Newbie or Not Newbie

Online in the Amazon, Mexico's New President

I eased into this addiction. A transistor radio. A TV with a few channels picked up via rabbit ears. Cable TV. A remote control. Compuserve. AOL. The web browser. Yahoo Directory. Google Search. The iPhone. Streaming media. Siri. Alexa. ChatGPT. But imagine getting it all at once. Imagine you were part of a remote tribe with no screens, no internet access, no smartphones, virtually no contact with the outside world ... and then one day, you just got it all. No warmup. No time to build up a tolerance. That's just what the Marubo tribe experienced when someone mounted a Starlink antenna on the top of a tree stump in a village called Manakieaway in the Brazilian Amazon. As you can imagine, it was a lot. And as you know full well, there were good parts and bad parts. Jack Nicas and Victor Moriyama hiked 50 miles into the the Amazon to find out how the newbies were adapting to being online. NYT (Gift Article): The Internet’s Final Frontier: Remote Amazon Tribes. "After only nine months with Starlink, the Marubo are already grappling with the same challenges that have racked American households for years: teenagers glued to phones; group chats full of gossip; addictive social networks; online strangers; violent video games; scams; misinformation; and minors watching p-rnography." (Just wait until Amazon delivers to the Amazon.)

2

Doctor Who

"Known as 'la Doctora' for her glittering academic credentials, Claudia Sheinbaum is a physicist with a doctorate in energy engineering, the former mayor of one of the world’s most populous cities, and was part of the United Nations panel of climate scientists that received a Nobel Peace Prize. And on Sunday, she became the first woman, and the first Jewish person, to be elected president of Mexico." Meet Claudia Sheinbaum.

+ NYT (Gift Article): We explain why so many Mexican citizens are happy with their country’s direction. "Each country has its own dynamics, of course, but we will highlight some strands that connect Mexican politics to politics elsewhere ... [and you will] notice a familiar theme: Populism is ascendant."

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Negligent Homicide Investigations

According to Merriam-Webster, the idiom to get away with murder is "usually used figuratively to describe someone who does something very bad or wrong without being criticized or punished." In St. Louis, getting away with murder just means killing someone and never getting caught. And it's disturbingly common. A joint investigation from APM Reports, The Marshall Project, and St. Louis Public Radio. Why 1,000 homicides in St. Louis remain unsolved. "The city's homicides, especially those that remain unsolved, tend to happen in geographic clusters ... there are 40 unsolved homicides from the last decade within a half mile radius of 4240 John Ave."

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In the Pipeline of Duty

There are few sure things in life. William Finnegan writing about surfing is one of them. The New Yorker: A Surf Legend’s Long Ride. "For Jock Sutherland, being hailed as the world’s best surfer was just one phase in an unlikely life. "We all slow down, we all age out. It’s humbling, or worse, to admit that you can no longer keep up with the young guns at the top breaks, that you need to look for lesser spots—less intense, less competitive, less exciting. I find it difficult, but for a surfer of Jock’s stature the down-slide is truly precipitous. He never talks about it. He is so closely focussed on the waves at any given moment, on the possibilities for joy that they present, that the regret-filled long perspective—the differences between these waves and those he tackled in his prime—seems like a foolish distraction."

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Extra, Extra

Hobnob with the Mob: "These pay increases and other benefits often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump. One aide who was given a plum position on the board of Trump’s social media company, for example, got the seat after he was subpoenaed but before he testified." ProPublica: Multiple Trump Witnesses Have Received Significant Financial Benefits From His Businesses, Campaign. The criminality is just one of many reasons that America's European allies are deeply worried about a potential second term for Trump. McKay Coppins in The Atlantic (Gift Article): What Europe Fears. "Fear of losing Europe’s most powerful ally has translated into a pathologically intense fixation on the U.S. presidential race. European officials can explain the Electoral College in granular detail and cite polling data from battleground states. Thomas Bagger, the state secretary in the German foreign ministry, told me that in a year when billions of people in dozens of countries around the world will get the chance to vote, 'the only election all Europeans are interested in is the American election.' Almost every official I spoke with believed that Trump is going to win."

+ Hunter Blatherer: Meanwhile, a sizable portion of American media will be fixated on the Hunter Biden case over the next few days/weeks. "It was Hallie Biden who found the gun and threw it into a dumpster outside a Wilmington market less than two weeks after Hunter purchased the weapon. The gun was later found by a man collecting recyclables, who alerted law enforcement."

+ Saturation of Church and State: WaPo (Gift Article): "Billions in taxpayer dollars are being used to pay tuition at religious schools throughout the country, as state voucher programs expand dramatically and the line separating public education and religion fades." (The religious war underpins many other political stories in America.)

+ More Hostages Pronounced Dead: "The Israeli military on Monday confirmed the deaths of four more hostages held by Hamas -- including three older men seen in a Hamas video begging for their release. The three men, Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger and Haim Peri, were all age 80 or older." Israel says 4 more hostages found dead in Gaza.

+ Pride Applied: "The U.S. has not seen any negative effects on marriage, divorce or living arrangements among all couples since Massachusetts issued the first state-sanctioned, same-sex marriage licenses 20 years ago."

+ Insulinsanity: "At times involved in lockstep collusion schemes, and at others, in transparent attempts to copy one another’s products, the Big Three have thrived in no small part because of obsequious regulations, loopholes in intellectual property law, and an odious health care system, pushing a miracle drug out of reach for millions of people who need it." The Insulin Empire: How profiteers pushed a lifesaving drug out of reach.

+ Kansas, We're Not in Kansas Anymore: Kansas Constitution does not include a right to vote, state Supreme Court majority says.

+ Gutter Haul: Private equity has spared no expense when it comes to striking its latest target. Bowling.

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Bottom of the News

"A New York City couple known on social media for their magnet fishing exploits in local waterways says they recently reeled in an unexpected find: a safe holding two stacks of waterlogged hundred dollar bills." Let's not throw this one back...

+ Occam's Raisin: A toddler who suffered sinus pain and lethargy for three months was found to have a raisin stuck up her nose.