Japanese Court, Putin's Meddling, Atlanta Shootings
March 18, 2021
Yesterday’s Newsletter / March 18, 2021
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Japan court rules same-sex couples have marriage rights, in landmark decision
Summary: A Japanese court has ruled that same-sex couples should have the same marriage-related rights as heterosexual couples, saying in the decision, “The difference between heterosexuals and homosexuals is nothing more than a distinction in sexual orientation that people do not choose of their own will and cannot change.”
Context: The court has said that the plaintiffs in the case are not entitled to damages, and one of the politicians who argued against giving marriage rights to same-sex coupled said that he worried granting such rights would worsen Japan’s already precipitously falling birthrate; there are other court cases related to this issue still outstanding, and a spokesperson for the government has said that she believes the current system—in which same-sex relationships are legal, but discrimination against same-sex couples is allowed—is still constitutional.
—The Wall Street Journal
Putin likely directed 2020 US election meddling, US intelligence finds
Summary: An American intelligence report released Tuesday indicates that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed or personally approved efforts to manipulate the 2020 US election in the incumbent President Trump’s favor.
Context: This report indicates that many of Trump’s top people were either knowingly or unknowingly helping spread Russian misinformation, and that folks working for Russia made a conscious effort to swing votes using social media, leaks, and other primarily non-hacking-related methods—similar to their efforts to sway the 2016 US election—and it’s expected that new sanctions will be applied on Putin’s associates, and perhaps Russia more broadly, as a consequence of these alleged actions.
—Reuters
Police investigate suspect’s motive in Atlanta-area killings
Summary: A 21-year-old man who claims to have been trying to remedy what he calls his “sex addiction” killed eight people—primarily women of Asian descent—at three different spas in Atlanta, Georgia.
Context: This case follows a multi-month wave of violent assaults against Asian people in cities around the US, and involves a young, male, white shooter who bought his gun the previous day, during a period of heightened racial tensions and amplified visibility for misogynistic groups and ideologies; consequently, with the killer is in custody, the police are still trying to unravel whether this was a race-related attack, an anti-woman attack, an attack somehow related to gun-culture, something overtly political, or a mass-killing truly motivated by some kind of sex addiction as was initially claimed by the shooter.
—Nikkei Asia
Visual
6 months
Age of youngest children Moderna plans to enroll in a recently started vaccine test in the US and Canada.
The test will involve 6,750 subjects in all, ages 6 months to 12 years, and is meant to assess the effectiveness and safety of the company’s COVID vaccine in these younger age groups—information that will be vital if it becomes prudent to vaccinate non-adults in the future.
—The New York Times
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Yesterday’s Newsletter is published by analytic journalist and host of the Let’s Know Things podcast, Colin Wright.