Good morning – I’m back, with a selection of some of the most interesting stories from around the Guardian this week. From controversial comedy to AI in a writing workshop, they each offer a window on the world, in all its glorious and terrifying twists and turns.
1. Saving the UN’s vital Palestinian refugee archive
International security correspondent Jason Burke has reported on the dramatic and dangerous operation to save the archives kept by Unrwa (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) in Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Why are they so important? “Their destruction would have been catastrophic,” said Roger Hearn, a senior Unrwa official who oversaw the operation. “If there is ever a just and durable solution to this conflict, then this is the only evidence people can use to show there were once Palestinians living in a particular place.”
As Burke explains, the threats to the physical and digital records were many.
What happens next? Unrwa aims to trace patterns of displacement from 1948, and to be able to provide every Palestinian refugee with a family tree and supporting documents. It could take another two years.
How long will it take to read: three minutes
2. Killer seaweed from France
Brittany’s coastline is famous for green hills, rugged cliffs and miles of sandy beaches. But over the past few decades, Marta Zaraska reports, the sand has “begun to disappear beneath a carpet of green goo”.
What is it? “At certain times of year, when Ulva armoricana, a type of seaweed, blooms, banks of green mass form on the beaches, releasing hydrogen sulphide, a foul-smelling, potentially harmful gas.”
Why does so much seaweed bloom here? Brittany is France’s agricultural heartland – and the runoff from industrial farming’s intensive use of synthetic fertilisers and nitrogen-rich animal feed causes high levels of nitrates in the water.
Gross, yes, but dangerous? After a series of deaths, one bereaved family set out to prove the foul-smelling bloom was to blame.
How long will it take to read: nine minutes
Further reading: Still curious about concerning things coming out of the sea? Try this compelling but unsettling read about the deadly Vibrio bacterium spreading up the warming waters of the US coast. Blegh.
3. Robby Hoffman: edgelord or genius?
Robby Hoffman has suddenly become one of the world’s most successful comedians.
Courting controversy: Many of the 36-year-old New Yorker’s jokes raise hackles – and while, as she tells Lucy Knight, she isn’t trying to offend, she also doesn’t think being offended is the worst thing: “Being poor is.”
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“I do think that a lot of my jokes are misinterpreted.” – Robby Hoffman
Their conversation covers all kinds of ground, from Hoffman’s childhood as the seventh of 10 children, to her sweet marriage to former Bachelorette star Gabby Windey. It’s a fascinating primer for her charismatic, jolting Netflix special, Wake Up.
How long will it take to read: about five minutes
4. The writing professor and the AI submissions
Micah Nathan has taught fiction writing at MIT since 2017 – and, surprise surprise, has watched AI change the terms of the whole undertaking.
He gave students this ultimatum: “If you use AI, it reveals your orientation toward writing. Do you want to make art, or just turn in text? Do you want to actually learn how to write, or just pretend to do so?”
Spoiler: at least a few of them ignored his request to produce their own writing. But when he encouraged them to confess, without fear of any consequences, the whole workshop found a way to reframe their relationship to the technology.
How long will it take to read: about five minutes
Further reading: Nazrul Islam has quite a bit to say on AI surveillance and worker control. Better to think of your chatbot as snitch rather than shrink, says Arwa Mahdawi.
5. What’s in a name?
An “unprecedented” decades-long campaign powered by patient perspectives has led to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – a condition that affects one in eight women – being renamed as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS).
Does it really matter what it’s called? PCOS is misleading: not only can people have the condition without having polycystic ovaries, but the condition does not involve cysts. Misconceptions around this lead to confusion, treatment hurdles and undue suffering for patients.
Maddy Mavrikis, pictured above, has copped it all since her diagnosis at 15 – and hopes the name change will lead to better care for people in the future.
How long will it take to read: four minutes
Further reading: We have an explainer on the condition – and powerful stories from readers about their struggles to get help with it.
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