WHAT’S THIS? The Stringer publishes a roundup of news items that you may have missed—with a global bent.
From president to prisoner, and now back again.
The latest update in the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva saga has him taking Brazil’s reigns from Jair Bolsonaro.
Once a factory worker, da Silva made history as Brazil’s first working-class president. Still, da Silva’s latest win is an about-face. Not many years ago, da Silva was imprisoned for corruption charges connected to a bribe scheme. (The legal proceedings against Lula were denounced as an abuse of power by the UN Human Rights Committee, and all charges were later nullified.)
But da Silva’s election may have brought Brazil dangerously close to a major constitutional crisis. His opponent, Bolsonaro, tearing another page from former U.S. President Donald Trump’s playbook, initially dragged his feet in conceding the election. It caused claims of a stolen election and demonstrations, and the president’s 45-hour post-election refusal to concede inflamed matters. His brief and belated concession speech seems, as of now, to have kept the fire from getting out of control.
Other news you may have missed:
POLITICS and WORLD
FAR RIGHT: Israel’s election went to the far right. Benjamin Netanyahu won the election, and his coalition took a majority in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
RENDER UNTO CAESAR: American churches are still violating the Johnson Amendment, the rule that’s supposed to keep tax-exempt churches from getting into politics. So far, the IRS has covered its eyes.
SHADY LUCRE: Fortune 500 companies—despite many promises to stop such funding after Jan. 6th—are shoveling millions to election deniers in the U.S. Top of the list: Home Depot, which has shelled out $475,000 to 65 deniers, only a little more than a year after swearing it wouldn’t.
BUSINESS
NOPE: The $2.2 billion proposed merger between the “big five” publisher Penguin Random House and competitor Simon & Schuster was blocked. It’s important in keeping the industry from further consolidation (Penguin Random House was itself the result of a 2013 merger). What’s the legal term for cockblock?
COLLECT $4BN AS YOU PASS GO: A U.S. federal judge also temporarily blocked a $25 billion Kroger-Albertsons deal. The deal is viewed as a private equity “smash and grab” by antitrust experts, one that would make it hard for beleaguered unions to negotiate wages and would give the supermarkets more power over the supply chain. Seemingly wanting to confirm the worst suspicions, the parent company is looking to borrow $1.5 billion and drain the company’s cash reserves to give the shareholders in the private equity company that owns them a $4 billion “special dividend.” That’s financial lingo for fattening their wallets by pillaging the company.
CULTURE
ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA: Elon Musk snapped up Twitter and promptly began firing high-level employees. Twitter’s regime change has caused some discomfort. Apparently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration even considered quitting Twitter, citing an increase in “divisive and hateful language.”
BLOODLUST: An attack on Paul Pelosi—the husband of Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—spurred on a “misinformation loop,” according to the New York Times. That loop includes Elon Musk, who spread a claim that Pelosi had been attacked after arguing with a male prostitute. Isn’t it comforting that Musk is the one in charge of keeping the lid on misinformation?
SCIENCE
CLIMATE: The U.S. Department of the Interior is funding five indigenous groups in Alaska and Washington State to move away from rivers and coastlines. Impacted by issues like flooding, the groups are preparing for the worsening effects of climate change. Plot for a bad dystopia? Yes, but also just reality at the moment.
LAB LEAK: An ProPublica-Vanity Fair investigation claimed to give the “clearest view yet” in favor of the “lab leak theory.” Reminder: That’s the hypothesis that COVID-19—the 21st century’s answer to the Spanish Flu—escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China. The problem? Based on a Congressional investigation, the report is full of more holes than a sinking ship.
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