Lead Paragraph:
A White House report brands the leadership of the Smithsonian Institution, especially at the National Museum of American History, as radical activists who cannot be trusted, indicating that President Donald Trump may be preparing to install his own team.
Excerpts:
To the extent the decision is up to Trump, the United States that his speech celebrated on July 4 will exist no more.
Trump is building an American future oriented toward authoritarian and corrupt states: Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia. Democratic allies are treated, at best, as subjects to be bullied and, at worst, as targets to be carved up into new American territories.
Under Donald Trump, the United States has fought military conflicts in Venezuela and Iran. It nearly fought a war with Denmark to seize Greenland. It often speaks of annexing all or part of Canada. It has waged economic war on allies and partners in violation of international trade agreements and domestic law. Soon the United States may be engaged in a war in Cuba. Already, the U.S. has cut back aid to Ukraine as that country fights for its survival and freedom. Trump has repeatedly made clear that the goal of his wars is plunder: that he wishes to seize oil and other resources. In turn, the course of his most ambitious war, with Iran, appears to have been swayed by client states, which have made payments to him and his associates.
Excerpt:
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s wife reportedly traveled to China just three days after he received CPR following an apparent heart attack.
Elaine Chao, 73, who has been married to the 84-year-old Republican lawmaker since 1993 and formerly served as transportation secretary in the first Trump administration, traveled to Beijing and met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng just days after McConnell’s hospitalization.
https://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/zmgx/zxxx/202607/t20260702_11956191.htm
Excerpt:
The great tragedy is that many of the problems Trump identifies are real, and so many of the hurts he exploits demand serious thought and measured action—from governments, yes, but also from community leaders and individuals. Yet so long as people rely on that quick high, so long as wolves point their fingers at everyone but themselves, the nation delays a necessary reckoning. There is no self-reflection in the midst of a false euphoria. Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realize it.
The article: between 1954 and 1990, West Germany played with an insane, existential urgency because of the heavy burden of WWII history and the division of their country. That immense pressure to demonstrate pride and honor forged this unbreakable "football steel" - a desperate hunger to prove themselves to the world.
But after reunification in 1990, that deep historical pain started to fade. Germany became a comfortable, prosperous, post-historical, and much more inclusive, diverse society. Because the country is doing so well and history stopped hurting, they've lost that raw, "fire-in-the-belly" edge.
I think it's a good theory to be considered. Before unification 3/10 World Cup Championships, 8/10 final 4 appearances. After unification, especially the last 3 world cups, well, it's not the same.
I think there is a sociological element to sports and I thought I would offer this for consideration.
Addendum: I did not think a sports article which I felt was interesting was going to draw so much hatred and venom. If the mods don't think their readers can handle a new idea without showing hatred and spewing insults, please delete the article and ban me from this subreddit.
Lead Lines:
A former Olympian was indicted Thursday on a felony charge in what President Donald Trump has called vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where a renovation project he launched has been riddled with problems.
David Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, was indicted on a single count of property destruction in Washington, D.C. court.
District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage. She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerently toward an employee who told him to stop.
“This is a case with tremendous evidence,” she said, adding that authorities have made about six other misdemeanor arrests.
Gifted Read:
"Throughout the city, there are government signs proclaiming, We are making DC safe and beautiful."
Something is making younger generations age faster than their parents did at the same age. A study published today in Nature Medicine by Washington University researchers measured biological age using nine standard blood biomarkers across 154,169 people in the UK Biobank and found that people born after 1965 are biologically older at equivalent life stages than those born a decade or two earlier. That generational gap in biological aging was directly associated with higher early-onset cancer risk, independent of inherited genetic cancer risk, with a 42% higher risk of early-onset lung cancer, a 22% higher risk of gastrointestinal cancer, and a 36% higher risk of uterine cancer for each measurable unit of accelerated aging. The same nine biomarkers used to calculate this are already collected in a standard blood panel. The study doesn't identify what caused faster aging in younger generations, but it gives the clearest biological answer yet to why cancer rates in people under 50 keep rising.