(Would you like to receive this newsletter in your inbox? Here is the registration.)
Good night. Here’s the latest from the end of Monday.
1. Partisan resistance is growing in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine.
Recent attacks on Russian city officials and trains may suggest a more intense response to Russian repression. One expert said that while special forces may have carried out some of the actions, the overall figure “is impressive and indicates a trend”.
Britain joined the United States to provide Ukraine with advanced long-range artillery to fight Russia in the east, although training Ukrainian soldiers how to use complex and unknown weapons has been a challenge.
Also in eastern Ukraine, monks and nuns taking refuge in a Russian Orthodox monastery are on the line of fire. Some have been injured or killed, but the group remains loyal to the church and its pro-Putin leader.
In other news of the war, the US warned that Russia could try to sell stolen grain from Ukraine to nations, especially in Africa, which are facing food shortages, which is a dilemma for leaders. people who are starving.
2. Boris Johnson survived a vote of censure by his fellow Conservatives.
The number ranged from 211 to 148, leaving Johnson politically wounded and possibly a pastor in a volatile period of British politics. The vote came in the wake of revelations that Johnson and his aides held parties at 10 Downing Street during the Covid-19 blockade, in violation of the rules.
Before the vote, Johnson told Conservatives he would cut taxes, focus on UK issues and “lead you back to victory”. But in the recent past, Conservative prime ministers under censorship have resigned or lost a lot at the polls.
3. Mayors of major U.S. cities fear new arms regulations will be impossible.
Outrage over the recent mass shootings was ubiquitous at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors over the weekend. There was a sense of resignation that lawmakers could do little in response to the violence, given the almost universal Republican opposition to the new restrictions.
“There are actions that could be taken at the federal or state level in many of our cases,” said Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat from Louisville, Kentucky. “But for those of us in the red states, we have almost given up on the state. Action.”
Over the weekend, there were mass shootings in Philadelphia; Phoenix; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Chester, Va .; and Summerton, SC
4. Elon Musk threatened to withdraw from his Twitter deal, citing a lack of information about fake accounts.
Musk’s lawyers wrote in a letter on Twitter and to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the social media company had not provided him with information on how to measure spam and fake accounts.
Musk’s dissatisfaction with Twitter’s method of tracking his fake accounts coincides with a market crash that has pushed down the company’s stock price. The letter included the most direct words to date on Musk’s possible scrapping of the $ 44 billion deal.
In other tech news, Apple unveiled its updates for iOS 16 and OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT market, faces concerns about theft and fraud.
6. A drug trial unexpectedly eliminated rectal cancer in each patient.
A small study of rectal cancer patients gave a surprising result: all participants completed the trial with their cancer undetectable by any type of examination or scan. None of them had significant side effects. “I think this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” said one of the study’s authors.
The patients in the study took a drug called dostarlimab, which unmasked the cancer cells and allowed the immune system to identify and destroy them. The investigation will have to be repeated and it is not clear how long the referral will last.
In other health news, the latest wave of coronavirus appears to be slowing in the northeast.
8. The new baby Gerber is friendly and controversial.
The results of the annual Gerber Photo Search contest were announced last month. The 8-month-old winner, Isa Slish, chosen from more than 225,000 entries, was born without a femur or fibula in one leg. Her mother plans to use the $ 25,000 prize for corrective surgery.
After Gerber announced Isa as the winner, the complaints began. Some parents found it suspicious that the selection would take only a month, instead of the normal two to five. Others complained that young children, even though they were eligible, never seemed to win. (Perhaps the hardships of being a father during the pandemic, including the scarcity of formulas, pushed everyone to the limit.) Gerber tried to calm the commotion: “Calm down, we didn’t miss a smile.”
Ann Turner Cook, Gerber’s original baby whose charcoal portrait is still in the logo, died last Friday at the age of 95.
And if you’re wondering if you have a parental exhaustion, take our quiz.
9. Arriving late in fashion is out of fashion.
Apparently, the pandemic years have made speed a trend. More people arrive on time, whether for business meetings, cocktails or restaurant reservations, in a way that many weren’t before everything closed.
“Punctuality is paramount, as we are going through a reassessment of our relationship over time,” said Linda Ong, executive director of Cultique, a consulting firm that advises companies on changing cultural norms. “There has been less tolerance for delays because you are expected to have more control over your time and therefore you should arrive on time.”
10. And finally, do you see the darkness grow?
It could be your brain, just trying to help you. Psychologists tested the static image above in participants with normal vision and found that the perception that the oval in the center darkened was enough to cause the pupils of most subjects to dilate to capture more light.
Researchers hypothesize that illusion works because the gradient of the oval makes it feel as if the viewer is entering a dark hole or tunnel. The brain waits for things to get darker and adjusts its eyes in advance. Images like the expanding hole fuel the debate over whether any perception is fundamentally an illusion.
Have a spooky afternoon.
Eve Edelheit and Anna Ruch collected photos for this briefing.