5 interesting stories

Here are the five most interesting stories I found today instead of relying on social algorithms.

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  1. “Defeated in Syria, ISIS Fighters Held in Camps Still Pose a Threat” (The New York Times) – How do you stop the cycle of sprawling American military detention facilities serving as the cradles of the next wave of radicalization?
  2. “Little Spartas” (The Nation) – Historian David A. Bell looks at why radicalization happens in some places but not in others: “Radicalization, by contrast, tends to take place in relatively small, contained spaces, where like-minded people can exchange news and ideas, reinforce their shared passions, and magnify their outrage at their opponents.”
  3. “The Man Who Foresaw the West’s Fantasia” (The American Conservative) – Sociologist Daniel Bell asked, in the words of Gilbert T. Sewall, what if modernism and luxury encourage the breakup of values that make bourgeois comfort and order possible?
  4. “Captured USS Pueblo displayed as N. Korean propaganda prize” (Associated Press) – North Korea is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the capture of a U.S. Navy vessel. “She looks down with satisfaction at a crumpled American flag kept in a glass case on the bridge and waves her hand at copies of confessions hanging on the wall.”
  5. “Swiss mummy identified as ancestor of Boris Johnson” (Associated Press) – The mystery of who a mummy discovered in Switzerland decades ago was has been solved. It is the U.K. foreign minister’s great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, of course.