One Sentence News

About One Sentence News

Three news stories a day, one sentence of summary and one sentence of context, apiece. Each episode is concise (usually less than 5 minutes long), politically unbiased, and focused on delivering information and understanding in a non-frantic, stress-free way. OSN is meant to help folks who want to maintain a general, situational awareness of what's happening in the world, but who sometimes find typical news sources anxiety-inducing, alongside those don't have the time to wade through the torrent of biased and editorial content to find what they're after. Hosted by analytic journalist Colin Wright. onesentencenews.substack.com (https://onesentencenews.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Colin Wright

Category

news · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Oct 2021

Latest episode

28 Jun 2024

Latest episodes

636 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   28 Jun 2024

   One Sentence News / June 28, 2024

   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 One Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. On day of fatal BP refinery blast, 3,712 safety alarms and one unsent email (https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/on-day-of-fatal-bp-refinery-blast-3-712-safety-alarms-and-one-unsent-email-1ad00a4d) 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 (https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/19/asia/taiwan-us-drones-sale-intl-hnk-ml/index.html) 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 Trust Click This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com (https://onesentencenews.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   27 Jun 2024

   One Sentence News / June 27, 2024

   Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright. Note: This is a difficult note to write, because I love OSN and I know there are a lot of people who read and listen to it, and who rely on it to help them maintain a situational awareness about the world. But I recently made the decision to put OSN on pause, indefinitely, so I can reallocate the (significant) time and energy required to produce it each day to other things, for the foreseeable future. I’m truly sorry to those who will be disappointed by this decision, but thank you very much for your support, attention, and for caring about what happens in the world. So! Tomorrow’s (Friday) edition of the email will be the last one, for now. If you’re a paying OSN subscriber, you’ll be refunded whatever balance is left on your subscription—I’ll leave the OSN archive online, but I’m removing the option to pay for it, as while I may come back to it at some point, I don’t know when that might be and I don’t want to tie up your money for the duration. (I’m still running my news analysis podcast, Let’s Know Things, and I curate a weekly selection of news-related links in my Notes On the News email, if you’re interested.) Thanks again, and I’ll see you one more time, tomorrow :) Kenyan protesters promise more rallies after at least 23 die in clashes Summary: Protestors in Kenya, demonstrating against new tax hikes in the country, fought with police outside parliament earlier this week, eventually breaking into the parliamentary compound just minutes after the body voted in favor of these hikes; 23 people were killed during these protests across the country, and protest leaders are encouraging people to keep hitting the streets, and to occupy the State House, the president’s office and residence, and the local offices for the World Bank and IMF later this week; President Ruto now says he won’t sign the bill into law in response to these protests. Context: This is being seen as the most serious crisis Ruto has faced since he stepped into office two years ago, and the government has deployed the army to help keep the peace during what it’s calling a “security emergency”; lawmakers have said the tax hikes are necessary to avoid a budget gap, though they removed a few of the more contentious ones in the final version of the bill in order to avoid creating any more turmoil; protestors are now demanding, online, in addition to the whole of the bill being voided, that Ruto resign from office. —Reuters One Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Biden pardons thousands of US veterans convicted under law banning gay sex (https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/26/biden-pardons-veterans-military-law-gay-sex) Summary: US President Biden has announced that he will pardon thousands of veterans who were convicted, over the past six decades, under a law that banned gay sex in the military, which in many cases resulted in dishonorable discharges, and a consequent loss of benefits, alongside all the other social and legal consequences of being discharged in that way. Context: The US government has a long history of witch-hunts, including a big one in the 1950s that became known as the “lavender scare,” which aimed to weed out anyone who would today be considered LGBTQ+ from government employment, including in the military; a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” under former President Bill Clinton allowed such people to serve in the military as long as they weren’t open about their sexuality, and that was repealed in 2010, but throughout that period, service-members were still persecuted for their sexuality if they were at all public about it. —The Guardian Israeli military must draft ultra-Orthodox Jews, Supreme Court rules Summary: Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the country’s military must draft ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who are religious students, despite a long-time exemption this group has enjoyed. Context: Netanyahu’s far-right allies in government, those that are keeping him in office, are themselves made up of and supported by ultra-Orthodox organizations, and that’s part of why they’ve been able to avoid the draft for this long, despite the military being spread somewhat thin during its invasion of the Gaza Strip, and new rumblings that it might also enter a more formal conflict with Lebanon-based Hezbollah, as well; this decision could make life more difficult for Netanyahu, who will likely be pressured by his allies to do something about this ruling, though it could temper some of the protests that have been erupting on a regular basis across the country, some of which have been focused on this—in the minds of many, unfair—draft exclusion. —The New York Times After a long period in which few NATO members met the recommended military spending threshold of 2% of their GDP, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has nudged that number up, with only 7 countries hitting that goal in 2022, but (an estimated) 23 managing it in 2024. —Sherwood $50.7 trillion (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/06/18/national-debt-budget-projections-cbo/) Anticipated size of the US national debt by 2034, according to a new projection from the Congressional Budget Office. That’s up from the Office’s previous projection just four months ago, which came in at $48.3 trillion. —The Washington Post Trust Click Get full access to One Sentence News at onesentencenews.substack.com/subscribe (https://onesentencenews.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   26 Jun 2024

   One Sentence News / June 26, 2024

   Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty in deal with US and be freed from prison Summary: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who published a trove of classified US military documents in 2010 and has been on the run from the US Justice Department ever since—initially spending years living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, before being locked up in a UK prison—has reportedly made a deal that will see him plead guilty to one of the 18 charges on which he was indicted in 2019, which will allow him to return to his home country of Australia with a time-served sentence. Context: Assange was at the center of several major scandals in the early 20-teens, most of them linked to allegations of hacking, divulging state secrets, and embarrassing the US military, because many of the classified documents that were leaked by WikiLeaks were related to US activities in Afghanistan and Iraq, and diplomatic cables from around that same time, and several of them showed human rights violations or contained transcriptions of US officials insulting their international peers; Assange has long struggled against extradition to the US, fearing he would face the death penalty if sent there, and this agreement, if it’s approved by a judge, would seem to end his long-time exile, allowing him to return home to his family without any additional prison time. —The Associated Press One Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Music industry giants allege mass copyright violation by AI firms (https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/06/music-labels-sue-ai-music-generators-for-copyright-infringement/) Summary: A group of music industry entities, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Records, have sued Udio and Suno—a pair of AI-oriented music-generation companies—for allegedly ripping off songs owned by these labels to train their AI systems. Context: These companies are just two of many that have popped up over the past year or two, and which allow their customers to generate ostensibly original music just by describing what they want to make, and that’s possible because the AI systems they use are trained on gobs of existing music, much of which is allegedly owned by these record labels, and which, according to these lawsuits, were incorporated into the training data illegally; this is similar to other lawsuits that are working their way through global court systems right now, related to books, photos, films, journalism and other sorts of human-made work that are being collected and aggregated by AI companies to train their models, and there’s little in the way of existing legal precedent on this sort of thing, so it’s difficult to say, at this point, how these sorts of cases will pan out in different legal jurisdictions. —Ars Technica China becomes first country to retrieve rocks from the Moon’s far side Summary: The Chinese space program successfully returned lunar soil samples from the far side of the Moon, yesterday, marking yet another accomplishment for the burgeoning program, and a new first-ever achievement for humanity. Context: The Chang’e-6 mission was a follow-up to previous Chinese missions that demonstrated the country’s growing capacity in space, initially allowing them to photograph and map the Moon’s surface, then land on and deploy a rover on the side facing Earth, then deploying a rover on the far side of the Moon—a first for any space agency—in 2019; the agency’s previous Moon mission brought about four pounds of Earth-side Moon regolith home (something that’s only been previously accomplished by the US and Soviet Union), and this most recent achievement is thus far unique to China, which means it’s a big deal in terms of their in-space credibility, but also for human knowledge, as those far-side lunar materials could teach us a lot about how that half differs from the side we continuously see, and about the Moon’s origins. —The New York Times Used EVs have become less expensive in the US, on average, than their gas-consuming competition according to a recent report from iSeeCars; this price difference is being attributed to a perceptual value-drop in EVs, due to infrastructural limitations (especially a dearth of charging stations in some regions). —Business Insider $10.75 billion (https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-invests-11-billion-expand-cloud-logistics-germany-2024-06-19/) Sum Amazon will invest on cloud and logistics infrastructure in Germany, most of it by 2026, according to a recent announcement by the company. That’s in addition to a previously announced investment by Amazon in Germany, which (including the new sum) adds up to a total of just over $19 billion, this fresh investment alone creating something like 4,000 jobs in the country. —Reuters Trust Click Get full access to One Sentence News at onesentencenews.substack.com/subscribe (https://onesentencenews.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

11 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

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