Six great reads: Iranian social media memes, abandoned department stores and 1,200-year-old records of cherry blossoms | Iran

Patrick Wintour examines how Iran is winning its propaganda war against the United States through a series of memes mocking the Trump administration, AI-generated comedy videos and Lego-style animations. Despite a government-induced internet blockade, the country’s Gen Z tech warriors have been captivating Western audiences with creativity, humor and satire.

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2. Art, sex, nature: why is everything sold to us as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself?

I’ve been privately bemoaning the instrumentalization of everything for a long time: it seems that nothing is no longer valuable in its own right, but is only seen as useful in serving some utilitarian function.

Author and philosopher Julian Baggini considers how the best things in life are sold to us as a means to an end, arguing that this reductive worldview is robbing our most valuable activities of meaning.

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3. Abandoned Britain: Major department stores turned into illegal cannabis farms

The panel hangs on the wall through wires and looks unsafe. I get nervous stepping into an elevator. Plus, it was dark. I’m using the flashlight on my phone to read the signs.

In the first of a six-part series exploring vacant buildings in Britain, Sam Wollaston explores a building in Newport that was once home to Wildings department store. But since closing in 2019, the high-rise has fallen into disrepair and been commandeered as a marijuana farm and skate park. What can it tell us about Britain’s high streets?

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4. 1,200 years later, despite death of Japanese scientist, cherry blossom records remain

Records of cherry blossoms in Kyoto, Japan, have been meticulously tracked for 1,200 years. Changes in flowering times have become an important symbol of the climate crisis. When Professor Yasuyuki Aono passed away last year, there were concerns that no one would continue this important work. Chris Baraniuk has been looking for a replacement.

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5. Sperm whale communication closely resembles human language, study finds

A new study has found that sperm whales communicate with each other through a series of short clicks, called codas, that are so complex that they are very similar to our own language. Oliver Millman reports this discovery, which shows that whales can distinguish vowels by their brief or elongated clicks, or by their rising or falling tones.

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6. ‘I got everything I dreamed of — when I wasn’t equipped to handle it’: Lena Dunham on toxic fame, broken friendships and her ‘lost decade’

Now, people are starting to realize how much vulnerability is useful and how much is useless. But I don’t have these. Even simple things like posture, style, or how you present your body, or how you present your face, I don’t feel anything about.

Emma Brockes interviews writer-director Lena Dunham, who created HBO’s hit series Girls when she was just 23 years old. They discuss the prodigy’s quick and hard rise to stardom and why she was forced to step back from the spotlight.

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