Reading archive 2026-05-13

What is Section 230? Landmark social media lawsuit spotlights legal shield: The decades-old legal protection has drawn bipartisan criticism. - "One of the cases, Gonzalez v. Google LLC, concerned a lawsuit brought by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, an American woman who was killed in an ISIS terrorist attack in Paris in 2015. The lawsuit against Google, the parent company of YouTube, alleged that YouTube recommended ISIS recruitment videos to users. The high court ruled against the plaintiffs."

Do women need to exercise differently from men – and ease up on cardio after 40?

Republicans skeptical on funding security for ballroom while White House amps up pressure: Secret Service Director Sean Curran detailed plans to spend $1 billion on ballroom security measures in a closed-door lunch with Senate Republicans.

Metro not planning RFK Stadium rail station, suggests ‘Gold Line' buses instead: Metro studied potential locations for a new Metro station, including Oklahoma Avenue and Benning Road NE.

Months after ending the DC Streetcar, leaders are considering a new transit line along H Street to get fans to RFK Stadium: WMATA says a new metro station wouldn't be completed in time for the opening of the RFK Stadium in 2030.

The Unhappy Hosts of the World Cup: Cities and states are covering a lot of the costs of this summer’s matches, and have few options for bringing in much revenue. - "The unhappy truth of international soccer is that the World Cup generates lots of money-for FIFA. The Zurich-based group will take in $13 billion from the tickets, parking, merchandise, on-site concessions, sponsorships, and television rights. Meanwhile, the cities and states that host are responsible for the costs: stadium retrofits, security, transportation, administration, public 'fan zones' for everyone who does not have a ticket. Not only does FIFA not share tournament revenue; local organizers say the federation's infamously controlling contracts have left hosts with no plausible way to recoup expenses. Those hundred-dollar train tickets are not the product of a state looking to make a buck off of the World Cup, but of one trying to salvage an investment in a system that makes FIFA rich while taxpayers foot the bill."

Hezbollah’s unjammable drones pose new threat to Israel: The weapons, cheap to build from commercially available components, have helped the militants rearm despite the loss of a sponsor in Syria and the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Court overturns Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions in deaths of wife, son: The South Carolina Supreme Court ordered a new trial, saying the 2023 trial was improperly influenced by a county clerk’s comments to jurors.

The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon: Under the sterile blue lights of his studio, Fallon laughs endlessly at the same pseudo-jokes, rubs elbows with Trump and Sam Altman, and ushers in the death of culture. - "Fallon acts as the high priest of a terrified optimism, his rictus grin serving as a shield against the encroaching silence of the real. Here, in the sanitized, over-lit heart of the American culture industry, there is an inescapable horror. But it isn't a monster lurking in the shadows; it is the manic, unblinking insistence that actually, there are no shadows at all. If the Gothic tradition of fear teaches us that the ruins of the past haunt the present, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon offers the inverse: a present so forcefully flattened, so aggressively “fun,” that it has exorcised history entirely, leaving us trapped in a sterile, eternal loop of viral games and celebrity lip-syncing while the world slides into climate collapse and fascist politics.

...

"The real, unsettling mechanism of Fallon’s banal horror is its insistence on a radical non-engagement with reality: a position that, in our current political climate, is itself an aggressively political act. Fallon doesn’t do politics, or if he does, he wants to 'keep his head down' because 'we hit both sides equally.' Tellingly, Donald Trump has called for the firing of almost all of the other late night hosts—Colbert, Kimmel, even Seth Meyers—but excluded Fallon from his hit-list, because Trump recognizes that there’s nothing about Fallon’s empty banality that could be anything close to a threat.

...

"The horror of the Tonight Show is not found in any singular problem, but in the totality of its project: the systematic replacement of the real world with a brightly lit simulation of “niceness.” Fallon is the court jester of the Anthropocene, a figure who invites us to watch celebrities play parlor games on stage while the air outside the studio begins to smell of tear gas and smoke. In Fallon’s sterile loop of viral repetition comes the final victory of the commodity over human beings—a world where even our laughter is outsourced to the demands of the algorithm. You don’t even need jokes anymore. All you need is to say something that sounds like it could be a joke, and the hollow laughter will come. To watch Fallon is to stare at the face of a culture that has chosen the comfort of a rictus grin over the heavy, necessary terror of the truth. It serves as a grim warning: if we cannot reclaim our play, our politics, and our presence from this algorithmic void, we will be left with nothing but the echoes of a desk being slapped in an empty room, for an audience that has long since ceased to exist."

Amazon employees admit to using AI unnecessarily to pump up internal usage scores — workers complain of intense pressure to use AI tools: Employees at Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft have been gaming AI usage metrics.

Reading archive 2026-05-12

Why banning the recycling logo is progress in the fight against plastic waste: A new California law will ban companies from using the symbol if their products aren’t commonly recycled. Here’s how you can play your part in reducing plastic waste.

A super El Niño wiped out millions of people in 1877. Are we better prepared now?: The climatic phenomenon is expected to return this year, but a lot has changed since what might have been the worst environmental disaster in human history.

Inside the probe that has 13 top D.C. police officials fighting for their jobs: The 554-page internal affairs report, investigators say, paints a picture of D.C. police officials manipulating classifications as they buckled under pressure to reduce crime and avoid the ire of higher-ups.

16 Washington Post veterans on what they would change about D.C. journalism.

Can Trump paint the Eisenhower building? Experts fear irreversible damage.: Susan Eisenhower broke her silence about Trump’s vision to make over the building named after her grandfather. The proposal faces a lawsuit and regulatory review.

After 20 years, the Prince of Petworth still reigns in Washington: Dan Silverman created PoPville to capture a D.C. neighborhood. It has become much more.

Republicans who denied 2020 election results could be governors next year: Winners will have oversight of 2028 elections in swing states like Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Inside Ben Shapiro’s MAGA meltdown: The Daily Wire was once ascendant in right-wing media. Now, the “anti-woke” company faces contentious layoffs, ideological battles and dwindling relevance online.

They’re not saying someone should kill Trump. But they’re coming close.: “Somebody should do it” and its variants have become increasingly popular online memes.

Adam Silver Goes to War: The mild-mannered NBA commissioner has overseen a time of peace and prosperity for his league. Until now.

Democrats Might Actually Win Iowa: Are the party’s hopes for the Hawkeye State real, or just another mirage?

No One Knows What to Do About Britain’s Exploding Anti-Semitism: The first step is admitting that the United Kingdom has a problem.

China Believes America Will Flame Out: Beijing’s geopolitical restraint is all part of a long game. - "In private conversations and public writings, China's leaders and their advisers often describe America as 'declining but dangerous' - a late-stage power prone to bursts of aggression in the hopes of arresting its slide. As early as the 1990s, the height of the United States' unipolar power, Chinese thinkers were already theorizing about America's decline. Wang Huning, then a little-known academic, was moved by his travels through the U.S. to write the book America Against America, in which he described a nation beset by social fragmentation, inequality, and political dysfunction. Shocked by the country's problems of homelessness, drug addiction, racial violence, social divisions, and low education standards, Wang concluded that America contained the seeds of its own destruction." [ed. note: Wang Huning is now a member of the Politburo]

Reading archive 2026-05-07

Grain dispute splits Ukraine and Israel even as they fight allied enemies: Tense relations soured further after Ukraine accused Israel of buying grain harvested by Russia in occupied territory. Meanwhile, Russia and Iran have grown closer. - "'Given the place of Israel as part of western democratic states and Russia, on the other side, siding with Iran and Hamas, it should be very clear where Israel should be, but this is not the case,' Svetlova said. 'There might be another reason why Israel is projecting this cold attitude toward Ukraine: its strained ties with the U.S. administration. Trump thinks Zelensky has the weaker chin, he can be pressured, so maybe Israel thinks that, too.'"

An American industrial revolution is brewing. I saw it in Pittsburgh.: America isn’t ready for “Day 30.” Start-ups like Gecko Robotics are working to change that. - "The defense base badly needs this disruption. The U.S. spends staggering sums for 'exquisite' systems that can’t be produced in sufficient volume or maintained at reasonable cost. Critics liken the Pentagon’s current procurement system to buying a fleet of luxury cars with sky-high repair bills. The folly of this approach has been clear in the Ukraine and Iran wars, where cheap drones have overwhelmed expensive interceptor missiles."

What really killed Mozart? You don’t want to know.: “Amadeus” returns to TV and shows why genius always demands an antagonist.

U.S. intelligence says Iran can outlast Trump’s Hormuz blockade for months: A confidential intelligence community assessment delivered to the White House also finds that Iran retains a substantial missile and drone arsenal.

Inside a MAGA influencer’s turn against the right-wing machine: Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, has renounced her life as a pro-Trump provocateur.

Former D.C. mayor Anthony Williams endorses McDuffie in Democratic primary Williams’s support further underscores Kenyan R. McDuffie’s appeal among the business class at a time the District’s economy is experiencing a period of distress.

Brain health supplements are booming. Here’s what one longevity expert takes.: Only one has been shown in clinical trials to slow cognitive aging, by about two years. This is what the science says about which supplements work.

Reading archive 2026-05-06

DC Council passes permanent youth curfew with amendments, heads to congress The passage of curfew legislation allows MPD to set curfew zones, restricting groups of eight or more teens from gathering in certain parts of the city.

White House East Wing debris dumped at nearby golf course has toxic metals, report says

An investigation into crime stats is roiling D.C. police. Here’s what to know.: Multiple high-ranking D.C. police officials face termination or other disciplinary action, after allegations that statistics had been manipulated.

D.C. police chief says 13 officers may be fired after crime stats investigation: The proposed discipline, which would include high-ranking officials, is related to an internal probe of the alleged manipulation of crime data, the interim police chief said.

Road pricing in DC will benefit drivers the most - "In every place where road pricing exists, it faced strong opposition prior to implementation before swinging to widespread support once the effects of reduced traffic became immediately clear. The Bowser administration has a particular distaste for road pricing. During the Committee on Transportation and the Environment’s government-witness budget oversight hearing for DDOT on April 30, Director Sharon Kershbaum said that the agency would not be studying it further. 

"This is a mistake. The council should fund further study of road pricing, so that our next mayor’s DDOT can get to work on it on day one. 

"Charging drivers for the negative externalities of their trips — congestion, worsening air quality, noise pollution, putting other people at risk of being killed or injured with their vehicles — is a proven way to create a reality where everyone gains time back from their commutes, breathes cleaner air, and is far less likely to be harmed on our streets."

Ward 3 has been unwell for a century. More housing is the cure - "Chevy Chase was patient zero. An infection of low density land use and racial exclusion then spread like a disease throughout the rest of Ward 3. To the west, white residents of Tenleytown who belonged to the Friendship Citizens Association teamed up with a new generation of CCLC investors to forcibly displace their Black neighbors in Fort Reno. 

"In the 1920s, under the guise of “beautification,” they successfully lobbied a federal board to raze Reno over the adamant objections of Black Washingtonians; by the 1950s, Black residents had been totally evicted. Today, Fort Reno consists of a park and a middle school, and is surrounded by expensive single-family homes. Multifamily housing in the pipeline nearby, likely to rent or sell for a little less than $1.6 million, has stalled."

Pro-Kremlin lawyer’s turn against Putin reveals rift in Russian power circles: Ilya Remeslo was put in a psychiatric hospital after criticizing Vladimir Putin. Now free, he said that he will not stop his crusade against the Russian president.

The pro-Israel political consensus is collapsing in both parties: On the campaign trail and elsewhere, the U.S. alliance with Israel has gone from a bipartisan consensus to a subject of fierce debate among Republicans and Democrats alike.

Why is Trump backing off San Francisco? These results.: Democrat Daniel Lurie is using technology to make the city safe again.

EU urges US to stick to tariff deal terms: The United States must respect its tariff agreement with the EU, the bloc's trade chief told his American counterpart Tuesday, after President Donald Trump threatened to hike levies on European cars.

One Chinese Town’s Fight Against the Desert Attracts: Thousands Launched by a local man, an anti-desertification initiative in the country’s arid northwest went viral after being featured on a popular show. [ed. note: Chinese agitprop]

Europeans Are Quiet Quitting the United States: European leaders have now not only lost faith in Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency, but also in America’s hegemony as a whole. But short-term challenges make an immediate divorce unwise. - "Some paragons of Atlanticism have recently chosen European providers for long-term structural contracts instead of American ones. The Dutch central bank ditched Amazon Web Services in favor of the German Lidl as their cloud operator, and Denmark’s defense ministry opted to purchase the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defense system instead of U.S. Patriot batteries. Both decisions were driven in no small part by considerations for European sovereignty, in light of a crisis of U.S. reliability."

For Ibram X. Kendi, It’s Nazis All the Way Down: His new book describes the “Great Replacement” theory as a convoluted plot, but fails to explain why it appeals to people in the first place. - "Great Replacement, in Kendi's widening definition, starts to encompass so many disparate examples that it loses its explanatory power. Is Canada's conservative politician Pierre Poilievre a 'great replacement leader'? Kendi's logic for including him is largely based on the fact that Poilievre spoke to the concerns of those 2022 trucker protesters who were responding to COVID lockdowns by demanding a return of their 'freedoms.' He was addressing constituent complaints about business closures and school lockdowns, which is what all sorts of politicians did. El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, makes it onto the board because of his harsh crackdown on gangs, though crime was genuinely an acute problem in the country and most Salvadorans were very happy to see him attack it. He has weakened democratic institutions and countenanced claims of torture and other abuses, but I'm not sure this puts him ideologically in league with Orbán and Le Pen."

Progressive Activists Are Sometimes on the Wrong Side of History: Thinking otherwise can enable the left’s worst instincts, as a speech at the University of Michigan’s commencement showed. - "Concern and empathy for Palestinian suffering and anger at Israel's excessive counterattack are admirable, but the movement's ambition is not limited to that. Michigan's pro-Palestine activism is primarily organized by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, which is the local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a national network. Both the national group and its Michigan chapter have endorsed the October 7, 2023, attacks. Adult progressives' insistence on viewing their activities as mere youthful idealism makes it impossible to question those positions."

Judicial Supremacy Has Arrived: Last week’s Supreme Court decision didn’t just undermine the Voting Rights Act. It foreclosed the possibility of any new Voting Rights Act in the future, too. - "Shelby County and Brnovich were damaging, but their effects on representation are more marginal-affecting voters' ability to participate, but at levels that could still have been overcome electorally, at least in most races. Callais is different in kind. In the near term, majority-minority districts across the South will evaporate. Over successive redistricting cycles, the result will likely be the most significant contraction of Black congressional representation since the end of Reconstruction, potentially the most precipitous fall in American history, a contraction that would have seemed, not long ago, unthinkable.

...

"But Callais reaches something deeper, about constitutional democracy itself: about whether the Constitution, the law of laws, means what elected branches say it means, and whether those elected branches can act on that meaning. The Court has declared that the branch of government most accountable to the people cannot legislate its way toward a more inclusive democracy."

Reading archive 2026-05-05

With gas prices so high, how much will you actually save with an EV?: Gas prices are expected to remain high because of the Iran war, increasing the cost advantages of switching to electric vehicles over gas-powered cars.

Multiple D.C. Police Leaders Face Termination Over Crime Data Manipulation

Indie music has been invaded by fake fans and cynical viral campaigns​. Here’s how deep it all goes

They thought their disabled daughter was safe. A pregnancy revealed her rape.: She’s blind and can barely speak, and her family is suing her group home, caregivers and state agencies. “The whole system failed Kamryn,” her mother says.

5 things mosquito experts do every summer to avoid getting bitten: Looking for pest prevention strategies that work? Researchers share how they prevent mosquito bites and keep the bugs at bay on their properties.

U.S. mission to reopen Strait of Hormuz will be temporary, Hegseth says: The defense secretary says the ceasefire holds despite Iranian attacks on U.S. forces. He said the United States would call on allies to take over the mission to reopen the waterway.

For a Time, the U.S. Protected Democracy: A requiem for the Voting Rights Act - "Like previous VRA-related decisions, Callais was 'narrow,' in that it did not strike down the law itself. But although the edifice built at great expense-by Fannie Lou Hamer, by John Lewis, by the bloodied limbs of Mississippi sharecroppers and Alabama marchers-has not been entirely bulldozed, only the facade remains. The VRA has not been dealt a "blow"; the decision did not merely defang it. The law is dead, and no matter what happens in the coming elections, politics in America has been forever changed. For most of the nation's history, the former Confederate states have worked hard to minimize the political influence of Black residents in particular. Now they have full cover to do so again."

Europe Without America: The Iran war has given European leaders new impetus to plan for self-defense. - "The Trump administration didn't bother making specific requests of its European allies for the war against Iran. Instead, each day brought new, conflicting signals. At first, the message was that the United States and Israel could handle it. Then Trump lashed out on social media, saying that allies 'should have been there.' But the Trump administration never told key European partners what specifically it wanted from them in Iran, multiple European officials told me. The Pentagon spokesperson told me that the administration 'has been consistently and repeatedly clear about the demand signal to allies to contribute to addressing a threat that affects Europe as much as America and our Middle East allies. The notion that the Department did not convey these requests widely and clearly is demonstrably false.'"

Why Stocks Keep Going Up: The boom is not as untethered from reality as it may look.

The One Tax the Rich Can’t Escape: New York’s proposed pied-à-terre tax is unlikely to chase anyone away. - "There is also a harder truth underneath the political rhetoric. Blue cities cannot keep taxing their way out of their budget problems. The differentials between high-tax and low-tax states are now too large, and the mobility of the rich too real, for that playbook to keep working. Cities like New York have to get serious about the cost side of their budgets-about efficiency, productivity, and what they spend. The revenue side alone cannot close the gap. A pied-à-terre tax is a useful tool if it is used smartly, but it is not a substitute for running the city well.

"None of this means the idea of taxing the rich is wrong. The inequality that has built up in this country has reached levels that are corrosive to the economy and to the fabric of our cities. But income taxes and wealth taxes cannot do the job at the city or state level. They have to be levied at the national level, where there is no state line to cross. Local governments should tax what cannot move, which means fixed assets and real estate above all. A pied-à-terre tax is one version of that idea, and there are others. For cities like New York, the lesson is straightforward. Stop trying to tax what the rich can carry with them, and start taxing what they want to keep."

The End of Cigarettes Is Coming The U.K. is phasing out smoking.: How long will Americans tolerate tobacco—and other vices?

The Iran War’s Ramifications Have Only Just Begun: U.S. goals haven’t been met, but the war will cause long-term disruptions.

Micah Lasher, Child Magician The race for New York’s Twelfth District keeps getting more interesting.

Making America’s Houses Bigger May Have Been a Mistake: Millennials are abandoning the idea of living in a giant home.

All the Sad Young Chinese Professionals: China’s urbanites are learning the price of prosperity.

She dreamed of a natural birth in Mexico. Now, she believes she was drugged.: In a complaint filed with Mexican prosecutors, Jennifer Nosek alleges that her midwife, Heather Baker, caused her baby’s death.

She dreamed of a natural birth in Mexico. Now, she believes she was drugged.: In a complaint filed with Mexican prosecutors, Jennifer Nosek alleges that her midwife, Heather Baker, caused her baby’s death. - "The couple also allege that after their son’s death, Baker [the midwife] urged them not to tell the police that she was a midwife or that they’d paid her but to identify her only as a friend. Lemos [the father], worried that an open investigation would delay the release of their son’s body, agreed. There was no autopsy, and the baby’s death certificate says he died of perinatal asphyxia, a condition in which a fetus or infant fails to get enough oxygen."

Reading archive 2026-05-04

The quest to save Outer Banks homes

Poisonous black rain falls in Russia as Ukraine strikes oil facilities: Residents of Tuapse, on the Black Sea, complained of an inadequate government response and coverup of what they say is a huge environmental and health disaster.

Iran fires on U.S. ships in Strait of Hormuz, in threat to ceasefire: The attacks followed the passage of U.S. warships and merchant vessels through the waterway despite Iran’s threats against attempts to “interfere” in the strait.

The fall of an African nation shows what Putin’s promises are worth: Jihadists are kicking Russia out of Mali. The U.S. should move in.

Bethesda bakery owner loses nearly $25,000 in phone spoofing scam, warns other small businesses: Susan Limb says she had no idea a phone number could be spoofed to look exactly like her bank's phone number.

A GOP lawmaker supported an immigration crackdown. Her husband paid a price.: The situation cost Idaho state Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld and her husband most of their income and highlights an escalating split in the party.

The secret to making chores so fun that you look forward to them: Strategies such as a points system, timed challenges and even “the poop rule” can lend some excitement to mundane tasks such as decluttering or mopping the floor.

An island depends on him to run the ferry. Who will do it after Terry?: Terry Laird, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, has spent his adult life keeping the people who live on a tiny Chesapeake Bay island connected.

About pain and other ailments: "What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" - Othello (William Shakespeare)

Reading archive 2026-05-03

Why America’s best fighter jets are being made with deadweight: China has a near monopoly on metal critical to modern warfare. - "More than 300 new F-35 fighter jets are reportedly being delivered without their next-generation radars. Instead, they are leaving the factory with ballast weights in their nose cones — deadweight placeholders for a device the United States cannot currently source at scale."

He spent 60 years building Black political power. He sees a wipeout coming.: Press Robinson was the first member of his family to vote and the first Black person to win a seat on the Baton Rouge school board. He thinks a Supreme Court ruling will erase political gains African Americans have made across the South.