First Pass

43 stories from 14 sources

Culture under pressure, from Ukraine’s books to AI judgment

Day’s Recap

The day therefore combined acute threats to cultural memory with efforts to make culture more public and accountable.

Supporting Articles

An airstrike hit a historic Kyiv book market, damaging vast stores of books and disrupting a place central to the city’s reading culture. Across Ukraine, Russian attacks have destroyed or damaged millions of books in recent months.

8:01 AMThe New York Times

Russian attacks have destroyed millions of Ukrainian books, including stock held in a publisher's warehouse that was hit twice. The damage reaches far beyond paper and buildings, threatening the country's ability to preserve and circulate its own stories.

5:01 AMThe New York Times

Thélyson Orélien’s novel, “It Was Either That Or Die,” had emerged as a major hit of the French literary season and a contender for a prestigious prize. Then someone ran an A.I. detection test, and the book was removed from the shortlist, throwing its authorship and the reliability of such tests into question.

4:11 PMThe New York Times

Former Kennedy Center employees told Congress that officials delayed repairs to leaks and other building problems. Those same issues are now being cited as a serious safety risk behind the center’s closure.

4:05 PMNew York Times Arts

Imelda Cajipe Endaya has become the first woman to receive the Philippines’ highest national honor for visual artists. The award recognizes more than five decades of feminist and socially engaged work.

1:52 PMARTnews

Archaeologists uncovered a 72-foot wall beneath a hospital on the Île de la Cité. The find could help resolve a decades-old debate over where ancient Lutetia, the predecessor to modern Paris, was located.

1:41 PMARTnews

Other Developments

A curated list of other prominent stories from this day.

The next book in the popular Fourth Wing series arrives next week. Here is a quick guide to where readers can preorder or buy it when it goes on sale.

5:02 PMIGN

Some Afghan taxi drivers are quietly bringing music back to their cars, despite a Taliban ban on playing it in public. For passengers, those rides offer a small but noticeable break from the rules governing daily life.

4:42 PMAl Jazeera

Dealers at New York's Armory Show reported sales despite geopolitical conflict and inflation, describing a notably calm market atmosphere.

4:30 PMHyperallergic

The article profiles a graffiti artist whose lettering has become closely associated with New York’s visual identity. Major brands now hire him to reproduce that street-level aesthetic in commercial campaigns and products.

4:24 PMNYT New York

Filippo Bernardini admitted to stealing hundreds of unpublished manuscripts by posing as publishing insiders. Now, a new wave of online deception looks strikingly similar to his old scheme, raising the unsettling question of whether he has returned or inspired imitators.

4:24 PMNew York Times Arts

The Fashion Institute of Technology is launching FIT Future/Forward Conversations, a live-talk series with people influencing creative industries around the world. The discussions will focus on the ideas driving a period of rapid change.

4:04 PMWWD

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