Extra, Extra
Gov and Marriage: “The House gave final approval Thursday to legislation protecting same-sex marriages, a monumental step in a decadeslong battle for nationwide recognition of such unions that reflects a stunning turnaround in societal attitudes.” Let’s take a moment and look back at the day interracial marriage was legalized.
+ Peru the Day: “The president of Peru was ousted by Congress and arrested on a charge of rebellion Wednesday after he sought to dissolve the legislative body and take unilateral control of the government, triggering a grave constitutional crisis.” (Wait, you can be ousted and arrested for trying to take over a national government?)
+ Veiled Threats: Iran executes first known prisoner arrested in protests. And, Iranian forces are shooting at faces and genitals of female protesters. “Doctors and nurses – treating demonstrators in secret to avoid arrest – said they first observed the practice after noticing that women often arrived with different wounds to men.”
+ Old News: “Since the beginning of the pandemic, people 65 and older accounted for 75 percent of all American Covid deaths. That dropped below 60 percent as recently as September 2021. But today Americans 65 and over account for 90 percent of new Covid deaths.” David Wallace-Wells in the NYT: Covid-19 Isn’t a Pandemic of the Unvaccinated Anymore. It’s a pandemic of the old.
+ Blood Cell: “Former Theranos executive Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 13 years in prison for his role in the company’s blood-testing hoax — a punishment slightly longer than that given to the CEO, who was his lover and accomplice in one of Silicon Valley’s biggest scandals.”
+ Saudi With a Chance of Meet Schmalz: Sometimes a few images can tell the whole story. Saudi’s MBS rolls out the red carpet for China’s Xi, in a not too subtle message to Biden.
+ Break on Through: “Pictures of the beginning of the universe, medicine that can (kind of) reverse death, and other leaps of human ingenuity.” The Atlantic: Breakthroughs of the Year. (I’m just bummed I didn’t come up with that Saudi With a Chance of Meet Schmalz headline in time to qualify.)
+ Unlucky Stiff: Céline Dion says she’s dealing with neurological condition known as stiff-person syndrome. And sadly, it has a negative impact on her vocal chords.
+ Why Luck Ran Out: “At first, Luck wasn’t in the mood to hear it. He couldn’t hear it. He wasn’t sleeping well, he was in pain, he was fighting with Nicole, the team was halfway across the globe without him, and if he stopped to examine his life, the entire world he had constructed might start to unravel, perhaps revealing it to be fatally flawed all along. ‘I understood myself best as a quarterback,’ Luck says. ‘I felt no understanding of other parts of myself at all.'” Andrew Luck finally reveals why he walked away from the NFL.