Front and Center: Long Stories Short

Too Important To Miss

• Monday, 4 Jul 2022
  An avalanche caused by the collapse of the glacier at Marmolada, the tallest peak in the eastern Dolomites of northern Italy, has left 7 hikers dead, 8 injured, and 15 still missing. The intense heat in the region since late June is thought to have contributed to the glacier melting. Given the effects of global heating, the Marmolada glacier is expected to be gone completely in 25-30 years.
• Tuesday, 28 Jun 2022
  On Tuesday, the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capital scheduled a last minute hearing for the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Donald Trump's chief-of-staff Mark Meadows. The explosive testimony sent shudders through Washington and the nation. Hutchinson testified that Trump asked that metal detectors at his rally be removed so that his supporters could proceed armed; that he physically attacked a Secret Service agent; and that he expressed approval for rioters' calls for VP Mike Pence to be hanged.
• Friday, 24 Jun 2022
  After weeks of heavy fighting, Ukrainian forces have been ordered to pull out of Severodonetsk, a key city in the east of the country. A retreat would leave nearly the entire region of Luhansk in the hands of Russian troops. Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians are still thought to be in the city, though the city's infrastructure has been completely destroyed.
• Tuesday, 21 Jun 2022
  Lithuania has drawn the ire of Russia after announcing last Friday that they are enforcing EU sanctions on goods into Russia's Kaliningrad enclave. Coal, metals and construction materials will no longer be allowed to transit through Lithuania. Situated on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland, Kaliningrad is detached from the rest of Russia and strategically important. It is home to Russia's Baltic Sea Fleet, and nuclear weapons have been positioned there.
• Saturday, 18 Jun 2022
  The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced on Friday that at the end of 2021, more than 36 million children around the world had been displaced due to conflict, violence and other crises. That is the highest number on record. Those figures do not include those displaced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
• Thursday, 16 Jun 2022
  In an extremely encouraging development, EU leaders today have backed Ukraine's accession to the European Union. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi traveled to Kyiv last night by train to meet today with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine's bid to join the bloc will be on the agenda for the EU summit next week.
• Wednesday, 15 Jun 2022
  In the 2nd of several hearings on the January 6th insurrection, House Committee investigators announced that Donald Trump had raised $250 million from his supporters for what he said was to be "election fraud defense," but then funneled some of that money to himself and to others close to him. Among the beneficiaries was Donald Trump, Jr's fiance, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who received $60,000 for a two-minute introduction.
• Monday, 13 Jun 2022
  A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine announced the astounding results of a drug trial by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. All 14 patients in the trial with early stage rectal cancer were given nine intravenous doses of the drug dostarlimab. After the 6 month trial, no traces of cancer were detectable in any of the patients. The results are widely considered to be groundbreaking and could well lead to successful cancer treatment more generally.
• Monday, 13 Jun 2022
  Following several recent mass shootings, the loss of dozens of lives, and widespread protests across the country demanding reform, the US Congress is poised to pass the most significant gun reform legislation in more than 30 years. While the legislation falls well short of what had been passed last week in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, gun reform advocates praise it as a good start.
• Saturday, 11 Jun 2022
  On Saturday, following the 2 recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York, tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets in America demanding gun reform. In cities across the country, 450 rallies were organized by the gun safety group, March for Our Lives, which was founded by survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Among other reforms, they're calling for an assault weapons ban, registration of gun owners, and universal background checks.
• Saturday, 11 Jun 2022
  Thursday evening was the first of several hearings of the US House of Representatives Select Committee on the January 6 insurrection. The committee presented new information, witnesses, and jaw-dropping video footage that made a cogent case that former president Donald Trump was at the heart of the planning and organization to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney from Wyoming, one of only 2 Republicans on the committee, made this stunning statement: "Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."
• Wednesday, 8 Jun 2022
  For the first time ever, microplastics have been found in fresh snow in the Antarctic. Researchers from New Zealand's University of Canterbury found the plastics in every one of the 19 sites they sampled.
• Wednesday, 8 Jun 2022
  A Russian-language TV channel based in Kyiv aims to topple Vladimir Putin. The channel "February Morning" was found by a former member of the Russian parliament, the only deputy to vote against the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
• Tuesday, 7 Jun 2022
  The World Bank today offered a grim outlook on global growth. The report said that due to runaway inflation and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "recession will be hard to avoid.”
• Friday, 3 Jun 2022
  Musk's bid to buy Twitter is raising US national security concerns, given Tesla's enormous dependence on China. Tesla's factory in Shanghai represented nearly half of Tesla production in 2021; Tesla is almost completely dependent on China for critical components in their cars (especially electric battery supplies); and Musk has stated that China was about to become its biggest market. That's a lot of control.