The average hotel room rate in the city is $301 a night, a record. A major reason: One of every five hotels is now a shelter, contributing to a shortage of tourist lodging.
Monocle on Sunday, May 26, 2024:Emma Nelson, Tina Fordham and Stephen Dalziel on the weekend’s biggest talking points.
We also speak to Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, in Tokyo, and Monocle’s Nairobi correspondent, Naveena Kottoor, joins to discuss the latest news from the region.
In an Israeli prison infirmary, a Jewish dentist came to the aid of a desperately ill Hamas inmate. Years later, the prisoner became a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack.
Condemnation Slows, but Does Not Stall, Israel’s Assault on Rafah
Despite fierce criticism, Israel insists it must take control of Rafah and the border with Egypt to prevent future arms smuggling.
Monocle on Saturday (May 25, 2024): Georgina Godwin is joined by Daniella Peled, managing editor at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, for a look back at the week’s news and culture.
Plus: author Rupert Thompson joins to discuss his new book ‘How to Make a Bomb: A Novel’ and Monocle’s Helsinki correspondent, Petri Burtsoff, visits the independent publishing imprint Cozy.
An internal analysis found nearly twice as many pro-Trump posts as pro-Biden ones on TikTok since November, a sign of the right’s use of a liberal-friendly platform.
The city was once hailed for its response to addiction. But as fentanyl flooded the streets and officials shifted priorities, deaths hit unprecedented heights.
The Capital of Women’s Soccer
The success of Barcelona’s team has made Catalonia a laboratory for finding out what happens when the women’s game has prominence similar to the men’s.
The Pentagon predicted that a stream of humanitarian aid would be arriving in Gaza via the floating pier, but little relief has reached the besieged strip, officials acknowledged this week.
The case concerned a constitutional puzzle: how to distinguish the roles of race and partisanship in drawing voting maps when Black voters overwhelmingly favor Democrats.
The Black and Latino families of Section 14, who made up much of the labor force of Palm Springs, are asking for reparations for what they say was a racially motivated attack.
As birth rates plunge, many politicians want to pour money into policies that might lead women to have more babies. Donald Trump has vowed to dish out bonuses if he returns to the White House. In France, where the state already spends 3.5-4% of gdp on family policies each year, Emmanuel Macron wants to “demographically rearm” his country. South Korea is contemplating handouts worth a staggering $70,000 for each baby. Yet all these attempts are likely to fail, because they are built on a misapprehension.
Governments’ concern is understandable. Fertility rates are falling nearly everywhere and the rich world faces a severe shortage of babies. At prevailing birth rates, the average woman in a high-income country today will have just 1.6 children over her lifetime. Every rich country except Israel has a fertility rate beneath the replacement level of 2.1, at which a population is stable without immigration. The decline over the past decade has been faster than demographers expected.
The moves, while largely symbolic, were welcomed by Palestinians and denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called them “a prize for terrorism.”
Nicole Shanahan, a lawyer who was married to Sergey Brin, a Google founder, led a rarefied and sometimes turbulent life in Silicon Valley, according to a Times examination.
Companies were enjoying record profits. But the president’s decision to pause permits for gas export terminals has whipped up industry support, and donations, for Donald Trump.
Climate change is making homeowners insurance less profitable. How has your state fared over the past decade?
Haiti’s Gangs Grow Stronger as Kenyan-Led Force Prepares to Deploy
Gang leaders with suspected links to the 2021 Haitian president’s assassination now control key infrastructure, and pose a major threat to the incoming Kenya-led force.
The ayatollah announced five days of mourning for the president and foreign minister who died when their helicopter plunged into a mountainous region. Some Iranians celebrated the deaths.
The question is whether the successors to the president and foreign minister will take a similar path by keeping slivers of communication open, and avoiding direct conflict with the United States.
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Requests Warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas Leaders
While the request must be approved by the court’s judges, the announcement is a harsh rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his war strategy in Gaza.
How Gun Violence Spread Across One American City
Columbus, Ohio, had only about 100 homicides a year. Then came a pandemic surge. With more guns and looser laws, can the city find its way back to the old normal?
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
