1. The Electoral Bond Scheme inhibits the citizen’s capacity to meaningfully participate in political and public life, argues Suhrith Parthasarathy in the Hindu.
  2. Why is the Congress trying to out-cow the Bharatiya Janata Party, asks Mukul Kesavan in the Telegraph.
  3. In the Indian Express, Deeptiman Tiwary explores the dynamics behind the alleged murder of a police officer by gau rakshaks in Uttar Pradesh.
  4. Can the yellow vests speak? France’s elites were quick to condemn the gilets jaunes protesters as stupid and backward. But as novelist Édouard Louis writes in Jacobin magazine, they are just standing up for their rights.
  5. Right now, the greatest threat to the Eurozone is the unresolved standoff over the Italian budget and its public debt running to 133% of GDP, argues Adam Tooze on his blog.
  6. In Dawn, Alex Shams writes of how Indians and Pakistanis come together while on pilgrimage in Iran.
  7. In the Indian Express, Vishnu Varma chronicles the remarkable career of PT Nair, the Malayali typist who became Kolkata city’s most meticulous historian.
  8. All news – including political news – has become a kind of entertainment, says Ian Jack in the Guardian.
  9. In the Intelligencer, Andrew Sullivan argues that the collapse of Christianity in the United States has led to the expression of religious impulses in political cults.
  10. Why are young people in the United States having so little sex? Kate Julian explores in the Atlantic.
  11. Can a particular diet help heal us, asks Siddhartha Mukherjee in the New York Times.