Reading. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/o...

"Since written language only emerged about 5,000 years ago — recent in evolutionary terms — our brains haven’t had time to evolve dedicated reading circuits. Instead, we’ve repurposed the neural networks that once kept our ancestors alive in the wild."

Amazingly creative life here. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/a...

And for your pets, too. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/m...

Reading. A new novel about life in Lagos by the talented Pemi Aguda. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/b...

"“The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass relates only his own views on slavery; we cannot properly assess the merits of his book without giving equal time to his slave owner.”

Great to see African nations pushing back. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/w...

Credit where due. WaPo has owned the story of how the ongoing war is really going. See the follow-on item, as well. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Just in case you didn't understand at first. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/u...

Chronicle of a (once great newspaper's) death foretold.

"Real position" and JD Vance sit uneasily together.

This gets very good once past the opening, especially on DNA, and on what impressions we might make on visitors from afar. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/o...

A protean, and you might say manic, American life. What an obituary. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/b...

Today's Washington Post home page.

Mali and you. (Yes, you.) foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/04/m...

Lovely piece. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/w...

The Washington Post front page.

Some thoughts about Mali and the Sahel. foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/04/m...

Today, as in the 1990s, Mali stands out as a sentinel for an enormous swath of the continent, only this time as an ominous one, writes columnist @hofrench.bsky.social.

Some thoughts about Mali and the Sahel. foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/04/m...

Quiet. Sharp. Dignified. R.I.P., Ron. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/u...

Reading. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/w...

Irony drips in layers here. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/b...

Frightening degree of focus and cleanliness from Sinner.

Excellent essay. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/o...

Reading. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

WaPo display page. Not much news fit to print.

Rough out there for a lot of people. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Hadn't seen it framed exactly this way. www.wsj.com/economy/cons...

Reading. (Our international system: The powerful do what they can. The weak do what they must.) www.ft.com/content/e62d... Liberia threatened with funding loss if it fails to sell carbon credits

Reading.

@hofrench.bsky.social @siddharthamitter.bsky.social An excellent podcast from RFI marking the 60th anniversary of the 1966 World Black Arts Festival in Dakar. I think you'll like it. rfi.my/Cdld

A Friday antidote to this foolishness. The classic "Chalice in the Palace," by U-Roy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uds2...

Reading. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Do they have any idea how gross this is? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/n...

Display page, with stock photo.

One of the coolest things during #SemaforWorldEconomy was the library in the green room featuring books from our verticals. The Africa section had @hofrench.bsky.social as only author with three of his recent books on display. Also @doubleeph.bsky.social, @stuartareid.bsky.social among others.

The NYT is obsessed with the costly and mostly quixotic pursuit of longevity (WaPo, whose front page carries features on the topic almost daily is even worse), and I can't help but read this as a symptom of rich world selfishness and anomie. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/y...

Honestly reading about this on the regular has a default group of neurons just set to:

Congratulations, and well deserved. I enjoyed the book very much, especially having covered the city in the ashen '80s aftermath.

Second (and last) #SCOTUS ruling is the big one, Louisiana v. Callais. For a 6-3 majority (Rs v. Ds), Justice Alito purports to narrow the ability of states to draw majority-minority districts as a remedy for race-based vote dilution, but, per Kagan's dissent, comes pretty close to gutting the VRA:

American car makers have been deeply cynical since the 70s, using the "threat" of cheap foreign cars to get the government to raise barriers, pocket the profits, and double down on big, heavy, innovation-free vehicles. Chinese cars are both good and cheap. www.wsj.com/business/aut...

Every bastion of US hegemony is crumbling or under growing pressure. It's systemic. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/w...

This is very good. www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Very interesting essay on the risks of cognitive offloading AI by my friend, Bright Simons. www.theideasletter.org/essay/the-so...