‘I’m a figure skater. It’s not too late to save Olympic ice sports.’
Jasmine Wynn at USA Today
Ice sport “decision-makers have an obligation to save the temperate foundation of our sport — for the sake of other Winter Olympic sports and, most important, our planet,” says Jasmine Wynn. The Winter Olympic Games in Milan will “likely use 85 million cubic feet of artificial snow to address declines in snowfall due to warming temperatures,” but “artificial snow production is notoriously water-resource intensive.” Acting “sooner rather than later to decarbonize skating can help preserve the frosty origins of our sport.”
‘Kalshi needed a bigger win from the Mamdani race’
Aaron Brown at Bloomberg
New York City’s “mayoral race was an ad campaign made in heaven for prediction market Kalshi Inc.,” says Aaron Brown. But “less successful is the platform’s study of minute-by-minute pricing of that race to test one of the main claimed benefits of prediction markets — that they promote better decision-making by aggregating the wisdom of crowds with more accuracy and precision.” But experts “can be out-of-touch and, in any event, reflect a narrow slice of knowledge.”
‘Our children are traumatized by ICE. Here’s how the Legislature could help.’
Anil B. Hurkadli at The Minnesota Star Tribune
How “can any young Minnesotan — whether a victim, a bystander, or simply one aware of what is happening in their community — not be profoundly changed in some way by these calamities”? says Anil B. Hurkadli. These are “complex challenges that don’t just resolve themselves, and parents, caregivers and teachers are doing what they can.” Minnesota legislators “should invite youth harassed or arrested by federal agents to share their experiences in a safe and non-extractive way.”
‘Gaza is a crime scene, not a real estate opportunity’
Hani Almadhoun at The Nation
For people “who have mourned the loss of countless loved ones killed by the Israeli military over the past 27 months and watched our family homes reduced to rubble, the ‘New Gaza’ vision unveiled by President Donald Trump and Jared Kushner in Davos is an outrageous moral affront,” says Hani Almadhoun. To “see AI-generated renderings of luxury high-rises and ‘coastal tourism zones’ atop the literal ruins of our lives is not a vision of peace. It is a blueprint for erasure.”
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
