The Doomscroll News Report

This week, we're talking about the death of Mexican cartel leader "El Mencho" and ensuing fallout, the fourth year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and finally we close by addressing the controversy over some winter Olympic athletes and how it does or doesn't intersect with the "Chinamaxxing" social media trend.

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Mexico vs El Mencho: 1. Mexico's most wanted drug lord 'El Mencho' killed in military operation (Will Grant and Jack Burgess, BBC), 2. Mexico sends thousands of soldiers to stop violence after death of drug lord (Jack Burgess, BBC), 3. Romantic tryst led to Mexican cartel leader's capture, death (Raul Cortes, Aida Pelaez-fernandez and Sarah Morland, Reuters), 4. Cómo murió el Mencho: detalles del operativo, mensaje del Gobierno de México, testimonios, y más (CNN en Español)

Ukraine marks four years of war: 1 . Ukraine remembers its dead as war enters a fifth year (Paul Adams and Laura Gozzi, BBC), 2. Four years on, Russia’s war in Ukraine has transformed conflict and shattered global security (Nick Paton Walsh, CNN), 3. 4 years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a look at the war by the numbers (AP, PBS)

What is Chinamaxxing: 1. Why Everyone Is Suddenly in a ‘Very Chinese Time’ in Their Lives ( Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsaki, "Made in China" newsletter: WIRED)

This week, Hanna and Amanda talk about the life sentence South Korea just handed down to their disgraced former president for attempting a coup, some frighteningly lax standards for Uber drivers in the United States.

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Yoon suk-yeol's sentence: 1. South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection (Amy Hawkins and Raphael Rashid, the Guardian), 2. South Korea gripped by uncertainty as MPs defy president’s declaration of martial law (Amy Hawkins and Raphael Rashid, the Guardian)

Uber's poor background policy: 1. Uber Cleared Violent Felons to Drive. Passengers Accused Them of Rape. (Emily Steel, New York Times), 2. Uber Moves to Enact Stricter Background Checks for Drivers (Emily Steel, New York Times)

Hosts Hanna and Amanda discuss the Japanese snap election that may have just enabled Prime Minister Takaichi to get back her army, and how a superbowl commercial outed police access to private cameras. Heck, we may even just discuss the Superbowl itself, just a little bit.

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Japan's snap election: 1. Why Takaichi would call a snap election (Michael MacArthur Bosack, Japan Times), 2. Japan’s Takaichi secures historic supermajority in landslide election victory (Yumi Asada and Lex Harvey, CNN), 3. Japan’s snap election victory likely to encourage LDP party to bolder action: analyst (Rti)

Ring security cameras and surveillance: 1. The Most Effective Super Bowl Ads Of 2026 (Charles Taylor, Forbes), 2. Amazon Ring security cameras moving deeper into law enforcement with Flock Safety, Axon deals (Eric Rosenbaum, CNBC), 3. Ring Denies Rumors That Its Footage Is Used by ICE. Here’s What to Know. ( Jon Chase, NYT Wirecutter), 4. Ring Super Bowl commercial: Why 2026 ad is receiving backlash from fans over creepy concept (Morgan Moriarty, The Sporting News), 5. Crime rates fell across US cities in 2025 (Amanda Watford, Stateline)

Hanna and Amanda talk to the coordinators of the Taiwan x Arctic Youth Connection project, Hsiang Hsiang Wang and Chiayo Kuo, to learn more about Taiwanese and Norwegian students' experiments with shortwave. On the subject of alternatives to typical internet connections, they also talk about SpaceX's Starlink, and the kinds of spaces these types of communication occupy in today's world.

Referenced articles: "Musk ordered shutdown of Starlink satellite service as Ukraine retook territory from Russia," Reuter's reporting from July 2025, and "Musk says steps to stop Russia from using Starlink seem to have worked," their story from February 1

Rti's reporting on the Taiwan x Arctic Youth Connection project can be found right here.

This week, Hanna and Amanda finally address X users who've been using Grok AI to undress women and children and (THANK GOD) the legal action and scrutiny the app is now facing. Then, we’ll be taking a look at how youths (and governments) are striking back at social media companies with a lawsuit in the U.S. against socials for using addictive tactics, and how France is hopping on the Youth Social Media ban-bandwagon.

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Grok explicit images cases, and followup: 1. California launches investigation into xAI and Grok over sexualized AI images (Rebecca Cohen, NBC), 2.Musk's X investigated by EU over Grok sexualised images after public outcry ( Foo Yun Chee and Sam Tabahriti, Reuters), 3. EU investigates Elon Musk's X over Grok AI sexual deepfakes (Laura Cress, BBC), 4. Elon Musk's X makes major change to Grok after deepfake backlash, but will it make a difference? (Jade Biggs and Jennifer Savin, Cosmopolitan)

Social Media Lawsuit: 1. Social media firms face landmark trial in US | BBC News (BBC Youtube), 2. Social media firms face landmark trial in US (Lily Jamali, BBC News), 3. Tech giants head to landmark US trial over social media addiction claims (The Guardian), 4. What legal experts say about a major 'bellwether trial' over child social media addiction (PBS)

Social Media Bans for Teens: 1. French lawmakers vote to ban social media use by under-15s ( AFP, The Guardian), 2. ‘Already had a profound effect’: parents react to Australia’s social media ban (Josh Taylor, The Guardian)

This week, hosts Hanna and Amanda discuss the ongoing situation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the recent activities of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, with a focus on what journalists are doing to cover the goings on. Then a quick brain break to talk about the total drama with former senator, current alleged homewrecker, Kyrsten Sinema.

Tthis week hosts Amanda and Hanna discuss what’s going on in Iran, how likely it is to make change, and a sort of follow-up the North Korea and Russia talk with more about the recent China and South Korea meeting.

Correction: in this episode the polling in Iran is erroneously attributed to The Conversation, but was actually done by the group Gaaman, and referenced in the Conversation article

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Iran protests: 1. Why Iran’s clerical establishment still holds as protests rage (Samia Nakhoul, Reuters), 2. Iran protests 2026: our surveys show Iranians agree more on regime change than what might come next (Ammar Maleki and Pooyan Tamimi Arab, The Conversation), 3. Why are there protests in Iran and what has Trump said about US action? (Raffi BergandDavid Gritten, BBC), 4. US military strikes Islamic State group targets in Syria, officials say (Grace Eliza Goodwin, BBC)

China and South Korea: 1. Selfies and smiles: South Korea seeks 'new phase' in ties with China (Jake Kwon and Koh Ewe, BBC), 2. China and South Korea pledge to bolster ties as regional tensions rise (Simina Mistreanu, AP)

This week, Hanna Bilinski and Amanda Stephens weigh in on what they feared would happen, what did happen, and what could happen following the United States' "decaptiation mission" in Venezuela at the beginning of the year.

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The U.S. action in Venezuela: 1. Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro ‘captured’ after huge US military strikes (Al Jazeera Staff and News Agencies, Al Jazeera), 2. Trump plans to use Venezuela’s huge crude reserves ‘to cut US oil price to $50 a barrel’ (Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian)

A Multi-Polar world: 1. An American Strategy for a Multipolar World (Zack Cooper, Emma Ashford, and Nevada Joan Lee, The Stimson Center)

Hanna and Amanda ignore the PLA elephant surrounding the island in favor of some other newsworthy topics, including North Korea's involvement in Russia's war in Ukraine, the new tax China is levying on condoms and other contraceptives, and the obnoxious way the super-rich rang in the new year.

This week, hosts Amanda and Hanna (mostly) take a break from current news to reflect on how we manage to stay high-information, low stress by talking to some other professionals in the news world about how they achieve work-life balance when their job literally is the news (especially in these crazy times)!

We'll be hearing from Eric Gao, a copy-editior and anchor at Taiwan Plus, Iris Hsu host of Rti's own The Divide and current breaking news writer, and anchor and reporter Leslie Liao, also from Taiwan Plus.

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The 12/19 Taipei metro attack: 1. Suspect in Taipei attacks that left 2 dead, 7 injured jumps to death (Focus Taiwan), 2. Taipei mass stabbing likely 'lone wolf' attack: Police (Focus Taiwan), 3. Local governments move to honor man killed trying to stop Taipei attacks (Focus Taiwan)