Reading archive 2026-10-30

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.'"

The Long, Weird Tale of Comet Ping Pong: Whatever happened to the D.C. pizza place that became a target for the internet’s darkest obsessives?

We polled Kansas. Democrats wanted to talk. Republicans, not so much.: The Post is publishing results of its Kansas Senate poll in the interest of transparency and to highlight the challenges the poll faced.

Massive crypto hack probably the largest theft of digital currencies in history: Binance said that $6.3 billion in user funds had been affected in the incident.

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.'"

Md. teen was shot dead near his home. His mom blames a leak from D.C. agency.: Police found a confidential city form containing the victim’s address on one of the suspect’s phones.

Midwestern retirees helped turn Florida red. Now they could push it left.: Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, Midwestern sensibilities and an affordability crisis have put Trump-voting districts back into play.

Young Men of Cornell Want to Talk. Why Are Older Men So Quiet?: What people in Ithaca are saying—and not saying—about the sexual assault allegations brought against members of the Chi Phi fraternity.