Reading archive 2024-12-02

What’s happening in Georgia, and why are thousands protesting?: More than 200 were arrested and dozens injured during protests after Georgia’s ruling party said it would suspend talks to join the European Union.

Women despair over Taliban rules, but many Afghan returnees don’t see it: Afghans living abroad are flocking back to visit relatives for the first time since the Taliban takeover. Severe restrictions on women are not top of mind.

Exercising to lose weight? Science says it rarely works.: A metabolism researcher dispels myths about how we burn calories and how this changes as we age.

The Great Grocery Squeeze: How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert - "The problem of food deserts will not be solved without the rediscovery of the Robinson-Patman Act. Requiring a level pricing playing field would restore local retailers’ ability to compete. This would provide immediate relief to entrepreneurs who have recently opened grocery stores in food deserts, only to find that their inability to buy on the same terms as Walmart and Dollar General makes survival difficult. With local grocery stores back on the scene in these neighborhoods, chain supermarkets may well return, too, lured by a force far more powerful than tax breaks: competition."