She hoped Trump’s victory would change her life, but not like this: Ryleigh Cooper is normally more focused on motherhood than politics. Then came DOGE. - "Trump, at a campaign stop an hour and a half south of her, had promised to make IVF free. She knew that from a video clip she saw on TikTok. And she had believed him.
"She also believed him when he said that Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican administration that suggested mass cuts to the federal workforce, was not his plan." [ed. note: lol ffs]
Young men in Africa's Sahel flock to Islamist jihad forces: As Africa’s Sahel region has replaced the Middle East as the epicenter of jihadism, young men are flocking to the cause. They don’t always like what they find.
Civilians in Africa’s Sahel join militias as Islamist extremism surges: The advancing tide of Islamist extremism has prompted the rise of pro-government militias. The result has been a vicious cycle of escalating violence.
How Russia's Wagner Group advances Putin's aim of influence in Africa: Soldiers from the Wagner Group have helped Vladimir Putin advance his aim of restoring Russian power in Africa. But on the ground, they’ve learned hard lessons.
US military presence withdraws from Africa as foreign threats rise: At a time when Africa is convulsed by various threats and American interests could be at risk, U.S. influence is in retreat.
A new generation of military officers is seizing power: As many Africans sour on the West, a new generation of military officers is seizing power, vowing to build strong and sovereign nations. But at what cost?
Military juntas target critics and media, exiling democratic forces: Military strongmen have silenced their critics and muzzled the media, threatening, arresting and exiling those who speak out for democracy. A few still dare.
Trump’s plan to downsize government could put downtown D.C. up for sale: As we await a revised list of properties the GSA deems “non-core,” a critic ponders the fate of Washington’s historic landscape. - "It is virtually impossible that America can recoup its investment in these properties if they are sold off rapidly and at this scale. Such a sale probably would turn the government into a renter rather than an owner, with rental rates set by anyone rich enough to buy the properties. The potential for corruption is unprecedented."
How To Build A Thousand-Year-Old Tree: A set of experimental techniques and technologies that might seem harmful to trees is actually helping ancient forests survive. - "Maintaining a supply of dying wood, and exploiting trees’ ability to exist in a state of spooky half-death, is critical for the unique communities of inhabitants that depend on it. Columns of dead and decaying tree matter called 'tree soil’ are the single most important nutrient resource for deadwood-loving insects and can remain supported in 'deadwood chimneys' by the rest of the living trunk, Harris explained. 'That’s where we get the beetles,' he said."
How a Trump effort to cut environmental red tape could backfire: The White House is revoking its own authority to oversee implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act — and leaving a bureaucratic mess in its wake. - "In an echo of the Trump administration’s refrain that extraordinary measures are required to curb government inefficiency, the unraveling of CEQ is intended to “expedite and simplify the permitting process” for important projects, according to Trump’s executive order. But experts who spoke to Grist anticipate that it will have the opposite effect."
Butterflies in the U.S. are disappearing at a ‘catastrophic’ rate: The number of butterflies in the contiguous United States declined by 22 percent this century, a collapse with potentially dire implications. - "David Wagner, a University of Connecticut entomologist not involved in the study, said butterflies act as a 'yardstick for measuring what is happening' among insects broadly. He called the new findings 'catastrophic and saddening.'"
Inside U.S. spy agencies, workers fear a cataclysmic Trump cull: Firings and mass disruptions could harm intelligence collection on foreign threats and future recruiting, current and former officials say. - "The elimination of DEI programs is particularly painful to some intelligence officials, who see pragmatic virtue in a more diverse workforce. For years, spy chiefs have spoken of a lack of analysts with the necessary language skills and cultural backgrounds to understand foreign societies — and undercover operatives with the physical features to work clandestinely in Africa, Asia or the Middle East."
How New York drove a steak through the heart of Texas: A long-simmering regional beef over an iconic American food is heating up again. - "Simple justice demands giving credit where it’s due. The steaks aren’t 'Texas strips,' because they arrived from Texas about as chewy as a cowboy’s boot. And they shouldn’t be 'New York strips,' because New Yorkers contributed nothing to the process but their pieholes. They are 'Kansas City strips,' in honor of the city where the beef got its flavor and the men in bloody aprons who popularized the cut."
How North Carolina football landed a coaching legend in Bill Belichick
