This week: The 2026 Men’s World Cup lineups are unveiled / Living childfree by choice / Kerr County turned down state’s flood financial aid / Airline pilots’ mental struggles / The era of the female crash dummy / Shopping malls are our Roman ruins / Women revisit their support for Trump / Exhibit illustrates the massive treasures of the National Archives
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1. The day the World Cup gets real for North American cities
By Sophia Cai and Ry Rivard | Politico | December 2025
“Local governments learn which countries they’ll welcome at next summer’s World Cup: ‘That conversation is very different between England and Panama and Curaçao, right?’ “
Also see, from BBC News: How extreme heat could disrupt the 2026 World Cup and what fans can do about it
2. The Way Back: Starry Skies
By Krissi Micklethwait | Alcalde | October 2025
“In 1977, Deborah Byrd, a starry-eyed liberal arts graduate, realized she had a knack for explaining complicated subjects. Pondering her next move after graduation, she began working at McDonald Observatory, where she launched a dial-in astronomy hotline. … Byrd’s show grew into national syndication under the name StarDate.”
3. Netflix Reassures Subscribers After Warner Bros. Deal: ‘Nothing Is Changing Today’
By Alex Weprin | The Hollywood Reporter | December 2025
“Netflix sent an early morning email to its subscribers about the mega deal that will bring HBO Max into the fold.”
4. At the National Archives, a Deep Dive Into the American Story
By Jennifer Schuessler | The New York Times | December 2025
“A new $40-million exhibit, opening nine months after President Trump fired the chief archivist, uses technology to explore the 13 billion-plus items in its vaults.”
5. Childfree by Choice
By Mona Eltahawy | Guernica | December 2025
“By refusing to give birth, I have birthed the version of myself that I always wanted to be.”
6. What if Russia wins?
The Global Story :: BBC News | November 2025
“Discussion of nuclear weapons has returned both to our news cycle and to the cultural conversation.”
7. When the press amplified false claims about Iraq, it failed its highest duty — and fueled a war
By Nora Neus | Poynter | December 2025
“In a post-9/11 climate of fear, newsrooms echoed false claims about weapons of mass destruction, sidelining dissent and helping sell a war”
8. Kerr County was among dozens of Texas communities to turn down state flood money, saying it wasn’t enough
By Lexi Churchill and Alejandra Martinez | The Texas Tribune and ProPublica | December 2025
“Texas earmarked $1.4 billion to help fund flood prevention projects. But after learning that so many communities turned down the money, two lawmakers who approved the program acknowledged it was flawed.”
9. ‘If you aren’t lying, you aren’t flying.’ Airline pilots hide mental health struggles
By Rajesh Kumar Singh and Dan Catchpole | Reuters | December 2025
“Dozens of airline pilots tell Reuters they are reluctant to disclose mental health issues — even minor or treatable ones — because of the risk of grounding and a career‑ending review.”
10. Journalists may see AI as a threat to the industry, but they’re using it anyway
By Neil Thurman, Sina Thasler-Kordonouri and Richard Fletcher | Nieman Lab | December 2025
“Although AI use is now widespread among U.K. journalists, they still see it as much more of a threat than an opportunity.”
11. The female crash test dummy has been a long time coming — but she isn’t here yet
By Camila Domonoske | NPR | November 2025
“Vehicle safety tests in the U.S. use crash test dummies based on a male body. Advocates say it’s no coincidence that women are more likely to suffer injuries in car crashes than men, even if you control for the severity of the crash and the size of the vehicle.”
12. Doodling, drowsiness and a conspicuous misspelling highlight Trump’s last Cabinet meeting of 2025
By Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price | Associated Press | December 2025
“With Tuesday’s White House Cabinet meeting chugging past the two-hour mark, President Donald Trump ‘s eyes fluttered and closed. His budget director busied himself doodling a fluffy cloud. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was lucky enough to speak early, but the title on his nameplate was misspelled.”
13. Some People Can’t See Mental Images. The Consequences Are Profound
By Larissa MacFarquhar | The New Yorker | October 2025
“Research has linked the ability to visualize to a bewildering variety of human traits—how we experience trauma, hold grudges, and, above all, remember our lives.”
14. Don’t argue with strangers … and 11 more rules to survive the information crisis
By Naomi Alderman | The Guardian | November 2025
“Feeling overwhelmed by divisive opinions, endless rows and unreliable facts? Here’s how to weather the data storm.”
15. How women feel about Trump’s presidency: Heartbreak, fatigue, gratitude
By Alexandra Pannoni and Sarah Pineda | The Washington Post | November 2025
“After Donald Trump won the presidency in 2024, we asked women to share their reactions. Thousands responded with a mix of emotions: sadness, anger, relief, elation. We wanted to hear how that same group of women is now feeling, 10 months into Trump’s second term. Of the more than 5,000 women we reached out to, we heard from nearly 500. Here’s a selection of their responses, edited for length and clarity.”
16. Pope Leo’s Quiet Provocation
By Randy Boyagoda | The Atlantic | November 2025
“By staying relatively silent, Leo might be giving American Catholics exactly what they need.”
17. Dying Shopping Malls Are the Roman Ruins of Our Civilization
By Kelly Karivalis | The New York Times Magazine | November 2025
“Big-box stores are beautiful once they have nothing to sell.”
18. Barry Lyndon: Time Regained
By Geoffrey O Brien | The Criterion Collection | October 2017
“In broad terms, Kubrick made a faithful adaptation, preserving the arc of the story of how an Irish lad of humble origins passes through a series of picaresque scrapes — as hotheaded young lover, fugitive, British soldier, deserter forced into the Prussian military, police spy, professional gambler — until he succeeds in marrying a wealthy countess, only to lose everything in the end.”
19. Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space
American Experience :: PBS | January 2023
“She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime became known as the foremost authority on Black folklore.”
20. Islam s First Civil War
By Christopher Rose, Joan Neuberger and Henry Wiencek | 15 Minute History :: UT Department of History | 2014-2020
Also see: John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company | Sunni and Shi a in Medieval Syria | The Fatimids | Texas and the American Revolution
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