Extra, Extra
Global Crime Spree: “Over several decades, at least 10 priests and missionaries moved to Papua New Guinea after they had allegedly sexually abused children, or had been found to do so, in the West, according to court records, government inquiries, survivor testimonies, news media reports and comments by church officials. These men were part of a larger pattern: At least 24 other priests and missionaries left New Zealand, Australia, Britain and the United States for Pacific Island countries like Fiji, Kiribati and Samoa under similar circumstances.” NYT (Gift Article): In the Pacific, a ‘Dumping Ground’ for Priests Accused or Convicted of Abuse.
+ Tenet Dragnet: “The pair, who worked on digital projects for the outlet, used shell companies in the Middle East and Africa to secretly provide nearly $10 million to the company believed to be Tenet between October 2023 and August 2024, while directing it to spread anti-US and anti-Ukraine messaging. Per the indictment, the RT staffers ‘covertly fund[ed] and direct[ed]’ Tenet and its content, including personally editing and posting content themselves and directing what others posted.” How Russia secretly paid millions to a bunch of big right-wing podcasters. (We got all this money and all these wildly pro-Russian talking points, but we had no idea anything was up.)
+ West Bank Shooting: The complicated relationship between the US and Israel just got more complicated. “A 26-year-old American activist, Aysenur Eygi, has been shot and killed during an anti-settlement protest near Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.”
+ Hunter Confronter: “The last-minute change of plea headed off what would likely have been a painful legal and personal ordeal filled with sordid details of the younger Biden’s life when he was addicted to crack cocaine.” In surprise move, Hunter Biden pleads guilty to tax charges.
+ Benzoology: “It was like I was on speed. I couldn’t sleep. It felt like my brain was ricocheting around my skull, my body sucked into a black hole in the center of me. The fallout lasted a few weeks. I tried meditation, picked up yoga again, practiced breathing. But it was hard.” Quitting Xanax: One Writer’s Story. (Beware of Benzos.)
+ It Never Donned on Them: “It’s that merely covering each of Trump’s hallucinatory claims as news items, even if that includes aggressively fact-checking them, doesn’t do justice to the much bigger story that’s unfolding right at the end of all of our noses. Let’s try to state what should be obvious: Trump’s mental fitness for the presidency deserves sustained journalistic scrutiny as a stand-alone topic with its own intrinsic importance and newsworthiness.” Finally: Top Journo Erupts at Media for Ignoring Trump’s Mental State.
+ Greenwashing: The Packers and Eagles will play their opener in San Paolo. But neither team will be wearing green even though both teams are green. “It’s all done in an effort to steer Corinthians fans away from any reference to local rival Palmeiras, the team they have been feuding with for more than a century.”
