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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that Betelgeuse is very likely not on the verge of a supernova, here.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the mapping of asteroid Bennu.

  • Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber reposted, after the election, a 2013 essay looking at the changes in British society from the 1970s on.

  • The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links about the Precambrian Earth, here.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about fear in the context of natural disasters, here.

  • Far Outliers reports on the problems of privateers versus regular naval units.

  • Gizmodo looks at galaxy MAMBO-9, which formed a billion years after the Big Bang.

  • io9 writes about the alternate history space race show For All Mankind.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the posters used in Ghana in the 1980s to help promote Hollywood movies.

  • Language Hat links to a new book that examines obscenity and gender in 1920s Britain.

  • Language Log looks at the terms used for the national language in Xinjiang.

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money takes issue with Jeff Jacoby's lack of sympathy towards people who suffer from growing inequality.

  • Marginal Revolution suggests that urbanists should have an appreciation for Robert Moses.

  • Sean Marshall writes, with photos, about his experiences riding a new Bolton bus.

  • Caryl Philips at the NYR Daily writes about Rachmanism, a term wrongly applied to the idea of avaricious landlords like Peter Rachman, an immigrant who was a victim of the Profumo scandal.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper looking at the experience of aging among people without families.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why the empty space in an atom can never be removed.

  • Strange Maps shares a festive map of London, a reindeer, biked by a cyclist.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how Mongolia twice tried to become a Soviet republic.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers different birds with names starting with x.

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  • Marginal Revolution considers if the CFA franc system is dying out, here.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a link to a paper quantifying the effects of the old boys club, here.

  • Marginal Revolution contrasts and compares the old NAFTA and the new USMCA, here.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how Germany has access to nuclear weapons, here.

  • Marginal Revolution looks at the high rate of consainguineous marriage in Saudi Arabia, here.

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  • The Crux looks at the australopiths, not-so-distant ancestors of modern humans.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes the interest of NASA in exploring the lunar subsurface, including lava tubes.

  • Far Outliers looks at the politicking of mid-19th century European explorers in the Sahel.

  • io9 notes that the new Joker film is getting stellar reviews, aided by the performance of Joaquin Phoenix.

  • JSTOR Daily explores how, to meet censors' demands, Betty Boop was remade in the 1930s from sex symbol into housewife.

  • Language Log reports on an utter failure in bilingual Irish/English signage.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money shows that a history of slavery in the US (Canada too, I would add) must not neglect the enslavement of indigenous peoples.

  • Marginal Revolution notes a paper studying San Francisco looking at how rent control did not work.

  • The NYR Daily considers growing protest against air travel for its impact on global climate.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews the queer romance film Bathroom Stalls & Parking Lots.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how the influence of Russia in the former Soviet Union is undone by Russian imperialism.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the striking imagery--originally religious--of "carnal weapons".

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shares images of Jupiter, imaged in infrared by ALMA.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at ocean upwelling on one class of super-habitable exoplanet.

  • D-Brief looks at how the Komodo dragon survived the threat of extinction.

  • Far Outliers reports on a mid-19th century slave raid in the Sahel.

  • Gizmodo notes that the secret US Air Force spaceplane, the X-37B, has spent two years in orbit. (Doing what?)

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the economic underpinnings of medieval convents.

  • Dave Brockington writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the continuing meltdown of the British political system in the era of Brexit, perhaps even of British democracy.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the impact of Brexit on the Common Travel Area.

  • Marginal Revolution reports on how Poland has tried to deter emigration by removing income taxes on young workers.

  • Carole Naggar writes at the NYR Daily about the photography of women photographers working for LIFE, sharing examples of their work.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why time has to be a dimension of the universe, alongside the three of space.

  • Frank Jacobs of Strange Maps shares NASA images of the forest fires of Amazonia.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that many Russophones of Ukraine are actually strongly opposed to Russia, contrary Russian stereotypes of language determining politics.

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait reports on the fragility of asteroid Ryugu.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the JUICE probe, planned to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber reports on the fact that Jimmy Carter was warned in the 1970s about the possibility of global warming.

  • D-Brief notes that the Earth might not be the best world for life, that watery worlds with dense atmospheres and long days might be better.

  • Jessica Poling at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the construction of gender.

  • Far Outliers looks at the Nigerian city of Agadez, at one point a sort of port city of the Sahel.

  • Gizmodo asks a variety of experts their opinion on which species is likely to be next in developing our sort of intelligence. (Primates come up frequently, though I like the suggestion of bacterial colonies.)

  • JSTOR Daily looks/a> at the genderless Quaker prophet Publick Universal Friend.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money comments on the interview of Amy Wax with The New Yorker.

  • Marginal Revolution shares the enthusiasm of Tyler Cowen for Warsaw and Poland.

  • Peter Pomerantsev writes at the NYR Daily about how the alt-right has taken to culture-jamming.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the exceptional power of cosmic rays.

  • Window on Eurasia shares the lament of a Chuvash writer about the decline of her people's language.

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  • Architectuul looks at some architecturally innovative pools.

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at Wolf 359, a star made famous in Star Trek for the Starfleet battle there against the Borg but also a noteworthy red dwarf star in its own right.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at how the NASA Deep Space Atomic Clock will play a vital role in interplanetary navigation.

  • The Crux considers the "drunken monkey" thesis, the idea that drinking alcohol might have been an evolutionary asset for early hominids.

  • D-Brief reports on what may be the next step for genetic engineering beyond CRISPR.

  • Bruce Dorminey looks at how artificial intelligence may play a key role in searching for threat asteroids.

  • The Island Review shares some poetry from Roseanne Watt, inspired by the Shetlands and using its dialect.

  • Livia Gershon writes at JSTOR Daily about how YouTube, by promising to make work fun, actually also makes fun work in psychologically problematic ways.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how the relatively small Taiwan has become a financial superpower.

  • Janine di Giovanni at the NYR Daily looks back at the 2000 intervention in Sierra Leone. Why did it work?

  • Jamais Cascio at Open the Future looks back at a 2004 futurological exercise, the rather accurate Participatory Panopticon. What did he anticipate correctly? How? What does it suggest for us now to our world?

  • The Planetary Society Blog notes that LightSail 2 will launch before the end of June.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how the discovery of gas between galaxies helps solve a dark matter question.

  • Strange Company shares a broad collection of links.

  • Window on Eurasia makes the obvious observation that the West prefers a North Caucasus controlled by Russia to one controlled by Islamists.

  • Arnold Zwicky takes a look at American diner culture, including American Chinese food.

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  • Architectuul features a photo essay made by Evan Panagopoulos in the course of a hurried three-hour visit to the Socialist Modernist and modern highlights of 20th century Kiev architecture.

  • Bad Astrronomer Phil Plait notes how the latest planet found in the Kepler-47 circumbinary system evokes Tatooine.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at tide and radiation, and their impacts on potential habitability, in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

  • Citizen Science Salon looks at how the TV show Cyberchase can help get young people interested in science and math.

  • Crooked Timber mourns historian David Brion Davis.

  • The Crux looks at how the HMS Challenger pioneered the study of the deeps of the oceans, with that ship's survey of the Mariana Trench.

  • D-Brief looks at how a snowball chamber using supercooled water can be used to hunt for dark matter.

  • Earther shares photos of the heartbreaking and artificial devastation of the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil.

  • Gizmodo shares a beautiful Hubble photograph of the southern Crab Nebula.

  • Information is Beautiful shares a reworked version of the Julia Galef illustration of the San Francisco area meme space.

  • io9 notes that, fresh from being Thor, Jane Foster is set to become a Valkyrie in a new comic.

  • JSTOR Daily explains the Victorian fondness for leeches, in medicine and in popular culture.

  • Language Hat links to an interview with linguist Amina Mettouchi, a specialist in Berber languages.

  • Language Log shares the report of a one-time Jewish refugee on changing language use in Shanghai, in the 1940s and now.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the horror of self-appointed militias capturing supposed undocumented migrants in the southwestern US.

  • Marginal Revolution reports on the circumstances in which volunteer militaries can outperform conscript militaries.

  • At the NYR Daily, Christopher Benfey reports on the surprisingly intense connection between bees and mourning.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw, responding to Israel Folau, considers free expression and employment.

  • The Planetary Society Blog shares a guest post from Barney Magrath on the surprisingly cheap adaptations needed to make an iPhone suitable for astrophotography.

  • Peter Rukavina reports on the hotly-contested PEI provincial election of 1966.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains what the discovery of helium hydride actually means.

  • Understanding Society's Daniel Little praises the Jill Lepore US history These Truths for its comprehensiveness.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on the growing divergences in demographics between different post-Soviet countries.

  • Arnold Zwicky starts with another Peeps creation and moves on from there.

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  • A tiny house put on the market in Oshawa got a surprising amount of buzz before its sale. Global News reports.

  • The Speed River Journal's Van Waffle shares photos for a nearby crossing for the new Kitchener-Waterloo Ion light rail project, set to open very soon.

  • MTLBlog shares a map showing the distribution of some notable immigrant communities in Montréal.

  • Guardian Cities reports on how authorities in Accra are trying to deal with noise pollution produced by the city's many churches and preachers.

  • Roads and Kingdoms notes how elderly singles in Beijing use Changpu River Park as a place to meet new partners.

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  • CityLab looks at the sheer density of the Marvel universe in New York City.

  • CityLab reports on how the Portuguese capital of Lisbon is suffering a rash of thefts of its iconic tiles.

  • A series of private movie screenings in Lagos are explored in CityLab, as a way of building community.

  • Open Democracy takes a look at how the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, in the occupied Donbas, are now being run.

  • Guardian Cities reports on how urban explorers and photographers in Hong Kong are trying to archive images of their changing city.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the good news: The Andromeda Galaxy will collide with the Milky Way in 4.5 billion years, not 3.9 billion!

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that a new Chinese ground station built in Argentina has not made the promised outreach to locals, with no visitors' centre and rumours aplenty.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog explains the importance of doing literature reviews.

  • Far Outliers notes the Pakhtuns, a Muslim ethnicity of the British Raj in what is now Pakistan noteworthy for being a major source of recruits in the Indian Army.

  • L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes Iris Murdoch, particularly her emphasis on learning as a process of engaging with something greater on its terms.

  • Gizmodo reports on how space sciences appreciate the work done by the noble rover Opportunity on Mars.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how early 20th century African-American artists have represented Haiti in the works.

  • Language Hat takes note of some of the mechanisms by which linguistics can neglect the study of indigenous languages.

  • Language Log takes a look at the Latin motto of the University of Pennsylvania, a source still of unintentional humour.

  • Marginal Revolution takes a look at the high levels of dysfunction in Nigeria, from fighting between herders and farmers to the incapacity of the national government.

  • The NYR Daily takes a look at the concept of internal exile, starting with Russia and spiraling out into the wider world.

  • Peter Rukavina shares a photo of a payphone that is one of the few remaining used artifacts of old Island Tel.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper considering the demographic peculiarities of the societies of the semi-periphery as contrasted to those of the core.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes</> the surprisingly large amount of information astronomers will be able to extract from the first image of an Earth-like exoplanet.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that North Caucasians in Russia no longer stand out as having higher-than-average birth rates in Russia.

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  • The closure of the GM plant in Oshawa will hurt local charities. Global News reports.

  • MTL Blog notes that for a variety of factors, including affordability and attractiveness, Montréal is the best city in Canada in which to rent an apartment.

  • Guardian Cities reports on a project mapping reported violent crimes in early 14th century London.

  • Guardian Cities reports on how the city of Madrid has today banned polluting vehicles from its downtown.

  • A high rate of deadly car accidents has led, Guardian Cities reports, to mass protests in the Ghana capital of Accra.

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  • Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber considers democracy as an information system.

  • The Crux shares what we have learned from our studies of the tusks of the mammoths.

  • D-Brief notes another landmark of the InSight mission: It brought two CubeSats with it to Mars.

  • JSTOR Daily takes a look at the odaliques of Matisse, paintings of North African women in intimate positions, in the contexts of colonialism and #metoo. What untold stories are there with these images?

  • Anakana Schofield writes at the LRB Blog about her problems finding CBD oil post-marijuana legalization in greater Vancouver.

  • The Map Room Blog notes the support of Popular Mechanics for paper maps, even in the digital age.

  • Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution praises Toby Green's new history of West Africa, A Fistful of Shells, a book that emphasizes the influence of West Africa in the Americas and the wider Atlantic world.

  • The NYR Daily carries a Tim Parks essay questioning whether it is worthwhile for an author to consciously seek out literary glory.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel reports on the possibility that rocky planets might get large moons only if they suffer large impacts.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on the insulting remarks of Russian liberal Oleg Kashin towards Ukrainians, and Tatars too, suggesting even liberal Russians might well be inclined to be anti-Ukrainian.

  • Arnold Zwicky notes a remarkable word error in noting the 40th anniversary of the deaths of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, changing "assassination" into "assignation".

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  • In remembering Stan Lee, CityLab points to the evocative image of New York City that he and Marvel Comics created.

  • Global News notes that Calgary is approaching the day of its referendum over the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Calgarians, vote against the idea.)

  • Guardian Cities shares these images depicting what London would look like if any number of plans for new architectural wonders had come to pass.

  • CityLab notes how community activity helped reclaim Zeedijk street in Amsterdam.

  • Guardian Cities shares photos of the final days of the traditional fish market in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.

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  • Centauri Dreams reports on the work of the MASCOT rover on asteroid Ryugu.

  • The Crux considers the critical role of the dolphin in the thinking of early SETI enthusiasts.

  • D-Brief goes into more detail about the import of the Soyuz malfunction for the International Space Station.

  • Dangerous Minds notes an artist who has made classic pop song lyrics, like Blue Monday, into pulp paperback covers.

  • Earther is entirely correct about how humans will need to engage in geoengineering to keep the Earth habitable.

  • David Finger at The Finger Post describes his visit to Accra, capital of Ghana.

  • Gizmodo notes a new paper suggesting that, in some cases where massive moons orbit far from their parent planet, these moons can have their own moons.

  • Hornet Stories shares the first look at Ruby Rose at Batwoman.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how the image of southern California and Los Angeles changed from a Mediterranean paradise with orange trees to a dystopic urban sprawl.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money imagines what might have happened to the navy of China had it not bought the Ukrainian aircraft carrier Varyag.

  • Lingua Franca at the Chronicle reports on how the actual length of "minute", as euphemism for a short period of time, can vary between cultures.

  • The LRB Blog reports on the disaster in Sulawesi, noting particularly the vulnerability of colonial-era port settlements in Indonesia to earthquakes and tsunamis.

  • The Map Room Blog shares Itchy Feet's funny map of every European city.

  • The New APPS Blog wonders if the tensions of capitalism are responsible for the high rate of neurological health issues.

  • The NYR Daily considers what, exactly, it would take to abolish ICE.

  • At the Planetary Society Weblog, Ian Regan talks about how he assembled a photoanimated flyover of Titan using probe data.

  • Roads and Kingdoms explores some excellent pancakes in the Malaysian state of Sabah with unusual ingredients.

  • Drew Rowsome raves over a new documentary looking at the life of opera star Maria Callas.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the continued high rate of natural increase in Tajikistan.

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  • The Québec town of Sainte-Élisabeth, thanks to long cooperation with their Malian sister community of Sanankoroba, is concerned about the outcome of the Canadian peacekeeping mission there. Global News reports.

  • The relatively low incomes of Montréal compared to other North American cities is one factor making it vulnerable to real estate price shifts. Global News notes.

  • Winnipeg, too, is faced with the question of how to protect its citizens from excessive unexpected heat. Global News reports.

  • The showpeople of the Scottish city of Glasgow are at risk of dislocation from their unique niche thanks to gentrification. The Guardian reports.

  • The hometown of the French World Cup team star Kylian Mbappé, the Paris suburb of Bondy, was on tenterhooks watching the national team play against Croatia. VICE reports.

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  • For perhaps understandable political reason, Québec premier Philippine Couilllard wants Bombardier to get the Montreal metro renewal contract. Global News reports.

  • Utrecht, Noisey notes, has a thriving black metal scene worthy of extended exploration.

  • The bohemian enclave of Užupis, in the middle of the Lithunian capital of Vilnius, is starting to face pressure from gentrification. Politico Europe reports.

  • Ciku Kimeria at Okay Africa makes the case for the old colonial capital of Saint-Louis, in Senegal, to become a major destination for international tourists.

  • The Guardian profiles a serious proposal to split Sydney into three different cities, each with its own development needs, to better manage the wider conurbation.

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  • At Anthropology.net, Kambiz Kamrani notes the Qesem caves of Israel, where four hundred thousand years ago hominids learned to make tools.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that star S2 is about to plunge to its closest approach to Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the heart of our galaxy, and what this means for science.

  • Centauri Dreams takes a look at research done on Earth about the atmospheres of super-Earths.

  • D-Brief takes a look at the recent research done on the regions on the edges of supermassive black holes.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes that the Juno science team thinks that Jupiter probe has exceeded expectations.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes the evidence for a massive migration from the steppes into Europe circa 3300 BCE.

  • The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas makes the argument that the idea of humane technology is something of an oxymoron.

  • Imageo notes evidence that permafrost will melt more quickly than previous predicted under the impact of global warming.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at explanations for the unusually strong activism among high school students in East Los Angeles in the 1960s.

  • Language Hat looks at evidence for the close relationship, in vocabulary and even in grammar, between the Turkish and Western Armenian languages now separated by bad blood.

  • Lingua Franca notes how easy it is to change conventions on language use--like pronouns, say--at a well-functioning institution.

  • Marginal Revolution looks at the economic progress made, after a recent lull, by Ghana.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the growing involvement of the United States in small wars in Africa, starting with Niger and Cameroon.

  • Justin Petrone at north! reports on a family visit to his ancestral home of Bari, seeing what little remains of the past there.

  • Peter Rukavina wonders, apropos of a very successful experience shopping online at Amazon, how anyone else will be able to compete.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the difference between mathematics and physics. Where is the line to be drawn?

  • Strange Maps' Frank Jacobs maps obesity in the United States and in Europe.

  • Towleroad reports on the apparent interest of actor Cynthia Nixon in becoming governor of New York.

  • John Scalzi at Whatever is a big fan of A Wrinkle in Time, a movie that is not perfect but is still quite good. I'm curious to see it myself.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on food riots in isolated Turkmenistan.

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  • Wired notes a bill proposed at the state level in California to force cities to provide affordable and accessible housing through non-NIMBY zoning.

  • The Toronto and Vancouver housing markets, perhaps uniquely among the markets of Canada's major cities, are not seeing as much new supply as others. The Globe and Mail reports.

  • The population of Saint John, New Brunswick, has fallen by a quarter since 1971. The city government wants to change this, somehow. Global News notes.

  • VICE reports a new census of homelessness in Los Angeles, amid fears of locals that prior estimates might be undercounts.

  • The mystery of what happened to Princess Pamela, a famous soul food cook whose Harlem restaurant was famous to those in the know, is explored in this thought-provoking essay.

  • At Slate, Annie Risemberg explores how old connections to Liberia and ethnic restaurants helped a corner of southwestern Philadelphia become "Little Africa", a destination of note for West African immigrants.

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  • Kambiz at Anthropology.net notes evidence that Neanderthals in Italy used fire to shape digging sticks 170 thousand years ago.

  • Missing persons blog Charley Ross reminds online commentators to be careful and reasonable in their speculations online, if only because these last forever.

  • D-Brief notes a new study of the TRAPPIST-1 system suggesting that its outermost planets, in the circumstellar habitable zone, are so low density that they must have abundant volatiles. Water is the most likely candidate.

  • Hornet Stories introduces readers to the impressive photography of New York City's Peter Hujar.

  • At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox meditates on the issues of friendship in the contemporary world.

  • Joe. My. God. shares representative Tammy Duckworth's mockery of the authoritarian Donald Trump, aka "Cadet Bone Spurs".

  • JSTOR Daily notes the continuing importance of the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

  • The Map Room Blog notes that someone has made cute maps of seven solar system worlds for children.

  • Marginal Revolution links to an article looking at how some of the schoolgirls abducted in Nigeria by Boko Haram are doing.

  • The NYR Daily engages with "Soul of a Nation", a touring exhibit of African-American art in the era of Black Power.

  • The Planetary Society Blog reports from the scene of the impending Falcon Heavy launch, sharing photos.

  • Towleroad notes a South African church that not only beats its queer parishoners but fines them, too.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests Western sanctions could hinder the Russian development of its Arctic presence.

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  • VICE describes the pressing need to design cities in ways such that city living is less stressful for inhabitants.

  • This heartbreaking GQ article describes the Grenfell Tower catastrophe through interviews with rescuers and the rescued alike. What a horrific tragedy.

  • Chennai, and wider Tamil Nadu, risks going through the experience of Detroit and its automotive industry migrates away. Bloomberg reports.

  • Open Democracy takes a look at how Russian soldiers in Damascus interact with the Syrian locals.

  • Inhabitants of Istanbul, it seems, are migrating to less expensive and more liberal Izmir down on the Aegean coast. Al-Monitor reports.

  • Parties featuring West African music are thriving in Beirut, brought back to Lebanon by Lebanese migrants. Al-Monitor reports.

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