Happy Saturday, Ink readers!
As Donald Trump finishes his second yearly physical, heads to the Middle East to oversee the latest Gaza ceasefire deal, and nurses his Nobel Prize loss, he’s not the only one looking for cultural significance. Vladimir Putin has apparently hired gangs of thieves to loot the libraries of Europe in pursuit of Russian relics, while tech oligarch Peter Thiel sets up shop as a Christian prophet. Read about that and more, from chronicles of corruption to stories of hope, in today’s edition of Weekend Reads — the most interesting, challenging, and vexing writing we’ve come across this week.
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