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IMPORTANT
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And now?
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Russia steps up rhetoric after Finland says it will join NATO
Moscow promised “retaliatory measures” to “balance the situation” after Finland announced it would apply for NATO membership. One of President Vladimir Putin’s reasons for invading Ukraine was to stem NATO’s eastward expansion – but he banked on a fractured Western response. Finland’s move, and the likelihood of Sweden also joining NATO, threatens to reshape a decades-old strategic balance. The Kremlin knows only one answer. Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, warned that Sweden and Finland “will be part of the enemy and they will bear all the risks”. Meanwhile, $40 billion in US aid to Ukraine has been blocked by Libertarian Senator Rand Paul alone. (Source: NYT, WaPo)
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“Dies at 51”
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Who killed Shireen Abu Akleh? Ball at center of controversy
Eyewitnesses say the Al Jazeera journalist was shot in the head by Israeli snipers. Israeli officials first released a video suggesting she was killed by a Palestinian gunman. But now that the independent analysis shows the images”Could notportray her killer, Israel demands access to the bullet that killed her. “We reject a joint investigation with the Israeli state, because it is he who committed this crime,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said. Western media have been criticized for whitewashing Israel’s role in his death – for example, a New York Times headline saying Abu Akleh “dies at 51”. (Source: AlJazeera, Sky News, NYT)
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Super massive!
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Scientists release the first image of a black hole at the heart of our galaxy
Over five nights in 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, a global network of eight radio telescopes, collected data from Sagittarius A, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Now they have a picture of it – and it looks exactly as Albert Einstein predicted. This is the second time a black hole has been photographed, as EHT observations in 2017 also provided an image of the larger, more distant black hole at the center of nearby galaxy M87. “But this new image is special because it’s our supermassive black hole,” said Heino Falcke of Radboud University in the Netherlands. (Source: Nature, BBC)
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Served
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January 6 committee subpoenas five Republican lawmakers
In a marked escalation, the Capitol Riot Investigation Committee has subpoenas forcing five GOP representatives, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, to testify before the panel. Representatives Scott Perry, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs and Mo Brooks also received subpoenas. Representative Bennie Thompson, Democratic chair of the bipartisan panel, said the five declined to appear voluntarily. The subpoenas leave the men in a tough spot because complying with them would add legitimacy to the panel’s investigation, but ignoring them could result in criminal charges. “This is all a charade,” Perry said. Long court battles seem likely. (Source: The hill)
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Briefly
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Right here are some things you should know today:
Tweet that. Elon Musk says his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter is “temporarily on hold” pending details about spam and fake accounts on the platform. (Source: PA) It was quick. A day after confirming its first case of COVID-19, North Korea announced that six people have died from the virus and 187,800 are “isolated and treated”. (Source: The Guardian) ‘Perfect storm.’ The price of Bitcoin plunged to its lowest level since 2020 and $300 billion has been wiped from the cryptocurrency market since Monday. (Source: NYT)
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INTRIGUING
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“River of Heroes”
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Opening a Soviet-era dam saved kyiv and restored a wetland
By opening a dam on the Irpin River and re-flooding 32,000 acres of wetlands that had been drained by the Soviets in the 1960s, Ukraine was able to repel Russian forces from kyiv in March. Before the war, there were plans to build a massive housing estate on the floodplain – but now some conservationists are hoping it can once again become a biodiversity hotspot teeming with wildlife. Whatever happens, the way forward will not be easy. “War does not make rewilding,” said Bohdan Prots of the National Museum of Natural History of Ukraine. “There was no research, there was no planning or mitigation.” (Source: The Guardian)
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What are the chances?
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Polish-born state trooper changes tires for… Poland’s first president
Connecticut State Trooper Lukasz Lipert got more than he bargained for when he responded to an SUV with a flat tire on Wednesday. It turned out that President Lech Walesa, the anti-Communist who was Poland’s first popularly elected leader, was a passenger in the vehicle. Lipert, who immigrated to the United States when he was 18, struck up a conversation in their native language. “It was definitely a great opportunity to meet the man who had a voice at that time,” Lipert said. “It was really a great experience.” Walesa is in the United States campaigning for help for Ukrainian refugees. (Source: PA)
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‘Great’
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InSight Lander detects the largest Mars quake yet
NASA’s InSight lander has detected a magnitude 5 earthquake on the Red Planet – by far the largest of the 1,313 it has detected so far. Unlike earthquakes, which are usually caused by shifting tectonic plates, Marsquakes are thought to result from gradual cooling that causes the Earth’s crust to crack. “Since we landed our seismometer in December 2018, we’ve been waiting for ‘the big one,'” said InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt. “This quake is sure to provide a view of the planet like no other.” The buildup of dust on InSight’s solar panels means it will soon be out of service. (Source: The edge)
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karma font
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Man dies of heart attack while burying woman he murdered
After receiving a report of an unconscious man lying in his yard on Saturday, sheriff’s deputies in Trenton, South Carolina, located 60-year-old Joseph McKinnon, apparently dead of natural causes. “While investigating the death,” an Edgefield County statement explained, “and making notifications to next of kin, a second body was found in a freshly dug grave.” The body of Patricia Ruth Dent, 65, was wrapped in trash bags and partly covered in dirt. Autopsies confirmed that McKinnon had died of cardiac arrest and that Dent had been strangled. Investigators believe McKinnon killed his girlfriend and died trying to hide her body. (Source: WJBF, NPR)
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Full of hot air
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Football player dumped for ‘continuously farting and laughing’
last august, It has been reported that Brazilian central defender Marcelo Antônio Guedes Filho, alias Marcelo, was let go by French club Olympique Lyonnais for laughing during a captain’s speech following a heavy defeat. It has now emerged that the defender – who left the club in January – was also punished for repeatedly farting in the dressing room and laughing in the presence of manager Peter Bosz and sporting director Juninho. Marcelo took to Twitter on Tuesday to defend himself: “Thanks to @lequipe, after a long time I have to come back to @Twitter to deny all the allegations. Journalism these days is a joke! (Source: Business Intern, ESPN)
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