Like the disfigured--crying from gaping mouths. (Rows of fireplaces and chimneys are all that remain of several homes in a residential neighborhood in Spokane, Washington, after being burned by wildfire, Monday, August 3, 2026. Lindsey Wasson, AP, via France 24.)

It’s a brilliant New York Times photo edit for an article marking a war that, as its 60-day ceasefire reaches its August 17 expiration, has become both consequential and background noise. (Ships anchored this month in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran. Ali Saeedi/Getty)

* One can sheerly say: grifting has gone from disguise to a look. * What's with the "feels like," Businessweek? The wolf looks so bored, it's like: game over. * Once the ranch bosses started taking their cut off the top, the town got the message: fleece early, fleece often.

Great title in these trad wife times. My Mother Doesn't Work Olga Steinepreis, Germany Via Lens Culture’s 2026 Critics’ Choice Awards. Full entry: www.lensculture.com/photo-compet...

The red scare that’s real. (Fire retardant coats a neighborhood in Spokane, Washington, on Sunday, August 2. Wildfires near Spokane have destroyed hundreds of homes and structures. John Stember/The New York Times.) Via CNN Photos this Week

Reading the Mag Covers: Don’t think of a government agency. (illo: @twrushing, photo: @thevoorhes. Via Coverjunkie)

Illustration of the Day: Odysseus, pressed into service as a modern projection, exposes the fault lines in men and the male leader.  (Anna Mallina for NYT Opinion)

This week in pictures: War by choice, baking planet by neglect. 1 - Fort Hope wildfire evacuation, Ontario, July 19. Master Cpl. Natasha Punt/Canadian Armed Forces. 2 - Dignified transfer for 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, killed in the Iran war, Dover AFB, Del., July 22. AP Photo/Matt Rourke.

Between the headline and photo, a non-normalizing breath of fresh air.

Climate Crisis Makes Quantum Leap Illustrations that break with typical greenwashing. Clearly, we’re getting torched. Big Issue (UK), The Economist (UK), via Coverjunkie

Latest doom-wash of climate emergency: German drowning deaths illustrated with picture-perfect day at the lake. (The Guardian.) Lake in Bavaria this month. 📷Michael Nguyen/NurPhoto France's Heatwave Was a Mass-Casualty Event. The Photos Don't Look Like It readingthepictures.media/p/frances-he...

It’s appalling seeing Trump’s DHS—with all its immigrant eradication terror—co-opt the "we are the world" US Men’s soccer team to push a white Christian nationalist homeland. My 4th of July is the next World Cup match. readingthepictures.media/p/my-4th-of-... Poster: DHS/Photo: @USMNT.

People are so desperate to cool off that they're drowning in canals. The media keeps feeding us frolic. France's Heatwave Was a Mass-Casualty Event. The Photos Don't Look Like It Tom Nicholson/Reuters. Julien De Rosa, AFP/Getty readingthepictures.media/p/frances-he...

What Trump is hiding—if the NYT is asking—is narcissistic injury. Paint might flake, algae may bloom, but the curtain surrounding the Trump-free face of the Kennedy Ctr looks long-term. Political Theater: Erasing Donald J. Trump Off the Kennedy Center  readingthepictures.media/p/political-...

No, it's been gerrymandered. Aaron Schwartz/Reuters

You snooze, you lose. My fave from the Presidentially-disrupted NBA finals game at MSG last night.

More from the climate emergency. Spectators sit in the shade while watching a third round match the French Open, at Roland Garros in Paris, May 29. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

If Iran could hit the Navy’s Fifth Fleet HQ and force the evacuation of America’s biggest, “indestructible” embassy in Baghdad, the damage and abandonment show how badly this war has gone. Surrender: How Trump Lost the Iran War, in Pictures 📷Hadi Mizban/AP readingthepictures.media/p/how-trump-...

Have you seen this? Despite CNN and NYT reporting, few Americans know about the losses the U.S. has suffered across the Mid East. Here: an Iranian drone hits U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet HQ in Bahrain on day 1 Surrender: How Trump Lost the Iran War, in Pictures readingthepictures.media/p/how-trump-...

The Press and the Presser It’s sad to see the regime’s violence bleed over to the press, as pummeled as they are already. Gilded Age and Days of Rage at White House Correspondents’ Dinner Photo: Evan Vucci/Reuters. Guests took cover inside the ballroom. readingthepictures.media/p/gilded-age...

The art of plurality ✒️Steven Wilson Studio. Guardian Weekly, 14.11.2025, via Coverjunkie

Iran loosens its grip on the straight, but for how long? Tehran billboards are telegraphs, the waterway a power fabric. Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA. A large-scale billboard in Tehran refers to Iran’s stranglehold on the straight of Hormuz

The rare early heat wave is threatening to shatter Northeast records — “borderline unprecedented as far as the duration of it this time of year,” experts say. —AP This photo from last January’s California firestorm just won a World Press Photo award. 📷 Ethan Swope/AP/World Press Photo 2026

Read it and weep: Headline and image a vivid counter to White House climate denial and Middle East adventurism. 📷Mario Tama/Getty. A woman in a lagoon in Tuvalu – a low-lying South Pacific country that may become uninhabitable within decades due to sea-level rise caused by the climate crisis.

Iran doesn’t have much in the way of fighter jets, but after this weekend in Pakistan, this Tehran mural — a collision with a Star of David — hits as much on Washington’s strategic collapse as on who the real heavyweight opposition is. Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

Shackle meets Chucks. Greg Constantine’s migrant detention portrait, and more.  Caught My Eye: War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things readingthepictures.media/p/caught-my-... Photo: Greg Constantine / 7 Doors Immigration Detention project.

Looks like we have Iran right where they want us. On that poster of our jets caught in their nets, and more... Caught My Eye: War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things. readingthepictures.media/p/caught-my-... (Photo: Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times.)

Doug Mills’ visual commentary on Trump's "all knowing." The President couldn’t imagine how this war could go wrong, when almost everyone who studies Iran already had. ...Or, maybe that's Teflon exploding. (Photo: Doug Mills/New York Times. President Donald Trump at NRCC Fundraising Dinner in DC.)

You’ve seen Trump saluting the caskets at Dover in his USA ‘45–47’ hat. Julia Nikhinson’s AP frame shows the same, but the way she captures his eyes closed makes the scene more complex—and harder to let go of. Trump, the Bomber, and the Blowback readingthepictures.media/p/caught-my-...

I just published a post on the run of recent Trump‑and‑bomber imagery. Minutes later, this almost too‑on‑the‑nose Oval Office pic turned up: Trump completely obsessed with a model B-2. 📷 Julia Nikhinson/AP readingthepictures.media/p/caught-my-...