Six great reads: Iran’s social media memes, an abandoned department store and a 1,200-year-old record of cherry blossoms

Six great reads: Iran’s social media memes, an abandoned department store and a 1,200-year-old record of cherry blossoms Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days Patrick Wintour looked at how Iran has been winning the propaganda battle against the US with a barrage of memes, AI-generated comedy videos and Lego-style animations ridiculing the Trump administration. Despite the government-induced internet blackout, the country’s gen Z tech warriors have been engaging western audiences with creativity, humour and sarcasm. Read more 2. Art, sex, nature: why is everything sold to us as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself? For a long time, I have been privately lamenting the instrumentalisation of everything: how nothing seems to be of value in itself any more but is only seen as useful in the service of some utilitarian function. The writer and philosopher Julian Baggini considered how the best things in life are being sold to us as means to an end, arguing that this reductive worldview is stripping meaning from our most valued activities. Read more 3. Abandoned Britain: the grand department store that became an illicit cannabis farm The panel is hanging from the wall by its wires and doesn’t look safe. I’d be nervous about stepping into this lift. Plus, it’s dark. I’m using the torch on my phone to read the sign. In the first instalment from a six-part series looking at Britain’s empty buildings, Sam Wollaston explored a structure in Newport that once housed Wildings department store. But since its closure in 2019, the storied building has fallen into disrepair and been commandeered as a cannabis farm and a skate park. What can it tell us about the UK’s high streets? Read more 4. After 1,200 years, cherry blossom record to live on despite Japanese scientist’s death For 1,200 years, cherry blossom records in Kyoto, Japan, have been meticulously tracked. The shifting bloom dates have become an ...