This week on Lost Terminal: Seth discovers a blind spot, Nia quits, Lyosha & Maddie have a history lesson
Lost Terminal will return next week!
📓 Free transcript: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-18-7-124511852 🎵 Today's SIGNAL is: https://soundcloud.com/namtao/prithvi-mata 🦣 Mastodon https://namtao.com/@lostterminal 📝 Tumblr https://lostterminalpod.tumblr.com 🎙️ Recorded using a RODE NT-1 v5 USB in 32-bit float, edited with REAPER on Linux 🙏 CREDITS - Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer ❤️ Thank you so much to everyone who supports me, but especially my Patreon Producers: - Ada Phillips - Kit - Jade Felicity Bilkey - Jack L - Stephen McCandless - Mike Schneider
Special Tropical Weather Outlook NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL 1220 PM EDT Mon Mar 17 2025
For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of America:
Central Subtropical Atlantic: A non-tropical area of low pressure located about 700 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands is producing gale-force winds and a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Additional development of this low is not expected as it moves northward to northwestward into an environment of strong upper-level winds and dry air tonight and Tuesday. Additional information on this system can be found in High Seas Forecasts issued by the National Weather Service.
No additional Special Tropical Weather Outlooks are scheduled for this system unless conditions warrant. Regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlooks will resume on May 15, 2025, and Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as necessary during the remainder of the off-season. * Formation chance through 48 hours...low...10 percent. * Formation chance through 7 days...low...10 percent.
&& High Seas Forecasts issued by the National Weather Service can be found under AWIPS header NFDHSFAT1, WMO header FZNT01 KWBC, and online at ocean.weather.gov/shtml/NFDHSFAT1.php
U.S. Rep. Al Green was among those to participate in Monday's protest against the Department of Governmental Efficiency and its director, technology mogul Elon Musk.
For years, more ham-fisted printer manufacturers have waged a not-so-subtle war on consumers by blocking the ability to use cheaper, third-party printer cartridges. HP and Canon have both been particularly obnoxious on this front, and continue to engage in the practice despite a growing pile of assorted lawsuits.
Brother has historically been one of the last major printer manufacturers that doesn’t engage in this practice, something that should be applauded.
Yet the company found itself on the receiving end of recent accusations that it too had begun bricking the printers of users who try to install third-party cartridges. The rumblings began courtesy of a YouTube video and several lazysubsequent articles about it claiming the company had done an about face.
But the accusations were entirely based on a 2022 Reddit post from a user who had problems after a firmware update. The problem wasn’t new, and it wasn’t clear Brother actually did anything differently.
“We are aware of the recent false claims suggesting that a Brother firmware update may have restricted the use of third-party ink cartridges. Please be assured that Brother firmware updates do not block the use of third-party ink in our machines.”
There are variousclaims peppered around Reddit by users who claim a firmware update blocked their use of third-party cartridges. But Brother says that while its software and hardware do check to confirm whether official Brother cartridges are installed (which might cause inadvertent bugs for some users), they don’t block their use in any way (FWIW I have an MFC-L3770CDW LaserJet that has never struggled to use cheap third-party toner).
It’s unfortunate for Brother, given, again, it’s one of the few remaining manufacturers not being an asshole on this subject. So far.
A few years ago, printer manufacturers took this tactic one step further, and began preventing users from being able to use a multifunction printer’s scanner if they didn’t have company sanctioned ink installed. Canon was hit with a $5 million lawsuit in 2021 for the practice, but was able to quietly settle it privately without facing much accountability, or having to change much of its behavior.
In 2022 HP was also hit with a lawsuit (pdf) for preventing scanners from working without sanctioned ink cartridges installed, and not being transparent about this with customers. HP has spent a few years trying to wiggle out of the suit, but hasn’t had much luck.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
Last week we discussed final F-you’s to jobs or bosses you hated, and here are 18 of the best stories you shared. (Caveat: appearing on this list is not an endorsement of said behavior in every case! Stories are shared primarily for entertainment value.)
1. The revenge
A legal secretary at the Big Law firm I worked at knew she was going to be fired, so the day before she went into a bunch of partners emails and sent their wives evidence of infidelity, printed out confidential employee evaluations/communications about bonuses/pay and left them in everyone’s desk, and then cleaned out the swag closet (company-branded shirts/hats/bags etc) and dropped several thousands worth of merch with Law Firm’s name and logo off at a homeless encampment.
2. The egg salad
I (queer F) quit a job where the manager (M) kept making subtle religious misogynistic remarks. A meeting, I quietly picked up my things, went downstairs, dropped my equipment at HR and left.
I had been home for two hours before I realized I’d left my lunch in my desk. Egg salad.
I probably could have messaged someone on the team, but hey, no one had the courage to stand up for me so … yeah. I heard through the grapevine they found it two days later.
3. The stand
In a former job, I was working for a contractor to the U.S. government and was a very high-performing technical engineer in a niche field. There was another guy I worked with (I’ll call him Jake) who was also good but was very quiet, shy, and afraid of conflict. At some point, our old manager left and we got in a new manager (Tarzan), who I would describe as very macho-assertive. This new manager liked to bark orders and be short with people. This didn’t bother me because I knew I was indispensable, but it did bother Jake and he tried to avoid Tarzan as much as possible.
After a few months, I was lucky enough to score a conversion to civil servant and become a government employee directly, working in a different branch of the same agency. I had planned to notify Tarzan and his manager separately by email, but fate intervened. At our next weekly team stand-up, Tarzan was in a terrible mood and chose to leap on a small and inconsequential mistake Jake had made and gave Jake an over-the-top dressing down in front of us all, including, “This is F–king unacceptable on my team.” In the awkward silence that followed, I simply said, “I can’t work on this kind of team. I quit effective next Monday” and left the office.
I filled in Tarzan’s manager more fully about the situation and he understood and congratulated me on the move, but I heard from others who remained in the team meeting that Tarzan was truly shocked, and his apology to me later in the hallway made it clear that he spent a day or two wondering whether he was going to face repercussions for “driving me away.” Hopefully he reconsidered his approach in a more lasting way after that!
4. The wedding
This is very petty, but I can be petty if pushed.
I had a boss who always had to have someone to target. The person was always a woman. For two years, it was me. I couldn’t do anything right. If I said one thing, she said the opposite. She once blamed me for the weather. If I needed her to do something, I always advised her to do the opposite.
This same boss always prided herself on being close and in touch with her employees’ personal lives.
So when I got engaged, I told everyone but her. I invited everyone but her. (It was an office of 15 people.) I kept the whole thing secret, and everyone else was scared to tell her. My wedding occurred when she was on vacation. Everyone also knew I was moving to be with my husband after I got a job where he was. For at least three months, everyone knew all of this information except her.
When she got back from vacation, I put in exactly two weeks. I told her I’d gotten married. The look of shock on her face was all the revenge I needed. Then, at the going-away party I told her I didn’t want, I gave the staff a professionally framed picture of all of us at my wedding right in front of her.
On my last day, my boss was out. She tried to call me, but I let it go to voicemail. She told everyone else, “I will never get over this. I can’t believe she did this.”
I’m sure she did though. In the future, don’t ever tell me what you pride yourself on.
5. The grant application
The (many multi-million dollars) grant funding for my position was ending, so I started looking for a new position. It was a long, frustrating search, during which the grand funder decided to give us a one-year extension, after previously assuring us there would be no extension. Now, in addition to my job search, I had to write a narrative and budget for the extension year. I had 20+ principal investigators who were all clammoring for the last little boost to their individual budgets and no one was willing to compromise so that the overall budget could be, ya know, within budget. My boss was unwilling to assist me in finding a solution. So, I gave all the other PIs what they wanted and cut my boss’s salary out of the proposed budget before submitting the application and starting my new job.
6. The 2FA app
I left my job a few years ago. The new big boss was a jerk, told me my position was useless and unneeded.
I was their entire IT support, by the way.
I knew he was going to fire me or push me out, so I found a new job and peaced out. I wanted to be nice about it, and I offered to show him some basic IT things he’d need to know since he said he wasn’t replacing me because he could do everything I could (reader, he could not).
One of the things I tried to insist on was a 2FA that was for a major software admin account, that was tied to my phone (we had to use an app, no choice). I explained that someone else needed to download the app and set it up before I left since the day I did, I was deleting my account/app. He declined (seriously, was like, “No, it’s fine”) and, wouldn’t you know, two days later he tried to get into something and was declined because I wasn’t there with my phone. He texted and called me about it, and I just sent him a single email saying I was no longer an employee and had no access. Then I blocked his number and ingored all other attemps at communication. He didn’t need me after all, he could handle anything!
I don’t feel bad one bit.
7. The refused non-compete
Years ago my office hired one of our interns to join us full-time. He was a great guy and we were all looking forward to having him on board in part because we were significantly understaffed. He took one look at the contract and said, “Not signing anything with a non-compete.” We knew he had other offers and admin actually listened to us and took the non-compete out of his contract. Which meant they had to take it out of ours as well, but that’s not the point of the story.
My boss was a rigid, bigoted jerk. He was also my grandboss’s favorite so we never even tried to get any traction. New hire had two little kids and a wife with a completely inflexible job, so when the kids got sick, he stayed home. We had plenty of sick time but Boss thought this was inappropriate because 1) mothers should stay home with sick kids, not fathers and 2) it showed a lack of dedication to the job. Finally he called new hire into a meeting and told him he should hire a nanny.
New hire gave notice the next day and opened his own office across the hall because he had no non-compete.
8. The inventory
My boss had it in for me after HR revealed EVERYTHING I told them in an investigation into him. I was a retail manager and we were preparing for the annual store inventory, which was to start when we closed at 6 pm on a Sunday and generally took about six hours. I was in charge of preparing for it. I had detailed notes, a store map marked with what had been prepped and the schedule to finish it. One of the things HR was investigating were complaints that my boss didn’t do anything all day, and preparing for inventory was included. He took no interest in anything I was doing and I managed the process myself.
One of the cashiers had left a roll of quarters out at the end of the night on my closing shift. My boss took that opportunity to immediately fire me for “unsecured funds” the next day. I left in tears. This was technically policy, but for $10, unlikely to be enforced unless someone had a grudge.
One of my employees called me on my way home, as she noted I didn’t go in back to collect my things. In addition to the energy drink and my lunch in the fridge, I asked her to grab the inventory map and my notebook and erase a to do list on the whiteboard, which she happily did. There was no other record of what had been done and what needed to be done for the inventory, and since he had not participated in the prep work at all, my boss had NO IDEA what to do.
The inventory went horribly. What normally took six hours took 11! I felt bad for the hourly employees who were there that long, but at least they got a nice paycheck and none were scheduled to open the next day. My boss was salary. He not only had to stay there for free until 5 am, he had to open the store at 7 am. Since they were short-handed due to losing me, he had to work his full 10-hour shift.
9. The tirade
I’ve told this one here before, but it’s so good. It happened like 15 years ago and I still think about it regularly.
The best rage quit I ever witnessed: we had a weekly all-hands staff meeting with mandatory attendance. If you were on the road you were required to dial in. ‘Mike’ called in, and when it was his turn to speak he delivered a scathing tirade that was the stuff of quitting fantasies — absolutely A+ stuff. The big boss was so stunned he couldn’t respond at first… but then he pulled it together and hung up on Mike. But Mike was a step ahead — he’d dialed in on TWO lines, so he was STILL on the call, and got another couple of killer lines in before he got disconnected for good! Mike was a company hero for months after that.
10. The wet carpet
My then-boyfriend, future-husband and I worked together at a TGIFriday’s-style restaurant in the late 1990s. We were both scheduled on a Sunday morning, and with the plan to drive to work together, I’d spent the night at his place (an apartment in his parents’ basement) on Saturday night.
Around 8 am on Sunday, I stepped out of bed to start getting ready and, as I stepped down, my foot touched something wet. Something wet enough to soak my sock in about two seconds. Turns out the basement was flooded — and flooded BADLY. He called in to help with clean-up, and the manager was really crappy to him, definitely assumed he was calling off due to being hungover, wanting the day off. etc. Now, my future-husband wasn’t a manger per se, but he was a keyholding floor supervisor (basically a fill-in if a manager wasn’t available to work), a trainer, and sometimes a fill-in book keeper for the restaurant — so not someone who casually calls off work.
He pulled up a four-foot piece of dripping wet carpet, stuck it in a trash bag, and sent me to work with it. What followed became so iconic that when my cousin started working at the same restaurant more than three years later, it was still a story being told to new people. Luckily (for me, not them), the manager who was crappy on the phone was standing at the host stand as I walked in the front door. I dropped the huge, lawn-sized trash bag at their feet and said, “Mike thought you didn’t believe him when he called earlier. He wanted me to bring you this proof and to tell you he quits,” then walked away to clock in.
Calls were made to Mike, and the resignation stuck. When the manager asked me to clean up the trash bag, I refused saying it was a gift for him, not me. Still not sure how I didn’t get fired for that.
11. The hotel rooms
Back in the early 2000s, I worked at a hotel. Our hotel was negatively affected by 9-11 because of the decrease in travel. We were eventually foreclosed on by the bank and were owned and operated by the bank for three years until it was sold. The people that bought the hotel came in and let almost everybody go and staffed it with their family. They didn’t lay off the front desk manager yet because she had information they needed.
The night we all got let go, I went over to the front desk manager’s house and she proceeded to log onto all of the hotel booking sites we sold rooms through — hotels.com, Expedia, Priceline, etc., and changed the rates to $1 per night and then called all of her friends and told them to book a room. The new owners got in the office the next morning and saw all the confirmations for the $1 rooms (the hotel had 400 rooms so probably 100+ were booked this way) and freaked out and started calling her, begging for the login information so they could get in and stop the bleeding. She didn’t answer the phone.
12. The parking access
A few jobs ago, I worked with a team that provided onsite parking for corporate employees of a major online retailer with significant physical presence in my nearby metropolitan area. We were all laid off kind of abruptly, because Retailer decided they wanted to switch to a cheaper parking lottery system.
Background: the system we used to assign parking worked on sometimes months- or years-long wait lists to get parking in an employee’s chosen buildings, with less secure “temporary” spaces also available at less optimal garages. Parkers were supposed to reach out to us with issues they encountered with their access fobs. One of the people using a temp garage, “Percy,” wrote us silly poems about his access woes whenever he had to reach out, and quickly endeared himself to the entire team that way. He happened to be on a wait list for a building that was notoriously slow-moving and difficult to get parking access in, but he was always upbeat and kind in his emails, which was a nice break from the usual for us. He became legendary in our office even though we were only there about a year and a half.
On our last day, a couple coworkers and I realized that because all our emails/inboxes were getting deleted, nobody would get in trouble if we just … gave Percy parking access to his preferred garage. So together the three of us penned a little thank you note to him for always brightening our days and got his new access fob sent out before we left. I hope if he’s still there, he’s loving his parking access.
13. The pickles
When I worked at a grocery store we had a worker who was still in high school get fired for missing too many shifts. He seemed to take it well, but when he went to turn in his uniform, he passed through the condiment aisle and took every third jar of pickles and smashed them on the ground. That aisle smelled like pickles for at least a month afterwards.
14. The debrief
Mine was a more belated F-you. You know the saying, revenge is a dish best served cold. I used to work for a tiny consulting firm, and they thought they were The Shit. I had worked there for a long time, and I finally screwed up the courage to leave after years of being treated poorly.
I got a job at a huge company that was a big client of tiny firm. The CEO of Tiny Firm was buds with a VP of Big Client, so I can only assume management of Tiny Firm thought that they had things locked in for continued business at Big Client. The thing is, that VP has no actual authority over the subsidiary and department I work for, and it’s actually me and people at my level who often make decisions on which consulting firms to bring on for jobs. So when a job came up for bid, my old tiny firm submitted a proposal, along with several others. I reviewed all the bids, and theirs was by far the highest and, quite frankly, missed the mark. I sent them an email letting them know that their bid was not successful and they asked for a debrief. So I responded with a high-level list of their deficiencies. The most satisfying deficiency I got to point out was in a discipline that I am a widely-known expert in (in my industry). They were just flat-out wrong about a regulatory change I was heavily involved in. Best part was that the person who asked for the debrief is the same person who when I resigned said that they weren’t worried about my many years of industry knowledge leaving with me. I guess they needed my industry knowledge after all.
15. The thermostat
My mom worked in an office that had grown very toxic —and she was the only person who knew how to adjust the thermostat (don’t ask!). Literally on the way out the door on the day she quit, she jacked it up all the way to 90.
16. The copier
I work for a company that services copiers. The way our service contracts are structured, clients are billed based on the number of pages they print. So the more things they print/copy, the more they pay each month. We had one client call in years ago stating that their bill had to be wrong because they never make anywhere near as many pages as they were billed for. They called back a few days later and let us know that they had figured out what had happened. An angry employee who was leaving the company came into the office the day before she was quitting, after everyone else had left, and just printed off hundreds of pages just to run their bill up.
17. “I understand, I just don’t care”
I quit my last job with no notice. The PTO policies were draconian, an on-paper 10-hour shift would routinely stretch to 14 hours, and in the throes of Covid staff had to eat their lunches out in their cars – in January, in the northeast. I secured a comfortable new job on a Thursday and told the new place I could start Monday. I’d been there 2 months and wasn’t going to stay a day more.
At the end of my shift, I told the managers not to expect me on Monday. They asked me why I was doing this to them; I calmly replied, “Because I don’t like working here.” When admonished that I didn’t understand the staffing bind this put them in, I said, “No, I do, I just don’t care.” Unsure of what to say to this, they looked at me with their mouths open until I decided this wrapped things up and said “Well, enjoy your weekend!” and walked out. As I headed out, one of the friendlier staff, unaware of what just happened, called out, “See you on Monday!” to which I called back, “I wouldn’t count on that!”
18. The escape
I unfortunately wasn’t there to witness this myself, but at the fast food joint I worked at in college one of the high school aged employees leapt out of the drive thru window and shouted, “I QUIT” as he ran across the parking lot.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the wake of accusations that he is singling Canada out with his economic attacks, US President Donald Trump has assured the press that he will also eventually financially decimate the rest of the world as well. “A large part of my promise to make America great again revolves around making all […]
AUSTIN, TX—In a drastic new order purportedly aimed at protecting its citizens, Texas state government officials reportedly put into effect a new mandatory six-month quarantine that would apply to anyone who has ever watched Will And Grace. “Anyone who watched Will And Grace, the sitcom that revolutionized the popular depiction of homosexuality in the United States in the mid-to-late 1990’s must undergo a mandatory quarantine period of 183 days,” said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in an official statement announcing the controversial measure aimed at preventing the statewide spread of dangerous references to refreshingly realistic depictions of gay life and sardonic quips from Karen Walker. “We must all take serious precautions to keep ourselves safe from Will And Grace—even a rerun is capable of doing serious damage. Watching merely 10 seconds of an episode of Will And Grace is enough to be irreversibly charmed by Jack McFarland’s free-spirited confidence.” Abbott added that those who have already been placed in quarantine may qualify for early release by finishing at least two seasons of Yellowstone or Blue Bloods.
Affordable Art Fair launched in Austin May 16 – May 19 at the Palmer Events Center. Photo courtesy Affordable Art Fair
In a press release, Cori Teague, the Fair’s Director, said, “After our debut last year, we’re delighted to bring the Affordable Art Fair back to Austin. We look forward to showcasing an even more diverse and vibrant collection of contemporary art for all Austinites to discover the joy of collecting art… Whether you are starting your collection or finding the cherry on top for an established one, we are here to educate all communities in having a deeper appreciation of an artist’s evolution, the process of artmaking and, of course, the esteem and praise for the work itself.”
The fair boasts art accessibly priced between $100 and $10,000. It features artists at various stages of their careers from emerging to established. The Affordable Art Fair website offers helpful information such as an art buying guide for beginners and FAQs related to ticketing, facilities, and more.
This year, 55 galleries from across the world will participate in the Austin iteration of the fair. Participating Texas galleries that have been announced to date include: Wall Workman Gallery, Yard Dog, and Flatbed Press in Austin; Dimmitt Contemporary Art with locations in Austin and Houston; Off the Wall Gallery in Houston; Laura Rathe Fine Art with locations in Houston and Dallas; Christopher Martin Gallery with locations in Dallas and Aspen; and Commerce Gallery in Lockhart.
Returning to the Palmer Events Center, the fair will take place Friday, May 16, from Noon to 9 p.m.; Saturday, May 17, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, May 18, from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Additionally, there will be a private viewing on Thursday, May 15, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. as well as special family hours and an Art After Dark program.
Learn more about the Affordable Art Fair in Austin and purchase tickets via the organization’s website.
An 81-year-old woman returned an overdue book to a New Jersey library after discovering it among her grandfather’s old things, finding that the book, Home-Made Toys For Girls And Boys, was borrowed in March 1926. What do you think?
5 a.m.: I wake up at the crack of dawn and shoot myself up with a cocktail of hormones.
7 a.m.: Now that I’m roided up, I log onto Facebook and cyberbully women by telling them I’m going to beat them at all their sports today.
7:20 a.m.: From my liberal woke closet, I pull out an outfit that is nefarious and confusing, and promotes my radical belief in the existence of more than two genders: jeans, a compression top, and a floral short-sleeve button-up shirt.
8 a.m.: I arrive at work wearing the single most charged clothing accessory ever created: My THEY/THEM pronoun pin. I love shoving my gender agenda in everyone’s face.
8:30 a.m.: In our morning team meeting, I bully my colleagues by politely correcting them on my pronouns.
12:00 p.m.: I schedule my weekly top surgery because I hate women.
12:05 p.m.: I change every women’s bathroom sign to ALL GENDER. I also take all the free tampons and clog the toilets, just because I can.
1:00 p.m.: I start a rumor that my coworker is cisgender because he’s marrying a straight woman. My coworker tried to report me to HR, but he doesn’t know that HR is always on my side. I can be as heterophobic at work as I want.
2:00 p.m.: I brag to my colleagues about how I spend my workday watching Netflix without worrying about getting fired because I was hired through DEI initiatives. There’s no greater joy than taking jobs from hard-working white men.
3:30 p.m.: I leave work early to go to the local middle school where I stand outside and convince impressionable children to join the cult of transgenderism and homosexuality.
4:30 p.m.: Flanked by my army of preteen minions, I go to my local library dressed in drag for story hour. It’s my singular job to corrupt the minds of these children and bring them into the disgusting, sinful world of transgender insanity and gayness.
4:45 p.m.: I have a small nonbinary snack (Annie’s Organic White Cheddar Bunnies).
5:00 p.m.: I go to my adult women’s soccer league because I enjoy undermining women’s spaces with my dangerous gender transgressions. My existence outside the gender binary provides me with hulk-like strength, super speed, and insane bone density that helps me crush every female in my path, virtually destroying the legitimacy and talent involved in women’s sports. We wound up winning 1-0. I assisted on the game’s only goal.
7:00 p.m.: After making my super organic, cage-free, non-GMO, locally sourced dinner, I settle in to watch some TV. It’s tough to choose what to watch when all the media caters to my exact identity and no one else’s.
9:30 p.m.: I get ready for bed in my apartment-turned-gender-neutral bathroom. I will not stop until everything is a bathroom.
10:00 p.m.: I climb into bed, exhausted from a full day of terrorizing straight and cisgender people with my radical anti-gender ideology. I sleep soundly, knowing I can poison more innocent minds tomorrow.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
My manager was one of the good ones, completely trusted their team, didn’t micromanage, would support and defend us, and was just generally a friendly person. Their death was sudden and devastating to a lot of people, to say the least.
Our team is fewer than 10 people, and most had worked closely with our manager for 5+ years and some had been friends for longer. Our company offered to pay for all expenses so we could all attend the funeral, since some of us are remote. One local coworker, Sam, didn’t go and didn’t even give an excuse as to why not, and it has caused a major rift.
On one hand, Sam is a pretty stoic and private person; to him, this job is a means to make money and doesn’t really socialize outside of the office and that’s fine. Everyone grieves differently, and I definitely get not wanting to do so around your coworkers and bosses. On the other hand, it feels really cold and rude to not at least pay some lip service, to show up just to say you did or explain why you couldn’t make it.
Some coworkers told me that Sam had always rubbed them the wrong way and him not coming to the funeral has greatly exacerbated this problem and they even talked about trying to kick him off the team. To me, he seems hard to read but has been friendly enough if I ever needed help or asked questions, so this feels extreme, but I also have never really worked that closely with him.
My problem is this: I genuinely don’t think Sam realizes how much not going upset the others, or that they’ve felt this way for a while, nor do I think it was his intention to offend. I know this is going to blow up soon and I feel terrible that Sam is likely going to be blindsided. At the same time the others told me this in confidence and would definitely know that I was the one who said something. I could really use some help. How do I navigate this?
Your coworkers are really in the wrong.
They’re talking about trying to kick Sam off the team?!
Hopefully this is just a grief reaction and will settle down on its own, but the right thing for you to do is to be a sane counterweight. Tell your coworkers you thought about what they said and you strongly disagree — some people are not funeral people, not everyone has the sort of close relationships with colleagues where they’d feel comfortable going to a boss’s funeral, and who knows what else Sam might have going on in his personal life right now. (As one example, when my mom was dying, I’m not sure I could have handled a work funeral, and I say that as someone who is a big believer in always going to funerals.)
He also may have been thinking along the lines of “treat others the way you’d want to be treated” and, as a private person, might see funerals as for friends and family, not coworkers.
Or sure, maybe it’s exactly what your coworkers think: he’s a cold person who doesn’t make personal connections even with wonderful colleagues and won’t bother to pay his respects to a beloved manager by attending a funeral. But even if that’s the case, it doesn’t warrant all this drama! If that’s what they believe about him, so be it. It doesn’t rise to the level of justifying a blow-up, and it would be a bananas overreaction to try to get him kicked off the team.
Tell them that if they dislike Sam for this or other reasons, that’s their prerogative, but their reaction is wildly disproportionate to what happened and you’re uncomfortable hearing the way they’re talking about him.
I know your question was whether you should warn Sam, but the above is far more important to do.
CLEVELAND—Concluding that the rewards simply weren’t worth the risks, local man Tim Fitzpatrick told reporters Monday that he would leave his oversized leprechaun hat at home on St. Patrick’s Day to avoid damaging it. “Obviously, it’d be a dream to live it up at McKiernan’s with this thing on my head, but I’d just hate to see the brim get all bent out of shape,” said the 39-year-old, who cited concerns about wear and tear ruining the crown, emerald velvet fabric, or large golden buckle among his justifications for leaving behind the holiday-themed novelty hat. “I’m just going to wear one of my other smaller leprechaun hats. If someone asks to try one of those on and stretches out the sweatband, they can go wild. Hell, go ahead and steal it. I don’t mind. But not my big leprechaun hat. That’s special.” Fitzpatrick added that he had learned his lesson after a spilled beer forced him to throw out his favorite green-tassel and shamrock-embroidered glitter vest back in 2023.
This month Lady Gaga released Mayhem, her seventh studio album. The Onion sat down with the artist and actor to discuss songwriting, self-care, and what’s next.
The Onion: What was the creative impetus for this record?
Gaga: I have always been fascinated by the concept of dancing around on stage in an insane hat.
The Onion: How do you keep your voice in such great shape after all these years?
Gaga: Every six months I undergo a transplant of fresh vocal cords harvested from a young L.A. vagrant.
The Onion: Were you bothered by the negative reaction to Joker: Folie à Deux?
Gaga: No, as I’ve gotten older and more mature I’ve learned to accept when something is just an irredeemable piece of shit.
The Onion: Who are your biggest style influences?
Gaga: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Flik from A Bug’s Life.
The Onion: What keeps you up at night?
Gaga: The threat of a 10% tariff on latex.
The Onion: Why do you call your fans “little monsters”?
Gaga: I find each and every one a threat to my personal safety.
The Onion: After our last interview, you borrowed some Tupperware to take home leftovers from the photo shoot. Can we have it back?
Gaga: No, sorry. I’m using it to hold soil and oats for cultivating mealworms.
The Onion: What’s next for you?
Gaga: I’m going to find out where electricity comes from.
One thing people have long requested from me is coverage of Africa. This is, sadly, one of the few big items I never got around to tackling in a big way, for a number of reasons — lack of good photography and footage and generally hard to wrangle information among them. This isn’t uniform across a continent as vast as Africa, but I was not super interested in covering random North African tramways (there are quite a few!) because they feel a lot like random French provincial town tramways (no accident here)!
Anyways, I figured a pair of posts — one on my blog on Africa’s urban rail continent wide, and one on my Patreon on a particular system on an island in east Africa I find very interesting and incredibly obscure, was just what the doctor ordered.
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Africa is enormous, more than three times the size of Canada, and part of the reason I’ve covered it less is also that I have not travelled a ton on the continent (I’ve been to Kenya and Tanzania). This post is not going to go into explainer-level depth on any given system, but I do hope it can provide a very solid overview of the various and extremely-varied urban rail systems that exist (I’m also going to mention a bunch of rail projects in general even when they aren’t strictly urban, because there are a lot of those too!).
Let’s start in Nigeria and work our way counterclockwise.
Nigeria
Lagos Rail Mass Transit
The Lagos RMT (RMTransit?!) system is a two line “metro” where only the Blue line should really be considered an actual metro, as the Red line runs along recently-upgraded mainline rail tracks using diesel locomotive-hauled Talgo trains formerly owned by Amtrak. Lagos, with well over 15 million people, clearly should have a real solid metro system, but this is not it — in fact, the two lines are not even connected and the Blue line only skirts the centre of the dense central Lagos Island (it also mostly runs in the median of an expressway), though it still is probably the most proper “metro” line in sub-Saharan Africa. That being said, I do hope the system develops and eventually the city and rail network grow together symbiotically into what will hopefully eventually be a huge network.
I think with the Abuja “light rail” (probably my favourite example of the abuse of the term of light rail, for reasons you will soon understand) is basically intended to be a metro, but because it doesn’t have a working electrification system, or because one was never planned, has trains (which last time I checked run on something like hourly frequencies) pulled along by diesel locomotives. There are two “lines”, though a linear transfer is required to go from one to the other, and that’s probably because there is not a high-capacity signalling system — if there is any signalling at all, and with so few services through operation might not even make sense.
I hope these two systems highlight to you a big part of the problem with covering some of these systems, people naturally feel proud that some infrastructure is being built, but in some cases it is so poorly planned and or operated that it’s hard to see the projects not having immense negative value, in that they cost a lot to build and it’s not clear how they could ever end up moving a lot of people without a serious rethink. Thats something I of course hope these systems get, but again, it doesn’t feel like creating a serious transportation system was a huge priority here, which makes me sad.
South Africa
For a long time, South Africa had undoubtedly the most advanced and developed railway system in Africa. I think that’s changed now, but the system still is quite extensive — and even with many problems is still better than a huge portion of the rail transit systems in the world’s richest country, so that’s something!
South Africa Metrorail
Metrorail is a very interesting system of systems. There are actually four different “Metrorail” systems in South Africa, with the networks serving Durban, Cape Town, and Johannesburg / Pretoria, all being quite large with many lines, lots of branching, and good service by North American standards (think every half hour as a kind of standard). All the systems, like rail in general in South Africa, run on “Cape” gauge — which is 1067mm, the same as in Japan. The networks are mostly electrified (again more than I can say for North America) and recently even have very attractive modern EMUs as seen below.
To be clear though, these systems are far from ideal. Crime and even theft of overhead electrification cables and the like has been a major issue. Infrastructure is also often in varying states of disrepair as well — for example, some sections of the Cape Town network have big stations (which in better condition might be impressive!) with disconnected and destroyed tracks as well as facilities which are in very rough shape, and while the infrastructure is sometimes impressive with lots of grade separation and flyovers, rail lines often run in industrial areas and are surrounded by very unsupportive land use.
A Metrorail station that is not in great shape
You’ll also note that the networks, while fairly advanced, do not feature city centre tunnels and other features that are common in wealthy countries like Germany and Australia — though I do think some sections of the Metrorails remind me of bits of Australian suburban rail. As is a trend across Africa, many of the rail lines’ origins are in extractive colonial enterprise, and so they often were not designed for longevity or to be useful passenger transport. Worse still, you can pretty clearly see what lines and facilities are meant to be used by rich people.
Sadly on that note it’s hard not to mention the “Gautrain” a modern regional train network in Gauteng province (where you can find Johannesburg and Pretoria) that on its surface seems really nice and cool.
The trains are modern “Electrostar” sets straight from the UK, and they travel through modern stations, along tunnels and guideways at speeds of up to 160 kph, for a time the fastest in Africa. It’s basically a world class modern European-style rail network in Africa! The Gautrain network was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and if that wasn’t already setting off alarm bells it also uses standard gauge and is completely disconnected from the Gauteng Metrorail. In fact, the Gautrain network largely forms a duplicative (there are some stations that expressly serve some of the country’s wealthiest areas, which are car-oriented and not served by Metrorail) separate rail system that also like the Metrorail connects Pretoria and Johannesburg, but with an order of magnitude higher ticket prices, nicer facilities and trains, and clearly unlike Metrorail, a great effort to keep the system maintained and running well.
So basically from what I as an outsider can see looking in, Gautrain forms a defacto class-separated system (give the much higher fares) that allows wealthy people to use trains that are more modern and much nicer than those for other residents. It’s very sad stuff to see. You can read more on the system’s Wiki page here.
Compare this Gautrain station to the Metrorail station above
East Africa
Moving on to East Africa, most rail projects are not urban, but there are three major and similar projects worth discussing — the “SGR”s or Standard Gauge Railways.
The idea of these projects is hopefully self-explanatory: Again, Africa does have a lot of existing railways, but they are typically narrow gauge, in poor condition, and obviously not modern, so the idea here is to create modern railways from coastal ports inland that use standard equipment and can be used to boost trade and also to transport people.
The issue I see is firstly, as we know, typically railways are not great for both passenger and freight, and I think in these cases they are mostly freight-oriented (stations are often fairly far from populated areas). Fortunately, the projects are at least in principle all meant to eventually connect up and form an interconnected network, as well as provide tidewater access to landlocked countries. I also think they should be fairly useful given highway networks in this part of the world often aren’t great, and even when they are, traffic may not be consistently very fast; helping these countries develop trade networks with a rail backbone is also obviously good as opposed to being truck-oriented. That being said, the issue with these projects is that if knowledge isn’t successfully transferred to locals, and they aren’t commercially successful, then they amount to a lot of debt for countries which are not super able to pay it, and largely so foreign powers can try to gain influence — sometimes it’s not clear to me how different these railways will be from those that came before.
Tanzania SGR
The Tanzania SGR is a project mostly backed by American and European funding and expertise. It runs inland from Dar es Salaam, is electrified, and has a mix of old European rolling stock and new stuff from Korea’s Hyundai Rotem — including EMUs that are almost certainly better than almost anything in North America. (I guess we do have CalTrain and El Insurgente now…). Unlike the other East African SGRs, the Tanzanian one — which will eventually be nearly 2000 kilometers long, is built for 160 kph passenger operations — very much in line with international railways that aren’t explicitly high speed (and it is mixed traffic anyways).
The Kenya SGR is backed by China (who provided rolling stock, engineering, funding, and stations that look like they could be in China!) and runs over 500 kilometers from the coastal city of Mombasa to Nairobi and beyond. This line maxes out at 120 kph and is unelectrified.
Ethiopia Djibouti SGR
The Ethiopia to Djibouti SGR is also backed by China, and runs the better part of 1000 kilometers from Addis Ababa to the coast in Djibouti. Like the Tanzanian SGR the line is electrified, but with lower speeds as with the Kenyan SGR.
As it turns out, Addis Ababa also has a China backed urban “light rail” system — which feels really problematic. For starters, the system, which uses coupled-up trams from CRRC, is apparently not very reliable, with electrical and rolling stock issues. But moreover, it’s pretty clear I think that a city of like 6 million people cannot have its public transport background be two unit trams — that’s even less capacity than Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown, which itself has far too little capacity! The system also isn’t particularly niceor well-planned: the central part is grade separated, but with ugly viaducts in the middle of the city, and the outer legs run on ballasted tracks along roadways with loads of level crossings. Service is not super frequent, and even less so when there are reliability issues, and as far as I’ve heard the system is (as expected) way over capacity.
It’s largely through the lens of this (mostly vanity?) project that I see a lot of the other “modern” railway projects in this part of Africa. Clearly infrastructure is needed, but if it’s poorly-planned, undersized, and low-quality, it might make things worse — debt, as opposed to making them better.
North Africa
North Africa already has the highest density of rail on the continent and a lot more is being built. This region has a lot of very good infrastructure and even the bad stuff isn’t all that bad. A lot of it, for historic reasons is connected to France, either because it uses French rolling stock, planning expertise, or funding.
Egypt
Egypt is working on a national combined regional, freight, and high speed rail network with Siemens. Again, a mixed network concerns me a bit, and the budget does not seem high enough to build something really great, but since Egypt already seems have and be doing better stuff railway wise than a lot of other African countries (though that’s relative — Egypt is building monorails and “LRT” that isn’t trams instead of fixing and expanding the Cairo Metro), I am slightly more confident about the prospects here.
Cairo Metro
As I just mentioned, Cairo has a metro, which is probably the most densely-used in the world with over 2 million riders a day over just 84 stations. The system has just three lines intersecting in a triangle transfer, and doesn’t cover a lot of the city, instead being focused on certain sectors. I’d say there it’s all pretty standard stuff, though Line 1 has historically used the same trains as the RER B (a French connection) trains, which I think is super interesting. Fortunately all the lines are seemingly getting new rolling stock.
While there are plans for a new line 4, instead of building like five more metro lines (which Cairo obviously would benefit from), the government is building a distinct monorail subsystem (think DLR) in New Cairo with 70 stations. There is also the new “LRT”, which is a super odd system connecting an outer leg of the metro (with a silly linear) to the “New Administrative Capital” with what is really modern fast Chinese suburban rail.
The Cairo “Light Rail”, which does not look very light!
Now, Cairo and Alexandria do both have trams, though I would basically call it a technicality because as far as I know both these systems like Kolkata, use extremely dated vehicles and are kind of falling apart.
Algeria
Algeria is just crazy, for reasons I think you’ll soon understand.
Algiers Metro and Tram
Algeria’s capital of Algiers has a population of roughly 3 million people, and a modern French-origin metro line that opened in 2011 (after many years of plans and the like). The city also has a modern French-style tram system.
Speaking of which, there are seven cities in Algeria with modern French tram lines. Of course Algiers, but also many cities I have not heard of such as Setif, Ouargla, Oran, Sidi Bel Abbès, and Constantine!
Interestingly, these systems were supported by the French and all built by Turkish contractors (who also worked on the Tanzania SGR), who are quite famous for their cost effective builds, as covered by the Transit Costs Project.
Morocco
Morocco is sort of similar to Algeria in that it has a load of French tramways, but instead of being spread across the country, they are concentrated in just two cities; Rabat, which has two lines, and Casablanca, which has an impressive four-line network (starting to feel a bit like Lyon, and maybe time to start thinking about metro!)
What’s also clear is that these are really high-quality systems, something you can tell from the wayfinding, which is world class and better than much of what you would find in not just North America, but… the world.
I should also mention that while not quite trams, Marrakesh does have a very cool range-extended trolleybus BRT system!
High-Speed Rail
Of course, if you’re at all familiar with rail in Morocco, you’ll know they have a very impressive high-speed rail system, which connects Casablanca and Rabat (very nice stations I might add) — known as “Al Boraq”. This is naturally a French TGV standards system, and it uses Euroduplex rolling stock for Africa’s first world-class high-speed rail line — something faster than anything outside of Asia and Europe. It’s all very impressive.
And the larger ONCF network is naturally also a lot better than anything in the America’s. A good portion of it is electrified, there are lots of regional service, and some modern rolling stock, and there is even a surprisingly nice link into the Casablanca airport!
Senegal
Rounding out our tour, we have Senegal in West Africa.
Dakar TER
I remember first seeing African news coverage of the Dakar TER (I am sure you can tell who helped get that built based on the name), which is a semi-frequent regional service with modern European-style multiple unit trains — nicer than anything in the Americas.
There are also a number of systems planned for the future, though it’s hard to say which will actually come to fruition, since more than most places, Africa has a lot of plans put on ice and projects which have started, but not finished construction.
The largest city in Ivory Coast — Adijan is meant to get a fully-elevated metro built with assistance from France. Angola, Uganda, and the island of Reunion are also all talking about modern tramways. I would also expect a virtuous cycle of additional builds and expansion across the various cities I mentioned in North Africa!
Africa does actually have one other odd and modern tram system on an island you may not be familiar with — Mauritius, and to read more about that, go my post on Patreon (support is much appreciated, and for some time I’ve had some amount of posts exclusively on there!).
In brief: This week will bring plenty of sunshine and wind as the region veers through spring. Highs most days will be in the range of 75 to 80 degrees, with some particularly nice weather expected on Thursday. The first half of the weekend looks sunny, but we could see some clouds by Sunday to go along with some slight rain chances.
It is consistently cold across Texas this morning, with a uniformity of temperatures that is not usual for such a large area. (Weather Bell)
Spring-time winds
The wind we experience at the surface is due to air moving from high pressure to low pressure, and the bigger the difference, the greater the breeze. During the summer in Houston, we often talk about the sea breeze. This is because the air over land heats up faster than water during the daytime, lowering the air pressure at the surface. (Warm air rises). Since the air pressure is lower at the surface over Houston, air moves in from the Gulf.
The winds we experienced on Saturday, as a cold front moved in, were different. They were moving from north to south, following the influx of a low pressure system (front) at the surface. The more rapid the pressure change, the stronger the wind. This is what we mean by a “tight” pressure gradient. I bring all of this up because we’re going to see several “tight” gradients this week that will lead to winds whipsawing back and forth across the area.
Monday
Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day in Houston, certainly a top-10 day of the year. Monday will be similar, although not quite as nice (in my opinion, of course). Highs today will reach about 80 degrees with plenty of sunshine, but this will be marred by southerly winds of about 10 to 15 mph, with gusts up to 25 mph this afternoon.
If you’re heading out to the Houston rodeo this evening, or celebrating St. Patrick’s Day elsewhere, we have no weather concerns aside from the breeze. Temperatures this evening will be in the lower 70s, with clear skies. Lows will be in the upper 60s after the show, and with the warmer southerly flow we probably will only drop to around 60 degrees in Houston overnight. Some inland locations will be cooler.
Tuesday
This should be another mostly sunny day, with high temperatures near 80 degrees. But as the pressure gradient tightens, we’ll see some fairly strong southerly winds at 20 mph, with gusts up to 30 or possibly even 35 mph. This southerly flow will bring humidity back into the region, and give us a warm night in the 60s with increasing cloud cover.
Expect onshore winds on Tuesday. (Weather Bell/SCW)
Wednesday
High temperatures on Wednesday should reach around 80 degrees, or even a bit higher in Houston. This is because a cold front is likely to pass through the area during the late morning hours, bringing in drier air (which heats up more efficiently). Expect northwesterly winds during the afternoon, gusting up to 20 or 25 mph. Lows on Wednesday night will be around 50 degrees.
Thursday
At this point, Thursday looks to bring exceptional weather back into the forecast, with highs in the 70s, sunny skies, and light winds.
Friday
By Friday we’ll probably see offshore winds kicking back up, so expect a breezy day in the 70s with rising dewpoints.
Saturday, Sunday, and beyond
What does the weekend hold? Saturday should be mostly sunny, with highs of around 80 degrees. With a southerly flow in place expect a warm night, with lows in the 60s. As for Sunday, I’m a little less certain. We should see more clouds, highs around 80 degrees, and with increasing moisture there’s a possibility of some showers. (We could use some rain, but this isn’t going to do much to address drying soils I’m afraid). It’s likely that a weak front pushes into the area on Sunday night or Monday, but I’m not confident in the details.
Thousands of US Department of Agriculture employees, including food inspectors and disease-sniffing-dog trainers, remain out of work, leaving food to rot in ports and pests to proliferate.
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In mid-February, Trump administration leaders received a desperate warning from their diplomats posted in Vietnam, one of the most important American partners in Asia.
Workers were in the middle of cleaning up the site of an enormous chemical spill, the Bien Hoa air base, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly halted all foreign aid funding. The shutdown left exposed open pits of soil contaminated with dioxin, the deadly byproduct of Agent Orange, which the American military sprayed across large swaths of the country during the Vietnam War. After Rubio’s orders to stop work, the cleanup crews were forced to abandon the site, and, for weeks, all that was covering the contaminated dirt were tarps, which at one point blew off in the wind.
And even more pressing, the officials warned in a Feb. 14 letter obtained by ProPublica, Vietnam is on the verge of its rainy season, when torrential downpours are common. With enough rain, they said, soil contaminated with dioxin could flood into nearby communities, poisoning their food supplies.
Hundreds of thousands of people live around the Bien Hoa air base, and some of their homes abut the site’s perimeter fence, just yards from the contaminated areas. And less than 1,500 feet away is a major river that flows into Ho Chi Minh City, population 9 million.
“Simply put,” the officials added, “we are quickly heading toward an environmental and life-threatening catastrophe.”
They received no response from Washington, according to three people familiar with the situation.
Instead, Rubio and Peter Marocco, another top Trump appointee, have not only ordered the work to stop, but they also have frozen more than $1 million in payments for work already completed by the contractors the U.S. hired. The company overseeing the project is Tetra Tech, a publicly traded consulting and engineering firm based in the U.S., and a Vietnamese construction firm has been tasked with the excavation work.
Then, on Feb. 26, Rubio and Marocco canceled both companies’ contracts altogether before apparently reversing that decision about a week later, agency records show. As of Thursday, the companies had not been paid.
The Trump administration has told the courts repeatedly that its process to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, which manages the project’s funds, has been careful and considered. But the botched situation at Bien Hoa is a stark example of the whiplash, conflicting messages and dire consequences that aid organizations worldwide have faced since early February.
Now, after losing several weeks because of the administration’s orders, the companies are scrambling — at their own expense — to secure the Bien Hoa site before it starts raining, according to documents reviewed by ProPublica and several people familiar with the current situation.
The USAID officials who would typically travel to the air base to provide oversight have been placed on administrative leave or prevented from traveling to check on the work. They’ve also been forbidden from communicating with the Vietnamese government or the companies working at the base, sources say, though they believe that directive was lifted after the contracts were recently reinstated. The confusion has left many at both the embassy and in Washington in the dark about where the situation stands.
To ascertain the current status of the work, ProPublica hired a reporter to visit the air base on Friday.
Workers are laboring in 95 degree heat, surrounded by toxic soil. The site has a skeleton crew of less than half of what they previously had, according to workers and documents reviewed by ProPublica. Some staffers found new jobs during the suspension. People working at the site told the reporter they are worried about completing the work before the rainy season descends and are terrified the U.S. will pause the work again.
Since 2019, the U.S. government has collaborated with Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense to clean up the Bien Hoa air base and agreed to spend more than $430 million for the project. Unlike other foreign aid programs, addressing Agent Orange is more akin to restitution than charity because the U.S. brought the deadly substance there in the first place. “The dioxin remediation program is one of the core reasons why we have an extraordinary relationship with Vietnam today,” a State Department official told ProPublica, “a country that should by all rights hate us.”
With enough contaminated soil to fill about 40,000 dump trucks, the Bien Hoa air base is the largest deposit of postwar pesticides remaining in Vietnam after a decadeslong cleanup campaign. Human rights groups, environmentalists and diplomats consider the cleanup work — along with disability assistance that the U.S. has provided to Agent Orange victims across the country — to be one of the most successful foreign aid initiatives of all time.
All of that was now in peril, the officials wrote in their Feb. 14 letter to USAID officials in Washington. “What immediate actions can be taken to avert a potential life-threatening incident while still maintaining compliance with the Executive Order and the suspension directives?” the officials wrote.
U.S. officials in Vietnam grew increasingly panicked. The ambassador sent a diplomatic cable to Washington, and Congress and USAID’s inspector general each received a whistleblower complaint, multiple people told ProPublica.
“Halting a project like that in the middle of the work, that’s an environmental crime,” said Jan Haemers, CEO of another organization that previously worked in Vietnam to clean up Agent Orange in the soil. “If you stop in the middle, it’s worse than if you never started.”
The Bien Hoa air base on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in 2018. Workers were in the middle of cleaning up an enormous chemical spill there when Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly halted all foreign aid funding.
(Thomas Watkins/ AFP/Getty Images)
The State Department said in a statement that the contracts at Bien Hoa are “active and running” but did not respond to detailed follow-up questions. Tetra Tech and the Vietnamese construction firm did not respond to questions for this story. The Vietnamese Embassy and Ministry of Defense did not return requests for comment. But the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement on Feb. 13 that it was “deeply concerned” about USAID program suspensions, specifically mentioning the Bien Hoa project.
Trump’s aides, including billionaire Elon Musk, began dismantling the U.S. foreign assistance system almost immediately after the inauguration. They dismissed USAID staff en masse, issued sweeping stop-work orders, froze funds and eventually canceled most of the agency’s contracts with aid organizations around the world, leaving countless children, refugees and other desperately vulnerable people without critical services.
On Monday, Rubio boasted on X that they had cut 83% of USAID’s programs because they didn’t align with Trump’s agenda.
After terminating the contracts, Rubio, Musk and Marocco reversed several of their decisions in Vietnam, designating the Bien Hoa project as one of the few programs to survive, at least for now.
Every president since George W. Bush — including Trump — has made good on the American promise to repair relations with Vietnam by cleaning up Agent Orange and helping those sick or disabled from dioxin poisoning. In 2017, Trump landed at Danang Airport, a prior cleanup site, ahead of a free-trade meeting with Asia-Pacific countries. The U.S. now conducts $160 billion in annual commerce with Vietnam, which has also become a key partner against China’s growing influence in the South China Sea. The Pentagon and Vietnamese military now work together as well, including efforts to locate the remains of soldiers missing in action from the war 50 years ago.
“All of this is underpinned by the cooperation on Agent Orange,” said Charles Bailey, a former Ford Foundation representative in Vietnam who co-wrote a book on the country’s relations with the U.S. in the wake of the war. “It’s like pulling out one or two legs of the stool.”
The Bien Hoa project was formally launched and initial contracts signed during Trump’s first presidency. In another example of the administration’s confusing stance toward the project, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told his Vietnamese counterpart on a Feb. 7 phone call that Trump wanted to enhance defense ties by addressing war legacy issues, which include Agent Orange remediation. About half of the project’s funding comes from the Pentagon’s budget, though it’s funneled through USAID, so it was also caught up in the foreign aid freeze.
Environmental consultants, foreign policy experts and government officials said the episode in Bien Hoa shows the administration did not do a thoughtful audit. “One might imagine a less reckless government looking at what we’re doing carefully and then deciding what’s in our interest,” David Shear, a former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam under Barack Obama, told ProPublica.
“But,” he said, “this is government reform by meat cleaver.”
The mixture known as Agent Orange is a combination of two herbicides that the U.S. brought to Vietnam in huge volumes to kill off jungles and mangroves that hid opposition forces during the Vietnam war. The mixture contained dioxin, a deadly substance that not only causes a range of cancers and other illnesses, but is also linked to birth defects for babies exposed in utero. During the war, the U.S. sprayed more than 10 million gallons of the herbicides across vast swaths of the country, exposing U.S. soldiers as well as millions of Vietnamese people and their future children to the deadly toxic substance.
A treatment center for children with disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City in 2009. Many of them are from areas that were heavily sprayed with Agent Orange during the war.
(Kuni Takahashi/Getty Images)
Storage sites like the air bases of Danang and Bien Hoa were heavily contaminated as barrels leaked, broke or were otherwise mishandled. Over the decades, dust has blown the contaminated soil off the bases and abundant rains have pushed the dioxin into waterways and the densely packed surrounding neighborhoods, contaminating fish as well as ducks and chicken that people raise for food. Soil samples at the Bien Hoa base have shown dioxin at levels as high as 800 times the allowed amount in Vietnam.
For decades since the war, and despite extensive documentation of higher rates of cancers and birth defects among people who had been exposed to the chemicals, the U.S. denied the mass toll Agent Orange had taken on Vietnamese people — as well as on American veterans, as ProPublica has previously reported. But starting in the mid-2000s under President George W. Bush, the U.S. began earmarking federal dollars for dioxin remediation in Vietnam to clean up the contamination sites and the two nations’ troubled relationship.
The cleanup work is dangerous and laborious. People hired by the contractors wear extensive protective equipment in the sweltering humidity and must have their blood tested regularly for dioxin. When levels get too high, they are no longer allowed to work at the site. There are supposed to be extensive safety checks in place to ensure the dirt doesn’t poison military officials or the surrounding community.
The plan at Bien Hoa is to excavate a half-million cubic meters of the most contaminated soil and enclose it underground or cook it in an enormous furnace, which hasn’t been built yet, until the dioxin no longer poses a threat. The work requires extensive pumping and management of dioxin-contaminated water. Contractors are halfway through a 10-year project set to happen in stages, and the bulk of the excavation work must be done between December and April when there is less rain.
After Rubio first issued sweeping stop-work orders to aid organizations and contractors around the world in late January, workers from the site were told to stay home for weeks. The companies stopped receiving money to cover payroll and their past invoices. Huge mounds of tarp-covered dirt dotted sections of the base.
USAID and State Department staff scrambled to get the project back online through the State Department’s confusing waiver process and appealed to counterparts in the U.S. A group of Democratic senators sent a letter to Hegseth and Rubio urging them to pay the contractors. “It would be difficult to overstate the damage to the relationship that would result if the U.S were to walk away from these war legacy programs,” they wrote. They got no response.
One of the senators who signed the letter, Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told ProPublica that abandoning the Bien Hoa cleanup is “a betrayal of the goodwill our two nations built over 30 years” and a “gift to our adversaries.”
Even off-season rains pushed the sites to the brink, two sources said, with water pooling up to the edge of protective aprons, threatening to spill out onto an active military runway after recent rainstorms.
Heavier rains typically start in April before the downpours of the rainy season in May.
The contractors are desperately trying to secure the contaminated dirt and pits before then, according to interviews this week with several people working there. But they are two months behind schedule.
“The problem is that the Trump administration has destroyed USAID, so it’s very unclear how we’re going to complete this project,” said Tim Rieser, a longtime aide to former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who led a bipartisan delegation to break ground in Bien Hoa in 2019. “The people making the decisions probably know the least.”
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