Ukrainian airline grounds fleet as warnings over Russian invasion cause insurers to pull cover

Ukrainian airline grounds fleet as warnings over Russian invasion cause insurers to pull cover

The Wall Street Journal reports: One of Ukraine’s main airlines said Sunday it was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Moldova and suspended sales for flights this week after its insurers stopped covering aircraft in Ukrainian airspace due to an increased threat of a Russian military invasion. The announcement by Kyiv-based carrier SkyUp Airlines came a day after Dutch national flag carrier KLM said it had suspended its flights to Kyiv and wouldn’t operate flights in Ukrainian airspace. Separately,…

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The seeds of political violence are being sown in churches across America

The seeds of political violence are being sown in churches across America

David French writes: On Thursday night in Castle Rock, Colorado, a group called “FEC United” (FEC stands for faith, education, and commerce) held a “town hall” meeting that featured a potpourri of GOP candidates and election conspiracy theorists. Most notably, the event included John Eastman, the Claremont scholar who authored the notorious legal memos that purported to justify the decertification and reversal of the 2020 election results. During the meeting, a man named Shawn Smith accused Colorado secretary of state…

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McConnell is trying to prevent Trump’s unelectable ‘goofballs’ win Republican primaries

McConnell is trying to prevent Trump’s unelectable ‘goofballs’ win Republican primaries

The New York Times reports: For more than a year, former President Donald Trump has berated Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, savaging him for refusing to overturn the state’s presidential results and vowing to oppose him should he run for the Senate this year. In early December, though, Mr. Ducey received a far friendlier message from another former Republican president. At a golf tournament luncheon, George W. Bush encouraged him to run against Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, suggesting the…

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Weird ‘superionic’ matter could make up Earth’s inner core

Weird ‘superionic’ matter could make up Earth’s inner core

Science News reports: A quirky material that behaves like a mishmash of liquid and solid could be hidden deep in the Earth. Computer simulations described in two studies suggest that the material in Earth’s inner core, which includes iron and other, lighter elements, may be in a “superionic” state. That means that while the iron stays put, as in a solid, the lighter elements flow like a liquid. The research gives a potential peek at the inner workings of an…

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Biden warns Putin of ‘swift and severe costs’ of invading Ukraine

Biden warns Putin of ‘swift and severe costs’ of invading Ukraine

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Biden warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of “swift and severe costs” if Russia moves against Ukraine in a phone call Saturday, as the U.S. ordered most embassy staff out of the country and Moscow also began withdrawing its diplomatic presence there. “President Biden was clear that, if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on…

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The quiet signs that Russia’s elites are deeply divided on Ukraine

The quiet signs that Russia’s elites are deeply divided on Ukraine

Fred Kaplan writes: As Vladimir Putin steps up his military pressure on the Ukrainian border, there are signs that some members of Russia’s officer corps oppose his actions. The most eyebrow-raising of these dissents is an open letter by retired Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov posted on the website of the All-Russian Officers’ Assembly, which he chairs. In it, he rejects Putin’s claim that NATO poses a threat to Russia’s vital interests, warns that invading Ukraine “will forever make Russians and…

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Who blinks first in Ukraine?

Who blinks first in Ukraine?

Robin Wright writes: For decades, U.S. and Russian leaders have engaged in brinkmanship over territory, influence, and weapons. They’re at it again, this time in Ukraine, with stakes that could shape the balance of power, European unity, the Western alliance, and the success of Joe Biden’s Presidency. On Friday, the national-security adviser, Jake Sullivan, warned that Vladimir Putin could invade even before the Winter Olympics end, on February 20th—and urged all Americans to leave Ukraine immediately. Yet almost frantic diplomacy—as…

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Washington is failing the Afghan people on all fronts

Washington is failing the Afghan people on all fronts

Grace Segers writes: Nearly six months after a chaotic and widely criticized withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, capping an ignominious two decades of conflict that saw the war-ravaged country quickly retaken by the Taliban, the Biden administration and Congress have yet to fully address the lingering crises facing the American allies left behind and the evacuees living in limbo without a pathway to citizenship. The destabilized situation presents a crisis with multiple fronts, both in Afghanistan and here at…

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Heart-disease risk soars after Covid — even with a mild case

Heart-disease risk soars after Covid — even with a mild case

Nature reports: Even a mild case of COVID-19 can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year after diagnosis, a new study1 shows. Researchers found that rates of many conditions, such as heart failure and stroke, were substantially higher in people who had recovered from COVID-19 than in similar people who hadn’t had the disease. What’s more, the risk was elevated even for those who were under 65 years of age and lacked risk factors, such…

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Did Omicron come from mice?

Did Omicron come from mice?

Carolyn Kormann writes: Last Thanksgiving, Rilu, an eleven-year-old snow leopard and father of seven, began sneezing and wheezing. Snow leopards are native to the Himalayas, but Rilu was born in a zoo in Oklahoma City, then moved to the Miller Park Zoo, in Illinois, in 2011, to form part of the Species Survival Plan—the zoos’ matchmaking effort to maintain a genetically diverse “insurance” population of endangered animals. A PCR test in early December confirmed that Rilu had Covid-19. He developed…

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CIA is collecting in bulk certain data affecting Americans, senators warn

CIA is collecting in bulk certain data affecting Americans, senators warn

The New York Times reports: The Central Intelligence Agency has for years been collecting in bulk, without a warrant, some kind of data that can affect Americans’ privacy, according to a newly declassified letter by two senators. The C.I.A. kept censored the nature of the data when it declassified the letter. At the same time, it declared that a report about the same topic, which had prompted the letter, must remain fully classified, except for some heavily redacted recommendations. That…

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Most public activity on Facebook comes from a tiny, hyperactive group of abusive users

Most public activity on Facebook comes from a tiny, hyperactive group of abusive users

Matthew Hindman, Nathaniel Lubin, and Trevor Davis write: If you want to understand why Facebook too often is a cesspool of hate and disinformation, a good place to start is with users such as John, Michelle, and Calvin. John, a caps-lock devotee from upstate New York, calls House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “PIGLOSI,” uses the term negro, and says that the right response to Democrats with whom they disagree is to “SHOOT all of them.” Michelle rails against the “plandemic.” Calvin…

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Can Trump be barred for running for president because he flushed papers down a toilet?

Can Trump be barred for running for president because he flushed papers down a toilet?

David Corn writes: The latest Donald Trump scandal is about as surprising as finding mold on pizza left in the fridge for a month. A few days ago, the Washington Post revealed that when Trump vacated the White House he took 15 boxes of presidential documents and other items with him. That was a possible violation of the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of all documents—memos, letters, notes, emails—related to a president’s official duties. It was enacted in…

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Do gaps in White House logs of Trump’s January 6 calls point to an attempted cover-up?

Do gaps in White House logs of Trump’s January 6 calls point to an attempted cover-up?

The New York Times reports: The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has discovered gaps in official White House telephone logs from the day of the riot, finding few records of calls by President Donald J. Trump from critical hours when investigators know that he was making them. Investigators have not uncovered evidence that any official records were tampered with or deleted, and it is well known that Mr. Trump used his personal cellphone, and those…

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