TheNewsGal, Edition No. 69

What a week! Here's what you missed.

All the things

(Michelle Thompson, 1843)

• Banker, princess, warlord: How Asma Assad, a girl from west London, became the unlikely winner of Syria’s war. This story is crazytown. (Nicolas Pelham, 1843, ~31 min.)

• Why it’s time for Keeping Up With the Kardashians to end. Sharp and thoughtful and not what I expected. (Zan Romanoff, BuzzFeed News, ~17 min.)

• White people, black authors are not your medicine. Hear, hear. (Yaa Gyasi, The Guardian, ~7 min.)

• My mother risked it all on the Beanie Baby boom. The ’90s have never felt so far away. (Meg Conley, Gen, ~9 min.)

• We feel “alonely” when we don’t get enough time by ourselves. OMG, there’s a name for it. (Shayla Love, Vice, ~10 min.)

(Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, courtesy Etherton Gallery via Harper’s)

• The business of scenery: Why America’s national parks need new management. I knew things were bad, but not this bad. (Christopher Ketcham, Harper’s, ~14 min.)

• The Covid queen of South Dakota: Gov. Kristi Noem’s state has been ravaged by her Trumpian response to the pandemic — but that hasn’t paused her national ambitions. I can’t look away. (Stephen Rodrick, Rolling Stone, ~35 min.)

• Elliot Page is ready for this moment. I’m a fan. (Katy Steinmetz, Time, ~16 min.)

• Why do these strawberries cost $5 each? BRB, adding to birthday wish list. (Rachel Sugar, Grub Street, ~4 min.)

• What happens when a slogan becomes the curriculum: A curriculum inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement is spreading, raising questions about the line between education and indoctrination. Wowza. (Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, ~19 min.)

(Facebook via Guernica)

• The life and death of Antonio Sajvín Cúmes. He planned to write a memoir, The Life of a Migrant. Its central thesis: The American Dream is a lie. Among my favorite reads this week, don’t miss it. (Emily Kaplan, Guernica, ~30 min.)

• How will we remember this? A Covid memorial will have to commemorate shame and failure, as well as grief and bravery. Strange to think about. (Justin Davidson, Curbed, ~21 min.)

• On Deb Haaland, Native American history, and renewed hope. Awesome. (Laura Tohe, Deseret News, ~5 min.)

• What happened to pickup trucks? The vehicles have transformed from no-frills workhorses into angry giants, and pedestrians are paying the price. Ugh. (Angie Schmitt, Bloomberg, ~10 min.)

• I’ll meet you anywhere. This writing, though. (Saeed Jones, The Cut, ~3 min.)

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If you read one thing this week

• Are the Atlanta killings a hate crime? The suspect doesn’t get to decide. 100%. (Irin Carmon, Intelligencer, ~7 min.)