One Sentence News

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Note: As I mentioned in yesterday’s OSN, this will be the last edition of the email and podcast for the foreseeable future, as I’ll be reinvesting the (substantial amount of) time and effort required to produce it each day in other things (including a new, news-related project called “Some Thoughts About”).If you’re a paying OSN subscriber, the balance of your payment will be refunded, and the OSN archive will be opened up, all paywalls removed.Thank you so much for supporting this project, and for caring enough to spend some of your time, each day, learning about what’s happening in the world around you.(And if you want to fill the news-shaped hole in your heart with another pod and/or email, I run a news analysis podcast called Let’s Know Things, and a weekly email of curated links to news-related things called Notes On the News.)Gay sex ban in Namibia ruled unconstitutionalSummary: A Namibian court has ruled that same-sex acts between consenting men are no longer illegal in the country, and that laws which declared them to be illegal are themselves unconstitutional.Context: These laws only ever declared same-sex acts between men illegal, not women, and it’s still illegal to marry someone of the same sex in the country, but this is considered to be a big deal because these laws made gay relationships taboo and fueled a lot of discrimination toward anyone who was, or seemed to be, gay—a social stance that also made it more difficult to provide health services, like HIV vaccines and treatments, to folks in a region in which infection rates are very high.—BBC NewsOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On day of fatal BP refinery blast, 3,712 safety alarms and one unsent emailSummary: An explosion at a BP oil refinery in Ohio in 2022 was preceded by thousands of safety alarms and a breakdown in communication between daytime and evening shift workers, according to a new report from federal investigators who spent two years looking into the blast, which killed two refinery workers.Context: Among other things, the report indicates that BP neglected to shut down production at the refinery when warning signs indicated they should, and they didn’t fix obvious issues with equipment, despite having been told over and over about these issues by employees, and these issues eventually culminated with a series of malfunctions, 3,712 alarms in a 12-hour period, and an explosion that led to even more warnings, confusion, and delayed responses; the refinery has since been sold to a Canadian company, which says it restarted production at the facility last year, and that it’s working with regulators to make improvements and upgrade safety measures.—The Wall Street JournalIndonesia is trying to block LGBTQIA content from the internetSummary: A new Indonesian bill, which is based on an earlier proposed bill that was shelved following widespread public backlash, would restrict content in the country that portrays “LGBTQIA behavior,” and anything that shows lifestyles or actions that might be imitated by the public, allowing the government to shut down or censor social platforms, TV networks, and other broadcast mediums, alongside the people using them to share content, using fines and license cancellations; the bill also places limits on investigative journalism in the country. Context: That earlier, shelved bill would have forced LGBTQIA Indonesian people into conversion therapy programs, and this new one approaches the same topic from a different angle, its terms vague enough that it would apparently—according to criticisms from legal experts and opponents in the country—allow the government to shut down and silence any publication, journalist, influencer, or network it doesn’t like, which would extend its existing censorship powers, which it justifies by claiming it needs to tackle so-called fake news; international human rights groups have noted a significant rightward-shift in Indonesia’s government in recent years, and this new proposed bill is likely to be passed before the current president leaves office later this year.—Rest of WorldPart of what’s informing the rate of electrification (and the deployment of renewable energy sources) in various countries is the cost of electricity versus competitive fuel types (like gas); in China, electricity is cheaper than gas, which makes deploying more clean sources of electricity an easier bet, though they’re also at that point, in part, because of previous investments in the same (at a time in which other sources were more competitive).—Sustainability By Numbers1011Number of drones the US has approved for sale to Taiwan for about $360 million.That figure includes 720 Switchblade missiles (and its accompanying fire-control systems), and up to 291 Altius 600M loitering munitions (and supporting components).Despite never having controlled it, China claims Taiwan as its own, and has threatened to take the island nation by force, if necessary; this sale was approved in the midst of a more-intense-than-usual pressure campaign from China to keep Taiwan isolated from outside influences, and pull it into its sphere of influence.—CNNTrust Click This is a public episode. 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Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Note: This is a difficult note to write, because I love OSN and I know there are a lot of people who read and listen to it, and who rely on it to help them maintain a situational awareness about the world.But I recently made the decision to put OSN on pause, indefinitely, so I can reallocate the (significant) time and energy required to produce it each day to other things, for the foreseeable future. I’m truly sorry to those who will be disappointed by this decision, but thank you very much for your support, attention, and for caring about what happens in the world.So! Tomorrow’s (Friday) edition of the email will be the last one, for now.If you’re a paying OSN subscriber, you’ll be refunded whatever balance is left on your subscription—I’ll leave the OSN archive online, but I’m removing the option to pay for it, as while I may come back to it at some point, I don’t know when that might be and I don’t want to tie up your money for the duration.(I’m still running my news analysis podcast, Let’s Know Things, and I curate a weekly selection of news-related links in my Notes On the News email, if you’re interested.)Thanks again, and I’ll see you one more time, tomorrow :)Kenyan protesters promise more rallies after at least 23 die in clashesSummary: Protestors in Kenya, demonstrating against new tax hikes in the country, fought with police outside parliament earlier this week, eventually breaking into the parliamentary compound just minutes after the body voted in favor of these hikes; 23 people were killed during these protests across the country, and protest leaders are encouraging people to keep hitting the streets, and to occupy the State House, the president’s office and residence, and the local offices for the World Bank and IMF later this week; President Ruto now says he won’t sign the bill into law in response to these protests.Context: This is being seen as the most serious crisis Ruto has faced since he stepped into office two years ago, and the government has deployed the army to help keep the peace during what it’s calling a “security emergency”; lawmakers have said the tax hikes are necessary to avoid a budget gap, though they removed a few of the more contentious ones in the final version of the bill in order to avoid creating any more turmoil; protestors are now demanding, online, in addition to the whole of the bill being voided, that Ruto resign from office.—ReutersOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Biden pardons thousands of US veterans convicted under law banning gay sexSummary: US President Biden has announced that he will pardon thousands of veterans who were convicted, over the past six decades, under a law that banned gay sex in the military, which in many cases resulted in dishonorable discharges, and a consequent loss of benefits, alongside all the other social and legal consequences of being discharged in that way.Context: The US government has a long history of witch-hunts, including a big one in the 1950s that became known as the “lavender scare,” which aimed to weed out anyone who would today be considered LGBTQ+ from government employment, including in the military; a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” under former President Bill Clinton allowed such people to serve in the military as long as they weren’t open about their sexuality, and that was repealed in 2010, but throughout that period, service-members were still persecuted for their sexuality if they were at all public about it.—The GuardianIsraeli military must draft ultra-Orthodox Jews, Supreme Court rulesSummary: Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the country’s military must draft ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who are religious students, despite a long-time exemption this group has enjoyed.Context: Netanyahu’s far-right allies in government, those that are keeping him in office, are themselves made up of and supported by ultra-Orthodox organizations, and that’s part of why they’ve been able to avoid the draft for this long, despite the military being spread somewhat thin during its invasion of the Gaza Strip, and new rumblings that it might also enter a more formal conflict with Lebanon-based Hezbollah, as well; this decision could make life more difficult for Netanyahu, who will likely be pressured by his allies to do something about this ruling, though it could temper some of the protests that have been erupting on a regular basis across the country, some of which have been focused on this—in the minds of many, unfair—draft exclusion.—The New York TimesAfter a long period in which few NATO members met the recommended military spending threshold of 2% of their GDP, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has nudged that number up, with only 7 countries hitting that goal in 2022, but (an estimated) 23 managing it in 2024.—Sherwood$50.7 trillionAnticipated size of the US national debt by 2034, according to a new projection from the Congressional Budget Office.That’s up from the Office’s previous projection just four months ago, which came in at $48.3 trillion.—The Washington PostTrust Click This is a public episode. 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Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty in deal with US and be freed from prisonSummary: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who published a trove of classified US military documents in 2010 and has been on the run from the US Justice Department ever since—initially spending years living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, before being locked up in a UK prison—has reportedly made a deal that will see him plead guilty to one of the 18 charges on which he was indicted in 2019, which will allow him to return to his home country of Australia with a time-served sentence.Context: Assange was at the center of several major scandals in the early 20-teens, most of them linked to allegations of hacking, divulging state secrets, and embarrassing the US military, because many of the classified documents that were leaked by WikiLeaks were related to US activities in Afghanistan and Iraq, and diplomatic cables from around that same time, and several of them showed human rights violations or contained transcriptions of US officials insulting their international peers; Assange has long struggled against extradition to the US, fearing he would face the death penalty if sent there, and this agreement, if it’s approved by a judge, would seem to end his long-time exile, allowing him to return home to his family without any additional prison time.—The Associated PressOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Music industry giants allege mass copyright violation by AI firmsSummary: A group of music industry entities, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Records, have sued Udio and Suno—a pair of AI-oriented music-generation companies—for allegedly ripping off songs owned by these labels to train their AI systems.Context: These companies are just two of many that have popped up over the past year or two, and which allow their customers to generate ostensibly original music just by describing what they want to make, and that’s possible because the AI systems they use are trained on gobs of existing music, much of which is allegedly owned by these record labels, and which, according to these lawsuits, were incorporated into the training data illegally; this is similar to other lawsuits that are working their way through global court systems right now, related to books, photos, films, journalism and other sorts of human-made work that are being collected and aggregated by AI companies to train their models, and there’s little in the way of existing legal precedent on this sort of thing, so it’s difficult to say, at this point, how these sorts of cases will pan out in different legal jurisdictions.—Ars TechnicaChina becomes first country to retrieve rocks from the Moon’s far sideSummary: The Chinese space program successfully returned lunar soil samples from the far side of the Moon, yesterday, marking yet another accomplishment for the burgeoning program, and a new first-ever achievement for humanity.Context: The Chang’e-6 mission was a follow-up to previous Chinese missions that demonstrated the country’s growing capacity in space, initially allowing them to photograph and map the Moon’s surface, then land on and deploy a rover on the side facing Earth, then deploying a rover on the far side of the Moon—a first for any space agency—in 2019; the agency’s previous Moon mission brought about four pounds of Earth-side Moon regolith home (something that’s only been previously accomplished by the US and Soviet Union), and this most recent achievement is thus far unique to China, which means it’s a big deal in terms of their in-space credibility, but also for human knowledge, as those far-side lunar materials could teach us a lot about how that half differs from the side we continuously see, and about the Moon’s origins.—The New York TimesUsed EVs have become less expensive in the US, on average, than their gas-consuming competition according to a recent report from iSeeCars; this price difference is being attributed to a perceptual value-drop in EVs, due to infrastructural limitations (especially a dearth of charging stations in some regions).—Business Insider$10.75 billionSum Amazon will invest on cloud and logistics infrastructure in Germany, most of it by 2026, according to a recent announcement by the company.That’s in addition to a previously announced investment by Amazon in Germany, which (including the new sum) adds up to a total of just over $19 billion, this fresh investment alone creating something like 4,000 jobs in the country. —ReutersTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Somalia asks peacekeepers to slow withdrawal, fears Islamist resurgenceSummary: Somalia’s government has asked the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, which is a peacekeeping force of about 4,000 troops, to slow their withdrawal from the country, which is currently expected to be completed on December 31 of this year; around half that force is scheduled to be withdrawn by June, and the government is asking them to wait until September.Context: The ATMIS is an African Union force, is largely funded by the EU and US, and is in Somalia to help the government fend-off extremist militants in the region, especially those aligned with al Shabaab; the government is concerned their own forces won’t be ready to fill in the gaps left by the ATMIS when they pull out, basically, and that could leave a power vacuum al Shabaab or another group could rush to fill; the head of the ATMIS has said there’s no definitive timeline for concluding negotiations regarding the withdrawal, and that everyone involved has committed to achieving sustainable peace and security in the area.—ReutersOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Greece introduces the six-day work weekSummary: A new law that comes into effect in Greece on July 1 will allow business owners in some sectors to assign their employees hours up to six days a week, if they deem it necessary, adding a 40% supplement to the employee’s daily wage if they are called in for a sixth day of labor.Context: This is a contentious piece of legislation, as while it could help boost the wages of some hospitality, agricultural, and retail workers in particular, it’s generally not meant to increase the number of hours they work, but rather than number of total hours businesses are producing goods and services, and Greek workers already work more hours than those in any other European country, tallying an average of 41 hours per week (the pay they receive per hour is low by European standards, however); collective agreements have been frozen in the country for years, as the government has had to ask for three economic rescue packages, and has suffered through 15 years of recession and austerity measures, so this is generally being seen as another effort to shore things up at a moment of relative calm in that regard, making up for a lack of skilled workers by putting those who are available to work a little more, each week.—Deutsche WelleGunmen kill 15 police officers and several civilians in Russia’s southern Dagestan regionSummary: Attacks by gunmen on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue, and a police post in two cities in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan on Sunday have left more than 15 people dead, according to local officials.Context: These attacks occurred near-simultaneously, and the country’s Anti-Terrorist Committee has said the five confirmed gunmen have been killed, while the governor of the republic said six “bandits” were “liquidated”; no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, though there was a report that a local official was detained because of his son’s possible involvement; another recent attack on a concert hall in Moscow, during which 139 people were killed, was initially (and without evidence) blamed on Ukraine, before the government admitted it was an Islamic State-linked group, and some reports suggest officials may try to link this new attack to Ukraine, as well, though there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that’s the case.—The Associated PressThe 2024 US election is looking to feature the most “double-hater” voters on record, with around 25% of surveyed Americans saying they don’t particularly like either major candidate.—Axios$91.4 billionSum spent by the nine nuclear-armed countries on nuclear weapons in 2023, according to a new report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.That’s about $3,000 per second, and is around $10.7 billion more than was spent in 2022.—VOA NewsTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Chad joins other countries in eliminating sleeping sicknessSummary: Chad has become the 51st country to officially eliminate sleeping sickness from within their borders, marking the halfway point to a goal set by the World Health Organization in 2021 to eliminate it in 100 countries by 2030.Context: Sleeping sickness is a parasitic infection caused by the tsetse fly, and it’s only found in Subsaharan Africa, mostly in poorer regions; this infection initially manifests with flu-like symptoms, but eventually also leads to behavior changes, difficulty sleeping, and confusion, and can ultimately result in a coma or death; early detection and treatment of sleeping sickness has helped substantially improve health outcomes in those afflicted, and most of the countries that have eliminated it, thus far, have invested in reducing infection reservoirs, which in this case often means applying insecticide to, and treating afflicted cattle to keep tsetse flies from acquiring the disease from animals, in the first place.—AfricanewsOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers’ court winSummary: The Internet Archive, which lost a court case brought against it by book publishers in March of last year, recently pulled around half-a-million books from its online open library.Context: This is the result of a years-long struggle between publishers and the Internet Archive, but in essence, the IA is a nonprofit that aims to preserve and make available all sorts of digitized materials, including things like websites, games, and apps, but also print materials that have been scanned, and which are difficult or impossible to find anywhere else; during the height of the pandemic, the IA made all of its books available to anyone who wants them, removing its typical one-person-at-a-time approach that mimicked more conventional libraries, as a sort of emergency, everyone is being forced to stay at home gesture, and that sparked additional legal efforts on the part of book publishers, who were already opposed to the IA’s actions, saying they amounted to piracy; this takedown of hundreds of thousands of books published by the lawsuit-bringing publishers is being appealed, and on one side of this debate are book-readers and open information activists who say this could portend bad things for the future of libraries of all kinds, and on the other are publishers and some authors who say, basically, if these folks make our work available for free, online, how will we be able to keep publishing books?—Ars TechnicaGilead says its HIV prevention shot was 100% effective in a clinical trialSummary: Drug-maker Gilead has announced that its twice-yearly injectable HIV drug, lenacapavir has demonstrated 100% efficacy in a late-stage clinical trial.Context: This double-blind, phase 3 trial involved 5,300 women in South Africa and Uganda, and none of the women in the group that got the drug were infected with HIV during the trial period, while 39 women in the group that didn’t receive it did develop HIV; these results were considered to be so good by an independent data monitoring group that the trial was ended early so all of the women could be offered the drug; results for a second trial that involved men who have sex with men, instead of women, are set to be announced in late-2024 or early-2025, and Gilead’s stock price rose more than 9% following this announcement.—QuartzA recent survey from YouGov found that younger Americans like wearing suits more than older Americans, but that a sizable chunk of the population—despite owning a suit—never wear it; a big change from the previous professional paradigm, and a number that’s possibly being influenced by the pandemic-era shift to remote work.—YouGov20%Increase in the number of passengers riding Amtrak trains the first seven months of the company’s most recent budget year (which began in October of 2023), according to Amtrak’s CEO.He also said the company is on track to exceed its all-time record high number of passengers served in a single year (32.3 million), which was set in 2019.Amtrak has seen a recent surge in new government funding to help it refurbish popular routes and stations, and introduce new ones to serve currently unserved areas, and this increase was tallied despite the company currently suffering from several diminished routes and issues with some of its tracks.—ReutersTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Thailand passes landmark bill legalizing same-sex marriageSummary: The Thai Senate has voted, 130 to 4, to allow any two people, whatever their gender, to get engaged or legally married, putting the country on track to become the first in Southeast Asia to allow same-sex marriages.Context: This bill was approved by the country’s House of Representatives in March, and still has to be approved by the Thai King, but that final step is considered to be a formality, and the law will go into effect 120 days after that sign-off; same-sex couplings have been generally socially accepted in Thailand for a long time, with around 60% of the adult population supporting it, but the law hasn’t traditionally backed that social approval; three-dozen countries have thus far legalized same-sex marriage, and Taiwan was the first to do so in Asia, back in 2019.—The Washington PostOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Fisker is out of cash, not making cars, and filing for bankruptcySummary: Electric vehicle-maker Fisker, which was started by well-known BMW and Aston Martin car designer Henrik Fisker, has filed for bankruptcy following months of safety probes, cash shortages, and pauses in manufacturing.Context: In 2023, Fisker—which at one point was considered to be EV-maker Tesla’s main US rival—reported $273 million in sales, but $1 billion in debt, and its stock was dropped by the New York Stock Exchange in March of that year; in some ways Fisker’s situation reflects the EV market in general, which has knocked out many previously high-flying, promising companies, because a lot of cash has to be burned in the run-up to profitability, very few companies making it through that initial gauntlet to relative stability on the other side; the global EV market is also being upended by inexpensive, high-quality offerings from China and Vietnam, which is making life difficult for Western competitors that took longer to spin-up their manufacturing capacity and R&D, and which typically haven’t benefitted from as much government backing.—Ars TechnicaBoeing hid questionable parts from regulators that may have been installed in 737 Max planes, new whistleblower allegesSummary: An employee at Boeing has publicly alleged that the company attempted to conceal broken and out-of-specification plane parts from regulators, those parts possibly making their way into the company’s much-maligned 737 Max.Context: The past several years have been difficult for Boeing, which seems to have refocused on upping its stock market valuation over investing in the quality of its products a few decades ago, which in turn led to the firing of many of its most knowledgable employees, and the subsequent, very public failure of several of its planes, and even more recently, helium leaks in its Starliner space vehicle, which seems to have stranded a pair of astronauts at the International Space Station; the company, which has close, military-manufacturing ties with the US government, in addition to making something like half the passenger aircraft in use, globally, has been targeted by a US Senate subcommittee investigation into why it seems to be fumbling so much and so badly, of late, and this new whistleblower revelation came out as part of that investigation; the company’s CEO was questioned about all these issues, and the corporate culture that seems to have caused them, by Congress on Tuesday.—CNNChip-maker Nvidia became the most valuable publicly traded US company earlier this week, its market value surpassing previous holders-of-that-title, Microsoft and Apple on the strength of demand for its powerful AI-optimized chips.—Axios~2,000Number of children who die each day, globally, from air pollution, according to a new study from the Health Effects Institute.Air pollution has become the second biggest killer of people of all ages (surpassing tobacco use), following only high blood pressure as a risk factor for all-causes death amongst the general population, and it’s second only to malnutrition as the greatest mortality risk for children under 5.—The GuardianTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Nvidia eclipses Microsoft as world's most valuable companySummary: Just a few days after passing Apple, chip-maker Nvidia also surpassed Microsoft’s market valuation, attaining a value of more than $3.3 trillion and becoming the most valuable publicly traded US company.Context: Microsoft recently passed Apple as the most valuable publicly traded US company on the strength of its partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and it’s deployment of all sorts of AI-oriented tools across its product portfolio, but Nvidia has been on a tear this past year, surging in value from just over $1 trillion in July of 2023 to its current most-valuable status; Nvidia makes chips that were previously oriented toward gamers and other consumers that needed to do high-end graphics work, then by crypto-companies that wanted to mine Bitcoin and other such assets, but the same products turned out to be ideal for training AI systems, as well, hence this staggering valuation explosion as pretty much every tech company scrambles to get their own AI models trained and deployed.—ReutersOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Putin and Kim sign pact pledging mutual support against ‘aggression’Summary: Russian President Putin has visited North Korea for the first time in decades, meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and solidifying the two countries’ relationship at a moment in which both nations are heavily sanctioned, globally.Context: This visit served as an opportunity for the two countries to formalize a defense pledge, basically saying if the West, led by Europe and the US, messes with either of us, we’ll come to each others’ aid in various ways, while also demonstrating that they’ll continue to support each other in a general sense, North Korea providing ammunition, missiles, and other wartime necessities to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and Russia providing staples like food and medical supplies, which are often in short supply in North Korea; many Western governments are concerned that Russia is helping the North develop their weapons systems, including their nuclear and orbital capabilities, as part of this arrangement, though the true nature of this agreement is unknown, as the details haven’t been publicly divulged, and even the aforementioned swap of ammo and food and such is based on external intelligence reports, not announcements from those directly involved—so lots of unknowns remain.—The New York TimesWhite House cancels meeting and scolds Netanyahu in protest over videoSummary: Following the release of a video by the Israeli government in which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu criticizes the US for withholding military aid, the US government has cancelled a high-level meeting with Israel related to Iran.Context: The only military aid on its way to Israel from the US that has been withheld, as far as is publicly known, at least, has been a shipment of a type of bomb that would be devastating to civilians if used in Rafah, so this criticism, shared publicly in this way, is being seen as a slap in the face by a US administration that has continued to give Israel everything it has asked for, and then some, despite very public and potentially damaging criticisms from other world leaders, and its own constituents, at home; some White House officials have expressed bafflement about the withholding comment, saying they don’t know what Netanyahu is talking about, and while some have said the Iran meeting was cancelled to express anger at the comment, others have said the meeting was postponed due to a scheduling conflict; so there’s some fog of war related to this exchange, at the moment, but it does seem like the tension between Netanyahu and US President Biden is continuing to grow.—AxiosMost Americans get the majority of their news from social media, these days, and the lion’s share of “news” content they’re shown by the algorithms on these platforms are commentary and funny posts related to current events, not actual journalism.—Pew Research1.8 millionNumber of people living in El Fasher, the capital city of the Darfur region in Sudan.This city is under threat from a paramilitary forces called the Rapid Support Forces, which has been fighting a civil war with the country’s military, each side of the conflict controlled by generals who toppled the previous government in a coup, then turned on each other in the aftermath.El Fasher is encircled by the RSF, and international human rights organizations are warning that a massacre of the city’s residents could be impending.—The New York TimesTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.US sues Adobe for ‘deceiving’ subscriptions that are too hard to cancelSummary: Software company Adobe, which sells digital tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, has been sued by the US Justice Department for allegedly harming consumers by engaging in manipulative practices, like making it difficult and costly to end subscriptions, and enrolling customers in more expensive plans than they wanted.Context: One of Adobe’s more overtly anti-consumer practices, according to the FTC, is a hefty cancellation fee that makes the company’s purported “monthly” plan anything but, charging folks for cancelling their memberships before a year has passed, but they’re also being accused of making the cancellation process unnecessarily arduous, and engaging in other sorts of manipulative behaviors meant to keep people paying, and paying more than anticipated; this is just one of many such lawsuits by US agencies against companies doing these sorts of things to consumers right now, and this one targets a pair of Adobe executives, as well—all of which is meant to serve as a warning to other companies doing similar things, alongside Adobe itself.—The VergeOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Russia overtook US as gas supplier to Europe in MaySummary: For the first time in nearly two years, Europe imported more gas from Russia than the US in May, partly due to temporary issues with a major US liquid natural gas (LNG) export facility, and a big surge in Russian gas exports through Turkey, leading up to a maintenance period this month.Context: Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, it began to cut off gas flows to Europe, where many countries Russia hoped to convince not to get involved were heavily reliant on the fuel, and the US scrambled to build export capacity for its liquified gas product, which it could send via ship, but which would then need to be processed on the other end to make it usable across Europe’s grid; the upside of all this is that the US is now typically the biggest supplier of gas to Europe, Russia still provides gas to the bloc, but a lot less than before, and via a more circuitous route, and a five-year transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine, which makes the majority of those remaining shipments to Europe possible, via pipes running through Ukraine, ends this year, which—though Ukraine earns some money by allowing that gas to pass through its territory—seems unlikely to be re-upped, at this point.—Financial TimesThree of Vietnam's five undersea internet cables are downSummary: Late last week, three of the five undersea cables that serve internet connectivity to Vietnam failed, and they remain down as of mid-this-week; local internet service providers have not announced estimates as to when they think these cables will be back online.Context: This is notable in part because, while sabotage is being seen as unlikely in this case, there have been a slew of what look to be seabed cable-cuttings in recent years, and it’s been speculated that China and Russia, separately, have been experimenting with these sorts of cuts using non-military vessels—though, again, that’s quite speculative right now, and there haven’t been any formal allegations on the matter; these cables, though increasingly vital to global communication, are also just really vulnerable to all sorts of degradation and damage from the passage of ships (especially their anchors), though, and some nations, due to the nature of their governance, the businesses tasked with managing the cables, and their local weather conditions, seabed setups, and so on, are also just a lot more likely to experience damaged cables, and notably, all five of Vietnam’s undersea internet cables went down last year, though the country remained connected to the internet via land-based connections, and it’s in the process of attempting to add 2-4 new undersea cables by 2025, which would almost double the country’s current maritime bandwidth.—ReutersThe TSA reported the highest-ever number of passengers passing through US airport security on the Friday before Memorial Day this year (2.95 million) and Airlines for America have forecast that 271 million passengers will do the same this summer, between June 1 and August 31 (which would be an increase of 6% over the summer of 2023).—Sherwood News<5%Percentage of air defense capabilities that have been determined necessary to defend Europe against a full-scale attack from Russia that NATO can currently muster.Most of these defenses would be positioned in Central and Eastern Europe, and these sorts of defenses are considered to be increasingly vital in an era of warfare defined by heavy missile, rocket, and drone use.—Financial TimesTrust Click This is a public episode. 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Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Netanyahu disbands his inner war cabinetSummary: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has disbanded his multi-party war cabinet, following the departure of two of its six members last week.Context: This cabinet advised Netanyahu on the invasion of the Gaza Strip, and was meant to serve as a symbol of solidarity in the country following Hamas’ sneak-attack on Israel—an attack that sparked the aforementioned invasion; Netanyahu has come under fire from enemies and allies both within and beyond Israel’s borders for his seeming desire to keep the invasion going, no matter what, and this has strained his relationships with long-time allies, but also raised questions about his political future, as opposition parties have called for new elections and large protests criticizing his actions have become the norm across the country.—ReutersOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Fire used as 'weapon of war' in Sudan as entire towns and villages burned to the groundSummary: More than 50 settlements across war-torn Sudan have been repeatedly burned, and more than 235 seemingly intentionally set fires in towns and villages have been tracked since April 2023, when the war began, supporting suspicions that arson is being used as a weapon of war in order to displace civilians, long-term.Context: A flurry of new data and satellite images has allowed reporters to confirm previous reporting on this aspect of the conflict in Sudan, and while the majority of the violence and settlement destruction has been occurring in the country’s westernmost Darfur region, the capital of its North Darfur region is also under threat, along with the 1.5 million people who live there; this conflict is between Sudan’s military and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, which are led by the military’s commander and the de facto ruler of the country, and his former deputy, respectively—in 2021 they agreed to rule the country together after launching a successful coup, but that alliance crumbled due to disagreements about how to rule, and who should control what.—NBC NewsAt least 14 Hajj pilgrims die in intense heatSummary: At least 14 people have been confirmed killed, and another 17 people have been reported missing while making their pilgrimage to the Hajj in Saudi Arabia from their home country of Jordan.Context: Jordan’s foreign ministry has said that the 14 people who died suffered sun stroke due to an extreme heat wave afflicting the region, which has brought temperatures exceeding 46 degrees C, which is about 114.8 degrees F—which has made the outdoor, on-foot portion of the rituals performed at the Muslim holy site dangerous, especially for older people, and those suffering from other conditions; last year at least 240 people died from similar ailments at the Hajj.—BBC NewsIntense and dangerous heat is forecast across the US this week, with many high-temperature records at risk and local officials scrambling to remind locals about the dangers of heat stroke and related ailments.—The New York Times175,000Number of marijuana convictions Maryland Governor Wes Moore has said he will pardon.Those convictions (all of which are low-level possession charges) apply to around 100,000 people in the state, and this marks one of the largest mass-pardons related to this drug in the US so far, though other states have recently seen similar, broad-scale efforts.—The Washington PostTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Panel says lawmakers colluded with foreign powers but won’t name namesSummary: A new report about foreign interference in Canada’s government, which was recently made public by a committee of Canadian lawmakers, claims that several unnamed Canadian politicians “knowingly or through willful blindness” took money from foreign entities in exchange for interfering with government processes in such a way that said foreign entities would benefit.Context: In other words, some currently unnamed Canadian politicians accepted bribes to put their thumbs on the scale in favor of the governments that bribed them, and some of them allegedly shared private government information with those foreign entities, as well; this is considered to be a pretty big deal, and follows other recent allegations about Canadian politicians spying for and sharing information with China, and this document indicates India, Pakistan, and Iran, among other nations, have likewise been meddling in Canadian governance; some Canadian politicians have said they want their intelligence community to name names, and it’s likely these revelations, though not entirely surprising, as rumors of such behaviors have been swirling around the ether for years, will impact the country’s next election, which is likely to take place in 2025.—The Washington PostOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Huge telehealth fraud indictment may wreak havoc for Adderall users, CDC warnsSummary: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned, late last week, that a recent federal indictment of a telehealth company that has allegedly been illegally distributing Adderall and other stimulants, online, could result in disruptions in the availability of these drugs.Context: Adderall and other commonly prescribed ADHD medications are controlled substances, and a bunch of online-only companies have popped up over the past handful of years, focused on getting their customers prescriptions for these drugs, and the drugs themselves—a business model that has made illegal distribution a lot more common; one of the big names in that space, Done Global, has been taken down by the US Justice Department, two people connected to it arrested by federal agents, and the concern is that folks with legitimate prescriptions will have trouble filling those prescriptions because other companies will be more hesitant to issue scripts and fulfill orders; there’s also a separate, ongoing shortage of these sorts of drugs in the US, and folks who use such stimulants regularly, even for doctor-advised purposes, can have a lot of trouble if that supply is suddenly cut off, hence the CDC’s concern.—Ars TechnicaUK polls point to 'electoral extinction' for Prime Minister Sunak's ConservativesSummary: A trio of recent opinion polls in the lead-up to the UK’s July 4th election suggest the currently governing Conservative party might not just lose its majority, but experience a truly brutal loss.Context: One of the polls found that chief rival Labour’s lead has risen 2% since the last poll, five days earlier, to 46%, while support for Conservatives dropped by 4 points to 21%, and another suggested that Conservatives could see their representation in the 650-seat House of Commons drops to just 72 seats, with Labour scooping up 456; this is partly the consequence of what’s generally considered to be a series of blunders and bad policies by the Conservatives, leading to a larger-than-usual desire for a changing of the guard by voters, but the Reform UK party, which is politically further-right than the Conservatives, seems to have also grabbed about 12% of support in one of these polls, suggesting that while some voters who would have supported the Conservatives may sit this one out, many have instead decided to throw in their lot with the chief supporter of Brexit, Nigel Farage, who is leading Reform UK.—ReutersThe US economy continues to flash mixed signals, many of them broadly indicating a resilient set of economy variables, but some pointing at future tumult, reinforcing a sense that the Fed will probably lower interest rates soon (a move that typically stokes economic activity), but not so much that the amount or pace of interest rate drops is currently predictable.—USA Today>80%Portion of pregnancy-related deaths in the US that are preventable.About 22 maternal deaths (the mother dying) were tracked for every 100,000 live births in the US in 2022, but that number was as high as 49.5% maternal deaths per 100,000 live births for Black people—pointing at a huge disparity in outcomes between different groups of people, but also further emphasizing that gap between “available, lifesaving treatments” and “treatments that are being applied in different areas for different people.”—The Washington PostTrust Click This is a public episode. 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Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Officials overseeing Indonesia capital city project resign, raising questionsSummary: Two of the people in charge of making Indonesia’s under-construction new capital, Nusantara, a reality have resigned and been temporarily replaced by the public works and housing minister, and the deputy agrarian minister, according to the Indonesian government.Context: This project, which is expected to cost something like $32 billion, is meant to move the mechanisms of state from the country’s current capital, Jakarta, because Jakarta is overcrowded, plagued by immense traffic jams and ever-present pollution, is sinking, and regularly floods; the idea, then, is to move the government to Nusantara to help the state function, but also ease some of those issues in Jakarta; the two people who left were the head and deputy head of the project, though, and while the relocation of the first batch of 12,000 civil servants from Jakarta to Nusantara was planned for this September, they’ve apparently had trouble building enough infrastructure for even that many people, and the project has already been delayed twice amid concerns about a lack of private funding for the venture—so we’ll see on that.—ReutersOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Georgia’s divisive ‘foreign agents’ bill signed into lawSummary: Georgia’s legislature, which is controlled by the Georgian Dream party, voted to dismiss a veto by the country’s president earlier this week, officially signing the vetoed bill into law, despite widespread protests against it.Context: The law in question is similar to a law in Russia that essentially allows the government to spy on and harass and even imprison anyone they like, as long as they say that person is a foreign agent, though on the surface it merely allows the government to look more closely at who backs nonprofits operating within their borders; a major concern for the protestors is that this law may make it more difficult for Georgia to someday join the EU, which is something the majority of the country hopes to do, and there are concerns that its passage might have been pushed by politicians under Russia’s sway in order to keep them from becoming more friendly with the West.—France 24Massive melon-size hail could be a Texas recordSummary: A piece of hail the size of a cantaloupe was recovered in Texas last weekend, measuring at least six inches in diameter and possibly setting a new all-time record for the state.Context: This is notable in part because hail has been getting bigger and becoming more frequent across portions of the US, and that’s meant a lot more damage from storms that otherwise might roll through with little long-term economic impact; a recent wave of storms in Texas, though, resulted in what’s been called DVD-sized hail, which is a new casual unit of measurement for such things, and a week later, they got hit by melon-sized hail; none of which is great for the safety of people and animals on the ground, but it’s also pretty terrible for the burgeoning fields of solar panels across the state, and the cars, homes, and other pieces of shatterable and destroyable infrastructure in the impacted areas.—The Washington PostThe world’s biggest social networks are scrambling to find new audiences to attract, as their valuations are partly based on their capacity for future growth, and some of the larger ones seem to have reached the ceiling of global potential customers for their current offerings.—Sherwood News$25,000Announced prices for upcoming electric vehicles by Tesla, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.That’s substantially lower than current average EV prices (which tend to be closer to $48,000) and closer to today’s used EV prices, and that of those sold overseas (China has multiple models for around that price and cheaper—though their EV industry, and connected industries like EV batteries, is heavily subsidized by the government).—The New York TimesTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Modi claims victory in India’s election but drop in support forces him to rely on coalition partnersSummary: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won a third term in office following an election that was expected to be a landslide for his BJP party, but which ended up being a relatively close victory that will necessitate he rely upon allied parties to maintain a majority.Context: The BJP’s National Democratic Alliance, which is a right-wing coalition of parties led by Modi and the BJP, won a total of 294 seats—which is more than the 272 required to lock-in a majority—but this is the first time the BJP wasn’t able to achieve that many seats itself since 2014 when it originally swept into power; it only attained 240 seats on its own, compared to the 370 Modi predicted they would receive while on the campaign trail, which means his party may have to cater to the priorities of its allies more than was anticipated.—The Associated PressOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.In shift, Biden issues order allowing temporary border closure to migrantsSummary: On Tuesday, US President Biden issued a new executive order that prevents migrants who enter the country illegally from seeking asylum when illegal crossing numbers are high, allowing border officers to return those who enter the country to Mexico, or to their home countries.Context: This rule, which the ACLU has said it will challenge in court, activates after the seven-day average for illegal crossings hits 2,500 migrants, which is fairly common at this point; the border then reopens after the number of such crossings drops back down to 1,500 people for a continuous seven days, and then remains at that point or lower for two weeks; this is very similar to policies that former President Trump enacted and attempted while in office, and it’s similar to a piece of legislation that almost made it through Congress earlier this year, before being blocked by Republicans in February, apparently at the behest of Trump, who reportedly told supporters that allowing Biden to take action at the border would hurt Republicans in the upcoming election.—The New York TimesNew Texas stock exchange takes aim at New York’s dominanceSummary: A new stock exchange that plans to file with the SEC later this year is being set up in Texas, and has raised around $120 million from some major players in the investment world.Context: The Texas Stock Exchange is meant to complete with the Nasdaq and NYSE by doing away with some of the regulations that apply to businesses trading on those exchanges, like those related to board diversity and compliance costs; the TXSE is planned to be entirely electronic, with a symbolic physical presence in downtown Dallas; other exchanges have popped up around the US over the years, likewise attempting to compete with New York’s duopoly, but all of them have faltered and plateaud, so far, though the folks backing this Texas-based entrant, including Blackrock and Citadel, suggest this one might have a little more prestige and weight behind it than those that have come before.—The Wall Street JournalDespite tariffs that are being deployed or discussed throughout the Western world, Chinese EVs—which are generally considered to be high-quality, and are almost always cheaper (sometimes substantially so) than their competitors—have seen a large number of new registrations across Europe, jumping a quarter this year so far, alone.—Financial Times$2 billionValue of the US audiobook market in 2023, according to new data from the Audio Publishers Association.That’s up about 9% from the previous year, this growth attributed to an increase in the popularity of the format amongst US adults, about 52% of whom have listened to an audiobook, and 38% of whom have listened to an audiobook in the past year.—Publishers WeeklyTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Power cut across Nigeria as workers go on strikeSummary: Millions of Nigerians remain without electricity after a general strike over the cost of living in the country led to the shut-down of electricity substations by union workers.Context: Unions in the country are demanding a significant increase to the local minimum wage of 30,000 naira per month, which is about $22, saying they can’t survive on that pay, and the government has offered to double that wage, though workers have contended that even double wouldn’t cover the cost of enough rice to feed the average person’s family for a month, much less other food, shelter, and expenses; the government has said raising pay beyond what they’ve offered would lead to the collapse of the economy and closure of many businesses that wouldn’t be able to afford to stay in operation, and this is the fourth general strike since President Tinubu stepped into office last year—Tinubu deciding to remove a fuel subsidy and overseeing a substantial drop in the value of the naira after unpegging its value from the US dollar, both decisions having contributed to the country’s current economic crisis, though the government says these are necessary measures for the long-term success of the economy.—BBC NewsOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Russia-China gas pipeline deal stalls over Beijing’s price demandsSummary: A major gas pipeline deal between Russia and China has reportedly stalled as the Chinese government has demanded lower prices on the gas that would flow through the new Power of Siberia 2 pipeline between the countries, and the Russian government has balked at this new demand, though may have to accept it, due to Russia’s increasing economic reliance on China.Context: Russia’s state gas monopoly, Gazprom, has been shambling along at a reduced level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to an almost complete decoupling of Russia from its at the time primary customers in Europe, and it suffered a loss of nearly $7 billion last year, alone, due to the difficulty it has faced replacing those customers, due to sanctions on its activities; China has been happily buying discounted energy products from Russia during this time, and now it’s saying, in essence, we’ll keep buying your gas and helping you survive this shortfall, but we want close to the same price you charge domestically, which is heavily subsidized; China would also only commit to buying a small portion of what the new pipeline could carry annually, which would leave Russia prone to further, probably China-favoring negotiations, down the line.—Financial TimesIn blow to PM, Brexit champion Nigel Farage to stand in UK electionSummary: In a somewhat surprising move, the politician-turned-TV host who served as one of the most vocal proponents of the UK’s “Brexit” departure from the EU, Nigel Farage, has announced that he’ll be a candidate in next month’s election, leading the right-wing Reform Party.Context: The currently governing Conservative party already faced a pretty bleak outlook in the coming election, as polls show they’ll likely be stomped by Labour in particular, but Farage continues to enjoy a significant following in further-right political circles, and he’s likely to claim some portion of the votes that would have otherwise gone to the Conservatives, possibly further worsening their impending political fortunes.—ReutersA combination of persistent bad weather and the spread of disease in Brazil, which is the world’s largest exporter of orange juice, has caused a surge in futures prices for the product, other markets (like Florida) unable to pick up the slack because of their own combination of weather and economic issues.—Sherwood News$1 billionInitial sum Melinda French Gates has committed to spending over the next two years on people and organizations focused on women, families, and reproductive rights.The announcement of this new wave of donations came alongside an announcement that Gates would be leaving the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to do her own thing, contributing to different sorts of projects and using different metrics of success for those projects than her ex-husband, Bill Gates, who also spends most of his time on philanthropic efforts, these days.—The New York TimesTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Claudia Sheinbaum claims sweeping mandate to become Mexico's first female presidentSummary: Nobel Prize-winning climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City Claudia Sheinbaum has become Mexico’s first female president, pulling in somewhere between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote.Context: Sheinbaum was supported in her campaign by her mentor, the outgoing President Obrador, and while this election is being seen as a milestone moment for a country that’s historically been very keen on traditional, Catholic church-encouraged, gender roles—Sheinbaum’s main opponent was also a woman—it was also marred by a record number of assassinations, 37 candidates having been murdered by cartels leading up to the vote.—ReutersOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.China lands a spacecraft on the moon’s far side to collect rocks for studySummary: China’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft has successfully deposited a lander on the far side of the Moon, that lander tasked with using a drill to gather up to 4.4 pounds, or about 2 kilograms of material from the surface, which will then be returned to the orbiting craft, which will shoot the materials back to Earth, that package scheduled for arrival sometime around June 25.Context: This is just one more Moon-related success in a series of such successes for China’s space program, which has picked up the pace in recent years to compete with the US, both nations scrambling to juice their Moon programs in order to establish infrastructure that will help them lay claim, or prevent the other from laying claim, to what may be relatively scarce water resources that will be necessary for long-term inhabitation of the Moon.—The Associated PressThird human case of bird flu from cows—this one with respiratory symptomsSummary: A third person in the US, a Michigan dairy farmer, has been infected with a confirmed case of avian influenza virus, often called bird flu or H5N1, after coming into close contact with an infected dairy cow.Context: This infection is suspected to be another case of cow-to-human transmission, but the infected person also has respiratory symptoms, which is a first, and which is alarming to some experts, as that could provide the virus a means of mutating into a human-to-human transmissible form; no other workers on that dairy farm have reported symptoms, and the infected worker is reportedly recovering, but disease experts are continuing to watch the spread of this virus in cows and other mammals as bird flu is incredibly deadly, killing more than half of the humans it has infected since 2003, and because this tends to be the path these sorts of zoonotic diseases take before achieving a human-optimized form.—Ars TechnicaRussian forces have recently made a significant and sustained push into Ukrainian territory near the nation’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, forcing thousands of civilians to flee and worrying military experts that this may be a feint meant to pull troops away from another, even more substantial target.—The New York Times3 millionNumber of followers former President Trump attained on social short video platform TikTok after about a day on the network.That compares to an account run by President Biden’s campaign, which has a little more than 340,000 followers on TikTok.Biden recent signed a bill that could ban TikTok in the US if the China-based company that owns it doesn’t divest itself of the company, and Trump unsuccessfully attempted to ban it on national security grounds when he was president.—ReutersTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Trump guilty on all counts in hush-money caseSummary: Former President (and current Presidential Candidate) Trump was convicted of all 34 felony counts that he was charged with in a New York case that centered around falsifying business documents to conceal hush-money payments made in 2016, when he was initially running for President.Context: This is big news in part because this is the first time in US history that a former president has been convicted of a felony, and in part because this is the only case against Trump, out of four total ongoing cases, that is likely to culminate before the November election, and this outcome—depending on who you listen to—will either rally Trump’s supporters to his side, or cause vital independent votes to drift away in favor of Biden, or in favor of simply not voting for anyone, in either case influencing the outcome of that contest in a potentially significant way.(More on this case and its significance in tomorrow’s Let’s Know Things episode.)—The New York TimesOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.South Africa's ANC facing coalition as election ends decades of dominanceSummary: For the first time since the end of apartheid in the country, South Africa’s African National Congress, or ANC party has not won a majority of the vote, which will force it to build a coalition government with another party or parties.Context: In 2019, the ANC claimed 57.5% of the vote, and this time around it looks like it’ll have around 40%, so this represents a significant drop in support, and that drop is being attributed, in part, to the party’s seeming inability to rein-in corruption and crime, and keep the lights on, the nation long suffering regular power outages; markets have been responding to this outcome cautiously, as depending on which smaller party or parties the ANC decides to form a government with, South Africa could become more or substantially less business-friendly. —ReutersUS dismantles 911 S5 botnet used for cyberattacks and arrests adminSummary: The US Justice Department has announced that it, in collaboration with law enforcement entities from around the world, have taken down what seems to be the world’s biggest botnet, the 911 S5 botnet, and arrested its administrator in Singapore.Context: This botnet, which was formed by installing malware on victims’ computers, usually via malicious VPN software, allowed its controller to create a network of more than 19 million compromised devices, access to which was sold to clients for all sorts of criminal behaviors including fraud, harassment, bomb threats, and child exploitation; the botnet’s administrator faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison if convicted on all counts.—Bleeping ComputerThough many DTC (direct-to-consumer) businesses have flagged (after a period of relative success in the early 2000s) in recent years, pet supply company Chewy has been consistently killing it, increasing sales to 153-times their 2013 levels in 2023.—Sherwood News$135 millionValue of aid pledged to Eastern European nation, Moldova, to help bolster its energy security and capacity to deal with disinformation efforts that are attempting to keep it from turning further Westward, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Russia has been supporting local separatists, similar to how they supported such groups in Crimea leading up to their initial incursion into Ukraine in 2014, and there are concerns that Kremlin higher-ups might be eyeballing Moldova as a next-step means of weakening the alliance European nations have been building against Russia’s expansionism. —The Associated PressTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Iran further increases its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, watchdog saysSummary: The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency released a report on Monday indicating that Iran’s nuclear program has upped its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60%, which is just a small, relatively simple step from 90%, which is weapons-grade, by around 45.4 pounds (which is about 20.6 kilograms) since February.Context: The generally accepted volume of 60%-enriched uranium necessary to produce a nuclear weapon is around 92.5 pounds, or 42 kilograms, if that uranium is then further enriched to 90%, and Iran’s total stockpile of enriched uranium is thought to weigh in at around 1,360 pounds (more than 6,000 kilograms), which means they’ve grown their overall stockpile by nearly 1,500 pounds (675 kilograms) since February; Iran has consistently said that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but much of the international community doesn’t believe that to be true, and the country has been operating under severe sanctions of all kinds, including nuclear-related sanctions, for a long time as a consequence—and a 2015 deal that allowed them to enrich uranium to up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a small stockpile has long since lapsed, and Iran’s government hasn’t allowed the UN’s nuclear watchdog to reinstall monitoring equipment that Iran removed in 2022.—The Associated PressOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.China is pouring almost $50 billion into its chipmaking efforts despite US sanctionsSummary: Despite efforts by the US government to hobble China’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence development, the Chinese government has set up a fund worth around $47.5 billion that will be invested in its local semiconductor industry.Context: This is the third investment the Chinese government has made in its local chip-making capacity, responding in large part to the US’s attempts to keep it from accessing the most advanced chips on the market, which has a lot of loopholes, but has made it tricky enough for them to get such chips that China has seemingly decided to ensure they’re capable of making them in the future, not being able to rely on the global market for such things; now, their stated goal is to up their internal semiconductor capacity so that it matches the standards of the international community by the end of the decade.—QuartzConocoPhillips to acquire Marathon Oil in $17.1 billion all-stock dealSummary: Fossil fuel giant ConocoPhillips has made a deal to acquire fossil fuel giant Marathon Oil for just over $17 billion in stock, which—if the deal passes regulatory scrutiny—would merge two of the US’s largest oil companies.Context: The global oil industry is in the midst of a huge shake-up, many of the largest entities gobbling each other and their smaller rivals up in order to consolidate, grow, and claim a portion of a sector that’s currently booming, but which is also expected to peak soon, as renewables claim more and more of the global energy market.—The Wall Street JournalChipmaker Nvidia’s market cap is booming, approaching $3 trillion, which is within spitting distance of Apple’s, and which puts it far ahead of even the biggest companies in other growth industries, like China’s solar panel market.—Bloomberg27,000Approximate number of government-made apps currently operating in Indonesia—a figure that’s prompted the country’s president to demand his government’s various agencies stop making new ones.The government is now saying this overabundance of custom apps for various, specific purposes needs to be whittled down to reduce bloat and bureaucracy, and to make life easier for citizens.—CybernewsTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Louisiana governor signs bill making two abortion drugs controlled dangerous substancesSummary: Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has signed a bill that will classify two drugs commonly used to induce abortions, mifepristone and misoprostol, as dangerous, controlled substances in the state; this new classification will go into effect on October 1.Context: This move is being criticized by the medical community, as, first, these drugs are generally considered to be safe, and the bill was promoted as a safety measure to protect women, and second because in addition to being one of the safer ways to induce abortions, they’re also commonly used for other types of care, and this reclassification will likely make such care more difficult in the state; these two drugs already require a prescription in Louisiana, and it’s already a crime to use them for abortion-purposes in most cases in the state, but this bill would make it a lot more difficult to acquire them, and would make the punishments for their misuse, under the dictates of the law, more severe; this is especially notable as abortion laws are being seen as a significant lever for Democrats leading up to November’s election, as every time abortion laws have been put to a vote at the state level, even in deeply conservative areas, voters have favored more abortion rights, not fewer.—The Associated PressOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.China switches on first large-scale sodium-ion batterySummary: A 10 MWh sodium-ion battery, the first of its kind in the country, has been built and put into use in southwestern China, completing the first phase of what’s intended to be a 100 MHw global project.Context: This is notable because grid-scale batteries are becoming increasingly common and vital in areas that are deploying intermittent wind and solar power, as it allows for the generation of electricity during the day or when the wind is blowing, and the use of that electricity at night or when the winds have stopped, and sodium-ion batteries are especially relevant to this use-case as they can be charged rapidly—to around 90% capacity in just 12 minutes—and are made of materials that are a lot more stable, common, and cheap than lithium-ion batteries, while also performing better at low temperatures, which is expected to reduce the cost of construction and installation for grid-scale arrays by something like 20-30%.—PV MagazineIsrael denies strike on camp near Rafah that Gaza officials say killed 21 peopleSummary: Following the death of at least 21 people in a tent camp just west of Rafah earlier this week, which itself followed an apparent airstrike on another tent camp, which resulted in the deaths of at least 45 Palestinians, the Israeli government has denied that it attacked this second camp, saying that it is operating in the Rafah area, but reports that four tanks shells hit this second encampment are incorrect.Context: This is just one component of a flurry of recent news items out of Rafah, which include accusations that Israel is plowing tanks through the center of the city, and that it’s bombing and shooting at civilians who are attempting to flee, and who are living, often in tents, in areas that have been designated as safe zones by the Israeli military; the international community has been pushing the Israeli government to end its assault on Rafah, which is packed full of Palestinians who have fled from other parts of the Gaza Strip, many of which have since been leveled, but those calls, and others for a ceasefire, have been countered by claims from the Israeli government that they need to hunt down the last of Hamas’ leadership in the area, or the whole invasion will have been for naught, and they’ll continue to suffer periodic attacks by Hamas, like the one they suffered on October 7 of last year which triggered the invasion.—ReutersWomen’s sports in the US are experiencing a sort of renaissance, and investors and sponsors are taking notice, injecting more money into these teams and leagues, which is further amplifying their reach and prominence, which is in turn further contributing to overall engagement in this burgeoning slice of the US sports industry.—Axios4,096Number of electrodes a company called Precision Neuroscience has successfully placed along a human brain with one of its brain-computer interface devices, breaking the previous record of 2,048 (which was set last year).These sorts of devices are surgically installed along the brain in order to restore capabilities patients/customers may have lost due to strokes or spiral cord injuries, the electrodes allowing them to doing things like control cursors on screens and type out responses to questions, and more electrodes tends to mean more and better control.—Ars TechnicaTrust Click This is a public episode. 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Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Egyptian soldier killed in Israel border incidentSummary: An Egyptian soldier stationed near the country’s border with Rafah was shot and killed during a cross-border exchange of fire between Egyptian and Israeli soldiers; both countries’ militaries are investigating what happened.Context: This is notable in part because it’s occurring at a moment in which much of the international community is turning on Israel due to the nature of their invasion of the Gaza Strip, and because Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel 45 years ago; on the day of the shooting, just hours previous, Israel’s military launched a strike on Rafah that they say killed two senior Hamas officials, but which also killed at least 45 people when it set a tent camp ablaze.—BBC NewsOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Brazil floods produce hundreds of thousands of climate refugeesSummary: More than 160 people have been confirmed killed, and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, many of them permanently, following significant floods that surged through cities in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul last month.Context: Entire cities are still submerged even a month later, and the few areas that didn’t flood, or only flooded briefly, are now struggling to house tens or hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by rising waters; climate migration is becoming increasingly common and a bigger and bigger strain on regional resources, and many people who would have previously left temporarily are deciding to permanently evacuate flood-prone areas, because those floods are becoming more common and more devastating as average global temperatures increase; the past few years have seen several substantial floods that have resulted in large numbers of climate refugees, including floods in Pakistan in 2022, which displaced around 8 million people, and floods in Ethiopia and Kenya in 2023 and earlier this year, respectively, each of which resulted in hundreds of thousands of newly homeless, displaced people.—The Washington PostPakistan temperatures cross 52 C in heatwaveSummary: Pakistan’s southern province, Sindh, recorded nearly historic temperatures for the region over the past month, this week hitting 52.2 degrees Celsius, which is about 126 Fahrenheit—and the heatwave is still ongoing.Context: The area that’s seeing the highest temperatures in Pakistan right now is known for extremely hot summers, but this year’s heatwave is hitting the economy especially hard, as people are staying indoors and avoiding going outside as much as possible, and the heat feels worse than usual because of local weather conditions conditions made more prominent by human-amplified climate change.—ReutersAfter decades of decline, summer teen labor-market participation is seeing an upswing, in part because the jobs available to teens are increasing pay proportionally more than other sorts of jobs, and in part to help their families cover the costs of price-inflated goods.—Axios56Number of new warships the Indian Navy will add to its fleet in the next ten years, according to the Chief of Naval Staff.That number includes six submarines and an aircraft carrier.The Indian fleet currently claims 132 vessels, alongside 32 that are being built or under contract to be built.—The PrintTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Saudi Arabia appoints first ambassador to Syria since 2012Summary: Over the weekend, the Saudi government announced that it has appointed its first ambassador to Syria since it broke diplomatic ties with the country about 12 years ago.Context: This is of a kind with other efforts by the Saudi government to rebuild fraying relations with its regional neighbors, and follows a decision by the Arab League to readmit Syria into its membership a little more than a year ago; Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2010, about half a million people confirmed killed and half the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million people displaced since then; Syria, along with Turkey, was hit by a massive and deadly earthquake in early 2023, and the regional response to that led to a re-warming of relations between Syrian President Assad and leaders of other, till that moment geopolitically estranged, Middle Eastern countries.—The Associated PressOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Storms kill 19 in US Southern Plains as severe weather moves eastSummary: A wave of powerful storms tore through Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arkansas over the weekend, leading to at least 19 deaths and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.Context: Hundreds of homes and other structures were leveled by extremely powerful winds, and some of the damage is suspected to have been caused by yet-to-be-confirmed tornadoes; nearly half a million people throughout the Southern Plains region were still without power as of Monday afternoon, and this is just one of several recent, powerful storms to plow through the area in recent weeks—which is normal for this time of year, but the strength of these storms, especially the winds they bring with them, is abnormal and being attributed to at times record-setting heat in the afflicted areas.—The New York TimesBurkina Faso extends military rule by five yearsSummary: The military junta that has governed Burkina Faso following a successful coup nearly two years ago has said that its plan to restore civilian government by July 1 of this year have been postponed for up to another 60 months.Context: This isn’t entirely unexpected, as the military governments in this region, most of which came to power in just the past several years by launching coups against their previously democratically elected governments, have grown increasingly confident as they’ve unified, in some regards at least, against the democratic government-led nations that surround them, and which have pushed them to transition back to civilian governance; most of these coups were justified by claims that the previous governments were failing to combat violent Islamic extremist groups that operate in the region, and that’s the justification for this extension, as well, the current junta leader saying that elections are not a priority until these groups are pushed out of territory they’re holding—something they say will probably take just two to three months, which would then allow them to restore civilian rule within 21 months.—BBC NewsConversation about inflation in the US is complicated by the difference between how economists use the term (referring to a year-over-year change in prices) and how everyday people use it (referring to higher prices, in general); inflation in the US (according to the official definition for the concept) has been dropping over the past year or so, but perception of inflation amongst many groups has remained steady or increased over that same period.—Axios<10%Percentage of people who apply to join Sweden’s military that are accepted.The highly competitive nature of getting into the military in Sweden means a lot of people are turned away each year, as all young men and women must enlist, but only a relative few are allowed onto what’s considered to be a prestigious professional path.Those who are accepted are on active duty for up to 15 months, then stay on as reserves for ten years, or until they turn 47.—The Wall Street JournalTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.More than 670 feared dead in Papua New Guinea landslideSummary: Estimates from the UN’s International Organization for Migration indicate that more than 670 people have probably died in a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea that buried more than 150 houses last Friday—the true number is still in question, as unstable conditions in the afflicted region have made rescue efforts difficult.Update: The estimated number of people buried has risen to more than 2,000.Context: Around 4,000 people live in the area impacted by this landslide, more than a quarter of whom have now been displaced, fleeing homes adjacent to the landslide, which is ongoing and still putting those who remain at risk; the afflicted area has served as a refuge for people fleeing nearby conflicts, so there’s a chance the death count will be even higher than anticipated, and the landslide also blocked a regional highway, cutting off multiple towns and villages, alongside an economically important gold mine.—ReutersOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Russia steps up a covert sabotage campaign aimed at EuropeSummary: American and European security officials have announced that Russian operatives across Europe have been engaging in minor acts of sabotage, especially arson, as part of a larger effort to slow the transfer of military supplies to Ukraine and to make it look like there’s local opposition to that support.Context: Russia’s GRU, its military intelligence agency, is reportedly orchestrating this campaign, and targets so far have included a paint factory in Poland, a warehouse in England, and an IKEA in Lithuania; alleged Russian operatives are reportedly also planning to attack weapons manufacturers and energy infrastructure in Norway, military bases operated by the US, and have carried out beatings in Poland—all of which is purportedly meant to sow chaos, disrupt support for Ukraine in the EU and NATO, and potentially create justification for other sorts of regional aggression in the future.—The New York TimesThe US built a $320 million pier to get aid to Gazans, but little of it has reached themSummary: The Pentagon invested about $320 million to build a floating pier, operated by around 1,000 sailors and soldiers, to create a new corridor through which international aid could enter the Gaza Strip, bypassing a blockade by Israeli forces that has hampered such efforts since Israel’s invasion of the Strip; only 820 tons of aid arrived via the pier in its first week of operation, though, only two-thirds of which successfully reached distribution points.Context: That means only about 15% of the minimum aid necessary to sustain Gaza’s population of more than two million people was successfully deployed via this pier, and over the weekend one of the supports for the pier broke amidst choppy waters, which could further truncate the flow of aid, though the US military says the pier is still operational and safe to use despite that damage; restrictions placed on the flow of aid by the Israeli government has made speeding up the import of aid difficult, and some aid trucks have been commandeered by desperate Gazans on one hand, and Israeli fundamentalists trying to prevent said aid from getting to Gazan Palestinians, on the other; the total amount of aid coming in via all available corridors remains far below what international humanitarian organizations say is necessary to sustain Gazan citizens in the midst of Israel’s ongoing invasion of the Strip, which it says is necessary to kill or capture the remaining vestiges of Hamas’ leadership, who are still operating in the region.—The Wall Street JournalAccording to a new study, daily marijuana use has surpassed daily alcohol use in the US for the first time, purportedly because of a broad-based shift in behavior amongst Americans, though the change is especially prevalent in young people (and overall growth in marijuana use has surged as more states have moved to legalize the drug, and as the federal government has started the process of reclassifying it).—Axios262%Increase in revenue for chip-maker Nvidia, which has been booming ever since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the subsequent surge in investment for AI-everything: a category of computation for which Nvidia’s chips are optimized.—Yahoo FinanceTrust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com