Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
NASA’s first asteroid samples land on Earth after release from spacecraft
Summary: Yesterday morning, the first asteroid samples to be captured by a spacecraft were successfully returned to Earth, parachuting into a Utah desert where they were fetched by NASA scientists for analysis, successfully capping a seven-year journey and providing researchers with an estimated cup-full of asteroid rubble.
Context: This asteroid material, thought to be mostly pebbles and dust (though that’ll be confirmed when they open the container), should help researchers learn more about the carbon-rich asteroid, Bennu, from which it was taken three years ago; we should know more about how much material was captured in the next day or two, and NASA is planning a public show-and-tell revolving around this rubble and what we may learn from it—including potential findings related to how life forms on planets like Earth, the chemicals necessary for that life possibly spread by asteroids—in October.
—The Associated Press
India’s clash with Canada over killing follows new wave of calls for Sikh homeland
Summary: Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau has publicly alleged that the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist was linked to agents from India, setting off a diplomatic row between the two nations.
Context: Sikhs living in India have been calling for an independent Sikh homeland for years, but Indian President Modi’s pivot toward Hindu nationalism has upped the intensity of proposals to turn a portion of Indian territory, in the northern Punjab state, into a new Sikh nation called Khalistan; Modi is not at all keen on the idea for many reasons, and back in February a protest by Sikh activists that became violent further fanned the flames on this issue, turning up the heat on these activists, including those living overseas, like the Canadian citizen who was gunned-down in a temple parking lot in Canada in June; all of which is tricky geopolitical business, as Canada has come under fire for providing shelter for people the Indian government considers terrorists, the Canadian government is now pointing the finger at India, calling them out for what seems to have been an assassination of one of their citizens on their soil, and the US apparently provided Canada with intelligence that places the blame for the killing on India, which further complicates relations between these otherwise fairly tight-knit nations.
—The Wall Street Journal
Across Washington, officials brace for government shutdown
Summary: Far-right members of the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives are continuing to play hardball with the leadership of their own party, essentially holding government funding hostage until and unless their demands, which are largely political in nature, are met, and this may lead to a shutdown on October 1.
Context: This group of Republican lawmakers, which some analysts have been calling the Wrecking-Ball Caucus, has been aiming for exactly this type of showdown, hoping the threat of a shutdown will give them leverage to achieve their political goals, including a focus on impeaching President Biden and knocking Republican House Speaker McCarthy from his position so one of their own can take the reins, despite their caucus making up a relatively small percentage of the total number of Republican Representatives; lawmakers throughout Congress have been scrambling to prepare for an October 1 shutdown, which would hurt the country’s economy and reputation long-term, but which more immediately would mean government employees don’t get paid and maintenance on all sorts of programs and infrastructure can’t be done until enough votes are garnered for a plan that would allow the government to start funding itself again.
—The New York Times
As mentioned above, the US government is primed for a shutdown beginning today, and if history is any indication of what we might expect, we could see somewhere between a few days and up to a month of unfunded government programs, which could in turn send ripples throughout the US (and consequently, global) economy.
—Axios
28%
Percentage of single people living alone in the US, as of 2021.
That’s a significant increase from five years earlier, when it was 24%, and some cities (like Arlington, Virginia, which saw the most dramatic increase) popped from 11% to 41% over that period.
—SmartAsset
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