Five Great Reads: the ‘monstrous weight' of Trump's ego, violent beauty norms, and chasing a meteor

The Guardian

07-02-2025

Hello, and happy Saturday. I'm here with some of the best reads from around the Guardian this week.
Take your pick, and settle in – maybe you're still trying to unpack Trump's comments about turning the Gaza strip into the 'riviera of the Middle East', or maybe you're more in the mood to read about the meteorite that landed in a Cotswolds cul-de-sac.
Maybe you just want to leave it all behind, and allow yourself 32 minutes to boil an egg. I won't judge.
Betteridge's law of headlines suggests any headline ending in a question mark can be answered: 'no'. That doesn't make this piece about a 'lively new book' on the occult Elvis any less fun.
What do you mean, the 'occult Elvis'? Apparently the king of rock'n'roll claimed to be a faith healer from Jupiter's ninth moon. The book's author, Miguel Conner, decided to chase it all up after an ayahuasca ceremony. 'My thesis is that he was the greatest magician in western civilisation,' he says. Make of this what you will.
How long will it take to read: Four minutes.
Writing on Donald Trump's 'Gaza power-trip' this week, Simon Tisdall does not hold back. 'Trump's incoherent rambling does not amount to groundbreaking thinking, as Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggests, let alone a plan,' the Observer's foreign affairs commentator wrote.
'The fundamentalist aim lurking beneath his mock concern is an enlarged and consolidated Israel occupying and 'owning', through some bizarre form of US lend-lease, all of Gaza and possibly the West Bank. It means death to hopes of a Palestinian state … [and] smells like ethnic cleansing.'
How long will it take to read: Less than three minutes.
Further reading: There's plenty of news, analysis and comment on the developments around Trump's remarks, and a great piece on the astonishing power of Elon Musk. Most importantly though, remember what's happening on the ground in Gaza – this is a gut-wrenching testimony from a humanitarian surgeon.
As a clinical psychologist in Melbourne, Bianca Denny is used to speaking about taboo topics – increasingly, she has found these discussions are about gender-based violence. She understands the importance of keeping the conversation going – from personal experience.
'Personally and professionally, I understand the frustration when a person signals their intent to leave a relationship or change a behaviour, and then does not do so. This can be demoralising for those who initiated those difficult conversations or offered other support,' she wrote.
The big thing to realise, she says, is that multiple attempts to leave 'are not failures, but instead opportunities to strengthen resolve, develop coping strategies, and build capacity'.
'Enduring an abusive relationship is akin to being caught in a rip; it is impossible for the distressed swimmer to navigate towards the safe waters so easily spotted from the shoreline.'
How long will it take to read: A few minutes.
Further reading: Our new Broken Justice series looks at how the criminal justice system can deliver poor outcomes for victim-survivors of sexual violence and often retraumatises them in the process. Hard issues – but these stories lay out a thoughtful pathway to think about them.
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Guardian columnist Zoe Williams chatted with the only female director nominated at this year's Oscars – Coralie Fargeat – for the very glossy, very gruesome film The Substance. Emerging from under my jumper, where I spent most of the film delightedly shrieking, I left the cinema unsure how deep her message about female beauty really went.
But I can't deny her points, that 'Every culture has its own standard of what is valued. But it's always the same violence.
'And it's a trap,' Fargeat says. 'The whole world [would need] to change to make you at ease. I truly believe that it's a fight you can't win on your own.'
How long will it take to read: Four minutes.
Further reading: Apparently science is finding 'women can have a dark streak too'. Catherine de' Medici would have something to say. And Margaret Thatcher. Still, this look at female narcissism is interesting, especially if you've just spent several hours watching Margaret Qualley plunge alarmingly big needles into Demi Moore's spine.
Well – it's a meteor. But Helen Gordon's long read about the space event that transformed an English market town is full of fascinating and much less obvious information.
For example: meteors can go at 15 times the speed of a rifle bullet. And 'fresh' meteors, to use the collector's parlance, are 'especially prized', because as soon as they enter the Earth's atmosphere they start changing dramatically.
So when this fireball was spotted incoming in 2021, scientists raced to find it – and enlisted the public to help.
Notable quote: 'If you find something that might be a meteorite take a photograph of it in situ; record the location; only handle it wearing gloves; put it into a sealable plastic bag or some aluminium foil. Email us!'
How long will it take to read: Eight and a half minutes.
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