Mud is thicker than water

“Call it the French Watergate.” A scandal involving Perrier threatens French President Emmanuel Macron. / Politico

By some estimates, 60 to 70% of casualties in Ukraine now come from drones. / War on the Rocks

The Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to remove legal protections for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans now living in the United States. / NPR

Heather Cox Richardson: The continuing Republican insistence that spending is out of control does not reflect reality. / Letters From an American

College towns busting: Among cities reliant on higher education, three quarters suffered weaker economic growth between 2011 and 2023 than the US as a whole. / The Wall Street Journal

New Orleans police deployed widespread facial recognition technology on city streets for two years, in a move that appears to run counter to a city ordinance. / The Washington Post

More cops kill themselves every year than are killed by suspects. / The New York Times

China leverages its position as the world’s largest producer of rare earth minerals, at the expense of the American auto industry. / The Verge

Louis Pisano on Jeff Bezos’s big boat: “In Cannes, the only thing more overinflated than the yachts is the self-regard.” / Discoursted

In California, a large mud puddle is on the move, supposedly “terrorizing” the state’s transportation authorities. / Alta

Air sickness bags, aka “emesis bags,” were originally meant for food storage. / The Autopian 

Did you know? Phenazopyridine, aka Azo and Uristat, has never been formally approved by the US government. / Bloomberg

Wikipedia launches a streetwear collection. / dezeen

The daily work of a guard at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art becomes an off-Broadway show. / The Art Newspaper

Geoff Dyer probes his “willingness to share and display” by exploring the birthmark his mother hid her whole life. / Harper’s

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