Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked some of the week’s best reads for you to savour.
The Guardian caught up with Andrew Lownie recently, a writer who spent years investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson for his book Entitled. Lownie’s book details all of the former prince’s extravagances, including reports that, in 2006, while representing the British monarchy at King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s diamond jubilee celebrations in Bangkok, Andrew reportedly had at least ten girls and women visiting his room everyday. “We’ve been paying for happy endings for Andrew for years,” Lownie wrote. But what the author hasn’t been able to pinpoint is how exactly the former prince was funding his lavish lifestyle. He believes what we know about Andrew’s relationship with deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is only the beginning of a story which he thinks involves national security issues.
(The Guardian, approx 10 mins reading time)
“The sheer extravagance of the couple, meticulously noted, is bizarre: £150,000 on flowers, scores of thousands on personal trainers Ferguson rarely troubled, him never using a car when a helicopter was faster (which is always), her demanding “a whole side of beef, a leg of lamb and a chicken, which are laid out on the dining room table like a medieval banquet” every night, even when it was just her and the kids. They’d often end up eating crisps anyway (as told by a departing member of staff). They were both having affairs. One of Ferguson’s highest-profile liaisons, with Steve Wyatt, a US multi-millionaire, appears to have started when she was five months pregnant with Eugenie.”
Nada Itrab was nine-years-old when she was kidnapped from her home in Spain to Bolivia. She spent nine months being abused by the man who took her before authorities eventually tracked her down in the middle of the rainforest. Now a successful law student Nada is working through her trauma and sharing her story to inspire other victims of child trafficking.
(The Guardian, approx 30 mins reading time)
“One Saturday, Morales groomed himself carefully. Nada remembers watching a ceremony in which he stood on the stage and a man in a white tunic wafted incense. Words were intoned in Quechua. Men hugged him. Morales looked happy. Nada asked what had happened. ‘Now you are my wife,’ he said. He became mean, jealous and more violent. At night, he raped her. One evening, as she washed in the river, he pushed her head under water and held it there. He repeated the action three times. Another day, she dared question his belief in God. Enraged, he struck her right foot with a machete, opening a hole down to her sole. They doused the wound in gasoline. She still has the scar.”
Rachel Thompson says people are often shocked when they learn she’s been single for 15 years, but she couldn’t be more happy. In this Cosmopolitan article, Rachel looks at what she said is a pervasive belief that being single is a bad thing and explores how fulfilling life can be when romantic relationships are not viewed as a necessity.
“I have zero responsibilities and no one to please but myself. I revel in this freedom, a joy that comes from the fact I have decentred romantic relationships from my life — and I’m far from alone in that. Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2030, 45% of women aged 25 to 44 will be single — and I know plenty of other women who, just like me, feel empowered by going it alone. I thought we’d moved on from the days of believing all single women must be in want of a husband. Why, then, did my friend message me as if I was a sad wreck playing Céline Dion’s ‘All By Myself’ on repeat?”
(Cosmopolitan, approx 12 minutes reading time)
On the flip side of the previous article, these women want a relationship but are sick of spending time with someone they ultimately find is comptable. Cue, matchmakers. Apparently, some people are now paying $150k (€155k) to acquire the services of professional matchmakers, as seen in the 2025 movie The Materialists.
“For Sarah*, hiring a matchmaker was ‘a revolutionary moment in my life.’ As a 45-year-old single mom of three and founder of two companies, she had trouble finding a confident, successful man who could fit into her life. Over dinner one night, a close friend told her that he had hired Jennifer Donnelly, CEO of the Dallas-based Ultimate Matchmaker. It was “the best thing he had ever done,’ she recalls him saying. ‘We spend this kind of money on a car, and we’re talking about the rest of our lives. The investment in this is not that challenging for the caliber of professional success’ that they both have achieved. It was a lightbulb moment: ‘Why would I not, as well, have the capacity to seek out guidance from an expert to help me build the best life I possibly can have?’”
(Elle, approx 11 minutes reading time)
Opposing sides in Sudan’s civil war are allegedly using TikTok videos of child soldiers to encourage young people to join the war. The viral videos feature young children and teens dressed in fatigues and holding assault rifles. They are sometimes pictured with dead bodies.
(Bellingcat, approx 17 minutes reading time)
“In some cases, the children film themselves near combat scenes, including in at least one instance with the bodies of recently deceased people. In others, they are filmed in choreographed appearances with high-profile commanders and political figures. The children are honoured as heroes by armed groups and their supporters, and their content is re-shared across hundreds of TikTok accounts, some of which have millions of followers.”
A woman from the US believes the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in a minor surgery to help her sinusitis caused her to have a stroke. Meanwhile it has also been reported that AI has misidentified body parts in ultrasounds. Reuters Investigates has looked into the impact of AI in the operating room.
(Reuters, approx 12 mins reading time)
“At least 1,357 medical devices using AI are now authorized by the FDA – double the number it had allowed through 2022. The TruDi system isn’t the only one to come under question: The FDA has received reports involving dozens of other AI-enhanced devices, including a heart monitor said to have overlooked abnormal heartbeats and an ultrasound device that allegedly misidentified fetal body parts.”
An investigation from The Journal Investigates last year found that Ireland is the data centre capital of the world, with 89 data centres. In 2008 we only had three. In this article from The Dial Jessica Traynor tracks the proliferation of data centres in Ireland, and the impact they have.
(The Dial, approx 15 mins reading time)
“The benefits of the data center economy are diffuse, intangible. In 2022, due to concerns about pressure on the national grid and the potential for rolling blackouts, EirGrid, Ireland’s energy grid, placed a moratorium on the development of new data centers in Dublin until 2028. But applications for centers outside of the capital are still being granted. Other European countries, such as the Netherlands, are halting their development of data centers. Singapore imposed a three-year moratorium from 2019 to 2022, and is now seeking applications within new parameters to ensure sustainability. Unless Ireland figures out a way to surge forward with its slow development of renewables, these data centers seem impossible to sustain. One potential solution is to look more carefully at what data we retain, and why. We must weigh the short-term financial benefits of seemingly infinite data retention against the long-term threat of climate crisis.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say