News drop of the week
The Real Reason Anthropic Wants Guardrails: The Atlantic digs into what’s really behind Anthropic’s resistance to Pentagon pressure — it’s not just ethics, it’s a calculated bet on where AI’s long-term value lies. (The Atlantic)
In the age of AI, the fog of war thickens The debate over the power and limits of artificial intelligence (AI) is now everywhere, from boardrooms and workplaces to the halls of government. But nowhere should the conversation be more urgent than in the execution of war. (Globe and Mail)
The Iran War’s Most Precious Commodity Isn’t Oil: Forget crude—the real strategic resource at stake in the Middle East is water, and nobody’s talking about it. (Bloomberg free)
40 Iranian Doctors and Nurses Describe a Massacre: As street protests spread across Iran in early January, the authorities turned off the internet. Most of the world didn’t see the bloody crackdown that followed. We surveyed Iranian medical workers across 14 cities and 11 provinces about their experiences treating wounded protesters. Despite great personal risk, they shared their stories. Medical workers who treated victims of Iran’s 2022 protest crackdown break their silence, describing in harrowing detail what they witnessed in hospitals and morgues. (New York Times)
Apocalypse No: How Almost Everything We Thought We Knew About the Maya Is Wrong: The collapse narrative is a myth, and the real story is far more interesting than the doomsday version. (The Guardian)
How scammers are using AI deepfakes to steal money from taxpayers: AI-generated voices and faces are being used to impersonate government officials and steal public funds. The fraud is getting more sophisticated faster than defenses can keep up. (Washington Post)
‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks: A British traveler with proper documentation was detained by immigration authorities. The chilling effect on international travel to the U.S. is growing. Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported, and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’ (The Guardian)
10 Least Reliable Cars of 2026: Consumer Reports’ annual survey of 380,000+ vehicles names the models most likely to leave you stranded. (Consumer Reports)
Crypto Is Pointless. Not Even the White House Can Fix That.: Despite unprecedented government support, crypto still hasn’t found a reason to exist beyond speculation. The problem was never regulation — it was utility. (New York Times)
Luxury’s Overexposure Is Biting: The luxury sector bet on ubiquity — logos everywhere, collabs with everyone, accessibility as strategy. Now the bill is coming due as exclusivity evaporates. (Matter / Substack)
I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day: Anonymous: Objectification, hate, rape threats: the politicians debating online abuse mean well, but to truly understand, they need to see what I see. (The Guardian)
Child’s Play: Tech’s new generation and the end of thinking: Sam Kriss goes inside an AI startup founded by a kid and finds something stranger and more unsettling than the usual Silicon Valley origin story. (Harper’s)
The Rise of the Manhattan Mega-Mansion: Big-money buyers are no longer content with the usual conversions. Steven Harris, an architect whose eponymous firm has worked on more than 100 single-family townhouses over the past 30 years, says demand for bigger urban homes has been booming. (Citylab)
Rolex Opened a College—and It’s as Selective as Harvard: The Swiss watchmaker is training its next generation of craftspeople at a school with an acceptance rate that rivals the Ivy League. America has fewer than 2,000 professional watchmakers. Rolex’s new Dallas school aims to fix that—and the demand for admission says a lot about the state of work in 2026. (GQ)