Trump pauses funding for anti-HIV program that prevented 26 million AIDS deaths; NPR, January 27, 2025

Melody Schreiber, NPR; Trump pauses funding for anti-HIV program that prevented 26 million AIDS deaths

[Kip Currier: The amorality of the statement below is staggeringly appalling, but not unexpected, from an administration whose guiding principle is transactional policymaking, even in examples involving great human suffering and need.

To label as "a moral imperative" the immediate cessation of lifesaving medications for Global South persons with HIV and AIDS is farcical Orwellian rhetoric.]

[Excerpt]

"On Sunday, the State Department confirmed the halt in an email to NPR. The United States "is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people," State spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement, calling the pause "a moral imperative.""

Philip Kennicott , The Washington Post; The National Archives used to stand for independence. That mission has been compromised.

"Now the Archives has foolishly compromised the public’s sense of its independence, so artfully embedded in its landmark building. By blurring out details from protest signs in an image of the 2017 Women’s March, including the name of President Trump and references to the female anatomy — a decision the Archives publicly apologized for on Saturday — it has damaged the faith many Americans, particularly women, may have had in its role as an impartial conservator of the nation’s records. It has unnecessarily squandered something that cannot easily be regained.

There must be consequences.

An Archives spokeswoman told The Washington Post the changes to a large-format image included in an exhibition about women’s suffrage were made “so as not to engage in current political controversy.” If that was the intent, they obviously failed, embroiling the institution in exactly the controversy they say they wanted to avoid. But no matter the proferred explanation or statement of apology, the decision indicates a lack of leadership and distinct confusion about the mission at the Archives. If the Archives wants to teach Americans about history, then it must be scrupulously honest in its presentation of all documentary evidence."

The Olympics may turn Rio into traffic hell; Washington Post, 7/29/16

Dom Phillips, Washington Post; The Olympics may turn Rio into traffic hell:

"Rio’s traffic chaos stems from a lack of long-term planning, experts say.

“We don’t look forward and are always trying to resolve things at the last minute,” said Carlos Murdoch, an architect and urbanist who lectures at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a leading business school."