As D.C.’s mayor race heats up, stark contrasts emerge in the two front-runners: With a Democratic primary in June, Kenyan R. McDuffie and Janeese Lewis George remain the leading contenders in the race to succeed D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser.
Israeli officials are growing concerned: A bombing campaign nearing its military goals in Iran leaves the hardest questions unanswered. - "A second concern expressed by the Israeli official was maintaining good relations with the United States at a time when Americans in both political parties are voicing growing concern about the alliance. 'We won’t drag the U.S. into an endless war,' the official said. 'Israel is a reliable ally,' not a burden, he argued."
There are two winners in Iran. Neither one is America.: Oil disruption benefits Russia, as does less U.S. aid for Ukraine. And Iran distracts from China. - "While Trump has been bombing various countries, imposing tariffs, discouraging foreign students from coming to America and cutting research funding, China has been making massive investments designed to dominate the industries of the future. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute reports that China now leads the United States in research on 66 of 74 frontier technologies, including artificial intelligence, superconductors, quantum computing and optical communications. China is already manufacturing roughly 70 percent of the world’s electric vehicles, 80 percent of smartphones, 80 percent of lithium-ion batteries and 90 percent of drones. Last year, roughly half of all vehicles sold in China were EVs or hybrids. The comparable figure for the U.S. is 22 percent — and it is likely to decline after Congress repealed the EV tax credit."
D.C.’s most apolitical official is on the hot seat — with $180M on the line: The brewing conflict in D.C. government stems from a vote by Republicans in Congress to block a city tax policy and the revenue it raised.
Reasons you should get a colonoscopy earlier than recommended: The official recommendation is to start colorectal cancer screening at age 45, but should you go earlier if you’re concerned? An oncologist explains.
Gen Z Lives in the Archive: Is cultural time actually continuous? - "In Plato’s dialogue, 'Ion,' he describes how inspiration works: the first poet was inspired directly by the muse, like an iron filling attached to a lodestone. The subsequent generations of poets are like iron fillings attached to that first filling. The force of inspiration is still present, but it is exerted indirectly and weakens with every generation. Thus, the influence of the original impetus wanes until, presumably, we culturally reset and reconnect to the magnetic source directly. Gen Z finds itself in a state in which the fillings have all been scattered on the ground, perhaps experiencing some ambient attraction from the lodestone, but unable to really connect with it.
"Can this state of affairs create vital popular music? It appears not. The results seem to be avant garde Adderall brain slurry—100 Gecs and nettspend and hyperpop—for a tiny, cultured minority. The masses just keep listening to Taylor Swift on repeat. And for those of you who want to object by saying, 'No, no, you have to hear my cousin’s noise rock project. It’s really going somewhere, doing something new,' I say, 'That’s exactly what I’m talking about.'"
After a decade of missteps, Corpus Christi careens toward water catastrophe: City officials expect to reach a “water emergency” within months and run out of water next year. That would halt jet fuel deliveries to Texas airports, hike gas prices and trigger a local economic disaster without precedent, former officials say. - "The region’s largest industrial users, which collectively consume the majority of the region’s water, remain exempt from emergency curtailment. These multi-billion-dollar refineries, petrochemical plants and liquified natural gas facilities are built to run at a steady rate and can’t simply throttle down production in accordance with water availability. They consume large volumes of water primarily in cooling towers to prevent excessive heating and explosions.
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"'It’s a surprise to me that none of those refineries and industries down there have their own desal plants,' said [former assistant energy secretary with the Obama administration Charles] McConnell, who worked 31 years for the chemical manufacturer Praxair in Houston. 'They’re using municipal water, for Christ’s sake!'
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"A facility of that scale, he knew, would require railcars full of pretreatment chemicals, create a mountain of sludge waste every day and consume a tremendous amount of electricity. But he didn’t see serious plans for any of that, he said.
"He dug deeper into the desalination boom and quickly saw what was going on: Politicians and businessmen had oversold their water supply, he said, and were scrambling for more as shortages approached. But none of them had any idea what they were doing, Serna remembered thinking as he reviewed the applications.
"'I’ve been trying since 2020 to let them know how catastrophic this is going to be,' he said in an interview at his home. 'They’ve acted with a profound ignorance.'"
Losing the War on Truth: Iran and what to make of it
‘Nazi heaven’: Inside Miami campus Republicans’ racist group chat - "The conversations included some of the campus’ top conservative leaders: the county GOP secretary, FIU’s Turning Point USA chapter president and the former College Republicans recruitment chair."
