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Training for the World Cup can be brutal. Consider Andrés Cantor, who could have a starring role in more than twenty games. Months before the competition even begins, you can find Cantor rigorously repeating his conditioning exercises, such as blowing water from a straw or pressing his fingers to his cheeks. Unlike other World Cup stars, for Cantor, the training is not about running, kicking, or heading. It’s about extending a single syllable that, for millions, has become the sound of soccer. For those keeping score, Lionel Messi has scored five goals in the World Cup. Andrés Cantor hit 12 seconds calling one of them. NYT (Gift Article): The Man Who Cried Goooooooooooal.
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Inmates Running Asylum
“The United States government has repeatedly extended these T.P.S. designations because these countries remain too dangerous to permit safe return. During this time, T.P.S. has allowed hundreds of thousands of Haitians and thousands of Syrians to live and work lawfully in the United States. But no longer.” NYT(Gift Article): This Decision Is a Slap in the Face to Immigrants Who Followed the Law. (Like many things in this era, it’s also a slap in the face to core American values.)
+ “Immigrants began making plans to sell or rent their homes, secure bank accounts and figure out thorny issues like child custody arrangements. Business owners started calculating how many days they can continue to employ workers whose legal status is set to expire. And nursing home leaders warned they would have fewer beds to offer if health aides are forced to leave the country.” WaPo (Gift Article): Nursing homes, factory owners and immigrants brace for fallout from Supreme Court ruling. “Some of those immigrants have lived in the United States for decades and said they feared being sent back to conflict-ridden homelands that they barely know and whose languages some do not speak.” (Feel safer?)
+ As I explained yesterday, this ruling and Trump’s asylum policies are as much about race as anything else. The White Elephant in the Room.
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Om
The internet lost one of its favorite sons this week with the passing of Om Malik. Om was a web pioneer, had a philosopher’s touch when writing about tech, and was one of the first people to turn blogging into a business. More importantly, he was a really nice and caring guy whose impact can be seen in tributes from the many people he helped, advised, and supported over the years. Reading these tributes brings me back to the early days of the internet when we had so much hope for the web and the creative revolution it empowered. Back then, it really was a community, and that community gathered online once more to pay tribute to one of our own. In many ways, the early internet lost its soul. Om never lost his.
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Weekend Whats
What to Watch: The Bear is out with its final season on Hulu. You might want to start with the newish series prequel episode that leads nicely into the final season: Gary.
+ What to Book: Elizabeth Strout is always great, as she is in her latest novel, The Things We Never Say, which meets one man at the intersection of very public changes and extremely private secrets. Bonus, it was copyedited (as are all of her novels) by the excellent Benjamin Dreyer!
+ What to Movie: “An anxious law school dropout (Matthew Shear) stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist’s three granddaughters and falls for the girls’ mother (Amanda Peet), an actress in a rocky marriage.” Fantasy Life.
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Extra, Extra
Nuclear Meltdown: “A desultory, grievance-filled speech on what should have been a joyous occasion. The last-minute cancellation of a rare bipartisan bill signing in favor of yet another push for doomed, unpopular legislation. A loud confrontation with members of his own party followed by sneering remarks about some of the nation’s oldest allies. And a nonsensical accusation that, if we have it right, blames the algae-filled Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool not on his rushed renovations but on knife-wielding vandals … and maybe Barack Obama. And that was just yesterday.” Jonathan Lemire and Russell Berman in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Meltdown. (He’s taking the country with him...)
+ Stink Flamingo: “Every day, for nearly a month running, tens of thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets, a peaceful mass movement seeking nothing less than a complete overthrow of the government.” MoJo: How Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Sparked a Movement to Overthrow the Government of Albania. “Their vision of swank resorts in protected areas set off a ‘Flamingo Revolution.’”
+ In the Room Where Shit Happened: John Bolton, former Trump national security adviser, pleads guilty in classified documents case. (According to experts, this case had some merit. Not as much merit as the classified documents case against Trump, but some...)
+ Venezuela Quakes: “Rescue workers are overwhelmed. They are pulling people out with their bare hands.” Thousands are still missing in the search for survivors following Venezuela’s back-to-back earthquakes. Here’s the latest from BBC.
+ Out With the Good: “In recent months, President Trump, upon advice from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, has relieved or forced the retirement of some of the finest officers that have ever served this nation.” William H. McRaven: Americans Deserve Answers From Hegseth.
+ Tricky Dick Measuring Contest: JD Vance, an admirer of Richard Nixon: “If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.”
+ Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Catch me a Catch: “Dropping vaccination rates have caused some infectious diseases to roar back, putting infants, the elderly and immunocompromised people at particular risk, per public health experts. Data reported by the CDC shows that non-medical exemptions for childhood vaccines have reached an all-time high. At the same time, CDC reports show whooping cough and other vaccine-preventable diseases rising — and in the case of measles, growing to outbreaks not seen in decades.” But once-solved diseases are not all that’s in the air. So is love. WaPo (Gift Article): Anti-vaxxers are coupling up on apps for ‘Unjected’ singles. (This could really save Darwin some work...)
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Feel Good Friday
“For the nation’s semiquincentennial, we asked Times Opinion columnists and writers to pluck a moment from this complicated history that represents the best of what this country can be. What are the accomplishments, movements and ideas that continue to inspire us? Here are 16 nominations for America’s highlight reel.” NYT (Gift Article):