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How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food

Andrew Jacobs, Matt Richtel The New York Times
As growth slows in wealthy countries, Western food companies are aggressively expanding in developing nations, contributing to obesity and health problems.

There Is Still Hope - Even for Me

Edward Snowden, Martin Knobbe, Jörg Schindler Spiegel online
In an interview, whistleblower Edward Snowden discusses his life in Russia, the power of the intelligence apparatuses and how he will continue his battle against all-encompassing surveillance by governments.

Viruses Would Rather Jump to New Hosts Than Evolve With Them

Mallory Locklear Quanta Magazine
The discovery that viruses move between species unexpectedly often is rewriting ideas about their evolutionary history — and may have troubling implications for the threat from emerging diseases.

An Israeli Physician on War Crimes and the “Open Wound” of Israeli Segregation

Alon Mizrahi +972 Magazine
When Dr. Ruchama Marton founded Physicians for Human Rights-Israel during the First Intifada in 1988, she elevated the concept of “human rights” in Israeli political discourse on the occupation. On her 80th birthday, Marton talks about the atrocities she witnessed as a soldier, the enduring power of feminism, and why only outside pressure, such as the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement, has a chance of ending Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians.

The Republican Effort to Rig Elections

Steven Rosenfeld Alternet
The GOP Is Plowing Ahead with an Audacious Effort to Hijack the Vote and Rig Elections. From Trump’s “election integrity” commission to Mitch McConnell, the GOP targets the levers of power.

Pro-Charter School Group Pays State’s Largest Campaign Finance Penalty

Michael Levenson The Boston Globe
The newly revealed donor list showed the group received checks from Amos B. Hostetter Jr., the former cable television magnate from Boston, who gave $2 million; Seth Klarman, the billionaire chief executive of Baupost Group, a Boston hedge fund, who donated $3.3 million; and Alice Walton, an heiress to the Walmart fortune, who gave $750,000.

Harvard Disinvites Chelsea Manning, and the Feeling Is Mutual

Matthew Haag And Jonah Engel Bromwich The New York Times
Mr. Elmendorf told Ms. Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for providing classified information to WikiLeaks, that she was still invited to speak at Harvard. But he said that the school could no longer give her the title of visiting fellow.