Politico: Europeans embrace EU amid growing gloom about world, survey finds
A Politico piece reports on a new Eurobarometer survey: although Europeans have grown more pessimistic about the world’s future (58% view it with anxiety), faith in the European Union is high — 74% think EU membership has benefited their country, and 59% are optimistic about the EU’s own future. Respondents named the bloc’s contribution to peace and security as the most important advantage of membership. Satisfaction varies, though: more than 90% in Malta, Denmark, Luxembourg and Portugal, but around 60% in Greece, Austria, France and Bulgaria.
Meduza reports that Volodymyr Zelensky summoned Valery Zaluzhny — the former commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, now ambassador to the UK — to Kyiv and asked him directly whether he would run for president. Zaluzhny answered yes: “I will.” Kyiv is debating how and when to hold elections; closed-door polls suggest Zelensky would lose a second round to Zaluzhny, so he is keen to avoid splitting society.
The New York Times: Cheating Chickadees Are Seduced by Smarts
The New York Times reports on a study finding that mountain chickadees will cheat on their mate if a smarter male comes along. Females actively seek out males with better memory — the ability to recall where winter food is cached, on which survival depends — because chicks of “smarter” fathers are more likely to survive.
LSM: A false liberation: how Latvia changed after falling under German occupation in the summer of 1941
LSM and the Latvian Radio programme “Šīs dienas acīm” look back at the summer of 1941, when, with the start of the Soviet–German war, Latvia passed from one totalitarian occupation into another — that of Nazi Germany. Some in Riga greeted the Germans on 1 July as liberators, since a week earlier the Soviet authorities had mass-deported thousands; but hopes for Latvian statehood were baseless: Berlin envisaged the Baltic as German “living space”, planned racial screening and colonisation, and plundered the economy. Historians also recall that some of the Latvians who took up arms in 1941 took part in war crimes, including the murder of their Jewish fellow citizens.
Financial Times: The town that Elon Musk built
The Financial Times describes Starbase — a town on the Texas coast that has grown up around Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket factory. After Musk’s 2021 call for supporters to move there, the place was formally incorporated last year with 500 residents, most of them SpaceX workers; the company’s stock-market debut has made many of them millionaires, at least on paper. The author casts Starbase as a symbol of Trump’s America — a blend of Big Tech power, geopolitical ambition and a militarised border, where workers are bound by non-disclosure agreements.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Where Did Iran’s Hijab Police Go?
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports that on the streets of Iran’s big cities the strict hijab rules are now barely enforced: many women go out without a headscarf and in short sleeves, and the once-feared “morality police” patrols have all but vanished. The law is unchanged — the hijab is still compulsory — but after the 2022 protests and the war with the United States the authorities appear to be avoiding confrontation with the public. Punishments have not disappeared, though: the singer Parastoo Ahmadi was sentenced to 74 lashes for performing without a headscarf.
LRT: Russian speakers in Lithuania turn to Ukrainian, Polish after driving test language ban
LRT reports that after Lithuania banned driving-licence exams in Russian from the start of this year (citing national security), Russian-speaking residents are increasingly choosing interpreters in Ukrainian or Polish instead. The number of exams taken in Polish, for instance, has risen from one to 81 in a year, while Ukrainian has appeared for the first time. In Telegram groups, migrants swap advice on how best to sit the exam.
The New York Times: This Cell Feeds, Grows and Reproduces. And It’s Manmade.
The New York Times reports that scientists at the University of Minnesota have built simple artificial cells from dozens of ingredients that feed, grow, reproduce and compete with one another for food — most of the hallmarks of life. The researcher Kate Adamala named them “SpudCells” (after their potato-like look) and is reluctant to call them alive: “Life is not binary.” In future such cells could help work out how many genes a minimal life form needs, or even make new medicines and draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.