Reading archive 2026-09-13

The web’s newest weapon against AI scrapers is a font: “ShieldFont” aims to poison AI training data without making pages unreadable for people.

The More You Think About One Night Only, The Harder It Is to Believe Gay People Would Be OK:  A conservative government has biochips in people’s wrists and they’re just... not banning homosexuality?

Reading archive 2026-08-12

Putin just showed the world how afraid he is of his own people: Barring the only anti-war party from the ballot shows the hollowness of Kremlin propaganda.

Reading archive 2026-08-11

Contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat: The White House said the president was aboard Air Force One as he left a NATO summit. Instead, his departure included an elaborate ruse that concealed his travel.

Catnip lotion as effective as Deet at repelling mosquitoes, study finds: Researchers testing a cheap, homegrown oil in Uganda found what cats knew all along – it worked as well as the artificial chemical used globally

The fog is alive: Researchers discover bacteria in fog droplets clear toxins from air: Study shifts our understanding of fog from a sterile mist to a temporary aquatic habitat

Democratic rebellion against older politicians reaches new battleground: Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 47, is challenging Rep. John Larson, who is 78 and running for his fifteenth term representing Connecticut's first district.

Trump-Netanyahu rift widens as election pressures pull them in opposite directions: While the Israeli leader touts a willingness to defy the U.S. on Gaza, the president needs to show progress in the foreign entanglements weighing on his approval rating.

Told to book a gym class, an AI agent hacked the site instead to move its user up the waitlist

Reading archive 2026-08-10

I treat brain fog. Here are 6 surprising causes many people overlook.: Brain fog has become an important part of the conversation for many conditions, including perimenopause and hypothyroidism.

When America’s budget will break, disastrously - "Medicare’s budget-busting makes Social Security’s look modest by comparison. Of the projected $138 trillion budget shortfall over the next 30 years, $109 trillion is from Medicare. Rising health care costs, combined with an aging population receiving far more in benefits than it ever paid in taxes, spells fiscal Armageddon. The Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund goes insolvent in 2033."

Eleventh-hour primary upsets muddy the race for control of Congress: Unexpected winners have complicated both parties’ paths to control of the House and Senate.

A crime reporter was picked for jury duty and left with more than he expected: The trial in a D.C. courtroom brought together jurors from across the city for five days.

GOP lawmakers move to scrap D.C.’s motorcycle helmet law as road deaths rise: One sponsor calls motorcycles a “symbol of freedom.” Safety experts say scrapping the helmet mandate would come at a deadly cost. - "In states without universal helmet laws, 51 percent of motorcyclists killed in 2023 were not wearing helmets, according to federal safety data. In states with such mandates, just 10 percent of motorcyclists killed had no helmet."

Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia defence pact technically same as NATO's Article 5, Turkish minister says

Cruise ship helps stranded skiff and crew in Southeast Alaska as Zuckerberg yacht stands by

Reading archive 2026-08-09

Democratic voters who used to back Susan Collins aren’t so sure anymore: “When she voted for RFK Jr., I totally lost it,” one former Collins voter said.

Unemployment improved — because thousands of workers disappeared. Where did they go?: The percentage of American workers ages 25 to 54 declined this year, and that’s not a good sign for the economy, experts say.

Why a child’s stuffed bunny is blowing up a political race — and the internet: Many seemed reluctant to take sides in an Ohio congressman’s divorce, but then came the allegation he had withheld his daughter’s sleep buddy.

Trump keeps making threats. The world has stopped flinching.: The president’s bombast has ceased to rattle world leaders, who have seen him fenced in by courts, rebuffed by Congress and strung along by Iran.

How predatory trade schools drained $300 million from the GI Bill and cheated veterans: The institutions defrauded Veterans Affairs while cheating thousands out of career training, with some offering training on how to grow grass and make fake rocks, a Post investigation found.

Ukraine fails to halt Russian barrage as Zelensky blames partners for ‘horrific casualties’: U.S.-made systems are Kyiv’s only means to shoot down ballistic missiles, and Ukraine says it has run out of interceptors. Seventeen Ukrainians died overnight.

Virginia boy’s death comes as more children are getting hurt on e-scooters: Over two days in the D.C. area, a 9-year-old was killed on an e-scooter and a 5-year-old was seriously injured, police said.

Trump officials say public transit is unsafe, but their data says otherwise: A new federal dashboard shows that New York and Washington have relatively low rates of serious crimes.

Now the midterms begin in earnest. Ask candidates three questions.: Those seeking House or Senate seats should be asked by voters to make a trio of vital commitments.

Japan’s guilty pleasure: A tribute to the largest battleship ever built: Why the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yamato, sunk in 1945, still captures the country’s imagination.

Felony record didn’t stop fraudster from fleecing GI Bill of $1.5 million: The self-described former drug dealer says he faced no background check before he won approval to enroll veterans in his school for police dog handlers.

Veterans in this GI Bill scam played along as trade schools pocketed millions: Prosecutors went after “ghost” school operators but rarely pursued students who enrolled just to collect housing subsidies, a Post investigation found.

Budget battle erupts in D.C. over opioid settlement money

Union Station overhaul takes new direction as Trump administration scraps approved expansion plan

Reading archive 2026-08-06

Norway became a global salmon behemoth. Now it's facing the consequences

Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate touts his rural appeal. His hometown has mixed feelings.: In Allagash, a hamlet of some 200 people near Canada, residents are sharply divided over Troy Jackson.

Attack ads portraying progressive candidate as sexist roil key Michigan Senate race: The candidate’s barbed wit sparked attack ads that portray him as disrespectful to women. He says that’s a racist trope.

Loomer’s Ukraine reversal deepens split in Trump’s ‘America First’ movement: Influential MAGA blogger and former Kyiv critic Laura Loomer expects to visit the president to advocate for the U.S.-Ukraine alliance.

How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking: Flock’s array of license-plate cameras was built to fight crime. But at least 50 law enforcement officers were charged with or accused of misusing it and other systems.

My company’s drones hit Russia — and showed what the Pentagon doesn’t know: Modern war rewards speed and redundancy, not perfect weapons from a single supplier.

After big win, left-leaning slate seeks to flex power in D.C.’s Democratic Party: A group of left-leaning candidates, Free DC Slate, won 36 of 48 seats up for grabs on the D.C. Democratic State Committee.

I befriended my neighborhood crow. You can, too.: Reflections — and expert tips — on building bonds with corvids.

Reading archive 2026-07-31

A new Colorado River plan requires water cuts for three states. Deeper cuts are still possible.: Arizona, California and Nevada will be required to curb their use of the water from the river by a combined 20 percent over the next two years, according to three officials. - "In the Upper Basin, home to the snowcapped mountains and winding tributaries that feed the river, there are few reservoirs to provide long-term water storage, leaving users reliant on natural flows. That means the Upper Basin takes an automatic cut during dry years, officials argue. They say responsibility for restoring water to Lakes Powell and Mead should fall on the Lower Basin states that use them. 

"Yet about three-quarters of the people who depend on the Colorado live in the Lower Basin. The region is also home to major cities and sprawling farms that provide most of the nation’s winter vegetable supply. Officials from these states say they have already curbed their water consumption by millions of acre feet in recent years. Overuse of the river is universal, they argue, and so too is responsibility for saving it."

Airports, nursing homes and schools brace for disruption without Haitian workers: The Trump administration and courts are at odds over whether about 350,000 Haitians have officially lost humanitarian protections, but employers are already letting workers go.

Why 600,000 Mosquitoes Are Being Released in DC This Summer: A Silver Spring pest control company is releasing mosquitoes that don't bite, to stop the ones that do.

Bowser, warning of $837M ‘fiscal cliff,’ declines to sign D.C. budget: It’s not a veto, but it’s the mayor’s way of voicing her disapproval with the D.C. Council.

New report details ‘prolonged, systemic breakdown’ in D.C. crime reporting: The report comes amid internal and external probes into a wide-ranging crime data manipulation scandal.

Inside the deal to clinch Lindsey Graham’s ‘sanctions bill from hell’: The late senator pushed for a bipartisan financial bill that could curb Russia’s main source of income.

Will Maine uproot Susan Collins? I went to a potato festival to find out.: The Senate race pits seniority against a working-class playbook.

What’s tucked inside the Senate’s Russia sanctions bill: Its tariff proposals could affect other countries more than Russia. - "In sum, the legislation gives Trump an awful lot of authority to impose massive tariffs on a number of countries, notably India and China, if they don’t cut off all Russian energy imports. They are unlikely to do so, because both India and China are heavily reliant on Russian energy — all the more since the U.S.-Iran war has reduced oil exports from the Persian Gulf. Trump’s efforts to use 25 percent tariffs to wean India from Russian energy imports already failed last year.

"The problem is that there is nothing to stop Trump from imposing tariffs on any of those countries for some other reason and using the Graham bill as legal justification. He might even use the legislation to go after U.S. allies in Europe and Asia."