Happy Saturday! It’s that time of the week – here are five great reads to dive into over your morning cup of brew. Let’s get into it.
1. What will it take for former presidents to speak out on Trump?
Donald Trump’s barnstorming first six weeks in office have left millions of Americans reeling. He has pardoned January 6 insurrectionists, punished journalists, imposed tariffs, sided with Russia over Ukraine, expanded presidential power and unleashed the tech billionaire Elon Musk to slash the federal government. Critics say it is time to break the emergency glass.
Struggling to find a coherent strategy, Democrats used delaying tactics to stall Trump’s cabinet nominees and heckled his address to Congress. Grassroots activists have expressed their anger and fear at town halls while demanding more direct action. Former senior government officials have gone public with their concerns.
But as Trump cuts a destructive path, the silence from former occupants of the Oval Office has been deafening. David Smith asks what it would take for a former president to speak out.
‘It’s hell every single day’: Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, understands why people may be reluctant to speak up. “When you challenge Trump, he goes after you and never lets up. It’s hell every single day, multiple times a day.”
How long will it take to read: four minutes.
2. What couples need to know about desire
Desire discrepancy is one of the most common reasons couples come to certified sex and relationship practitioner Georgia Grace. But while most people think the solution is to “just do it more”, this isn’t the case. To resolve a sexual impasse, Grace says, we need to step back and understand what desire is, what’s affecting it and how a couple can create more mutual pleasure.
Fingerprints: “Our desires, fantasies and physical responses are as unique as the ridges on our fingers,” Grace writes. “It’s actually normal to be different from [your] partner.”
How long will it take to read: four minutes.
3. Cate Blanchett on the state of the world
Over turmeric tea one evening, the double Oscar winner and mother of four reflects on the secret of relationships and how to survive the current news cycle. Cate Blanchett tells Eva Wiseman the only thing keeping her sane at the moment is getting into cold water every day. “You just have to breathe and be there,” she says. “You can resist that pain or you can surrender to it. And I’ve done it long enough now that I can return to that place during the day. Otherwise, you know, my brain’s like a Pac-Man.”
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On the dress she wore to Cannes: “I don’t know that talking about any dress that one wore could have done or will do anything to affect what is going on in Gaza … But I think the lack of listening to people’s point of view and how quickly toxic that conversation became was heartbreaking.”
How long will it take to read: seven minutes.
Further reading: another talented Australian artist worthy of your attention is Vincent Fantauzzo, who spoke this week about his childhood abuse, Heath Ledger and what’s wrong with the art world.
4. How to do a push-up
If someone had told me I’d be reading about the eight ways to do a push-up correctly while waiting for my bus after a morning shift, I would have laughed. But when an exercise is promoted as quick and free, I feel compelled to make a change.
For the beginner: you don’t have to start on the ground, Phil Daoust writes. He suggests doing push-ups “against a wall, the edge of a table or the back of a sofa” to shift some body weight off your hands.
How long will it take to read: four and a half minutes.
Further reading: in the 1980s, one simple exercise proved older adults could build and retain muscle – and caused a paradigm shift in science.
5. A gay community at ‘the centre of the British establishment’
When Alan Turing was at King’s College, Cambridge, gay men felt no need to hide their sexuality, Prof Simon Goldhill says. Even though homosexuality was still illegal in the UK, King’s “was a very camp environment” in the 1930s, the scholar says.
Uncovering: Goldhill’s research has looked into a question that has puzzled historians for decades: why, in the course of reporting a burglary to the police in 1952, did the maths genius volunteer that he was in an illegal homosexual relationship? The ubiquity of gay relationships at the all-male college may explain Turing’s admission.
How long will it take to read: two and a half minutes.
Further reading: now for a very fun read to sign off on – queer line dancing is having a revival. Guardian Australia’s Michael Sun signed up in an “act of impulsive pluck” and found it was “country saloon and it is 2am at a Pride afterparty”.
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