Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Note: As I mentioned in yesterday’s OSN, this will be the last edition of the email and podcast for the foreseeable future, as I’ll be reinvesting the (substantial amount of) time and effort required to produce it each day in other things (including a new, news-related project called “Some Thoughts About”).
If you’re a paying OSN subscriber, the balance of your payment will be refunded, and the OSN archive will be opened up, all paywalls removed.
Thank you so much for supporting this project, and for caring enough to spend some of your time, each day, learning about what’s happening in the world around you.
(And if you want to fill the news-shaped hole in your heart with another pod and/or email, I run a news analysis podcast called Let’s Know Things, and a weekly email of curated links to news-related things called Notes On the News.)
Gay sex ban in Namibia ruled unconstitutional
Summary: A Namibian court has ruled that same-sex acts between consenting men are no longer illegal in the country, and that laws which declared them to be illegal are themselves unconstitutional.
Context: These laws only ever declared same-sex acts between men illegal, not women, and it’s still illegal to marry someone of the same sex in the country, but this is considered to be a big deal because these laws made gay relationships taboo and fueled a lot of discrimination toward anyone who was, or seemed to be, gay—a social stance that also made it more difficult to provide health services, like HIV vaccines and treatments, to folks in a region in which infection rates are very high.
—BBC News
On day of fatal BP refinery blast, 3,712 safety alarms and one unsent email
Summary: An explosion at a BP oil refinery in Ohio in 2022 was preceded by thousands of safety alarms and a breakdown in communication between daytime and evening shift workers, according to a new report from federal investigators who spent two years looking into the blast, which killed two refinery workers.
Context: Among other things, the report indicates that BP neglected to shut down production at the refinery when warning signs indicated they should, and they didn’t fix obvious issues with equipment, despite having been told over and over about these issues by employees, and these issues eventually culminated with a series of malfunctions, 3,712 alarms in a 12-hour period, and an explosion that led to even more warnings, confusion, and delayed responses; the refinery has since been sold to a Canadian company, which says it restarted production at the facility last year, and that it’s working with regulators to make improvements and upgrade safety measures.
—The Wall Street Journal
Indonesia is trying to block LGBTQIA content from the internet
Summary: A new Indonesian bill, which is based on an earlier proposed bill that was shelved following widespread public backlash, would restrict content in the country that portrays “LGBTQIA behavior,” and anything that shows lifestyles or actions that might be imitated by the public, allowing the government to shut down or censor social platforms, TV networks, and other broadcast mediums, alongside the people using them to share content, using fines and license cancellations; the bill also places limits on investigative journalism in the country.
Context: That earlier, shelved bill would have forced LGBTQIA Indonesian people into conversion therapy programs, and this new one approaches the same topic from a different angle, its terms vague enough that it would apparently—according to criticisms from legal experts and opponents in the country—allow the government to shut down and silence any publication, journalist, influencer, or network it doesn’t like, which would extend its existing censorship powers, which it justifies by claiming it needs to tackle so-called fake news; international human rights groups have noted a significant rightward-shift in Indonesia’s government in recent years, and this new proposed bill is likely to be passed before the current president leaves office later this year.
—Rest of World
Part of what’s informing the rate of electrification (and the deployment of renewable energy sources) in various countries is the cost of electricity versus competitive fuel types (like gas); in China, electricity is cheaper than gas, which makes deploying more clean sources of electricity an easier bet, though they’re also at that point, in part, because of previous investments in the same (at a time in which other sources were more competitive).
—Sustainability By Numbers
1011
Number of drones the US has approved for sale to Taiwan for about $360 million.
That figure includes 720 Switchblade missiles (and its accompanying fire-control systems), and up to 291 Altius 600M loitering munitions (and supporting components).
Despite never having controlled it, China claims Taiwan as its own, and has threatened to take the island nation by force, if necessary; this sale was approved in the midst of a more-intense-than-usual pressure campaign from China to keep Taiwan isolated from outside influences, and pull it into its sphere of influence.
—CNN
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