Working Gas Hero
May 25, 2022
Want answers? We’ve got you covered: DP 5/16 Quiz Answers. Hats off to Lillian, who scored a perfect 10 on last week’s quiz. Check back next week for another chance to test your current affairs acumen!
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela
Thoughts And Prayers Aren’t Enough
Five weeks after Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) was elected on November 6, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Murphy took office January 3, 2013, vowing to work on reducing gun violence in this country.
On June 12, 2016, a 29-year-old man killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, FL. Four days later, Murphy led a 15-hour filibuster in an unsuccessful effort to force then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to allow votes on Democrats’ amendments to an annual appropriations bill that sought to tighten gun laws. A CNN poll released on June 20, 2016, showed that 92% of the American public wanted expanded background checks, 87% supported a ban for people with mental health problems, and 54% would ban assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips. That evening, Senate Republicans voted down four popular gun control measures.
On Valentine’s Day, 2018, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz used a semi-automatic rifle to shoot and kill 17 people and wound 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Republicans chalked the crime up to a shooter with a mental disturbance, begging the question of why he had access to a semi-automatic rifle in the first place? Four months later, a self-described white supremacist opened fire in a historic Black church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine people. There were more mass murders in the U.S. in 2019 than in any other year on record. The carnage continued through 2021, with a 50% increase in active-shooter incidents. Regardless, every popular common sense piece of gun control legislation Democrats have introduced since 2013 has failed to pass.
Yesterday, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Texas’ Uvalde High School, shot and killed two adults and 19 children at Robb Elementary School before police officers killed him. Chris Murphy made an emotionally riveting speech on the Senate floor, repeatedly asking his colleagues, “What are we doing?” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved to force votes on legislation strengthening background checks for gun purchasers, and to revive other popular measures Republicans have blocked. That evening, a shaken President Biden exclaimed “I am sick and tired of it. We have to act.” (NYT ($), CNN, NBC, BBC, ABC, Stacker)
Philippine The Script
- Outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte openly calls his ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, an idol and a friend. So it was a rare rebuke – and a curious example of self-interested hair-splitting – when Duterte slammed his friend for killing innocent civilians in Ukraine.
- Both men have been dubbed killers. After six years in office, Duterte is called the “Punisher” for his brutal anti-drugs crackdown that left over 6,000 mostly petty suspects dead. But he distinguished himself in a televised meeting with cabinet officials that aired Tuesday, saying, “I kill criminals, I don’t kill children and the elderly.”
- Duterte blames Putin’s three-month-old war for the spike in global oil prices battering many countries, including his own. He worries about the stability of Philippine oil supply as the war in Ukraine continues. Addressing Putin directly, Duterte said, “I’m on the way out and I don’t know how to solve the problem. You have to solve the war … before we can talk of even returning to normalcy.” (Al Jazeera)
Working Gas Hero
- Caroline Dennett, a long-time operational safety consultant who worked with oil giant Shell, severed her relationship with the company Monday over what she called its hypocrisy on climate change. In her resignation letter to the executive committee, she accused Shell of “failing on a massive planetary scale,” noting that the company was “not winding down oil and gas but planning to explore and extract much more.”
- Shell has promised to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and touts its support for climate action in press releases and advertising. But the company continues to expand new drilling that all but ensures the world will rush past 2 degrees Celsius of warming.
- Dennett’s letter stated that “Shell is not implementing steps to mitigate the known risks. Shell is not putting environmental safety before production.” She posted an accompanying video online. Asked what prompted her decision to resign so publicly, Dennett said, “I can’t go on working for, or with, or supporting a company that just is blindly ignoring all the alarm bells.” (Vox, Shell)
Additional World News
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says Iranian authorities forced her to sign false confession as condition of release (CNN)
- At least five killed after a building collapses in Iran, leaving 80 people trapped (CNN)
- Spanish govt chides ex-king for failure to explain conduct (AP)
- Denmark offers Ukraine Harpoon missiles to fight Russia’s Black Sea blockade (WaPo, $)
- Airbnb shuts down its local business in China. (NYT, $)
- Starbucks is leaving Russia for good (CNN)
- Summer is here and it’s time for lightweight, glowy makeup with SPF.
- Kosas Revealer Skin-improving Foundation gives medium coverage with a natural dreamy finish that doesn’t look or feel makeup-y.
- It doubles as clinically proven skincare by brightening with niacinamide, soothing with squalane, plumping with peptides + hyaluronic acid, and protecting with mineral reef-safe SPF.
- It’s dermatologist-tested and safe for sensitive skin, with only the cleanest, healthiest ingredients.
- Super comfy, super breathable – never thick or cakey. Take the quiz to find your shade in seconds and get 10% off with code PNUT10.
Make Them See Censor
- Zander Moricz, a curly-haired, openly gay senior and president of his graduating class at Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, was preparing his upcoming commencement speech when the principal censored him, saying that if the speech referenced his “activism or role as a plaintiff in the lawsuit,” school administration would cut off the microphone and “halt the ceremony.” The 18-year-old activist is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state over its “Parental Rights in Education” law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.” So, Moricz had to get clever to save his speech.
- At Sunday’s commencement, he said: “I must discuss a very public part of my identity. This characteristic has probably become the first thing you think of when you think of me as a human being … I have curly hair.” Removing his cap and tousling his curls, Moricz continued sharing how the law could impact kids like him with “curly hair.” “There are going to be so many kids with curly hair who need a community like Pine View and they won’t have one. Instead, they’ll try to fix themselves so that they can exist in Florida’s humid climate.” (ABC News)
A Jailed System
- On Monday, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that state prisoners may not present new evidence in federal court in support of a claim that their post-conviction counsel in state court was ineffective in violation of the Constitution. The ruling is a major defeat for two inmates on death row who said they had compelling claims that their state lawyers failed to pursue.
- Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the 6-3 opinion, suggesting that allowing such claims to go forward would cause unnecessary delays and undermine “the finality that is essential” for criminal trials in state courts. In a stinging dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the decision “perverse” and said the court had gutted precedent.
- The majority opinion, she wrote, “reduces to rubble” many inmates’ constitutional rights. “The Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right to the effective assistance of counsel at trial,” Sotomayor wrote. “Today, however, the court hamstrings the federal courts’ authority to safeguard that right.” (CNN)
Additional USA News
- New York Will Allow Adult Victims to Revive Decades-Old Sex Abuse Claims (NYT, $)
- Atlanta officers won’t face charges from 2020 arrest of 2 college students (NPR)
- Trevor Reed vows to campaign against any lawmakers who slow legislation to help detained Americans (CNN)
- Appeals court: Florida law on social media unconstitutional (AP)
- 5 GOP candidates in Michigan ineligible after fraud, election office says (WaPo, $)
- Delaware governor vetoes marijuana legalization (The Hill)
- Mayor of Anaheim resigns amid probe involving Angels deal (NBC)
No Room At The Inn
- Here’s a unique vacation idea you may not have considered – but get a move on, because the waitlist is lengthening and the price is going up as we speak. You’ll want to call right away to reserve Room 150 at Motel 41 in Evansville, Indiana. That’s the very room former corrections officer Vicky White and her inmate boyfriend, Casey White, used as a hideout after fleeing together from the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Alabama, on April 29.
- The fugitive Whites (no relation) spent 11 days in Room 150. The mood-killing Alabama authorities confirmed the Whites had had a “special relationship” for about two years, and experts in criminal justice and law said they weren’t surprised. Apparently, the close proximity of staff members and inmates, the prisoners’ lack of privacy, and the dynamic between female staff members and male inmates in correctional facilities can create opportunities for “inappropriate bonds” to form. It’s “a very common story,” said American University law professor Brenda Smith, director of the Project on Addressing Prison Rape.
- Of course, this convoluted love story was bound to have an unhappy ending. Authorities tracked the fugitives down at Motel 41 on May 9. Vicky and Casey escaped in a stolen Cadillac sedan but their pursuers rammed it and tipped it over into a ditch. Vicky then shot herself and Casey was arrested. Shakespeare couldn’t have penned a sadder tragedy. On the bright side, happier times in Room 150 await, and there’s a motel receptionist standing by for your call. (NBC News)
Additional Reads
- Klarna used a prerecorded video message to lay off 10 percent of employees (The Verge)
- Here’s what happened during Boeing’s ‘nail-biting’ spacecraft docking (CNN)
- Watch these ‘skydiving’ salamanders that parachute out of California redwood trees (SF Chronicle, $)
- Not quite armageddon: A large asteroid is whizzing by Earth this week (Salon)
- Dusty NASA Mars Lander Snaps What Will Likely Be Its Final Selfie (CNET)
Humanity’s most distant spacecraft is sending back weird signals from beyond our solar system (Salon)