Source: New York Times
“The Finnish authorities said on Sunday that they had released an oil tanker seized in December over suspicions that it had deliberately cut vital undersea cables but that a criminal investigation into the episode would continue. The authorities said last year that the ship, the Eagle S, appeared to belong to Russia’s shadow fleet — older tankers that covertly transport Russian crude oil around the world — escalating concerns about a covert campaign to sabotage European infrastructure. On Sunday, the Finnish police said that since the criminal inquiry ‘has progressed,’ the aging tanker was free to leave and that border officials had escorted the ship out of the country’s territorial waters.” (03/02/25)
https://archive.is/YHfoq
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“For the third week in a row, Pope Francis has been unable to deliver his traditional Angelus prayer in person, with the Vatican publishing his written comments instead. The Vatican said the text, sent from his hospital room in Rome, had been written ‘in the past few days.’ In it, the Pope thanked people for their prayers and thanked his medical team for their care. … On Sundays, visitors to the Vatican usually gather on St Peter’s Square to see the Pope appear at a window high up in the Apostolic Palace in the official Papal apartment. However, Francis does not live there, opting for the simpler setting of the Vatican’s Santa Marta guest house.” (03/02/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2kgqdkx9jxo
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman
“Wrestling with Ross Douthat’s book, Believe.” (02/28/25)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/is-it-better-to-believe-in-anything
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by the editorial board
“In the past decade, terrorist attacks in the Middle East have dropped sharply, often because of military defeat, sometimes by a change in conscience. A possible example of the latter came Thursday. In a letter from his prison cell of 26 years, Abdullah Ocalan, founder of a four-decade-old armed insurgency for the rights of the large Kurdish minority in Turkey, called on his outlawed group to disarm and dissolve.” (02/28/25)
https://archive.is/lx7WI
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“A US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Sunday in a show of force, days after North Korea test-launched cruise missiles to demonstrate its counter-attack capabilities. … The deployment of the carrier is expected to infuriate North Korea, which views temporary deployments of such powerful US military assets as major security threats. North Korea has responded to some of the past deployments of US aircraft carriers, long-range bombers and nuclear-powered submarines with missile tests.” (03/02/25)
https://archive.is/kA8CZ
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, MC, and KS discuss Trump’s meeting with Zelensky, the potential fallout, how the war started in the first place, why America first is really America second to Israel, and this HEADLINE: Neo-Nazis targeted a majority-Black town. Locals launched an armed watch.” (03/01/25)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2025/03/01/the-anarchist-experience-517/
Source: Persuasion
by Emily Chamlee-Wright
“Unpredictability is bad for business.” (02/28/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/what-erratic-government-does-to-a
Source: Fox News
“A FedEx cargo plane made an emergency landing at Newark Airport in New Jersey Saturday morning after a bird strike caused one of its engines to catch fire, an airport official told Fox News Digital. Dramatic video shows the plane banking right when it lets off a large plume of smoke as fire appears from its right engine. … There were no reported injuries and the plane touched down at 8:07 a.m., the official said. It is unclear how many people were on board at the time.” (03/01/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/fedex-plane-catches-fire-midair-before-making-emergency-landing
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“In an editorial this week, the conservative Wall Street Journal chided Jeff Bezos, the owner of the liberal [sic] Washington Post, for Bezos’s announcement that henceforth the Post would be standing for ‘personal liberties and free markets.’ The Journal pointed out that Bezos’s phraseology is remarkably similar to that employed by the Journal, which is ‘free markets and free people.’ The Journal wanted to remind people that they were first to promote this freedom and free-market philosophy but also wanted people to know that they welcome the Post serving as their new ideological ‘wingman.’ There is just one big problem, however, with the Journal’s and the Post’s devotion to ‘liberty’ and ‘free markets.’ That big problem is the matter of definition.” (02/28/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/02/28/the-wall-street-journal-and-washington-post-are-standing-for-freedom-and-free-markets/
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Nearly 100 current and former California residents have recently sued The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over allegations of childhood sexual abuse, alleging in related but separate lawsuits filed across the state that they were assaulted by leaders of their local congregations over the past several decades while the Utah-based church did nothing to halt the abuse. Five of the plaintiffs allege they were abused in San Diego County, including three who say they were sexually assaulted by their bishops, the top spiritual leaders of local congregations in the LDS church, which is widely known as the Mormon church. The lawsuits, which number at least 91 and counting and were filed late last year in county superior courts up and down California, have not been widely reported previously.” (03/02/25)
https://archive.is/xKim7
