Escaping the Mob & The Deserter

Featured Articles

The Priest Who Helps Women in the Mob Escape

The New Yorker • 23 Sep 2024 • ~8750 words • Archive Link

Meet Luigi Ciotti, a priest in Italy who has dedicated his life to helping women escape the clutches of the Mafia. This article delves into the risks these women face and Ciotti's compassionate yet urgent efforts to ensure their safety and healing. It’s a compelling look at resilience in the face of danger and the lengths one man will go to protect those in need.

Ciotti, who is seventy-nine, has spent the past twenty years creating an informal network of safe houses, burner phones, and coöperative policemen. When he needs an officer or a government official to facilitate someone’s flight, he often makes the request in person, thus avoiding any phone logs or digital traces.

The Deserter

New York Times • 22 Sep 2024 • ~35950 words • Archive Link

In this gripping (and long) piece from The New York Times, we follow Ivan, a Russian soldier caught in the chaos of war, as he grapples with his disillusionment and the desire to escape. Through his eyes, the story explores the stark realities soldiers face and the moral complexities of desertion. I have yet to finish it myself, but what I’ve read so far is incredibly well-reported.

This was never a story about heroes or bravery, a valiant victor or a helpless victim; from the beginning Ivan wanted me to make that clear. It is a story about the dangers of an act of independence after a life of conformity, and about how defection from Putin’s system is a sentence without end.

Recommended Articles

Meet the Evangelicals Who Actually Care about the Environment

The Walrus • 23 Sep 2024 • ~3050 words • Archive Link

This piece explores a growing movement among evangelical Christians who are passionate about environmental stewardship. Through the lens of the group A Rocha and its members, the article highlights how faith can intertwine with a commitment to combating climate change, challenging both theological and political norms. It’s an insightful look at how younger evangelicals are redefining their relationship with creation and advocating for a more sustainable future.

It was in this spirit that more than seventy Christian leaders, climate scientists, and government officials gathered in 2002 at the University of Oxford to discuss the threat of global warming and how to reconcile their response with Christian imperatives. They produced the Oxford Declaration on Global Warming, which urged Christians to confront climate change for scientific reasons as well as moral ones. After all, the effects of climate change, such as severe heat and rising sea levels, disproportionately hurt the world’s poor. To “love thy neighbour as thyself,” they reasoned, should also mean to help them.

The waste and exploitation of fast fashion shouldn’t blind us to the joys of making beautiful clothing with care

Aeon • 23 Sep 2024 • ~3150 words

In this piece, the author reflects on their journey through the fashion world, exploring how the growth of fast fashion has raised concerns about the industry's sustainability and ethics, and how luxury brands are seeking to preserve traditional Italian manufacturing techniques and artisanal expertise as a counterpoint to these issues. The article also considers whether luxury fashion can be viewed as a form of art and whether it still has relevance in the modern world.

Does luxury matter in a world in frantic turmoil? I would argue that it does. Craft has long been perceived as the poor cousin of high art, but does art have to hang on the wall of a gallery? There is artistry aplenty in what you can do with fabric – and the pleasures of fashion are more accessible than the kind of art you might find in a gallery.

Party In The Rear

Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet. • 23 Sep 2024 • ~3300 words

Have you ever wondered about the history of rear-projection TVs and their place in television history? This piece explores the evolution of these once-popular sets, revealing the innovative techniques behind their design and why they ultimately fell out of favor. It's a nostalgic look back at a technology many of us might remember but seldom think about today.

Ultimately, the sets were still bulky, and once LCD sets hit scale, it was impossible for rear-projection sets, which had many more internal parts, to keep up. It was the ultimate example of a bridge device—a technology that got us through a moment, only to be surpassed almost immediately.

Rise Of The Insurance Apocalypse

The Lever • 23 Sep 2024 • ~2850 words

This article discusses the growing challenges facing the insurance industry due to the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters driven by climate change. It examines how this leads to skyrocketing insurance premiums, the withdrawal of insurers from high-risk regions, and the potential for a "climate bubble" in the housing market as more homes become uninsurable. This piece also explores the regulatory and financial implications of this crisis and the broader questions it raises about how society should adapt to the risks posed by a changing climate.

As the hurricane made landfall the next day, it tore palm trees from the ground and stripped roofs from houses, carving a devastating path across southern Florida. Over 100,000 homes were damaged and an additional 50,000 were destroyed. When a client called asking about his probable losses, Clark told him around $200 million. “He said, ‘For the industry?’ and I was like, ‘No. For your company.’” AIR’s estimates turned out to be conservative: Andrew eventually cost the insurance industry $15 billion.

The Latin American Left Amid China, the United States, Late Progressivism and the Far Right

CounterPunch.org • 23 Sep 2024 • ~8050 words

This book review analyzes the Latin American Left in the context of shifting global powers, particularly China's influence and the rise of the far right. It explores the new progressive movements that emerged from recent popular mobilizations, providing a fresh perspective on the region's complex political landscape. If you're curious about the challenges and dynamics shaping Latin America today, this piece is worth your time.

United States is an economic power in decline, whereas China is booming. Compared with the economies of Latin America, but also with the United States, China now has an advantage in terms of productivity, and therefore in terms of competitiveness, in a number of technological areas. And China is now using the same economic tools that the United States used systematically – i.e. signing bilateral free-trade treaties with as many Latin American and Caribbean countries as possible.

Has Michael Regan’s EPA Kept Its Promises?

The Atlantic • 23 Sep 2024 • ~5250 words • Archive Link

The article examines the record of Michael Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in addressing environmental justice issues during his tenure. It explores the challenges Regan has faced in trying to fulfill his promises to marginalized communities, including legal setbacks and political backlash, and questions whether the EPA has truly kept its commitments to environmental justice.

Regan and I have gone back and forth about this: about the costs and benefits of naming things, about exactly how America's past should be accounted for in its present governance. “It's scary for some to think that environmental justice has focused in on past transgressions and how we got there,” Regan said. He is right: It is, for some, indeed scary.

These Moms Smoked Weed Legally. Then Their Kids Were Taken Away

Rolling Stone • 22 Sep 2024 • ~5150 words • Archive Link

One of the most-read articles I recommended last week was about mothers who had their babies taken away because they had positive drug tests after eating poppy seeds. This one discusses the issue of mothers who legally use marijuana being investigated and having their children removed by child welfare agencies, even in the absence of evidence of harm. It explores the vague and subjective criteria used by these agencies to justify family separations, as well as the disproportionate impact on low-income and minority families.

Across the country, tens of thousands of mothers like Doshia are coming under scrutiny because of marijuana use. Whether based on hearsay or urine toxicology tests often done without maternal consent, reports of marijuana use are triggering notifications to child protective services. Family investigations — and separations — follow.

The mystery of Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s great disrupter

Financial Times • 21 Sep 2024 • ~2900 words • Archive Link

Masayoshi Son is a figure who straddles the line between visionary investor and high-stakes gambler. This article delves into his tumultuous journey, exploring how he transformed SoftBank and made bold bets that reshaped the tech landscape, while also facing monumental setbacks. The article delves into Son's unconventional approach to investing and the questions surrounding his decision-making process.

A compulsive risk taker, his story was a classic entrepreneur’s tale of survival and perpetual reinvention. But was Son a tech visionary or simply an inveterate gambler who got lucky? Why was SoftBank, the company he founded in 1981 as a pioneering software distribution business in Japan, so often described as a house of cards?

The Truth is Out There, Part 2: The Power of Belief

filfre.net • 20 Sep 2024 • ~7800 words

This continues from Part 1 we recommended a couple of weeks ago. https://theslowscroll.com/arctic-espionage-poppy-salad/ The author explores the origins and evolution of "The X-Files," highlighting how Chris Carter transformed a simple idea into a cultural phenomenon. With insights into the show's unique influences and the dynamic between its leads, this article sheds light on why the series resonated so deeply with audiences and continues to inspire discussions today.

And now Chris Carter got very, very lucky, by finding two stars for his show that were absolutely perfect. “We lucked out getting the chemistry we did,” he says. If anything, this is understating the case. For it really is difficult to overstate how important David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were to The X-Files’s success. They were the special sauce that the show’s imitators would never be able to duplicate.

Rampant adoption fraud separated generations of South Korean children from their families, AP finds

AP News • 19 Sep 2024 • ~5250 words • Archive Link

This AP report investigates widespread adoption fraud in South Korea that separated generations of Korean children from their families. It uncovers a system where children were kidnapped, had their identities fabricated, and were sent abroad for adoption, often without their parents' knowledge or consent. The article raises questions about the role of the South Korean government and adoption agencies in enabling and perpetuating these unethical practices.

Children were kidnapped off the streets and sent abroad. Parents claim they were told their newborns were dead or too sick to survive, only to have them shipped away. Documents were fabricated to give children identities that belonged to somebody else, leading adoptees to anguished reunions with supposed parents — to later discover they were not related at all.

The Russian Bot Army That Conquered Online Poker

Bloomberg.com • 20 Sep 2024 • ~5900 words • Archive Link

In the world of online poker, a battle goes on between human players and sophisticated Russian poker bots. This piece reveals how these bots, developed by a group in Omsk, have infiltrated the game, raising questions about the integrity of online poker and the industry's future. If you're curious about the intersection of technology and gambling, this article offers a deep dive into a complex and often murky world.

In only a few years, they’d managed to substitute the human talent in their operation with an alternative that didn’t need to eat or sleep; that could connect automatically to a platform with minimal supervision by the founders and their friends; and that could sift through millions of potential scenarios to find the best move from a 3-terabyte database of past games, right down to exploiting a given opponent’s tendencies based on their record of play.

Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host

Lars Lofgren • 18 Sep 2024 • ~3750 words

This one is a bit of a niche read, but I wanted to include it anyway because it’s this kind of garbage content that motivates me to write this newsletter. The article discusses the rise of Forbes Marketplace, a company that has partnered with Forbes to dominate Google search results across a wide range of topics. It questions whether Forbes Marketplace's aggressive SEO tactics and apparent lack of oversight from Forbes itself constitute a "parasite SEO" program that is exploiting the Forbes brand for profit. Also, is this their fault, or should is also fall on Google to filter out content like this?

Google has decided that Forbes is the authority in everything. Credit cards, cockroach removal, and getting too high from gummies. Forbes is now the dominant authority in damn near everything.

Where Do Music Genres Come From?

The Honest Broker • 21 Sep 2024 • ~4050 words • Archive Link

This piece from Ted Gioia explores the origins and evolution of music genres, tracing how they have transformed from serving practical and transformative purposes in people's lives to becoming more of a lifestyle accessory in modern times. It examines how the categorization of music genres has shifted from reflecting the impact and role of music in society to becoming more descriptive labels focused on commercial appeal and marketing.

Put simply, genres originated to describe not what a song *was*, but what it *did* . . . This changed with the emergence of the music business, which made money from selling songs, not transforming people’s lives.

Why Does the U.S. Media Ignore Africa?

Current Affairs • 21 Sep 2024 • ~4500 words

In this piece, Current Affairs explores the glaring gap in U.S. media coverage of Africa, highlighting how major outlets often overlook the continent's significant political developments. It examines the potential reasons behind this lack of coverage, including the role of racism and the perception that African stories are not of interest to American audiences. The article also highlights specific examples of important political, economic, and humanitarian developments in Africa that have received little attention from the U.S. media. It's a crucial reminder that there’s much more to Africa than the narratives we typically see in the news.

A lot of the time, the problem isn’t even that our journalists discuss Africa badly. It’s that they don’t bother to discuss Africa at all.

An owner who ‘thinks he knows everything’ led the White Sox to historic disaster

New York Times • 19 Sep 2024 • ~4150 words • Archive Link

I have no interest in baseball, but I don’t mind reading a well-written article on it now and then. This one discusses the disastrous 2024 season of the Chicago White Sox, which is on track to be one of the worst in modern baseball history. It examines the role of the team's owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, in the franchise's downfall, including his hands-on management style, resistance to analytics, and questionable personnel decisions. The article also explores the White Sox organization's internal dynamics and power struggles that contributed to their historic collapse.

A team doesn’t lose 117 games and counting because of just one thing. In the case of the 2024 Chicago White Sox a meddling owner, dubious leadership, injuries and an inability to properly value and integrate analytics only begin to tell the story. (View Highlight)****