Alexandria Symonds

How Trump Leans on Emergency Declarations to Bypass Congress and Skirt Regulations (Gift Article) The president has declared 10 emergencies since returning to office, far outpacing what is typical. He has used them to justify hundreds of actions.

10 emergency declarations
↓
33 executive orders
↓
Hundreds of actions
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Opinion | Jay Bhattacharya: Why the NIH is pivoting away from mRNA vaccines As a vaccine for broad public use, mRNA technology has failed to earn the public’s trust.

I cannot emphasize enough that the playbook being used against mRNA vaccines (and vaccines in general) is IDENTICAL to the playbook used to restrict voting rights after the 2020 election: actively sow public distrust, then cite the distrust you sowed as an independent reason for your desired policy

Hey, as a librarian I need to tell you:

Our funding depends on usage.

So go ahead and check out that book even if you don't think you'll finish it. No one will know. Check out that DVD even though you might not like it. Get ambitious in your quest for knowledge.

A solution to the child care shortage is hiding in plain sight “Looking only at one half of the population is a mistake.”

New: I wrote about the shortage of men in the child care industry—and what it would take to change that.

I was glad to spend time with some of the talented men who have chosen this career path, despite the stigma and bias they sometimes face

vox.com/child-care/4...

banks and atms are not functional either, so to get the physical cash to use at the markets, gazans have to pay 50 percent commissions on the black market

with aid increasingly difficult and dangerous to obtain, some basic items are available to buy in gaza, but at unfathomably expensive prices. a bag of flour that cost $10 before the war is $300 now; a pack of diapers that would cost $5 in the u.s. is $150 in gaza. (gift link)

Reuters reported the "ward is silent as hungry children are too exhausted to cry," and a doctor said of a baby who did not gain a gram in three months, "there is a total loss of muscles. It's only skin on top of bones."

60,000 Gazans have been killed. 18,500 were children. These are their names. Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one per hour since the war began.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 60,000 people. 18,500 were children. Here are their names. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Gazans Are Dying of Starvation

“There is no one in Gaza now outside the scope of famine, not even myself,” said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, who leads the pediatric ward at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. “I am speaking to you as a health official, but I, too, am searching for flour to feed my family.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/w...

Where Congress’s Cuts Threaten Access to PBS and NPR The loss of federal funding threatens scores of public TV and radio stations across the United States.

New: I teamed up with @elenashao.bsky.social
and nytgraphics to map more than 100 public TV and radio stations that are at risk of closing as a result of tonight's vote:

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

This is a time bomb that will go off in the fall, when the last federal grants run out.

How Trump and MAGA Fans Are Talking About the Epstein Case (Gift Article) Their actions range from pressuring the administration to release more information to spinning additional conspiracy theories about the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender.

Trump calls the Epstein case a "hoax." His MAGA base disagrees. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Bar graph showing the change in percentage of calls answered after FEMA laid off contractors on July 5th (over 99% on July 5, about 36% on July 6 and 16% of calls answered on July 7)

Two days after deadly Texas floods, the agency struggled to answer calls from survivors because of call center contracts that weren’t extended.

This is so horrifying I made a bar graph www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/c...

Trump Vowed to Dismantle MS-13. His Deal With Bukele Threatens That Effort.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/u...

Wide Leg Jean is an example of something that can be nice to buy, but not so nice to have as a nickname

may god rest his soul!!!

it was just une petite blague 😌

@foster.bsky.social gonna need you to ask her for comment

A path worn away in grass that goes in a straight line towards the other side of the park, bypassing the winding paved path

“Desire paths” are unofficial trails, usually bypassing a planned path, that reveal the most convenient route to get somewhere. The people (AKA meanderthals) that tramp along these routes often wear away grass, creating the secondary path

Walk this way for more on desire paths (a thread / tread)...

the jenny slate doppelganger doing asl translation for the mayoral debate is so wonderfully expressive

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wearing a suit and tie, is sitting at a table. A headline reads: "White House Health Report Included Fake Citations." Photo by Eric Lee/The New York Times.

The Trump administration released a report last week that it billed as a “clear, evidence-based foundation” for action on a range of children’s health issues. But the report, from the Make America Healthy Again Commission, cited studies that did not exist. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

"like you could eat a carrot with an onion ring and they would travel down to your stomach, then they would get there, and the carrot would say, 'it's cool, he's with me'"

overheard through the door of my kids' room this morning —

2-year-old: all done music?
husband: but this song is so important!
brandon flowers: I NEVERRRRRR

restaurants should have a menu option called “the rat” that lets you scurry around and eat leftovers ppl wont finish. the waiter could ask guests if they’d like a box or if they’d like to send it “to the rat”

Just About Everything That’s Changed Since Congestion Pricing Took Effect (Gift Article) Fewer cars. Faster travel. Less honking. And some questions we still can’t answer.

Policy changes often take years to show results.

And then there is congestion pricing in New York.

Here are all of the ways we could find it having an immediate effect: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

‘The Only Person in the World Claiming to Be the Pope Right Now’

I went to Chicago to cover a papal conclave. No, not that one. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/u...

And now, a note on Bill Owens who, until this past week, was the executive producer of 60 Minutes.

We’ll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.

Doubling Up: How ‘Sinners’ and Other Movies Multiply One Actor From camera tricks to digital facial replacement, a history of duplicating effects.

very fun story by @ezwrites.bsky.social but as a parent of twin actors i am duty-bound to oppose this practice www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/m...