June 27, 2014

• White House asks Congress for $500m to train and equip "moderate" Syrian rebels.
• Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova tiptoe away from Russia with new EU pact.
• Henry Louis Gates on black slave owners—a variety of black "masters," with a variety of motivations.
• Inside a physician-assisted suicide.
• Much goes wrong when Chinese millionaire promises cash and tuna tartare to hundreds of New York's homeless, then declines.
• Phone companies monopolize access in prison, charging ridiculous rates on calls and emails.
• Venezuela’s prostitutes double earnings by trading dollars from foreign sailors for local currency.
• Profile of Kitty, rapper who embodies the “sad girl Tumblr aesthetic.”
• Alice Bolin explains why she spent five months watching beauty-tip videos.
• Today's e-newsletters are the blogs of the early 2000s.
• The new Google Glass: Black-bar sunglasses.
• Journalist asks Photoshoppers around the globe to alter photograph to their national standards of beauty.
• Tips for setting up a happy-family "sandwich generation" household.
• See also: Interview with a 93-year-old man who lives in an isolated cabin after the death of his wife.
• Jean-Paul Sartre chronicles life with a mistress in a letter to his partner Simone De Beauvoir.
• TMN's Karolle Rabarison reports on Mumbai’s blind train hawkers.
• Journalist traces the "centuries-old origins" and global influence of "Sweet Home Alabama."
• Round-up of very angry people found in newspapers.
• Unlikely to anger people: edible cupcake wrappers.
• Year after top players were slipping, this year's grass at Wimbledon goes unnoticed.