Taking Sides

Start your day smarter with the most important world news, plus intriguing and offbeat stories. www.ozy.com [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright [Presidential Daily Brief]( Start your day smarter with a dossier on the most important world news, rounded off with a shot of intriguing and offbeat stories. Like the president, you deserve no less. May 12, 2022 Today Finland’s leaders have declared they’re ready to join NATO — and Sweden is likely to follow suit. Senate Republicans blocked an abortion rights law, to no one’s surprise. Ukraine’s prosecutor general is ready to put Russian soldiers on trial. And North Korea is locking down further after reporting its first official COVID case. All this and more in today’s PDB. IMPORTANT Join the Club Finland, Sweden on Brink of NATO Membership Finland’s president and prime minister announced this morning that they intend to apply for membership in the alliance in the next few days. Sweden is expected to follow suit. The two nations have been weighing ending their decades-old neutrality since Russia invaded Ukraine — despite Moscow’s warnings that there will be “military and political repercussions” if they do. Finland, which shares an 830-mile land border with Russia, has long acted as a buffer between it and the West. Today’s statement comes after the U.K. signed a military cooperation agreement with Finland and Sweden yesterday, vowing to defend them if they come under attack. (Sources: [The Guardian](, [AP]() Constitutional Protections Republicans Block Abortion Rights Law, Court Upholds Gun Rights Senate Democrats knew from the start that the Women’s Health Protection Act would fail — as a similar bill did in February — and concede it was more about mobilizing voters ahead of midterm elections. Even centrist Republicans who oppose abortion bans said the Democratic bill went too far by not allowing states to enact their own restrictions. Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are proposing their own bill to codify Roe v. Wade rights while allowing states to legislate specific procedures. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court has ruled that California’s ban on selling semi-automatic guns to under-21s is unconstitutional. (Sources: [WaPo](, [Politico](, [NYT](, [NPR]() On the Hook Ukraine to Launch First War Crimes Trial Against Russian Soldier Ukraine’s prosecutor general has announced the first cases out of 10,700 crimes registered since the war began. The first to face trial will be Vadim Shysimarin, commander of the Kantemirovskaya Tank Division, accused of killing an unarmed civilian in the village of Chupakhivka. Two other soldiers in Ukrainian custody will be prosecuted for shelling homes and civilian buildings in the village of Kozacha Lopan. Meanwhile, security camera footage has emerged of Russian soldiers shooting two unarmed civilians in the back before looting the car dealership where they worked. Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the incident as yet another war crime. (Sources: [The Guardian](, [CNN]() It’s Official North Korea Reports First COVID-19 Case, Declares Emergency State media reported that the isolated country has recorded its first official coronavirus case in the capital Pyongyang. Leader Kim Jong Un ordered “maximum emergency” protocols, including local lockdowns and restrictions on public gatherings. While observers doubt this is the country’s first outbreak — despite Kim sealing North Korea’s borders in January 2020 — some believe the current outbreak must be serious enough that it can no longer be covered up. Kim has refused international offers of COVID-19 vaccines, leaving North Korea’s 25 million citizens vulnerable, and its impoverished health care system is unlikely to be able to cope with a serious outbreak. (Source: [BBC]() Briefly Here are some things you should know about today: Quick learner. When a pilot suffered a medical emergency midair, a passenger with no flying experience — aided by an air traffic controller who wasn’t familiar with the craft — successfully landed the plane at the West Palm Beach, Florida, airport. (Source: [Gizmodo]() Moulin Rouge … hotel? Paris’ iconic cabaret will rent out a never-before-seen room on Airbnb for just $1 — for three nights only. (Source: [Smithsonian]() Hong Kong cardinal arrested. National security police have arrested 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, a former bishop and outspoken critic of China's Communist Party, along with three other pro-democracy activists. (Source: [CNN]() INTRIGUING Sleeping With the Fishes Lake Mead Drought Reveals Human Remains — and Mob History The Nevada lake, 30 miles east of Las Vegas, is 170 feet lower than it was in 1983, thanks to climate change and a severe ongoing drought. The lower the water level plunges, the more secrets float to the surface. The first body, a murder victim in a corroded barrel, was found May 1, and another emerged days later. Considering the proximity to Las Vegas — and its history of organized crime — locals are bracing for more gruesome finds as the water recedes further. As former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman noted, “It’s not a bad place to dump a body.” (Sources: [LiveScience](, [Gizmodo](, [AP]() Good News, Bad News Can a Browser Add-On End Our Addiction to Misinformation? To fight rampant online misinformation, researchers at NYU and Princeton tested browser extension NewsGuard, which flags sites to show how trustworthy they are. Sources like Reuters and AP get green shields for “basic standards of accuracy,” Epoch Times and Daily Kos get red warning shields, and those containing unvetted posts, like YouTube and Wikipedia, earn gray shields. Around 3,000 participants representing the U.S. population tried NewsGuard while another group browsed as before. The good news: The biggest drop in consuming low-quality information came in the high-misinformation-consumer group. The bad news? They were the least likely to download protective extensions. (Source: [Popular Science]() Song of Solidarity Ukraine the Favorite to Win Eurovision 2022 Fifteen nations have already advanced to Saturday’s final round of Eurovision 2022, Europe’s longest-running song contest, and another 10 will qualify today. But Ukrainian singer Oleh Psiuk’s “Stefania,” an ode to his mom, is the favorite to win. Its lyrics, written before the war, have taken on new meaning, and lines like “I’ll always come to you, by broken roads” have become a tribute to the war-torn country. Though Ukraine has banned men ages 18 to 60 from leaving the country in case they're needed to fight, authorities gave Psiuk and his band, Kalush Orchestra, permission to compete in Italy. (Sources: [Billboard](, [WaPo]() Escape Artist Pussy Riot Activist Describes Daring Departure From Russia Maria Alyokhina, leader of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, was arrested six times since last summer for political activism. But as Moscow cracked down on anti-war protests in April, she was due to be sent to a penal colony. Instead Alyokhina disguised herself as a food courier, ditched her phone to avoid being tracked and made her way to the Belarusian border. “It sounds like a spy novel,” she said, recounting her journey from the safety of Vilnius, Lithuania, where she joined her girlfriend, bandmate Lucy Shtein. Pussy Riot is now preparing a European tour to raise funds for Ukraine. (Sources: [NYT](, [Vulture](, [The Moscow Times]() ‘We’ve All Made Mistakes’ Golfer Greg Norman Defends Saudis for Khashoggi Murder The Australian two-time major champion was at the Centurion Club outside London on Wednesday promoting his new Saudi-backed golf league when he was asked about the state-sponsored murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “Everybody has owned up to it, right?” Norman said. “Take ownership, no matter what it is. Look, we’ve all made mistakes and you just want to learn from those mistakes.” Norman, who’s come under fire for “sportswashing” Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses, suffered another setback this week when the PGA Tour denied waivers for its players to take part in his league’s LIV Golf Invitational Series in June. (Sources: [USA Today](, [CBS Sports](, [SMH]()  Catch the Newest Episodes of The Carlos Watson Show, Season 4! COMMUNITY What else are you curious about? 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