'Halloween has been steadily succumbing to the chronically online'

'The chronically online have stolen Halloween'

Kate Lindsay at The Atlantic

Halloween costumes "beyond classics such as witches or skeletons have long reflected pop culture; that the rise of meme culture would show up at Halloween, too, is understandable," says Kate Lindsay. But "unlike traditional culture, which follows, say, the steady release of movies and TV shows, internet culture spirals in on itself." The "costume-wearer will most likely need to offer a lengthy explanation for their pick," and "this is, perhaps unsurprisingly, terrible for in-person Halloween gatherings."

Read more

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'Fungi deserve a natural kingdom of their own'

Anjana Ahuja at the Financial Times

Fungi are "neither plants nor animals. This fact could be holding back their conservation," says Anjana Ahuja. Policies "aimed at protecting the natural world are often written in the language of flora and fauna," so fungi "can end up falling through the cracks." Without fungi, there "would be no bread, wine, cheese, beer, coffee or chocolate," so this "kingdom, with its princelings of yeasts and molds, must rise to take its place in the legislative sun."

Read more

'How Iran-Hamas' deadly alliance was born — in America'

Lorenzo Vidino and Lara Burns at the New York Post

The "very first Hamas meetings with Iran were led by a man whose rise within Hamas began on American soil," say Lorenzo Vidino and Lara Burns. Mousa Abu Marzook, the "current deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau, led the first meetings with the Iranian regime while he was a student at Louisiana Tech University." Marzook "could be in line to take over" Hamas, and Hamas and Iran have "capitalized on their joint ability to sow discord in the Middle East."

Read more

'This year's Nobels were a warning'

Bhaskar Chakravorti at Foreign Policy

With "declarations of AI's 'Nobel moment,'" there is "renewed hope that, finally, AI is poised to shape history," says Bhaskar Chakravorti. However, artificial intelligence "might have won scientific acknowledgment, but more critical was the recognition of the risks that come with AI's unfettered growth." The "next Nobel aspirant's checklist" should include "improved oversight; accountability and controls within organizations and in multilateral fora, along with regulatory legal frameworks." AI's "real Nobel moment may come when we have invested in these areas."

Read more