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Maxx yourself, squeeze yourself dry: The unhealthy obsession with optimizing everything

4 October 2026 at 05:00

There was a time when moderation was a virtue and the middle ground, wisdom. Hyperbole was no more than a literary or rhetorical device. But not anymore. We live at the extremes. Raising everything to its highest possible level is the zeitgeist fate has handed us, and it comes with a suffix that colonizes the internet: maxxing. A highly versatile suffix: placed after the right word it means that, whatever you do, you are giving it your all.

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© CASSIDY ARAIZA ( New York Times / Europa Press / CONTACTO )

The influencer Clavicular in Arizona, last February.

Lili Reinhart, the actress looking for success away from Hollywood clichés

4 October 2026 at 05:00

Lili Reinhart isn’t interested in being a celebrity… and the 30-year-old actress has proven this throughout her career. The moment her name started making headlines for her starring role as Betty Cooper in the TV series Riverdale (2017-2023), control over what she wanted (and didn’t want) in her life seemed to slip from her grasp. And, as her fame grew, she also had to confront her insecurities: subjected to constant media exposure, her life suddenly belonged to the public.

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© Variety (Variety via Getty Images)

Lili Reinhart, pictured at the premiere of 'The Love Hypothesis' (2026) in New York City, on September 16.

Fictitious real estate deals to obtain Turkish citizenship

1 October 2026 at 07:54
Turkish authorities have uncovered a massive scheme to acquire citizenship through fictitious real estate deals. The investigation targets 1,070 individuals who obtained Turkish citizenship in connection with these questionable investments, according to TRT Haber and Anadolu Ajansı. The Turkish Ministry of Interior reports that 263 of these individuals are investors, while the remaining 807 are […]

Johnny Cross, ‘the vegan butcher’: ‘I’ve been in the world 34 years and I’ve never eaten meat or fish, and I’m alive, I’m healthy’

29 September 2026 at 15:04
Johnny Cross at his home in Seville.

In another life, Johnny Cross (Clovenfords, Scotland, 34) might have become a sports journalist covering British football teams, but an Erasmus year in Seville during his final year of university changed everything. There he met Marta, his partner, with whom he now has two children, and he decided to stay in Spain. He also realized sports journalism wasn’t for him, so he began teaching English to make some money — “very typical of the guiris [a Spanish term for British people] here,” he says with a laugh.

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Johnny Cross is known on social media as The Vegan Guiri or “the vegan butcher,” the title of the cookbook he published in 2025.

The politics limiting US arms deliveries to Taiwan

26 September 2026 at 04:46

On March 28, 2025 a rollout ceremony took place at Lockheed Martin’s F-16 production facility in Greenville, South Carolina. Two F16V block 70 jets were ready for final testing, and the ceremony marked the formal handover to Taiwan. The Greenville ceremony was attended by Taiwan’s Defense Minister and by Taiwan’s US representative. Taiwan does not […]

The post The politics limiting US arms deliveries to Taiwan appeared first on Asia Times.

ARC Freedom Expands U.S.-Flag Fleet With New Sealift Capacity

25 September 2026 at 20:44
American Roll-On/Roll-Off Carrier Group has added the ARC Freedom to its U.S.-flag fleet, bringing another large vehicle carrier into the Maritime Security Program as the United States looks to strengthen its commercial...

In UN Speech, Iran’s President Displays Pictures of Children Killed by US, Brings Attention to Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal

25 September 2026 at 01:08
He also held up photos of a sports hall hit by a US strike that killed 21 civilians, including seven children; meanwhile, he pointed out, Israel has nuclear weapons, is not a signatory to the NPT, has not allowed a single inspection, and has murdered savagely over 70,000 innocents in Gaza

In the Age of AI, the Analog Restaurant Feels Radical

29 July 2026 at 21:54

For Eater, Bettina Makalintal reports on a refreshing trend in the restaurant industry: businesses embracing lo-fi, handwritten communications and announcements in response to the ceaseless AI slop we’re served across social media these days. From a grocery store’s hand-illustrated flyers to a burger joint’s Sharpie-scribbled menu specials, restaurants are choosing advertising with a human touch and rejecting polished AI-generated graphics.

It’s hard to think of a path of more friction than choosing to run a restaurant; why add even more friction to that? In these conditions, yes, it costs more to hire a photographer to promote your new menu than to generate one with AI, but it’s also increasingly clear that many people would rather see a badly taken, lo-fi photo than an engineered AI image. For one thing, it feels like a reflection of one’s values. To me, a restaurant that employs AI art is capitulating to the culture of slop, akin to reheating premade food from Sysco. It’s impossible to square with a value system that cares about craft and integrity.

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