The Great Washington Meltdown of 2024 Has Begun In the Senate, the House, and the White House, leaders are weak—at a time when leading is needed. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-great-washington-meltdown-of-2024-has-begun The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was even more blunt as he took the extraordinary step of publicly bashing the G.O.P. members who…

Fentanyl, the portrait of a mass murderer It’s the big threat. A cheap, white powder — 50 times more powerful than heroin — which kills more than 70,000 people each year in the United States and countless others across the rest of the Western Hemisphere. EL PAÍS, in a long-term investigation that spanned two continents…

Can the Internet Be Governed? Amid worries about what Big Tech is doing to our privacy, politics, and psyches, many stakeholders—from activists to technocrats—are calling for a new rule book. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/05/can-the-internet-be-governed The proposal, part of a bigger push for what Xi Jinping has called a more “sovereign” Internet, was supported by…

“Do I Have to Come Here Injured or Dead?” Keldy Mabel Gonzáles Brebe de Zúniga was one of the first mothers separated from her children at the border by the Trump Administration. The cruelty she suffered in the United States was matched only by what she was forced to flee in Honduras. via The New…

How a 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin’s Anonymity Once, drug dealers and money launderers saw cryptocurrency as perfectly untraceable. Then a grad student named Sarah Meiklejohn proved them all wrong—and set the stage for a decade-long crackdown. via WIRED: https://www.wired.com/story/27-year-old-codebreaker-busted-myth-bitcoins-anonymity/ Meiklejohn’s hundreds of purchases, bets, and seemingly meaningless movements of money were not,…

The Ghost of January 6th Haunts 2024 The impending Biden-vs.-Trump rematch already has one dominant theme. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-ghost-of-january-6th-haunts-2024 To his original Big Lie about the “rigged election” in 2020, Trump has added ever more lies. He now calls January 6th “a beautiful day” and the nearly thirteen hundred defendants arrested in connection…

Gaza Is Starving The chief economist of the World Food Program explains how the scarcity of food may tip the territory into famine. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/gaza-is-starving I’ve been doing this for the past two decades, and I’ve been to all kinds of conflicts and all kinds of crises. And, for me, this is…

The Overlooked Crisis in Congo: ‘We Live in War’ Six million have died, and more than six million are displaced after decades of fighting and the ensuing humanitarian crisis in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, drawing in neighbors, mercenaries and militias. An upcoming election is inflaming tempers. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/17/world/africa/democratic-republic-of-congo-elections.html They joined…

The Year We Stopped Being Able to Pretend About Trump The story of 2023 wasn’t the search for another Republican leader—but the Party’s embrace of the one it already has. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-year-we-stopped-being-able-to-pretend-about-trump In a Christmas Day social-media post, his message to his opponents was “MAY THEY ROT IN HELL,” followed by the…

Inside the Troll Army Waging Trump’s Online Campaign A team of meme-makers has been flooding social media with pro-Trump posts riddled with sexist and racist tropes. Donald Trump is cheering them on. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/us/politics/trump-meme-trolls-2024.html Their most vulgar invectives are often aimed at women, particularly those seen as enemies of Mr. Trump. In one video, the…

What Happens to a School Shooter’s Sister? Jennifer Gonnerman speaks to Kristin Kinkel, whose brother, Kip, killed their parents and opened fire at their high school. Today, Kristin is close with Kip—and still reckoning with his crimes. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/04/what-happens-to-a-school-shooters-sister I was surprised by her willingness to be so candid with a stranger.…

What a Bloody San Francisco Street Brawl Tells Us About the Age of Citizen Surveillance When a homeless man attacked a former city official, footage of the onslaught became a rallying cry. Then came another video, and another—and the story turned inside out. via WIRED: https://www.wired.com/story/san-francisco-doom-loop-citizen-surveillance/ JUST WHEN THE people of San Francisco thought they’d…

Russia Arrests Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova in Absentia The artist faces an immediate two-month detention if she returns to her home country. via Hyperallergic: http://hyperallergic.com/858071/russia-arrests-pussy-riot-nadya-tolokonnikova-in-absentia/ Russian artist Nadya Tolokonnikova, co-founder of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, was arrested in absentia in Moscow yesterday, November 21, on the charge of “insulting the religious feelings of…

A Hedge-Fund Founder’s Obsessive Storytelling A new book about Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, paints an unflattering picture—but it’s hard to imagine a record more damning than the one Dalio has created himself. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/a-hedge-fund-founders-obsessive-storytelling Dalio’s inquisitions, in Copeland’s telling, could get overtly cruel. He once berated a top deputy—a…

From Pixels to Punches: Geolocating a neo-Nazi and White Nationalist Combat Event in Los Angeles – bellingcat Chapters of an emerging white nationalist network from across the United States participated in a joint combat sports event in the Los Angeles area this August, according to open source evidence geolocated by Bellingcat. via bellingcat: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/11/16/from-pixels-to-punches-geolocating-a-neo-nazi-and-white-nationalist-combat-event-in-los-angeles/ Several…

A Day in the Life of the Guy Who Harassed You on a Dating App At 12:10 P.M., I ate my meat-only Chipotle bowl alone. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-guy-who-harassed-you-on-a-dating-app I eat my meat-only Chipotle bowl alone.

The Kingpin Who Kidnapped Migrants for Ransom An Eritrean trafficker promised to help Africans desperate to reach Europe—then brutalized them inside a Libyan compound while extorting their families back home. With his fortune, he partied in Dubai. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/13/the-kingpin-who-kidnapped-migrants-for-ransom The boss warned his captives, “It’s going to cost me about ten dinars”—seven…