OUR PICKSYoung Men, Guns and the Prefrontal Cortex | The Cold War Never Ended | The Risk to Pence on Eve of Jan. 6, and more

Young Men, Guns and the Prefrontal Cortex  (Ariana Eunjung Cha, Meghan Hoyer and Tim Meko, Washington Post)
The Uvalde, Tex., shooter is part of a long list of male perpetrators of similar ages. Some experts think gun laws need to change to address that.

Texas School Shooting Victims Take Action Against Gunmaker  (Tom Hals, Reuters)
The father of a 10-year-old girl slain in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting and a school employee have taken initial steps that could lead to lawsuits against Daniel Defense, the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in last week’s massacre that killed 21 people.
Lawyers for Alfred Garza, father of Robb Elementary School student Amerie Jo Garza, requested in a letter on Friday that Daniel Defense provide information about its marketing to teens and children.

How Body Armor Became a Common Feature in Mass Shootings  (Caitlin Dickson, Yahoo News)
While the mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., and the one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, show no signs of coordination or even similar motives, the weapons used by these teenage gunmen seem drawn from the same playbook. Not only had they both used legally purchased semiautomatic assault rifles, but both had also been outfitted with tactical gear to match their military-grade weapons.

Ukraine’s Best Chance for Peace  (Samuel Charap, Foreign Affairs)
How neutrality can bring security—and satisfy both Russia and the West.

The Cold War Never Ended  (Stephen Kotkin, Foreign Affairs)
Ukraine, the China challenge, and the revival of the West.

U.K. Anti-Extremism Prevent Strategy ‘Failing to Engage Muslim Communities’  (BBC)
The government’s flagship counter-extremism Prevent strategy is failing to engage with Muslim communities, a government adviser has said. Dame Sara Khan said a “vacuum” of information about its purpose had been left by the government, which was then being filled by Islamists. She added the government must address the concerns of Muslim communities. Dame Sara also said fears of racism accusations made some local authorities uncomfortable with tackling extremism. The controversial Prevent scheme was launched in 2007 and was designed to stop people becoming terrorists and to reduce the terror threat to the UK by stopping people from being drawn into terrorism. In the year to March 2020, just over 6,000 people were referred to the Prevent scheme in England and Wales, because of concerns they were at risk of radicalisation. However, it has long been criticised by some Muslim groups for what they see as an unfair focus on their communities. Speaking on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, Dame Sara said the government had failed to explain what the counter-terror strategy is to Muslim communities, which “in essence… left a vacuum” about the purpose of the scheme to be “dominated” by Islamists.

Planet-Warming Carbon Dioxide Levels Are the Highest in Human History  (Seth Borenstein, Time)
The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has shot past a key milestone—more than 50% higher than pre-industrial times—and is at levels not seen since millions of years ago when Earth was a hothouse ocean-inundated planet, federal scientists announced Friday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said its long-time monitoring station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, averaged 421 parts per million of carbon dioxide for the month of May, which is when the crucial greenhouse gas hits its yearly high. Before the industrial revolution in the late 19th century carbon dioxide levels were at 280 parts per million, scientists said, so humans have significantly changed the atmosphere. Some activists and scientists want a level of 350 parts per million. Industrial carbon dioxide emissions come from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

Pence Chief of Staff Alerted Secret Service of Risk to Pence on Eve of Jan. 6  (Margaret Brennan, CBS News)
The day before the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, the chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence warned the Secret Service that there could be a potential threat to the vice president, CBS News has learned. 
On Jan. 5, Marc Short called the lead Secret Service agent Tim Giebels, warning him of the potential threat to the vice president without being specific about the nature of the threat he anticipated. This was the first time that Short had ever notified the Secret Service of a potential threat, and it was the result of an assessment by Short that then-President Trump would publicly turn against Pence. The New York Times first reported Short’s warning to the Secret Service.