Watching and Ignoring

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

Ethiopia — Looking for a good news story? (Aren’t we all?) There is real movement toward a peace deal between Eritrea and Ethiopia, one of Africa’s most promising countries.

Japanese football fans — Here’s another one: Check out the Japanese football fans who celebrated a 2–1 World Cup win over Colombia by helping to clean garbage left in the stands at the 44,000-seat stadium where the match took place. Later in the day, Senegalese fans did the same. #SignalSalute

WHAT WE’RE IGNORING

South Africa’s Squatter Camps — The world noticed this week that googling the phrases “South Africa” and “squatter camps” turns up lots of photos of impoverished South African white people. This result, many have noted, is representative of neither white South Africa nor the country’s squatter camps. It appears to be an algorithmic anomaly that reflects user investigations into conspiracy theories rather than an actual conspiracy to mischaracterize South African poverty.

The babushka workout — Russia’s greatest natural resource has never been oil, gas, metals, or minerals. It’s all those grandmas who continually fix what’s broken. Your Friday author, like virtually all of us, needs more exercise. But he knows he has no shot of keeping up with this bad-to-the-bone 72-year-old babushka.