All posts tagged: wide-scale

The cost of war will be counted in children’s lives

The cost of war will be counted in children’s lives

The true cost of the violence in Gaza and Israel will be measured in children’s lives—those lost to the violence and those forever changed by it. Less than three weeks on from the horrific attack inside Israel and the start of daily bombings of the Gaza Strip, the devastating tally in Israel and Gaza is quickly adding up. More than 2,700 Palestinian children have been killed and nearly 6,000 injured, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, for a shocking average of more than 480 child casualties per day. More than 30 Israeli children have reportedly been killed, while at least 20 remain hostage in the Gaza Strip, their fates unknown. Sadly, more suffering and death is on the horizon. Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth—home to more than 2 million people, nearly half of whom are children. More than 1 million people in the north have been warned to move south, ahead of what is expected to be a wide-scale military operation. But with near-constant shelling, closed borders, and little …

The Books Briefing: History Scares Authoritarians

The Books Briefing: History Scares Authoritarians

A new book looks at the “underground historians” of China who are resurfacing moments from the past that authorities would prefer be forgotten. Artur Abramiv / Getty September 29, 2023, 12 PM ET This is an edition of the revamped Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. For many who were purged during Stalin’s reign in the Soviet Union, one erasure followed another. After being sent to the Gulag (if they weren’t shot in the basement of the Lubyanka building), the ousted person would suffer the further indignity of having their face crosshatched with frantic pen marks to make them disappear from family albums. They couldn’t exist in history anymore. Stalin’s greatest rivals were erased on a wide scale too: Leon Trotsky’s image, for example, was airbrushed out of official photos. Control over the historical record has always been crucial for authoritarian regimes. In Russia, this is true all over again, and textbooks are rewriting the history of the war in Ukraine in real time. In …

Would You Drive an Extra Five Minutes to Save the Planet?

Would You Drive an Extra Five Minutes to Save the Planet?

All my life, I thought there was just one way to get to my hometown’s ShopRite: right on Fair Street, right on Gleneida Avenue, right into the parking lot. That was until I plugged ShopRite into Google Maps. Now I had two options. I could turn right into the parking lot in front of the grocery store or, if I felt compelled, enter closer to Gold’s Gym and cut across the asphalt sea. Either route would take four minutes, the app said, but the latter earned the Google Maps eco-mode seal of approval: a little green leaf. A blurb informed me that I would save 6 percent gas by turning into the lot before, rather than after, the spot where my mom takes Bodypump classes. I could do my part to save the world. It’s been two years since Google announced its Maps eco-routing feature. For all trips by car in the U.S., Canada, and much of Europe, the app defaults to recommending the most environmentally friendly route, as long as it’s not that much …