Thank you for reading. Plus: An ICC warrant, a nuclear watchdog, and more

… and curiosities from an a $6.2 million banana and Icelandic cozy szn

Hi fellow Detour-ers 👋

Before we get to the good stuff, I wanted to express my deepest thanks for your readership. When I founded The Detour in January with Frame Media founder Ben Moe, creative director Aloma Antao, and product lead Jeremy Siwik, we knew we wanted to create an enjoyable and thought-provoking newsletter that addresses some of the greatest challenges readers face in finding quality journalism today.

So we poured months’ worth of industry research, reader surveys, and good old-fashioned editorial intuition into what has become a weekly newsletter with an audience of over 25,000 readers worldwide. Since its founding, The Detour has made every attempt at shattering news avoidance, upholding balance and objectivity through voicey and unpretentious prose, and dismantling headline-driven newswriting that lacks substance or context.

As the Senior Editor at More to Her Story and an alum of Frame and Foreign Policy magazine, I’ve seen firsthand the immense need for ethically reported news that explains the consequential ripples of global events with empathy and human scale. My promise to you as a reader is to hone this mission with every edition of the newsletter you receive in your inbox.

The Detour is a work of independent journalism. But, what does that actually mean? It’s a newsletter free from any corporate, political, or government influence. It challenges the groupthink that has historically marginalized women and journalists of color in traditional newsrooms. Importantly, it doesn’t use sensationalism as a crutch, opting instead for the slow work of astutely reported stories that benefit readers wishing to know more, dive deeper, and remain curious about the world around them.

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Thank you for reading. The Detour is a genuine labor of love, and I am grateful to have you here!

— Kelly Kimball

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Here’s what’s on deck this week: 

☢️ The global watchdog for nuclear activity cautiously eyes Iran

🍌 The art world just freaked out over a $6.2 million banana

👮 The historical context behind the ICC’s arrest warrants of Netanyahu and Gallant

🇮🇸An Icelandic word for that cozy window weather feeling

Beefy tariffs, a consequential femicide report, Lebanese cultural protections, and a banana that rocked the art world. // Source: Canva, Wikimedia Commons

25 percent — The tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico (plus a 10 percent tariff on goods from China) that President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday he’d impose on his first day in office until drugs and migrants stopped coming over the border. (This may actually violate the terms of a free-trade deal Trump himself signed into law in 2020.)

Here’s how officials in Mexico, Canada, and China responded: