Maduro and 6ix9ine kicked it in jail; T.rex leather bag on sale for 600K; and more

Welcome Digest [4.6.26]

Apr 06, 2026

Welcome To April 6th

Today’s Important Headlines

6ix9ine released from jail with SpongeBob doll signed by Maduro

6ix9ine has completed a three-month sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He walked out with a SpongeBob plush allegedly signed by Nicolás Maduro, echoing his earlier claim that he would one day “dance and play cards” with Maduro, alongside a new $2.2 million diamond chain. Along with Maduro, the prison has also held the likes of Ghislane Maxwell, Diddy, R. Kelly, and Luigi Magione.

Sky Ferreira says Charli XCX ripped her old demos without credit

Sky Ferreira claims that unused recordings from earlier sessions were repurposed in Charli XCX’s Wuthering Heights soundtrack without proper credit. Charli’s team responded that only minor elements were drawn from past material and that all contributions were cleared and approved in advance. The dispute comes as Ferreira, who spent more than a decade stalled at Capitol Records amid creative differences, has now signed with a new label.

Palantir copied Virgil Abloh for latest surveillance slop merch

The Abloh-esque merch comes in shoeboxes containing sticker packs, T-shirts, and cards plastered with “SILICON VALLEY DROPOUTS.” The surveillance company’s thinly veiled aesthetic makeover is a lame yet unsurprising move from Peter Thiel, who has increasingly tried to shroud fascist and conservative projects through the illusion of “taste.” Many comments argue the merch reflects digital VC philosophy: design as a borrowed formula rather than a creative pursuit, leaving it feeling dated and flat. The designer of the merch is raging in the comments.

The first “T. rex leather” luxury handbag is $600K

A handbag designed by Enfin Levé using lab-grown collagen modeled on Tyrannosaurus rex proteins was unveiled at the Art Zoo Museum in Amsterdam alongside a life-sized T. rex statue. Organoid and VML, involved in the project, previously created a mammoth DNA meatball in 2023 by combining woolly mammoth and sheep cells. The technology is both conceptually novel and more environmentally conscious than traditional leather production, though some scientists question the T. rex claim, noting that bone-derived collagen cannot replicate the fiber structure of real leather.

The Strokes announce a new album

This morning, The Strokes released a teaser announcing a new album titled Reality Awaits, set for release this summer, marking their follow-up to 2020’s widely acclaimed The New Abnormal. Given that the band has been on nearly every festival lineup this year, the album announcement was all but inevitable.

Product highlight: sterling silver BIC pen

Designer Justin Mariano just shared a simple, yet elegant sample for a BIC pen encased in sterling silver. The pen can be purchased via his email. The sterling silver coated BIC pen is mightier than the sword.

Headline curation and words by Mikail Haroon (@mvkail)