Vox Sentences: North Korea’s H-bomb claim is silly. Its nuke strategy is serious.

Why you shouldn't laugh off North Korea's "H-bomb;" lead in the water in Flint, MI; and allegations of mass attacks on women in Germany.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

North Korea blew something up, but not an H-bomb

Ed Jones/AFP/Getty

• Last night, North Korea announced that it completed a test of a hydrogen bomb. Vox's Zack Beauchamp explains.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• We won't know what the test actually was for weeks. But from the looks of things, it wasn't really a hydrogen bomb.

  [Reuters / Ju-min Park and Mark Hosenball]

• A hydrogen bomb — which is much, much more powerful than a standard atomic bomb — would have been a big leap forward for the country.

  [Vox / Brian Resnick]

• North Korea almost certainly did test some sort of nuclear device, though. The best guess right now appears to be that they tested a "boosted fission bomb" — which would still cause a lot of destruction if lobbed at, say, Seoul.

  [VICE News / Ryan Faith]

• Perhaps more important is the shift in North Korea's strategy on nukes. Former leader Kim Jong Il used the nuclear program as a bargaining chip for foreign aid. Current leader Kim Jong Un appears to want the world to take North Korea's nuke program seriously, and accept the nation as a nuclear power.

  [New Yorker / Barbara Demick]

• So, sure, laugh at North Korea's official statement about its "hydrogen bomb." It is in fact ridiculous.

  [Tech Insider / Jennifer Welsh]

• But be aware that you're playing into a stereotype, with weird racial overtones, that casts Kim Jong Un as a clown rather than the brutal dictator he is.

  [Vox / Alex Abad-Santos]

• And know that even without a hydrogen bomb, North Korea is one of the conflict zones that the Council on Foreign Relations is most worried about in 2016.

  [Council on Foreign Relations]

Michigan's lead emergency

Shutterstock

• The governor of Michigan has declared a state of emergency in the city of Flint, whose drinking water has been heavily contaminated with lead for nearly two years.

  [Washington Post / Yanan Wang]

• The problem started in 2014, when Flint changed its water source as a cost-cutting measure — and immediately started ignoring residents' complaints about the water's smell, taste, and effects on their health.

  [Vox / Libby Nelson]

• The city government didn't acknowledge the problem until fall of 2015, when studies showed that as many as 40 percent of Flint houses had elevated lead levels.

  [Flint Water Study]

• Lead poisoning is, among other things, a racial issue. It's most likely to affect people in neighborhoods too poor to fund lead abatement strategies – which are disproportionally black.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• And because lead is so toxic to childhood development, there's evidence that lead has exacerbated racial disparities in everything from crime rates to test scores.

  [NBER / Aizer et al.]

• Some residents have been able to win settlements in lawsuits over lead poisoning. But when they do, they become a target for predatory brokers offering to buy the long-term settlement for a lump sum.

  [Washington Post / Terrence McCoy]

A very troubling story out of Cologne

Markus Boehm/AFP/Getty Images

• The city of Cologne, Germany, is investigating assaults of at least 90 women by gangs of roving men during New Year's Eve.

  [The Guardian / Kate Connolly]

• Victims and police have described the attackers as men who "looked North African" and didn't speak German or English — though the authorities have given no indication about the nationality or immigration status of the men they're looking for as suspects.

  [Wall Street Journal / Ruth Bender]

• The city's coming under attack for its slow response. Even though police were there, they waited until complaints were filed to investigate. And the city described the New Year's scene as "relaxed."

  [BBC ]

• The mayor certainly didn't help matters by saying that women should be able to keep themselves at more than arm's length from attacks. But while that's obviously victim-blaming, it's not the main reason this is a big deal.

  [NYT / Melissa Eddy]

• It's a big deal because many Germans appear to believe Cologne was deliberately trying to cover-up the assaults becayse they were committed by migrants, who the German government has welcomed despite serious blowback from many Germans.

  [NYT / Melissa Eddy]

• There are serious social tensions in Germany around the migrant influx right now, prompting the resurgence of the country's right wing. And the Cologne situation could add fuel to the fire.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

MISCELLANEOUS

The Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed in an earthquake in 226 B.C., only 54 years after its construction. Now a team of architects want to build a new one. [Slate / Kristin Hohenadel]

• The only presidential pundit that matters: the Great Warlock of Mexico.

  [BuzzFeed News / Nicolas Medina Mora]

• The Science Of Us' Jesse Singal, who I (Dara) trust to know good social-science studies, thinks that this study could be a BFD for reducing conflicts and bullying in high schools.

  [NYMag / Jesse Singal]

• Nearly half of all gun homicides are committed by people under 25. So why not make the minimum gun-buying age 25?

  [Washington Post / Adam Winkler and Cara Natterson]

• Over-the-counter supplements are largely unregulated, and a Vox investigation found more 850 products with illegal hidden ingredients, including carcinogens.

  [Vox / Julia Belluz and Soo Oh]

VERBATIM

"I consider the Great British Baking Show (née Bake Off) the most important breakthrough in formulaic comfort viewing since the first witness was surly to the first dedicated detective of the Special Victims Unit … There are no hysterics and no theatrics; everyone is nice to one another. The hosts are like embarrassing parents. We literally watch bread rise." [Paris Review / Sadie Stein]

• "The very next day, May 14, Alexander received an e-mail from a friend. The subject line read simply: 'The Pope.' It included a link to an article detailing Vatican plans for Pope Francis to visit South America in July—at the very time when he was supposed to be officiating at her wedding."

  [Vanity Fair / Adam Ciralsky]

• "We have cultures that eschew fruits and vegetables that were perfectly healthy for thousands of years."

  [Edward Archer to FiveThirtyEight / Christie Aschwanden]

• "It’s funny, mostly, that we’re in an Age of Everything Is Very Beautiful when I’m super ugly some days and that’s just how it is. Stuff doesn’t fit right, my hair looks weird, my face is bleeding. I’m fine. There are other days."

  [Medium / Fran Hoepfner]

• "I don’t think we should just let things happen to people and let them be stupid and the victims of the consequences of their actions. I think we can put enough obstacles in the path of poor decision-making."

  [Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to NYT Mag / Ana Marie Cox]

WATCH THIS

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Vox / Joss Fong and Carlos Waters