‘A hero of our time’  Alec Luhn is likely referring to the subject of this piece, but it could just as easily apply to the author, CNN’s Rob Picheta, who has given us exactly the kind of news story we need right now, specifically: This playboy tortoise had so much sex he saved his entire species. Now he’s going home (600,000+ shares). Pervaiz Shallwani highlights, “This lede: A womanizing tortoise whose rampant sex life may have single-handedly saved his entire species from extinction has retired from his playboy lifestyle, returning to the wild with his mission accomplished.”
Sure, it’s still January, but we’re with Vivian Salama, who tweets, “Behold, my favorite story of 2020.” And cheers to you, Diego, “Hero in a half shell,” as Bobby Ghosh dubs him. Meanwhile, “disney greenlight this you cowards,” tweets Renan Borelli. ‘Congratulations to those men’ 
Speaking of the movies, Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and the Variety staff have The Complete List, which includes Todd Phillips’ “Joker” leading the pack with 11 nominations. Among the snubs: women. In fact, Variety’s Kate Aurthur shares that she’s “Very sad to have prewritten this story, and to have it turn out to be true.” That’s her prescient piece, Women Directors Shutout By Oscar for Best Director Nominations. As Issa Rae said, after announcing the directing category, “Congratulations to those men.” Kyle Buchanan of The New York Times offers his take on the Oscar Snubs and Surprises, noting that an #OscarsSoWhite outcome was just barely averted. He also highlights the fact that the best-director lineup is all male once again. Surrounded by yes men and hawks New from Courtney Kube and Carol Lee of NBC News, Trump authorized Soleimani’s killing 7 months ago, and as Mieke Eoyang points out, it’s “Hard to argue imminence in taking two nations to the brink of war, when Trump authorized a strike on Soleimani SEVEN months ago.” But also, “A mystery of the Trump presidency is his transformation from not knowing who Soleimani is to wanting to kill him,” tweets John Hudson. So what happened? Paul Sonne, Greg Jaffe and Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post write that the killing of Soleimani reflects an aggressive national security team not inclined to curb Trump. As Dawsey says, “Trump first asked for options to kill Suleimani in 2017 but his national security team didn’t provide them. Things have changed.” Tweets Nicholas Kristof, “A sobering piece suggests that Trump had raised the possibility before of killing Soleimani, but was dissuaded by his national security team. These days, he’s surrounded by yes men and hawks, and so it happened.” Adds Daniel DePetris, “Personnel is policy. If the president puts a bunch of Iran hawks in the cabinet, the options are going to be prejudicially skewed in a more hawkish direction. I’d rather have balance, where different adversaries battle it out in the Situation Room.” 
And then there’s the man on a mission to maximize executive power and protect the Presidency: William Barr, Trump’s Sword and Shield. David Rohde gives us what Michael Luo calls “the definitive piece on William Barr” for the New Yorker, and there are some interesting revelations in that piece. For example, “A self-styled polymath, Barr has strong opinions on issues ranging from legal arcana to the proper mustard to apply to a sandwich.” Plus: “William Barr is into fancy interior paint,” tweets Terri Rupar. But the key takeaway, as David Beard says: “He always has wanted America to be ruled by a king. Now, William Barr has his best shot to make it happen.” When the boss is a lying liar On CBS’s “Face the Nation” yesterday, Defense Secretary Mike Esper said he “didn’t see” specific evidence Iranians planned to attack four embassies, which is what President Trump had claimed last week as a justification for the strike on Soleimani. Thomas Gibbons-Neff of The New York Times attempts to keep up with this ever-evolving explanation for the strike that led to the brink of war. Clyde Haberman offers this “Translation of what Trump aides are saying: He basically (no surprise) just makes up stuff.” And “When the boss is a lying liar, it’s hard for his direct reports to also not be lying liars,” notes Josh Sternberg. A sickening report In Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories, a New York Times analysis of some of the most popular social studies textbooks used in California and Texas, Dana Goldstein reveals how American history textbooks can differ across the country in ways that are shaded by partisan politics. “Texas is rewriting school textbooks to fit a Fox News worldview. And the filter bubbling of American life is now being advanced through our schools. A sickening report, full of revelations, by the brilliant @DanaGoldstein,” tweets Anand Giridharadas. Adds David Gelles, “Chilling @DanaGoldstein story. More and more feels like we are not one country.” Worth noting, this interactive piece includes design work from Adriana Ramic, which Marc Lacey says is “is stunning beyond belief.” What could go wrong? 
She’s baaack...As Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times reports, Away’s former C.E.O. Steph Korey is returning as Co-C.E.O., weeks after stepping down in the wake of allegations by former employees that she had created a toxic culture. “Two CEOs. What could go wrong?” tweets Lydia Polgreen. Tom Gara thinks, “The article about how the Away founder has decided to return as CEO is best enjoyed by imagining all the people quoted in it are absolutely terrified of her humiliating them in public Slack channels.” As for Korey’s comment, “I honestly thought that people didn’t care that much about the inner workings of Away,” Megan Graham points out, “Lots of consumers these days care what a company is about both inside and out.” Media news At The Atlantic, Helen Lewis reminds us that The Twitter Electorate Isn’t the Real Electorate. She argues that Twitter is distorting the political conversation through its effect on activists and the media and notes that “there is no point in demanding that journalists get out of the ‘Westminster bubble’ or the ‘East Coast bubble’ if they’re still stuck in the Twitter bubble.” “Twitter is not the real world (he screams into the void of Twitter),” tweets Leo Mirani. Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports has the scoop that ESPN is prepared to make Tony Romo the highest paid sportscaster in history, with a multi-year deal that would pay him between $10 million to $14 million annually. In six years, Guardian Cities has grown into a community of journalists, experts and readers joined by a desire to make cities better. Now it’s time for a change, as editor Chris Michael writes in his farewell. “Oh! I am sad about this. But what a nice piece from the editor,” tweets Alice Woolley. Tag yourself 
Here’s something to look forward to, dread, be relieved by, etc., depending on where you fall on “The curve of middle-age despair,” as ;Kathleen McLaughlin puts it. She’s referring to Simon Kennedy’s reporting at Bloomberg News on a new study that shows Middle Age Misery Peaks at the Age of 47.2. Edward Evans notices, “Strangely, a lot of early middle-aged media types are frantically tweeting this one.” “Tag yourself, I’m cohort dummies. Also, it’s cool how existential dread skyrockets in your early 20s and then just keeps climbing for another 25 years,” says Mark Gongloff. So cool! Absolutely delicious 
Finally today, “Oh, this interview is just what I want to read on a Monday morning 😍” tweets Jo Usmar. Let’s start with the headline for Hadley Freeman’s Brian Cox interview in The Guardian: Succession’s Brian Cox: ‘I was touched up by Princess Margaret.’ As Freeman explains, “I interviewed Logan Roy and we talked about his love of cannabis, his loathing of Trump and the time Princess Margaret felt him up. So just a typical day at the office, really.” Hanna Flint says, “Brian Cox giving a resounding fuck off to the Establishment is going to power me through the week,” and Melissa Harrison thinks, “This is an absolutely delicious interview. Let's have more famous people like him.” Adds Johanna Gretschel, “who cares about #oscarnoms when brian cox is giving interviews like this.” Monday round-up -
Cory Booker has ended his presidential bid, leaving a field “that was once the most diverse in history with just one remaining African American candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick,” writes Alexandra Jaffe of AP News. -
Also at AP News, Jon Gambrell reports on online videos that appear to show Iran police firing live ammunition and tear gas at those protesting the plane shootdown. -
Six years after the rest of the UK, same-sex marriage is now legal in Northern Ireland (340,000+ shares), as Peter Coulter reports for BBC News. -
From Peter Walker at The Guardian, UK home secretary Priti Patel has defended anti-terrorist police for putting the Extinction Rebellion environmental protest group on a list of extremist ideologies, saying it was important to look at “a range of security risks.” “So presumably we'll now send in lots of undercover cops to infiltrate XR, start relationships with activists, father their children and destroy their lives in the name of national security – just like in the good old days,” tweets Simon Hattenstone. -
“In a rare interview, MI5 chief Andrew Parker tells the FT: -in future spies will monitor terror suspects in real time through their online transactions -of 6 terror plots foiled in 2019, 3 were by the far right -describes China’s UK espionage activity.” Helen Warrell links to her story with Lionel Barber of the Financial Times, MI5 chief sees tech as biggest challenge and opportunity. -
Hong Kong authorities denied Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, entry to Hong Kong, where he had planned to launch the organization’s World Report 2020. Roth explains, “I flew to Hong Kong to release @HRW’s new World Report. This year it describes how the Chinese government is undermining the international human rights system. But the authorities just blocked my entrance to Hong Kong, illustrating the worsening problem.” | 
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