The grim anniversary of a dark new era: The Taliban has banned girls from education after the age of 12, ejected many women from the workplace and created legal frameworks for child marriage and husbands beating their wives. Women have been whipped for minor infractions and men have been compelled to become enforcers in their own homes.<\/p>\n
Notable quote: \u201cSometimes I imagine that if one day I can return to seventh grade, if I can place my books on a desk again and hold my pen without fear, the first thing I will write will be the story of these days. Hear our voices, before our silent rooms become filled with buried dreams. We are still here.\u201d<\/p>\n
How long will it take to read: 12.5 minutes<\/p>\n
Further reading: \u2018Her face was beaten in\u2019: how Taliban rule ushered in a new era <\/a>of women being killed, and a podcast<\/a> on the 21 million women and girls the world forgot.<\/p>\n 2. Why haven\u2019t we found any aliens yet?An astronomical radio observatory in New Mexico. Photograph: Gabe Palmer\/Alamy<\/p>\n You may never have heard of the Fermi paradox \u2013 until now, that is. In short, it\u2019s the notion that despite the high probability of alien life \u2013 and the fact the universe may be about 13.8bn years old \u2013 there is no trace of extraterrestrial life. And so, for most scientists, the real mystery about aliens isn\u2019t their presence but their stubborn absence. So where are they?<\/a><\/p>\n So \u2026 where ARE they? Despite eye-watering sums of tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars (primarily American ones), our Earthly technology has failed to detect any signs of advanced life within or outside or galaxy. But that hasn\u2019t put enthusiasts off, and in doing so has created a new scientific discipline: astrobiology. This is where astrobiologists think about the basic conditions that make life possible, and how we might determine whether distant planets meet those conditions. Yep, that\u2019s a lot of thinking.<\/p>\n OK just tell me \u2013 aliens or no aliens? Maybe you\u2019re just not thinking about it in the right way. What if the aliens are so far advanced they\u2019re not visible any more? What if they don\u2019t inhabit earthly-ish bodies? What if \u2026 they\u2019re already here?<\/p>\n How long will it take to read: 10.5 minutes, followed by a long time staring into space.<\/p>\n Further reading: The dark universe<\/a>: can a scientist battling long Covid unlock the mysteries of the cosmos?<\/p>\n 3. \u2018I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young\u2019Should we embrace new technology in the name of efficiency, or is it time to fight back? Illustration: Mojo Wang<\/p>\n The rise of AI \u2013 and its impact on all of us \u2013 is hot debate right now, the subject of news headlines to dystopian fiction. But are we powerless in the face of it? Katherine Rundell, who writes children\u2019s fiction and has a fellowship at Oxford University, has seen first-hand the way<\/a> that generative AI has already infiltrated young people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n \u201cAI, we\u2019re told, will make learning more efficient. But is that what we dream of for our kids \u2013 an efficient childhood? To write an efficient story, sing an efficient song? An adequate teacher is not only teaching about Henry VIII; they\u2019re teaching your child how to read a human character.\u201d<\/p>\n Knowledge is power: Could the simple act of reading be one way to fight back? Not just for pleasure \u2013 but for community, cohesion and the future of civilisation.<\/p>\n How long will it take to read: Just over five minutes.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Five Great Reads<\/p>\n Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n 4. The video game taking Australian rules to the worldMelbourne game developer David Ashby and comedian Broden Kelly with \u2018Pro Jank Footy\u2019 mascot Mr Footy. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n If you think one of Australia\u2019s favourite sports is hard to understand (and no, it\u2019s not cricket), a video game might give you a new \u2013 if not slightly absurdist \u2013 understanding of an important cultural pastime: footy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ditch the cultural cringe: \u201cEighteen players a side, running around on a cricket oval with a rugby ball that has to be bounced every so often and gets kicked between posts \u2013 like, what the fuck is happening?\u201d says David Ashby, who has taken the sport and turned it into a chaotic and silly game \u2013 involving meat pies with legs and Ford Falcons on the oval. But the creators are serious about one thing \u2013 that Australia needs to shed its cultural cringe and stop explaining itself to the world.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we showed Pro Jank in Japan, a lot of people were like, \u2018Wait \u2013 is footy a real sport?\u2019 They thought we made it up,\u201d Ashby says. \u201cThen they saw the meat pies running around and they were like, what the fuck is that?\u201d<\/p>\n How long will it take to read: Just under three minutes.<\/p>\n Further reading: SingStar Take That anyone? The strange joy of charity shop video games<\/a>.<\/p>\n 5. Comedy icons share their Edinburgh fringe survival tips with first-timersFrank Skinner and Cecily Hitchcock. Photograph: Antonio Zazueta Olmos\/Antonio Olmos<\/p>\n Making your debut as a stand up comedian may well be one of the most nerve-wracking \u2013 and potentially humiliating \u2013 things you can choose to do with your spare time. Here<\/a>, some of Britain\u2019s best-known comedians share how it went for them \u2013 and what first timers should know.<\/p>\n Be afraid: \u201cThe fringe is so abstract, scary and unknown,\u201d warns Ania Magliano. \u201cDeep down, we\u2019re all terrified of being exposed through our art. And it is art. It\u2019s tough on your body because you burn through so much energy, but you\u2019re fuelled by adrenaline.\u201d<\/p>\n But don\u2019t read the reviews: That\u2019s the advice of Stephen K Amos. \u201cIf you believe the good ones, you\u2019ve got to believe the bad ones. Did I have a good time? Did the audience?\u201d Although Frank Skinner says his first ones \u201cboth essentially said: \u2018This guy clearly doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing,\u2019 but insinuated: \u2018He\u2019s got something.\u2019 That was just enough crumbs to keep me going.\u201d<\/p>\n How long will it take to read: Just over five minutes.<\/p>\n Sign up<\/p>\n If you would like to receive these Five Great Reads to your email inbox every weekend, sign up here<\/a>. And check out out the full list of our local and international newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to the weekend. If you\u2019ve woken up wondering why we haven\u2019t yet met extraterrestrial beings, how to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-593887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783266668_572_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n