Book before you leap

The 2025 Tournament of Books, presented by Field Notes, is now live. / Field Notes, The Tournament of Books

Denmark's postal service plans to end all letter deliveries at the end of 2025. / BBC News

Russia is working hard to hold on to its military bases in Syria. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

Israel's internal security agency says Netanyahu's policies were among the underlying causes of the October 7 attack. / NPR

The White House has been holding direct talks with Hamas. / axios

The Supreme Court blocks President Trump's freeze on foreign aid. / Semafor

A new study suggests more than half of the world's adults will be obese by 2050. / The Lancet

Abraham Santiago: I was an incarcerated nursing assistant during Covid. This is what I saw. / STAT

Retinol, the wrinkle-erasing, acne-fighting cream, is said to be the result "of decades of horrifying medical abuse." / Teen Vogue

Low-flying satellites—100 miles above the Earth—appear to be coming soon. / Ars Technica

See also: A self-driving Maserati reaches 197.7mph. / The Verge

A visit to a four-story communal treehouse in southwest Arkansas. / Colossal

An ASMR-style look through Carl Jung's "red book" of dreams and visions. / Open Culture

In 1995, bands occupied 41% of the music charts. By 2023, that number had fallen to just 4%. / Voronoi


And now a brief chat with a new Sustaining Member, Nicole P.!

Nicole, you're here because of the Tournament of Books, right? I followed to support the ToB after finding it late last year.

Awesome. What led you to support today? The ToB has shaped my TBR pretty heavily recently, and I found that most of the books chosen for the shortlist were ones I really enjoyed and ended up rating highly. I'm excited for the 2025 championship to start and wanted to support before it started!

🐓  It's thanks to generous readers like Nicole—and all of our Sustaining Members—that we're here, doing our little things. Become a Sustaining Member today! 🐓 🐓

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Your headlines are sourced and composed by Rosecrans Baldwin (☜) and Andrew Womack, Monday through Saturday. View this edition and the latest headlines at TMN.