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Hong Kong’s response to a fire that killed more than 160 people suggests the city is becoming more authoritarian, Timothy McLaughlin argues—and this will only compound problems that “contributed to last month’s tragedy and that raise the risk of future ones”:
The Real Reason for the Hong Kong Fire
Don’t blame the bamboo scaffolding.
bit.ly
December 15, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Hong Kong’s response to a fire that killed more than 160 people suggests the city is becoming more authoritarian, Timothy McLaughlin argues—and this will only compound problems that “contributed to last month’s tragedy and that raise the risk of future ones”:
"SNL" mocked gussied-up year-end features such as Spotify “Wrapped" with a sketch about data-mining the most embarrassing parts of your life, @yeehawchsburger writes:
'SNL' Knows Everything You’ve Been Up to This Year. Do You?
The show mocked prettily packaged year-end features, such as Spotify “Wrapped,” that spit data collected about consumers back at them.
bit.ly
December 15, 2025 at 6:15 AM
"SNL" mocked gussied-up year-end features such as Spotify “Wrapped" with a sketch about data-mining the most embarrassing parts of your life, @yeehawchsburger writes:
“There has remained, until now, terrible reluctance by Western governments to accept the appearance on their soil of deadly threats to their Jewish citizens,” @davidfrum.bsky.social argues after the Bondi Beach killings:
The Intifada Comes to Bondi Beach
A Hanukkah massacre of Australian Jews
bit.ly
December 15, 2025 at 4:15 AM
“There has remained, until now, terrible reluctance by Western governments to accept the appearance on their soil of deadly threats to their Jewish citizens,” @davidfrum.bsky.social argues after the Bondi Beach killings:
“I uncover / orange embers, carry them / to a covered grill, and, glancing up, / see the stars’ braille / against the night’s black page.”
Read a new poem by Arthur Sze:
Read a new poem by Arthur Sze:
Inside a Flame
A poem
bit.ly
December 15, 2025 at 2:15 AM
“I uncover / orange embers, carry them / to a covered grill, and, glancing up, / see the stars’ braille / against the night’s black page.”
Read a new poem by Arthur Sze:
Read a new poem by Arthur Sze:
While American families are expected to pay more for goods this holiday season due to Donald Trump’s tariffs, small-business owners are facing an existential crisis, Annie Lowrey reports:
Donald Trump’s War on Christmas
It’s a bad year for shoppers. It’s a terrible year for small-business owners.
bit.ly
December 15, 2025 at 1:15 AM
While American families are expected to pay more for goods this holiday season due to Donald Trump’s tariffs, small-business owners are facing an existential crisis, Annie Lowrey reports:
Hong Kong’s response to a fire that killed more than 160 people suggests the city is becoming more authoritarian, Timothy McLaughlin argues—and this will only compound problems that “contributed to last month’s tragedy and that raise the risk of future ones”:
The Real Reason for the Hong Kong Fire
Don’t blame the bamboo scaffolding.
bit.ly
December 15, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Hong Kong’s response to a fire that killed more than 160 people suggests the city is becoming more authoritarian, Timothy McLaughlin argues—and this will only compound problems that “contributed to last month’s tragedy and that raise the risk of future ones”:
Donald Trump has made the end goal of his military campaign in the Caribbean clear—but whether he has a plan for what happens if Nicolás Maduro falls is an open question, Vivian Salama and Sarah Fitzpatrick report:
How Not to Plan for War
The goal of Trump’s Venezuela squeeze is clear, but how to get there isn’t.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Donald Trump has made the end goal of his military campaign in the Caribbean clear—but whether he has a plan for what happens if Nicolás Maduro falls is an open question, Vivian Salama and Sarah Fitzpatrick report:
The 14th day of the 18th annual Space Telescope Advent Calendar features undulating dust lanes at the edges of a distant galaxy.
Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:
Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:
Day 14 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Ripples of a Galactic Merger
The 14th day of the 18th annual Space Telescope Advent Calendar features undulating dust lanes at the edges of a distant galaxy.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 10:15 PM
The 14th day of the 18th annual Space Telescope Advent Calendar features undulating dust lanes at the edges of a distant galaxy.
Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:
Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:
The white-supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes is more powerful than ever and is “laying groundwork to go even bigger,” Ali Breland reports. Read what Breland learned after a marathon viewing of Fuentes’s show:
I Watched 12 Hours of Nick Fuentes
The white-supremacist influencer is laying the groundwork to go even bigger.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 9:15 PM
The white-supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes is more powerful than ever and is “laying groundwork to go even bigger,” Ali Breland reports. Read what Breland learned after a marathon viewing of Fuentes’s show:
"SNL" mocked gussied-up year-end features such as Spotify “Wrapped" with a sketch about data-mining the most embarrassing parts of your life, Paula Mejía writes:
'SNL' Knows Everything You’ve Been Up to This Year. Do You?
The show mocked prettily packaged year-end features, such as Spotify “Wrapped,” that spit data collected about consumers back at them.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 8:15 PM
"SNL" mocked gussied-up year-end features such as Spotify “Wrapped" with a sketch about data-mining the most embarrassing parts of your life, Paula Mejía writes:
“There has remained, until now, terrible reluctance by Western governments to accept the appearance on their soil of deadly threats to their Jewish citizens,” @davidfrum.bsky.social argues after the Bondi Beach killings:
The Intifada Comes to Bondi Beach
A Hanukkah massacre of Australian Jews
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 7:40 PM
“There has remained, until now, terrible reluctance by Western governments to accept the appearance on their soil of deadly threats to their Jewish citizens,” @davidfrum.bsky.social argues after the Bondi Beach killings:
Donald Trump may have thought the rules of political gravity don't apply to him, “but not even the most fearsome and durable leader escapes the eventual decay of their power,” @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily:
Trump Confronts His Political Reality
The president has entered the lame-duck era of his career.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Donald Trump may have thought the rules of political gravity don't apply to him, “but not even the most fearsome and durable leader escapes the eventual decay of their power,” @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily:
Yesterday’s attack at Brown University is just the latest example of the country failing its children, Xochitl Gonzalez argues.
America Is Failing Its Children
Yesterday’s attack at Brown University is just the latest example.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Yesterday’s attack at Brown University is just the latest example of the country failing its children, Xochitl Gonzalez argues.
Modern vocabulary for describing emotions can be limited and vague. An emerging field of history that investigates how our forebears experienced feelings could allow people to better understand the emotions of the past—and present. @galbeckerman.bsky.social reports:
You Had to Be There
An emerging field of history asks if we can ever really understand how our forebears experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Modern vocabulary for describing emotions can be limited and vague. An emerging field of history that investigates how our forebears experienced feelings could allow people to better understand the emotions of the past—and present. @galbeckerman.bsky.social reports:
The 14th day of the 18th annual Space Telescope Advent Calendar features undulating dust lanes at the edges of a distant galaxy.
Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:
Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:
Day 14 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Ripples of a Galactic Merger
The 14th day of the 18th annual Space Telescope Advent Calendar features undulating dust lanes at the edges of a distant galaxy.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 5:15 PM
The 14th day of the 18th annual Space Telescope Advent Calendar features undulating dust lanes at the edges of a distant galaxy.
Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:
Every day until December 25, this page will present a new image of our universe:
Donald Trump’s executive order targeting state AI regulations is his latest gift to Silicon Valley, argues @matteowong.bsky.social:
Sam Altman Got What He Wanted
For now
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Donald Trump’s executive order targeting state AI regulations is his latest gift to Silicon Valley, argues @matteowong.bsky.social:
“As a homeland-security expert, I often get unexpected calls telling me of some horrible mayhem,” but the shooting at Brown University last night felt different, Juliette Kayyem writes.
Why the Brown Shooting Felt Different
I’m used to responding to sudden tragedies, but not ones this personal.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 4:19 PM
“As a homeland-security expert, I often get unexpected calls telling me of some horrible mayhem,” but the shooting at Brown University last night felt different, Juliette Kayyem writes.
There's no use in making the humanities relevant, @chatterton.bsky.social argues, because "the most useful lesson the humanities have to offer today is a profoundly countercultural one:"
Stop Trying to Make the Humanities ‘Relevant’
For humanities departments to continue to matter, they must challenge the modern world rather than accommodate it.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 3:45 PM
There's no use in making the humanities relevant, @chatterton.bsky.social argues, because "the most useful lesson the humanities have to offer today is a profoundly countercultural one:"
The genius of "Problemista," folktronica music, and more culture and entertainment recommendations from associate editor Álex Maroño Porto in the Sunday Daily:
An Absurdist Film About the American Dream
The genius of Problemista, folktronica music, and more culture and entertainment recommendations
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The genius of "Problemista," folktronica music, and more culture and entertainment recommendations from associate editor Álex Maroño Porto in the Sunday Daily:
Six-seven, the middle-schooler meme, has reached its natural end, @ibogost.com writes. It wasn’t built to last:
‘Six-Seven’ Is Over
Grown-ups killed it.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Six-seven, the middle-schooler meme, has reached its natural end, @ibogost.com writes. It wasn’t built to last:
At one of the largest AI-reserach conferences, Alex Reisner dined in fancy lounges and tried to make sense of whether the industry’s fears of artificial superintelligence are genuine.
The View From Inside the AI Bubble
Secret parties, lavish buffets, and talks of annihilation at one of the largest AI-research conferences
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 2:00 PM
At one of the largest AI-reserach conferences, Alex Reisner dined in fancy lounges and tried to make sense of whether the industry’s fears of artificial superintelligence are genuine.
As the financial ecosystem has gotten more complex, so have many kids' allowances. Michael Waters reports on one way some parents are preparing their children for an uncertain economy:
The New Allowance
As the financial ecosystem has gotten more complex, so have parents’ payments to kids.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 1:45 PM
As the financial ecosystem has gotten more complex, so have many kids' allowances. Michael Waters reports on one way some parents are preparing their children for an uncertain economy:
Although we may be on the cusp of a major shift in how music is made, achieving excellent results will always require a human approach. @skornhaber.bsky.social on the 10 best albums of 2025:
The Best Albums of 2025
This year’s most interesting artists invented their own grammar and tunneled in idiosyncratic directions.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Although we may be on the cusp of a major shift in how music is made, achieving excellent results will always require a human approach. @skornhaber.bsky.social on the 10 best albums of 2025:
James L. Brooks’s strange, shaggy rom-com “Ella McCay” tries to do too much, and succeeds only partially, David Sims writes:
A Throwback Rom-Com About One Millennial Trying to Have It All
James L. Brooks’s “Ella McCay” is wacky and weird—but it doesn’t quite work.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 12:15 PM
James L. Brooks’s strange, shaggy rom-com “Ella McCay” tries to do too much, and succeeds only partially, David Sims writes:
Hong Kong’s response to a fire that killed more than 160 people suggests the city is becoming more authoritarian, Timothy McLaughlin argues—and this will only compound problems that “contributed to last month’s tragedy and that raise the risk of future ones”:
The Real Reason for the Hong Kong Fire
Don’t blame the bamboo scaffolding.
bit.ly
December 14, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Hong Kong’s response to a fire that killed more than 160 people suggests the city is becoming more authoritarian, Timothy McLaughlin argues—and this will only compound problems that “contributed to last month’s tragedy and that raise the risk of future ones”: