Reading archive 2026-04-06

Don’t Mess With the Housewives of Ukraine: My interview with a tank maker provoked fury and memes—including from Zelensky.

How the Left Accidentally Bolstered the Nativist Right: By dismissing the distinction between legal and illegal immigration as bogus, advocates signaled that they would not defend it. - "In his book, The Normalization of the Radical Right, the political scientist Vicente Valentim shows that much of the recent rise in radical-right political behavior reflects not a change in what people believe, but a change in what they feel comfortable expressing. When norms weaken, often after radical-right politicians achieve electoral success, privately held views long kept quiet become publicly acceptable. Valentim's work focuses on Europe, but his analysis applies to America too. Over the past two decades, voters with restrictionist views have sorted into the GOP, making those preferences louder within the party. President Trump did not create this constituency, but he recognized and catered to it more than any modern president before him had. Each taboo he shattered around immigration made it easier for him and his supporters to transgress even more.

"And so, in Trump's second term, under Stephen Miller's newfound influence, the obliteration of the legal/illegal distinction has been formalized much more strongly into policy. The result: an administration now openly attacking legal immigration channels, including by targeting asylum and skilled-worker visas and implementing a visa freeze covering 75 countries. Like so much of the Trump agenda, these attacks are not broadly popular-in fact, polling suggests that support for legal immigration has never been higher-but they appeal to a small though intense nativist minority that no longer feels constrained and that makes up an important part of Trump's core coalition."

The Intellectual Right Is Mad at the Mess It’s Made: Conservatives are criticizing influencers for going too far. - "Bookish conservatives are fond of the tale of Buckley banishing the John Birch Society to the fringes. But that's not the whole story. Buckley walked a fine line, publicly criticizing Welch while otherwise trying not to alienate the society's rank and file, the historian Matthew Dallek argues in his 2023 book, Birchers. Buckley's gripes were more about the group's style and its leaders than its ideology. Birchers were widely derided for being racist and conspiratorial. But Buckley, the genteel conservative, was broadly in alignment with some of the group's views, calling white people "the advanced race" in a 1957 editorial in National Review, supporting Jim Crow segregation, and writing a book defending the Red-baiting propagandist Senator Joseph McCarthy."

Hitler’s Edifice Complex: He was obsessed with adding an expensive new wing to the Reich chancellery, part of his grandiose architectural ambitions for the nation’s capital.

Alleged D.C. pipe bomber might adopt debunked conspiracy theory as defense: Prosecutors said Brian Cole Jr.'s attorneys should be held in contempt for revealing the home address of a former Capitol Police officer who was ruled out as the suspect. - "During the first two hours of his FBI interview in December, the 30-year-old Cole denied placing the pipe bombs and said he was a Trump supporter. After being told that lying to federal agents could be charged as an additional crime, Cole admitted that he planted the bombs out of frustration with both parties and 'denied that his actions were directed toward Congress or related to the proceedings scheduled to take place on January 6,' prosecutors said."

MPD arrests 8 juveniles after multiple fights break out in Southwest

DC student hospitalized after group stomps him, steals Louis Vuitton shoes

Chinese firms market Iran war intelligence ‘exposing’ U.S. forces: The private companies — some with ties to the military — are marketing detailed intelligence on movements of U.S. forces, even as Beijing seeks to keep its distance.

Three men charged with murdering D.C. woman who went missing in 2023: Chyna Crawford, 25, is believed to have been kidnapped before she was killed. Authorities say the new indictments bring the total number of suspects to five.

Metrobus slams into D.C. restaurant, injuring 3 people: Photos showed the bus halfway inside the Balkan restaurant Ambar.

Never subsidize a sports stadium. And definitely not like this.: Jacksonville taxpayers are getting fleeced.

Their tiny church is on the cover of JD Vance’s new book. They don’t know him.: The members of a Methodist church in rural Virginia are excited — if a little confused — that the vice president’s memoir of his path to Catholicism has put them in the spotlight.

On the problem of landscape tarp: How carpeting your soil in plastic sheeting became an industry standard—and why it needs to stop.

Reading archive 2025-10-16

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly: Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy - "Russell Vought embodies the radicalization of the conservative movement; his example captures how far removed from democratic politics the Trumpist Right is. Vought is convinced to be fighting a noble war against a vast leftist conspiracy that has supposedly taken over the country and is destroying the nation. He dreams of a comprehensive 'counter-revolution' and believes that any measure, regardless of how extreme, is justified in this struggle against the 'leftist' enemy. But if you only listened to The Daily, you wouldn’t get any of that."

Engineers turn fish biology into a breakthrough microplastic laundry filter:  Inspired by the filter feeding mechanisms of basking sharks and manta rays, a startup called Cleanr has developed a filter that traps over 90% of microplastics released in each wash cycle.

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction: The Washington Post reviewed leaked audio from four off-the-record lectures the tech investor delivered in San Francisco over the past month that fused beliefs about religion and technology.

Trump’s new foreign aid plan eyes $50 million for Greenland’s polar bears: Documents reviewed by The Post show the administration may invest significantly in protecting vulnerable wildlife, proposals that stunned critics of its moves to gut foreign assistance.

8 takeaways from the Spanberger and Earle-Sears debate in Virginia: Republican Winsome Earle-Sears talked over Democrat Abigail Spanberger in a chaotic debate in the Virginia governor’s race that touched on trans students, Trump and more.

Trump pledged to make D.C. ‘safe and beautiful.’ His administration cut $40M in homeland security funds. The Trump administration cuts to grants in D.C. and 11 states geared toward anti-terrorism and other emergency responses has been paused by a federal judge while they are being challenged in court. - "'You complain about public safety in the District of Columbia, and what are you doing? Defunding their police,' said Richard S. Madaleno Jr., who is the chair-elect of the region’s Homeland Security Executive Committee, an arm of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments that helps local jurisdictions prepare for emergency situations."

Under pressure to curb crime, D.C. Council examines school absences: New legislation would direct D.C.’s Department of Human Services to investigate thousands of truancy reports.

Smithsonian visitors arrive to locked doors as federal shutdown continues: Across the National Mall on Sunday, tourists hastily rearranged plans as they realized D.C.'s downtown attractions had run out of money to operate.

Is it America’s fate to decline and fall? Here’s what history says.: The American experiment will soon turn 250. Is its time running out? - "Broadly speaking, the Athenian spirit is associated with golden ages. When civilizations were open to influences from merchants and migrants, and when they let people experiment with new ideas and innovations, they prospered. This required tolerance of pluralism and surprise, as well as institutions and norms to restrain rulers’ arbitrary use of power."

Reading archive 2025-08-26

Modern Dentistry Is a Microplastic Minefield: Dentists and orthodontists depend heavily on plastics and are beginning to weigh the tradeoffs.

Jacqui Heinrich is drawing attention at Fox News: The 36-year-old senior White House correspondent made waves for her harsh account of Trump’s summit with Putin: “She is not afraid of pissing off the base.”

ChatGPT is an energy guzzler. These things you’re doing are worse.: AI services have earned a reputation as energy-hungry beasts. But what about the other emissions in our digital lives?

America Tips Into Fascism Today is different than before. - "American fascism looks like the president using armed military units from governors loyal to his regime to seize cities run by opposition political figures and it looks like the president using federal law enforcement to target regime opponents. 

"American fascism looks like the would-be self-proclaimed king deploying the military on US soil not only not in response to requests by local or state officials but over — and almost specifically to spite — their vociferous objections."

Eleanor Holmes Norton keeps a low profile as Trump takes aim at DC: The 88-year-old congressional delegate has mounted a back-seat response to the most serious federal threat to the city’s government in 30 years.

Reading archive 2025-07-23

In hearing, developer told to rework plans to downsize D.C. grocery store: By early next week, Jair Lynch needs to rethink its request to downsize a grocery store it plans to build in a new Northwest Washington neighborhood.

Pressure heats up on D.C. Council to hold vote on RFK Stadium deal: D.C. lawmakers have said for weeks that they are doing their due diligence on the $3.7 billion dollar deal, and expect to approve it - just not as fast as everyone wants.

The ‘World’s Smartest Man’ Absolutely Hates Me: With an apparent score of 276, YoungHoon Kim claims to have the highest IQ on the planet. Just don’t ask him to prove it.

House Republicans eye restrictions on D.C. traffic safety, abortion and more: The proposed federal spending bill comes as President Donald Trump again publicly muses about taking over the city.

Try these hidden ‘NOPE’ buttons to stop AI content: How to turn off AI in Google and DuckDuckGo web search results -- plus a no-AI nuclear option.

"If he failed, their process failed": Inside the NFLPA meltdown

How strategists think about keeping the peace in the Taiwan Strait: In 1914, the world stumbled into a war that hurt all combatants. Is it on the same path now?

I’m a microplastics researcher. Here’s how I limit the plastic in my life.: Microplastics are everywhere. But there are simple ways to lower your exposure.

Ukraine’s top commander asks Trump to help take the war to Russia: With Trump now open to supplying U.S.-made weapons to Ukraine, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky calls for longer-range missiles and the permission to use them against Russia.

China’s strategy? Let Trump cook.: As President Donald Trump dismantles U.S. soft power and launches trade wars with allies, China is content to sit back and watch. - "'The United States, in their view, is dismantling its alliance relationships and alienating much of the world,' Gewirtz told the Wire China. 'It is dismantling aspects of the U.S. science and technology ecosystem, cutting funding to some of our great universities, and making it very unappealing, if not outright impossible, for foreign talent to come do research in those universities. And it is eliminating arms of U.S. influence around the world, from USAID to Voice of America. China’s view is that the United States is, in a sense, unilaterally disarming.'

...

"[Economic historian]Tooze argued that the Americans have 'dropped the ball' here and the consequences will be vast. 'This is the material dethroning of the West as the central driver of world history,' he said. 'This is really what the provincialization of the West really looks like.'"

The Wrecking of the FBI The former FBI official Peter Strzok on how President Donald Trump is destroying U.S. counterintelligence from the inside. - "But they thought they had a deal. Bracket Trump, leave Trump out of the story, and Trump in turn would license them to go on a hunting expedition against all the people they really hated. A long list of liberal icons, people like—people whom they dislike for other reasons who were in the Epstein network. If Trump would just—they would stand back from Trump and he would then deliver to them justice against their ideological and other kinds of opponents. They’re mad, these people, because Trump reneged on that deal. In order to protect himself, he ended up protecting a lot of other people, too, or so people in MAGA world who are excited about this issue believe that this has been taken away from them. And for some of the people who are the loudest influencers, losing the Epstein file, having Donald Trump say, There are no records, there’s nothing to see here, everybody stand down, that’s not just a threat to their belief system. For many of them, it’s a threat to their livelihoods. For a lot of influencers, Epstein was central to their engagement strategies, very lucrative engagement strategies, and they now have the choice: If they accept the Donald Trump edict—if they say, Okay, we’ll stand down, as President Trump says—then what do they do for engagement?

...

"This is a chronic—I think, going back to the 9/11 analogy, one of the things that happened after 9/11 was the decision was made to harden cockpit doors. What if somebody, a year and a half or two years before 9/11 said, You know, why don’t we harden the cockpit doors? Why don’t we do that? See how that maybe that would be an improvement. And they did it. We would probably now be studying that hardening of cockpit doors as an example of government waste. Right? 

"Strzok: Yes. 

"Frum: We hardened all the cockpit doors. It cost all this money. No one ever tried it. Nothing ever happened. Why did we ever do that in the first place? What a waste of time and money. Government overregulation hardening cockpit doors. This is the great injustice of government. No one ever knows what’s behind door number two, the thing that didn’t happen, the thing that you prevented."

How to Be More Charismatic, but Not Too Much More: It turns out that being charming has a happy mean.

What to Do With the Most Dangerous Book in America: At a perilous American moment, the Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains why he wanted to read The Turner Diaries.

This Is the Presidency John Roberts Has Built: The country is witnessing the creation of an all-powerful institution, and one man is responsible. - "Roberts has all but made at-will removal the president's constitutionally guaranteed prerogative, and his rhetoric goes further yet. His opinions taken together create a dangerously authoritarian and largely ahistorical narrative about the constitutional presidency."

What Trump’s Feud With Jerome Powell Is Really About: The president doesn’t think the Federal Reserve chair is bad at his job. He objects to the job itself. - "The Federal Reserve's assignment is to steward the long-term interests of the U.S. economy even at the occasional expense of short-term pain by balancing the twin objectives of suppressing inflation and managing the unemployment rate. Trump, however, believes that the Fed's objective should be to speed up the economy under Republican administrations and slow it down under Democratic ones. To the extent that the central bank balances unemployment and inflation, he would like to see the pain of high unemployment shifted onto Democratic administrations so that Republican ones can benefit from rapid economic growth."

Reading archive 2025-07-01

Single-use plastic is a scourge of takeout. Here’s how I tried to escape it.: Most food deliveries come wrapped in petrochemicals. But there are ways to reduce the disposable plastic delivered to your door.

Senate passes Trump’s tax bill, sending it to House for final passage: The bill extends tax cuts from Trump’s first term and slashes roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid and other health-care programs. - "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) repeatedly vowed the bill would not pass without deeper spending cuts. Instead, the Senate Finance Committee wrote a bill hundreds of billions of dollars more expensive than the House’s, and simultaneously more punitive toward Medicaid."

New McMillan site townhouses in D.C. mark next step in redevelopment plan: The near-completion of townhouses on the site, which city literature and the developer refer to as the Reservoir District, is the next step in the project.

Philadelphia Transit System Votes to Cut Service by 45%, Hike Fares

Private jet carbon emissions are soaring. Here’s who pollutes the most.: A new study found that the United States was responsible for 55 percent of the pollution emitted by private jets globally. - "'If you look at individual airports that are polluted from private jets, Van Nuys Airport [in Los Angeles] popped out,' Rutherford said.'“This is getting a lot of visibility because it’s where the celebrities and influencers are all parking their planes.'"

JD Vance’s prior vision for populism is largely absent from GOP tax bill: While a senator, Vance proposed a sharp break in the party’s economic orthodoxy that some experts say is not reflected in the legislation.

We are eating the Earth. The result will be catastrophic.: “We Are Eating the Earth,” argues for producing more food on less land to avert climate crisis. - "If it comes, disaster might be due to a lack of humility among eco-posers. Grunwald bravely challenges the dippy, but influential, cult of 'organic' farming and Luddite opposition to genetically modified foods. Nothing is more urgent for the climate’s future, he argues, than producing more food for a growing world on fewer square miles of land. We know how to do it, he shows, and we’re getting better all the time.

"Humans who love the planet should cheer scientific advances in agriculture; farms need more genetically engineered products, not fewer. Yet the fad is back-to-yesteryear. While “factory” farms feed millions with increasing care and efficiency, wasteful little Edens offshore the world’s hunger. The forests and peatlands destroyed are out of sight of Hollywood and the Hamptons."

Justice is coming for Vladimir Putin: A new tribunal targets the act that made all subsequent Russian war crimes in Ukraine possible.

The GOP’s big, fat warning sign to the bond market: This is not how budgeting should work. - "As I’ve explained before, this is not how budgets work. It’s like saying renewing your Netflix subscription should count as free, because you got used to having the streaming service already. Or each time you buy another Starbucks coffee, it doesn’t cost you anything, because you’ve enjoyed Frappuccinos before. Or if your current car lease expires, getting a new one is now complimentary, because you already got used to the convenience of having a car."

Musk-Trump battle erupts anew over GOP spending bill Elon Musk threatened to launch a new political party as the president mused over fresh scrutiny of the former DOGE chief’s federal subsidies.

A town tried to heal racial divides. It energized Confederate supporters instead.: What started as an effort to promote racial unity in Edenton by reconsidering its most prominent downtown symbol has done the opposite.

The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard—It’s Worse: Humanity is set to start shrinking several decades ahead of schedule.

The Whole Country Is Starting to Look Like California: Housing prices are rising fast in red and purple states known for being easy places to build. How can that be? - "The Sun Belt, in short, is subject to the same antidevelopment forces as the coasts; it just took longer to trigger them. Cities in the South and Southwest have portrayed themselves as business-friendly, pro-growth metros. In reality, their land-use laws aren't so different from those in blue-state cities. According to a 2018 research paper, co-authored by Gyourko, that surveyed 44 major U.S. metro areas, land-use regulations in Miami and Phoenix both ranked in the top 10 most restrictive (just behind Washington, D.C., and L.A. and ahead of Boston), and Dallas and Nashville were in the top 25. Because the survey is based on responses from local governments, it might understate just how bad zoning in the Sun Belt is. 'When I first opened up the zoning code for Atlanta, I almost spit out my coffee,' Alex Armlovich, a senior housing-policy analyst at the Niskanen Center, a centrist think tank, told me. 'It's almost identical to L.A. in the 1990s.'"

Trump Insults America—Again: The president of the United States seems to have no interest in appealing to a national sense of pride or honor. - "In my many travels to university campuses over the years, I have often heard that America is only one of many horrendous regimes in the world. Usually these pronouncements came from students trying out new intellectual clothes in the safety of an American classroom, or from radicals on the faculty for whom anti-Americanism was a central part of their academic credo. And I know, especially from studying the Cold War, that presidents in my lifetime did a lot of shady, immoral, and illegal things. But I have never heard a president of the United States sound like a graduate student who's woozy from imbibing too much Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn."

Reading archive 2025-02-03 pt 1

Emails detail Saints' assistance to New Orleans Archdiocese in sexual abuse scandal

House GOP nears plan for Trump’s agenda — but may not have the votes: Republicans will attempt a tax and spending bill that will not require substantial budget cuts, but there may be serious math problems ahead.

Justice Department orders FBI purge, review of staff who touched Jan. 6 cases: Leaders appointed by the Trump administration are identifying potentially hundreds of FBI agents for possible termination, said people familiar with the plan.

As DOJ probes FBI’s Jan. 6 work and weighs firings, agents told to detail roles: FBI employees must explain in a questionnaire by Monday whether they were involved in the surveillance, arrest or trial of a Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot suspect.

Musk aides gain access to sensitive Treasury Department payment system: The access — granted by Scott Bessent, Trump’s newly confirmed treasury secretary — comes after the ousting of the agency’s top career official.

Trump opened the ‘valve’ on California water. It will probably be wasted.: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released reservoir water to meet Trump’s recent directive to funnel more water to Southern California. - "Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) called the water releases 'uncoordinated and unwarranted,' writing on X that it’s 'not being directed to LA where the fires are contained. And now, it won’t be available when farmers need it in summer.'"

D.C. sees neighborhood revival in Trump plan to downsize federal footprint: Local and Trump officials are looking to work together to turn obsolete federal buildings into a new neighborhood in Southwest D.C.

How Trump could transform D.C. real estate, from downtown to design: The longtime real estate developer’s campaign pledges and early actions as president portend changes to the District’s physical landscape.

D.C. Council is set to expel Trayon White. Some say that’s an overreach.: As the council appears set to expel White, lawmakers face questions from constituents about acting before his case has been adjudicated, and potentially overriding the will of voters. - "The council was on the verge of removing Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) during a 2019 ethics scandal, but he resigned before the vote. White himself was on the council committee that voted unanimously to recommend expulsion, even though Evans was never charged with a crime."

Ex-Federal Reserve adviser indicted on charge of economic espionage: John H. Rogers is accused of leaking inside information, briefing books from the Fed to two Chinese co-conspirators.

With tariffs and threats, Trump turns on America’s closest allies: Critics warn his posture could embolden China to expand ties to Latin American countries, and Russia to continue advances in Ukraine. - "'We — Americans — do not want to now join [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in trying to pull apart a sovereign country,' Michael McFaul, an ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, wrote on Substack. 'Not only would that embolden Putin’s claim in eastern Ukraine … but greenlight [Chinese President Xi Jinping]’s seizing of Taiwan. If we think we need Greenland for national security, Xi can easily argue that he needs Taiwan.' 

"One senior European security official warned that an aggressive approach from Washington could easily backfire. 

"If the United States 'is not going to help Europe with Russia, Europe will not be able to help the U.S. with China,' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about frustrations with Washington. 'Better work together.'"

Democrats are in trouble, and a provocative analysis offers ideas to repair the party: A tough new assessment says the Democratic Party needs to reassess the loss of support among groups of voters it has long taken for granted.

In a first, scientists find microplastics are building up deep in our brains: A new study shows that microplastics have crossed the blood-brain barrier -- and that their numbers are rising. - "In one study from Ross and other University of Rhode Island researchers, mice were given water laced with tiny polystyrene particles, the same type of plastic that is used in plastic foam and yogurt containers. After just three weeks of exposure, the mice demonstrated cognitive changes — including changes in the brain consistent with early markers of Alzheimer’s."

You could be spreading ‘forever chemicals’ on your garden. Here’s how to protect yourself.: What does the new EPA warning about PFAS-laden sludge in fertilizer mean for home gardeners? Here’s what you need to know.

Thinking Under Fascism: (Feels Like Hearing Under Water)

Extra Extra! Genocide!: The making of the New York War Crimes

Trump threatens to cut U.S. aid to South Africa over land law: Trump’s comments waded into a sensitive racial issue and deepened already sharp divisions between the United States and South Africa. - "Since 1994, the government has sought to redistribute land based on a voluntary 'willing-seller, willing-buyer' system and by paying compensation.

...

"South Africa’s agricultural sector has more than doubled in value and volume since the end of apartheid in 1994, exporting now half of what it produces, he said — not the case in neighboring Zimbabwe, where large-scale land seizures devastated the economy, causing the migration of millions of citizens."

We’re Russian. We know what happens when Big Tech coddles dictators.: Tech companies are complying with dictators’ laws, compromising human rights and freedom of speech.

The Logic of Destruction: And how to resist it

Criminal records of Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump include rape, domestic violence

Reading archive 2024-12-17

They went to an ‘all-walking’ school. They died walking there.: The families of Sky Sosa, a 5-year-old boy, and Shalom Mbah, a 10-year-old girl, are suing over their deaths. - "Her lawsuit, filed Dec. 5, says that while Riverdale describes itself as an 'all-walking school,' Jiminez was driving a group of students that day. Neither intersection approaching the school, which 635 students attend, has traffic lights or pedestrian signals."

Bipartisan bill to avert government shutdown appears to hit snags: Competing demands over RFK Stadium and farm assistance have weighed down negotiations.

jonetta rose barras: How would eliminating the federal Department of Education affect public education in DC?

DC fails to enforce its own law, leaving wheelchair users stranded

FTC issues rules requiring hotels, ticket sellers to reveal ‘junk fees’: The industries must display the full price of a hotel room, concert ticket or sporting event upfront to customers or face potential federal punishment.

In online drone panic, conspiracy thinking has gone mainstream: Authorities are urging calm. But with trust in media and other institutions at all-time lows, fringe theories are winning the day. - "'Re those mysterious UFO drones over New Jersey: What could they possibly be? Let’s see … — long cylindrical tube — 2 big wings in front — 2 small wings in back — blinking lights matching FAA required pattern … I give up. I guess we’ll never know,' wrote Michael Shermer, a former columnist for Scientific American."

Democrats, readying to battle Trump, shake up House committees: House Democrats on Tuesday elected new leaders on three key committees, a shake-up that signals a generational shift as they prepare to take on Trump

How to deal with all the black plastic in your kitchen: Research suggests black plastic, which can be made from recycled electronic waste, could contain toxic chemicals that might leach into your food.

15-year-old girl named as shooter at Christian school in Wisconsin: One teacher and one student were killed, and the shooter died of a self-inflicted wound, police said.

America’s best decade, according to data: One simple variable, more than anything, determines when you think the nation peaked. - "The good old days when America was 'great' aren’t the 1950s. They’re whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you’d never heard of war crimes tribunals, microplastics or improvised explosive devices. Or when you were 15 and athletes and musicians still played hard and hadn’t sold out.

...

"YouGov didn’t just ask about the best music and the best economy. The pollsters also asked about the worst music and the worst economy. But almost without exception, if you ask an American when times were worst, the most common response will be 'right now!'"

California just made a big bet on the future of electric vehicles: The move offers a counternarrative as Donald Trump’s return to the White House is fueling uncertainty about the future of America’s shift to EVs.

Scientists just confirmed the largest bird-killing event in modern history: A marine heat wave in the Pacific Ocean that began a decade ago killed some 4 million common murres in Alaska, researchers say.

Reading archive 2024-11-15

Gift link: How The Ivy League Broke America [a forum with several takedowns of David Brooks' Atlantic think piece]

In Northeast D.C., a rancorous post-election fight erupts — over bike lanes: On the night after the 2024 election, residents of D.C.’s Michigan Park neighborhood focused their anger on plans to revamp local roads.

Amtrak gets hundreds of millions for D.C. and Md. as Biden leaves: The money will cover only a small part of Amtrak’s $10 billion redesign plan.

Can plastic fit in the palm of your hand? Don’t recycle it.: Most small plastics don’t get recycled, and putting them in your bins could end up doing more harm than good, experts say.

Muslims who voted for Trump upset by his pro-Israel cabinet picks - "Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), says Muslim voters had hoped Trump would choose cabinet officials who work toward peace, and there was no sign of that." [lol inject it into my veins]

Reading archive 2024-10-08

Trump secretly sent covid tests to Putin during 2020 shortage, new book says: “War,” by Bob Woodward, traces how Trump and Biden responded to international crisis and concludes that Trump is worse than Nixon, the president exiled by the Watergate scandal. - "Putin, petrified of the virus, accepted the supplies but took pains to prevent political fallout — not for him, but for his American counterpart. He cautioned Trump not to reveal that he had dispatched the scarce medical equipment to Moscow, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward."

Have black plastic in your home? It could expose you to toxic chemicals, researchers say: A study raises concerns that recycled plastic containing flame retardants, initially used in electronics, are being reused in the manufacturing of consumer products.

For a second day, Ukrainian hackers hit Russian institutions: Hackers attacked Russia’s digital state media hub and courts websites over two days, bringing both down.

Doctor admits wearing disguise to poison mom’s partner with fake covid shot: Thomas Kwan pleaded guilty to attempted murder at a court in England. He disguised himself as a nurse to inject his mom’s partner with a flesh-eating toxin.

Nearly every household in America has a car. Here’s how to break free.: Here are families defying the trend of one car for every adult. The secret, I found, is not just choosing how you want to live. It’s where you live.

The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books: To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.

This Hartford Public High School grad can't read. Here's how it happened.

'Set up for failure': What lies ahead for Bronny James and the Los Angeles Lakers

Opinion Warning signs for Democrats in a Michigan bellwether: Abortion is less galvanizing than in 2022, while higher turnout for Trump boosts Republicans.

Opinion Why Trump is losing his edge among voters on the economy: It seems that good economic news is finally sinking in for voters.

Father charged after 5-year-old son dies; boy remembered as ‘vibrant, creative’: D.C. police charged Deandre Pettus with cruelty to a child while an investigation of the death continues, authorities said.

First, warning signs. Then, 3 die in alleged arson in Southeast D.C.: Police responded to the home in Southeast Washington five times in five days.

The 2016 election crushed the girls. Now women, they’re revenge voting.: The girl-power mantras of their middle school years were tested when Donald Trump won. Since that night, they’ve become engaged, empowered and can’t wait to vote against him.

How Can I Get ‘Forever Chemicals’ Out of My Life? - "Consider reducing your reliance on takeout food packaging. Water- and greaseproof food packaging, whether paper, plastic or coated metal, often contain PFAS.

...

"Try to avoid nonstick cookware, which can contain some form of PFAS. Opt for cast iron, glass, stainless steel or ceramic pots and pans. Be particularly wary of nonstick pans that you’ve used for years, or that are chipped or have other visible damage."

Reading archive 2024-10-04

Anderson, Vindman trade vitriol at debate for Spanberger’s Virginia seat: The hour-long event between the candidates for the commonwealth’s battleground 7th District was short on policy details and heavy on partisan attacks.

Mother shot holding baby as domestic violence rises in Prince George’s: “She was not letting him go,” said Tequia Nails’s niece, who witnessed the fatal shooting. - "The killing underscores a national trend in which Black women are more frequently abused or killed by their romantic partners than other groups, research on domestic violence cases shows."

The Uptown Theater, Cleveland Park’s historic art house, lives: The couple behind Artechouse aims to undertake an ambitious effort to blend old-school Hollywood with 21st-century technology.

Informant in Trayon White case bribed another D.C. official, records say: A judge unsealed the plea deal of the man alleged to have handed Trayon White envelopes of cash to help his company secure city contracts.

How Biden helped end a strike that threatened Democrats in November: With early morning Zoom calls and a surprising ultimatum, the White House brain trust averted a potential economic disaster weeks before the election. - "'To get in one raise what it took you in the past six years to achieve is monumental,' [Kenneth Riley, an ILA vice president based in Charleston, S.C.] said. 'The administration played a key role here in bringing the parties together and defending American workers and the union workers against foreign giants.'"

Employers added 254,000 jobs in September, reflecting strong gains as election nears: The U.S. unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1 percent. - "Strong upward revisions to job gains in July and August data also suggest that the labor market is healthier than previously thought."

Plastic-eating bacteria could combat pollution problems, scientists hope: A bacteria commonly found in wastewater can break down plastic to turn it into a food source, a new study finds. Scientists hope it is a pollution solution.

The reasons people say they leave Donald Trump’s rallies early: The Republican nominee consistently draws large, enthusiastic and rowdy crowds to his rallies and other campaign events, and at nearly all of them, another trend is clear: Scores of people head out before the end.

Opinion Calamity in a keystroke: How the FBI copes with mounting threats: Christopher A. Wray: Cyberthreats are ‘diverse and constantly evolving.’

Opinion Who put these oddballs on the ballot? Could it be … Satan?: GOP conspiracy theorist Michele Morrow is in a dead heat to become North Carolina’s top educator.

JD Vance’s family politics are incoherent: What does his vision of an ideal family have to do with the rest of us? - "There is a chasm between the idyllic family portrait that Vance says he would like to see play out in America — one where abortions are unnecessary and grandmas are child care — and the messy realities he has described encountering in his own life. There is a disconnect between the derivative cruelty he seems to now spout (see: 'childless cat ladies') and in the human experiences that apparently led him to these beliefs. It’s incoherent.

...

"When I listen to the fantasy narratives Vance tells about family in America — how he thinks they should live, who he thinks they should be composed of, how he thinks they should come to be — this is what so often comes to mind: a brokenhearted child. A boy who grew up in chaos, abandonment, violence and poverty and who spent it all dreaming of the opposite. 

"And then, somehow, through determination, luck and natural intelligence clawed his way into the sort of Norman Rockwell existence he’d always wanted. A happy marriage. A lucrative career. Beautiful children. 'For both of my kids, they didn’t grow up with a positive family unit,' Vance’s mother, Beverly Aikins, recently told the New York Times. 'I know that they seemed to gravitate towards that in their adulthood.'

"Analyzing 'Hillbilly Elegy' for the New Yorker, Jessica Winter unpacked Vance’s preoccupation with 'traditional' family — mom, dad, kids, every child exclusively cared for by loving mothers rather than 'crap daycare' — and describes it as such: 'It is clear, on a primal, emotional level, why Vance sees this as the better deal than what he got. But what results is a blinkered, grotesquely narcissistic vision of the social contract — an identity politics of one grown child.' Is Vance, in other words, trying to legislate the country into the family dynamic he wished he’d been born into?"

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Tony Dokoupil sharpen morning TV with Israel debate: The conversation on “CBS Mornings” over Coates’s new book, “The Message,” was unusually gripping for a promotional segment.

Reading archive 2024-10-01

Opinion  How ‘obesity first’ health care is transforming medicine: Doctors are increasingly addressing obesity as the root cause of other illnesses.

As a Finnish Zoo Returns Pandas to China, It Blames Costs, Not Geopolitics: Two pandas are heading back to China eight years early amid lower-than-hoped-for visitor numbers at a zoo in rural Finland, and after the pair didn't produce a cub.

Can You Get Rid of Your Front Lawn Without Offending the Neighbors?: It isn't easy or fast, but it can be done. Here's what worked for one couple.

Our Better Nature: Put the Brakes on Honey Bees – Our Future Depends on It: Honey bees are causing grave – and in some cases irreversible – harm to the environment.

Native Landscapes Can Be Hard to Plant. But Help Is Here.: The nonprofit group Wild Ones offers a free library of designs, with plants specific to your area — and you don’t have to be a member to use it.

Don’t believe the hype: AGI is far from inevitable - "If a company pops up claiming to have a machine that, when you press a button, it creates world peace, then you’d distrust it too. So why are we so quick to believe the promises of big tech who are driven by profit?"

Retired professor, accused of bilking wealthy friends, pleads guilty in NY: Lawrence Gray, who was accused of stealing valuable jewelry, pleaded guilty to fraud.

Before the floods, Asheville was called a ‘climate haven.’ Is anywhere safe?: As climate change leads to more severe hurricanes, mountain communities like Asheville, N.C., face growing flood danger.

Opinion The real reason 47,000 dockworkers are on strike: For American workers, this is one of the first great battles against advanced automation.

Port strike freezes shipping on East Coast, threatening shortages: Longshoremen’s union walkout follows last-minute efforts by the White House to avert a strike.

Tim Walz speaks loudly and carries a big schtick: But the vice-presidential pick best known for calling Donald Trump and JD Vance “weird” is a surprisingly risk-averse campaigner.

What to know about VP debate moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan: O’Donnell anchors CBS News’s evening newscast, while Brennan anchors Sunday morning’s “Face the Nation.”

Polls show big increase in Republicans planning to vote for abortion rights: In some states, that GOP number could even approach a majority.

This firefly delighted beachgoers. Now it’s flickering out of existence.: The U.S. government is proposing to declare the Bethany Beach firefly as threatened, the first time officials have sought to add a firefly to the Endangered Species Act list.

24 hours of MAGA misinformation: A small sampling of the inundation of false and dubious claims flowing from Donald Trump and his allies.

The 5 hurricane categories, explained

Basement-free buildings are better for the future climate: Politicians mull bans due to flooding, but costs and carbon emissions also a concern

California’s first plastic bag ban made things worse. Now it’s trying again

Reading archive 2024-09-25

Threatened with jail over a scandal headlined by Brett Favre

Md. mother charged with attempted murder in shooting of 13-year-old daughter: Police allege that Talecka Brown, 32, shot her daughter during an argument at their home in Seat Pleasant, Md.

A ‘perfect storm’ of problems pushes D.C. toward full-blown housing crisis: Unpaid rent, rising costs and a lack of public funds are putting affordable-housing developers at risk of financial collapse. - "The problem facing D.C. stems from several pandemic-related factors, developers and housing advocates say. 

"They point to the city’s pandemic-era eviction moratorium, which stayed in place longer than those in other jurisdictions; a massive court backlog in eviction cases, each of which can take more than a year; and a lenient emergency rental-assistance program that lets residents self-certify their need for aid and prohibits eviction while an application is pending, regardless of whether it’s ultimately approved." [ed. note: Running out of other people's money can be rather ugly at times.]

See the latest houses in this Outer Banks town to fall into the ocean: Nine homes have now fallen into the sea in Rodanthe since 2020, and more remain vulnerable to higher tides and looming storms.

One block on the Outer Banks has had three houses collapse since Friday: In Rodanthe, N.C., 10 houses have fallen into the ocean since 2020 in an erosion-plagued stretch of the Outer Banks.

Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors’ objections: Felicia “Lisha” Gayle was found stabbed to death in her suburban St. Louis home in 1998. Marcellus Williams said he didn’t kill her.

Obama and Biden achievements that Trump claims for himself: Trump claims credit for a law capping insulin at $35 a month that was approved under the Biden-Harris administration.

Opinion The presidency of JD Vance: He is not just a running mate, but a man who stands a significant chance of running the country. - "While other aspects of Vance’s worldview have come and gone depending on what’s expedient, one thing has remained chillingly consistent. Vance is bizarrely obsessed with setting down rules for women in society, almost as if this were something America’s women were pleading with him to clarify."

A List of The Most Ignorant Things J.D. Vance Has Ever Said: From his comments about Haitian immigrants to childless cat ladies, Vance has proven to be an idiot time and time again.

Is plastic recycling beyond fixing? Here’s why California thinks so.: California’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil says plastic recycling is broken. The oil giant agrees, but blames the state. - "'Fundamentally, most plastics are not recyclable,' said Judith Enck, the president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics and a former regional Environmental Protection Agency administrator. 'And you know who has known this for years? The companies that make and sell plastic.'"

Trump is losing his edge on the economy among voters: After years of discontent, Americans appear to be feeling better about the economy. What’s changed?

Deradicalization in the Deep South: How a former neo-Nazi makes amends.

Opinion ‘Conversation was impossible’: 5 writers on how the election is affecting their communities: From Washington to Pennsylvania, writers give us a local look at the lead-up to the 2024 election.

Reading archive 2024-09-10

The world is burning an alarming amount of plastic, scientists say: Around 12 percent of all plastic waste produced in cities is burned in the open air.

One of the most potent greenhouse gases is rising faster than ever: Methane emissions from fossil fuels, farms and landfills will make it impossible for the world to maintain a safe climate, scientists say. - "New research from the Global Carbon Project — an international coalition of scientists that seeks to quantify planet-warming emissions — finds that methane levels in the atmosphere are tracking those projected by the worst-case climate scenarios."

D.C. bill seeks more oversight of beleaguered: 911 call center The legislation marks the D.C. Council’s latest attempt to elicit more information from the city’s 911 agency.

How a dropped bag of Cheetos had ‘world changing’ impact on life in a cave: After a visitor dropped the snack in Carlsbad Caverns, the “foreign detritus” sparked mold and microbial growth that disturbed the delicate ecosystem, the park said.

The TVA helped electrify the South — but now its plans are sparking backlash: The Tennessee Valley Authority is coming under fire from energy experts and environmentalists for building gas plants instead of renewables. - "Marilyn Brown, a professor at Georgia Tech who was nominated to the TVA board by President Barack Obama in 2009, and again in 2013, said she was asked to speak with roughly 10 senators before her confirmation, and she recalled being 'hounded' over her longtime advocacy of energy-efficiency measures. Brown added that Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who retired in 2021, asked her to oppose any wind projects in his state, and two senators questioned the basis of her concerns about global warming."

Facebook is blocking emergency warnings as wildfires roar through West: The Post has collected more than 40 examples of Facebook removing emergency-related posts during at least 20 wildfires since June. The explanation: “you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way.”

Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials: The X billionaire’s false posts about noncitizen voting spur officials to fact-check him, lead to requests to purge voter rolls, and add to worries about threats, election officials say. - "'Musk puts out this malarkey and he says nonsense, uneducated things and he gets corrected,' said Tom Irvine, who for 15 years was the primary outside counsel for elections in Maricopa and defended the county against election challenges following the 2020 presidential election. 'And then he says it again and again and again.'"

U.S. demands IDF change West Bank operations after American’s killing: Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments were the strongest yet from a U.S. official after the Israeli military said it was 'highly likely' it 'unintentionally' killed Aysenur Eygi.

As Trump looms, Ukraine turns to its evangelicals to woo the Republicans: Ukraine has the largest evangelical community in Europe and its outreach to Republicans could prove crucial in securing additional American aid.

How one company’s plan to help the planet went off the rails: C-Quest Capital claimed it could improve people’s lives in Africa with cleaner cookstoves. But an investigation by The Post shows it promised more than it could deliver.

Body-cam footage of Tyreek Hill incident shows rapid escalation: The video shows the NFL star being pulled from his car and placed in handcuffs by police.

Sen. Tuberville blocks promotion of Lloyd Austin’s top military aide: Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark was among the defense secretary’s senior staff who, upon learning of his hospitalization, did not immediately notify the White House or Congress.

The irony of the professional tradwife: What I learned from watching too many episodes of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

Penzeys Spices draws backlash — and support — after Kamala Harris visit: The Wisconsin-based spice shop’s owner is an outspoken supporter of liberal policies and no stranger to conservatives’ ire.

Why cities are getting more rainy: A study has found most cities receive significantly more rain than nearby rural regions, an effect that has become more pronounced over the past two decades.

D.C. police release video of officers shooting violence interrupter: D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith declined to comment on whether the officers at the scene followed protocol, saying that would be part of the investigation into the shooting.

What we know about Justin Robinson’s death and the D.C. police shooting video: D.C. police fatally shot Justin Robinson, 26, earlier this month at a McDonald’s in Southeast Washington.

Two District Men Plead Guilty to Charges in Killing of Man in Southeast Washington: Victim Shot in Broad Daylight Near Food Market - "According to the government’s evidence, on Feb. 24, 2016, at about 2:30 p.m., Robinson and the victim, Demetrius Medlay, bumped shoulders and briefly argued at a market in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE. Robinson drove away, but returned to the area about 10 minutes later. He got out of the car holding a handgun with an extended magazine. While waving the gun, he argued with Mr. Medlay on the sidewalk and then drove off. 

"Robinson stopped the car at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Esther Place SE at about 2:45 p.m. Grover was standing at the corner. Referring to Mr. Medlay, Robinson said, “You can smoke him,” to which Grover replied, 'All right.'"

Looting reported in D.C. after release of police shooting video: The thefts and the destruction of property occurred in Georgetown, City Center and other parts of the city.

As Trump looms, Ukraine turns to its evangelicals to woo the Republicans: Ukraine has the largest evangelical community in Europe and its outreach to Republicans could prove crucial in securing additional American aid. - "In the areas of Ukraine that Russian forces currently occupy, Christian denominations independent of the Russian Orthodox Church are being closed down and oppressed, including Catholics, members of Ukraine’s own Orthodox Church, as well as Evangelicals."

Reading archive 2024-09-07

US beach town bans balloons to save the ocean: Experts say more cities should join the growing legislative trend to reduce trash, save birds and protect against wildfires - "While manufacturers claim that some latex balloons are biodegradable, there are no safe balloons to release, O’Brien says, as they have added plasticizers that hinder the biodegradation process, and can take decades, or longer, to break down.

...

"Mylar balloons – made from nylon with a metallic coating – are also a scourge: they never break down, persisting in the oceans for years, and their shiny exterior is even more confusing to sea animals. They also can get tangled in power lines and cause power outages or fires."

Trump turns to outlandish promises to offset $7 trillion in tax cuts: The former president says a spending commission would help reduce the national debt, but analysts are skeptical of his claims.

The shelter and the storm: What happened when the nation’s immigration crisis came to a small town in Massachusetts

Reading archive 2024-08-27

After virtual academy closes, student heads to classroom for the first time: Montgomery County Public Schools closed a virtual academy. Now, some of its students are bracing to go back to school in person.

This state calls itself the ‘most pro-life.’ But moms there keep dying.: Giving birth in Arkansas, especially its rural southeast, comes with more risk and less care. The challenges feel acute for someone like doula Hajime White. - "Arkansas already has one of the nation’s worst maternal mortality rates, and mothers in this area die at a rate exceeding the state average. Ninety-two percent of recent maternal deaths were preventable, a state review committee found.

...

"Though teen birth rates are falling nationally, federal data shows the statistic for Arkansas is almost twice the U.S. average. Lack of access to contraception is a major factor; the rate at which teens in Arkansas have unprotected sex is 75 percent higher, according to a report from the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families."

Opinion How Rep. Mike Gallagher, a rising GOP star, was driven out of politics

More than 200 former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers endorse Harris: An open letter warned that a second Donald Trump presidency “will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.”

D.C. police starting new unit dedicated to street traffic safety: Traffic enforcement has dropped precipitously since the pandemic while traffic fatalities have gone up.

First day of school in D.C. brings new book bags and buildings: D.C. Public Schools reopened several schools after multimillion-dollar renovations.

Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy: Beijing’s hacking effort has “dramatically stepped up from where it used to be,” says former top U.S cybersecurity official.

Lawsuit to keep single-family zoning in Alexandria likely heading to trial: A judge ruled that a group of Alexandria homeowners can move ahead in suing the Northern Virginia city over its “Zoning for Housing” plan.

Scientists have more evidence to explain why billions of crabs vanished around Alaska - "Fishermen and scientists were alarmed when billions of crabs vanished from the Bering Sea near Alaska in 2022. It wasn’t overfishing, scientists explained — it was likely the shockingly warm water that sent the crabs’ metabolism into overdrive and starved them to death."

Cows obstruct Nigeria’s capital as climate change and development leave herders with nowhere to go

Why Democrats are so quiet about climate change right now: Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats have not made significant mentions of climate change or the environment in recent stump speeches.

Good and Bad Critiques of the Trump Civil Fraud Verdict - "But some of the defenses offered on behalf of Trump simply don’t hold water, chief among them the claim that Trump’s conduct was somehow victimless and that the counterparties, primarily banks and insurance companies, came out fine."

Thoughts on Judge Engoron's Opinion, A Response to Calabresi: A different take. - "They were able to repay the loans, true, but they wouldn't have gotten the loans without the lies.  And they reaped massive profits from lying, Judge Engoron concludes, as they were able to make deals they wouldn't have been able to make, and at rates they wouldn't have been able to get, had they been truthful."

YIMBYs' Premature Victory Dance at the DNC: Kamala Harris' promise to end the housing shortage and adopt rent control shows that YIMBY ideas are just one of several competing housing policy agendas within the Democratic Party. - "She has endorsed President Joe Biden's call for federal rent control, a disastrous policy with a long track record of reducing rental housing supply and quality. She's called for $25,000 down payment subsidies for first-time homebuyers, something that could increase supply somewhat but will also certainly increase home prices."

Plastics Are Better for the Climate Than Aluminum and Glass, Actually: Producing plastics from fossil fuels emits a lot of carbon dioxide, but a new study finds the life cycle emissions are actually lower than glass and aluminum. - "The good news is that some companies and researchers are developing nearly endlessly recyclable plastics. Currently, UBQ Materials turns unsorted household wastes including single-use plastics into thermoplastics that can be subsequently recycled as many as five times—a process that cuts greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90 percent. In addition, researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an 'infinitely recyclable' bio-based plastic called polydiketoenamine that cuts greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 98 percent compared to conventional plastics."

The thread connecting Robert Kennedy Jr., chemtrails and Project 2025: Robert Kennedy Jr.’s exotic beliefs are no barrier to his having authority in a Trump administration. Nor will the Project 2025 authors’. - "'We are going to stop this crime,' Kennedy pledged to user 'Concerned Citizen.' The crime? 'Chemtrails,' the conspiracy theory that the lines planes trace in the sky are not water vapor (which they are) but at least occasionally dangerous chemicals being released for some nebulously explained population-control effort."

Reading archive 2024-06-11

The ‘bottom whisperer’ will see you now. Back there.: Proctologist Evan Goldstein has made a life — and a fancy living — off anal interventions, drawing ardent fans and curious skeptics.

In Wisconsin, Biden tries to hold on to White voters without degrees: White non-college voters are Trump’s base, but Biden seems to be hanging on to them in this Midwestern swing state

Opinion MAGA Republicans tip their hand: They’re after contraception, too: There is no doubt that the GOP is waging war on women.

Moderates quit Netanyahu’s emergency government, call for elections: The resignations do not immediately threaten Netanyahu’s coalition, but they could lead to more defections and embolden the prime minister’s many critics.

Four U.S. college educators stabbed in park in China, officials say: Four educators from Cornell College in Iowa were stabbed during a trip to Beihua University in Jilin, China, authorities said. Police said they arrested a man.

The world agreed to ban this dangerous pollutant — and it’s working: For the first time ever, researchers have detected a significant dip in atmospheric levels of hydrochlorofluorocarbons -- harmful gases that deplete the ozone layer and warm the planet.

Hamas responds to cease-fire proposal, seeks timeline for end of war: Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas to accept the current proposal “without delay” during talks with Middle Eastern leaders.

Battered by far right, France’s Macron bets big on risky snap election Macron may figure that voters are angry at him, but are not truly prepared to allow a far-right prime minister to head a new French government.

Republicans pitch tax cuts for corporations, the wealthy in 2025: Trump has asked wealthy donors for donations, promising large tax breaks in return if he retakes the White House. - "Now GOP lawmakers and some of Trump’s economic advisers are considering more corporate tax breaks — which could expand the national debt by roughly $1 trillion over the next decade, according to researchers at Stanford University and MIT — arguing that they would improve the U.S.’s global competitiveness."

THE PLASTICS WE BREATHE: Every time you take a breath, you could be inhaling microplastics. - "In laboratory tests on human cells, microplastics can cause tissue damage, allergic reactions and even cell death. The chemicals in plastics — like phthalates or bisphenol A — have also been shown to cause hormonal imbalances and disrupt the reproductive system. In mice, microplastics can cause behavioral changes and reproductive problems and can inhibit learning and memory. Researchers also recently discovered that certain cancer cells spread at an accelerated rate after exposure to microplastics; they are now looking into whether microplastics could help trigger early-onset cancer."

A dispute over direction upsets plans for D.C.’s popular holiday market: The management of the market has become the focus of an intense struggle between its longtime operator and the nonprofit that co-produces the event.

Man fatally shot in possible robbery in D.C.’s Takoma neighborhood: Victim, 28, was the son of the driver for the Turkish ambassador, according to his brother.

Modi’s election setback surprises Indian Americans in the DMV: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s and the BJP setback became clear, reaction from Indian Americans in the DMV ran the gamut: shock, hope, worry, resignation.

In Trump’s orbit, some muse about mandatory military service: Only 1 percent of the U.S. population serves in the armed forces. Some in the former president’s camp say it’s time more young adults put “some skin in the game.”

Socialite gets 15 years to life for L.A. hit-and-run that killed 2 boys: Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman struck Jacob Iskander, 8, and his brother Mark, 11, with her car in a Los Angeles crosswalk.

Creating a throw-away culture: How companies ingrained plastics in modern life - "However, multiple investigations, including by NPR, have shown that plastics industry representatives long knew that recycling would probably never be effective on a large scale. Officials have said they encouraged recycling to avoid regulations and ensure that demand for plastic kept growing."

Surprising U.S. economy is powering better global outlook, World Bank says: High interest rates and trade tensions pose risks to a newly upbeat forecast, though.

Smartmatic seeks to depose four Fox officials as part of 2020 lawsuit: The voting technology company will also be able to obtain communications from Fox Corp. board members

The Post at a crossroads: Existential questions in a dire season for news: Critics raise concerns about the values of a new team of executives. Meanwhile, the business woes are real. What does Jeff Bezos want?

She sex-trafficked at least 11 women, police said. Then one turned her in.: Kenika Danielle Leach, 33, was indicted on 135 charges of managing a criminal organization, “the Pussy Kat Klub,” and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, threat, coercion or fraud.

What dead flowers tell us about the future of life on Earth: Amid an extinction crisis, dried plant collections capture how the world is changing. But Duke University is planning to shut down its world-renowned herbarium.

Reading archive 2024-06-05

Microplastics Are Everywhere. Here’s How to Avoid Eating Them.

Juror says someone left her bag with $120,000 cash and promise of more if she’ll acquit: She was serving on a case involving seven people charged with stealing more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the pandemic.

Why Mexico City’s thirst is causing it to sink: The demand for water in Mexico’s capital is draining its underground aquifers — and fueling some of the fastest subsidence rates in the world.

Casa Ruby founder set to plead guilty to wire fraud over pandemic funds: Ruby Corado is accused of diverting $150,000 in federal pandemic relief from her LGBTQ nonprofit to her own accounts in El Salvador and fleeing D.C. in 2022.

Alito’s account of the upside-down flag doesn’t fully add up. Here’s why.: A look at the major discrepancies in Justice Samuel Alito’s comments about controversial flags flown at his property and what he still has not fully answered.

Senate Republicans vote against making contraception a federal right: The bill was introduced by Democrats seeking to put Republicans on the spot in an election year over their unpopular positions on reproductive rights.

Biden, in France for D-Day anniversary, to stress contrast with Trump: The president will join other leaders in praising the fight against authoritarianism.

Gunman opens fire at U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and is shot by army: The gunman, who has been hospitalized, was identified as a Syrian national. No motive for the attack has been reported yet.

Opinion For The Post, a Supreme black eye: Deference to Justice Alito hands a scoop to the New York Times.

India’s low-caste voters humbled its powerful prime minister: Modi’s stunning setback in elections this week reflected the power of low-caste Hindus who rebelled against his ruling BJP.

He went viral for driving with a suspended license. The case isn’t so simple.: The case that led Corey Harris to become famous after he attended a Zoom hearing about his suspended license while driving is more complicated than it appeared. [ed. note: actually he never had a driver's license at all, just a Michigan state ID. Dude is a liar and a POS]

Would a reelected Trump prosecute his opponents? He already tried.: Trump and his allies are pretending that his recent conviction gives him moral space to target his enemies. But he tried that the first time around. - "The reality, as Mueller established and as a report from the Justice Department inspector general reinforced, was that there were numerous links between Trump’s team and Russia and that there was an obvious effort by Russia to upend the election. Durham brought charges against an attorney linked to Clinton. The attorney was acquitted. 

"Last year, the New York Times’s Charlie Savage explained that the pivot to focusing on Clinton came only after Durham was unable to uncover nefarious intent on the part of the FBI. 

"'By keeping the investigation going,” Savage wrote, 'Mr. Barr initially appeased Mr. Trump, who, as Mr. Barr recounted in his memoir, was angry about the lack of charges as the 2020 election neared.'"

Conservative attacks on birth control could threaten access: Far-right conservatives are sowing misinformation that inaccurately characterizes IUDs, emergency contraception, even birth-control pills as causing abortions - "Because hormonal IUDs and birth-control pills can thin the uterine lining, which could prevent a fertilized egg from implanting, some antiabortion activists falsely claim that the birth-control methods cause abortions. Between 30 and 70 percent of fertilized eggs never implant successfully, even without birth control, according to Belmonte’s review of medical literature."

GOP plans aggressive ‘weaponization’ investigations in wake of Trump conviction: House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to use House oversight powers and other measures to target jurisdictions pursuing prosecutions of the former president.

Reading archive 2024-05-21

Is Biodegradable Plastic Really a Thing?: Technically, it exists. But here’s what to think about when shopping.

Scientists reveal mysterious origin of Baobab trees, Rafiki's home in 'The Lion King'

How a Small Herd of Romanian Bison Is Locking Away Thousands of Tons of Carbon

For each public charger, here’s how many EVs are looking to plug in: Once, America had 7 EVs for every public charger. Now, there are over 20 seeking to plug in at each charging station.

THE DROWNING SOUTH: THE NEW FACE OF FLOODING

We taste-tested 9 fake bacons. Here’s how they compare to the real thing.: A pork-free version of bacon could change the game, unlocking methods to make all plant-based meats rival the real thing and put a much bigger dent in emissions.

Opinion  Republicans discover a secret elixir that cures dementia with one dose: There is a shot that cures incoherence? How can I get some?

D.C. attorney general targets youth services agency in new legislation: Attorney General Brian Schwalb said he is “not satisfied” with the performance of the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

16-year-old shot Saturday in Northwest D.C. has died, police say: Devon Sharp was shot in the 1200 block of V Street NW, police said, near where he lived with his grandmother.

Backed by rival GOP factions, vets in Va. primary look similar on paper: The front-runners in the six-way Republican primary to replace Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) represent dueling wings of their party. But some voters in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District are having trouble seeing the differences.

Metro used faulty cars and ignored worker safety measures, audit finds: Metro has deployed rail cars that failed operations tests and neglected to follow occupational safety guidelines, according to an audit released Tuesday.

Reading archive 2024-04-24

Yellowstone’s Wolves: A Debate Over Their Role in the Park’s Ecosystem: New research questions the long-held theory that reintroduction of such a predator caused a trophic cascade, spawning renewal of vegetation and spurring biodiversity. - "Yes, stands of aspen and willows are thriving again — in some places. But decades of damage from elk herds’ grazing and trampling so thoroughly changed the landscape that large areas remain scarred and may not recover for a long time, if ever.

...

"Richard Keigley, who was a research ecologist for the federal Geological Survey in the 1990s, has become an outspoken critic of the park’s bison management. 

"'They have created this juggernaut where we’ve got thousands of bison and the public believes this is the way things always were,' he said. 'The bison that are there now have destroyed and degraded their primary ranges. People have to realize there’s something wrong in Yellowstone.'"

These 150-foot-high sails could help solve shipping’s climate problem: Harnessing the power of wind could both reduce emissions from cargo ships and extend the life of these vessels

The robots are coming ... for your wedding: Congratulations. Your gift is a blast of cold fog to the face.

Opinion  So, 112 ignoble, infantile Republicans voted to endanger civilization - "Today’s Moscow-Beijing-Tehran axis is, as the 1930s Axis was, watching."

The debate about Sonia Sotomayor is not about sexism. It’s more dire.: Some want the Supreme Court justice to retire so that President Biden can name a replacement before... before what happens, exactly?

A homeless woman got an apartment. Then came conflicts with neighbors.

Arizona House votes to repeal abortion ban, advancing issue to state Senate

A global study just revealed the world’s biggest known plastic polluters: Coca-Cola and PepsiCo came in at the top of a global audit of plastic waste

Opinion  We have a radical democracy. Will Trump voters destroy it?