WHAT’S THIS? The Stringer publishes a news roundup—with a global bent.
Loose Lips and Sunk Ships
Before the U.S. Supreme Court got rid of federal abortion protections, in Dobbs v. Jackson, a draft of its impending opinion was leaked to Politico. The leak was widely described as an “unprecedented” degradation of the American judicial system and caused concern.
Justice Samuel Alito fretted that the Dobbs leak would turn conservative justices into “targets for assassination.” When the rat was found, it became clear, they’d feel the full power of the court, which has never met a conflict of interest it couldn’t ignore.
But the lure of retribution didn’t sit well with everyone: anti-abortion activist Rev. Rob Schenck felt that it was all a little hypocritical. Why? Because conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had himself previously leaked the court’s 2014 Hobby Lobby decision to him at a private dinner. Schenck wrote a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts suggesting that the court temper its wrath when the time comes.
Alito, for his part, has denied the allegation—and the court’s counsel said that Alito didn’t breach ethics. But in the court of public opinion, Alito may find himself in the minority.
POLITICS and WORLD
SEDITION: Two far-right militia Oath Keepers members, including its founder Stewart Rhodes, were found guilty of “seditious conspiracy” for planning an armed rebellion related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
LOCKED AND LOADED: Nato promised to ship more weapons to Ukraine and renewed its promise to give the besieged country membership, as the war continues.
ZERO-COVID: The newly reelected Xi Jinping is now facing protests over his “zero-Covid” policy, which involves strictly surveilling and quarantining people who contract coronavirus. It’s a significant challenge to the Chinese Communist Party, as protests have spread to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Wuhan.
GOOD NOT GREAT: Kazakstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was reelected. Though more procedurally fair than previous elections, preliminary reviews from western observers argue that this latest election wasn’t pluralistic since Tokayev lacked any real competition.
‘TIL DEATH DO THEY PART: The U.K. Supreme Court unanimously decided not to let stand a Scottish Parliament vote for independence. The vote lacked backing from the British Parliament, which has refused to let the Scottish National Party call another vote since the failed 2014 attempt to break up.
BUSINESS
PAY UP: The E.U. busted Meta for violating its data privacy laws, fining the troubled tech company $276 million.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: The much-anticipated World Cup, one of the biggest sporting events in the world, kicked off in Qatar. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, and although FIFA describes itself as “inclusive” the organization went along, threatening to sanction players who protested LGTBTQ+ treatment in the host country. Wait ‘til someone says something about them using migrants as near-slave labor.
DRY RUN: After indicating they’d allow it, Qatar changed its mind last-minute and banned alcohol sales during the World Cup. Fifa may find itself on the hook for the alcohol that’s been shipped by long-time sponsor Budweiser.
TOKE UP, CASH IN: New York granted the first 36 cannabis licenses in the state’s history. It’s a milestone in cannabis’ slow crawl to legal status in the U.S.
FASHIONABLY LUCRATIVE: Relatedly, a private fashion university in Manhattan, LIM, recently started offering degrees—a BA and an MA—in the business of cannabis. Now, they’re trying to bring diverse students to the programs, pointing to the expected growth of the cannabis industry as a sign of job security. One thing that’s never out of fashion: money.
EDUCATION
YOU CAN’T WIN IF YOU DON’T PLAY: At least eight American universities have made deals with sportsbooks—and a dozen athletic departments and booster clubs cut arrangements with casinos—to profit while inducing their students to gamble. They seem to think about their students, not as piggybanks, but as slot machine operators.
BETTER THAN YOU: Students around the world lost out on learning during the pandemic’s closures. The NAEP scores—an assessment of student learning in the U.S.—put numbers to how historically bad that lost learning was. But, for states, it also gave them a way to vie for status—over who lost the least learning.
SCIENCE and HEALTH
BY ANY OTHER NAME: Monkeypox—the human-to-animal virus that has, as of writing, more than 80,000 cases—got rebranded by the World Health Organization. The WHO is “phasing out” the term monkeypox over the next year because of its uncomfortably “racist and stigmatizing” connotations. Now, it’s “mpox.” It’s more punk rock, anyway.
‘HIPSTER EUGENICISTS’: Wealthy tech and venture capitalists are embracing “pronatalism” to populate the earth with little versions of themselves. They believe that having a lot of babies will allow them to control the direction of human evolution, reports Insider (original article paywalled). In Elon Musk’s case, that means having his employees bear some of his 10 children. I’m just glad Musk made the news for something other than his Twitter takeover. It’s refreshing.
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