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IMPORTANT
| | | Bear Growls | Wall Street Enters Bear Market; Crypto, Asian Shares Slide Three weeks ago the U.S. narrowly avoided a bear market thanks to a last-minute rebound. Yesterday the S&P lost 3.9%, closing 22% below its Jan. 3 peak and firmly in bear territory for just the seventh time in 50 years. Benchmark indexes in Europe also suffered and Bitcoin plunged to an 18-month low. The bleeding continued in early Asian trading Tuesday. Goldman Sachs predicted that, in a bid to curb inflation, the Fed will impose its biggest interest rate hike since 1994. Only time will tell whether regulators can do anything to stave off a global recession. (Sources: NYT, Reuters) |
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| | ‘Kangaroo Court’ | Part 2 of Jan. 6 Probe Details How Trump Created and Spread ‘Big Lie’ Last night’s installment of the congressional probe into the Capitol riot focused on how former President Donald Trump spawned and relentlessly disseminated the fiction that the 2020 election was stolen — and convinced supporters to fork out hundreds of millions of dollars to attempt to overturn the result. The committee once again relied on video recordings of erstwhile Trump loyalists to make its point. Former Attorney General Bill Barr was unable to control his laughter as he explained that Trump never displayed “an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.” Trump dismissed the proceedings as a “kangaroo court.” (Sources: NYT, BBC) |
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| | Bridge Too Far | Civilians Trapped as Last Bridge to Sievierodonetsk DestroyedBeing cut off from the rest of the Donbas will force those who remain in the besieged Ukrainian city to endure “extremely difficult conditions,” said local governor Serhiy Haidai. The situation in nearby Lysychansk is similarly dire, prompting many to predict that the pair will become the next Mariupols. A military representative of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic did nothing to dispel these fears, saying that Ukrainian troops in the city must “surrender or die.” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Russia’s actions as “absolute evil” and said the battle would “go down in military history as one of the most brutal battles in Europe.” (Sources: BBC, NYT) |
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| | Mounting Violence | Scores Killed in Weekend Attacks in Northern Burkina Faso Government figures put the death toll at 55, but others said as many as 100 civilians had died in attacks that have been blamed on the Islamic State group. In the past two years alone violence attributed to Islamic extremists has killed almost 5,000 people in the West African nation, and forced a further 2 million to flee their homes. In January soldiers overthrew the democratically elected president and promised to quell the violence. The latest attack shows the army is “far from being able to secure the area and protect civilians,” said regional expert Rida Lyammouri. (Source: The Guardian) |
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| | Briefly | Here are some things you should know about today: Lesson learned. Lizzo has released a new version of her song “Grrrls” to remove a word critics called an “ableist slur.” The singer explained, “I never want to promote derogatory language.” (Source: Variety) Poetic justice. Nancy Crampton Brophy, the author of an essay titled “How to Murder Your Husband,” was jailed for life after being found guilty of murdering her husband. (Source: BBC) “Something wicked.” The brother-in-law of British journalist Dom Phillips, who went missing in the Amazon with Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, said Brazilian police phoned to say their bodies had been found. Federal police later backtracked on those claims. (Source: The Guardian) |
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INTRIGUING
| | Heaven Supermarket | ‘Ferocious’ COVID-19 Outbreak Linked to Raucous Beijing Bar Days after being allowed to reopen, the grab-your-own-booze Heaven Supermarket Bar — known for its bottle-strewn tables and sleeping patrons — in Beijing’s Chaoyang district has been linked to 228 COVID-19 cases. About 10,000 close contacts have been identified, and their apartment buildings put under lockdown. The incident highlights how tricky it’ll be for China to continue with its “zero COVID” policy as the rest of the world transitions to living with the virus. Chaoyang plans to test all 3.5 million residents this week — but those infected at the superspreader bar live or work in 14 of the capital’s 16 districts. (Source: Reuters) |
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| | | Lionfish Leather | Stylish, Durable — and Made From an Invasive SpeciesSince being spotted in Florida in 1985, the lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific, has wreaked havoc across the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and waters off northern South America. With no natural predators in the region, the venomous, spiny fish can devour 79% of all young marine life within five weeks of moving into a coral reef. Now sport diver Aarav Chavda’s company Inversa is turning its thin but durable hide into leather, which is sold to companies to make purses, wallets and even shoes. The best part? Inversa incentivizes small-scale fishers to target a species which previously had no economic value. (Source: The Guardian) |
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| | X Marks the Spot | Treasure Hunters Sue Feds for Alleged Gold Dig Cover-Up When treasure-hunting company Finders Keepers became convinced it had pinpointed the location of an 1863 shipment of Union gold that supposedly went AWOL en route to the mint in Philadelphia, it passed the info to the FBI and hoped for a finder’s fee. Now the father-son duo is suing the feds for either destroying video of their dig or lying to a federal judge about its existence. The FBI is adamant that no gold was found during its 2018 search and that agents didn’t film the excavation. But Finders Keepers has hidden camera footage of a federal agent filming the process. (Source: AP) |
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| | Buzz Kill | ‘Lightyear’ Banned in Several Muslim Countries Over Same-Sex KissThe latest spin-off of Pixar’s Toy Story franchise has been pulled from theaters in the United Arab Emirates three days before it was due to be released. Lightyear won’t be shown in Kuwait, Indonesia or Malaysia either — and Pixar didn’t even submit it to the censors in Saudi Arabia. Parent company Disney had originally tried to edit out a lesbian kiss to appease the Muslim market, but an open letter from employees aggrieved by the company’s ambivalent response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill shut that down. Other recent Disney films have encountered similar issues in the Muslim world. (Sources: Euronews, Deadline) |
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| | Dark Horse | UK Runner Becomes Third Human to Win ‘Man v Horse’ Race Ricky Lightfoot didn’t just beat 1,000 humans and 50 horses to win the 22.5-mile race through the Welsh mountains — he did so without having slept in 29 hours. The Cumbrian firefighter traveled through the night from the Canary Islands to make the starting line. After winning he was asked whether he’d consider entering the Grand National steeplechase. “I’ve never rode a horse in my life,” he said. “I once rode a donkey at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, though.” Then the 37-year-old promptly hopped back in his car and drove five hours to make it home for his next shift. (Source: BBC) |
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