Time suspect
Technical difficulties prevented yesterday's newsletter from being published. Sorry about that.
Recent events—the killing of a senior Hamas leader, explosions in Iran and Lebanon—raise fear of wider conflict in the Middle East. / Politico
A round-up of trends likely to drive humanitarian need in 2024. / The New Humanitarian
Theaters report seeing more standing ovations from audiences. "You're swept along with it, aren't you?" / BBC News
In 2023, a record low was reached in global child mortality, with only 3.6 percent of newborns dying by the age of 5. / The New York Times [+]
China's population, now around 1.4 billion, is projected to drop to around half a billion by 2100—and women are being blamed for it. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
A small polling of American women on plastic surgery. / The Zoe Report
Unrelated: Phrases like "conspicuous consumption" and "dependence effect" can obscure as much as they reveal—"but then I read a novel by Émile Zola." / UnHerd
How big exactly is YouTube? One estimate says 13.325 billion videos. / Ethan Zuckerman
Mark Zuckerberg's Hawaiian estate is thought to suggest "a petty overlord hiding in his castle keep, incapable of imagining anything but a siege." / The Nation
The great Ana Gavrilovska's favorite jazz albums from last year. / Sick Sad Motherslug
See also: The past year in lost ships and underwater discoveries, and Strava's year in sport. / Atlas Obscura, Strava
A $70,000 watch is said to be the first made entirely in the United States in over five decades. / GQ
One reason why we may not have been visited by time travelers? "We aren't important enough." / The Seeds of Science
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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.