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The Swedish artist Hilma af Klint died believing the world was not ready for the mystical paintings that would shock the art world half a century later.

The painter, now credited with pioneering the abstract art movement, did not seek recognition after peers rejected her avant garde works. Instead, she ordered that they be hidden for 20 years after her death and never sold.

Rik Thijs, deputy mayor for public space, greenery and water in nearby Eindhoven [Netherlands] said private and public initiatives were needed to adapt to the changing weather. “Our sewage system cannot cope with the rainfall that is coming, and we cannot increase its capacity, so we need to do things differently,” he said. “This means that you need to capture as much as possible on the surface.”

This might mean plans to bring an old river, the Gender, back to the surface, “wadi” pools that can hold water during heavy rain, and incorporating green roofs and rainwater storage into housing developments. “The Netherlands is very vulnerable because we are, of course, one large delta,” he said.

An analysis published Wednesday by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found that millions of low-income Americans have stopped participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ever since President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law last year.

According to CBPP’s analysis, SNAP participation declined by 6% between July 2025 and December 2025, with 2.5 million fewer Americans receiving benefits.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has threatened to withdraw Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration agents. The move would effectively halt international travel, tourism and commerce though major airports in Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco and elsewhere.

The Trump administration has terminated civil rights settlements that previous administrations reached with five school districts and a college to protect transgender students — a move unprecedented in U.S. history…

Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center, said, “There is absolutely no basis for what the Department of Education is doing, and it is unimaginably cruel.”

Nationally, gasoline prices are averaging more than $4 a gallon. That's not an all-time record, but it's up sharply from just over a month ago, and the rapid change has left many car owners reeling … but unwilling, or unable, to give up on driving. Americans have been logging more miles since the war with Iran started, according to the analytics company Arity, which tracks driving habits…

Another option, of course, is to pursue alternatives to driving.

Whatever you think of alcohol, you have to admit that it’s versatile. Ever since the first humans started smashing up fruit and leaving it in pots to chug a few days later, we’ve been relying on it to celebrate and commiserate, to deal with anxiety and to make us more creative. We use it to build confidence and kill boredom, to get us in the mood for going out and to put us to (nonoptimal) sleep. Where most mind-altering substances have one or two specific use-cases, alcohol does the lot. That’s probably why it’s been so ubiquitous throughout human history – and why it can be so hard to give up entirely.

Countries are being “held hostage” by their reliance on fossil fuels, a former UN climate chief has warned, describing the health impacts of climate change as “the mother of all injustices”.

Christiana Figueres, an international climate negotiator who helped deliver the Paris agreement signed in 2016, made the comments as she was announced on Wednesday as co-chair of a Lancet Commission examining how sea-level rise is reshaping health, wellbeing and inequality.

“Jack Nooney has pretty much made peace with the traffic since moving to Los Angeles five years ago, but recent soaring gas prices have certainly added another layer of insult to his daily commute. The musician and full-time grocery deli employee drives from his San Fernando Valley apartment to Santa Monica daily. While it’s just nine miles each way, with LA traffic that often equates to a whole gas-burning hour.”

“Pam Bondi’s swift dismissal on Thursday underscores a reality that has met Trump loyalists from Jeff Sessions to Kristi Noem – no amount of loyalty is enough to save oneself from being dumped by Donald Trump.

“Since the president assumed office last year, there have been few people more important to his effort to remake government than Bondi, his longtime friend.”

“Donald Trump, other senior US officials and their cheerleaders appear to be embracing attacks – and threats of attacks – on Iranian civilian infrastructure, which legal experts say appears to constitute serious war crimes under international law.

“ In a rambling national address on Wednesday, the US president warned that if Iran did not reach an unspecified deal with him, US forces would “hit each and every one of their electric-generating plants” and “bring [Iran] back to the stone ages – where they belong”.

“Following through on that threat a day later, Trump posted images of a strike on the unfinished B1 bridge near Tehran, warning: “Much more to follow!””

“US President Donald Trump on Wednesday delivered an incoherent primetime address in which he threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” while also claiming negotiations to end the conflict were ongoing, remarks that provided no clear indication of when or how the illegal war of choice would end.

“Trump’s speech marked his first major address on the war since the US, in partnership with Israel, started bombing Iran more than a month ago, without congressional approval and in violation of international law. A day after declaring that Iran “doesn’t have to make a deal” to end the war, Trump said during his Wednesday speech, “If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously”—a grave war crime.

“Collin Rees, US campaign manager at the advocacy group Oil Change International, said in a statement that “Trump’s rambling lies can’t conceal how his reckless, illegal war of aggression is sending energy prices for working families through the roof.””