THE MUSTS

World

get your helmets people, we’re riding

 The future of European transportation has two wheels

Ride that Bike. In recent years, bicycles have moved beyond trails and parks to become part of the daily routine for Europeans, who have incorporated cycling into their everyday lives.

Everything changed during the pandemic. When public transportation became a risk, the bicycle emerged as an option offering both freedom and safety. In the first half of 2020, bicycle use and sales increased by 50% compared to the previous year in several European cities.

The habit caught on, and capital cities began to adapt, redesigning the streets for cyclists.

Cities like Brussels and Milan led the transformation, converting parking spaces into miles of bike lanes. But don’t think it stops there:

• In London: the number of cyclists already outnumbers that of cars by a ratio of 2 to 1.

• In Paris: bicycle traffic has also surpassed car traffic at various points throughout the city;

• In the Netherlands: commuting by bicycle saw a 57% increase last year.

More than just a habit, this shift has a direct impact on the environment. According to the European Cyclists’ Federation, cycling instead of driving prevents 16 million tons of CO₂ emissions per year.

What else in on

• India launches the world's largest HPV vaccination campaign: The new initiative will offer free cervical cancer vaccines to millions of adolescents annually through public clinics — targeting around 60 million girls between ages 10 and 14 over the next few years. To put that in scale: a similar campaign in Finland or New Zealand would cover roughly 150,000 girls each. India's represents 15–20% of the global total. Cervical cancer kills ~80,000 women a year in India alone, about a quarter of the world's burden — making this one of the most impactful public health moves in recent memory! Let’s go (Read)

• Most unusual election yet: After electing an interim prime minister via Discord and watching youth-led protests topple the previous government, Nepal is voting for a new administration. Nearly 160 Gen Z candidates are running nationwide — about half of them as independents — with the frontrunner being Balen Shah, a 36-year-old rapper. (Read)

• No nuclear limits for the first time in 50 years: The New START treaty officially expired last month, leaving the US and Russia — the world's two largest nuclear powers — without any legal cap on atomic weapons for the first time in over half a century. Signed in 2010, the treaty limited each country to 1,550 active warheads and allowed mutual inspections of missile arsenals. Without it, both nations can now build as many nuclear weapons as they want — with no new agreement in sight. (Read)
  

I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi: Someone sent me this album, and I pressed play without knowing much about who Ninajirachi was. I didn't need to. Five minutes in, I already knew this one was going to stick.

Moving between EDM, tech-house, speed garage, dubstep, and hyperpop, I Love My Computer is an ode to the machine that raised her. Not metaphorically. Literally. Wilson grew up online, in that specific window of unsupervised digital childhood — before parents realized an iPod Touch was basically a phone — and she writes from exactly inside that experience.

I recognized something in it immediately.

• Growing up, I'd come home, turn the computer on, go have lunch while it loaded, come back, do my homework, and spend the rest of the afternoon just... there. When Skype and online games arrived, I was up until 4am talking to friends who were technically in the same city but somehow felt closer through a screen. The computer wasn't an escape. It was just where life happened.

I Love My Computer understands that. Wilson doesn't moralize about screen addiction or digital disconnection — she just tells a specific, honest story. "iPod Touch," the album's most earnest track, piles up hyper-specific memories: cracked screens, FL Studio late nights, a Pikachu phone case tucked under the pillow. It hits like a ringtone you didn't know you missed.

And then "Fuck My Computer" arrives and Wilson sings, completely sincerely: I wanna fuck my computer, because no one in the world knows me better. It's absurd and funny and, if you're being honest with yourself, kind of true.

The album flows like an expert DJ set — seamless transitions, constant forward momentum, never a moment where you wonder where it's going. It's dense and detailed and relentlessly fun, but with an emotional core that sneaks up on you. I'd honestly pay a lot to see her live. I'm pretty sure I'd have the best time.

Don't sleep on it. (Rating: 9.5/10)

Best tracks: iPod Touch · Fuck My Computer · All I Am · Infohazard

There's a bottle of shampoo sitting in my bathroom that I've owned for almost ten years. It has moved with me five times across Milan. It even came with me to Australia. It has more stamps on its metaphorical passport than most people I know — and until last week, I had never once opened it. Today we are talking about it.

Let me explain.

Growing up, I never lacked the essentials. There was always food on the table, hot water, clothes on my back. But compared to many of my friends, things were modest — and I was aware of that. So whenever something felt expensive or special, I held onto it. Saved it. Waited for the right moment to use it.

The shampoo came from my mother. I must have been seventeen or eighteen. She'd taken me to a specialty beauty store — the kind with soft lighting, in a fancy neighbourhood of São Paulo, with staff who actually knew exactly what they were selling — and she picked out this shampoo for me. I still remember the moment at the register, seeing the price and feeling genuinely shocked. It was more than I'd ever spent on hair products. More than I thought hair products could cost. 

• So I brought it to Italy. Then to Australia. Then back. Through five apartments, two countries, and nearly a decade of life — the bottle came with me, unopened, waiting. For what, exactly? I could never say.

And the longer I waited, the more the waiting accumulated. Every month that passed added weight to the imaginary occasion I was saving it for. And the heavier that occasion became, the less any real moment could ever live up to it. A regular day? No. A birthday? Maybe, but which one? A move to a new place? I'd already done that four times without opening it. The perfect moment kept not arriving — because I kept making it impossible to arrive.

• How many of us do this? We save the good outfit for an occasion that feels worthy enough. We hold off on the dream trip because we want to do it only on our honeymoon. The restaurant, the phone call, the thing we've been meaning to say — all of it waiting for the right time, the right version of ourselves, the right circumstances to align. And the right time, of course, never comes. Because we keep raising the bar every time it gets close.

Here's the thing that makes it even more absurd: the price that shocked seventeen-year-old me would barely register today. It's not a cheap shampoo, of course, but I earn in euros now. I buy hair products in that same price range when I need to. The financial logic that made saving it feel reasonable no longer exists — and yet I still couldn't bring myself to open it, because I was already caught in the loop of waiting.

Last week, on a completely ordinary Tuesday in early March 2026, my regular shampoo ran out. No special occasion. No milestone. No reason at all, really — except that it was there, and I finally wanted to.

So I opened it.

And honestly? It's wonderful. And so it was the random Tuesday I finally let it be enough.

With love, Micael.

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