05.22.2023

Russia Claims Bakhmut

Russian officials claimed their nine-month campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut had succeeded Saturday, marking its first significant conquest since last summer. On Sunday, Ukrainian officials denied the claims after comments from the country's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking from the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, appeared to indicate otherwise.

Analysts claim the city, located roughly 30 miles north of the capital of the region of Donetsk, is not strategically significant but became symbolically important to Russia after some initial territorial gains last March were lost in a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the fall. Some of the war's deadliest fighting has occurred in the 400-year-old city, reducing its prewar population of 80,000 to near zero and the majority of its buildings to rubble (see images). 

Intense fighting in the city has depleted munitions and manpower on both sides, with the US estimating Russia has sustained 100,000 casualties in five months of fighting there, including 20,000 deaths.  

Eye Drop Deaths

A fourth person has died from an infection arising from contaminated eye drops, officials reported over the weekend, the latest in a multistate outbreak that includes at least 14 cases of vision loss and four instances of surgical eye removal.

The products in question—EzriCare or Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears—were both manufactured in a plant in southern India. Clinical samples suggest the eye drops may have been contaminated with a drug-resistant strain of the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which may cause severe inflammation of the cornea (among other symptoms), and in some cases, infect the lungs and bloodstream. Global Pharma, the India-based parent company of both EzriCare and Delsam, issued a recall of the products in February. As of the most recent report, 81 cases across 18 states had been identified. 

Read how investigators pinpointed the cause of the deaths here.

Mount Etna Erupts

Italy's Mount Etna erupted yesterday, spewing ash across parts of Sicily's eastern coast and canceling flights from the city of Catania. No injuries or damage were reported as of this writing. 

Mount Etna is one of the world's most active volcanoes, with multiple eruptions in both 2021 and 2022. The formation is a stratovolcano, typically characterized by a steep summit and a crater, capable of either explosive eruptions or slow-and-steady lava flows. It is also one of 16 across the globe to have been designated as a "decade" volcano (see list)—those with a significant probability of a destructive eruption while also being located near high-density urban centers. 

The mountain is one of the country's most popular tourist destinations (when not erupting), with close to 1 million people visiting per year. 

Science & Technology

Business & Markets

Politics & World Affairs

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Waste time by pretending to slash the national debt.

The best vacations in the US—on a budget. 

Bankers behave better when working from home.

Researchers spot near-extinct ivory-billed woodpeckers.

Starbucks is testing nugget ice in its drinks. 

An epic water spout off South Carolina coast. 

Gen Z is bringing back picnics. 

Clickbait: The time Alec Baldwin tried to take down a national laboratory.

Historybook: (First) first lady of the US Martha Washington dies (1802); The Associated Press is founded (1846); Poet Langston Hughes dies (1967); Supermodel Naomi Campbell born (1970); Manchester Arena bombing kills 22 following Ariana Grande concert (2017).