Daily-Dose

Contents

• From New Yorker
• From Vox
• From The Hindu: Sports
• From The Hindu: National News
• From BBC: Europe
• From Ars Technica
• From Jokes Subreddit

From New Yorker

• The New Doves on Ukraine - Could the U.S. prevent a war by giving up on NATO expansion? - link

• Did Omicron Come from Mice? - Throughout the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 has transmitted easily from humans to other species. Some scientists now believe that animals could spread new variants back to us. - link

• What the “Involution” Olympics in Beijing Suggest About China’s Future - The Winter Games are constrained not only by the pandemic but also by the Communist Party’s determination to suppress any challenge that could test its grip. - link

• The Hidden Mothers of Family Photos - The female image is ubiquitous on social media, yet when it comes to pictures of parents with their children many moms feel disappeared. - link

• A Gambling Sharp Breaks Into the N.F.L. - Warren Sharp says he’s the only analyst “in the betting space” who works with N.F.L. teams. Do those dual roles constitute a conflict of interest? - link

From Vox

• How gray wolves divided America -

  

  Many people love wolves. How did saving them become so controversial?

  After a 15-month break, the gray wolf is back on the endangered species list. That might sound like bad news, but it’s actually seen as a major victory for the iconic species, which is revered by Indigenous tribes and a powerful symbol of wildlife conservation.

  The gray wolf gained the protections of “endangered” status in 1974 but lost them in 2020 when the Trump administration removed the animal from the list. The Biden administration defended the removal in court, but a federal judge overturned it on Thursday and restored protections for the species across much of the US. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and the Biden administration now have 60 days to decide whether or not to appeal.

  Environmental groups applauded US District Judge Jeremy White’s ruling, which comes less than a year after hunters in Wisconsin killed more than 200 wolves in three days, exceeding the limit set by state officials. Lawmakers in Montana and Idaho have also passed a suite of bills that allow hunters to kill more wolves with tactics that conservation groups have called cruel. But White’s decision will not affect all of these populations: It only applies to wolves that live outside of the Northern Rockies (Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming) and New Mexico, where they were already protected.

  But what is an endangered species, anyway? The answer is surprisingly complicated, said John Vucetich, a renowned wolf expert and professor at Michigan Technological University. Vucetich led one of the longest-running research projects of any animal, in Isle Royale National Park, a set of islands in Lake Superior. He told Vox that wolves deserve to be protected — but they’ve gotten caught up in the culture wars, which gave them the reputation as one of the nation’s most controversial species.

  Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

  Sibling rivalries and food fights: Wolf packs are like human families

  Benji Jones

  What’s it like to get to know a wolf?

  John Vucetich

  Wolves live in families. We call them packs, but it is literally a family — typically a pair of parents and their offspring. Sometimes there’s an uncle or cousin or grandparent.

  The nature of our fieldwork allows us to follow individual wolves from one day to the next. During our field season, which lasts about seven weeks, we get a really intimate view of what the wolves are doing and how they’re relating to one another. We get to know them as individuals. And all wolves are individuals.

  If you think the dynamics within a human family or between human families are interesting and complicated — think of Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story — the same complexities occur within and between wolf packs. I’m not exaggerating. Sibling rivalries, parent-offspring conflicts, and then conflicts between families … it’s mostly focused on access to reproduction or food.

  Getty Images

Their lives are really difficult because of how difficult it is to get food. The lifespan of a wolf is about 12 years, but in the wild, it’s about four. The most common causes of death are starvation and wolves killing one another, and when they’re killing one another, they’re typically fighting over food.

When is an animal endangered?

Benji Jones

Gray wolves received federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Then wolves in most states lost protection under the Trump administration. This new ruling restores those protections. How did we get here?

John Vucetich

The big picture is pretty simple. We, as an American people and the Fish and Wildlife Service, haven’t figured out what it means for a species to be endangered or not. And if you don’t understand what it means to be endangered, then you can’t reliably rule whether particular species like wolves are endangered or not.

We know, very clearly, that gray squirrels and rabbits are not endangered. We know that tigers are endangered. The question is really about where the boundary lies.

That’s what was at stake in the court case — and that’s what’s at stake with any future decisions about wolves. In a very narrow sense, wolves are re-listed because of a judge’s decision. That’s because a few environmental organizations sued to restore the protections.

Benji Jones

How do we still not know where to draw that line? The Endangered Species Act has been around for nearly half a century.

John Vucetich

From one perspective, it’s absolutely baffling. When the Endangered Species Act was created in 1973, among the first things it did was list species that had already been considered endangered for a long time. It just created a category for them. Many of these species were in such a dire condition that there wasn’t really a need to know where the line was.

Benji Jones

How do you understand the question of what makes a species endangered? And where do wolves fit in?

John Vucetich

In the last couple of hundred years, in particular, humans have not done well by quite a few species. So, the question is: When have we done enough harm to say, “That’s enough, and corrective action is required”?

The slightly more technical aspect here involves a debate about the legal definition of an endangered species. It is, verbatim, “a species that is at risk of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.” It’s this phrase that has really captured a lot of attention.

Over the past 15 to 20 years, the Fish and Wildlife Service has made decisions that hinge on its interpretation of that definition. And this lawsuit’s concern was basically that the FWS hasn’t yet answered the question: What is an endangered species? This court decision reinforces the need for that.

Benji Jones

Do you think that the gray wolf is still at risk of extinction?

John Vucetich

Wolves absolutely do not fit the definition of a recovered species. Wolves, unquestionably, are to be considered legally endangered.

There are a lot of wolves in the world, and a good number of them are in the Lower 48. But a species isn’t considered endangered only if it’s at imminent risk of extinction. It’s about when have humans done enough damage to a species that corrective action is required.

Go back to that legal definition — that language, “throughout all or a significant portion of its range.” It’s the basis for asking the question: How much damage is too much? In the Lower 48, wolves currently occupy about 15 percent of their historic range. It’s really hard to imagine that you could lose 85 percent of the species’ range and say, “That’s no big deal.”

How gray wolves divided America

Benji Jones

It seems like few animals are as controversial as gray wolves in the US these days. How did they become so politicized?

John Vucetich

If you look at sociological data, wolves are not controversial. The Endangered Species Act is also not at all controversial. Even people who self-identify as Republicans or politically conservative have really strong, positive views about the Act.

The controversy does not come from constituents. It comes from special interest groups leaning hard on members of Congress. One would be gun rights advocates. They’ve decided that wolf recovery is a bad idea. Land rights advocates, too, have tended to take a strong position against the Act, more so than wolves alone. Farmers and ranchers also have a strong lobbying group.

Benji Jones

Why are these groups so against wolves?

John Vucetich

The intensity and the vitriol doesn’t match anyone’s real-world experience of what wolves actually do. Wolves have long been symbols for all that’s good — and all that’s evil — in the world.

I think they may have been co-opted into the culture wars. The boundaries don’t always make sense — what do abortion, immigration, climate change, and wolves have in common? There’s also the so-called rural-urban divide. Rural people have a tendency to be less supportive of wolves, which maps onto some elements of the culture wars as well.

Benji Jones

What has working with wolves taught you about saving species?

John Vucetich

My greatest understanding of humans is through and about wolves. Some people love them and some people hate them, and my greatest interest is to understand why we are the way we are. But I’ve learned that no matter what side you’re on, we have a deep inability to explain ourselves to each other.

Benji Jones

Has that made you rethink the larger goals of nature conservation?

John Vucetich

Without a doubt. There are two big shortcomings in conservation, and one is that not even conservation professionals agree about what it means to conserve nature.

Some people are interested in conservation for its own sake: There are species out there that we’ve done poorly by and we should conserve them no matter what value they are to humans, even if it means impairing human value. In contrast, there are people who believe we need to conserve nature because our well-being depends on it.

Other people want to conserve nature but don’t want to harm any individual animals to get there. This becomes important when it comes to invasive species. A lot of invasive species management is about killing them. There’s no agreement about what conservation means and what ultimately motivates it.

Benji Jones

Is there a “right” reason to conserve nature? Where do you fall?

John Vucetich

I haven’t decided. If you are inflexible and say human well-being should always trump conservation, the future is very bleak for biodiversity. Whereas if conservation should always trump human well-being, there’s an extraordinarily bleak future for human well- being.

Benji Jones

If wolves recover across their historic range, there will likely be even more backlash. How do we learn to live with these predators?

John Vucetich

Most people don’t have to do anything. Even if you live in wolf country, you’re not likely to see one or be directly impacted by one. And if you are among the few people who do have a chance of encountering them, either through livestock depredation or through the loss of a pet, you just have to know a few things.

There’s extremely good advice for how to take care of your pets, such as keeping your dog on a leash. There are also lots of husbandry practices that are known to reduce the risk of losing livestock. You can’t make it zero in all cases. We just have to decide to create systems that compensate farmers in a reasonable way.

We live on a very crowded planet. That crowding creates conflicts between humans, and between humans and biodiversity. We have to learn how to coexist and give up some of the things that we want so that other people can get by.

• New York Mayor Eric Adams is an imperfect vegan. And that’s okay. -

  

  The mayor’s “fishgate” debacle highlights the need for more nuanced food politics.

  Vegans are often caricatured as ascetic zealots, ready to spill paint on the first person they see wearing a fur coat, or ruin the next dinner party they attend by sharing graphic details about how animals are turned into meat.

  But as with many social movements, a vocal minority has come to represent the whole, while the data tells a very different story of who is and isn’t a vegan.

  For most people who try it, veganism is short-lived. A study in 2014 by animal advocacy group Faunalytics found that 84 percent of self-defined vegetarians and vegans eventually go back to eating meat. One survey of 1,789 vegetarian Brits found that over one-third of them “cheat” when they’re drunk, and only one-fifth said they rarely drop their dietary standards. In fact, Faunalytics’ research found that a leading reason for people quitting vegetarianism and veganism was because it was too hard to maintain a “pure diet.”

  In a recently published follow-up study, Faunalytics found that even among those who generally stick with veganism or vegetarianism months into their journey, a little over half still ate a small amount of animal products.

  Knowing the average self-defined vegetarian eats meat now and then, and that most vegans quit, the news that New York City Mayor Eric Adams occasionally eats fish while saying he eats a strict plant-based diet came as no surprise to me — nor did the finger-pointing backlash in the media and on Twitter. (Disclosure: Mayor Adams’s senior assistant is a friend of mine.)

  Grub Street called allegations over his fish-eating “explosive,” and Eater reported Adams was “under fire” for repeatedly ordering fish. When a Politico reporter asked an Adams spokesperson about the fish allegation on Saturday, the official denied it. When pressed by reporters, days later, Adams replied, “Let me be clear: Changing to a plant-based diet saved my life, and I aspire to be plant-based 100 percent of the time. I want to be a role model for people who are following or aspire to follow a plant-based diet, but as I said, I am perfectly imperfect, and have occasionally eaten fish.”

  Adams’s spokesperson shouldn’t have lied in the first place, especially when some suspect the mayor has stretched the truth on other matters. But the initial denial wasn’t surprising: When high- profile vegans bend the rules, the public reaction can get ugly.

  Critics are often quick to judge veganism as a strict ideology and lifestyle that demands far too much of its adherents, but when its adherents fail to meet those demands, those critics swiftly brand them as hypocrites. You just can’t win if you’re an imperfect human who is also concerned about animal agriculture’s enormous contribution to any number of problems — from climate change to animal cruelty to personal and public health crises — and wants to adjust their diet accordingly, though maybe not completely.

  It’s tempting to chalk up the melee over Adams’s food choices to the cynical Twitter mob and political media set on scoring easy points against a politician unpopular with much of the Democratic Party’s left-of-center contingent (even if that unpopularity isn’t necessarily shared with New York voters as a whole). But I think there’s something bigger to be learned from it: our glaring inability to have a nuanced conversation about food choices and food politics.

  The case for loosening the rules of veganism

  You could say that Adams just shouldn’t call himself a vegan or strictly plant-based if he eats any amount of animal products, but there’s value to normalizing being an imperfect vegan — which is exactly what many vegans are.

  Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas put it well in a tweet: “It’s bad that being 90% vegan or vegetarian means that you’re no longer in the club. Would be a lot more valuable if 50% of people were vegan half the time than if just 2% of the population were vegan 100% of the time.”

This is right and it’s bad that being 90% vegan or vegetarian means that you’re no longer in the club.

Would be a lot more valuable if 50% of people were vegan half the time than if just 2% of the population were vegan 100% of the time. https://t.co/ahZFvOr29s

— Jerusalem (@JerusalemDemsas) February 7, 2022

The more purist sect of the vegan movement would disagree with that idea and disapprove of Adams’s occasional fish consumption, arguing that any support of America’s cruel and polluting factory farm system is unjust. But most who advocate for veganism long enough begin to lower their expectations of people and institutions after learning just how difficult it is to influence one person’s diet, let alone the corporate and public policies that shape how people eat.

Loosening the rules of veganism, perhaps by elevating the fuzzy term “plant-based,” which Adams is more fond of using to describe himself than “vegan,” is a way to welcome more people into the club — hopefully inspiring more people to eat more vegan food even if not 100 percent of the time. Imagine how much smaller the climate movement would be if, to join, members could never travel by plane or buy new clothes (or eat a burger, for that matter).

From the early 1990s to the early 2000s, the US vegan movement did primarily focus on a 100 percent, all-or-nothing approach to eating. That approach generated more attention for the cause, but didn’t have much of an effect on broader food politics: Meat consumption continued to rise while the share of vegans and vegetarians went largely unchanged.

Even though Americans tell pollsters they don’t want animals abused for food, it’s simply too hard for most people to become and stay vegan in a world not built for veganism. And most people are unwilling to pay a premium for the tiny sliver of animal products produced in higher-welfare conditions — that is, if such animal welfare claims can even be trusted.

So, over the last decade, much of the vegan movement embraced less-meat campaigns like Meatless Monday, Vegan Before 6 pm, Reducetarianism, and Weekday Vegetarianism. One group simply advocates that people stop eating chickens, since they suffer disproportionately compared to cattle and pigs — and make up 95 percent of land animals raised for food. In other words, a no-chicken diet has nearly the same impact on animal welfare as a vegetarian diet.

That fact should call into question the utility of labels like “vegetarian” and “vegan,” since they fail to fully capture the real-world impact of food choices. Rather, thinking more about the animal welfare, environmental, and health effects of different animal products, and the quantity in which they’re consumed, is more useful — though this approach doesn’t slot nicely into a simple label.

Whether this shift to more nuanced less-meat messaging has had a significant effect is also up for debate — Americans continue to eat record amounts of meat, though they’re also eating record amounts of plant- based alternatives (and tofu).

But the “less meat, more plants” messaging certainly helped make the conversation more palatable to Americans, only about 5 percent of whom identify as vegetarian but around a quarter of whom say they are cutting back on meat.

Aside from messaging, there’s no shortage of changes that could be easily made in grocery stores, restaurants, and other places where people eat that would influence them to consume more plant-based food, whether or not they think of themselves as vegetarian or vegan. Those changes include notes on restaurant menus that explain the environmental impact of meat, selling meat and dairy alternatives next to animal products in grocery stores, placing vegetarian dishes next to meat-based dishes on menus, and making plant-based food more affordable.

But to really move the needle on reducing meat consumption — something humanity must do if we’re to get anywhere close to reaching Paris climate agreement targets — we need to focus on politicians’ platforms more than their own food choices. That means implementing policies to modify meat-heavy menus with more plant-based foods, something Adams is bent on accomplishing.

How Adams is trying to change the way New Yorkers eat

Both progressives and animal welfare supporters have serious gripes with some of Adams’s policy proposals, such as bringing back solitary confinement to Rikers Island, rolling back cash bail reform, and installing machines that drown city rats in an alcohol and vinegar solution. (Notably, Adams has spoken more about going vegan for his health and the environment, rather than for animal welfare.)

At the same time, it’s difficult to find another politician who’s as willing to challenge America’s unsustainable meat habit that other politicians, including many of his fellow Democrats, help perpetuate.

As Brooklyn borough president, Adams advocated for Meatless Monday in 15 Brooklyn public schools (which was implemented), and worked with then-Mayor de Blasio to bring it to all 1,700 New York City public schools.

    <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-

  <figcaption>Cafeteria workers prepare a meatless lunch during a visit by then-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and 

He also advocated for Meatless Monday at 11 public hospitals, a plant- based nutrition program at Bellevue Hospital (which was also implemented and is now expanding city- wide), and committed $1 million to urban agriculture. Now as mayor he’s phasing in “Vegan Fridays” for the city’s school lunch program.

Of course, Vegan Fridays was criticized, too. Some noted that meals weren’t totally vegan, or they weren’t sufficiently healthy. Implementing city-wide changes to how citizens eat can be just as tough as change at the individual level, but I hope more of us give it a try — even if we do it imperfectly.

• Kamila Valieva failed her drug test. Blame her coaches. -

  

  Russian skater Kamila Valieva is a minor. The adults in her life should be held responsible.

  The big question surrounding 15-year-old Kamila Valieva is whether or not she’ll be allowed to skate in the Olympic women’s individual event.

  The International Testing Agency (ITA) said that Valieva, who helped the Russian women win the team event and became the first woman in history to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics, tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned heart medication that is purported to improve endurance. Russia wants her to skate, claiming a misunderstanding and perhaps Western jealousy. The ITA and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will attend a hearing on behalf of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to appeal Russia’s decision to let her skate. The International Skating Union (ISU) will determine medals and results after the hearing, which will happen before Tuesday’s event.

  Lost in the shadow of this news, perhaps, are other important questions: how a 15-year-old girl got the medication, and why she would feel like taking it was a good idea.

  Valieva, along with her quad-landing teammates Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova, all train with coach Eteri Tutberidze. Tutberidze is the single most dominant coach in women’s figure skating, as her girls — most of her skaters become champions before the age of 18 — have taken home Olympic golds and silvers, World Championships, European Championships, and international champions.

  But amid all that success, none of Tutberidze’s champions have gone to multiple Olympics. They’ve retired, many citing injury, in four-year windows. Even more distressing is how there seems to be a pattern of abusive practices when it comes to diet restriction and over- training.

  When the IOC, ISU, and Russia convene, they’ll decide Valieva’s future. But it would behoove them and the sport to look beyond the athlete in question and also focus on the adults in charge.

  Tutberidze’s girls land jumps no other women in the world can do and are some of the most amazing skaters on the planet. But what’s the price they pay to become so?

  Kamila Valieva’s coach Eteri Tutberidze has a history of injured skaters and diet restrictions

  The unfortunate truth about women’s figure skating is that puberty is seen as the enemy. Smaller, leaner skaters have an advantage because of the physics involved. Lighter skaters have an easier time getting up in the air; having less mass and being narrow allows them to spin faster (think of a pencil, spinning between your fingers). Because puberty tends to add weight, height, and more fat to a woman’s body, it’s not uncommon to see it adversely affect female skaters. We’ve seen that skaters can hit more difficult jumps before they hit puberty, and then lose those jumps as their bodies change. It’s not impossible for female skaters to regain those highly difficult jumps post-puberty, but they remain the exception rather than the norm.

  The downside to this, as you might expect in any elite sport, is coaches and athletes will try to physically change athletes’ bodies to keep or obtain those advantages. Hence, women’s figure skating is a sport that’s peppered with athletes who have had eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia.

  Fredrik von Erichsen/picture alliance via Getty Images

  And some of those stories have come from Eteri Tutberidze’s former students.

  Back in 2014, Yulia Lipnitskaya became one of the Olympic Games’ breakout stars when she won a gold medal at 15. She was known for her spins and incredible flexibility. After Sochi 2014, she had middling results and ended her career in 2017 while suffering from a knee injury. In September of that year, she revealed to the Russian press she had been suffering from anorexia for “not just for one year, or two, or three” years and sought treatment at a rehab center in Israel. At the time, there were reports that Lipnitskaya was encouraged by Tutberidze’s team to sustain herself through “powdered nutrients” to keep the weight off.

  Lipnitskaya never made it to the 2018 Olympics, where Tutberidze’s dynamic duo of Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva shined. Zagitova and Medvedeva combined for the silver in the team event, and then went gold and silver, respectively, in the women’s singles event. At the time, Zagitova was 15 and seemed like an improved version of Lipnitskaya who could land very difficult jumps. She nabbed a gold that year.

  After the Olympics, she was asked in an interview with the Russian website, Sport Express, about her growth spurt and puberty. She told them that her and her coaches’ plan to deal with the changes of puberty was to restrict her diet.

  “And in terms of puberty, when you become fat — it seems to me that these are all fictions. You just need to shut your mouth and don’t eat! Or at least a little. I eat, but in small quantities,” Zagitova said.

  Granted, there might be nuances lost in translation. At the time, Zagitova was 15 and may not have chosen her words wisely. But this wasn’t the first time she talked about what sounds like, at best, a very restrictive diet and, at worst, an eating disorder.

  In a 2019 interview with Russian Glamour, Zagitova explained that she and team Tutberidze restricted her food intake and that she abstained from drinking water. She essentially used water as a rinse. She said:

  No, I don’t like chips. Well, perhaps it’s because I don’t eat them. I like sweets — chocolate, candy. Generally, I restricted myself during the Olympic Games. I was, you can say, not drinking water at all. That is, we just rinsed our mouths and spit it all out.

  In another 2019 interview, Zagitova lamented that the game had passed her by, that she was too old (at 19) to hit quads, and that if she had any hope at landing one, she’d need to first lose weight. Zagitova has since retired from the sport.

  Medvedeva, who was Zagitova’s main rival, had a career punctuated with back and foot injuries. She left Tutberidze after the Olympics to train in Canada with coach Brian Orser. Orser is known for coaching champions like Yuna Kim and Yuzuru Hanyu.

  While in Canada, Medvedeva opened up about how the training methods were different, and how Orser’s club did not pit her against her rivals. In a 2019 interview with the Russian site RSport, she explained how she had severely restricted her diet and was now working with a nutritionist with Orser. She seems to allude to the same calorie restriction and water weight that Zagitova references:

  I understood that I should be as “dry” as possible. I weighed in Pyeongchang one and a half kilograms less than a year before the World Championships in Helsinki. It was a difficult period, but I had no other choice … I didn’t have too many muscles then, and in this case the body retains water very much. You become heavy and “swollen.” Therefore, everything was really very tough and caused decent damage to the body. Now, fortunately, all these problems are in the past.

  Medvedeva returned to Tutberidze in 2020 because of the pandemic. And in a 2021 interview with Russian media, Tutberidze said that Medvedeva gained weight and blamed Orser and Medvedeva for her poor scores. Tutberidze hasn’t been afraid of lashing out against Medvedeva and other skaters who have left her training academy. Often those skaters, like Medvedeva, return.

  “So we did all we could for her under the circumstances,” Tutberidze said. In that same interview, she mentions that she trains her students 12 hours a day.

  Medvedeva has since retired, citing permanent injuries to her back. She can only turn it one way.

  While Lipnitskaya, Zagitova, and Medvedeva are all retired now, the stories alluding to weight restriction and injury among Tutberidze’s current crop of students continue.

  In a 2019 interview with Russian sports channel Sport24, Daniil Gleikhengauz, who choreographs at Tutberidze’s school, talked about Anna Shcherbakova. Shcherbakova is a favorite to medal this year. The interviewer talks about how she was amazed that Shcherbakova can eat “two shrimps” for dinner and be full.

  Again, there could be nuances and humor lost in translation. The host is seemingly joking about Scherbakova’s appetite and willpower. But given Lipnitskaya’s history, Zagitova’s mentality about weight loss, and Medvedeva’s frank answers to the Russian press, the idea that Scherbakova severely restricts her diet doesn’t seem like a joke.

  As former Olympic skaters, physicists, and experts explained to me earlier this month, skating is an incredibly taxing sport on the body. Hence the injuries that skaters power through to win. It’s even more terrifying to consider those injuries on the bodies of young girls who are extremely thin, severely restricting their diet, or in a scenario like Lipnitskaya’s, not eating at all.

  Trusova and Scherbakova have reportedly been dealing with nagging injuries as they skate. Aliona Kostornaia, who was once seen as a lock for the Olympic team and medal threat, pulled out of the Russian Nationals this year due to an unspecified injury. And Daria Usacheva, who is one of Tutberidze’s prized pupils and Russian junior champion, appeared to suffer a very painful and serious injury this past November. Injuries are usually kept close to the vest in the Russian press.

  Are skating and the media that covers it complicit?

  Amid Valieva’s failed doping test and accounts of what sure seems like disordered eating and careers cut very short due to injury, it raises the question of what skating’s governing bodies are doing about this. The answer seems to be rewarding her.

  In 2020, the International Skating Union awarded Tutberidze its “best coach.” And if you’ve been watching NBC’s figure skating coverage, commentator and former skater Johnny Weir has been — up until news of Valieva’s failed doping test broke — talking about spending time at her coaching facility and the splendid time he had getting to know Tutberidze and the girls. Weir posted on Instagram in November, about how thankful he was to visit the school. In hindsight, these decisions haven’t aged well.

  Dimitris Isevidis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

  “If people start to look under the hood of what’s going on in Team Tutberidze, that might actually be positive for the sport because it would really shine a light on adolescent girls being abused physically, mentally, emotionally. And now pharmacologically, with these drugs,” said Dave Lease, who runs the skating analysis YouTube channel The Skating Lesson.

  While he acknowledges that Tutberidze’s skaters are talented, Lease has been critical of Tutberidze on his show, specifically calling into question her training practices. He has spoken with guests about allegations of eating disorders and possible doping (prior to Valieva’s positive test). He says what’s happening at Tutberidze’s school is analogous to the abuse that happened at US Gymnastics and the Karolyis’ ranch. Saying that Tutberidze’s coaching practices are “abusive” has gotten Lease harangued in the Russian press.

  “It doesn’t take a genius to realize that there’s something aberrant taking place with Tutberidze’s training methods as opposed to training methods around the rest of the world,” he said. “I don’t think that any intelligent person who follows figure skating should be surprised. The clues have been there.”

  The clues Lease refers to are accounts from former skaters, but also Russian press interviews about diets, the injuries from over-training, interviews with coaches about possible doping, and Russia’s history with state-sponsored doping.

  Since the news broke, former skaters like Adam Rippon and Katarina Witt have spoken out about holding Russia and the adults surrounding Valieva responsible. And in an interview with the French newspaper 20 Minutes, top ice dancing coach Romain Haguenauer said the result hadn’t surprised him. He said:

  When Valieva’s name came out, I wouldn’t say people weren’t surprised, but let’s say it’s been stuff that’s been around for years. … To see these kids between the ages of 12 and 15 doing quadruple jumps … it’s true that there are always questions from the [jumps] specialists. I’m not one, but I know plenty of people who are and all of them have always been extremely surprised that it happened all of a sudden. Before Sochi, Russia did not shine in women’s skating. … And then, all of a sudden, every year they bring out four new kids rocking quads.

  One of the problems surrounding skating is that it goes mainstream once every four years, not unlike gymnastics. Mainstream interest peaks during the Olympics and wanes sharply after, so unless there’s something newsworthy that happens — like Valieva’s failed test — most viewers don’t follow the skaters or Tutberidze enough to know her or her skaters’ history. In Russia where these women are considered top athletes, Lease says, Tutberidze’s success outshines any criticism.

  It’s also especially difficult for casual viewers to know about the controversies when you have NBC and commentators like Weir talking glowingly about the academy. For many devout skating fans, though, Tutberidze’s methods have been an open secret for years.

  “I know many intelligent people who follow the sport and like to watch the sport, but maybe they aren’t completely immersed. And they prefer to watch skating and see these beautiful young skaters and be amazed and choose to look the other way,” he said. “Or they choose to not know, and not look too far into why they are so amazing.”

From The Hindu: Sports

• IPL auction 2022 | Auctioneer Hugh Edmeades collapses due to low blood pressure - He was immediately stretchered off for medical attention

• KKR get Shreyas Iyer for ₹12.25 crores, Rabada bags million dollar deal from Punjab - Ravichandran Ashwin got ₹5 crore winning bid from Rajasthan Royals while Trent Boult, with his left-arm swing bowling, laughed his way to the bank with a handsome ₹8 crore bid from Rajasthan Royals

• From remote village to Odisha Ranji team, plumber Prashant Rana set to live dream - Right-arm fast medium bowler is one of five new faces in State team

• IPL Auction 2022 live updates| CSK retains Deepak Chahar for 14cr., Umesh Yadav goes unsold - A total of 590 players are up for new contracts in the IPL auction, with franchises entitled to spend upto ₹561.50 crore

• India vs West Indies | Our middle-order batting in this series was good, says skipper Rohit - “What we were worried about was how we were challenged in the middle overs, but our middle order batting in this series was very good,” Rohit said after the end of the series

From The Hindu: National News

• Rubber Board prepared to fight diseases - It has a clinic that addresses any disease situation real-time

• IIST has a role in ISRO’s first launch of the year - INSPIRESat-1 one of the three satellites to be launched aboard PSLV C-52 tomorrow

• Water level in Papanasam, Manimuthar dams - Water level in Papanasam dam stood at 104.55 feet (maximum permissible level is 143 ft.) with an inflow of 221.07 cusecs and a discharge of 1,204.75 c

• Uttarakhand Assembly elections | Do not let Cong’s agenda of appeasement to succeed: PM Modi - PM Modi, addressing a rally in poll-bound Uttarakhand, said the Congress has no understanding of the country’s cultural legacy and is disrespectful towards the armed forces

• Double-murder case | Himachal Pradesh police nabs two men from Punjab - The accused were arrested by a three-member SIT, a press note said.

From BBC: Europe

• Ukraine tensions: Russia invasion could begin any day, US warns - President Biden and Vladimir Putin to talk as the US says Russia could invade Ukraine “at any time”.

• Paris attacks trial: ‘How I persuaded Salah Abdeslam to open up’ - The lawyer who cross-examined Salah Abdeslam explains how she avoided confrontation with him.

• Covid protests: Hundreds fined as convoy heads to Paris - Thousands of demonstrators opposed to France’s coronavirus regulations are trying to enter the city.

• How Ouka the dog started flying on a paraglider - Ouka the dog and his owner Shams can be seen flying in the French Alps.

• Macron refused to take Russian Covid test - A source says the health procedure was unacceptable amid reports France was protecting Mr Macron’s DNA.

From Ars Technica

• $3.6 billion bitcoin seizure shows how hard it is to launder cryptocurrency - A “laundry list” of technical measures to cover wrongdoers’ tracks didn’t work. - link

• This Ancient Roman ceramic pot was probably a portable toilet, study finds - It’s the first time parasite eggs have been found in concreted layers of a Roman pot. - link

• Police in Spain dismantle a SIM-swapping ring that drained bank accounts - Banks still use SMS for 2FA, much to the satisfaction of crooks. - link

• FDA, Pfizer abandon 2-shot COVID vaccine in kids under 5, citing new data - The vaccine maker and regulator will wait for data on a third shot, expected in April. - link

• COVID causes “substantial” longterm cardiovascular risks, huge study finds - COVID will affect cardiovascular health, health care for years to come, authors say. - link

From Jokes Subreddit

• The wife has just phoned me to tell me that 3 women in her office have received flowers today and they are absolutely gorgeous. -

  I said, “That’s probably why !!”

  submitted by /u/VERBERD
  [link] [comments]

• I asked my kid for a phone book. They rolled their eyes and said “OK boomer, we don’t use those anymore” and handed me their phone. -

  Now their phone is smashed and they are furious, but I got that spider!

  submitted by /u/MikeNoble91
  [link] [comments]

• A penis has a sad life. -

  His hair is a mess; his family is nuts; his next-door neighbor is an asshole; his best friend is a pussy, and his owner beats him habitually.

  submitted by /u/NikonDexter
  [link] [comments]

• Difference between a cult and a religion -

  In a cult, there’s a guy at the top that knows it’s a scam.

  In a religion, that guy is dead.

  submitted by /u/Henri_Dupont
  [link] [comments]

• Two men broke into a drugstore and stole all the Viagra. -

  The police put out an alert to be on the lookout for the two hardened criminals.

  submitted by /u/BoreddHuman
  [link] [comments]