Reading archive 2025-07-03

Congressional intern from Massachusetts killed in D.C. shooting: Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old rising senior at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, worked for Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas.

‘Beautiful’ coal and ‘ugly’ solar? See these projects for yourself.: Trump likes to make an aesthetic case for fossil fuels. See how coal, oil and gas projects compare to solar and wind.

‘Beautiful’ coal and ‘ugly’ solar? See these projects for yourself.: Trump likes to make an aesthetic case for fossil fuels. See how coal, oil and gas projects compare to solar and wind.

Paramount betrays ‘60 Minutes’ and the rest of us: Parent company caves to baseless suit by Donald Trump.

The Republican shift against American pluralism: From race to same-sex marriage, Republican voters are turning against inclusion. - "Saying that 'everyone is welcome' has become a political statement in the way that 'science is real' has become one. Not because these statement themselves are political or even particularly controversial. No, they are now tainted with politics because they reject the right’s rejections of both objectivity and pluralism."

A Big, Bad, Very Ugly Bill: “Beautiful” it is not.

A Classic Childhood Pastime Is Fading: Kids on bikes once filled the streets. Not anymore.

Canada’s Terrible New Freedom: This Canada Day, Trump is fueling a very different kind of nationalism.

What a ‘Spiral of Silence’ Can Do to a Democracy: Protests show people they are not alone in caring about an issue.

They Didn’t Have to Do This: By passing Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, congressional Republicans have talked themselves into an incomprehensibly reckless plan.

Twenty-Four Hours of Authoritarianism: Donald Trump had a very busy Tuesday. - "None of these moves is a one-off. All follow what has become standard practice in the second Trump term. The president has declared a new order in which the supporters of his insurrection have been vindicated and freed from any consequences for their crimes, the president claims sole authority over the government's powers of spending and regulation, and these powers are to be used only to punish his enemies and reward his friends."

New York Is Hungry for a Big Grocery Experiment: Small towns have tried public grocery stores. How would they fare in a major city?

Trump’s Betrayal of Ukraine: Bridget Brink, the former ambassador to Ukraine, on that country’s war with Russia, America’s betrayal of Ukraine, and why she resigned - "The United States has built, since 1945, an extraordinary system of peace and security embracing much of the planet. It is a system from which many countries benefit, but Americans too. That Americans do not need to learn a second language in most cases; that they can travel about the world with a feeling of security; that when they do business, they do business under legal systems that are often inspired by the American example; that when they travel as tourists or students or in any capacity, they can put down a credit card, and if they have a dispute, have that credit card dispute adjudicated, usually under American law - all of those things that we take for granted as we move about a world that is ever more accommodating to the American way of life and to American interests, all of that is one of the prizes for the American investment in global peace and security."