"The internet's initial promise was to decentralize telecommunications, releasing consumers from the monopoly grip of telecomms incumbents. Over the last 30 years, the internet has done that, and much more. But undersea cables, owned by the internet's behemoths, hint at a return to where we started: a near future in which a select group of massive corporations have not merely tightened their hold on our online activity but have deliberately rebuilt the internet for their own use, according to their own specifications, from the ocean floor up." Rest of World on the subsea cables that Google and Meta are using to get Africa connected. Sea Change. We've seen a similar trend play out over and over. The internet may have decentralized some things, but it has only centralized money and power.

+ Will the next iteration of the web really be any different? It's being funded by the same investors who made it big on Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Gilad Edelman in Wired: Paradise at the Crypto Arcade: Inside the Web3 Revolution.

"The challenge is that the treatment for an abortion and the treatment for a miscarriage are exactly the same." This is a big part of the Roe story people are missing. Ending Roe will also worsen other types of care. Treatments and drugs will be outlawed or hard to get and even training doctors in certain techniques will be blocked. It's not just about abortion. It's about equal access to health care for women. In Texas, abortion laws inhibit care for miscarriages.

+ Janet Yellen: "I believe that eliminating the right of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy and would set women back decades." (For some, that's the goal.)

"The garment industry, the engine of this economy, is facing disruptions from fashion brands exiting Russia, turmoil in shipping and rising energy prices. The government launched a food subsidy program as prices for staples spiked." That's what's happening in Bangladesh, one country that seems unconnected to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But everything is connected and countries across the world are feeling the pain. NPR: The ripple effects of Russia's war in Ukraine are changing the world. One sociopath is changing the entire world. (Another one desperately wants to get back into the Oval Office.)

"As Amazon's ambitions to speed up delivery times and handle more of its own deliveries has grown, rural America has posed the thorniest logistical and financial challenges. While delivery drivers in cities and suburbs might be able to deliver two dozen packages per hour or more, the distance between homes in rural and other remote communities means drivers can only handle half that amount or less, making deliveries to these locales more costly." Amazon's surprising new delivery partners: Rural mom-and-pop shops. (Now would be a good time to reflect on today's top story about centralization and the internet.)

If the Shoe Fits: "The son of the disgraced late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos vowed on Tuesday to work for all people after his stunning election victory, and told the world to judge him by his presidency, not his family's past." Yesterday, I gave the wrong link to Time's story on how Bongbong Marcos pulled it off.

+ Twit Happens: "Musk, speaking virtually at a Future of the Car summit hosted by the Financial Times, said Twitter's Trump ban was a 'morally bad decision' and 'foolish in the extreme.' He said permanent bans of Twitter accounts should be rare and reserved for accounts that are scams or automated bots." Musk says he would reverse Twitter's ban of Donald Trump. (This is the least surprising headline in recent memory. Now would be a good time to reflect on today's third story about the amount of damage that one sociopath can do to the world - especially with the help of powerful enablers.)

+ Off Guard: "A former Alabama jail official on the run with a murder suspect she was accused of helping escape shot and killed herself Monday as authorities caught up with the pair after more than a week of searching, officials said. The man she fled with surrendered." Fugitive inmate captured after manhunt, ex-jail officer dead.

+ Reporting for Duty: "The 2022 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced Monday, with many awards going to journalists that covered inequities in the U.S. around voting and policing. Two prizes were also awarded to journalists covering the Jan. 6 Capitol siege."

+ Cold Cases in a Hot World: "'There's no telling what we'll find in Lake Mead,' former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Monday. 'It's not a bad place to dump a body.'" Bodies surfacing in Lake Mead recall mob's time in Las Vegas.

"The 1964 silkscreen image shows Monroe in vibrant close-up — hair yellow, eyeshadow blue and lips red — on a rich blue background. It's also the most expensive piece from the 20th century ever auctioned, according to Christie's auction house in New York, where the sale took place." Warhol's ‘Marilyn' auction nabs $195M; most for US artist.

+ Brazilian defender Marcelo was dropped from the Lyon first team due to continuous farting and laughing in the dressing room.