Culture

Critic Ben Davis rounds up the art words that helped him better process 2025. I think the term “delightmare” hits the spot:

In court Thursday during evidence suppression hearings, prosecutors showed a hand-written note that police say they found among Mangione’s possessions. It was only briefly shown and hard to make out, but one day’s tasks included buying USBs and a digital camera from Best Buy. Journalist Lorena O’Neil reports one section of the note may have referenced archiving social media pages, which were scrutinized by the public after Mangione’s arrest.

As usual, Google is back with another set of the year’s top trending searches, as well as archived lists for previous years. Just don’t be too surprised when you see 2025 top spots taken up by Charlie Kirk, KPop Demon Hunters, or Arc Raiders.

Though Club Chalamet started off as just another stan account, The Wall Street Journal reports that Simone Cromer — the woman behind the Timothée-obsessed page — has found new success on Substack where she has generated enough revenue to “cover the cost of her summer vacation to Italy” with just a few hundred subscribers.

We’re back in New York court this morning for pre-trial hearings on whether key evidence in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting case will be barred from being shown to jurors — that includes items like a firearm and notebook recovered when Mangione was arrested. As I left the courthouse last night, some Mangione supporters were already “in line” to try to get inside on Tuesday. They camped out across the street in tents overnight.

A Department of Corrections officer at the Pennsylvania prison where Mangione was held after his arrest told the court that he and Mangione discussed how traditional media and social media was reacting to the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The corrections officer told Mangione that from his perspective, mainstream media focused on the crime, whereas social media users discussed the wrongdoings of the healthcare industry.

Not every day you get to physically own a meme!

The state has called two witnesses today: the deputy commissioner of public information at the NYPD and an employee at a surveillance system company in Pennsylvania. It’s part of the vast surveillance network that led to Mangione’s arrest: NYPD releasing several photos and videos of the shooting suspect which were then published by countless news outlets, as well as the video surveillance system in the Pennsylvania McDonald’s where Mangione was arrested.

We’re more than an hour and a half behind the scheduled start time for the hearing in New York. Mangione was allowed to wear street clothes today, which elicited wall-to-wall news coverage last month. He’s wearing a gray suit and light dress shirt.

Just when you thought you had heard the last of Labubus, Tim Cook gets a custom one. Kasing Lung, the artist responsible for the viral sensation, gifted Cook a doll wearing glasses and holding an iPhone. But is it really a Labubu if you didn’t spend hours trying to buy one?

In a private meeting with members of media, the pope condemned clickbait news as a “degrading practice,” The Guardian reports. Pope Leo XIV is clearly thinking about the digital information ecosystem: he said he chose his papal name in part due to developments in AI “that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.” Will the pope weigh in on SEO next?

To support their suits against OPM and DOGE, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is selling a retro-looking ringer t-shirt, and honestly it’s kind of a banger. I think I am going to buy one, hem it into a crop top and wear it when I go rock climbing. At $25 it’s a steal.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing the site of “left-wing bias.” As I wrote in a feature about the site last month, there is a growing campaign by the Trump administration and other powerful actors around the world to influence the encyclopedia.

The Internet darling valued at $100 billion in 2001 when it merged with Time Warner is for sale by Apollo Global Management for about 1 percent of that. Italy’s Bending Spoons is said to be interested, owner of WeTransfer, Evernote, Komoot, and Vimeo.

Look, I’m more of an Oxford English Dictionary girlie, but I respect the hustle from Merriam-Webster. I hope our terminally online dictionary raises a cool billion.

Delightful scene report about a bunch of children who think they’re building god. Highlights include: appearances from Dumpster Boyfriend, “a sperm-racing start-up,” and “Carsten, a Swiss German 27-year-old who was designing AI-involved sandals but recently pivoted to drug testing.” Claude, is this a top signal?

Mangione was facing with two terrorism-related charges in the New York State case. It will likely be seen as a big win for Mangione. In his ruling Judge Carro wrote:

This is the first time Mangione is appearing in court since February’s chaotic hearing that became a public spectacle. We’re expecting more news to come of this hearing — the judge may even set a trial date.

Last year, the Archive lost an appeal in its ebook lending case, and now it has settled the lawsuit over its Great 78 Project:

But she won’t get the editor-in-chief title that Anna Wintour held for decades — the role is officially called the “Head of Editorial Content.” Editor of Vogue.com Chloe Malle was named to the position this morning.

Your collection of artworks looted by the Nazis could end up in the news. A Dutch newspaper recently spotted what appears to be a missing painting that belonged to a Jewish art dealer during World War II — in an online real estate listing for a home in Argentina. A second missing painting was reportedly seen in a social media post by one of the daughters of a Nazi official.

Raphaël Graven, a 46-year-old French influencer known by his streaming handle, Jeanpormanove, died in his sleep during a live broadcast on Kick earlier this week after being “humiliated and mistreated for months” on the platform, according to French technology minister Clara Chappaz. A judicial investigation into his death is underway.