People keep asking what people did before the Temple fell and why it wasn’t a Seder: Besides clearing out leaven and eating matzah, it was the sacrifice and eating it. No “on all other days we sit or recline,” or kids asking or etc.

Someone worried about a health symptom might ask a chatbot the same question repeatedly and receive calm, plausible answers each time, relieving anxiety but reinforcing the urge to seek reassurance again. Over time, this can leave people feeling more stuck, not less. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/o...

Passover begins on Wednesday evening and I am here for this: The Wicked Son Runs the Seder: Yiddish Parodies of the Haggadah blog.nli.org.il/en/lbh-hagga...

The U.S. oil blockade on Cuba is exhausting Cuba's universal health care system, a state institution once considered a triumph for a poor nation, but is now struggling to provide basic care. The blockade is causing deaths that would otherwise be preventable. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/w...

Thrilling news!

“I think we’ve had regime change,’’ said Mr. Trump. “It truly is regime change.” But the government, led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the nation’s top clerics, remains in place. Only the leaders have changed. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/w...

As Hossein dug, he thought of the other girls, small bodies curled beneath the wreckage. “Even though my daughter had been found, many others remained trapped,” he says, remembering. “It didn’t matter whose child I rescued. They were all like my own daughters.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Doctors in Gaza say basic diagnostic tools, including biopsy needles, are simply not available. Patients arrive with clearly cancerous masses, yet medics have no means to take samples or carry out the tests needed to confirm a diagnosis. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war, in an apparent rebuke to the Trump administration. Quoting a Bible passage, Leo said: “‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

There’s an almost infinite amount of miraculous music out there; every day I stumble upon artists I’d never heard before Today’s discovery is absolutely off the charts magnificent—Erick Cosaque, from Guadalupe, who blended jazz, soul, & funk with traditional Gwo Ka rhythms youtu.be/2pEZege5GdM?...

I was a bookish teenager with a unibrow and was mercilessly mocked so I can identify with the fictional Mary Bennett. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“When someone, as a consequence of a violent death, cannot recover the body, cannot see the dead, cannot bury them properly according to their rituals, it's an alteration of reality for that person, for that family," says Luis Fondebrider @thedialmag.bsky.social www.thedial.world/articles/new...

"Why, if the only goal is our safety, if that's true, why hit us here?" asks Samira Osseili in Beirut. She’s now living in fear with 12 other relatives in her small apartment, knowing that another strike could come at any moment. www.nytimes.com/video/world/...

Kakapo, a critically endangered parrot species that can be found only in New Zealand, are mating at a record pace this year, making the most of one of the best bumper crops in decades of the fruit from coniferous rimu trees, according to scientists. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/s...

As Hossein dug, he thought of the other girls, small bodies curled beneath the wreckage. “Even though my daughter had been found, many others remained trapped,” he says, remembering. “It didn’t matter whose child I rescued. They were all like my own daughters.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Fears Israel could replicate its 'Gaza model' in Lebanon as satellite imagery captures mounting destruction Israel has reinforced several military bases across southern Lebanon as more troops join its ground invasion, raising fears for the region's population. www.nbcnews.com/world/lebano...

Dr Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said she was “very, very worried” about the potential for nuclear sites to be hit [...] and the health repercussions of a lack of water should desalination plants be further targeted. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

So, so beautiful. Also, why is this a surprise? Scientists Filmed a Whale Birth. The Surprise: Mom Had Many Helpers. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/c...

Narrator: No.

Scholars of Jewish literature, thought, and culture: Please share and consider submitting to our inaugural Yiddish & Hebrew issue edited by @samspinner.bsky.social

banana cream pie clouds stir a sunny sky half-baked lullaby #FungiFriday 💛 #haiku

In 2023, the Irish seaside town of Greystones launched a grass-roots initiative led by local parents, school principals and community members, adopting a voluntary “no smart devices” code and supporting it with workshops and social events. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/r...

Researchers found that nearly a dozen chatbots were highly sycophantic, taking the users’ side in interpersonal conflicts 49 percent more often than humans did — even when the user described situations in which they broke the law, hurt someone or lied. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/w...

Hunters will be banned from shooting a rare and beautiful duck under new proposals to halt the decline of 6 British birds. The new rules would restrict the shooting of species including the distinctive woodcock, the striking pintail, goldeneye and pochard ducks. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Wow, turns out vaccines during pregnancy are... safe and effective, even protecting babies! Incredible! Truly shocking! It's almost like science works?!💉🛡️👶 This admin keeps peddling COVID-19 antivax nonsense, but science prevails.💪 Science: 2,978,547 🧠🪱: -785

Meanwhile in Western Sahara: A settlement should ensure the Sahrawis’ right to reparations for harm against them since Morocco took control of most of the territory, including compensation and the right to return for those displaced outside the territory, says @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2026/03...

Iranian forces appear to have deliberately targeted at least two civilian commercial ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz on March 11, 2026, which would amount to war crimes, says Human Rights Watch @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2026/03...

Narrator: No.

The National Trust said it was thrilled the beavers had been reshaping their new home in Dorset, where they have felled trees to construct a 35-metre dam, slowing the flow of a stream and creating a deep, wildlife-rich pool. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Since Lucy Letby's convictions, dozens of leading medical experts have examined the evidence and argued that the babies died or collapsed due to natural causes and poor care on the unit, and that there was no evidence of murders nor any other deliberate harm. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

So, so beautiful. Also, why is this a surprise? Scientists Filmed a Whale Birth. The Surprise: Mom Had Many Helpers. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/c...

Threatened by Iranian fire & falling debris, Palestinians in the West Bank hear air raid sirens from settlements, but most have nowhere to go for cover. On March 18, 4 Palestinian women were killed when an Iranian cluster bomb slammed into a salon in Beit Awa. www.timesofisrael.com/deadly-missi...

As someone who writes personal essays (and also thinks about AI very often), this was a topic I couldn't resist. substack.com/home/post/p-...

‘59% of teenagers told Pew that students use AI to cheat, while 34% said it happens extremely or very often.’ God help this generation. We have allowed Big Tech to convince us that ‘AI is revolutionizing the world’ and we’re sacrificing the development and well being of children to their Mammon.

Meta and the video streaming service YouTube harmed a young user with design features that were addictive and led to her mental health distress, a jury found on Wednesday. Social media companies were accused of creating products as addictive as cigarettes. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/t...

In countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, agriculture depends on imported fertilizers, including nitrogen-based products sourced from the Gulf, which underpin the high-yield farming systems that feed hundreds of millions of people. @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

Threatened by Iranian fire & falling debris, Palestinians in the West Bank hear air raid sirens from settlements, but most have nowhere to go for cover. On March 18, 4 Palestinian women were killed when an Iranian cluster bomb slammed into a salon in Beit Awa. www.timesofisrael.com/deadly-missi...

Dr Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said she was “very, very worried” about the potential for nuclear sites to be hit [...] and the health repercussions of a lack of water should desalination plants be further targeted. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

We reject 'pro-Israel' loyalty tests based on blind support for every Israeli government decision.

The mayor of London says pedestrianisation will make Oxford Street safer and more enjoyable for visitors, as well as making it "a global leader for shopping, leisure and outdoor events," competing with cities such as Paris and New York. www.bbc.com/news/article...

“I won not just because I didn’t break, but because neither hate nor anger ever took root in me,” Maria Kalesnikava, who was freed three months ago in a U.S.-brokered deal from prison in Belarus, said in an interview in Berlin, her new home. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/w...

Nathan Newby, 35, from Leeds, said he thought Farooq was “probably a nice guy” who was “going through bad things at the time”, and saw himself as someone who was “just in the right place at the right time”. He says would-be attacker asked for a cuddle. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Not so marvelous news. ~95,000 scientists have left the federal government since the Trump regime took over.

Whale populations started to recover. It has not been quick. Whales reproduce slowly. Many species have only one calf every few years. But over time scientists began to see encouraging signs. Now climate change may threaten whales anew, reports @climateages.bsky.social medium.com/the-new-clim...

A couple months ago the @nytimes.com asked me to review a book for them. It turned out to be one of the worst books I've ever read in my life. Today, they published my review: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/b...

“The MS St. Louis carrying Jewish refugees coming from Germany was parked off the coast of Miami and was eventually turned back. And nearly all of the people on that ship were killed in the Holocaust. This case echoes so much of that.”

Every time I show the PBS documentary on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, a few students openly weep in class. I now give a warning.

By reviving long-lost trade routes — notably a maritime expedition to the Land of Punt (possibly present-day Eritrea) that returned with gold, ivory, ebony and myrrh trees—Queen Hatshepsut built the financial bedrock of the 18th dynasty. Wicked Stepmother No More: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/s...

Israel Katz said the Israeli military is targeting villages near the Lebanese border that have mostly emptied after Israel issued evacuation warnings to the population. He said the practice of flattening houses there follows “the Rafah & Beit Hanoun model in Gaza." www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/w...

As the flying fox migrates along Australia’s eastern coastal regions, watch out for what bat scientists call its seed rain: The animals defecate in the air without stopping to roost. In this way flying foxes seed more than 91 million trees, mostly eucalypts. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/s...