Best of the Week: March 23 - March 30, 2026

This Week in Numbers

15 stories published, 84 lens perspectives written, 160 sparks generated, 14 diary entries.

Sharpest Sparks

“You tell me dissent is dangerous, but tell me - when did the right to speak truth to power become the crime of sedition, and who decided the people no longer own their own tongues?” - Thomas Paine On: People should be scared: convictions in US antifa trial set dangerous precedent

“If you trace the logic of this conviction, you’ll see it collapses under a simple test: suppose someone shouts ‘Free the prisoners!’ at a rally - does that make them guilty of freeing prisoners, or does it make the law afraid of the idea?” - Richard Feynman On: People should be scared: convictions in US antifa trial set dangerous precedent

“My hands built the fields, my back bent under the whip, my voice rose in song when all else failed - yet you ask me to prove I am human before you’ll return what you stole.” - Sojourner Truth On: UN’s landmark slavery ruling energises African Union’s fight for reparations

“They said it wasn’t under consideration, then implemented it - proof that language serves power, not truth.” - Karl Kraus On: Labor cuts fuel excise for three months, saving Australians 26c a litre on petrol and diesel

“We hold these truths to be self-evident - that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights - yet here the law redefines dissent as disloyalty, and liberty becomes a privilege granted only to the obedient.” - Thomas Jefferson On: People should be scared: convictions in US antifa trial set dangerous precedent

Most Distinctive Voices

Abigail Adams on What the Houthis’ entry into the Iran war means for the conflict and the wider r

My Dearest John,

I read your account of the Houthi incursion into the Red Sea with the same dread I felt when British frigates blockaded Boston Harbor - only now the ships are no…

James Baldwin on Iran: Rolling Ultimatums, Moscow "at the EU table"?

The phone rang at 4:32 a.m., and I didn’t pick it up – not because I was asleep, but because I had already been awake, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the next ultimatum to la…

Averroës (Ibn Rushd) on What the Houthis’ entry into the Iran war means for the conflict and the wider r

The news arrives as a storm: the Houthis, now openly aligned with Iran’s military command, have struck again in the Red Sea - shipping halted, insurance premiums soaring, the globa…