The Economist (March 24)
“Constitutionally Mr Putin cannot stand in 2024, and from now on political life will be dominated by the question of succession and expectation of his departure.” There is likely to be a generational sea change as the children and grandchildren of the glasnost and perestroika (openness and restructuring) sown by Gorbachev come to the fore. There will no doubt be tension. Putin’s very “own survival and preservation of the system he now presides over will be his sole objective.”
Tags: Constitution, Generational, Glasnost, Gorbachev, Perestroika, Putin, Sea change, Succession, Survival
Gizmodo (March 23)
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch “has more lost and discarded plastic inside it than previous surveys suggested—like, a lot more. And it’s still growing.” A recent study published in Scientific Reports suggest it “is filled with 79,000 metric tonnes (87,000 tons) of plastic, which is between 10 to 16 times higher than previous estimates…. Disturbingly, plastic pollution inside the GPGP ‘is increasing exponentially and at a faster rate than in surrounding waters.’”
Tags: Disturbing, Estimates, Exponentially, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Growing, Plastic, Pollution
