It’s not great to rely on unnamed White House officials, but one alleges that Trump is “just bored and wants to move on” from Iran. / MS NOW
Hamilton Nolan: “It is a moral imperative for members of the US military to leave their jobs… They have a bad boss and he is making them do bad things.” / How Things Work
Beyond those directly killed by ICE are people whose medical care has been neglected during detention—such as a Minnesotan now in hospice after missing chemo. / The Minneapolis Star Tribune
Regarding gambling and “rigged pitches” in politics: “It’s not just wagering on a policy outcome that you suspect will happen. It’s changing policy outcomes based on what can be wagered.” / Derek Thompson
See also: A surge in cocaine use at the same time the opioid overdose crisis has started to ebb “is a warning that drug use doesn’t simply end—it evolves.” / Vox [$]
If you enjoy these headlines, please join us as a Sustaining Member to support what we do and unlock access to paywalled links.
Scientists are trying to figure out how to transport antiprotons generated at CERN for experiments elsewhere. By truck, the biggest obstacle may be traffic. / The Guardian
See also: The case for taxing autonomous vehicles before they flood free streets. / Works in Progress
The White House’s move to pay firms to abandon their offshore wind ambitions may be illegal. / Canary Media
Tracing citations to justify the IOC’s genetic sex testing leads to “a paper by a eugenicist who did not even manage to prove his argument.” / COYOTE
“Greenery that first appears static and inert looks very different when we imagine a being with its head in the ground, operating on a different timescale.” A summary of Michael Pollan’s new book on consciousness. / The Conversation
Barton Friedland: When a human works with an AI system, something emerges that is not consciousness, “but it is not mere computation, either.” / Noema
“Don’t obsess over speed. You’re a human, not a robot. It’s a dance, not a show-off.” To escape an increasingly AI-heavy world, it’s time to learn the guitar. / Longreads
An Irish town of 22,000 residents (mostly) commits to not equipping its children with smartphones. / The New York Times [$]
Making it as an actor in Bollywood is said to rely mostly on luck, “giving the whole enterprise an uncharted feel.” / The Dial
A subtype of the influencer accent is the emergent Lip Filler Accent, where someone sounds as if they’ve had injections, even if they haven’t. / Defector
See also: Influencers worry their jobs are giving them neck wrinkles from scrolling all day. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
Unrelated: Because today would be Frank O’Hara’s 100th birthday, here are “The Day Lady Died” and “Steps.” / Poetry Foundation, Read a Little Poetry
Today at the 2026 Tournament of Books, presented by Field Notes, the Zombie Round begins, setting up the contenders for next week’s championship! / Field Notes, The Tournament of Books
And now a brief chat with new Sustaining Member Kathy M.!
Hi, Kathy. Thanks so much for supporting! Thank you for your personal note. I love to acknowledge, encourage and practice this sort of behavior and with that will return in kind.
You found us via the Tournament of Books, is that right? I learned of the Tournament of Books yesterday when I read Melissa Krisch’s “Good List” in the New York Times. Perhaps you are now being inundated with clicks on your website and, if so, I do hope that is a pleasant experience :)
Yeah, that was a really nice mention! Any particular reason you decided to support? My decision to support ToB was likely prompted by the March Madness fervor in my predominantly male household consisting of a husband and three sons. The only other female is a lovely feline named Zinnia and she is not the wagering kind.
In the members area, unlocked links from Vox, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal ↓