Good morning. We’re covering vaccine corruption in South America, Facebook’s intervention into Myanmar’s coup and political unrest in Armenia. | |  By Amelia Nierenberg and Andrea Kannapell | | | Protesters in Yangon last week. The New York Times | | | Facebook said it had banned Myanmar’s military from its platforms, leaving little question that the company was openly siding with the country’s pro-democracy movement against the figures who abruptly seized power on Feb. 1, ousting the civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. | | | Since seizing power, the military has repeatedly shut off the internet and cut access to major social media sites, including Facebook. But generals still used Facebook to distribute propaganda, and military-owned businesses advertised on the platform as well. Neither will now be allowed, which could undercut the military’s extensive, opaque network of business holdings. | | | Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook’s chief executive has long championed freedom of speech above all else, positioning the site as merely a platform and technology service that would not get involved in governmental or social disputes. That stance has been the focus of intense criticism in many parts of the world, and Mr. Zuckerberg has become increasingly willing to act against what is posted on his platform. | | | A nurse preparing a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm of China during a health workers vaccination campaign in Lima last week. Ernesto Benavides/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images | | | Across the continent, prosecutors are examining thousands of accusations of irregularities in inoculation drives, most of them involving local politicians and their families cutting in line. Four ministers in Peru, Argentina and Ecuador have resigned this month or are being investigated on suspicion of receiving or providing preferential access to scarce coronavirus shots. | | | “They all knew that patients have been dying,” Robert Campos, 67, a doctor in Lima, Peru, said of the country’s politicians. “And they vaccinated all their little friends.” | | | Anger at the powerful line cutters has been amplified by the scarcity of the vaccines. South America, like other developing regions, has struggled to procure enough doses as rich nations bought up most of the available supply. The continent has about 5 percent of the world’s population, but accounts for nearly a fifth of all known pandemic deaths worldwide, and mortality data suggests the pandemic’s real toll is at least double the official numbers. | | ■ Moderna said it would test vaccines modified to protect against a variant first discovered in South Africa. | | | Law enforcement officers guarding government offices in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, during a protest on Saturday. Artem Mikryukov/Reuters | | | Finger-pointing by the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and the country’s military over who should take responsibility for losing a war with neighboring Azerbaijan last year has plunged the tiny south Caucasus nation into political crisis. | | | The fracas began recently, when a political opponent accused Mr. Pashinyan of having failed to deploy medium-range missiles that might have prevented the humiliating loss, which cost Armenia territory it had won in a war nearly three decades ago. The prime minister insisted that he had ordered the missiles to be used but they had malfunctioned — shifting the blame to the military. | | | Mr. Pashinyan fired a military official who contradicted him. On Thursday, the general staff of the military called for him to resign, and Mr. Pashinyan warned of a coup before softening his language. | | | Steps toward stability: By early Thursday evening, the generals had issued a new statement saying they had made the previous statement of their own volition, not in alignment with any opposition political party. Crowds supporting both Mr. Pashinyan and the opposition were still milling about on the streets of the capital, Yerevan. | | | Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images | | | A self-described website developer in Yokohama, Japan, created a map where people disrupted by excessive noise can register their complaints, aiming to help house hunters avoid neighborhoods inhabited by “stupid parents who let their children play on roads and parking lots.” | | | Greece: A pregnant refugee in Lesbos attempted suicide by setting fire to her tent on Sunday, after her family’s relocation to Germany was delayed. Greek officials have charged her with arson, the government’s latest hard-line punishment directed at refugees and migrants. | | | U.S. politics: Joe Manchin III of West Virginia has quickly become the most powerful senator in Washington. As the Senate’s most conservative Democrat, he — like Vice President Kamala Harris — can essentially cast tiebreaking votes. | | | Clubhouse: The 11-month-old app, valued at $1 billion, delights users by letting them dip into different conversations, called “rooms.” But from the start, it’s been plagued by accusations of data mismanagement, hate speech and privacy concerns. My colleague Kevin Roose broke down the controversies and successes. | | | Public domain, via dyatlovpass.com | | | Snapshot: Above, this group of hikers struck out to explore the Russian wilderness in 1959. They died in mysterious circumstances, setting off speculation that aliens or the K.G.B. might be to blame. Now, scientists think they can prove that the cause was an avalanche. | | | Christopher Simpson for The New York Times | | | Read: Annalee Newitz’s book, “Four Lost Cities,” traces the history of four ancient urban communities around the world, and finds implications for the urban future. | | | Watch: French middle schoolers take the reins in “Un Film Dramatique,” a documentary filmed over four years in the Paris suburbs. Our review calls it “joyful” and “heartening.” | | | Visit At Home for ideas on how to add sweetness to life with recipes, recommendations and suggestions for things to do on a safe night in. | | | A year into the coronavirus pandemic, Jessica Grose, the lead editor of our Parenting project, found herself struggling with what felt to her like a loss of mental acuity. She consulted some experts and found that she was far from alone. Here’s an excerpt from her newsletter about what she learned. | | | It turns out that many aspects of our pandemic lives could lead to impaired executive functioning, which is a fancy way of describing the mental processes that allow us to plan, organize and remember instructions. “A lot of things need to function well for our memory to work ideally,” said Marie Eckerström, a neuropsychologist at the Sahlgrenska Memory Clinic in Gothenburg, Sweden, who studies cognitive impairment. | | | “Managing too many details can definitely make you feel ‘foggy,’ and make you feel like your memory has declined,” she said. For example, the fact that I have to organize some of my children’s video calls along with my own schedule can lead to overload. | | | It’s also the stress. Chronically high levels of the hormone cortisol, which is associated with stress, can lead to memory impairments in healthy adults, said Moïra Mikolajczak, a psychology professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium, who studies parental burnout. | | | What can we do to feel less scattered? Inger Burnett-Zeigler, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University, said that we should see if there is anything at all we can take off our plates. | | | In the interest of feeling less broken, my husband and I have started delegating guitar to our 8-year-old. We printed out the schedule and all the Zoom passwords and pinned them up on the bulletin board in her room; she actually likes the additional independence and responsibility. It’s one small step toward … wait, what was I saying again? | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. — Amelia | | P.S.
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• The Times has announced a new project, “Black History, Continued,” to examine Black history and culture, led by the editor and deputy editor of Narrative Projects, Veronica Chambers and Dodai Stewart. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
