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PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
Planting Seeds of Hope: ‘Zero Plant Extinction’ Is Possible, Ecologist Says (Maria)
The author writes, “Like animals, many plant species are struggling to adapt to a human-dominated planet. However, plants are often overlooked in conservation efforts, even though they are cheaper and easier to protect than animals and play a pivotal role in bolstering our food, fuel, and medical systems. In a review published on May 2 in the journal Trends in Plant Science, a plant ecologist suggests an approach for preventing all future land plant extinctions. … ‘There is no technical reason why any known plant species should go extinct,’ writes plant ecologist Richard T. Corlett of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in Yunnan, China. ‘If zero extinction is potentially achievable for plants, a less ambitious target would be inexcusable.’”
The Proud Boys’ Conviction Is Big News. Their Role as FBI Informants, Not So Much. (Gray)
From Jacobin: “Almost none of the reports about Thursday’s conviction of four Proud Boys members mentioned the fact that the far-right group was riddled with FBI informants. But this kind of law enforcement collusion with the far right is a profound threat to democracy.”
2 Supreme Court Justices Did Not Recuse Themselves in Cases Involving Their Book Publisher (Al)
From CNN: “In two separate copyright infringement cases concerning the publishing conglomerate Penguin Random House, the high court declined to take up the appeals, with the court saying in 2013 that it wouldn’t hear the first case, and the second case being turned away from the court in 2019 and again in 2020. In both cases, the publisher won at the lower court level, and those decisions stood. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who joined the court in 2009 and has been paid millions of dollars from the publisher over the years, declined to recuse herself in all three instances. Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined the court in 2017 and also has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in book deals with the publisher, declined to disqualify himself from the more recent case when it came before the court for consideration.”
Three Failed US Banks Had One Thing in Common: KPMG (Reader Jim)
From The Financial Times: “The trio of bank failures since March has cast a pall over KPMG’s lucrative business as the largest auditor of the US banking sector. Questions over the quality of its work and independence have mounted in recent days, following the release of a Federal Reserve report into the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the forced sale of First Republic. The Big Four accounting firm was auditor to both banks, as well as to Signature, which was seized by regulators in March.”
WA’s Bill to Require Clergy to Report Child Abuse Dies After Catholics Refuse Compromise on Confessions (Reader Steve)
From The Seattle Times: “The bill, which would have added clergy to the state [of Washington]’s list of mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect, ran into a sticking point. Catholic lobbyists — and a majority of state senators — wanted to carve out an exemption for priests if they learned of abuse or neglect through a confession, which is viewed as sacred within the Catholic Church.”
King Charles III Could Be Britain’s First Post-Colonial Monarch (Roshni)
The author writes, “Already, a number of other Caribbean nations have announced their plans to follow the path of Barbados and transform themselves into republics with no Windsor as the head of state. Even in countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand — long tethered to the crown — revaluations of the relationship to the monarchy are underway. If Elizabeth represented a post-imperial monarch — the Windsor who stoically watched the British Empire shrink decade-by-decade — Charles could be Britain’s first post-colonial royal — the king who sloughs off the faded trappings of empire and directly acknowledges (if not necessarily apologizes for) a deep legacy of injustice.”
Finnish Newspaper Hides Ukraine News Reports for Russians in Online Game (Sean)
From The Guardian: “‘While Helsingin Sanomat and other foreign independent media are blocked in Russia, online games have not been banned so far,’ said Antero Mukka, the editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat. The newspaper was bypassing Russia’s censorship through the first-person shooter game Counter-Strike, where gamers battle against each other as terrorists and counter-terrorists in timed matches.”
Adoption Study Highlights Impact of Young Children’s Genetic Makeup on Their Parents (Michaela)
The author writes, “Findings from the ongoing longitudinal Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS), a long-term, prospective adoption study launched by a Yale psychiatrist, indicate that, while many studies have emphasized the role of parents in the development of a child, children can also influence their parents — and some of these influences are due to genetic characteristics.”
