Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
To err is human. To blame someone else for it is Trump's policy.
FBI targets journalists along with billionaires
“At 6:05 a.m. on Jan. 14, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation converged at the door of Hannah Natanson, a reporter at The Washington Post. They had a search warrant and entered her home, seizing her iPhone and other devices … The event put Ms. Natanson’s name among the targets of the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign against news organizations. There was no precedent for the Justice Department’s searching a reporter’s home in connection with a national security leak investigation, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. But on Monday, Ms. Natanson was recognized for something else: a Pulitzer Prize.” First, the F.B.I. Searched Her Home. Then, She Won a Pulitzer. [Gift Article]
“Nearly three weeks after The Atlantic reported that some government officials were alarmed by FBI Director Kash Patel’s behavior, including conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences, MS NOW reported this morning that the bureau has ‘launched a criminal leak investigation’ that focuses on the Atlantic journalist who wrote the story, Sarah Fitzpatrick.” The FBI Is Reportedly Investigating a Leak to an Atlantic Writer. [Gift Article]
The Guardian – World’s most powerful are suing media outlets before stories are even published, says editor. Powerful figures are increasingly threatening to sue media outlets before they have even published a story, the editor of the Wall Street Journal has said. Emma Tucker, whose title is being sued by Donald Trump over its reporting of his relationship with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said the act of reporting itself was now under threat from the use of lawfare. She said the tactic of threatening to sue newspapers before they had published a story had become an established PR strategy of the powerful amid greater distrust of the established media. “One of the biggest challenges to us now isn’t so much what happens afterwards,” Tucker told the Truth Tellers journalism summit. “It’s what happens before you even publish. That is a massive challenge for us…”
Inspired, negotiated and orchestrated by a trio of friends / advisers / colleagues – the late, great Paolo Ettore, the creative ‘perfect guest’ Fabrizio Caprara and New Zealand’s Sundance Kid, Brian Sweeney.
In a world seemingly obsessed with youth, we can easily miss the gifts that come from our elders
At a recent retreat I attended at a Buddhist monastery in France, retreatants had an afternoon to put questions to a panel of monks and nuns. Almost all the questions were about how to remain actively engaged in living mindfully, whether developing nourishing practices for oneself and others or transformative resistance to injustice. While listening to the monastics offer their thoughtful reflections a question popped into my head: “Where do people go on a regular basis to seek wisdom?”
It doesn’t require a lot of research to know that most people do not actively engage with organised religion or spiritual practices and traditions in the same way they did in the past. Regardless of one’s opinions about religion and spirituality today, they were, for much of human history, the main routes through which communities sought guidance and direction for how to live their lives, how to contribute to society and what to do in challenging circumstances. That would be a wonderful topic for another day. But for now I’m wondering about the places we might rarely think to look for wisdom but where we might find wise guidance for how to live our lives.
I love the print “First Kick of Life”, a 1974 colour etching by American author, artist and designer Kay Brown. Held at the Brooklyn Museum, the print shows two mirror silhouettes of a pregnant woman, one blue and one white, set against an orange background. Brown was one of the founders of the Where We At: Black Women Artists collective (WWA), a group affiliated with the Black Arts Movement (BAM) of the 1960s and ’70s. Like BAM, WWA was focused on social awareness, artistic practice and self-representation as well as collaborative efforts for wider public recognition and reception of issues important to Black women artists.
The title of the print explains why the woman has her hands on her stomach: she is responding to the new life growing in her body. Shown with her back arched and head raised, she looks as if she is receptive to the knowledge her body is offering her: that it is full of life. This tender composition reminds me of the miraculous process of creating another human being. But it also prompts me to consider how our bodies constantly give us information about our internal and external life experiences. I think that to tap more deeply into this awareness is to begin to access the wisdom of our bodies.
That may sound vague, but I think back to how many times I have made decisions because of some gut feeling or when I have ignored my body’s cues. If we thought of physical sensations and emotional responses in this way, who knows how it could change the way we listen and respond to our bodies on a daily basis? And how that might affect our wider and interconnected lives.
In the 1894 painting “The Adoration II” by Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler — an artist whose works I’ve discussed many times — a young boy centred in the canvas sits on his knees in a pasture of chicory flowers. His calves are tucked neatly beneath his thighs, and his hands, directed towards the ground, are gently held together as though ready to receive something. Hodler used his son, Hector, as a model for this piece.
The painting is seemingly simple and sparse. Yet the figure’s posture is one of reverence and makes me think of ancient illustrations from different spiritual traditions of a disciple or student sitting at the feet of a teacher, although here it is as if the non-human world takes the role of teacher. The concept of Earth or nature as a source of wisdom is not new, by any means, but it is one that we readily and repeatedly forget or ignore.
As April came and went, I found myself bowled over by how lush and generative the spring season has been. Cherry blossoms have weighed down tree branches, poppies have started to bloom in meadows, and the woods have filled out so one can barely see patches of blue sky unless you look straight up. What has continued to arise for me, watching this season unfold while also reflecting on the ongoing damage we, as a society, are inflicting on our planet, is how resilient Earth is, and how much of that strength might lay in its interconnected ecosystems.
There is so much wisdom for us to learn from how Earth survives and thrives through a web of interdependence across different species and from observing the more visible natural cycles of life throughout the year. Hodler’s painting reminds me that we are all, in a way, like children receiving the gifts of Earth’s abundance and generosity, strength and wisdom. Yet, unlike the child in the painting, too many of us are indifferent to the value and the wonder of this planet we inhabit.
I was immediately drawn to the 2021 print “Aunties Inside” by American multimedia artist Melissa Joseph. Joseph is of Indian and Irish descent and the print shows four of her aunties in India sitting closely together as if they are presiding over something, or simply holding court, waiting to receive us, the viewers. The women are wearing brightly coloured dresses and saris, and each of them is wearing a bindi in the centre of the forehead. Traditionally the bindi symbolised the third eye, an element of belief in some eastern spiritual and religious traditions that an invisible eye positioned in the middle of the forehead can be a portal of insight and wisdom, a way to see beyond the ordinary.
In a world seemingly obsessed with youth, we can easily miss the gifts that come from life experiences
I wanted to include this image because I think many of us live in societies that continually diminish the significance of older generations. We value youth over advanced age, instead of learning to see and appreciate what every generation has to offer a community. Something about this painting made me think about my own childhood, both in Nigeria, where I am from, and in other countries.
I grew up with many aunties active and engaged in my life, and more generally in Nigeria children across ethnic groups and cultures are taught, from the moment we can understand, to respect our elders and be open to the wisdom they might have to offer. Of course, not every person older than you is wise, but people with more life experience often have some wisdom to share, even if it is about mistakes made and lessons learnt.
Sometimes, in a world seemingly obsessed with youth, as well as generally with what is new and cutting edge, we can easily miss the gifts that come from the life experiences and some sustained practices that generations held before ours. We do not always have to search far for wise counsel and guidance. Sometimes trees of wisdom are growing in our midst, if we could only recognise the fruit they offer.
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As the number of people with dementia crests 1mn in the UK, gardening projects to help reduce stress, improve mood and stave off cognitive decline are blossoming
Murray Withers
We start with meditation. Zak Gratton, project officer at wildlife charity Froglife in Frome, Somerset, encourages us to tune in to our surroundings, feel the ground beneath our feet and smell the air. It sets us up well for Gratton’s Wild Memories session, which involves a walk along the river collecting leaves, fruits and other plants to make into a mandala circular artwork back at a nearby allotment.
His is one of a growing number of gardening projects for people with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. “It’s all about rejecting the stigmas around dementia, championing what people can achieve rather than lamenting what is being lost,” says Gratton. In recent decades thousands of these “sanctuary spaces” have opened in the UK as charities attempt to meet growing demand for their services. Last year the Alzheimer’s Society estimated there were nearly 1mn diagnosed and undiagnosed people with dementia in the UK. By 2040 that number is expected to rise to 1.4mn.
From wading into and clearing out ponds and tending to sensory gardens, to creating wild flower meadows, these community gardening initiatives reflect a blossoming body of evidence that suggests a good dose of physical activity staves off cognitive decline, helping people to manage their condition.
A ‘Wild Memories’ session at Froglife in Frome, Somerset
Carly Wood, a senior lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at Essex university, points to “well-evidenced” benefits of gardening for people with dementia in four key areas: physical, mental, behavioural and social. Lower stress and BMI levels lead to fewer bouts of depression and anxiety, reduced agitation and renewed vigour, Wood says.
The social element is crucial to breaking what Gratton calls a “negative cycle” of staying indoors in isolation. Bruce, a member of the Frome sessions, says: “I feel at ease with the people I’m talking to now. We have a laugh.”
Many dementia gardening projects also include people with other long-term conditions. Sessions are typically for six to eight people, with carers and volunteers boosting the cohort. Some attendees come from a “social prescribing” route — patient referral to community activities to support their health and wellbeing — while others may have seen adverts in their local parks or on social media. In Frome, some regulars come from the care home over the road. The aim is to help them develop confidence and skills that last beyond a project.
Arun Veerappan, 30, was diagnosed with the musculoskeletal condition ankylosing spondylitis, then developed a neurological disorder with similar symptoms to dementia. He joined a therapeutic gardening group run by Thrive at Battersea Park, south London. Here he says he found a “calming space” where cognitive tasks could feel less overwhelming. Helping to cultivate Thrive’s sensory garden and herbal tea beds felt like “huge achievements”.
Thrive in London’s Battersea Park offers a ‘calming space’ where tasks feel less overwhelming
The sessions have encouraged Veerappan to take part-time roles, including at the Disability Policy Centre, a research organisation and think-tank, and allowed him to interact more comfortably with others. With his parents he has planted a climbing jasmine at their shared home.
Integral to many of these enterprises is the idea of “co-production”: setting up projects that are not top-down, fixed exercises, but which evolve under participants’ direction. In Frome, “everyone has a say in what we do”, says Gratton. At Froglife’s sister projects in south London, project manager Rose Williams says the two-way process is key. “We consult with the groups to co-design the sessions, because we want to celebrate their passions, interests and strengths. For participants, having their own knowledge and skills valued can be a powerful source of self-worth.”
While Williams’ sessions at Streatham and Clapham commons are “demedicalised” to an extent, she argues that “the beauty of wildlife gardening is that so many therapeutic outcomes are met in an organic way”.
An estimated 400 social farms in the UK provide another important source of sanctuary spaces. In 2018, Justin Mazzotta, founder of the Partners in Dementia social enterprise, started leasing land at Beetle Bank Farm near York to run one such project. He recalls feeling disillusioned by the “day centre setting” of local dementia care services, which “were not suited or meaningful for rural people”.
At Froglife in Streatham, south London, participants collect plant and seeds . . . . . . to use in creative projects
At Beetle Bank, some gravitate to gardening tasks or feeding the animals. The more physically able have helped erect polytunnels, assemble raised beds and build climbing frames, shelves and tables from reclaimed wood.
Mazzotta also believes in co-production and “constantly adapting to meet individual needs”. At Beetle Bank, this extends to attendees advising what grants should be spent on — making them active agents of the service. It’s all part of an “enabling approach” — not everything has to “pass through the staff member”.
With four gardens in Battersea Park and one each in Birmingham and Reading, Thrive follows more closely the principles of social and therapeutic horticulture (STH), which itself draws on occupational therapy. This is an active process, says chief executive Ben Thomas. “Structuring it enables targeted outcomes.”
For the “client gardeners” of its Garden Thyme dementia programme, that structure allows for a “spectrum of different activities: there’s a garden task for everyone”.
At Streatham Common’s Rookery Gardens, where I take part in planting bulbs as others clear out ponds, the camaraderie and sense of fun are palpable. Feeling valued follows on from increased interaction. Members like to feel they have made a “meaningful contribution”, Williams says, adding: “People with dementia can report a loss of purpose and achievement. Our group doesn’t advertise itself as ‘come and take your gardening medicine’, but as ‘we need your help to get things done’.”
Beetle Bank offers a dementia-friendly space in a rural community
Margaret, a Beetle Bank attendee, says: “One minute we might be getting food ready for animals; another minute we’re planting rhubarb. You learn new skills as well as meeting new people and that makes you feel good.”
Building a dementia-friendly green space, with a focus on multisensory benefits, helps the process. Planting familiarly fragrant herbs such as rosemary and lavender can trigger welcome memories, while Thrive’s Garden Thyme sessions often finish with a brew made from ingredients grown in its herbal tea bed. Mazzotta highlights “sensory cues” such as sheep bleating.
He also runs separate services, including cognitive rehabilitation sessions that help people with dementia meet goals they set themselves.
Despite the supportive frameworks, participants can vacillate between enthusiasm and apathy. “Sundowning”, a big risk factor in dementia care, may not often affect projects that are generally held in the middle of the day, but the mood swings it can trigger may alter perceptions about the value of attending. Thomas says projects must balance a range of disability needs with running a living garden.
There are also constant challenges at an organisational level, he adds. All the places cited in this report have multiyear funding from bodies such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund in place, but there is an over-dependence on grants in this non-profit sector. The referral process can eat up resources, as can training and recruitment. At Beetle Bank, leasing fees increased by 50 per cent this year, leading Mazzotta to raise prices for participants.
A lack of knowledge by some GPs and health bodies of social prescribing may also limit referrals. Essex University’s Wood urges: “Get STH fully embedded in systems so it can be accessible to everyone.”
Therapeutic gardening’s wider benefits, such as the reduced burden on the NHS or local authorities’ optimisation of green spaces as community assets, must be properly evaluated, practitioners say. That could lead to accessible gardens in “any space where people are collected,” Gratton says. “[They’ll be] co-managed by the people who use such spaces, leading to wellbeing, climate change and wildlife benefits, and reducing lots of expensive problems.”
For now, project leaders will continue to focus on programming sessions to enhance the wellbeing of people with dementia. “This is about slowing decline and living well with the condition,” says Thomas.
Murray Withers is the FT’s deputy night news editor
The yearly independent record store day celebration was held on April 18 and boasted a bevy of albums and singles (mostly vinyl titles) issued for RSD, and exclusively sold through indie record stores.
More than 350 album and single products were issued for RSD 2026, and the top-selling album was the four-LP clear vinyl release of Pink Floyd’s Live From the Los Angeles Sports Arena, April 26th, 1975. The project was also issued as a 2-CD set, and the CD edition was the No. 24 best-selling RSD 2026 album title.
Another two-fer on the list is the soundtrack to KPop Demon Hunters, which ranks at both Nos. 2 and 6, with two different iterations of the album on vinyl: a HUNTR/X edition and a Saja Boys edition, respectively.
Record Store Day 2026 Ambassador Bruno Mars had the No. 2-selling RSD 2026 album with Collaborations. The 11-track double vinyl compilation includes such teamings as the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits “Nothin’ On You” (B.o.B featuring Mars) “Uptown Funk” (Mark Ronson featuring Mars) and “Die With a Smile” (Lady Gaga and Mars).
I suppose vinyl is okay for poseurs, but real audiophiles know that this is the vintage format of choice for getting the most out of music listening: 8-Tracks Are Back? They Are In My House.
For his latest video essay, Evan Puschak tells us about Un Chien Andalou, the pioneering surrealist short film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. The film is particularly notable for a shocking shot in the opening scene, which, if you’ve seen it, you’ve likely never forgotten. Said Buñuel of the film:
This film has no intention of attracting nor pleasing the spectator; indeed, on the contrary, it attacks him, to the degree that he belongs to a society with which surrealism is at war.
A car turns the corner on Cook Road in Sydney’s Centennial Park and gives a quick toot of the horn. Sitting outside his home, perched on a walker in the morning sun, Donald Shrubb lifts a hand in greeting.
Another car passes, another toot. Shrubb waves again, this time with both hands. This happens dozens of times a day. On the footpath, people often stop – 76-year-old Shrubb is always happy to have a chat.
After more than two years of sitting outside nearly every day, even in the depths of winter or the heat of high summer, Shrubb has become a familiar presence on the street – the man in the chair who seems to know everyone, as much a fixture in the neighbourhood as the footy traffic or the parking inspectors.
Seventy-six-year-old Donald Shrubb has lived in Sydney’s east for decades.EDWINA PICKLES
Shrubb never set out to become a local celebrity. In fact, sitting outside his building started for a much simpler reason: to stay connected.
For 45 of the 65 years he’s lived in the suburb, he worked as a supervisor on Australia’s interstate railways, travelling the country and even living on board the Indian Pacific during long journeys. He’s also part of Australian history as one of the original 78ers, the activists who marched in Sydney’s first Mardi Gras protest in 1978. He’s had a rich, colourful time: “I’m very lucky, what I’ve got out of life.”
However, just over four years ago, everything changed.
“I went to bed one night quite normally … I woke up in the morning, put my left foot on the floor and my right one just went bang,” he recalls. “The pain was so bad I cannot describe it.”
Doctors found four damaged discs in his spine. The situation was so serious that his neurosurgeon at St Vincent’s Hospital told him he needed emergency surgery.
The operation was complicated – a second one was needed – and recovery was hard. At one point, doctors told him he would never walk again. They suggested a nursing home might be the only realistic option, but Shrubb had other ideas.
“They said, ‘How do you get to your home?’ I said ‘I’ve got probably 40 stairs’. They said, ‘You won’t be going there. You’re going to a nursing home.’ I said, ‘No way.’
“If it takes me all day, I’ll get up there,” he says now. “And I’ll never give up.”
And so, in 2024, he started sitting outside, as a way to keep himself entertained without constant coming and going. Today he can walk a little, assisted by his walker, mostly around the block or up to bustling Oxford Street for lunch. But it’s slow-going and he feels every step.
At first, just a few people waved as they drove by. One of the earliest was plumber Chris Bazely.
“I used to drive past him all the time, so one day I waved at him,” says Bazely. “Now I stop and speak to him whenever I go past. And if I don’t see him on the street for a few days, I wonder if he’s alright.”
Shrubb has become somewhat of a local celebrity.EDWINA PICKLES
More and more people started waving, tooting or checking in as time went on. Now Cook Road has become something of Shrubb’s extended front yard. Neighbours bring him tea and snacks. A couple opposite sometimes arrive with muffins. Even the priest from local church St Francis of Assisi comes by to offer the occasional blessing.
Sisters Genevieve and Barbara Daly live across the road and often bring Shrubb food or remind him to put on sunscreen.
“He’s an iconic figure,” says Genevieve. “He’s an enjoyable, sociable, lovely gentleman, and he’s our neighbourhood watch. He notices everything. When I get home from work, he’ll say, ‘That courier arrived, it’s on the front porch’.”
“He knows everyone and everything that goes on,” adds local postman Julian Lowe, who stops by most days, popping Shrubb’s deliveries directly into his waiting hands. Sometimes, Lowe jokes, when they’re chatting, he feels that Shrubb would rather he moved on because “I’m cramping his style”.
When Shrubb disappeared for 10 days during a hospital stay, the entire neighbourhood noticed.
“People were quite concerned about my wellbeing,” he says. Someone even posted online asking if anyone had seen him. “I didn’t realise I had such a close connection to the public.”
But there really is a connection. For many locals, Shrubb has become a small but meaningful part of daily life, a reassuring presence and, in an increasingly disconnected world, a simple moment of human contact.
Shrubb, however, doesn’t see himself as anything special. In fact, he says he doesn’t know what people get out of seeing him sitting there every day. What he does know, though, is that he’ll keep doing it.
“I’ll do it ’til the end,” he laughs. “What else would I do?”
How the experts figure out what’s real in the age of deepfakes
The Verge – no paywall: “In the days that followed the US and Israel’s joint military strike on Iran on Saturday, floods of images and videos that supposedly document the war have appeared online.
Some are old or depict unrelated conflicts, are made or manipulated with AI, and in some cases, are actually taken from military-themed video games like War Thunder. With misinformation spreading like wildfire, many people have placed their trust in reputable digital investigators. Organizations like The New York Times, Indicator, and Bellingcat have extensive verification procedures to avoid publishing synthetic or misleading content.
“Audiences can turn to trusted, independent news organizations that take the time and effort to authenticate visuals and clearly explain sourcing,” Charlie Stadtlander, executive director for media relations and communications at The Times, told The Verge.
Media authentication methods are rarely foolproof, but standards are extremely high, and experts have years of experience with evading fake news. This process is no easy task, especially given the lack of reliable deepfake detection tools. But learning from the experts can help us to better protect ourselves when news events are dominating digital spaces — so here are some of the tricks they use…”
There’s no clean way to hive off terms like fascism or authoritarianism from Trump’s policies. Even if you disagree that the words apply, their use is backed up by a genuine attempt at intellectual justification for it. The use of these terms just is deeply linked to assessments of Trump’s actual policies, from the lawless renditions to foreign gulags to the unleashing of heavily armed militias in American cities to the naked intimidation of large swaths of civil society.
By contrast, when Trump and MAGA media figures call Democrats “Communists” or “antifa,” all of that is entirely disconnected from any policy realities. Many press figures would like it if there were an Archimedean midpoint between the two parties on all these matters. But there isn’t. At the most basic level, one party continues to function as an actor in a liberal democracy, whereas Trump and much of his movement, with the eager participation of many Republicans, simply do not. Dispensing with harsh but accurate descriptions of his real goals would whitewash them.
How Trump is moving to control U.S. elections, one state at a time
The Daily Docket – A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw: “Reuters uncovered a broader‑than‑previously known Trump administration effort to gain federal control over elections, historically run locally, in at least eight states – using investigations, raids and demands for access to balloting systems and voter ID.
What happened In January, a DHSagent sought unredacted voter records and voter‑registration information from Franklin County, Ohio, without explaining the basis for the request. Reuters found similar federal requests for voter data, access to voting machines or revived fraud investigations in at least eight states, including Nevada, Colorado, Michiganand Missouri, often tied to claims previously rejected by courts.
Why it matters Elections are constitutionally administered by states, and officials across party lines say the growing federal push tests that boundary. The Trump administration’s efforts raise concerns about voter‑data privacy, federal overreach, intimidation of election officials and the potential use of disputed fraud claims in close races. Many administrators report increased legal costs, security fears and staff strain.
What’s next States are bracing for more federal scrutiny ahead of November, drafting response plans for subpoenas and data demands. Ongoing litigation between states and the federal government could shape how far federal election enforcement can go — and redefine the balance of power over U.S. elections…”
The Second Front: The Escalating Right-Wing Legal Threats Beyond the White House
“A new report from Democracy Forward, The Second Front: The Escalating Right-Wing Legal Threats Beyond the White House, reveals the perilous threats to American democracy represented by the far-right legal movement.
The report, part of Democracy Forward’s work to track the far-right legal movement, focuses attention on ways that extremists continue to deprive Americans of their rights in an attempt to concentrate power in the hands of a privileged few people and corporations. “The pro-democracy community is fighting extreme, authoritarian forces on at least two fronts,” reads the report.
“The first front consists of the president’s often unlawful use of executive power, which continues to throw communities across America into crisis and garner significant national attention.
On a second, less visible front, a coordinated right-wing legal movement, operating both alongside and independent of the administration, is advancing an ideological agenda while dismantling pro-democracy protections at the federal, state, and local levels.” The Second Front breaks down the far-right legal movement’s key lines of attack into four categories:
eliminating access to reproductive rights,
misusing freedom of speech and religion to restrict healthcare and bodily autonomy,
targeting protections for transgender students,
and gutting government protections for workers and consumers.
The report explains each line of attack, describes illustrative cases, and analyzes the impact each case could have if the right-wing legal movement wins in the courts.”
