06 May 24 Monday Briefing

Hello to all my new subscribers and followers!

News Roundup

Rafah’s being evacuated as US campus protests and arrests continue apace, a US diplomat quits over Gaza, Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera office, and Eurovision 2024 in Malmö is a… flashpoint, which about rounds up what’s been happening over the past week over this increasingly hot-button situation in the Middle East.

Tesla’s had quite the week too. Musk visited China and returned with wins, stock prices jumped 16%, beady-eyed competitors are looking on like hawks, and Ars Technica asks the important questions – can things be turned around, or is this the beginning of the end?

Watch/Scroll

As a woman, if something wasn’t researched and tested on other women, you should probably not do it/ingestit/follow it.

I’m no diva, but I’d complain too if I had to sit next to a farting, drooling bulldog for 13 hours.

When you hear an upbeat song and can’t stop moving your body, do what the Yi people of Yunnan do – pick something up, lift it over your head, and start a dance line.

If you thought old men were driving whisky sales in China, you’d be wrong.

Read

There are corners of the Internet that believe Barron Trump, American Caesar, is here to save the US of A. Have they also considered trying to find and eliminate the reincarnations of Cassius and Marcus yet?

Most legal codes consider smuggling of inanimate goods to be no bueno, and if those goods are animate humans, doubly no bueno. And yet, in a world of greys and systemic injustices, Jason De Leon makes the case that human smugglers are less psychopathic villains than opportunistic navigators of an inhumane system.

Ponder

Will you ever get on a Boeing 737 or 787 again? After reading this article by Cory Doctorow, I’m quite happy to stick with Airbus or bust.

How long will you want to cling on to life, if you knew the technology to assist with that gets ever more sophisticated?