Many of the Loop’s editors are news junkies–and we can’t cover it all for ourselves! We collect here interesting articles which received light coverage in mainstream USA media.
January 2023
Congress passes bill forcing railroad compromise https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/ Government banning TikTok back in the news https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/29/tech/south-dakota-tiktok/index.html https://justthenews.com/government/security/sun-19-states-have-put-restrictions-or-banned-tiktok-due-national-security Russia launches a variety of new warships https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/missiles-deep-russia-just-launched-new-ballistic-missile-submarine-198661 https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/12/29/russia-new-warships-submarines/ ...and orders more advanced anti-ship missiles https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/11/russia-orders-additional-tsirkon-hypersonic-missiles/ Unintended consequences of bad faith behind Minsk accords https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202212/1281708.shtml President of European Commission cites Ukraine KIA number, this part of her speech is subsequently trimmed from all media. https://news.yahoo.com/von-der-leyen-statement-death-163600213.html Twitter, now owned by Musk, provides new transparency into past decisions via "The Twitter Files" https://www.westernjournal.com/can-read-twitter-files-right/ Did the CIA kill John F. Kennedy? A generation-spanning question receives new life https://theintercept.com/2022/12/22/deconstructed-jfk-files-cia/ DEA announces record Fentanyl seizures in 2022 https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2022/12/20/drug-enforcement-administration-announces-seizure-over-379-million-deadly Mysterious cell tower-like devices popping up around Salt Lake City https://ksltv.com/516749/why-are-antennas-popping-up-all-over-the-foothills-salt-lake-city-seeks-to-solve-mystery/ Many guesses are that these are nodes in the decentralized Helium network. Progress with the Notre Dame reconstruction https://aleteia.org/2023/01/06/notre-dame-cathedral-on-track-for-2024-reopening-spire-to-rise-in-2023/
December 2022
Who’s buying all this gold? https://www.marketplace.org/2022/11/22/somebodys-been-on-a-gold-buying-bender-its-not-clear-who-or-why/amp/
The tripledemic may not be as dangerous as feared https://www.science.org/content/article/competition-between-respiratory-viruses-may-hold-tripledemic-winter
Stanford president under investigation for academic fraud https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/stanford-president-under-investigation-after-school-newspaper-report
GE buys out NY Times’ entire advertising for a day–print, digital, even a custom wrapper for the paper https://www.axios.com/2022/12/06/ge-new-york-times-advertising-entire-paper-edition
TSMC hedging against possible China action? https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/06/tsmc-to-up-arizona-investment-to-40-billion-with-second-semiconductor-chip-plant.html
November 2022
Stripe cutting 14% of its workforce in preparation for “leaner times”. https://slashdot.org/story/22/11/03/1342250/stripe-cutting-headcount-by-14-as-it-readies-for-leaner-times
Egypt is a choke point for Internet cables. https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/11/03/1450215/why-egypt-became-one-of-the-biggest-chokepoints-for-internet-cables
Turkey experiencing hyperinflation. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkeys-inflation-hits-fresh-24-year-high-83-after-rate-cuts-2022-10-03/
USA fading influence over Saudi Arabia. https://news.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-reiterates-commitment-china-000000903.html
October 2022
Notre Dame’s restoration is drawing on ancient and lost skills. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/20/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-rebuild-medieval-carpenters-guledon?CMP=share_btn_tw&fbclid=IwAR0NnTJ0QYZ5rswboMokhhkp3jmSJGBBFG0c3aEKRMMkKXoGdh_N1vaol2g
China is having their own mini-2008, and their citizens protest when they aren’t allowed to withdraw money from their own bank accounts. The government sends out police and… tanks? https://www.newsweek.com/video-chinese-tanks-protecting-banks-customers-prompts-rumors-1726696
Rural hospitals are doing so badly, some are almost being given away. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/08/some-rural-hospitals-are-in-such-bad-shape-local-governments-are-practically-giving-them-away.html
The UK approval document for Pfizer mRNA does not recommend it for the pregnant and nursing. (Scan down to the Toxicology section.) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-approval-of-pfizer-biontech-vaccine-for-covid-19/summary-public-assessment-report-for-pfizerbiontech-covid-19-vaccine
Researchers are using “AI” to scan and integrate data sets of voter rolls, address changes, and property tax records to detect out of date voter registrations. This is an early article; the technology has evolved considerably. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/technology/unregistered-voter-rolls.html
Key Alzheimers origin of disease theory that has been the center of clinical research and funding for nearly 2 decades is probably a fraud. https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease?cookieSet=1