A Dangerous Continent

This is our second Daily Pnut Week in Review. The highest scoring winner will be congratulated in Monday’s Daily Pnut (unless they prefer anonymity) and mailed a book of their choosing from our book list. If there are multiple people who have perfect scores, then we’ll use a random generator to pick the winner.

This online quiz is 10 short questions, and submissions must be made by 12pm EST Sunday, 4/29. Everything in the quiz has been covered in this week’s Daily Pnut.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are having a friendly  informal summit in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, just a nice little get-away among the parks, close to the picturesque East Lake, no aides or agendas. It seems like a good time and place to meet up and discuss their mounting differences. It also seems Modi may be more anxious than Xi to cool the jets. There was thatscary border crisis in 2017, the worst China/India confrontation in 30 years. Not to mention China’s economy is five times larger than India’s, and China’s defense spending is three times greater than India’s. Not exactly Goliath vs. David, but Hey, why test it? Better to stay friends with China than wonder what the heck America’s doing, right? Besides, India has national elections next year. (BBC)

The Igarape Institute, a think tank focused on security and development issues that is based in Brazil, released a publication Thursday that says Latin America is the world’s most homicidal continent. 33% of the world’s homicides occur in Latin America despite having only 8% of its population. And 25% of all the planet’s homicides occur in just four countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. According to the report: “The sheer dimensions of homicidal violence are breathtaking. The overall trend right now in Latin America is one of increasing homicides and deteriorating security.” (The Guardian)

17 Syrian witnesses were taken to The Hague by Russia so they could appear at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to voluntarily testify that Bashar al-Assad definitely did not mount a chemical attack on Douma on April 7, that in fact no attack took place, that supposed videos of the non-attack were actually sloppily-staged pretenses from hysterical people who inhaled some smoke and couldn’t catch their breath, and that of course Russia had absolutely nothing to do with anything and they are perfectly free to speak the truth. (The Guardian)

Germany’s capital has seen a revitalization of the Jewish population since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. More than 100,000 Jews call Berlin home; however, many say discrimination, both subtle and violent, is still part of daily life. Last week a young man wearing a kipa (skullcap) was attacked, prompting the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, the largest umbrella Jewish organization in the country, to warn Jews against openly wearing skullcaps. On Wednesday, Berlin’s mayor and other Jewish groups participated in demonstrations in which people of all faiths donned skullcaps in solidarity. (NYT)

• ‘Gene map for depression’ sparks hopes of new generation of treatments (The Guardian)
• Spain ‘wolf pack’ gang jailed for San Fermin sex attack (BBC)
• ‘The Peace House’ Is All Set For Kim Jong Un’s First Summit In South Korea(NPR)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions struck a fiscally responsible chord Thursdaywhen he was testifying to a congressional appropriations panel during a routine budget hearing. Asked why he decided not to appoint a second special counsel to investigate some Republicans’ concerns about the FBI, Sessions said the department needed to “be disciplined and stay within our classical procedure and rules” before rushing to hire more special counsels. “I do not think we need to willy-nilly appoint special counsels,” he said, adding a reference to Robert Mueller’s probe, “As we can see, it can really take on a life of its own.” (Reuters)

In a rare bipartisan move, four Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee joined the Democrats Thursday in approving legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired. Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) co-sponsored the bill with ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said he would not allow such a bill to come to the floor for a vote, but now that a number of Republicans are onboard, the pressure to change his mind may take on a life of its own. (NPR)

Seems like Bill Cosby was MUCH younger when all the sexual molestation accusations and eventual court stuff started. Victims were devastated when his first trial ended in a hung jury in 2017. But the #MeToo movement, and five new accusers, upped the ante, and Thursday the 80-year-old comic legend was finally convicted by a Pennsylvania jury of three counts of felony sexual assault. Cosby faces a statutory maximum of 30 years in prison. (NPR)

People keep telling President Trump not to talk about certain things, and that’s about the worst advice anyone can give, because the president doesn’t like to be told what he can or cannot do. He made that clear Thursday when he told Fox & Friends stuff that will most definitely come back to bite him Big Time. For example, after denying that he had anything to do with the porn star known as Stormy Daniels, and after having told reporters he knew nothing of any payment made to her, Trump said on Fox that indeed his long-time private attorney and fixer Michael Cohen “represented” him in the “crazy” deal in which Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to buy her silence just before the 2016 election. (NPR)

More American Nuts:

• ‘We Simply Can’t Take It Any Longer’: Teacher Protests Sweep Arizona, Colorado (NPR)
• Ronny Jackson Withdraws As VA Nominee (NPR)
• EX-CIA chief Mike Pompeo confirmed as secretary of state (BBC)

We bet Bill Cosby’s glad he doesn’t live in Saudi Arabia. It has one of the world’s highest execution rates, for all kinds of crimes, including rape. Forty-eight people have been beheaded already this year and it’s just spring. Half of those loppings were for drug charges. Another reason Bill’s glad he wasn’t tried in Riyadh. (The Guardian)

Last Saturday a well-liked electrical engineering lecturer, Fadi al-Batsh, was gunned down by two men on motorcycles as he walked outside his apartment building in suburban Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Palestinian man was allegedly working undercover as a technology expert for the military wing of the Gaza-based Hamas movement. Malaysian officials said the attackers were “most likely born in the Middle East or in the West.” But Batsh’s family said he’d been targeted by Mossad, the Israeli spy agency. It’s the second high-profile assassination in Malaysia in 14 months. Kim Jong-un’s half brother was killed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport by two women prosecutors say rubbed a deadly nerve agent on his face. (NYT)

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–Comedian Patton Oswalt’s late wife, Michelle McNamara, spent the last few years of her life writing a book about the Golden State Killer, who committed a string of unsolved rapes and murders in California in the 1970s and ’80s. On Tuesday, Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested. He was identified as the notorious serial killer on Wednesday. (NYT)

–An annual report on the world’s most powerful nationalities and passports ranked France as the country with the most powerful nationality, and Somalia as the weakest. (Quartz)

–Google is launching the biggest redo of Gmail in years. (Tech Crunch)

–“Urbanization might be the most profound change to human society in a century, more telling than color, class, or continent.” (Aeon)

–“Water can appear to be ‘fine-tuned’ for life.” Water becomes less viscous compared to other liquids when compressed and has an “uncanny” level of surface tension, allowing beings light enough, like insects, to walk or stand on it. (Nautilus)

–Signs you may not be drinking enough water, even if you think you are. (Business Insider)

Weekend Reads:

• How the Trump Show Gets Old. A big slump in season two is a hallmark of the president’s entire career. This time the “show” is the White House, and his response will affect the world. So what are we in for? (Politico Magazine)
• Why Cars Intentionally Ramming Into Crowds Is A Relatively New Problem(Jalopnik)
• Tabasco Sauce Is in a Battle For Its Very Survival (Earther)
• Madonna Loses Legal Battle Over Tupac Shakur Breakup Letter (NYT)
• There’s No Smoking in Disney Films. What About When It Owns Fox? (NYT)
• Drew Cloud Is a Well-Known Expert on Student Loans. One Problem: He’s Not Real. (Chronicle of Higher Education)
• This Airline Will Pay You $4,500/Month to Move to Iceland and Travel the World All Summer (Thrillist)
• Music festivals are the corporate dystopia we deserve. Coachella allows us to purchase tickets to our own subjugation (The Outline)
• China’s children are its secret weapon in the global AI arms race. China wants to be the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030. To get there, it’s reinventing the way children are taught (Wired)

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