"A NASA space laser is finally helping researchers reveal many of the hidden secrets and unsolved mysteries of the Amazon rainforest and the world’s other dense rainforests. Known as GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation), the revolutionary laser was mounted on the International Space Station (ISS) back in 2018, with the express goal of peering deep into the rain forests and tropical jungles of the world to reveal parts of the Earth’s rainforests and hidden surface that have yet to be explored or mapped in any significant detail. In a press release announcing their incredible findings, the team of researchers behind the effort note that 'We know less about the rainforest canopy, where most of the world’s species live, than we do about the surface of Mars or the bottom of the ocean.'" (The Debrief)
“A new video appears to show the head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but to prepare for ‘a new journey to Africa’.” (Al Jazeera)
"Predictions of the end of the Wagner Group’s operations in Africa and the Middle East in the aftermath of its ill-fated rebellion in Russia are premature. More likely, Wagner’s Middle East and Africa operations will persist: They still serve multiple interests of the Russian state and can be separated from Wagner’s Ukraine and Russia operations. Already, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated that Wagner’s operations in Africa will continue. But Wagner’s operations in Africa are likely to endure under a new leadership and structure.” (Vanda Felbab-Brown/Brookings)
“An early-summer, late-afternoon light was catching a porcelain figurine of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus on the windowsill of Johnnie’s Italian Specialties, the twenty-eight-year-old family-owned restaurant in South Philly where, in May, I dialed up my personal hotspot, hoping to get tickets to the Taylor Swift concert taking place in the city later that night. My cheesesteak sub was dry and insufficiently cheesy and entirely beside the point—it was a formality, if a regionally appropriate one, meant to justify my seat at this funky restaurant as my sister and I refreshed four different ticket resale websites waiting for prices to drop.” (Jake Nevins/The Paris Review)
“But understanding how Russians view the war is crucial to understanding why and how the war is being waged, what might end it (and what won’t), and what conditions may well remain in Russia should the war end.” (Jade McGlynn)
“In shaping patterns of future warfare, there is little doubt that militaries across the world will be seeking to absorb the key lessons of the Russia-Ukraine War, ranging from the employment of tanks to the use of anti-ship cruise missiles and the ubiquitous drones. For the Chinese military, these lessons might even assume a greater importance, since the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) both lacks major, recent combat experience, and has also leaned heavily on Russian weapons and doctrine for its rapid modernization over the last few decades.” (Lyle Goldstein and Nathan Waechter/The Diplomat)
"Russia is pushing a plan to supply grain to Africa and cut Ukraine out of the global market after Moscow’s withdrawal this week from a UN-backed deal, according to three people familiar with the matter. President Vladimir Putin has proposed a replacement initiative whereby Qatar would pay Moscow to ship Russian grain to Turkey, which would then distribute the crop to 'countries in need,' the people said. Neither Qatar nor Turkey have agreed to the idea, which Moscow has not yet raised to a formal level, they added. Another person familiar with the matter said Qatar was unlikely to back the idea even if it did." (FT)
"As the Wagner revolt against the Kremlin unfolded last month, China seemed to pay little attention to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s faltering attempts to restrain the mercenaries, which laid bare the fractures in Moscow. Though Beijing eventually put out a public statement of support for the Russian president, it is biding its time—observing how firm Putin’s grip on power is. Indeed, the possibility of Moscow failing to rein in Russian mercenaries in areas where Chinese economic interests are present could create a fault line in the Chinese-Russian 'no-limit friendship.' The immediate peril lies in the potential ramifications of Wagner Group splinter factions, or a Wagner franchise under new management, which would compromise the security of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—and the safety of its overseas workers—in Africa and in other regions. " (Alessandro Alluini/FP)
"(Igor) Girkin, a prominent nationalist and former FSB intelligence officer who led Russia’s covert invasion under the guise of support for separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, became increasingly scathing in his criticism of Moscow’s handling of the full-scale campaign launched nearly 17 months ago, and has called for Vladimir Putin to step down as Russian president. Russian state media on Friday showed pictures of Girkin in a Moscow courtroom behind a glass wall. It said the state was accusing Girkin of ‘public calls to carry out extremist activities on the internet’. The move against Girkin, who is also known by his nom de guerre Strelkov, comes as the Kremlin cracks down on critics on its nationalist flank who support the war in principle but have become loudly critical of the Russian army’s battlefield failures." (Polina Ivanova and Christopher Miller/FT)
“The ‘Barbenheimer’ craze, which has swelled in popularity over the last few weeks, is all but set to propel the box office to its best weekend in years. BoxOffice Pro, a publication that tracks box office performance, said this week it is projecting a $200+ million weekend at the cinema. That would result in one of the biggest theatrical weekends since the pandemic upended the industry.” (Reliable Sources)
“For them, the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes represent apocalypse now: With soundstages dark, new episodes of big scripted hits like Abbott Elementary, Chicago P.D., and Ghosts will be missing from prime time this fall, replaced mostly by reality shows, reruns, and imports from the U.K. and Canada. ‘Network TV was already in a bad place, and this is really going to kick it in the nuts,’ says one veteran broadcast exec, who expects ratings to plunge 30 to 40 percent as a result of the de facto cancellation of the fall season.” (Josef Adalian/Vulture)
“(JFK’s grandson Jack) Schlossberg, 30, said Biden was on the way to becoming the country's 'greatest progressive president we've ever had,' and said if his cousin cared about his family's legacy he'd support the current occupant of the Oval Office. 'Instead, he's trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame,' the lawyer and son of Caroline Kennedy said. 'I've listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president. What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment.'“ (Daily Mail)
“In the second quarter this year, private equity, hedge fund, and venture capital executives streamed dozens of four-figure donations to (Kyrsten) Sinema’s campaign, joint fundraising committee, and leadership PAC. Several donors with private equity giant Blackstone topped up their donations to Sinema, with at least six more giving a total of $6,600 each, including A.J. Agarwal, a senior managing director in the firm’s real estate group. Tens of thousands of dollars of Sinema’s second quarter haul came from donors who work at the investment firms Montgomery Capital, First Atlantic LLC, Crescent Capital Group, and TPG Capital.” (David Moore/TAP)
“Under the state’s traditional political math, Milwaukee and Dane — Wisconsin’s two Democratic strongholds — are counterbalanced by the populous Republican suburbs surrounding Milwaukee. The rest of the state typically delivers the decisive margin in statewide races. The Supreme Court results blew up that model. Dane County alone is now so dominant that it overwhelms the Milwaukee suburbs (which have begun trending leftward anyway). In effect, Dane has become a Republican-killing Death Star.” (Charlie Mahtesian and Madi Alexander/Politico)
“On a rainy morning in March, George Dawes Green, a seventy-year-old novelist and the founder of the storytelling nonprofit the Moth, arrived at Millstone Landing, about twenty miles north of Savannah, Georgia, on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. He and thirteen others were preparing to look for remnants of a secret fortress built in the seventeen-eighties by Maroons—people who’d escaped slavery to live in the wilderness. (The term derives from the Spanish word ‘cimarrón,’ which means ‘unruly’ or ‘fierce.’) Maroons existed in the South from the beginning of slavery, and, according to historical accounts, the population of this encampment—around a hundred—dwarfed that of any other known group. The fortress was said to have been uniquely defended, with a wall, weapons, and sentries; its residents had lived there and in another nearby camp for years until white militias finally found the sites and burned them to the ground.” (Matthew Hutson/TNY)
"On Thursday evening, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced a last-minute televised statement by Benjamin Netanyahu.Rumors and reports had been swirling that Netanyahu was going to step back or soften one bill of the judicial overhaul legislation that was set to come up for its final votes early next week: the reasonableness standard. But instead, despite the tens of thousands of protesters, the increase in refusals to serve by military reservists and even a very public and harsh criticism of the judicial overhaul plan by US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu refused to back down. Netanyahu spent the speech extolling how this piece of legislation, which would strip the Israeli Supreme Court of its ability to declare government actions ‘unreasonable,’ would strengthen democracy, not destroy it – even though the Supreme Court is the only check on government actions in Israel, since the executive and legislative branches of government are always controlled by the same governing coalition." (CNN)
“The 18th century’s ‘new calculus of olfactory pleasure’, as Alain Corbin called it in his classic study from 1982, Le Miasme et la jonquille (published in English as The Foul and the Fragrant), created an opportunity both for Laugier and for his home town of Grasse in Provence, which had long been renowned for the production of floral essences, waters and perfumes. Musk, civet and ambergris, the high-status scents of the 17th century, were too pungent and excremental for the new bourgeois sensibility. The fields around Grasse bloomed from spring to autumn with successive waves of violets, orange blossom, roses and jasmine, which provided the scented waters demanded by the new morning fashion of the toilette. Wholesome natural scents were seen as a protection against infectious disease and the pervasive miasma of the fetid city. As well as being applied to the skin, they were widely used for scenting gloves and other garments, and had great medical value as fumigants, topical antiseptics, breath fresheners and digestive aids.” (Mike Jay/LRB)
"The U.S. and China, now the world’s two largest economies, have recently experienced some of their worst relations since diplomatic ties were established amid disputes over trade, human rights and the status of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its territory. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said this week that the Biden administration was aware of Kissinger’s visit to China but that he was acting 'under his own volition, not acting on behalf of the United States government.' Kissinger’s visit to Beijing coincided with one by John Kerry, the U.S. climate envoy, who met with senior Chinese officials but not Xi. Kerry, whose trip marked the first formal top-level climate diplomacy between the world’s two biggest carbon polluters since talks were suspended last year, ended his trip Wednesday without the two countries issuing a joint statement on climate cooperation." (NBCNews)