Showing posts with label Georgia (country). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Georgia (country). Show all posts

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Reading archive 2025-04-02

The Weekend That Shook the World

This muggy city keeps cool with minimal AC. Here’s how.: Palava City, a 5,000-acre experimental community northeast of Mumbai, hopes to provide a model for adapting to a climate-transformed world.

The Evermaskers: The isolation of people who take precautions against COVID has only gotten more intense.

Russia’s Repression Goes South: A group of Russian exiles thought they would find freedom in Georgia. They were wrong.

How the Trump administration took aim at Maine: The acting head of the Social Security Administration called the state’s governor “disrespectful” and vowed there would be consequences.

Head of African American Museum on leave as Smithsonian faces Trump pressure: Kevin Young, an acclaimed poet who was named director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2021, is on personal leave for an “undetermined period,” according to an email obtained by The Post.

White House studying cost of Greenland takeover, long in Trump’s sights: It’s the most concrete effort yet to turn President Donald Trump’s desire to acquire the Danish territory into actionable policy, despite widespread international outrage.

Karen Read is back on trial for murder. Here’s what to know.: Read, accused of killing her boyfriend, alleges she was framed as part of a police cover-up. She is being retried after her first case ended in a mistrial.

How to make your seasonal allergies a little less miserable: Take allergy medicine a few weeks before pollen counts rise to get ahead of the congestion, sneezing and runny nose, experts say - "Despite claims online, there’s no evidence a spoonful of local honey will treat your seasonal pollen allergies, experts said. 

The honey might help to soothe a sore throat or cough, but not treat the allergic reaction. 'The pollen that’s actually in honey is not the pollen you’re allergic to,' Rubin said. 'Plants you’re allergic to are wind-pollinated, not insect-pollinated.'"

Air traffic controller charged with assaulting colleague in DCA tower: A work dispute led to an altercation between employees in the control tower at Reagan National Airport on Thursday night, people familiar with the matter say.

Trump says he’s already scored more business deals than Biden. That’s false.: The White House is comparing apples and oranges.

Farmers bewildered after USDA suggests cutting DEI from energy projects: The Agriculture Department said it would release funds withheld from farmers for months but also suggested they alter projects to align with Trump’s agenda.

You’re probably not cleaning these 11 very germy spots: Don’t worry. Once you know about them, they’re easy to take care of.

Trump administration says it mistakenly deported Salvadoran migrant: The government blamed “an administrative error” for the deportation of Kilmar Abrego GarcĂ­a, a Salvadoran immigrant married to a U.S. citizen. Officials claim they’re unable to return him to his family in Maryland.

As Trump shakes trust in U.S., a hub for F-16 fighter jets braces for impact: Booming exports turned a South Carolina city into the “Global Home of the F-16.” Slipping foreign demand among angry allies could hurt that economic engine.

These old Roman buildings could unlock how to build in a warming world: The recycled buildings of Rome, long dismissed by architects, are getting a reappraisal as a model for how to reduce waste while creating something fresh.

Friday, December 13, 2024

Reading archive 2024-12-13

Tulsi Gabbard is going to hate the DNI job: Tulsi Gabbard might soon learn director of national intelligence isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

Puritan baby names are back. Is ’90s culture responsible?: We took a look at data going back to the Revolutionary War and found something shocking: Virtue names such as Hope, Charity and Faith are back and bigger than ever!

In Georgia’s capital, a new fury fuels street protests: The ruling Georgian Dream party might have underestimated the depth of the people’s frustration.

Energized by next Trump term, red states move agendas further right: Governors, legislators and attorneys general ready plans for the “perfect storm of conservative policies” coming to many state legislatures and Washington.

Assad lived in quiet luxury while Syrians went hungry: Syria’s ousted leader cultivated a modest image. Footage revealing hidden opulence tells a different story. - "An effusive 2011 Vogue profile of the first lady titled 'A Rose in the Desert' — which was later taken down and mostly scrubbed from the internet — heralded the Assads’ supposed down-to-earth nature, a narrative the family was emphasizing even then."

U.S. citizen found in Syria says he was imprisoned for months: The man, who identified himself as Travis Timmerman, said he had crossed into Syria from neighboring Lebanon months ago on a ‘pilgrimage’ to Damascus. [ed. note: whither Austin Tice?]

D.C. asks for redo of ANC election after college student flagged errors: A sophomore seeking the unglamorous neighborhood advisory role grew suspicious when she only received just one vote - her own ballot.

Gold bar scammer sentenced to five years for attempted theft: Judge calls sentence “measured deterrence” against scams that bilked millions from Montgomery County residents - "'The only real explanation I think that I can see here,' Arora [the defense attorney] said, 'is this is somebody who acted out of immaturity without really weighing the consequences of the decisions that he was making.'" [ed. note: um and greed]

FBI agent accused of rape two years after acquittal for Metro shooting: Eduardo Valdivia, 40, faces two counts of second-degree rape in Montgomery County for incidents at his purported tattoo and photo studio.

How a brutally repressive African country freely raises money in the U.S.: Eritrea’s embassy has helped raise millions of dollars to promote the interests of the cash-strapped country. Its ruling party is under U.S. sanctions.

Lina Khan Goes Out With a Bang: The failed Kroger-Albertsons merger offers the clearest proof yet that the new antitrust movement is breaking through. - "Internal company documents and testimony showed that, in many markets, Kroger and Albertsons view each other as their main competitor. 'You are basically creating a monopoly in grocery with the merger,' one Albertsons executive wrote. Other evidence showed Kroger raising prices on milk and eggs, lowering them only if a nearby store owned by Albertsons did so. (In fact, in the separate trial of Colorado’s challenge to the merger, an executive testified that Kroger systematically raised prices at 'no-comp stores'—that is, stores in towns where there was no competition—and kept prices lower in towns with another grocer.)"

Monday, December 2, 2024

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."