Le Weekend: Miss AI, Lab-Grown BBQ Meat, Euro Fan Dance

🎲  OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ

What do you remember from the news this week?

1. U.S. President Joe Biden pledged more aid to Ukraine at the start of a two-day NATO summit in Washington. Which anniversary is the alliance marking?

2. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of embezzling $1.2 million worth of…?

3. Europe is back in the space game with its first independently launched rocket in 9 months. What’s its name?

4. What have Bulgarian archaeologists found in a sewer? a marble statue of Hermes / a gold-plated Vespa / a petrified olive tree / Julius Caesar’s gladius

[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]

#️⃣  TRENDING

Although the Dutch soccer team got knocked out by England in the semifinals of the Euro championship, it left a lasting impact on the competition by way of a fan’s dance that went viral on social media. The dance, consisting mostly in bouncing from left to right to the song “Links Recht” (“Right Left”) by Dutch party act Snollebollekes, was adopted by throngs of orange-clad soccer fans, and video clips widely shared on online platforms like Instagram or TikTok.

🎭  5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW

• Russian theater director and playwright convicted on terrorism charges. A Russian court sentenced theater director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to six years in prison on terrorism charges. Russian authorities argued that their play Finist, the Brave Falcon justifies terrorism — a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison — despite the play having been supported by the Russian Culture Ministry and winning the prestigious Golden Mask award for theater. Berkovich and Petriychuk’s conviction are part of a recent crackdown on dissent in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

• New modern art museum set to open in Milan this fall. After 52 years of waiting, the Brera Modern has announced it will finally open in Milan, on Dec. 7. The modern art museum will house more than 100 contemporary art works that belong to the Brera’s collection, most of which has been in storage. The new museum will be situated a few doors from the Brera Painting Gallery, which contains works from famed Italian artists Canova, Caravaggio and Raphael.

• Late husband of Alice Munro accused of sexual abuse. The daughter of the late Canadian author and Nobel laureate Alice Munro revealed in an essay published in the Toronto Star that she was sexually abused by Munro’s second husband, Gerard Fremlin, in the mid-1970s. In the essay, Andrea Robin Skinner, Munro’s daughter whom she shares with her first husband, James Munro, writes that the abuse spanned from when she was 9 until she was a teenager. She opened up about the abuse to her mother in her 20s. Despite this knowledge, the author stayed with Fremlin until his death in 2013.

• AI-generated model Kenza Layli is crowned “Miss AI.” Kenza Layli, a computer-generated woman created by a team in Morocco, was named the first winner of the inaugural Miss AI beauty pageant. An “activist and influencer” with more than 199,000 followers on Instagram, Kenza Layli beat out 1,500 other AI-generated models to claim the title, including runner-ups Lalina of France and Olivia from Portugal. The pageant judges – a panel of two real humans and two AI-generated models — assessed the contestants on their realism, tech and social clout.

• The Devil Wears Prada 2, Shrek 5. Fans of The Devil Wears Prada may be charmed to hear that a sequel of the hit 2006 comedy is slated to hit screens soon. The sequel will see blistering fashion magazine editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, navigating the decline of print media and battling it out with her old assistant Emily Charlton, played by Emily Blunt, a now high-powered luxury brand executive. Many of the key cast and crew are expected to return. Unfortunately, Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway and the lead in the original, has so far not been confirmed. Meanwhile, DreamWorks Animation has started working on Shrek 5, slated for release on July 1, 2026, with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz all back as voice talents.

🇮🇷 Why Iran’s reformist strategy will not work with the West this time

Fearing Europe's shift to the right and a second Trump term, Tehran has dusted off its reformist credentials — with president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian and veteran diplomat Mohammed Javad Zarif — to show the West it is willing to talk. But for Siavash Pendar, times have changed and this ploy will not work again. “Some Western politicians have come to realize that there is no getting along with the ayatollahs,” the journalist writes in Persian-language media Kayhan-London.

Read the full story: The Zarif Card: Why Nobody Is Buying Tehran's Old "Reformist" Trick This Time

🇦🇷 How Argentina has become a textbook case of anti-diplomacy

Diplomatic practice, which involves institutional dexterity and mutual respect, is fundamental to a country's well-being. But Argentina's libertarian president, Javier Milei, has shown he prefers the contrary concept of anti-diplomacy. The issue is that while diplomacy defends national interests, anti-diplomacy serves the interests of one person. “With near-religious fervor, Milei is letting dogmas shape policy, and an unbridled need to project himself govern his conduct,” writes Juan Gabriel Tokatlian in Argentine daily Clarín.

Read the full story: Javier Milei And The Destructive Art Of Anti-Diplomacy

🔫 Water guns to construction blockades, locals are fighting overtourism

Every year, 1.4 billion tourists move around the globe and arrive at their destination. While there are positive benefits for the economy, out-of-control tourism is also increasingly affecting the well-being and livelihood of those inhabiting the dream destinations, and beyond. Now, beyond official actions of local governments, citizens and civic groups are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. From Toronto and Florence, Athens to Medellin, here’s Worldcrunch’s collection of some of the ways that citizens are fighting back on their own to confront mass tourism.

Read the full story: Overtourism, Six Ways Locals Around The World Are Beating Back The Crowds

🥩🧪 BRIGHT IDEA

South Korean researchers announced they had developed a new way to engineer lab-grown meat, with the result resembling a clear pink jello. According to the scientists, the cultured meat generates “grilled beef flavors upon cooking.” And although the pink blobs are not yet ready to eat, the team — whose findings were published in the British weekly scientific journal Nature — used an electronic device that mimics the human nose to confirm that the lab-grown meat did, indeed, smell yummy.

🎢 SMILE OF THE WEEK

VR, IRL? A street vendor in Colombia has created an authentic VR roller coaster experience by sitting the people in a chair and jolting them about.

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⏩  LOOKING AHEAD

• The U.S. military pier off the coast of Gaza is to be permanently removed as soon as next week, according to U.S. officials. The temporary $230-million operation, which is thought to have delivered 19.4 million pounds of humanitarian aid to Gaza, has been plagued with problems from the start, with bad weather disconnecting the floating platform three times.

• Despite pollution concerns, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo vowed to swim in the River Seine next week, ahead of the Olympics. Hidalgo was slated to take a dip last month, but the event was postponed after the recent electoral rollercoaster in the country. President Emmanuel Macron — who had also made a similar promise to go for a swim in the Seine — has yet to announce a rescheduled date.

• The soccer European Championship is coming to an end, with the final on Sunday in Berlin, Germany, that will see Spain and England fight for the title. Meanwhile, Saturday and Sunday will see Wimbledon men’s and women’s finals in the UK.

News quiz answers:

1. NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary with U.S. President Joe Biden pledging more aid to Ukraine including F-16s and air defense support.

2. Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of embezzling roughly $1.2 million worth of jewelry during his time in office, including a diamond-encrusted Rolex and Patek Philippe watches.

3. Marking the end of a nine-month launch hiatus, the European Space Agency successfully lifted off its newest rocket, Ariane 6, from a spaceport in French Guiana.

4. A well-preserved, 6.8-foot (2-meter) tall marble statue depicting the Greek god Hermes was discovered during excavation work at the site of the ancient city of Heraclea Sintica, in southwestern Bulgaria, close to the Greek border.

✍️ Newsletter by Worldcrunch

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*Photo: Kenza Layli/IG