A list of good reads
- The Guardian has a chilling ground report from ‘Detention Alley’—the remote ICE centres in the American South in which students and academics like Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk are languishing.
- Also in The Guardian: decoding the sudden, surprising rise of beard transplants, an industry which functions like the Wild West.
- BBC News looks at ‘fatal attraction’—how your most attractive qualities can give your partner ‘the ick’.
- Also in BBC News: The return of Sicily’s ‘white gold’—a white mineral-rich resin referenced in the Bible 17 times, and used as a natural sweetener and medicinal aid.
- Also in BBC News: The toxic debate around ‘Snow White’ lead actor Rachel Zegler—from the decision to cast her, to her political views on Trump and Palestine.
- The Economist (login required) argues that an unrestrained Israel is reshaping the Middle East, and predicts that the country’s quest for hegemony will strain domestic cohesion and foreign alliances.
- New York Times (splainer gift link) looks at how scientists are using AI machine learning to find new treatments among thousands of old medicines.
- Washington Post (splainer gift link) asked five AI tools—ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek and Gemini—to write tough emails. There was only one clear winner.
- Financial Times (splainer gift link) profiles the Hotel El Algarrobico in Spain—a 20-storey ‘ghost hotel’ that has never been occupied, yet is resisting all attempts to destroy it.
- Tirthankar Roy and K Ravi Raman in Aeon have a history lesson on how Kerala got rich.
- The Atlantic (splainer gift link) traces the curse of Ayn Rand’s heir—Leonard Peikoff—who dedicated his life to promoting her vision of freedom and self-determination—at great cost.
- Good Food Movement pays tribute to Shree Padre—who built journalism by farmers, for farmers through the monthly magazine Adike Patrike.
