A Simple Formula: “The shortage became acute with a recall of a defective brand this year after at least four babies were hospitalized with bacterial infection and at least two babies died. But the recall has been exacerbated by relentless supply-chain woes and labor shortages.” NYT: A Baby Formula Shortage Leaves Desperate Parents Searching for Food. And from AP: Parents hunting for baby formula as shortage spans US. (As a proud formula baby, this one hits home.)

+ End Timing: “Energy and food security are the most immediate worries, but massive Western support for Ukraine while the world is still emerging from coronavirus pandemic and struggling to deal with the effects of climate change could deepen the toll on the global economy. And should Russia choose to escalate, the risk of a broader conflict rises.” With no clear endgame in Ukraine, officials worry the invasion could continue for months or years.

+ Leveling Up: “‘I was supposed to write music and die poor’: How SF musicians are turning to video games to make ends meet.

+ Reporter Killed: “Israel’s prime minister said it was ‘likely’ they were shot by Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire … The Palestinian president said he held the Israeli government fully responsible for what he described as a ‘crime of execution.'” A veteran Palestinian-American correspondent for Al Jazeera has been killed while covering a raid by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

+ Cold Cases in a Hot World: “Having grown up just down the road, the son of the senior pastor at another church in town, I’ve spent my life watching evangelicalism morph from a spiritual disposition into a political identity. It’s heartbreaking. So many people who love the Lord, who give their time and money to the poor and the mourning and the persecuted, have been reduced to a caricature. But I understand why. Evangelicals—including my own father—became compulsively political, allowing specific ethical arguments to snowball into full-blown partisan advocacy.” Tim Alberta in The Atlantic: How Politics Poisoned the Evangelical Church. Let’s let George Carlin add one more line to today’s edition. “I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. These two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”