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they not like us, your honour
Hey hey hey!
How’s everyone doing? It’s Tuesday and you know what that means… it’s time for another round of our newsletter ✨
We’ve got news in culture, tech, health + wellness, as well as a bit of important news to keep you up to date and in the loop. That includes: how reading fiction trains your ‘mind-reading’ skills, Drake’s defamation case against Kendrick being dismissed, some great health news for introverts, the cycling boom in big cities and much, much more.
📚 culture corner
Pride and Prejudice is an iconic love story, but scholars say it’s also masterclass in how humans read other people’s minds. By incorporating misunderstandings, irony, and cleverly layered emotions in her writing, Jane Austen taps into our ‘theory of mind,’ a psychological skill that helps us infer what others think and feel. A 2013 study, published in the journal Science, found that reading fiction improves this psychological ability by actively training it. Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Austen’s writing style blurs the line between narrator and character, forcing readers to decode perspective and motive as they navigate through the story, ultimately giving them a great cognitive workout. They may be hundreds of years old, but Austen’s novels can still help us practice empathy and emotional intelligence, enhancing our most valuable social and human instincts.
Drake’s defamation lawsuit over ‘Not Like Us’ is dismissed – la times
A federal judge has dismissed Drake’s lawsuit against Universal Music Group. Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled that Kendrick Lamar’s diss track ‘Not Like Us’ was protected artistic expression – not defamation – and said that no reasonable person would take Lamar’s lyrics (including ‘I hear you like ’em young’) literally, which is… honestly debatable. The lawsuit had accused Universal of endangering Drake’s life and sabotaging his career by promoting the song, which became a major global hit during last year’s feud between the two rap superstars. Universal called the dismissal of the lawsuit a win for creatives in the industry, but Drake’s team said it would seek to appeal the ruling. It’s yet another chapter in one of hip-hop’s most exciting beefs in recent times… but something tells me it ain’t truly over yet.
🫂 health + wellness
Scientists have officially identified a new form of diabetes, type 5 diabetes, a condition that could affect up to 25 million people worldwide, primarily in parts of Asia and Africa. Unlike types 1 and 2, type 5 diabetes isn’t caused by autoimmunity or insulin resistance but by damage to the pancreas as a result of early-life lack of nutrition. Those living with type 5 diabetes experience a lifelong shortage of insulin production, even though the body can still respond to insulin treatment. Doctors say that they’ve known about this kind of diabetes for decades, but that managing the disease is difficult in low-income regions because food insecurity makes insulin therapy more risky. Researchers say formally recognising type 5 diabetes will be important in improving diagnosis, treatment, and awareness of a condition that has been ignored for over 70 years.
Social ties help us live longer. What does that mean for introverts? – nyt
Finally, some news for introverts: you don’t need to socialise all the time to live a long, healthy life. Research shows that although strong social ties do lead to greater longevity, the benefits come less from how many people you know and more from what those relationships do for you. For example, do your relationships offer emotional support, mental stimulation, practical help, and motivation to stay healthy? If so, four to six of these close connections are believed to be enough to fight loneliness, which is linked to health issues such as inflammation, heart disease, and cognitive decline. But even casual interactions like chatting with a barista or neighbour can provide some much-needed brain-boosting stimulation. At the end of the day, we don’t need to be socialising constantly, we just need to take opportunities to connect meaningfully with others – and wise ones know that quality always beats quantity.
🤖 tech talk
New data from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reveals that cyber-attacks targeting the UK have risen by 50 percent across the last year. This means national security officials have had to confront a major incident nearly every other day. Government leaders are now telling businesses of all sizes to prepare for the possibility of serious and sudden IT breaches, as threats from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea continue to escalate. The NCSC was forced to deal with 429 incidents this year already (with nearly half deemed nationally significant) as ransomware attacks hit companies like Marks & Spencer and the Co-op. Government officials advise major companies to scale up their security measures, warning them to not be an easy target.
Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport – economist
From Montreal and Paris to London and Dhaka, bicycles and e-bikes are changing the way we move around cities faster than self-driving or electric cars ever could. The pandemic, cheaper e-bike production costs, and improved cycle routes have boosted the trend of hopping on a Lime bike or other rental alternative to get from A to B, turning bikes into a widely accessible transport that’s efficient and sustainable. Even though the mass spawning of e-bikes in capital cities has sparked safety concerns for pedestrians and those riding them, their popularity doesn’t look like it’ll be dwindling anytime soon. For those living in traffic-jammed cities with expensive public transport, having to be a little extra vigilant while crossing roads is a small price to pay for cleaner air and a lot less cars on the road.
🌏 world news
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are setting into motion a 20-point plan to achieve peace between Israel and Gaza. Arab powers including Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey played an important role in formulating the plan. The agreement begins with a ceasefire and a large-scale hostage exchange, followed by Hamas’s disarmament under international supervision. Then, a US and Arab ‘stabilisation force’ would oversee Gaza’s security, while a Palestinian committee (backed by a ‘Board of Peace’ chaired by Trump) manages Gaza’s reconstruction. While the plan seems to lead to granting Palestinian official statehood, Netanyahu continues to firmly reject that prospect. Despite the ceasefire, five Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in the last 24 hours.
Renewables overtake coal as biggest source of global electricity – thred
For the first time in history, renewable energy has generated more of the world’s electricity than coal. According to new data from energy think tank Ember, solar power surged by 31 percent and wind by nearly 8 percent in the first half of 2025, adding more than 400 terawatt hours of clean energy to the grid in total. Surprisingly, China and India made the most progress, cutting fossil fuel use and increasing their use of renewables, especially solar and wind. While this is indeed good news, the truth is that the growth of renewables still isn’t fast enough to meet global electricity demands. Looking at the bigger picture, the overall decline in fossil fuel use globally was just 1 percent… so clearly, the mission to fully decarbonise the grid isn’t truly over yet.
