Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web
Kirk LaPointe, publisher and editor-in-chief:
This is the most definitive look yet at the events in 77 days that followed the U.S. election, an exceptional effort by a team of seasoned journalists. – The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/us/trump-election-lie.html
Historian Jill Lepore warns us that the next cyberattack is not next, it’s now. Her harrowing look at how technology has overtaken techniques to control it. – The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/08/the-next-cyberattack-is-already-under-way
An examination of the proposals for reparations. It isn’t easily addressed. – The New York Review of Books
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/02/11/what-price-wholeness/
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor
Global hoarding of commodity crops during the pandemic has driven up prices of Canola – one of Canada’s leading food exports – and spurred a domestic shortage. – Reuters
Some Canadian snowbirds are complaining about travel restrictions, prompting a backlash on social media – example: “Will the ‘snowbirds’ demand someone come and get them when they get sick?” – and a pretty funny bit of satire under the headline, “Snowbirds outraged they were only given one year notice on non-essential travel.” – Yahoo, The Beaverton
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
In addition to the incoming tide of petty crime, indecency and selfishness degrading community values and the rise of QAnon and other social media-driven bilge merchants, here's further evidence that humanity is slipping down, rather than moving up, the evolutionary ladder. – Transparency International.
And in another leadership role, this time with baton in hand at the head of the greed and corruption parade: America. Make it great again? How about just making it decent again? – Transparency International
Here's one way to maintain restaurant cash flow in the pandemic economy. – Eater New York
https://ny.eater.com/2021/2/3/22262171/no-free-breakfast-from-shaun-hergatt
Jeremy Hainsworth, reporter:
Theologian Desiderius Erasmus was the last great intellectual of a united Christian Europe: a scholar, friend to kings and tutor of princes. It’s said his New Testament translation changed the way Christians think about their faith. It was his dictionary that rescued phrases such as “breaking the ice”, “teaching an old dog new tricks” and “leaving no stone unturned.” – The Economist
https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2020/12/16/erasmuss-teachings-are-still-pertinent-today
Nelson Bennett, reporter:
You may have heard about border carbon adjustment tariffs – a duty imposed by countries with carbon taxes on imports from countries that don’t have carbon pricing. But what about unfair competition from countries with low labour costs? Stephen Jarislowsky, investor turned philanthropist, suggests the decline of U.S. manufacturing and the deepening wealth inequality could be addressed with a wage equalization tariff. Goods imported from countries like China, where wages are lower, would have duties applied to them. – Globe and Mail
Few countries have made more progress than the UK when it comes to weaning itself off of coal. Coal production in the UK has dropped from 292 million tonnes in 1913 to 2 million tonnes in 2019. But the UK is now moving to approve its first new coal mine in 30 years. The fact that it would be metallurgical coal – a key ingredient in making steel – not thermal coal, appears to be lost in the discussion over whether it should go ahead or not. – mining.com
https://www.mining.com/uk-defends-approval-of-first-deep-coal-mine-in-30-years
