Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Actual Headline in the Actual New York Times: ‘Trump Jokes About Pearl Harbor in Meeting With Japan’s Leader’

Javier C. Hernández, reporting for The New York Times:

He was responding to a question about why Japan and other allies had received no advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran.

“We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,” he said. “Who knows better about surprise than Japan, OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK? Right?”

There was some laughter from the officials and journalists gathered in the room. “You believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us,” he added.

As Trump sinks further into dementia and his presidency slides further into disarray, his administration, in a sick way, gets funnier and funnier.

MarsEdit 5.4.1

Daniel Jalkut: This update adds support for macOS’s standard “Versions” document history, improves the Share Extension to support sending text to MarsEdit, and includes a number of bug fixes across the rich text and plain text editors. I’m holding off on this update for the moment because I’m seeing a regression viewing and sorting by […]

Catalyst in Tahoe

fahad-sh: I’m exploring macOS development, comparing Mac Catalyst apps vs native AppKit/SwiftUI apps. What are the main limitations of Catalyst today?In what scenarios is a native AppKit or SwiftUI app unavoidable? Any insights are much appreciated — I’m trying to understand when Catalyst is sufficient and when going native is worth the extra effort. Ryan […]

Apple Wins Musi App Store Removal Lawsuit

Tim Hardwick: A lawsuit brought against Apple by music streaming app Musi has been dismissed by a federal judge, after she ruled that Apple’s developer agreement gives it the right to remove any app from the App Store at any time, “with or without cause.” […] Musi claimed it complied with YouTube’s terms, but Apple […]

‘Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done’

Anne Applebaum, writing for The Atlantic (gift link):

Specifically, they remember that for 14 months, the American president has tariffed them, mocked their security concerns, and repeatedly insulted them. As long ago as January 2020, Trump told several European officials that “if Europe is under attack, we will never come to help you and to support you.” In February 2025, he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he had no right to expect support either, because “you don’t have any cards.” Trump ridiculed Canada as the “51st state” and referred to both the present and previous Canadian prime ministers as “governor.” He claimed, incorrectly, that allied troops in Afghanistan “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” causing huge offense to the families of soldiers who died fighting after NATO invoked Article 5 of the organization’s treaty, on behalf of the United States, the only time it has done so. He called the British “our once-great ally,” after they refused to participate in the initial assault on Iran; when they discussed sending some aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf conflict earlier this month, he ridiculed the idea on social media: “We don’t need people that join Wars after ​we’ve already won!”

Meanwhile, Irina Slav at Oilprice.com writes that oil — which was trading around $60 per barrel before the war — might soon be headed to $150–200 per barrel. $200! Energy Common Sense reports “This is now a multi-month, likely rest-of-year story of elevated prices and elevated risk.” Axios reports that most Americans will soon be paying over $4/gallon for gasoline, but I walked by Center City Philly’s lone gas station at lunch, and regular gas remains under $4 and premium under $5 — both with an entire one-tenth of one cent to spare.

The Economist quips:

Although President Donald Trump says he has “destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military Capability”, the 0% that remains is playing havoc with the global economy by choking off 10-15% of its oil supply.

This whole dumb fiasco might go down as the canonical example for the phrase “hoist with his own petard”. You just hate to see it.