The Globalist Podcast (February 5, 2024) – The latest on the US response to the drone attacks in Jordan, assess how Azerbaijan’s presidential election will impact the wider region and review the day’s papers.
Plus: we meet designer Camille Jaillant of Olistic The Label and look at last night’s Grammy Awards.
The attack on Houthi militants in Yemen came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed for the Mideast to try to defuse escalating tensions.
As libraries become battlegrounds in the nation’s culture wars, their allies are fighting to preserve access to their collections and keep themselves out of jail, or worse.
In the year since earthquakes devastated southern Turkey, the Karapirli family has struggled to heal, find a home and cope with a bottomless sense of loss.
Pushed by an advocacy group, Arkansas became the first state to shield noisy cryptocurrency operators from unhappy neighbors. A furious backlash has some lawmakers considering a statewide ban.
New York pianist, Tiffany Poon, played Robert Schumann’s “Kinderszenen”, Op. 15 at the Dresden Music Festival 2023. The concert took place on June 17, 2023, at the Palais im Großen Garten.
Video timeline: (00:00) Coming on stage (00:21) 1. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen (Of Foreign Lands and Peoples) (02:02) 2. Kuriose Geschichte (A Curious Story) (03:07) 3. Hasche-Mann (Blind Man’s Buff) (03:39) 4. Bittendes Kind (Pleading Child) (04:39) 5. Glückes genug (Happy Enough) (05:17) 6. Wichtige Begebenheit (An Important Event) (06:09) 7. Träumerei (Dreaming) (08:51) 8. Am Kamin (At the Fireside) (09:47) 9. Schumann Ritter vom Steckenpferd (Knight of the Hobbyhorse) (10:32) 10. Fast zu ernst (Almost Too Serious) (12:40) 11. Fürchtenmachen (Frightening) (14:13) 12. Kind im Einschlummern (Child Falling Asleep) (16:16) 13. Der Dichter spricht (The Poet Speaks)
Robert Schumann’s “Kinderszenen” was composed in 1838 and published the following year without a dedication and with the misleading subtitle “Easy Pieces for the Pianoforte.” Unlike the “Album for the Young,” which Schumann had composed for “younger children” in his own words, he did not write the “Kinderszenen” for children, but for adults reflecting on their own childhood.
At first, the cycle was to be titled “Children’s Stories” and preceded or appended to the “Novelettes,” Op. 21. However, Schumann later refrained from doing so. He wanted to have the “Kinderszenen” published as a separate opus. Although the work was not very successful during the composer’s lifetime, it eventually evolved independently and was highly regarded. It had a significant influence on the Romantic program miniature for piano.
Monocle on Sunday, February 4, 2024: Emma Nelson, Isabel Hilton and Vincent McAviney on the weekend’s biggest talking points. We also speak to Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, in Gustavia and our Asia editor in Bangkok, James Chambers.
The airstrikes, meant to deter attacks on ships in the Red Sea, came one day after the United States struck at other Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.
China’s leader built up a nuclear arsenal, steeling for a growing rivalry with the United States. Now China is exploring how to wield its newfound strength.
After a nearly two-year ban, a legal ruling brought bullfights back to La Plaza México in Mexico City. But the fight continues after a federal judge again stopped the events.
The death of a pet during a train journey has given Russians a safe space to speak out and connect, and allowed the Kremlin to shift attention from wartime gloom.
Literary Review – February 2, 2024: The latest issue features ‘We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience’;
By STUART JEFFRIES
We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience By Lyndsey Stonebridge
When Hannah Arendt looked at the man wearing an ill-fitting suit in the bulletproof dock inside a Jerusalem courtroom in 1961, she saw something different from everybody else. The prosecution, writes Lyndsey Stonebridge, ‘saw an ancient crime in modern garb, and portrayed Eichmann as the latest monster in the long history of anti-Semitism who had simply used novel methods to take hatred for Jews to a new level’. Arendt thought otherwise.
By Norma Clarke
Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses By Paula Byrne
The title of Paula Byrne’s Hardy Women is a pun on Thomas Hardy’s name and a gesture to the enthusiasm that greeted Hardy’s fictional women. Bathsheba Everdene in Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess Durbeyfield in Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure were new kinds of women, and Hardy’s fame, which was immense and began with the publication of Far from the Madding Crowd, rested to a large extent on the heroines he created. One young reader wrote to him of Tess, ‘I wonder at your complete understanding of a woman’s soul.’ Hardy’s discontented wife Emma wondered at it too. She observed, ‘He understands only the women he invents – the others not at all.’
Monocle on Saturday, February 3, 2024: The US military launched airstrikes against targets in Syria and Iraq on Friday. How has the country’s power changed across different administrations?
Also on the programme: Georgina Godwin and international correspondent Nina dos Santos discuss why men are drifting to the far right, the many conspiracies surrounding Taylor Swift and Venice Carnival’s celebration of Marco Polo this weekend. Plus: Alice Haddon and Ruth Field join us to talk about their therapeutic wellness retreat, The Heartbreak Hotel.
The strikes, in response to a drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan this week, were a sharp escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.
The ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware came shortly before the Biden administration announced airstrikes against Iran-backed proxies in Iraq and Syria.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who once routinely stopped for hallway interviews, has taken to pressing his iPhone to his ear as he walks through the Capitol, avoiding questions as he navigates a tough new job.
U.S. employers added 353,000 jobs in January, far exceeding forecasts, and revised figures showed last year was even stronger than previously reported
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – FEBRUARY 5, 2024 ISSUE:
Despite years of technology disruption, home commissions remain stuck near 6%. Now courts, consumers, and some brokers are fighting back.
The specialty food distributor said it would dial back on acquisitions to focus on integrating new purchases and improving profitability.4 min read
Sonny Kalsi is most optimistic about industrial property and data centers.3 min read
