Today’s AJ Highlights: The institutional collapse of the week is the total cancellation of the Adelaide Writers’ Week, which was called off after more than 180 writers withdrew and the entire board resigned in a boycott following the disinvitation of a Palestinian-Australian author (The Guardian). In Paris, the Louvre has completely closed its doors as staff strikes over pay and building maintenance escalate from partial walkouts to a total shutdown (ARTnews). And media is shrinking; PBS News Weekend has officially signed off for the “foreseeable future,” marking another loss for the nation’s public record (AP).
Beneath these institutional ruptures lies a more profound shift in how we consume and relate to culture. Educators are sounding alarms as Gen Z arrives at college unable to read full-length books, forcing a recalibration of academic standards as students struggle to complete even basic assigned reading (Fortune (MSN)). This attention crisis is being accelerated by technology: news publishers report that search traffic has plunged by a third in a single year as AI summaries replace traditional clicks, forcing media companies to pivot toward TikTok-style delivery to survive (The Guardian).
Finally, we look at the evolution of performance and political legacy. Ian McKellen is starring in a new “mixed reality” play where he appears as a hologram to audience members wearing special glasses—a performance where the actors are quite literally not there (The New York Times). Lastly, in Washington, the National Portrait Gallery has swapped its portrait of Donald Trump and removed wall text referencing his two impeachments, a move that contrasts sharply with the explicitly detailed captions for other former presidents (Washington Post).
All the stories we collected are below.
