Virginia offering to plant trees across the state — for free
Things Are Going to Get Ugly: Donald Trump is about to redefine the lame-duck presidency.
Texas Republicans Get Washed: America didn’t just get Blexas. It got Deep Blexas.
$500 Million Bought Elon Nothing: Musk’s unprecedented spending may even have hurt Republicans.
Pardoned Jan. 6 defendant accused of threatening D.C. judges: The Georgia man, who was previously charged with threatening former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, was again arrested for alleged threats to judges. - "Meredith, who was a devoted follower of the radical QAnon ideology, drove toward the nation’s capital from Colorado on Jan. 6, 2021, with a cache of guns, 2,500 rounds of ammunition and high-capacity magazines. On that drive, court records show, he repeatedly texted his family and friends ominous sentiments. One message said he was 'gonna collect a … ton of Traitors heads.'"
The Racism Scam: Republicans are resorting to a troubling closing argument. - "At the turn of the 19th century, the populist Tom Watson wrote that Black and white laborers were 'kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism that enslaves you both.' Tragically, Watson later abandoned this insight—he became an arch racist and anti-Semite. The bigger tragedy is that more than a century later, a major political party is still trying to make this scam work."
Editor in Brief: Why Is She Doing This?: What I read, watched, and listened to this week
Trump’s reality TV administration reveals the real America — and we’re a mess: If “The United States” were a TV show, what would it look like? Trump’s team spent 2026 showing us its answer to that question, ending on a million-dollar pitch. - "The fastest-growing U.S. industry is home health care, but 'Million Dollar Pitch' is not the kind of reality show that wants to feature underpaid women diligently preventing bedsores for $12.75 an hour. 'Million Dollar Pitch' is the kind of show that wants to explore how a red-blooded man from middle America can stay up late Googling 'tube bending' and turn that into a God-loving dynasty."
Janeese Lewis George, ready to step off campaign trail, faces tough D.C. realities: The Democratic nominee for mayor offered a preview of some of the early actions she plans to take in office, including on housing and universal child care. - "At the town hall, attendees most loudly called for Lewis George to focus on holding bad landlords accountable for keeping tenants in poor living conditions — what Lewis George agreed was a 'true injustice in our city.' The otherwise sympathetic crowd, however, appeared to grow momentarily uneasy when she mentioned the need to work with developers and somehow address the issue of unpaid rent."
A Defense Contractor Gave Their Personal AI Agent Access to a Secure Pentagon System: Sources tell WIRED that an Accenture employee’s personal Claude agent ran on a DOD network for two months before it was identified and the vulnerability could be patched. - "Earlier this year, sources tell WIRED, a contractor caused a security incident at the Department of Defense by connecting a secure centralized system used by multiple intelligence agencies to their personal account for Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding agent. It appears that the agent used by the contractor, who is employed by the global consulting firm Accenture, then sent information about the DOD system, including login credentials, to a high-risk, third-party website."
Europe's youth is on the march - but does anything actually unite them?
Why India Is Erupting: Protests are challenging India’s Hindu-nationalist government like never before. - "The [voter purge] deleted the names of not only Muslims, but also a variety of other inconvenient populations: the residents of neighborhoods associated with the opposition, members of low-income groups that were not considered reliable supporters of Modi's party. Any small, seemingly insignificant detail-a spelling error, having a suspiciously high number of children-could be used to question a voter's validity and strike them from the rolls."
What You Are About to See From Oleshky, Ukraine, Is a Lie: The Kremlin is staging whitewashed tours of a city it has terrorized. - "What will happen is predictable. Journalists and influencers loyal to the Trump administration and sympathetic toward the Kremlin will likely spend a couple of hours filming Russian soldiers distributing food, assisting the elderly, and facilitating evacuations. They will be permitted only supervised interviews with preselected civilians. Dependent on the Russian occupying authorities for food, health care, and permission to leave, these people will not express themselves freely in the presence of the Russian military. And even if they try, their testimonies will be filtered through the Kremlin-supplied interpreters accompanying the Western press."
The Epstein-Pizzagate Connection: The seminal conspiracy theory of the Trump era gets a facelift 10 years later. - "Demian Ahn, who served as one of those prosecutors, told me that the sum total of all of the evidence in the case-what was on Welch's phone, what his friends and family had said in interviews-indicated that Welch's motivations were sincere. He really thought that he was going to be saving children from the basement of a pizza place. 'He seemed to be a well-meaning person,' Ahn said. 'He believed that Washington, D.C., as a city, was so corrupt that you could have a child-exploitation ring openly operated by prominent people at a regular restaurant.'"
Invasive plants boost mosquitoes in low-income areas of Baltimore and DC: Cary co-authored paper suggests planting native trees can help reduce mosquitoes and protect against mosquito-borne disease. - "'Mosquito growth and survival were significantly enhanced when reared on leaf mixtures that contained at least one nonnative tree species,' said LaDeau. 'We also found that the nonnative vegetation may reduce competition between the two mosquito species, allowing them to coexist in low-income areas.'"
When an invasive fish is also tasty, Maryland schoolkids can help ‘eat the problem’ - "To Brewster, the blue catfish presents a bad news-good news proposition. It’s invasive — and its white, flaky meat is tasty, in part because it’s not a bottom feeder. It was first brought to rivers in Virginia in the 1970s for recreational fishing."
In China, the AI bubble has already burst
China’s Economy Has a Huge Weakness: Local manufacturers are struggling to make one very important thing. - "These problems at home have forced Chinese manufacturers to search more desperately for profits abroad. China's trade surplus is on track this year to break the 2025 record of $1.2 trillion. But exports are no panacea. Chinese automakers shipped nearly 80 percent more cars overseas in August than they did a year earlier, but their profits still sank by 16 percent. In theory, Chinese manufacturers that gain market share should also gain more power to raise prices and increase profits. But their greater reliance on foreign customers leaves them vulnerable to protectionism. If policy makers around the world impose tariffs or other barriers on Chinese goods, the pressure on China's economy may be too much for Beijing to bear. The Chinese government has already been scaling back tax breaks that help electric-vehicle companies even as the industry's profits suffer."
The Real Culprit Behind High Grocery Prices: Although neither farmers nor grocers make very much money, many of the middlemen who operate between them make plenty of it. - "Although neither farmers nor grocers make very much money, many of the middlemen who operate between them make plenty of it. Egg producers such as Cal-Maine and meatpackers such as Tyson's generally make 4 to 12 percent profits. Food processors such as Ingredion make 10 to 15 percent. Leading food manufacturers such as General Mills and Kraft Heinz make 15 to 19 percent. 'If you're trying to figure out how to reduce prices, you have to ask: Where is the actual money being made?' Skanda Amarnath, the executive director of Employ America, an economics-focused think tank, told me. 'And the answer is: It's all in the middle.'
...
"One way to lower food prices, then, would be for the government to provide a public option for food purchasing. The Kitchen Table Project argues that the federal government should launch an "affordable groceries partnership" in which it would agree to purchase a basket of food staples, including eggs, ground beef, milk, produce, rice, and peanut butter. Because the government would be buying in large quantities, it would have leverage to negotiate down the prices for these food items. Then it would sell to participating grocery stores at that lower price point."
Democrats Are Sounding More Like Republicans: Why politicians are betting on ever more moralizing language - "I hold one man responsible for this altered tone, and it's not Jesus. When you have a president whose worldview resembles something out of Squid Game; who has talked about being constrained only by his 'own morality,' whatever that may be; who characterized soldiers who died for a cause larger than themselves as 'suckers' and 'losers,' then political physics suggests that the pendulum will soon swing in the other direction.
...
"What has shoved aside the notion of good and evil is an ideology of self-interest, which posits that humans are merely animals preoccupied with satisfying their individual needs and increasing their power over others. Or, to borrow the words of that great philosopher Stephen Miller, the idea that 'iron laws of the world since the beginning of time' dictate that the planet is governed by 'strength,' 'force,' and 'power' alone. Neiman would identify the kind of thinking Miller expressed as evil: 'The signal evil of our age is the belief that self-interest is all that moves us, and ideas of justice are self-deluded hype. Evil actions are those that deny the possibility of morality.'"
When ICE Comes for a MAGA Supporter: What happens to the right’s immigration views when the target for deportation is one of their own? [ed. note: Sam Sey, who overstayed his visa by 4 years]
‘Stop threatening your friends’: Idaho fires back against Trump DOJ’s threats over noncitizen voting
We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night Skies: Bad decisions have turned efficient technology into a driver of light pollution. There is a better way - "The ugly truth of artificial lighting today is that in parts of London, as in many cities around the world, lighting levels are excessive, with unshielded illumination blasting in all directions. And the irony is that too much light invites danger: It creates shadows, impedes our vision, and gives the illusion, without the reality, of safety. Thorp notes that modern CCTV cameras are “pretty great” even at low-light levels, while harsh light makes it hard for both human eyes and digital sensors to see.
...
"Almost until 1920, astronomers at the Paris Observatory were still gazing at the Milky Way. That’s impossible nowadays, but it could happen again. Despite the bright white LED streetlights now lining so many Paris streets, networks of LEDs using controls could lower lighting levels enough each night, so that the Milky Way could once again be visible over the French capital. And in the process, Paris could become the City of Light in ways that would set an example for other parts of the world."
Your Cookware Got Worse On Purpose: One buyout firm quietly collected Pyrex, Corelle, Instant Pot, and Oneida. Farberware is a name on a 200-year lease. And the pans still worth buying. - "Once you understand the brand licensing structure, you see it everywhere, and the pattern is always the same: one company owns the name, a different company makes the product, and the factory that earned the name is liquidated."
Judge berates DOJ attorney in court over new charge filed against former FBI officials: The judge tossed a new obstruction charge against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides and told the Justice Department attorney that “everything is a sideshow on top of a sideshow” in this case. - "After Faruqui tossed out the new complaint, the hearing in the original one continued, with FBI Special Agent Bryan Witt testifying that the bureau’s investigation started after FBI Director Kash Patel sent a letter directing the Kansas City, Missouri, office to look into certain people, including Floris.
"Witt said he felt the task was a 'huge distraction' from a big public corruption case he was involved with at the time, adding, 'I had concerns that this would be viewed as political.'"
- "Witt called the probe a 'huge distraction' from his other work and added that people in the Kansas City FBI office 'generally viewed it' as a witch hunt, even as Patel and other high-level executives continued to check in on its progress."
I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buy: Mexico is a showroom for electric cars, with a growing fleet of sleek new vehicles from Chinese brands unavailable to Americans. - "America’s auto sector, while still large, could end up looking like Britain’s. The United Kingdom produced 1.92 million cars at its 1972 peak, most by domestic brands. Once a formidable exporter, last year, the U.K. manufactured about 717,000, equivalent to the 1950s. Almost all of them were by foreign-owned companies. No domestic volume carmakers remain."
At risk of ‘stadium fatigue,’ D.C. Council weighs $300 million-plus for Audi Field: D.C. United executives made the case before D.C. Council members for a $620 million renovation, including a roof, at the site where that team and the Washington Spirit play. - "Joey Davis, president of AFGE Local 1975, which represents government workers, said he couldn’t believe the council was discussing public financing for yet another stadium project when the city can’t afford cost-of-living raises for employees, which were left out of the most recent budget."
