Reading archive 2026-04-19

Ukraine Has Finally Given Up on Trump: Zelensky has written off the United States.

In Angola, love for an American pope but not for an American president: In Luanda, Catholics expressed love and admiration for Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, but not so much for President Trump because of the war in Iran.

Reading archive 2026-04-18

The FBI Director Is MIA Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences. - "He is erratic, suspicious of others, and prone to jumping to conclusions before he has necessary evidence, according to the more than two dozen people I interviewed about Patel's conduct, including current and former FBI officials, staff at law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, hospitality-industry workers, members of Congress, political operatives, lobbyists, and former advisers. Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information and private conversations, they described Patel's tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability.

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"Inside the FBI, which had been wounded by a number of scandals, many hoped that Patel could give the bureau a fresh start. But even many of those who had been enthusiastic about his arrival have since been disappointed. Officials said that Patel has been an irregular presence at FBI headquarters and in field offices, and that he has compounded the agency's existing bureaucratic bottlenecks. Several current and former officials told me that Patel is often away or unreachable, delaying time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations. On several occasions, an official told me, Patel's delays resulted in normally unflappable agents 'losing their shit.'"

Reading archive 2026-04-17 pt 2

SpaceX Is Basically a Huge Meme Stock: The company may be losing money, but it will soon be the most expensive big stock in the market.

What Viktor Orbán’s Opponents Sacrificed to Beat Him: Hungary offers lessons in defeating right-wing populists. - "In the United States, many of Donald Trump's most fervent critics do something rather different: When the president and Fox News criticize an idea, Democrats declare themselves to be for it. This dynamic not only allows MAGA Republicans to set the terms of the American political debate but also boxes Democrats into backing unpopular policy positions: defunding the police; limiting immigration enforcement, even for criminals; insisting upon allowing the participation of trans women in women's sports. Roger Scruton, the late British conservative philosopher, brought to prominence the idea of "oikophobia" - that is, a feeling of embarrassment about one's home country and of affection for foreign societies that arises as a reaction to xenophobia. This affliction is not uncommon among American Democrats, and it concedes the field of patriotism to Republicans. This is an error that successful anti-populists such as Magyar and Tusk do not fall into."

It’s Not Just Iran. Trump Is Flailing on Multiple Fronts.: The president is on a losing streak, and even some of his aides are dismayed by his choices.

The Publishing Mystery That No One Wants to Talk About: A minimally speaking autistic man just wrote a best-selling book. Or did he? - "Clinicians quickly came to understand that the method was susceptible to a very powerful "Ouija-board effect": A facilitator could unwittingly deliver subtle and subconscious prompts-gentle pressure on a person's wrist, perhaps-that shaped the outcome of the process. When the typers were subjected to formal "message-passing tests," in which they would be asked to name an object or a picture that they'd seen while their helper wasn't in the room, they almost always failed. Even kids who had produced fluid written work seemed incapable, under those conditions, of saying anything at all.

Reading archive 2026-04-17 pt 1

A New Kind of Hybrid Car Is About to Hit America’s Streets: The car industry says it has an answer for drivers wary of going electric.

If your heart stopped right now, would a stranger save you? It depends on your sex.: Why women are less likely to receive CPR—and less likely to survive

DC Mayor extends juvenile curfew citing weeks of disorderly behavior, violence: The curfew zones were put in place in response to "teen takeovers," large gatherings of kids and teenagers promoted on social media.

D.C. police lieutenant charged with seeking to have sex with a minor: Matthew Mahl, a D.C. police lieutenant, allegedly exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a Maryland detective pretending to be a 15-year-old boy.

How to save money on tree work and still get good results: Even healthy trees need a little branch management from time to time.

Iran says Strait of Hormuz is now open amid push to end war: President Trump welcomed the announcement, but U.S. officials said the naval blockade on vessels leaving from and going to Iranian ports remains in effect.

Nothing ever dies. It merely becomes embarrassing.: OR: the Halo theory of science - "The secret sauce of science is supposed to be falsifiability: it ain’t science unless you can kill it. If I claim that all swans are white, and you show up with a black swan, then I’m supposed to bid a tearful goodbye to my theory and send it to that big farm upstate where it can frolic and play with all the other failed hypotheses. 

"Falsification sounds straightforward until you actually try it. You show up with your black swan, and instead of admitting defeat, I go, 'Hmm, well is it really black? Is it actually a swan? Seems more like a dusky-looking duck to me!' And we publish dueling papers until the end of our days.

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"This is the situation we appear to be in with many theories in psychology. We can’t say whether they’re 'real' or not. Somewhere out there, the Spartans may live on. But if we’ve been studying something for decades and people look at all the evidence and they still doubt whether it exists at all, we have to admit: that’s cringe. 

"Cringe doesn’t mean wrong! Continental drift was cringe.2 Germ theory was cringe.3 Smallpox vaccination was cringe.4 All of them went from mortifying to undeniable. Maybe truly revolutionary theories must follow that trajectory. If a scientific idea is young and it’s not cringe, it probably has no promise. But if it’s old and it’s still cringe, it probably has no merit."

Another Energy Crisis Is Here. This Time, the Way Out Is Different. - "This is the first energy shock where clean energy is not a moral or long‑term bet, but the cheapest and fastest way for low‑ and middle‑income countries to protect macroeconomic stability, food security, and fiscal space."

This is the scariest question about Putin — and Trump: The Russian president's back is to the wall. That makes him more dangerous.

A Pillar of the Economics Establishment Admits That It Was Wrong: In a new report, the World Bank thinks better of its old free-market absolutism. - "In this context, the World Bank's implicit message to the rest of the world appears to be: Yes, industrial policy can work if done correctly. But please, for the love of God, don't do what America is doing."

Trump Voters Are Over It: A shocking number of the president’s supporters have turned against him.

The DNA Fix for Aging: Everyone’s DNA keeps mutating. Could correcting those errors lead to longevity?

The Quiet Way Authoritarianism Begins to Crumble: Among the many reasons for Viktor Orbán’s defeat was the rural clubs where citizens relearned democratic habits.

Israel Moderates Are Losing the Democratic Party: Their position has become untenable. But liberal Zionists can adapt. - "The theoretical case for a two-state solution remains as sound as ever. The trouble is that the Palestinian side has rejected repeated attempts by Democratic presidents to bring about the birth of a Palestinian state, and that Israel's longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his right-wing coalition do everything they can to subvert such a solution. At some point, supporters of the two-state solution have to take 'no' for an answer. The United States is effectively supporting a one-state solution whose entire strategy rests on an endless cycle of responding to terrorism with military force (a process of periodic attacks that Israel calls 'mowing the lawn') in place of any diplomatic path.

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"Liberal Zionists can win an intra-Democratic argument against anti-Zionist radicals, but they can't win it while burdened with support for subsidizing settlements and a strategy of endless conflict. The most extreme anti-Zionist activists won't be satisfied with anything short of committing the Democratic Party to Israel's demise. But the most left-wing position in recent Democratic primaries - on Iraq in 2004, on health care in 2016 - has rarely been adopted by the candidate who emerges as the party's eventual nominee."

Reading archive 2026-04-16

Boys killed in shooting near Northeast DC convenience store were visiting new food truck

Police arrest teen in connection with graffiti at elementary school that referenced Sandy Hook

Amid ‘constant' data center noise, Sterling residents also worry about health impact: A study done for an environmental group shows emissions from the center could have severe health consequences.

Trump tests loyalty of Christian supporters as erratic behavior escalates: The president maintains his hold on the Christian right, but his bluster, fight with the pope and portrayal of himself as a Jesus-like figure strain that bond.

Why Democrats are failing to reach young voters like me: Some in the party don’t understand the attention economy or how to communicate.

Prosecutors add terrorism charge in new D.C. pipe bomb indictment: Brian Cole Jr. is accused of placing explosives near the RNC and DNC headquarters the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. - "During the first two hours of his FBI interview in December, Cole denied placing the pipe bombs and said he was a Trump supporter. After being told that lying to federal agents could be charged as an additional crime, Cole admitted that he planted the bombs out of frustration with both political parties and 'denied that his actions were directed toward Congress or related to the proceedings scheduled to take place on January 6,' prosecutors said."

Reading archive 2026-04-15

Some Contemporary Heresies

The Death of a Superman: An entirely avoidable problem is killing dozens of homeless people across the country. why is it being ignored? - "Death in a bin, a police officer told the Toronto Sun, 'would be painful, and it would not be quick.' Canadians learned that the victim’s terrible end had come after a hard life. Crystal Papineau had been kicked out of school, left home at sixteen, and struggled with addiction. And it’s possible that she crawled into the bin not for clothes but to get out of the cold. It was a freezing night, and the shelters were over capacity."

Oil prices may be starting to come down for a worrisome reason: The largest oil shock in history caused prices to surge. Now they're so high that they may be causing "demand destruction." That would mean slower economic growth.

Trump’s reversal on day care upends a bipartisan push to lower costs: Lawmakers and advocates were gaining momentum until the president backtracked on his campaign promise.

Vance praises Trump, while subtly differentiating himself at Georgia event: At a gathering of conservative college students, the vice president expressed respect for Pope Leo XIV and empathized with concerns about high costs of living.

War powers vote will test Senate’s support for Trump’s war with Iran: Some Republicans have expressed concerns about the war as it approaches the two-month mark, saying the administration must make the case for continuing it.

A New Geopolitical Reality Is Here: America’s adversaries are uniting as its own coalition falls apart. - "The Iran war has laid bare a new geopolitical reality. America's adversaries are becoming more coordinated, sharing resources and capabilities in ways that amplify their power, while America's global alliances, long its greatest asset, are neglected and fragmenting. The United States is, in effect, moving toward a world in which it faces more connected opponents with a less cohesive coalition of its own. This is a major shift with profound implications for U.S. national security-and it's one that the Trump administration shows no sign of recognizing, let alone reversing."

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?:  New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI. - "Yet most of the people we spoke to shared the judgment of Sutskever and Amodei: Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart. 'He’s unconstrained by truth,' the board member told us. 'He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.'"

Reading archive 2026-04-14

America Looks Like a Paper Tiger: The U.S. showed great tactical capabilities in the Iran war, but Iran emerged the winner at a strategic level.

The Forgotten War That Iran Already Won: Tehran fought for decades to prevent Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Only Losers Play the Madman: Does Trump seem crazy? Sure. Credible, not so much. - "Nobody executes a madman strategy when he feels that he's winning. Strong and successful powers emphasize consistency and predictability. So do powers that hope to be seen as strong and successful. When China's foreign minister speaks to the world, he uses language such as 'China will be a reliable force for stability' and China 'is providing the greatest certainty in this uncertain world.' He understands that true power does not need to boast or yell."

This detox may erase 10 years of social media brain damage, researchers say: Studies show that taking even short breaks could reverse measures of cognitive decline.

Metro hair toucher arrested again for stalking: A DC judge has ordered Bryan Betancur to be held without bond following his stalking charges.

Gov. Spanberger signs bill to end the renewal of Robert E. Lee license plates in Virginia

Record animal sacrifice attempts at Al-Aqsa prompt status quo fears: Record number of attempts by Israeli settlers to smuggle Passover sacrifices into the holy site since 1967 leads to takeover fears.

Trump Desperately Tries to Spin His Massive Surrender in Iran as a Win: Iran has retained control of the Strait of Hormuz—and Donald Trump insists that’s a good thing.

Why high oil prices are good for oil companies — until they aren't - "When oil prices stay consistently above that $90 mark, 'the economy suffers and inflation rises,' Crooks, of research group Wood MacKenzie, says. 'Growth falls. Interest rates may go up. People in the wider economy lose their jobs.'"

These Chimps Began the Bloodiest ‘War’ on Record. No One Knows Why.: A long-running conflict in a Ugandan park may provide clues to the origins of human warfare, and how to avoid it.

Not Even Noise-Cancelling Headphones Can Block This Bicycle Bell: Skoda designed a new bike bell that slips through active noise cancellation using a specific frequency gap that most headphones cannot suppress

'America's Main Street' in DC could get a massive overhaul; here's what leaders propose

A new map is fueling a debate on housing and displacement in D.C.: Critics of the proposed Future Land Use Map say it isn't thinking big enough.

Ye Wants Your Forgiveness. So What?: The former Kanye West is making his bid to rejoin mainstream culture—with mixed results.

How Did Samuel Alito Become This Angry?: A quiet, bookish justice’s personal leanings have become ever more overt.

In Praise of ‘Difficult’ Kids: Feisty children can be exhausting. They also possess a moral fire that deserves cultivating.