A list of good reads
- If you read only one thing, make it this very witty New York Times (splainer gift link) essay by Caity Weaver on a “curated” trip for millennials to Morocco.
- Also in the New York Times (gift link): why disinfecting sprays are not good for you.
- BBC News offers a deep dive into the year-long bitter protest of tribal communities in Chhattisgarh who are determined to shut down Adani’s coal mine.
- Undark has a must-read on why that recycled plastic bag may not be recycled at all.
- Check out The Verge for a good analysis on the latest salvo fired by Hindenburg Research on Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block. Yup, this is the same company behind the bombshell Adani report.
- Mint has a very good piece on the gentrification of Bangalore’s iconic darshinis—the casual, no-frills, quick-service restaurants that are deeply woven into the city’s food culture.
- If you’re worried about how to spot a deepfake, Deutsche Welle has you covered.
- Business Insider reports on the cult of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew—who has become ragingly popular with users after being smacked around by the US Congress.
- Heather Schwedel in Slate can’t get enough of Gwyneth Paltrow’s appearance in court in the latest celeb trial. She is being sued for $300,000 for skiing right into a man on the slopes in Utah ski resort in 2016.
- Deborah Carr in CNN takes up the cause of greatly maligned 92-year-old Rupert Murdoch—who is being trolled for getting hitched for the fifth time because of ageism.
- Here’s something fun: Buzzfeed designed an AI bot to cast actors to play live-action versions of famous Disney characters—and the results are a lot of fun.
- Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link) looks at the bizarre trend of insanely long shampooing rituals—some of which take over an hour.
