Extra, Extra
Rooting Out the Canal Problem: An attack on an Egyptian port near the Suez Canal threatens to expand the Iran war, while Saudi Arabia “joined with over a dozen other countries, including Egypt and Turkey, to form a new defense coalition to stop attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.” There’s a lot of work going into addressing problems in the region that didn’t exist before the war started. Here’s the latest.
+ Go FIFA Yourself: Are there still times when corruption goes too far? Maybe. European football’s 55 member associations have voted to boycott World Cups if Infantino goes through with plans to sell off part of the org to private investors. “It is one of football’s greatest sporting legacies. It has been built over generations by players, national teams and supporters across every continent. No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale.”
+ The Coast is Not Clear: “He was a big, gregarious man who seemed able to handle anything. But as Kayleigh grew up, she watched him slowly fall apart. First came headaches. Then sleeplessness. His memory frayed and his moods turned raw. When he retired from the Coast Guard at age 40 in 2022, things only grew worse. He would rant and scream. One afternoon he dropped her grandfather with one punch. In the months after, he started setting things on fire. On a winter evening in 2025, with a pile of Coast Guard files burning on the living room floor, he walked out the front door and shot himself dead.” His daughter wanted to find out if his years on the rough seas in a rescue boat could have played a role. She found out the Coast Guard didn’t know and hadn’t asked. So she asked other elite rescuers herself. “Their answers were so stunning that they changed her whole perspective on her father.” NYT (Gift Article): Rescue Boat Crews Show Signs of Brain Injuries, but Coast Guard Isn’t Looking.
+ Country Mile: “Only 4 percent of the country’s ob-gyns practice in rural areas, which is where 10 percent of women ages 15 to 49 live. And that proportion is likely to fall even more because many new entrants to the field are not willing to do a residency or start a practice in states that restrict abortion, many of which are more rural.” And that’s just one reason that “giving birth in a rural county is going to become an even more dangerous prospect. Care will be in shorter supply, travel distances will stretch further, and high-risk situations will more likely result in mortality.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Rural America’s Maternal-Health Crisis Is About to Get Much Worse.
+ The Musk-eteers: “With hundreds of millions of followers on a platform he personally controls, Musk stands as the most prominent purveyor of far-right and ultranationalistic rhetoric in the world.” Jamelle Bouie asks a pretty decent question. Why Do We Tolerate Elon Musk’s Racist Commentary? (I’m guessing the answer starts with $…) Meanwhile, Musk is ready to help Trump and the GOP bigly in the midterms. (Did I mention that SpaceX just scored a $1.6 billion deal with the federal government?)
