On the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, our thoughts, as booksellers, naturally turn towards American literature. We set ourselves a nearly impossible task: to pick two books to represent each state and territory. See our picks: https://t.co/zFN3XrpWjL
Bibliophile Schönheiten
Am 2. Juli 1912 wurden die ersten zwölf Bände einer neuen Reihe an die Buchhandlungen ausgeliefert: die Insel-Bücherei erblickte das Licht der Welt. Handgesetzt und mit wunderbaren Einbandpapieren versehen, sind sie seitdem begehrt bei Lesern & Sammlern.
The Dalkey Archive Press FW26-27 season is here! Essentials, reissues, author series (Harry Mathews + Nicholas Mosley), and glorious new novels from Michael Bible and Carlos Maleno. Learn more at our website!
For the United States Bicentennial in 1976, the government funded one of the wildest short films ever made.
Created by animator Vincent Collins & produced by the United States Information Agency, the film goes on a kaleidoscopic journey through iconic
American symbols.
If you are visiting DC(or live here) and looking for a good, local business to dine at on the 4th. Here are some spots to check out with open availability at prime time:
Purple Patch
Hanks Oyster Bar
Green Zone
Daru
Shaws Tavern
Kayu
Bar Cana
Chloe
Dukes Grocery
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Starting in early 2025, Elon Musk and the Trump administration began terminating USAID's programs and firing its staff — with Musk himself boasting about "feeding it into the woodchipper." One year ago today, USAID was officially dissolved, its remaining programs haphazardly folded into the State Department. Amid all the lies and misinformation that have followed, some facts about what has actually been lost:
• USAID saved more than 3 million lives a year at a cost of less than $10/month per American. That is what was destroyed. On purpose.
• According to Boston University's Global Impact Counter — which tracked deaths attributable to the cuts until it stopped operations in February 2026 — an estimated 781,000 people died preventable deaths in the first year, including 518,000 children.
• Global child mortality (the number of children who die before their fifth birthday) rose in 2025 for the first time in 35+ years — by 200,000 additional deaths.
• USAID's 50-country disease surveillance network — the system that cut outbreak response times from 2 weeks to 48 hours — is gone. We are now watching an unprecedented Ebola outbreak unfold in real time — with the highest first-month caseload and death rate in modern history.
• Programs reaching 93 million women and children were cut 92%. TB programs cut 56%. Water and sanitation cut 86%. Over 2,000 health facilities permanently closed.
• 25 million fewer people received humanitarian assistance in 2025. The overall humanitarian budget was slashed 74% — from $14.1 billion to $3.7 billion.
• 363 million people face acute hunger in 2026. The famine early-warning system that would have seen it coming went dark for five months.
• $1.7 billion in democracy and governance funding (election monitoring, anti-corruption work, support for independent media and civil society) was terminated.
• 360+ independent media outlets lost funding. Hundreds of legal clinics closed.
• Far from saving money, the Trump administration itself has already said the dismantlement will cost taxpayers at least $19.2 billion in cancellation fees, severance, and penalties. That's more than half of USAID's annual budget — spent on destruction and closeout, not support for vulnerable people.
• American farmers, universities, and businesses are among the casualties too. USAID partnered with more than 3,500 U.S. companies and maintained 17 university-based research labs. Its work with U.S.-based contractors and the private sector generated hundreds of thousands of American jobs and multiplied the return on every dollar spent. Those markets and partnerships are gone.
After another, quieter, week of layoffs impacting local staff, the Washington Post has now laid off all of its reporters who have covered Gaza full time since 2023.
This is a choice about what coverage and whose voices matter.
@secretsqurriel@JoaquinCastrotx How is a four year old supposed to ‘figure it out’ and why should they have to leave any life they’ve ever known? The ones that need to figure it out are the incompetent lawmakers, starting with the clown in charge, and fix the legal migration system, especially DACA.
@secretsqurriel@JoaquinCastrotx Fuck. you. But you’re right, I don’t care about assholes like you, I care that the paid-by-taxpayer US lawmakers get their shit together and fix DACA. Make sure there’s a legal pathway.
@Notwokenow People are going to be studying the inanities, stupidity and idiocy of your MAGAt overlord for centuries to come, wondering how this country was ‘led’ by a doddering infant who brags about having to retake cognitive tests. Jackson‘s rep will be just fine.
@BeschlossDC I remember seeing a poodle dyed red, white and blue that day. We had just moved to the States. I thought people were nuts but it was a blast.
@FarnoushAmiri Gotta blame Trump clowns and FIFA equally on this. There is no low FIFA‘s grifting ‘management’ won’t sink to in order to prostitute themselves for lucre.