Reading the news is supposed to be fun

Your morning update from Salon.

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The news, in brief …

• “We’re at risk of an arms race”: US-Russian nuclear arms treaty expires

  Lawmakers fear a global arms race as the last treaty comes to an end. Read more.

• Trump puts FBI at “complete disposal” of authorities searching for Savannah Guthrie’s mom

  President Donald Trump ordered federal law enforcement to assist in the ongoing search. Read more.

• Democrats’ ICE demands play into Trump’s hands

  DHS and Democrats are both demanding a closer relationship between local officials and ICE. Read more.

Make me smarter …

Trump foe dons MAGA hat after Maduro raid

Once branded a "lunatic" by Trump, Colombian President Gustavo Petro is now on board to "Make Americas Great Again." Read more.

A cardboard dragon head has been mocking me for the better part of a month.

It grins toothlessly in the middle of the ever-growing monument to abandoned hobbies that is my desk. Next to the strop I bought when I thought I could be a woodcarver, in front of the dusty sewing machine and almost entirely obscuring an untouched stack of origami paper, it stares at me eyelessly and wonders when I’m going to finish bringing it to life.

Like all the other projects I took on to have something to do with my hands while I listened to podcasts, I got about 30% of the way through before my enthusiasm flagged. Unlike all those other projects, the dragon has a deadline: Feb. 17, Mardi Gras Day.

I make myself a new costume every Carnival to stomp around the streets of New Orleans and, truth to tell, my brainstorming reach often exceeds my crafting grasp. Around this point in the season, the hot-glue burns on my hands mount up and the reality of what I’m making starts to diverge ever more seriously from the vision in my head. I’ve made it through every season by repeating a simple mantra as I slap together a crudely painted tribute to my local library or the surface of Arrakis made entirely of red beans: This is supposed to be fun.

That phrase snaps me out of an in-the-weeds focus on horn length and even brushstrokes. It pushes me past doom-spiraling about misapplied sequins. And I’ve come to think it might come in useful outside of my crafting space.

Most of us, if you’re reading this, spend too much of our days cramming our brains with negative political headlines from places we aren’t connected to and can’t meaningfully affect. It can be easy to forget that reading the news is supposed to be both informative and entertaining.

Knowing more about the world is supposed to, in some small way, make you feel connected to the rest of humanity. It might be a massive overreach to describe the protests against ICE across the country, or the larger work of resisting the Trump administration, as “fun,” but there’s certainly joy to be found in those communities of like-minded Americans. Take a beat to read some of our recent profiles on quilters, social media influencers and scientists who are banding together in opposition. Remind yourself that it is fun to collaborate with actual humans, and enjoyable to learn about the ways other people are handling all of this.

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Before you go …

They said Trumpism was fading

Mainstream commentators said Donald Trump’s authoritarian campaign was exhausted. They were very wrong. Read more.

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