China Tries Ukraine Deescalation, Moderna's Omicron Booster, Spinning In Space
''Ecocides'' can be read on a large banner in front of the Repsol headquarters.
Carlos Garcia Granthon/ZUMA
In The NewsSourcesWORLDCRUNCH
Jane Herbelin and Anne-Sophie Goninet
👋 Dumela!*
Welcome to Thursday, where China calls for Ukraine de-escalation, Moderna is developing an Omicron-specific booster and Australian astronomers are puzzled by a spooky spinning space object. Meanwhile, we look at Russia's effort to redefine the legal notion of "torture� in a nation still plagued by the past and present abuses of the gulag.
[*Tswana - South Africa, Botswana]
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• U.S. rejects Moscow demand on Ukraine and NATO: The United States has formally rejected Moscow's demand to bar Ukraine from ever entering NATO, amid warnings that Russia might invade its neighbor. Meanwhile, in a phone call late Wednesday, China told the U.S. it wants to see all sides involved in Ukraine remain calm and avoid increasing tension.
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire, Biden set to choose Black woman: United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, will retire later this year after three decades on the job, providing President Joe Biden a chance to honor his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
• COVID update: Moderna has started a mid-stage study to test a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine specifically designed to target the Omicron coronavirus variant in adults aged 18 years and older. Meanwhile, the first "human challenging� medical trial authorized to deliberately expose participants to COVID-19 is seeking more volunteers, in an effort to develop better vaccines.
• Jordanian army says it killed 27 drug smugglers from Syria: Jordanian troops have killed 27 suspected smugglers attempting to enter the kingdom from Syria under the cover of heavy snow. A report on the Jordanian army's website on Thursday said the smugglers were backed by "armed groups", adding that some fled back to Syrian territory.
• Six sue Fukushima nuclear plant operator over thyroid cancer: Six young Japanese people who have developed thyroid cancer, blame the illness on their exposure to radiation from the 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and are suing its operators. The plaintiffs are seeking nearly $5.4 million from the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
• Yemeni civilians suffer at the hands of escalating conflict: The escalation of tensions between Yemen's Houthi rebels and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) pushed humanitarian organizations on the ground to sound the alarm on the risk to life. The United Nations says January will likely mark the highest number of civilian casualties in Yemen in one month since the war began in 2014.
• Astronomers detect "spooky" cosmic object in the Milky Way: Australian astronomers have discovered a mysterious spinning object in the Milky Way that releases a huge burst of radio energy every 18 minutes, and is unlike anything seen before. Researchers estimate that it is around 4,000 light years away and could be a new class of slowly rotating neutron star.
🗞� FRONT PAGE
The Washington Post devotes its front page to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who announced his planned retirement later this year, putting a renewed spotlight on several Black female jurists who are positioned to be chosen by U.S. President Joe Biden for the Supreme Court.
💬 LEXICON
According to local reports, Moroccan authorities have removed the word "frontera� (border) from buildings and signs next to the border with the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and replaced it with "puerta� (meaning door or gate in Spanish). A symbolic change that illustrates unsettled tensions between Spain and Morocco over the sovereignty of the two cities.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Putin must also face the gulag question
Even while embroiled in the biggest foreign policy standoff of his reign, the Russian leader has been forced to acknowledge accusations of torture after leaked videos of violent abuse in prisons. Yet proposed new legislation to stem torture risks challenging a regime built on corruption and state-sponsored repression.
⚖� Russian news outlet Kommersant reported that lawmakers in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's Federal Assembly, have introduced a new bill that seeks to define by law the very concept of "torture,� as well as increase the penalty accorded to abusive officials from four to 12 years. The presidential administration proposes that by the second reading, the law should provide punishment for torture both government officials as well as cellmates who torture victims at the behest of officials.
� Torture is, of course, not a new concept in Russia. Yet even though the episodes of the 20th century are public record, dating back to the famous denunciation of Stalin by his Soviet successor, Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, the Russian state has refused to fully acknowledge the past. Failing to condemn the sins of the past means they become unconsciously condoned in the present. In Russia, we are witnessing the long term consequences of an unconfronted past. Vladimir Putin has integrated his own oppressive tactics within the political system.
👉 Vladimir Putin acknowledged that torture was becoming more common in Russia, but that "as far as torture and cruel treatment of convicts in penitentiaries are concerned, they are not only Russia's problem, but also the world's.� Of course, such international finger-pointing and blame-shifting is part of Putin's leadership style. Where does this leave the new focus on confronting torture? Does it not place the blame on individual officials rather than grasping the heart of the issue: a corrupt state?
➡� Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
"Please leave the word 'Holocaust' for the Holocaust — and nothing but it."
— Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau said during a Reuters interview, criticizing certain protesters against coronavirus restrictions who'd compared themselves to Jews under Nazi persecution. The comment comes as a report was published today to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
💼♀� IN OTHER NEWS
Female CEOs v. Peter CEOs? Dutch women protest stunning gender disparity
Logging onto Dutch LinkedIn earlier this week, you may have blinked twice. "Why are there so many people named 'Peter' on my timeline?�And why are they all women?�
Hundreds of Dutch women have changed their LinkedIn name to Peter since Monday to denounce gender bias in business — especially in senior leadership roles.
The initiative was launched by Women Inc. and BrandedU, two organizations campaigning for more inclusion of women in the business world, — and zeroed in on the name Peter for good reason: with 93 listed companies in the Netherlands (and a total of 94 CEOs), five of those CEOs are named Peter, and four are women. Yes, more Peter CEOs than women CEOs …
On January 1, a Dutch law came into force with the goal of ensuring a better ratio of men to women in the top ranks of the business world. At least one-third of the supervisory boards of listed companies (with more than 250 employees) must consist of women. "But we must do more!� the organizations stated.
Yeliz Çiçek, editor-in-chief of the Dutch edition of Vogue, was one of the first women to join the campaign and changed her name. "I think it's brilliant. Everyone immediately understands what this is about!�, NOS reports.
Although they support the cause, others are less enthusiastic about this campaign and argue that changing one's name erases one's identity, according to RTL nieuws. "Once again, the burden of proof and effort for the campaign lies with women and not men,� one woman said.
At the same time, some men have changed their name to Petra in solidarity.
"We think this spontaneous action is really great,� another spokesperson of Women INC said according to Het Parool. "This shows that it's not just a women's problem, but that we have to do it together.�
The Peter (and Petra) campaign runs until January 28.
�� Newsletter by Jane Herbelin and Anne-Sophie Goninet
We're recalculating spinning objects in the Milky Way and CEO names in the Netherlands. Let us know what's happening in your corner of the world!
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When I was a child — I must have been around eight or so — whenever we headed with my mom and grandma to my aunt's country house in Don Torcuato, outside of Buenos Aires, there was the joy of summer plans. Spending the day outdoors, playing soccer in the field, being in the swimming pool and eating delicious food.
But when I focus on the moment, something like a painful thorn appears in the background: from the back window of the car I see my dad standing on the sidewalk waving us goodbye. Sometimes he would stay at home. "I have to work� was the line he used.
Maybe one of my older siblings would also stay behind with him, but I'm sure there were no children left around because we were all enthusiastic about going to my aunt's. For a long time in his life, for my old man, those summer days must have been the closest he came to being alone, in silence (which he liked so much) and in calm, considering that he was the father of seven. But I can only see this and say it out loud today.
Over the years, the scene repeated itself: the destination changed — it could be a birthday or a family reunion. The thorn was no longer invisible but began to be uncomfortable as, being older, my interpretation of the events changed. When words were absent, I started to guess what might be happening — and we know how random guessing can be.
If enthusiasm for the playful plan in the sun was the prevailing sentiment during my childhood, during my adolescence I began to interpret my dad's alternative plans as an absence that I have in mind even today. So much so that more than 25 years later I still remember, for example, that only once in my life did my dad go to see me play soccer, which for a long time was what I did and enjoyed the most.
In the second half, I joined the game and a few minutes later I got the chance I wanted: I went one-on-one with the goalkeeper. "I'm going to score a great goal and my old man is going to see me,� I thought, all in a microsecond, while I imagined the ball going in and celebrating proudly with my dad.
Now that I am a father, I imagine and project — according to what happens to me — what I think could have happened to my father in those years: not knowing what to do or finding it boring to play with children; wanting to be alone and in silence, needing his space? Being exhausted. All that together and more things I don't know, like being worried about the economy (hello, Argentina) with a large family.
I lost count of the times that, while my mom was having a hard time seeing the unpaid school fees piling up, my dad, who worked as an architect, said: "We are in a crisis. We have to get through these three months, then things will get better.�
The thing is that what at the time seemed to me a thorn, an absence or an injustice, at my 41 years of age is no longer like that. The fact that my dad stayed at home when we were leaving, seen with today's eyes — in the skin of a son who has been an orphan for a decade and who became a father four years ago — everything that I did not like, and that I did not know how to name, now seems to me an understandable choice and not at all reprehensible. Quite the contrary.
It's quite rare that someone doesn't think it's right or logical for me to be absent because of work (whatever activity I may be missing). On the other hand, if I go out to a bar or on a trip just for fun, the response changes. There are jokes (cliché) that make me uncomfortable: "what a good life you have�, "you really know how to have a good time� — you get the idea.
Although perhaps I think I don't give it importance at the time, the joke — in its own way, a way to discipline socially — touches a delicate spot: the difficulty of enjoying and thinking I deserve leisure time, in constant friction with the sense of duty, that tyrannical and heavy baggage that holds a supreme authority.
A few nights ago I dreamed of my dad — we were doing things that we didn't even come close to doing in real life. We were lying on the ground looking at the tops of some trees and some other plants with different colorful flowers. That's a Bougainvillea over there, I said, pointing to some red flowers, like the ones in my current house in Greece.
In the dream I spoke with the tone of a teacher, assuming that I knew more than one of my brothers, who was also next to me. My brother, not perceiving my air of superiority, pointed to the top of a tree and said, "That's a sweetgum tree.�
Of course I had no idea of the species — I don't know about trees — but I do remember what I felt: embarrassment, not because I didn't know, but because of my teaching tone and for having underestimated my brother, believing he didn't know anything.
A few days later, my therapist told me: "Your brother was not your brother, your brother was you. In other words, it's you who underestimates yourself, believing that you are never enough.�
I kept thinking how right my psychologist's observation was — she has known me for more than a decade. Why is nothing ever enough? I still don't know. But, as Sergio, a reader of this newsletter, told me, referring to a previous newsletter: "This idea of freeing oneself from the dictatorship of insufficiency is very powerful.�
Denial may operate a priori as a defense mechanism (looking the other way), but in the background the water keeps running. It is quite likely that I couldn't message my friend about his father's death because I needed to escape (in a way, it was also writing to myself).
That night, the dream had more phases. In addition to what I can remember, there are the notes I took when I woke up, and also after doing therapy: "It's as if Dad had appeared to tell me things,� I wrote down, and then described the images I had seen with my eyes closed in the darkness of the night:
We were in a house that was not ours (in reality) but in the dream it was our house (that's how it happens in dreams, right?). The house had a sort of balcony on the first floor, at street level. The private space was delimited from the public space by planters on the sidewalk. "In the end we never enjoy the balcony,� my dad said.
"That's true,� I said.
"We don't enjoy anything,� he emphasized.
Then, I wanted to tell him that that was also true, that we don't enjoy anything, that we don't know what enjoyment is. But I couldn't find the words, I felt a lump in my throat. Next to me, my brother was looking the other way: he wasn't interested in that chat, he didn't agree, and he wasn't listening to my dad. On the other hand, I was getting more and more upset, I was choking with the words I couldn't utter.
"The best is the enemy of the good,� Voltaire is said to have said (I liked the concept of the Nirvana Fallacy). "The perfect is the enemy of the possible,� say others. Anyway, it would be good for me to make friends with these aphorisms, which sound nice but are not easy to apply.
Work, the house, my partner, fatherhood, time with my children, going for a walk... Almost everything I do seems to obey so much to the idea of duty that the possibility of enjoyment is relegated, drowned in a corner. At times, if they do not have a "productive� objective, my actions – scrutinized to the point of exhaustion — become deflated and lose meaning.
I worry that I'm passing on the virus that it's never enough.
At this point, having heard enough, my therapist asked: "What are you defending yourself against?� Without thinking, I answered: "From myself, from my infinite self-demand.�
"Since I've known you, Nacho, you've always thought you can be much better: much more punctual, perform better, perform more, do more and better... It's an endless criticism... With one hand on your heart, Nacho, do you really think you can be better?�
"Yes, I can potentially be better. But reality shows me that I can't or that I'm not able to. If not, I would do it, wouldn't I? I mean, I do what I can, I guess.�
I know: my answer was pretty banal. But that doesn't make it less truthful. If before seeing my therapist I had read this article by Argentine psychoanalyst Alexandra Kohan, I would have told her: "I can't always want what I want, nor do I want everything I can. Wanting what I do, is that the challenge?�
In her text, Kohan questions axioms such as the one that preaches that "you have to get out of your comfort zone�. She says: "There is also a denial of comfort that is questionable: why wouldn't we want to start living, with all the difficulty that living implies, a little more comfortably?�
Kohan continues: "There is a kind of epic of sacrifice and a moralism of having a hard time; in the face of the minimum comfort that someone can find in everyday life, which is already quite uncomfortable, there is a stigmatization of those small oases that someone may have found at least to rest a little.�
Then, I ask myself: what else was that dream telling me? It had begun pleasantly, with my dad lying on the ground — now I see leaves all around, in an autumn lawn — and looking up at the sky, identifying flowers and naming tree tops? What was my unconscious processing (that I am unable to do in the light of day)? What unfulfilled desire is there?
I think also of Lorenzo, my son, when — after a day full of friends and packed with activities — he gets in the car to go home and asks: "Now where are we going?� And then he complains, "Why are we going home? We didn't do anything today, why don't we ever do anything?� I know he's almost four years old and always wants more, but I worry that I'm passing on the virus that it's never enough.
But the issue isn't him, the issue is what's wrong with me. As someone I like to listen to told me: "Try to enjoy things more. Not everything is so heavy. There's more than one way to do things and those things take time too. The journey has to be fun too.�
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