Reading archive 2025--09-02

Trump and Smithsonian secretary meet as White House increases museum pressure: The Trump administration has called for changes across the institution. On Thursday, its head, Lonnie G. Bunch III, joined the president for lunch.

Bowser welcomes federal law enforcement presence indefinitely: Bowser issued an executive order Tuesday requiring local coordination with federal law enforcement “to the maximum extent allowable by law within the District.” The order gives no expiration date.

Forget YIMBY. The housing shortage could disappear on its own.: Demographic shifts and construction surges are likely to resolve the housing crisis without federal intervention.

Bill Belichick’s college debut was a spectacle. Then the game kicked off.: Even a fawning friends-and-family presentation couldn’t save the coach’s first game at North Carolina.

The MAGA kids are not all White: A new generation of young, Black conservatives is trying to gain sway within Trump’s GOP. They have some ideas for how to keep the party going. - "Raven Schwam-Curtis, a Chicago-based creator who was part of a cadre of influencers attending the Democratic National Convention last year, sees figures like DuRousseau and Pearson as using the subversiveness of being Black and Republican to position themselves as the new cool kids. 'What they’re doing is the equivalent of 'We’re not like the other girls,'' she says, making it clear she’s opposed to their message. 'It’s essentially a rebranding of the hipster thing: 'Most Black people vote for Democrats, but I’m voting for Republicans, and here’s why you should listen to my deviation from the norm, because, actually, you’ve been duped.''"

A red state community bet on carbon capture. Trump is blocking it.: Amid fierce global competition to dominate the industry’s future, the Trump administration puts U.S. companies in a bind. - "Cement manufacturing also is one more sector where the United States has been in an innovation race with China, with both countries vying to invent the technologies that will be used by cement makers of the future. The abrupt cancellation of major projects in the U.S., industry experts say, plays into China’s hands."

Life Has Gotten Surreal in China: The state is ever more insistent on a reality at odds with people’s experience. That’s not a good sign for progress.