KANSAS CITY, MO—Stressing that preparation was important both on and off the field, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid reportedly sat tight end Travis Kelce down Friday to gently go over what would be expected of him on his wedding night. “The keys to performing your best in the bedroom are proper positioning and situational awareness,” said Reid, setting two bobblehead dolls on a table and using them to demonstrate “basic formations” of conjugal intimacy while the 10-time Pro Bowler attentively took notes. “We’ll go over some tape so you know what to anticipate, but when the moment comes, I want you to just stick to the fundamentals. Don’t get fancy. Stay composed, find holes, and respond to your matchup’s movements. Oh, and just know she’ll probably want you to take your helmet off.” Sources confirmed Reid ended the meeting by reminding Kelce that, when the time comes, he would be on a headset in the next room should the tight end need support.
Florida’s surgeon general announced that the state will eliminate all childhood vaccine mandates, although legislative approval may still be required. What do you think?
“What do we do with our kids who are already vaccinated?”
OpenAI announced new safety features will be soon coming to ChatGPT in an effort to better protect teens and others experiencing “acute distress.” The Onion shares a selection of those safeguards.
Begins every conversation by telling users not to vape
Targeted BetterHelp ads for any user in the midst of a mental health crisis
Parental alerts for any teenage user ridiculing Sam Altman
Seatbelts
If users mention thoughts of self-harm, chatbot will uncomfortably change the subject
Says “I just put on a condom” before sexting
Users must verify they are 13 or older before accessing instructions for refining plutonium
Won’t give any advice about carrying out mass shooting until user drags the slider to fit the puzzle piece
WASHINGTON—Running into several White House staff members as they tried to sneak their new friend inside, the Trump boys reportedly begged their father Tuesday to let them keep a homeless man they had found as a pet. “Please, Daddy, please can we keep our fuzzy buddy?” said Eric Trump, his visibly hopeful eyes widening as he and Donald Trump Jr. stroked the scraggly beard of a 75-year-old man they had found roaming the streets of D.C. alone. “We’ll take real good care of him, we promise. He’s really smart and already knows how to sit, shake, and where to do his business, so we think he may have lived with a different family before. And he comes when you call his name, see? Mark! Come here, Mark! Plus, he gives the best kisses. Come on, Daddy, how could anyone say no to this cute little furry face?” According to sources, the Trump boys later buried the homeless man on the South Lawn after forgetting to feed him.
After a break of – count ’em if you dare – five years, Destroy History: NEMS returns on Monday for its second and third parts, bringing the story to its conclusion. Featuring many luminaries of the late ’60s pop scene, and a returning favourite or two, I hope you will enjoy this one. It has a “classic Scary Go Round” quality that I think long-time readers will like. Fingers crossed, no one will write me a break-up letter in the comments this time.
1. Managers won’t coach our coworker, even though he takes feedback well
I work in a fast food restaurant. Recently, a former coworker who had moved on to another job, “Clark,” came back to work with us again. He was never a rock star, per se, but he did his job adequately and was friendly. This second time around, he seems to be struggling more. He’s very open about being neurodivergent; I know he’s autistic and might also have ADHD. We’re also friendly enough (we’re around the same age and share a lot of similar interests, so we talk) and he told me he also has cerebral palsy. The job he left us for turned out to be a pretty bad one with shady practices, so it likely had a toll on his mental health that he’s still recovering from.
He’s not averse to coaching and advice. For instance, we have a three basin industrial sink for doing dishes. One basin gets soapy water with, and another gets a diluted sanitizer. Even though he knows this process, for some reason, he had stopped filling the sinks with these mixtures. I approached him about it, saying, “I noticed the last few times you were doing dishes, you didn’t have soapy water or sanitizer. You do need these, because dishes don’t get clean just spraying them off.” He said okay, and that was that. He did it properly without complaint.
The thing is, no one seems to want to give him these instructions. On one hand, I understand that having to coach someone on basic things like needing to use dish soap to do dishes sounds tiring, and like every other part of the service industry, we are stretched really thin. On the other, they hired him, and they’re keeping him. But rather than get him up to speed, whenever he works, they put him in the back and just don’t deal with him. When he does something that feels obviously wrong to someone else, most of the time they don’t talk to him; they complain about it to each other behind his back. I brought this up to the manager one day, and she basically said, “That’s just how Clark is” and that placing him out of the way so the managers don’t have to manage him is how they’re dealing with it.
I feel like this is a pretty big disservice to Clark. He’s not averse to being told what he’s doing wrong and fixing it, it’s just that because of his particular mental health cocktail, what’s obvious to other people is not to him. But he’s a grownup who wants to work (he’s in his 30s) and because he can be corrected, he’s obviously not incapable of doing more than they’re having him do. Throwing aside and ignoring a perfectly viable worker is putting even more strain on the rest of us.
Should I continue being the one who gently course-corrects him so he’s doing the job we need him to? I’m a crew trainer, so it is technically my job to, you know, train crew. But with the higher-ups actively disengaging from him, it feels like they wouldn’t notice or care if he was doing better.
Yes, please keep training him! It will benefit Clark and the rest of your team and, as a crew trainer, you have standing to do it.
Your managers are being derelict in their duties by not giving Clark clearer guidance. You can’t make them operate differently, but you can keep training Clark and it’s possible that in time they’ll realize your approach is the better one. Also, would you feel comfortable pointing out to any of them that while Clark might need more feedback than they’re used to, he takes it well and incorporates it into his work, and he has a track record of being coachable when someone bothers to put in the energy?
2. Is it wrong to google companies on a candidate’s resume?
I am an inexperienced assistant bank manager hiring an entry-level teller. One candidate had running a business on his resume, but the business name made me think it might be related to legal marijuana. I googled and found that it was a dispensary, but figured it wasn’t relevant that he ran a failed marijuana business a few years ago, until I saw that their state business registry had recently been reactivated and updated to change him to president of the company.
Since marijuana is federally illegal, it’s problematic for the banking industry, so my manager emailed our recruiter and asked how we should handle it. She responded asking how we found that information, because it wasn’t appropriate to use anything that wasn’t supplied by the candidate, so we should not consider it unless he brings it up as relevant. I thought it was common to Google applicants, but I also see how it could be a legal issue since there are regulations on notifying people about background checks and how they are used. So I know when we are hiring in the future, where is the line between casually researching a candidate’s background, and creating a legal issue by using information that was obtained inappropriately? Should I just leave any research on the candidate to HR?
To complicate things, he interviewed very well and is our first choice. We are moving forward with him as normal but I am still concerned about not being able to ask him if he currently owns a business that has legal conflict with the banking industry, and am afraid to go to HR for guidance about that in case I get in trouble. The funny thing is, if he were opening a business account, what I did would be considered due diligence.
It’s absolutely not true that you can’t google candidates; that’s absurd. It is true that managers googling candidates need to use judgment and discretion in doing it, because you may come across things that shouldn’t be considered in the hiring process (like a naked bike ride) or even that are outright illegal to consider (such as info about disability, religion, etc.). But it’s categorically untrue that you can’t google people (and the kind of notification required for a background check does not apply to googling). Moreover, in doing this, you found information that’s highly relevant to your business — the candidate might have a clear legal conflict that will pose a problem for your industry (and the banking industry does indeed have a ton of regulations around how they deal with state-legal marijuana businesses).
Go talk to HR, explain what you found and why you disagree with the recruiter, and ask how to handle it since this is potentially very relevant info. (Normally I’d say to just ask the candidate about it point-blank, but since your recruiter is being so weird, HR should be in the loop.)
3. Being filmed during meetings
I volunteer as the president of the board of directors for a local non-for-profit organization. This position is in addition to my 9-5-day job and it takes a lot of time, energy, and effort to maintain this role and the work that is required. I absolutely love it. I love the organization and everything it does.
My concern relates to the open meetings law in our state. A member of our state committee on open meetings laws recently presented at one of our monthly board meetings and explained that because we are funded (partially) through a tax assessment on commercial properties in our business district, our meetings can be recorded under the law.
Since then, a community member has shown up to our monthly board meeting, as well as our other sub-committee meetings, set up his cell phone, and proceed to record the entire meeting. We now know this is allowed under state law.
The problem is that I have a very strong personal reaction to being filmed. For personal reasons I won’t get into, I completely shut down when there’s a camera on me. It makes me extremely uncomfortable to the point where I have trouble thinking, processing, and sometimes breathing. It’s a visceral reaction I’m struggling to contend with. I just received the minutes from a recent committee meeting, and I don’t remember hearing most of the information that was discussed because I was so distracted by having a camera pointed at me. In fact, following that meeting I returned to my office and cried for 30 minutes straight due to the overwhelming discomfort.
This is a problem, and I don’t know what to do about it. Under the law, people have every right to record these meetings. Do I need to step down from my role as president, and from the board entirely? I really hate the thought of that, but I just don’t know what else to do. I’ve been on this board for five years and it was never before mentioned that people were allowed to record meetings. Now that it’s been announced, and the cameras are rolling out, I can no longer serve in my best capacity due to my discomfort.
I should clarify that the person doing the recording isn’t exactly a supporter of the organization and could be viewed as more of an agitator. They have caused problems for our organization in the past. I’m certain that if asked about the need to record the meetings, the response would be something along the lines of “because I can.” The person attended our meetings in the past but didn’t record them until now.
Sometimes I feel like I’m overreacting, but in a world of AI and deep fakes I just can’t trust people having me on camera for their own personal pleasure. It really freaks me out. Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
If that’s what the law requires and you don’t want to be filmed … then yeah, the choices are basically to find a way to be at least minimally okay with it or step down from the role. Which really sucks!
However, any chance there’s a way for you call into the meetings remotely and not be on camera yourself? That’s the only other option I can really see.
4. I’m being penalized at work because I’m visually impaired
A very high-up manager said to my face that I was a burden for being disabled and for my ADA accommodation (special seating that blocks light). I am visually impaired, but I have high ratings on all my reviews and I truly love my job. This manager also invited my entire department to lunches but excluded me. When I asked my direct manager, why high-up manager did that, he said it was because I was not part of the team (that’s not true). The high-up manager also said to me, ‘Besides your eyes, what else is wrong with you?” I was really speechless by this.
Many, many other things happened over eight months, and I finally told HR but they have basically gone silent. I then found out that I was not promoted along with everyone at my level despite doing above-level work all year and being told by multiple managers I was on track, along with great reviews. It was a stunning surprise. I then found out the high-up manager was on the promotion review committee! HR will not tell me why I wasn’t promoted or provide a single thing I messed up and I was never coached or told there was an issue. I am feeling so sad about this. What would you do?
Talk to a lawyer immediately. This sounds like it’s illegal discrimination based on your disability, and since HR isn’t bothering to act, the next step is to talk to a lawyer. That doesn’t necessarily mean suing; there’s a lot that lawyers can do to help you before things get to that point, including guiding you from behind-the-scenes and negotiating with the company on your behalf.
Well, that was certainly a thing. We mentioned yesterday that RFK Jr. was scheduled to go before the Senate Finance committee to answer all kinds of questions as to just what in the holy hell is happening at HHS. As we said, this was always going to be a contentious hearing, given that the Democrat Senators are aligned, and in fact demanded his resignation before the hearing, while even GOP members such as Bill Cassidy have begun signaling wavering support for Kennedy.
But this wasn’t just contentious; it was a disaster. USA Today has one of many live update pages where you can go back and relive the timeline, but the topline summary is that Kennedy shouted over the Senators questions, often asked them questions instead of answering the questions he was asked, dissembled all over the place when asked direct and honest questions, and otherwise spouted conspiracy theories without a scintilla of evidence to back them up. And while it’s certainly true that questions from Democracts were done in a more hostile tone than those from the GOP, the open disdain, or at least concern, about Kennedy’s actions as of recent was entirely bipartisan.
I’ll give you some highlights, for lack of a better term, along with a summary of the key thing we learned in each highlight.
Mark Warner (D):
Kennedy claims neither he, nor anyone else, has any idea how many Americans died from COVID-19
Kennedy is unwilling to state that COVID vaccines did “anything” to prevent deaths from COVID-19
Kennedy was unaware of some specific implications of the latest budget bill on American healthcare
John Barrasso (R):
Barrasso points out all the chaos and failure that has happened under Kennedy, including the largest measles outbreak in decades.
Kennedy claims that CDC vaccine guidance has never before, in the history of the agency, been “clear, evidence based, and trustworthy.” He claims his leadership is the first time this will ever have happened.
This, by the way, is precisely how you get situations like unhinged people shooting up the CDC’s Atlanta campus. The CDC was born in 1946, initially to combat malaria. But, according to Kennedy, it has never in its entire history been trustworthy on the topic of vaccines. It’s a lie, of course, but those that believe it would logically be very, very pissed off.
Thom Tillis (R):
Tillis starts off by saying he’s going to make a statement and essentially begs Kennedy to not respond in the moment, but to go and gather his answers after the hearing and present them. Kennedy repeatedly attempts to answer those questions anyway.
Tillis points out that based on the myriad of conflicting statements Kennedy made within the hearing, he has no idea whether Kennedy thinks Operation Warp Speed was a good thing or not. On the one hand, Kennedy agrees with Tillis and others that Trump should be a Nobel prize for the government’s efforts in creating the mRNA vaccines. On the other, Kennedy claims the vaccines were deadly and can’t account for them being effective at all.
Tillis asks how a CDC Director can be lauded a month ago and fired four weeks later.
Tillis asks for evidence that Kennedy has kept any of the promises he’s made to Congress in the past.
Tillis points out that all he can get out of Kennedy’s HHS to a question about the economic impact of the budget bill that was passed amount to “word salad.”
Kennedy affirms his position that the COVID vaccines cause “serious harm” and “death”.
Folks, that’s as polite a way for a GOP Senator to state publicly that they don’t trust Kennedy as is possible.
Bernie Sanders (I):
This one takes a brief bit of preamble. When Senator Warren was questioning Kennedy about his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as Director of CDC, she asked Kennedy about Monarez’s public claim in a WSJ editorial that he demanded she sign off on what ACIP would recommend prior to them even meeting and insisted she fire a slew of senior staffers at CDC for who knows what reason. Kennedy told Warren that was not true and, when she asked what was the reason he fired her, got this in response.
That is obviously not a believable story. I mean, to make light of it, why would an untrustworthy person tell their boss they were not trustworthy instead of lying?
In any case, with that context, we move on to the takeaways from the back and forth with Bernie Sanders.
Kennedy reiterates his claim that Monarez lied about why she was fired and that, again, he did so because she told him she was not trustworthy.
Kennedy calls a net -$100 million investment in rural healthcare “the largest infusion of public money” into rural healthcare.
Kennedy affirms the COVID vaccines are the deadliest vaccines in history and that Trump should get a Nobel prize for helping develop them.
Kennedy launches into a conspiracy theory in which the largest NGOs and others that disagree with him have all been corrupted by the pharma industry.
Bill Cassidy (R):
Cassidy is the one many of us were waiting to see in this hearing, for multiple reasons. He’s a doctor, for instance. He was a pivotal vote in Kennedy’s confirmation hearings and extracted several promises about vaccines and policy during those hearings. And, finally, several other Republican Senators have pointed to him as the one they trust on healthcare and medicine issues.
Kennedy again affirms that Trump deserves a Nobel prize for Operation Warp Speed, despite saying those vaccines killed people. Cassidy then points out that Kennedy sued to limit access to COVID vaccines before his time in government.
Cassidy points out that the ACIP conflicts of interests data that Kennedy has claimed was wildly inaccurate. Kennedy attempts to argue the point, but fails.
Cassidy points out that several current ACIP members, which Kennedy hand-picked, serve as paid witnesses in vaccine injury trials and asks Kennedy if that is a conflict of interests. Kennedy responds it may be a bias, but not a financial conflict of interest, which makes zero sense.
Stick around for the end in which Cassidy shares some personal interactions he’s had with constituents demonstrating precisely how Kennedy’s policy actions have introduced a limitation of vaccine access and chaos and confusion among doctors as to what they can prescribe or not, which is exactly what we indicated would happen.
There was much, much more. More dissembling. More conspiracy theories. More lies. By any honest viewing of the hearing, it was a bipartisan verbal indication of no confidence in Kennedy, with some Senators choosing to be more polite about it than others. This was a more pointed and thorough takedown of Kennedy from both sides of the aisle than even I had hoped for.
So of course the White House is pretending this is all a partisan hitjob because Kennedy is so awesome.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Kennedy after he faced tense questioning by both Democratic and Republican senators.
The Health secretary “is taking flak because he’s over the target,” she said on X several hours after the hearing concluded. “The Trump Administration is addressing root causes of chronic disease, embracing transparency in government, and championing gold-standard science.”
Although she blamed Democrats for attacking “that commonsense effort,” Republican senators such as Cassidy and Barrasso had also expressed disapproval during the hearing with some of Kennedy’s most recent actions concerning vaccines.
As I said in a previous post, this is by no means the end of Kennedy’s tenure at HHS. But it just might be the beginning of that end. No amount of White House gaslighting is going to be able to counter rising illnesses, full hospitals, or explosive growth in the casket manufacturing business.
SAN DIEGO—Calling the in-person gathering an exciting chance to check in on old friends, local resident Anthony Crews told reporters Thursday that this week’s in-person fantasy football draft had been a great excuse to see how weird-looking everyone in his 12-person keeper league was getting. “It’s really less about who I get at tight end and more about seeing who’s balding, who’s putting on weight in strange places, who’s got intensely jacked calves from cycling—it’s a fun surprise every time,” said Crews, describing the four-hour snake draft as a perfect opportunity to hang out and compare asymmetrical physiques, gross skin blotches, unruly neck hair, and whatever other biological oddities had developed since the previous year. “Mike started taking Ozempic, and it’s given him these huge, pendulous jowls—makes a whistling sound whenever he says ‘McCaffrey.’ And something’s going on with Andy’s knees. They look super dry and scaly, and I know they weren’t that way at the last draft, because he was wearing the exact same pair of mesh shorts. Also, I don’t know what happened to Mark, but I’m pretty sure he used to be able to move the left side of his face.” Crews added that while his league mates’ appearances had continued to deteriorate, they could all take solace in the fact that the commissioner’s mother’s garage hadn’t changed one bit.
TORONTO – A local raccoon that has been standing perfectly still on top of a garbage can next to a house in Toronto’s Beach neighbourhood for 3 hours now, is starting to get worried he won’t be able to make someone absolutely piss themselves to death. “Usually I only need to post up here for […]
OTTAWA – A planned reception for the architect of Project 2025 – the infamous policy blueprint for the Trump Administration – has been cancelled because Mark Carney wants the planned far-right authoritarian takeover of Canada “to be a fun surprise”. Prime Minister Carney had planned to host Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation and […]
ARTJOG 2025, along with its collateral Jogja Art Weeks, is the art event of the summer for South Asia, primarily showcasing works by young artists working in Indonesia throughout the months of June through August. These events occur in the city of Yogyakarta, colloquially known as ‘Jogja,’ each year. Recently, Indonesia has been consumed by protests against parliamentary corruption and the economy, which have spread to Yogyakarta. Analyzing the country’s contemporary art in the days leading up to these conditions helps to contextualize the regional culture beyond the headlines.
Founded in 2008 by the current CEO, Heri Pemad, ARTJOG has shifted over the years from its beginning as Jogja Art Fair to a festival described as being somewhere in between an art fair and a biennial. Jogja Art Weeks grew out of ARTJOG, as artists in Yogyakarta organized a non-profit movement to host corollary exhibitions to the main event in and around the city. The setting for the events, Yogyakarta, is the capital of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in the island of Java, the only Indonesian region to retain its hereditary monarchy, distinguished by its strong Javanese heritage and culture. At ARTJOG and Jogja Art Weeks, tradition translated into a robust contemporary art that looked back on its past while forging a new imaginative future.
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Jogja National Museum
ARTJOG 2025 at the Jogja National Museum
ARTJOG takes place every year at the Jogja National Museum in Yogyakarta. A larger complex of galleries and open spaces, the main building consists of three floors. During the event, the museum is divided into small partitioned rooms, each containing installations by a single artist. In this year’s iteration of ARTJOG — co-curated by Hendro Wiyanto, Bambang ‘Toko” Witjaksono, and Ignatia Nilu — there are 48 participating artists and collectives. The exhibition is the conclusion of a three-year set of motifs, with Amalan, or Practice, being this year’s theme. Practice, here, is being defined as what connects the autonomy of art to the heterogeneity of social systems.
Anusepati, “Secret of Eden,” 2025, multimedia installation, dead trees, iron, lorry, rail, five munggur wood sculptures, and electro acoustic music composition
Walking into the gallery, one is greeted with massive tree roots that are interspaced throughout a large hall. In the middle of the room, a mining cart sits on a track that divides up the floor. The darkly lit room, along with the roots and the cart, evokes a sense of being underground. Secret of Eden (2025), an installation by Anusepati, who is an established sculptor and installation artist from Surakarta, asks visitors to reflect on the co-existence of nature and resource extraction as a meta-analytical comment on the art’s ecosystem.
Suliswanto Urubingwaru, “The World Farewell Parade,” 2025, acrylic and oil on canvas
Further along the ground floor, a pair of large paintings by Suliswanto Urubingwaru is installed on upright panels. TheWorld Farewell Parade (2025) lines up a cast of assorted characters in a standstill, including historical figures and a jester, rendered in magical realist style. Trying to lead the group is a young girl in a white dress, passing by a bookshop called “Ticklish Brain.” Compositionally reminiscent of Gustave Courbet’s A Burial at Ornans (1849-50), the work demonstrates a hesitating and conflicted attitude toward the innocence of childhood at the root of our psyche.
Beyond the entrance hall, ruangrupa (ruru), the artist collective that curated documenta 15, hosted a non-hierarchical and discussions-based on-site educational institute called Perguruan Taman-ruru (Taman-ruru College) (2025). Lined with corrugated metal and topped with a bamboo ceiling, the gallery resembles a rural warehouse. At the center table, a cyanotype workshop for visitors took place. The collective’s work is a collaborative research-led practice that turns the art institution into a school, a community-based place of mutual learning.
Yoshi Fajar Kresno Murti, “Tubuh Amalan,” 2025, mosque canopy with salvaged wood, cast iron, iron plates, wood, roof tiles, pillars, photos, and video
The thematic connections of Indonesian architecture continue on both the ground and the upper floors. Inside the museum, Yoshi Fajar Kresno Murti’s Tubuh Amalan (Body of Practice) (2025) recreates the upper section of a multistory mosque architecture, in its original dimensions. By presenting a portion of Adz-Dzakirin, a local Clumprit Hamlet mosque currently being renovated by the entire village, the installation showcases a regional architectural style from Kulonprogo, Indonesia. Among Aditya Novell’s Tender Notes (2025), a series of oil and ink paintings, one work features traditional Javanese limasan roof architecture, which slopes higher at an angle from the midpoint. Architectural history is a major aspect of Indonesia’s national identity and pride.
Aditya Novell, “Tender Notes,” 2025, oil and ink on rotatable triangular zinc bars covered with canvas
Veronica Liana, “Rupa Ten Matra,” 2025, canvas/cotton fabric made from natural fibers, stiff fabric, and sewing thread
Women artists assert their gender through the use of fabric as material. In culturally conservative Indonesia, the production of batik, a traditional Indonesian textile, is mainly the domain of women. This tradition of women’s artistry with textiles continues for contemporary artists through formal training in art departments at universities. In Rupa Ten Matra (Ten Dimensional Appearance) (2025), Veronica Liana has created an installation of a kitchen, complete with countertops and kitchen utensils, that has all been made using white canvases. Here, she upends the expectations of the material to create sculptural pieces, using sewing as her chosen method of creation, prompting a reflection on the gendered assumptions of artmaking. Meta Enjelita’s Inner Monologue (2025) creates a forest of stuffed textile horns of various shapes that span from floor to ceiling. This impressive display looks soft, yet violent, subverting preconceived ideas of feminine and organic forms.
Meta Enjelita, “Inner Monologue,” 2025, installation with soil dyeing and rust dyeing on cotton, and an iron frame
Enka Komariah, “Inggris di Jawa,” 2025, water-based oil paint on blueprint of Bank Indonesia
There are strong social critiques in works such as Enka Komariah’s reframing of Dutch colonial history in Monumen Kekalahan (Monuments of Defeat) (2025). Among this series, Inggris di Jawa (2025) is about the 1811-1816 British occupation of Java. On a blueprint of the Bank of Indonesia, the artist has painted a scene of the 1812 looting of the Yogyakarta Palace, also known as Kraton. Smoke billows behind the iconic palace façade as soldiers charge on horseback, speaking to the simultaneous institutional and physical assault of colonial violence. FX Harsono, one of the most internationally renowned Indonesian artists, presents a video called The Last Survivors (2017-2025), about the massacre of ethnic Chinese communities in Indonesia during the time of the Indonesian National Revolution (1945-49), as the group was accused of siding with the Dutch. Both works are a critique about the effects of colonial occupation.
FX Harsono, “The Last Survivors,” 2017-2025, 3-channel video
The exhibition is about a nation grappling with history and the present, nested among the bustle of Yogyakarta and its cultural legacy. What this art makes clear is that Indonesia, which stands between continents as an island nation, absorbs and asserts its presence among contemporary dialog, both regional and global. Among themes such as ecology, architecture, gender, and colonialism, a sense of an Indonesian identity coalesces into tangible forms in this wide-ranging exhibition about putting materiality into social practice.
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Jogja Art Weeks
ARTJOG is joined by Jogja Art Weeks, which lasts the duration of the former. As a part of the schedule, there are a number of shows that are open at an eclectic mix of venues around the city. One such space is SURVIVE! Garage, an artist-run space founded by Bayu Widodo in 2009 and operated by a collective. Throughout the year, the venue holds rotating exhibitions of its affiliated artists. During Jogja Art Weeks, Rachmad Afandi’s solo exhibition Ageman brought together rich Javanese culture and history as expressed through digital collage installations and drawings. In Ingsun Manekung (I Support You) (2022), a sitting elderly couple represents local heritage. Their daily prayers, based on the Javanese lunisolar calendar, and a depiction of the sacred Mount Merapi speak to the regional variant of Islam in Java, which is expressed as a collage, both as form and concept.
Rachmad Afandi, “Ingsun Manekung,” 2022, installation, print on fabric, anglo, antenna, resin, and wood
Mutiara Riswari, “Layers of Time II,” 2025, rubber, acrylic, spray paint, and pastel on canvas
At Sumsum Gallery, there was an open studio showcasing the work of Mutiara Riswari, an abstract painter who mixes soil with paint, expressing themes of mother earth as a fleshy womb. Layers of Time II (2025) paints a sinewy landscape of muscular forms that overlap one another. Between these shapes, veins run throughout the work like a heartbeat, keeping time connected to bundles of corporeal memories. The bulbous rhythms of Riswari’s work are a reflection of the environment and its grounding qualities, which may have been influenced by the abstract creations of her grandmother, who was a batik artisan.
Jasper Avice Demay, “Pebble,” 2025, vinyl, synthetic polymer, paper, and metal
Indieart House hosted an exhibition of Jasper Avice Demay, an Australian artist working part time in Indonesia. In Stuck in Jogja, round metal plates were painted with designs influenced by native Javanese patterns, and presented inside a vinyl sleeve, complete with an advertising label. Demay explains that he composes each work based on feelings elicited by visits to Jogja. In Pebble (2025), there is a sense of moving traffic among the various types of dots presented in regular intervals throughout the painting on green background, reminiscent of the Gojek electric bike ride-and-delivery service that roams throughout the city.
Butet Kartaredjasa, “Hanya Menjadi Tertawaan,” 2025, chromogenic print on aluminum composite panel
LAV Gallery showed Butet Kartaredjasa, a more established artist of national renown, who presented his solo exhibition titled Eling Sangkan Paraning Dumadi (Remember What Happened). The exhibition is a thinly-veiled criticism of the previous president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), who was widely popular for his infrastructural building efforts, but was also denounced for eroding democracy and pushing aside environmental concerns. Jokowi is represented as a Javanese Pinocchio statue, which is transported to various contexts and absurdly photographed. The statue itself, and the video of the processes, are both presented in the exhibition.
There were also a number of memorable group shows. Langgeng Art Foundation’s Kiasmos showcased abstract works by 12 artists from around Indonesia. Standout pieces include Syagini Ratna Wulan’s Im[Vision(t)] = Light Delay (2025), a work made up of vertical bars of geometrically raised and shaped canvases painted in scales of color. A subtle update of minimalism’s insistence of industrial aesthetics, the work’s play on form is a visual earworm. Oco Santoso’s Echoes of a Post-Human Impact #1 (2025) recreates the metallic sheen of electric blue on canvas as it curls and expands at the center of the composition. Organic shapes resembling skeletons dot the landscape in gradients of tone that mimic digital warps and the unnaturalness of Artificial Intelligence. Both artists push the boundaries of contemporary abstraction, in geometry and the digital.
Oco Santoso, “Echoes of a Post-Human Impact #1,” 2025
Budi Agung Kuswara, “Empowerment Over Hierarchy (Residual Memory Series),” 2022, cyanotype, ink, acrylic, and gold leaf on cotton paper
Srisasanti Gallery presented the group show Norma, Forma, featuring eight emerging and mid-career artists. Budi Agung Kuswara’s mixed-media painting Empowerment Over Hierarchy (Residual Memory Series) (2022), consisting of cyanotype, ink, acrylic, and gold leaf on cotton paper, brings together historical photos of Bali with Dutch antiques in a surreal landscape. Gold spills from the head of a Dutch colonist riding on a skeleton horse, while lush plant growth blooms out of the heads of the Balinese in a postcolonial criticism of power relations during Dutch occupation of Indonesia. Riono Tanggul’s Oh Marat! (2025) patches together visual excerpts of neoclassical paintings of body parts with the head of an Indonesian prehistorical artifact. This technique represents a visual cutting and pasting of Western history for the sake of consumption by an Indonesian identity, reversing the colonial perspective of conquest.
Riono Tanggul, “Oh Marat!,” 2025, acrylic on canvas
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Altogether, Jogja Art Weeks joins ARTJOG to bring Yogyakarta’s art scene to full throttle. The variety of styles and Indonesian identity, history, and culture on display is a testament to the complexity and depth of one of South Asia’s art centers. Javanese from Yogyakarta draw an imaginary line from the sacred Mount Merapi to the Royal Kraton to the South Sea, encompassing the wide geological influences of the region, and their cultural implications. From Javanese Islamic practices to overseas invasions to Indigenous connections to land, the art of Yogyakarta reflects its heavenly, marine, and earthly connections to spirituality and history. The ancient Mataram culture built this place, first as a Buddhist-Hindu kingdom from the 8th through the 11th centuries, then as an Islamic Sultanate in the subsequent eras. Contemporary art in Yogyakarta celebrates this deep and intertwined history through the multitude of influences that shape emergent Indonesian art.
HAMPTON, NH—Stressing its commitment to making everyone feel welcome regardless of athletic ability, national gym franchise Planet Fitness instituted a new policy Thursday that bans proper form. “We don’t want new gym-goers to feel intimidated by people doing squats correctly, so from now on, members will be penalized when they lift with their legs instead of their backs,” said Planet Fitness spokesperson Jim Kaplan, explaining that the gym chain’s trademark “lunk alarm” would sound for the first two offenses of appropriate posture, while a third instance of safe technique would result in a permanent ban from the club. “There’s no need to show off by working out in a manner that prevents injury, so just grab a grime-covered weight from our mismatched, disorganized racks and flop around. It’s easy enough to add more plates than you can handle. We’re also removing mirrors so you can’t check if you’re doing it right. And if you’re stretching, you better stop right there—warming up and cooling down will not be tolerated.” The new policy follows the company’s decision last month to provide members who show up in proper gym attire with pajamas and sandals they can change into free of charge.
Kennedy claimed the government, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lied about "natural immunity," that vaccines would prevent transmission and infection, and the "science behind cloth masks."
I didn’t think it was possible, but it turns out I wasn’t generous enough to Advance Local.
A few weeks back, we released our first monthly traffic rankings for U.S. local newspapers, and the big takeaway was the dominance of Advance Local, the chain that owns the dailies in Cleveland, Harrisburg, Newark, Syracuse, Birmingham, and a variety of other mostly unsexy American cities. In June’s data, Advance papers took 7 of the top 11 spots, beating out their peers in much larger markets. I laid out some of their strategy — statewide sites, an early digital focus, and a quick trigger in stepping away from print. (I could have added a lot of national aggregation, pop culture coverage, and a high story count.)
That traffic goes to The Republican’s website MassLive.com — yet another example of Advance taking a city-bound print brand and blowing it up to state scale in digital.
Had I included MassLive in the previous rankings, which were based on June traffic data, it would have slotted in at No. 18. (My thanks to past Nieman Lab contributorJosh Macht — previously group publisher of the Harvard Business Review Group, now MassLive’s president — for gently nudging me about the omission.) Traffic dropped a hair in July, so MassLive only ranks at No. 20 this month. (Pathetic, right?)
With that, here’s the latest rankings of local newspapers’ websites, based on July 2025 data from Similarweb. A few items of note:
With MassLive restored to its rightful place, Advance Local now accounts for 8 of the top 25 papers, including an astounding 7 of the top 9. Only the Los Angeles Times (No. 1), The Seattle Times (No. 5) and the Miami Herald (No. 10) joined them in the top 10.
Big traffic gainers in July: McClatchy’s Miami Herald (up 66% over June) and Hearst’s San Francisco Chronicle (up 32%) and Houston Chronicle (up 43%).
The Chronicle’s growth coincided with the summer’s massive Texas floods, which led to traffic spikes at a number of Texas papers. Visits at the San Antonio Express-News — also a Hearst paper — were up 50% from June to July, moving it from No. 66 to No. 44 in the rankings. The Statesman in Austin saw a 31% bump.
Top 25 local newspaper websites, July 2025
Ranked by estimated monthly visits
Rank
Website / Newspaper / Primary owner
July 2025 visits
± Rank from June
± Visits from June
1
latimes.com
Los Angeles Times
Patrick Soon-Shiong
26,190,399
—
-2.32%
2
al.com
The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, (Mobile) Press-Register
Advance Local
17,469,507
▲ 4
+21.83%
3
nj.com
The (Newark) Star-Ledger and smaller papers
Advance Local
16,849,540
▼ 1
-0.41%
4
mlive.com
Newspapers in Ann Arbor, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, etc.
Advance Local
15,387,428
▼ 1
-7.49%
5
seattletimes.com
The Seattle Times
Blethen family
14,742,985
—
+2.01%
6
pennlive.com
The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News
Advance Local
11,001,197
▼ 2
-23.91%
7
oregonlive.com
The Oregonian
Advance Local
10,747,863
▲ 4
+17.32%
8
syracuse.com
The Post-Standard
Advance Local
10,672,388
▲ 1
+15.60%
9
cleveland.com
The Plain Dealer
Advance Local
10,304,098
▲ 1
+12.27%
10
miamiherald.com
Miami Herald
McClatchy
9,928,513
▲ 11
+65.99%
11
chicagotribune.com
Chicago Tribune
Tribune Publishing (Alden Global Capital)
9,852,877
▼ 3
+3.32%
12
sfchronicle.com
San Francisco Chronicle
Hearst
9,793,336
▲ 4
+31.90%
13
freep.com
Detroit Free Press
Gannett
9,745,277
▼ 1
+7.57%
14
bostonglobe.com
The Boston Globe
John Henry
9,060,606
▼ 1
+4.25%
15
startribune.com
Minnesota Star Tribune
Glen Taylor
8,827,526
▼ 8
-19.04%
16
detroitnews.com
The Detroit News
MediaNews Group (Alden Global Capital)
7,639,056
▼ 1
-0.77%
17
azcentral.com
The Arizona Republic
Gannett
7,423,928
▲ 3
+11.35%
18
chicago.suntimes.com
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Public Media
7,065,919
—
+3.89%
19
inquirer.com
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Lenfest Institute
6,930,920
▼ 2
+0.68%
20
masslive.com
The (Springfield, Mass.) Republican
Advance Local
6,741,575
—
-1.76%
21
deseret.com
Deseret News
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
6,425,298
▼ 7
-18.67%
22
jsonline.com
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Gannett
6,423,755
▲ 1
+15.91%
23
mercurynews.com
The (San Jose) Mercury News
MediaNews Group (Alden Global Capital)
6,006,452
▼ 4
-11.33%
24
houstonchronicle.com
Houston Chronicle
Hearst
5,855,088
▲ 5
+42.96%
25
nola.com
The Times-Picayune
Georges Media Group
5,684,049
▲ 1
+8.83%
Dropping out: The Indianapolis Star (No. 22 in June), New York Daily News (No. 24), The Dallas Morning News (No. 25). Source: Similarweb estimates, July 2025. Excludes newspapers with a primarily national audience (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, and the New York Post).
ALT
There were also a number of memorable group shows. Langgeng Art Foundation’s Kiasmos showcased abstract works by 12 artists from around Indonesia. Standout pieces include Syagini Ratna Wulan’s Im[Vision(t)] = Light Delay (2025), a work made up of vertical bars of geometrically raised and shaped canvases painted in scales of color. A subtle update of minimalism’s insistence of industrial aesthetics, the work’s play on form is a visual earworm. Oco Santoso’s Echoes of a Post-Human Impact #1 (2025) recreates the metallic sheen of electric blue on canvas as it curls and expands at the center of the composition. Organic shapes resembling skeletons dot the landscape in gradients of tone that mimic digital warps and the unnaturalness of Artificial Intelligence. Both artists push the boundaries of contemporary abstraction, in geometry and the digital.
