magpie

UAE billionaire asks Trump: Who authorised turning our region into a war zone? Khalaf Al Habtoor, chairman of Al Habtoor Group, says the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries, and their people, are not arenas for settling scores among the great powers

“You have placed the [GCC] countries at the heart of a danger they did not choose. Thank God, we are capable of defending ourselves ... But the question remains: Who gave you permission to turn our region into a battlefield?” said [Khalaf] Al Habtoor

Fantasy Herd The world's most exciting Fantasy Sports cow trading game

Fantasy Herd — like fantasy football, but with cows

Unexpected correlations. Aka why you should be suspicious of statistics tinyurl.com/4et6zsf6...

Royal Ontario Museum named Nicholas Bell as Director & CEO – he had previously run Calgary's Glenbow since 2019 tinyurl.com/j9vw28z5...

Russia’s Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Is Set to Reopen This Year, But Officials Say It Isn’t a ‘Return’ “Russia never left the Venice Biennale… since we have not gone anywhere, we are not ‘returning,'" Mikhail Shvydkoy said.

After a two-cycle hiatus Russia will be back at the Venice Biennale this year, "seeking new forms of creative activity in the current circumstances"

US Supreme Court Computer confirms that AI-generated artwork is not eligible for copyright protection in what amounts to a test case dating back to 2022 tinyurl.com/4w4nf2rt...

Our Critics Are Split on the Weirdest Whitney Biennial in Recent Memory ARTnews senior editors Maximilíano Durón and Alex Greenberger offer their initial thoughts on the 2026 Whitney Biennial.

"The Weirdest Whitney Biennial in recent memory" says ARTnews

#MAGPIESEZ Here's magpie Weekly, your free guide to the best of the UAE's creative and cultural scene – this time with influencers, Iran, and real life tinyurl.com/yc8a9w99...

A book cover designer who wrote a book talks to the book cover designer who designed the book's cover, with interesting results ("this project definitely came with some extra pressure" said the latter) tinyurl.com/4c4dvebe...

Anthropic's Claude overtakes ChatGPT in App Store Here's why that happened and what it means for the future of AI.

Anthropic said no to the Pentagon. Coincidentally, Claude just overtook ChatGPT in the app store

Read more books. Here's an excellent collection of resources for recommendations, book finders, freebies, even book clubs tinyurl.com/2taw4e45...

Salman Qureshi on Instagram: "Gotta have your priorities! #salmanzq #dubai" 30 likes, 6 comments - salmanzq on March 3, 2026: "Gotta have your priorities! #salmanzq #dubai".

Life can be so hard

Trump Has No Plan for the Iranian People - The Atlantic The mere act of bombing Iran will not by itself create a stable regime.

“The American bombardment of Iran has been launched without explanation, without Congress, without even an attempt to build public support. Above all, it has been launched without a coherent strategy for the Iranian people." Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic

Pope Implores Priests to Stop Writing Sermons Using ChatGPT In a meeting with high-level clergy, Pope Leo XIV urged priests to avoid the temptation to use AI to generate homilies.

"[AI] will never be able to share faith". Pope Leo XIV tells priests not to resort to chatbots for writing sermons

How hand-drawn thinking is reconnecting designers with creativity in a precision-first industry As AI tools, software and hyper-polished visuals dominate modern workflows, many designers are rediscovering the creative power of slowing down. Matteo Di Iorio of Interstate explores why sketching...

Might typography be one of the last things AI will replace?

"When Gallup asked Americans during the 2008 recession how many wanted to leave the U.S., the answer was one in 10. Last year: One in five." WSJ gift article (thanks, NextDraft) tinyurl.com/dduat95x...

More Bands Left Behind By Streaming Under-appreciated post-rock and electronic groups spanning the mid-’90s through the 21st century, appreciated.

More bands left behind by streaming: an interesting Bandcamp list, esp if you missed out on turn-of-the-century German post-punk electronica

Catherine Pégard, ancienne présidente du Château de Versailles et proche d’Emmanuel Macron, remplace Rachida Dati au ministère de la culture A 71 ans, l’ancienne journaliste devenue conseillère du président Nicolas Sarkozy a su, grâce à sa discrétion et à son entregent, se rendre indispensable. La nouvelle locataire de la Rue de Valois devra gérer plusieurs chantiers d’importance, dont le projet Louvre Renaissance et la réforme de l’audiovisuel public.

Catherine Pégard, former president of the Château de Versailles, will replace the outgoing Rachida Dati as France's culture minister, says Le Monde. Top of her inbox: the Louvre (thefts plus Macron’s controversial $1bn revamp plan)

While we sit around to find out how bad exactly it all is, a bit of cheer: the best baguette of Paris competition was won by a Sri Lankan who appears to have started as a dish washer in restaurants and eventually trained as a Boulanger.

www.paris.fr/pages/la-mei...

Want ... tinyurl.com/5e4rnu6k...

f.l.everett_author 23h + A plumber has beaten Matt Goodwin and nobody's made a stopcock joke yet.

"They have now".

Worth a repost from another place.

A stylised map of the world's railways (apparently a tad incomplete, but still impressive) to get you from Thurso to Sovetskaya Gava tinyurl.com/45w96shb...

UdenUSA - Find alternativer til amerikanske produkter UdenUSA hjælper dig med at identificere amerikanske produkter og finder alternativer fra resten af verden.

An app called NonUSA (www.nonusa.org?utm_s...) which “helps you identify and avoid American products in everyday life” is top of the iOS store in Denmark (Android coming RSN too, which removes the irony of Apple dependency) tinyurl.com/4zc79pw7...

The mysterious posters in Oxford, and the novel behind them - Cherwell An anonymous series of posters advertising fictional colleges and rituals appeared across Oxford, leading into the world of Dust on Marble.

How to write a novel in Oxford, with all that this implies

Biennale Arte 2026 | Biennale Arte 2026: the invited artists The 61st International Art Exhibition In Minor Keys (9 May to 22 November 2026) will feature 111 invited participants – among them, individual artists, collaborative duos, collectives, and artist-led organisations – from many different geographies and regions.

Venice Biennale (opens 9 May) names 111 invited artists for Koyo Kouoh’s posthumous exhibition 'In Minor Keys'. Only local(ish) inclusions: Raed Yassin, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige

Trump's State of the Union address, annotated and fact-checked After more than a year of his chaotic second term, President Donald Trump got a prime time chance to convince Americans the state of the union is strong. CNN annotated Trump’s speech with context and fact checks.

Line-by-line factcheck on SOTU from CNN

New York City as a videogame-style pixel map generated by AI from satellite photos tinyurl.com/5aj8fb4b...

British Museum is budgeting £1.2m to get the Bayeux Tapestry from Normandy to London for its nine-month loan (Sept 2026 to July 2027) tinyurl.com/bdmtyr9v...

Louvre Director Laurence des Cars Resigns After Heist and Internal Turmoil Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre, left her post amid strikes, a heist, leaks, and internal turmoil.

Louvre Director Laurence des Cars resigns (again – last time it wasn't accepted, this time it seems a new broom is needed). Le Parisien reports Christophe Leribault from the Chateau de Versailles will replace her

Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of MACBA, Ends Tenure Early Amid Conflict over Abu Dhabi Biennial Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of MACBA, will resign at the beginning of April, ahead of her contract's original expiration date in late July.

Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of Barcelona's MACBA, will step down in April rather than July because her bosses saw conflicts with her appointment as director of the forthcoming Abu Dhabi Public Art Biennial (due late 2026, we think)