceiling

Ronald Brownstein writes: President Joe Biden has already made the most important domestic-policy decision he’ll likely face this year. Biden and his top advisers have repeatedly indicated that they will reject demands from the new GOP majority in the House of Representatives to link increasing the debt ceiling with cutting federal spending. Instead, Biden is insisting that Congress pass a clean debt-ceiling increase, with no conditions attached. Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans now is rooted in the Obama administration’s…

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Black like me

Black like me

Colin Grant writes: It is commonly agreed that race is a social construct. If, as sociologists such as Alondra Nelson tell us, there is more difference within groups than between groups – so that, as the child of dark-skinned Jamaican parents, I have more in common genetically with a red-haired Scot than a sub-Saharan African – then why do I still feel obliged to accept the primacy of race, and the notion that any distancing from those of my own…

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Native seed banks in the U.S. have insufficient supplies to mitigate the effects of climate change

Native seed banks in the U.S. have insufficient supplies to mitigate the effects of climate change

NPR reports: In the wake of wildfires, floods and droughts, restoring damaged landscapes and habitats requires native seeds. The U.S. doesn’t have enough, according to a report released Thursday. “Time is of the essence to bank the seeds and the genetic diversity our lands hold,” the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report said. As climate change worsens extreme weather events, the damage left behind by those events will become more severe. That, in turn, will create greater…

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How antidepressants help bacteria resist antibiotics

How antidepressants help bacteria resist antibiotics

Nature reports: The emergence of disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics is often attributed to the overuse of antibiotics in people and livestock. But researchers have homed in on another potential driver of resistance: antidepressants. By studying bacteria grown in the laboratory, a team has now tracked how antidepressants can trigger drug resistance1. “Even after a few days exposure, bacteria develop drug resistance, not only against one but multiple antibiotics,” says senior author Jianhua Guo, who works at the…

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How not to negotiate with Russia

How not to negotiate with Russia

Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, writes: As Russia’s total aggression on Ukraine nears its first year, some people in the United States and elsewhere in the West continue to suggest that Ukraine needs to engage in peace negotiations with Russia as soon as possible. They may have good intentions, but they don’t seem to recognize that Russia has not proposed any meaningful talks and remains focused on destroying Ukraine militarily. But there’s a bigger point that the “peace…

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Yevgeny Prigozhin has become Putin’s preeminent rival

Yevgeny Prigozhin has become Putin’s preeminent rival

Mikhail Zygar writes: President Vladimir Putin of Russia, it seems, has finally noticed that the war in Ukraine created a dangerous competitor to his power: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company, the Wagner group, whose troops fight alongside the Russian Army. Depending on your point of view, Mr. Prigozhin could be considered either the person of the year or the villain of the year. Mr. Putin is, according to many sources in Moscow, confident that he can…

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How Western companies make a fortune on brokering covert arms deals for Ukraine

How Western companies make a fortune on brokering covert arms deals for Ukraine

The Kyiv Independent reports: When Russia unleashed its all-out war in February last year, Ukraine urgently needed weapons and ammunition to defend itself. Desperate for arms, the country was ready to buy at any cost, a top-ranking Ukrainian official involved in the hunt for weapons in the first weeks of the war told the Kyiv Independent. European private arms dealers saw an opportunity and drove the prices of their services up. In one specific case, the Kyiv Independent and partners…

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Durham inquiry into Russia investigation veered into a criminal investigation related to Trump himself

Durham inquiry into Russia investigation veered into a criminal investigation related to Trump himself

The New York Times reports: By summer 2020, it was clear that the hunt for evidence supporting Mr. Barr’s hunch about intelligence abuses had failed. But he waited until after the 2020 election to publicly concede that there had turned out to be no sign of “foreign government activity” and that the C.I.A. had “stayed in its lane” after all. On one of Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham’s trips to Europe, according to people familiar with the matter, Italian officials…

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