“Beneath the temple ruins of the Egyptian city of Taposiris Magna, archaeologists recently discovered a secret tunnel dubbed the ‘geometric miracle.’ The city was founded in Egypt by the Hellenistic king Ptolemy II Philadelphus between 280 and 270 BCE, and its name translates to ‘The Great Tomb of Osiris’ (the god of death in Egyptian mythology). The tunnel was discovered 13 meters below the ground by Katharine Martinez, an archaeologist from the Dominican Republic. It measures two meters in height and is carved astonishingly over a length of 1,300 meters in the sandstone of the area. The purpose of this tunnel is still unclear, as parts of it are submerged in water. Martinez, who has been working and researching the area since 2004, believes that this tunnel could be a significant lead to discovering the ‘lost tomb of Cleopatra.’ Its design, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, bears a striking resemblance to the amazing Apheteleion tunnel, which measures 1,036 meters and dates back to the 6th century BCE, found on the Greek island of Samos. The Greek tunnel is often referred to as an engineering marvel, and it was unprecedented in its planning and construction using vaulting techniques. The engineering of the newly discovered tunnel in Egypt is equally impressive.” (JPost)
“The Middle East has been the most volatile part of the world since the mid-20th century, with multiple conflicts among disparate rivals. Some erupted over domestic disputes, others over regional competition, with spillover drawing in major world powers. Israel fought four major wars with Arab neighbors, including Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, between 1948 and 1973. But since the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the mid-1960s, it has increasingly faced challenges from militias or non-state actors, eventually also including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, and the Houthis in Yemen. The militias became major military players in the 1980s, then evolved into influential political parties in the 1990s and 2000s. In the 21st century, they have been the most consistent threat to Israel. By 2024, 10 conflicts flared across the region. Israel faced two frontlines in the south against Hamas and in the north against Hezbollah. Both were members of the so-called ‘Axis of Resistance,’ a network of Shiite movements armed, trained, and financially supported by Iran. Tensions also played out between Israel and the wider Arab world. In Iraq and Syria, other Iranian-backed militias attacked US forces deployed to help contain the remnants of ISIS after the Islamic State collapsed in 2019. Yemen was involved in three wars—a civil war at home, a regional confrontation with Saudi Arabia, and attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. The undercurrent in all these conflicts was the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran. The following is the background on all ten conflicts.” (Robin Wright/The Wilson Center)
“‘I felt like 25 years was enough time to have an assessment. My attitude towards tech started off as a love story, and it turned into a bad relationship, essentially,’ (Kara Swisher) explained. ‘[Tech founders] have been so important in our society. And I’d already been warning people over the last 10 years about the power, the monopolization, and the lack of responsibility. And so, I really wanted to put it all into one place.’ Swisher started focusing on tech as a cub reporter working the retail beat at the Washington Post. David Ignatius, the editor at the time, assigned her to the tech beat because she was ‘the only one who (slightly) understood the technology. I had begun to see the impact of technology then, even in retail.’ Today, it’s easy to take tech for granted because it’s all around us: in our pockets, on our wrists, in our ears. It enables us to order food, book a flight, hail a ride, or even get laid. We get our thoughts and photos instantly validated by thousands of strangers on social media. With technology wielding so much influence over our lives, those creating and running it have become the most powerful people on the planet. ‘They’re the richest by far except the Saudis and Bernard Arnault. It’s pretty much tech people who occupy the top rungs of power and money in the world.’ Swisher wants them to be responsible and held accountable for the consequences of their products.” (George Hahn/Avenue)
“Immigration has become a huge focus in the NY-3 race, with Republicans hammering Suozzi over a statement that he ‘kicked ICE out of Nassau County,’ a reference to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Suozzi is using his own advertising to defend himself from those attacks. From a national perspective, Democrats are hoping Republicans simply go overboard on immigration and overplay their hand; congressional Republicans swiftly killing a border-protection compromise negotiated in the Senate could be a lifeline to Democrats trying to dig themselves out of a deep hole on the issue. The NY-3 result may help indicate how real of a problem for Democrats and how big of an asset for Republicans the immigration issue actually is. In NY-3, there is also the matter of poor Democratic performances in Nassau in the Biden era. Honestly, if this Biden +8 district existed with the same demographics in, say, suburban Milwaukee or Philadelphia, the Democrats might be having an easier time. It’s just possible that something bad is going on for the Democrats on Long Island that may not necessarily be generalizable to many other parts of the country.” (Kyle Kondik/Sabatos Crystal Ball)
“‘I’m going to speak my truth,’ (Brett) Hart told me over the phone from his home in Calgary. ‘I’m not worried about Vince’s feelings. He’s never cared about mine.’ Now, with Trump facing an $83 million penalty for defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll and Musk staring at a $56 billion pay cut due to a Delaware court ruling, McMahon’s downfall comes into sharper focus when seen through Hart’s eyes. It’s a story about what it takes for people to finally realize they’ve been screwed—and the consequences that can come for those doing the screwing. Hart had been warned by fellow wrestling insiders a few months ago that McMahon ‘was in big trouble that he wasn’t going to be able to sweep under the rug,’ as he put it to me. On Jan. 25, Hart learned the specifics of that trouble when the Wall Street Journal reported on Grant’s lawsuit. The 67-page suit came with alleged dates, details and—most damning of all—screenshots of text messages. Within 48 hours, something remarkable happened: McMahon resigned from WWE and its corporate parent, TKO Holdings. The company said in a brief statement that it had cut ties with him. He retains a minority share of TKO stock, but is effectively powerless. This was unprecedented ..” (Abraham Josephine Reisman/Slate)
“Nayib Bukele—the hat-wearing, crypto-bullish president of El Salvador—has won a second term in a landslide vote, as The Economist details. Bukele once styled himself (in his bio on X, then known as Twitter) as the ‘coolest dictator in the world’ (his bio now reads ‘Philosopher King’), and The Economist notes he is massively popular in his country. That’s due to a broad anti-gang crackdown that has made Salvadorans feel newly safe. There are reasons to worry, commentators have written in reaction to the vote. For one thing, Bukele’s anti-crime success has been won via mass detentions that have drawn sharp criticism from human-rights advocates around the world. ( In The New Yorker in 2022, Jonathan Blitzer examined the crackdown, detailing the terror felt by one mother unable to locate her 20-year-old autistic son, who was among thousands arrested and jailed in one week.) And then there’s the constitutionality of Bukele’s re-election. As The Economist writes, ‘Sticklers for the rule of law noted that it was unconstitutional for Mr Bukele to run for a second consecutive term. But in 2021 he got the top court to rule that he could run again if he took a six-month leave of absence, which he did, at least on paper.’” (Fareeds Global Outlook)
“In California, where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lives, he needs 219,403 valid signatures to make the ballot — or 75,000 registrations with his new ‘We the People’ party. In North Carolina, he’d need 82,542 valid signatures by May 5. And on Friday morning, the Democratic National Committee filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Kennedy’s super PAC, accusing it of ‘illegally coordinating’ with the campaign to get him on state ballots. One weird trick could fix that problem. The Libertarian Party, with automatic ballot access across most of the country, will pick its nominee in 107 days. And Kennedy might go for it. ‘We have a really good relationship with the Libertarian Party,’ Kennedy told CNN’s Michael Smerconish last week. ‘I feel very comfortable with most of the values of the Libertarian Party.’” (David Weigel/semafor)
“For the past nine years, (Christopher) Rim, 28, has been working as an ‘independent education consultant,’ helping the one percent navigate the increasingly competitive college-admissions process — the current round of which ends in February. He started by editing college essays from his Yale dorm room for $50 an hour but now charges the parents of his company’s 190 clients — mostly private-school kids, many of them in New York — $120,000 a year to help them create a narrative he believes will appeal to college-admissions officers. That company, Command Education, currently has 41 full-time staffers, most of whom are recent graduates of top-tier colleges and universities. The pitch is crafted to appeal to the wealthy clients Rim courts: a ‘personalized, white glove’ service, through which Command employees do everything from curating students’ extracurriculars to helping them land summer internships, craft essays, and manage their course loads with the single goal of getting them in.” (Caitlin Moscatello/NYMag)
“African economies have had a decade of low growth and stagnant per capita incomes. However, as I keep arguing, this time is different. The current regional economic slowdown is unlikely to precipitate the sort of disastrous outcomes witnessed in the 1980s and early 1990s. Moving forward, it will be important for African governments to avoid total fiscal meltdowns and associated austerity-obsessed structural adjustment programs that characterized the 1980s. The imperative during this difficult but transitory period ought to be to protect the human development gains in healthcare, education, and nutrition made over the last 30 years. For the most part, African economies are in a position to grow out of their current fiscal squeeze. That is why Benin’s and Cote d’Ivoire’s recent oversubscribed Eurobond is a good sign that credit-worthy-ish (‘junk’ status) African states’ fiscal squeeze might be coming to an end. Further encouraging signs came on February 7, 2024 when Kenya’s notice that it intends to go on the market saw its yields plummet from 16% to under 10%. Nairobi’s new Eurobond issue will be priced on February 12, 2024. Abidjan, which currently has a rating of BB- (Fitch), had gone to the market for $2.6b and got interest from over 400 investors with offers exceeding $8b — ‘the highest order level ever recorded by a sovereign in West Africa.’” (Ken Opalo/The Africanist Perspective)
“Is New York’s Third Congressional District suddenly cursed with obscurely unlikely candidates? It 2022, it elected human GOP punch line George Santos, who was eventually expelled by his peers for falsifying everything imaginable, from his religion to his mother’s time and place of death, and, maybe more significant, identity theft, misuse of campaign funds, and more. The race to replace him in a special election features a Republican candidate who is actually a registered Democrat, and who is less known to this Queens and Nassau County district than Santos when he was chosen. The candidate challenging newcomer Mazi Pilip is Tom Suozzi, who gave up the seat to run an unconvincing, tough-on-crime primary campaign against Governor Kathy Hochul and make way for Santos. That was a blow to Democrats’ chances to hold the House. But Democratic leaders haven’t held a grudge: They embraced Suozzi as the Democrat most likely to take the seat. Hochul paused and forced a sit-down with Suozzi where she got promises on protecting abortion rights and got him to eat some crow—before, as predicted, endorsing him.” (Joan Walsh/The Nation)
“Yet Santos is not inventing anything when he says the two main contenders for his former seat, representing New York’s Third Congressional District, are both registered Democrats—including the one running on the Republican line, Mazi Pilip, who has said she would welcome a campaign visit from Donald Trump. In mid-December, local Republican Party leaders chose her as their candidate to succeed Santos. She was born in Ethiopia and later emigrated to Israel with her family. At 18, Pilip, who is Jewish, joined the Israel Defense Forces and served as a gunsmith in the paratrooper unit. She moved to Long Island after marrying an American Ukrainian doctor, who is also Jewish, and became the mother of seven children. In 2021, she was elected to the Nassau County Legislature on the Republican line—as a registered Democrat, a party affiliation she has not changed.” (Chris Smith/VF)
“Democrats in New York are finally going on the attack over border security and crime — just in time to test the strategy in the first House election of the year. It took cinematic levels of dysfunction in Washington — from the scuttled impeachment inquiry into the homeland security secretary to failed attempts at a border deal — for Democrats to get mobilized around the politically volatile issues after years of playing defense. Just this week, both centrist Democratic politicians and liberal coalitions put forth strategies to try to recover ground. Gov. Kathy Hochul demanded the migrants who attacked police officers in Times Square be jailed and New York City’s police commissioner lamented a ‘wave of migrant crime’ in efforts to show spine on the matter. Progressives sharpened their own message, writing in a memo: ‘There is no connection between immigration and crime,’ while blaming Republicans in an email for ‘the same xenophobic playbook we’ve seen countless times from Donald Trump and others before.’ The new, emboldened strategies from these disparate groups come as President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee are intensifying their attacks against the GOP over border security.” (Emily Ngo/Politico)
“It was 1990, and the man I loved had died. I was out all the time. I just couldn’t stay inside, and I was writing in a notebook in places where I could sit for a spell. A new shop opened on Broadway, a bakery that was also a café in the low eighties or maybe the seventies, on the east side of the street. You could sit there with a coffee and maybe—after God knows how long—you would also buy a muffin out of obligation and shame. The owner hated his customers because he’d created the wrong kind of flock in us. We were a band of deadbeat loners, off whom rose different kinds of sadness that united us into a force. The owner was a loud and theatrical gay man I also felt for because he may have been as lonely as we were, and he was trying to establish a business. I don’t remember if he had a boyfriend. I remember the startling freedom of his contempt for us—and by us, I don’t mean the customers who came and left in a timely fashion and didn’t turn his place into a campsite. He would thrash about, sighing and slamming down the cups he bussed after one of us moved on. It was theater. The boss staged his show, and we were the audience. In the spring of 2002, Geoff Dyer published a piece in The Threepenny Review called ‘The Despair of Art Deco.’ It’s a wonderful piece about nothing, really, meaning it’s my kind of writing, in which for seven pages or so Dyer recounts a recent visit with his girlfriend to South Beach, Miami, where he plans to write about the art deco hotels that attract visitors. Instead, he sees his first dead body, or at least the soiled socks of a woman who has jumped from a balcony to her death on the sidewalk, careful to avoid landing on anyone. Earlier on the visit, Dyer and his girlfriend are asked to take a photograph of a couple standing in front of the house where Versace was gunned down. The patch of sidewalk has become a site of what I would call ‘dark tourism.’ Dyer doesn’t call it that, but he understands there is some attraction people feel to standing in proximity to where something gory and grisly has taken place, in order to feel the double thrill of not yet being dead and also being reminded that every life goes in only one direction.” (Laurie Stone/The Paris Review)