Let's take a brief detour from the nonstop news dumpster fire and instead dive into (the topic of) actual dumpsters. You may be surprised to learn the some of the items you toss into the recycling bin end up recycled as someone else's garbage. Wealthier countries sending their garbage to poorer countries is nothing new. A 1992 treaty "made it illegal to export toxic waste from developed to developing countries." But for many countries on the receiving end of the global garbage conveyor belt, that treaty ended up in the trash heap of history. "The poorer nations of the world have never stopped being receptacles for the West’s ever-proliferating rubbish. The situation now is, in many respects, worse than it was in the 1980s. Then, there was widespread recognition that waste export was immoral. Today, most waste travels under the guise of being recyclable, cloaked in the language of planetary salvation." Alexander Clapp in the NYT(Gift Article): The Story You’ve Been Told About Recycling Is a Lie. "It’s not just your old DVD player getting shipped to West Africa. Today’s waste trade is an opportunistic bonanza, an escape valve of environmental responsibility that profits off routing detritus of every conceivable variety to places that are in no position to take it. Your discarded clothes? They may go to a desert in Chile. The last cruise ship you boarded? Hacked to pieces in Bangladesh. Your depleted car battery? Stacked in a warehouse in Mexico. Is some of it run by organized crime? Of course. 'For us,' a Naples mafioso boasted in 2008, 'rubbish is gold.' But much of it doesn’t have to be. Waste export remains scandalously underregulated and unmonitored. Practically anyone can give it a go."

+ Rich countries get their garbage out of sight and out of mind, waste middlemen turn rubbish into gold, and a lot of people are robbed of their golden years. "Cancer rates have soared in Casalnuovo di Napoli, Italy, where burying or burning of waste has poisoned water and land." ‘Triangle of death’: will Italy finally tackle mafia’s toxic waste dumping?

2

New Whirled Order

The remaking (and recoding) of America's government feels like it's taking place at breathtaking speeds. But the alterations to the world order, and America's role in it, could be taking place even faster. It now appears that Putin is an American partner. And the discussions about the first steps toward ending the war in Ukraine just took place in Saudi Arabia, without Europe. And without Ukraine. "The meeting was the latest striking swerve by the Trump administration in abandoning Western efforts to isolate Russia. Since Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its Western allies had moved vigorously to punish Russia for causing Europe’s most destructive war in generations. Instead, the talks on Tuesday showed that Mr. Trump was eager to work with Russia to end the war — an approach that would most likely fulfill many of Mr. Putin’s demands — and that he was prepared to cast aside the worries of American allies in Europe." NYT (Gift Article): U.S. and Russia Pursue Partnership in a Head-Spinning Shift in Relations.

+ Bloomberg (Gift Article): Trump, Putin Teams End Ukraine Talks With No Date Yet for Summit.

+ Who's Trump's point person leading the negotions with Russia? His personal friend, golf buddy and billionaire real estate developer Steve Witkoff.

3

Heartbreak Hotel

"They arrived at the United States border from around the world, hoping to seek asylum. Instead, they were detained, shackled and flown by the U.S. military to a faraway country, Panama. They were stripped of their passports and most of their cellphones, they said, and then locked in a hotel, barred from seeing lawyers and told they would soon be sent to a makeshift camp near the Panamanian jungle. At the hotel, at least one person tried to commit suicide, according to several migrants. Another broke his leg trying to escape. A third sent a plaintive missive from a hidden cellphone: 'Only a miracle can save us.'" The NYT (Gift Article) on how asylum seekers from countries like Afghanistan, Iran and China ended up in the Decapolis Hotel. As Trump ‘Exports’ Deportees, Hundreds Are Trapped in Panama Hotel.

+ "Illegal entries fell during most of 2024 as the Biden administration curbed access to the asylum system. Under Trump, they have plunged even lower. But the drop in illegal crossings has left ICE with fewer easy-to-deport immigrants. That puts more pressure on ICE officers to go out into U.S. cities and communities to make arrests." WaPo (Gift Article): ICE struggles to boost arrest numbers despite infusion of resources.

4

Birds of a Propeller

"The birds left Bavaria on the second Tuesday in August. They took off from an airfield, approximated a few sloppy laps, and then, such are miracles, began to follow a microlight aircraft, as though it were one of them. The contraption—as much pendulum as plane—reared and dipped as its pilot, a Tyrolian biologist in an olive-drab flight suit and amber shooting glasses, tugged on the steering levers. Behind him, in the rear seat, a young woman with a blond ponytail called to the birds, in German, through a bullhorn. As the microlight receded west into the haze, the birds chasing behind, an armada of cars and camper vans sped off in pursuit." Nick Paumgarten in The New Yorker on the long flight to teach an endangered Ibis species to migrate. Helicopter Parents. "Our devastation of nature is so extreme that reversing even a small part of it requires painstaking, quixotic efforts."

5

Extra, Extra

Wheels Up: "Some of the 80 people on board were then left hanging upside down while still strapped to their seats, before they scrambled over luggage to escape onto the snowy runway." Absolutely surreal scenes from a Toronto tarmac where people escaped, alive, from an upside-down plane. Why did a plane crash in Toronto, and how did everyone survive?

+ Flip Flop Op: "The story of Mr. Tillis’s secret effort to persuade fellow Republicans to join him in opposing Mr. Hegseth — and his sudden turnabout when it became clear he would be the deciding vote to defeat the nominee — is a tale of political calculation and capitulation by a single G.O.P. senator. But it also helps explain a broader dynamic at play with Mr. Trump back in the White House, as Republicans in Congress, fearful of reprisal by the president and his supporters, have put aside grave reservations and surrendered to his demands." Senator Thom Tillis was very against letting Pete Hegseth lead the Dept of Defense. Before he was very for it. We've seen this trend repeat itself and we're going to see a lot more of it. NYT(Gift Article): As Trump Threatened a Primary, a G.O.P. Holdout on Hegseth Flipped.

+ The Claim Game: "Health insurers process more than five billion payment claims annually, federal figures show. About 850 million are denied." Not that many people appeal those decisions. But a lot of those who do end up getting the decision reversed.

+ Let's Get Small: "It’s the smallness, the relative unimportance, the spiteful pettiness of the renaming in the first place — down to the fact that until Trump’s executive action, there was no controversy, zero, none, nada, anywhere in the world, amongst any group of people, regarding the name of the Gulf of Mexico — that makes it interesting to examine in detail how Google and Apple have chosen to deal with it. It’s only because this particular issue is so spectacularly piddling that we can consider it in full." John Gruber goes deep into the meaning of the seemingly meaningless renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. Golfo del Gringo Loco.

+ Firing the Mayor? "In the 235 years of New York State history, these powers have never been utilized to remove a duly-elected mayor; overturning the will of the voters is a serious step that should not be taken lightly." Hochul to discuss 'path forward' after Eric Adams' deputies resign amid mayor's agreement to work with Trump. Meanwhile, a judge orders Mayor Eric Adams, DOJ lawyers to appear in court to explain case dismissal request.

+ King Refuses King: "Michelle King, the top official at the Social Security Administration, left her position this weekend after she refused a request from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive government records at the agency." (Now the Trump admin is arguing that Elon Musk is not actually running DOGE at all. "As recently as last week, Trump turned to Musk and, while referencing DOGE, the president asked him to talk to reporters about 'some of the things your team has found.'")

+ We Have (to Clean) the Meats: Americans are eating so much meat, Dawn had to reformulate its dish soap.

6

Bottom of the News

SNL's Season 50 Anniversary Special was a fun watch. Here are a lot of highlights on YouTube. Start with Weekend Update, Audience Q&A, Adam Sandler's song, and of course, Kate McKinnon's latest installment of Close Encounters.

+ The Ringer: The Best ‘Saturday Night Live’ Sketches, According to the People Who Made Them.