Authoritarianism in Turkey Is Making the Earthquake Even Deadlier (Tori Otten/TNR)
The New Non-Alignment: South Africa's naval exercise with Russia, China raises Western alarm (Reuters) #BRICS
U.S. tries to woo India away from Russia with display of F-35s, bombers (Reuters) #BRICS
“International aid began pouring into Turkey, but northwestern Syria, which was also hard-hit, received only a trickle. It was a bitter blow for Syrians, whose lives had already been uprooted by years of civil war, mass displacement and death. Today, we hear from some Syrians and look at why it is so difficult for the world to help them.” (The Daily)
Why people are burning banks in Beirut (SEMAFOR)
“It wasn’t just him targeting Jada Pinkett-Smith, who suffers from alopecia, that’s got him in trouble with Black men and women through the years. Antagonizing Black women has always been part of (Chris) Rock’s approach to comedy and TikTok users have continuously pointed that out.” (TheRoot)
“The messages show that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham brutally mocked lies being pushed by former President Donald Trump’s camp asserting that the election was rigged. The court filing offered the most vivid picture to date of the chaos that transpired behind the scenes at Fox News after Trump lost the election and viewers rebelled against the right-wing channel for accurately calling the contest in President Joe Biden’s favor.” (Oliver Darcy/Reliable Sources)
The Strange Experience of Snooping Through Your Literary Hero’s Closet (Carina Chocano/NYT)
Right-wing rings of power: The far-right's bizarre obsession with Lord of the Rings Right-wing Lord of the Rings fans find archconservative lessons in Middle-earth. Why? (Jeremy Lindenfeld/Salon)
The Dark Scandals and Power Struggles of Sumner Redstone, Les Moonves, and the Companies They Controlled (InsideTheHive; Vanity Fair)
“The book, out Wednesday from Penguin Random House, also claims (Sumner) Redstone called President Barack Obama the N-word and that he hated President Donald Trump so much, his computer had a button to say ‘F–k you’ whenever anyone mentioned the former chief executive. In 1987, Redstone, a former Army officer, became one of the country’s most powerful media moguls in a $3.4 billion hostile takeover of Viacom, the parent of the cable networks MTV and Nickelodeon. He controlled Viacom and CBS almost until his death in 2020 at age 97.” (P6)
“After I started writing about QAnon, I started to receive a lot of these messages about getting friends or relatives out of the movement. The emails were filled with anguish, and a desire to reconnect with the person they knew before QAnon grabbed hold of them. But I had never received an email like this before." (Will Somer/VF)
Cocaine Bear arrives in cinemas next week, and now there’s an official companion video game. Cocaine Bear: The Rise of Pablo Escobear sees players take control of a cocaine-fuelled bear, who’s out to cause chaos in a series of Pac-Man-inspired mazes. (NME)
Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens big. (Variety)
“Sotheby's will bring the Codex Sassoon - the earliest, most complete Hebrew Bible extant, dating to the late ninth century - to auction in May … The codex is named for its prominent modern owner, David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942), who assembled the most significant private collection of Judaica and Hebraica manuscripts in the world. Sassoon had a special affinity for Bibles in particular, and some of the most valuable and important items in his library belonged to this genre of Hebrew literature. His collection catalogue, Ohel Dawid, begins and ends with biblical material, and Sassoon 1053 is its very last entry, giving pride of place to this monument of medieval Jewish civilization.” (FineBooksMagazine)
“Before taking legal action, Condé Nast repeatedly asked Drake and 21 Savage to stop using the fake cover and magazine, which featured Drake with a photoshopped image of a younger Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Bowes said the duo ignored the requests, leaving the company with “no other option but to take legal action.” (SEMAFOR)