President Donald Trump got one of the rarest things in American politics: a second chance. Voters rendered the verdict that he blew it. By W. James Antle III
Bomb threats have disrupted dozens of flights in Europe over the past week. At airports in Rome, Madrid and Warsaw, travelers were more frustrated than fearful.
Until recently, people with obesity were generally expected to manage their weight through diet and exercise, and pharmacological interventions were developed for comorbid conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Some drugs were available to promote weight loss, but they did not become established therapies owing to intolerable side effects, limited effectiveness, or both. By far, the most reliable intervention to treat obesity was bariatric surgery, but it was reserved for the most severely affected patients because of the risks associated with the surgery itself as well as lifelong side effects.
Use of GLP-1–based therapies for addiction could provide a bridge toward whole-person health care
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) medications have transformed the landscape of obesity and diabetes treatment. Evidence is accruing that they also might reduce cravings for alcohol, nicotine, opioids, and stimulants. Most research into the mechanisms by which GLP-1RAs might help to treat substance use disorders has focused on their ability to modulate the dopamine reward system in the brain, which also contributes to suppressing the consumption of highly palatable food. However, emerging understanding about the biology of GLP-1RAs suggests that a neurocentric framework might be too narrow to interpret their effects, which arise from complex interactions between brain processes and other aspects of an individual’s physiology. As such, these medications provide an opportunity to reconsider the effects of drugs and addiction through a whole-person health lens. This framework considers how the brain’s reward pathway interacts with metabolic, inflammatory, hormonal, and cardiovascular processes throughout the body.
THE NEW STATESMAN: The latest issue features Emily Lawford’s cover story shows how Nigel Farage, by calling mass deportation “impossible” in 2024, drove young online nationalists to Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, whose small but growing vote now splits Reform’s and has pulled Farage and the mainstream right toward harder ethnic politics; Gideon Levy argues that Israel’s anti-Netanyahu bloc, which reaches 67 Knesset seats only by counting Arab parties that won a record 19 but that almost no one will govern with, has handed Benjamin Netanyahu a deadlock he can ride as caretaker or turn into a unity government; and Chris Thornton recounts how the five McCartney sisters’ campaign over their brother Robert’s 2005 murder in Belfast carried them to the White House and helped push the IRA to put its weapons beyond use, even though his killers were never convicted.
The Israeli leader and his allies are alleging that Arab voters last month stole the election. Election officials say that while foul play was being investigated, it could not have affected the result.
The theoretical objects would have left a larger imprint on cosmic radiation if they were a source of the invisible force pulling together the galaxies.
I’m writing this as the world wakes up to news of a blue wave of Democrat wins in the US midterms. What they mean for America and the world will be the subject of next week’s issue but this week we are focusing on Israel.
As seasoned Knesset watchers know, the plethora of parties on the ballot and proportional representation rarely produce immediate clear winners and a new government in short order. But as Jonathan Freedland puts it in this week’s cover story, the 2026 election presents a philosophical as well as a political puzzle.
Benjamin Netanyahu may have lost his parliamentary majority, but the opposition bloc needs more than Jewish parties to take control of the Knesset and offer Gadi Eisenkot the premiership. As Jonathan explains, Netanyahu’s loss contains the path to a possible win, while the road to success for Eisenkot means working with Palestinian parties, a red line many Jewish voters and MPs may not be willing to cross.
Spotlight| Connected through chaos As Donald Trump fans the flames of a world on fire with his vengeful foreign policy, can rational actors on the diplomatic stage douse the conflagration, asks Patrick Wintour
Science| The tales one fish can tell Pioneering research into the tambaqui has shown that it is a vital canary in the coalmine to monitor the effects of global heating and oxygen loss in the Amazon, reports Mac Margolis
Feature| A spectrum of opinion on autism Why have the numbers of people diagnosed with the condition ballooned over the past 20 years: is it overdiagnosis or an overly expansive definition? John Harris investigates
Opinion| Serbia deserves to succeed But the victorious Student List’s ability to consolidate democracy relies on a future in Europe and Brussels must court these new leaders, argues Srđjan Cvijić
Culture| Still on the line Jimmy Webb, who wrote the ever poignant Wichita Lineman for Glen Campbell as well other classic American hits, tells Dave Simpson about a new album and why, at 80, he still loves playing live
The Burlington Magazine: The latest issue features the upcoming 150th anniversary of Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery in 2027, honors the career of late Victoria and Albert Museum jewelry curator Richard Edgcumbe, and reviews the monumental realism and modernist influence of nineteenth-century French painter Gustave Courbet.
Liverpool 2027
The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool will be 150 years old in 2027. It was named after the local brewer Andrew Barclay Walker (1824–93), who donated £20,000 for the creation of the gallery. It opened in September 1877 and welcomed over 300,000 visitors during the next four months. Walker was not a collector of art but appears to have displayed an aesthetic sensibility through the high standards he insisted on for the design of his public houses. read more
Richard Edgcumbe (1951–2026)
A gifted curator who specialised in jewellery, Richard Edgcumbe pursued a successful career at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and notably published on gold chasing in the eighteenth century. read more
I, Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet (1819–77) was arguably the most important artist in nineteenth-century France. Over almost four decades, he created paintings of monumental achievement and innovation in all genres and changed how art was exhibited and sold – mostly in Paris, the capital of the international art world. He launched an aesthetic of realism that emphasised painterly facture and set the stage for modernist art in the decades that followed. read more
Democrats flipped seven Senate seats and overcame the Republicans’ House redistricting effort to capture control of Congress. President Trump told The New York Times that he would accept the results.
President Isaac Herzog has tried to avoid controversy and heal rifts in his largely ceremonial role. But his skills as a savvy mediator could be instrumental after an inconclusive election.
