A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday. 

Book Review: Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor (2026). Earlier this year a glowing review of this book caught my attention and, since I’m already a big Antony Beevor fan (he’s a military historian with a dozen books about World War II), I dropped some hints that this would be a nice Father’s Day gift and was rewarded for my efforts. I had heard the name Rasputin many times but knew little about him or his place in history. This book not only solved that gap but it did so in a compelling way that rivaled the best adventure novels. Born in 1869, Grigori Rasputin was a Russian peasant who gained fame as a religious mystic who became an irreplaceable confidant of the empress Alexandra and her spouse, Czar Nicholas II. Rasputin gained enormous influence over governmental affairs but his personnel recommendations were based on purging those who thought him a fraud rather than with competence. This was disastrous when World War I began and the Russian Army collapsed as did domestic support for the Czar. This book ends with Rasputin dead and the Czar and his family under arrest. Another Beevor book covers the resulting Russian Revolution. I have that on my reading list. 

Article: “Trump U-Turn Kept Graham ‘In the Game’” by Peter Baker, New York Times, July 14, 2026. When US Senator Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly on July 11, 2026, at age 71, his passing tested the old saying, “Of the dead nothing but good is to be said.” The basis of that, I guess, is that since the dead aren’t able to defend or justify themselves, it’s unfair of the living to speak ill of them. I think that’s BS when it comes to a public figure since their record should speak for itself. In this “think piece,” Baker, a longtime DC reporter for the Times, conveys Graham’s own explanation for his “head-spinning transformation” from “one of President Trump’s most scathing critics to one of his closest allies.” Baker, who had known Graham since 1998, described him as cynical and opportunistic and quoted Graham himself in saying Trump had the power in the Republican Party and in government and, if someone wanted to partake in that power, as Graham did apparently beyond all else, one had to become an open and unabashed Trump enthusiast. My sense is that history will not be kind to Graham and enablers like him, but that depends on who gets to write that history which remains an open question. 

Podcast: “You can’t ignore Google Zero anymore”The Vergecast, July 25, 2026. “The Verge” is an online news site that has covered the tech sector since 2011. Besides its website, it produced several podcasts including The Vergecast which features reporter David Pierce and editor-in-chief Nilay Patel. Trained as a lawyer but with a long career as a tech journalist and editor, Patel has long warned of “Google Zero,” the point at which Google stops sending web traffic to third-party websites. Patel explains that the web until now has rested on an unwritten contract whereby independent sites create content and make it available for free while Google indexes that content and sends people to it where they see ads that help pay for the independent site and its employees. However, within the past year, Google radically altered its search method. Now, when you type a query, Google first gives you an AI generated answer and only then provides links to websites in the traditional way. Google does embed links in the AI response, but few people click through to them and rely solely on the AI response. Diminished traffic also diminishes revenue going to the independent sites which makes them unsustainable. They either go out of business or block Google’s AI engines which in turn diminish the usefulness of the information put out in Google’s AI replies. This is a complex, multidimensional problem without a clear solution but it’s important that we’re all aware of it since we rely on the web for so much of the information we use in our lives. 

Newsletter: “Free Ride” in GBH daily newsletter. Formerly known as WGBH and with a television, radio and internet presence, GBH has a free newsletter each weekday with stories and information from Boston and vicinity. To help promote the MBTA’s “free ride” program which allows everyone to ride commuter rail for free on Fridays in the summer, GBH has a recurring newsletter feature suggesting ways to utilize that service. Last month, “Free Ride” suggested going to Lowell to check out the arts scene. Here’s an excerpt: “But you can also head north to Lowell, home to a collection of art galleries and local artists you can enjoy absolutely free: Each one of these galleries costs $0 to visit. If you have some extra cash and see something you love, you can of course buy a print or original work of art — I spotted small pieces for as little as $6 and larger ones for a few hundred. Your Free Ride won’t be free anymore, but you can feel good knowing you supported the Merrimack Valley’s art scene.” The article highlights The Brush Art Gallery and Studios as 256 Market Street, ALL Arts Gallery at 307 Market Street, and Western Avenue Studios at 160 Western Ave. It’s great that GBH is urging people from Boston to travel to Lowell to visit these places, but I’d like to urge those already living here to check them out as well.