Arwa Mahdawi

An American has become pope. Will he be the moral leader we desperately need? | Arwa Mahdawi

Pope Francis spoke for the most vulnerable, from Palestinians in Gaza to immigrants in the US. Let’s hope that Leo will follow in his footsteps

America is back, baby. Not only has the Gulf of Mexico been successfully Americanized, the Vatican is now officially US territory. OK, fine, not officially, but, on Thursday, the Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost was announced as pope. The 69-year-old, who has taken the papal name Leo XIV, is the first clergyman from the United States to lead the Roman Catholic church.

Does your child identify as a cat? There’s a man in Texas who can help | Arwa Mahdawi

Are schools really providing litter trays for kids whose pronouns are Puss and Purr? Or is state representative Stan Gerdes just stoking the culture war with his proposed FURRIES Act?

Move over, Wagatha Christie: Furlock Holmes is investigating “non-human behaviour” in Texas schools. A Republican state representative called Stan Gerdes recently filed a bill called the Forbidden Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Educational Spaces (FURRIES) Act, which would ban schoolkids from acting like animals. No hissing during history, no meowing during maths, and absolutely no relieving yourself in a litter box during lunch break, according to the FURRIES Act.

Mark Zuckerberg tried to convince us he was human. Sorry, ZuckBot: you’ve failed | Arwa Mahdawi

No matter how many system updates the Meta boss runs, there will always be something about him that screams ‘creepy automaton’. And the $270m apocalypse shelter doesn’t help

Over the past few years Mark Zuckerberg has been conducting a very expensive experiment. If he grows his hair and revamps his wardrobe, will it make him seem more relatable? If he takes up mixed martial arts, goes wild boar hunting, and tells manosphere-adjacent podcasters such as Joe Rogan that companies need more “masculine energy”, will red-blooded American males respect him? With the help of a small army of stylists, personal trainers and PR gurus, could Zuck transform himself from an unlikable dork into an alpha bro?

Will Jeffrey Epstein’s victims ever get justice? | Arwa Mahdawi

I have a suggestion for conspiracy theorists: instead of searching for secret plots, why not grapple with some very clear facts?

Last weekend the terrible news broke that Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, had died by suicide. Conspiracy theorists immediately started circling. A tweet from 2019, in which Giuffre said she wasn’t suicidal, was dredged up. Donald Trump Jr, the president’s eldest failson, then amplified the theory to his millions of followers, adding that “other than the Clinton’s [sic] no one has more suiciding going on”.