The news is exhausting, and so fast-moving that we can find ourselves missing the slow and thoughtful. This weekly update can provide that for you. We do this by distilling the best of the web and recommending just three links every week that you absolutely must see. No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads. Here are this week’s recommendations:
Ramadan in lockdown has given me a new found love and appreciation of the mosque (Zeynab Mohamed / Aurelia)
There was no rushing around. We could always pray in the comfort of our own prayer area. Yet, for all the pros, it was no comparison to the joy of praying at the mosque. My mind and body yearned for it. I found myself lazier and less committed at home. It was as if we were each other’s fuel, motivating each other to go on, two rakahs after two rakahs.
The mosque is more than a place to pray. Especially during Ramadan. It comes alive with children playing, the soothing repetition of dhikr, and stories from previous generations and faraway lands. The last ten nights, when we stay there till the fajr prayer, the people aren’t just other Muslims that have attended the nightly prayer. It’s as if we’re one big family.
How Two Best Friends Beat Amazon (Jodi Kantor and Karen Weise / New York Times)
In the end, there were more executives — including 11 vice presidents — who were alerted about the protest than workers who attended it. Amazon’s chief counsel, describing Mr. Smalls as “not smart, or articulate,” in an email mistakenly sent to more than 1,000 people, recommended making him “the face” of efforts to organize workers. The company fired Mr. Smalls, saying he had violated quarantine rules by attending the walkout.
In dismissing and smearing him, the company relied on the hardball tactics that had driven its dominance of the market. But on Friday, he won the first successful unionization effort at any Amazon warehouse in the United States, one of the most significant labor victories in a generation. The company’s response to his tiny initial protest may haunt it for years to come.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes 1st black woman confirmed to highest court (Good Morning America)
Image credit: Joël Manser