Good morning! I’ve come back from holidays, freshly primed to fossick through the Guardian’s many stories – below are some of my favourites from the week. And what a week. The Women’s World Cup has begun. You’ll be getting some important pamphlets in the post. Barbenheimer is here (general consensus? Barbie: great but not groundbreaking, Oppenheimer: “flawed but extraordinary”). Jane Birkin is gone. And King Charles is, er, getting a pay rise.
To add to all that, Venus goes retrograde in Leo today (“I know!” you cry.) For those who set store by the stars, what this means is big questions for your relationships until September, and a perfectly fine excuse to moon over your first love or maybe these photos of lovers, or just settle in and read about good sex.
Tasting notes: Before you settle in for today’s reads, why not make yourself some breakfast? I hear cottage cheese is “back!” – and several readers have made it a morning go-to.
1. Sleep no more (or rather, scratch that – sleep as much as you possibly can)
Eleanor de Jong’s piece on the really, truly massive importance of sleep is a must-read. Very few people need to be told to get more sleep, I’m aware. But de Jong’s description of the “ravages of sleep loss” are nevertheless illuminating and empathetic. And, as with her other writing on mental health, this offers helpful information as well as serious and thoughtful support to those grappling with the issue.
As de Jong writes, there’s growing evidence to link sleep deprivation to a range of psychiatric disorders. Don’t let it alarm you; do give yourself permission to turn off your phone and go to bed.
How long will it take to read: a bit less than three minutes.
Further reading: Did you know sleep tourism is booming? Makes sense, writes Arwa Mahdawi (who explains what it is).
2. Give sorrow words: chatbots and grief
Sunshine was constantly in touch with her mother, Linda. “I always knew she was there, no matter what – if I was upset, or if I just needed to talk. She would always respond.” After Linda’s sudden death, Sunshine, who works in AI, tried therapy and found it disappointing. Then, on an impulse, she fed some of Linda’s last messages into ChatGPT, and asked it to reply in her voice.
What happened next? The chatbot replied – and quite compellingly (Bard and Bing AI were less convincing). “I felt like it was taking the best parts of my mom and the best parts of psychology and fusing those things together,” Sunshine says.
She’s not the only one having this experience. The possibilities of a digital afterlife are rapidly changing – arguably faster than we can keep up.
How long will it take to read: six minutes.
3. What’s done can not be undone: a lament for war-torn Khartoum
“All that we had is gone,” writes Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik in her heart-stopping elegy for Sudan’s shattered capital. “My lament for Khartoum and its people rises with the anguish of what is being lost. And yet it catches in my throat.
“The loss of our home, the scattering of my family, and their hunger and dispossession cannot be mourned without acknowledging that their fate is not the work of a unique and vengeful evil in the shape of the RSF … The fighters’ decision to take up arms, their resentment and nihilism, were all forged in an economic wasteland where war was the most reliable living.
“As we yearn to return,” Malik goes on, “the only hope for the city’s survival, and the safety of those who remain, is the acceptance that it can never be as it was before.”
How long will it take to read: a bit over ten minutes.
If you want to know more: Read this from Malik on the context of the recent violence, explaining how civilians trying to throw off military rule found themselves caught in a bitter struggle between former allies.
4. Vaulting ambition: what’s behind the switch to private schools
In 2022, 64.5% of Australian students went to public school – a fall from 69% two decades ago. “That makes Australia an outlier in the OECD,” Jordyn Beazley and Caitlin Cassidy explain, “where 80% of students on average attend public schools.”
In the decade and a bit since the Gonski reforms were proposed in 2011, experts have observed a crisis emerging – a two-tiered education system segregating haves and have-nots between private and public and private schools. This story looks at what’s behind this shift, and speaks to parents about why they made their choice either way.
How long will it take to read: three minutes.
Further reading: This piece is part of a series of equally important reads launched this week, The gutting of Gonski.
5. Receive what cheer you may: try a Eurotrip … in Australia?
The climate situation in the northern hemisphere is adding a weird edge to feelings of fomo, but few are immune to the yearning that sets in with photos of other people’s holidays. So the ever-practical Mostafa Rachwani decided he could DIY his own European summer at home. “Sydney is a cosmopolitan city, right?” he points out reasonably. “Australia competes in Eurovision?”
Join him as he conjures … the urbane pleasures of Amsterdam: “How about an unnecessary (and arguably dangerous) bike ride through a city that still doesn’t really cater to bikes?”
The museums of Paris: “Though surprisingly crowded for a midweek morning, [Sydney Modern] is pleasant, as long as you ignore the surrounding construction sites and roadworks.”
The culinary delights of Rome: “I ate my $20 slice on the ground, hoping the seagulls menacingly stalking didn’t attack.”
And the charms of Euro cafe culture – at Leichhardt’s (“largely derelict”) Italian forum, where “you can have a morning coffee in total silence while you stare out at the painted cement and consider your life choices.”
Come for the tips, stay for the pics.
How long will it take to read: a bit under two minutes.
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