More than 200 materials could be “altermagnets,” predicted just a few years ago
How did the first human settlers of the Canary Islands survive a millennium of isolation?
They are reshaping the balance between humans and technology in war
Investors at home and abroad no longer trust China’s policymakers
The arsenal of hypocrisy
Their cynicism over Ukraine weakens America and makes the world less safe
The Guardian Weekly (February 8, 2024) – The new issue features ‘Final Straw’ – What’s eating Europe’s Farmers?; Joe Biden’s Middle East masterplan; Can anything stop the AI deepfakes? and The Pet Shop Boys are back in town…
If you live in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland or Greece, you may well have already run into one of the numerous roadblocks or protests formed in recent weeks by furious farmers. If you’re in Spain and Italy, take cover – because they are coming to you soon, if not already.
In this week’s cover story, we explore what has proved to be the final straw for Europe’s farmers. A combination of rising costs, environmental rules and grievances over EU policies, coupled with more localised complaints, seem to be the factors driving the convoys of tractors. But far-right and anti-establishment parties, who could make major gains in forthcoming European parliament elections, have also picked up on the protests as part of their agenda against EU influence.
Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis and Europe correspondent Jon Henley delve into the protests (if not the piles of steaming dung being dumped on the continent’s roads, as illustrated wonderfully by Neil Jamieson on this week’s cover), and ask what can be done to placate them.
Times Literary Supplement (February 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Cancel Culture’ – The limits of academic free speech; An Auschwitz memoir; Wittgenstein’s bombshell; Horrible legions and Dutch artobiography…
The Supreme Court must decide if it will honor the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and bar Donald Trump from holding public office or trash the constitutional defense of democracy against insurrections.
In Dürer’s Lost Masterpiece, Ulinka Rublack traces the global connections of the merchants who were the creative agents of the European art market in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Dürer’s Lost Masterpiece: Art and Society at the Dawn of a Global World by Ulinka Rublack
In 2017, the Brazilian journalist Eliane Brum moved from São Paulo to a small city in the Amazon. Her new book vividly uncovers how the rainforest is illegally seized and destroyed.
Banzeiro Òkòtó: The Amazon as the Center of the World by Eliane Brum, translated from the Portuguese by Diane Whitty
From the South Bronx to the Summer Olympics, this urban dance style finally gets its due.
A group of U.S. lawmakers recently visited South America with a fresh perspective on U.S. foreign policy in the region.
We’ve become increasingly alienated from one another. It’s time we get back in touch with each other, get out of our heads, and reconnect with our common humanity, writes Ruth Conniff.
He doesn’t run very fast or jump very high, and seems to prefer the company of horses. But he has mastered the game’s new geometry like nobody else.
When Golden was a young curator in the nineties, her shows, centering Black artists, were unprecedented. Today, those artists are the stars of the art market.
The philosopher was a champion of political and intellectual freedom, but he had no interest in being a martyr. Instead, he shows us how prudence and boldness can go hand in hand.
By Adam Kirsch
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.’
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (February 2, 2024): The new issue features ‘The Long Shadow of 1948’ – How the decisions that led to the founding of Israel left the region in a state of eternal conflict…
How the decisions that led to the founding of Israel left the region in a state of eternal conflict.
A discussion moderated by Emily Bazelon
One year matters more than any other for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1948, Jews realized their wildly improbable dream of a state, and Palestinians experienced the mass flight and expulsion called the Nakba, or catastrophe. The events are burned into the collective memories of these two peoples — often in diametrically opposed ways — and continue to shape their trajectories.
By David Marchese
There’s a scene in that modern classic of screwball existentialism, “Being John Malkovich,” from 1999, in which John Malkovich, playing a version of himself, enters a portal that others have been using to climb inside his mind. Suddenly, Malkovich is in a world populated solely by variations on himself: Malkovich as a flirtatious sexpot, a genteel waiter, a jazz chanteuse, a bemused child, everyone speaking only the word “Malkovich.” In a way, that scene is a microcosm of the actor’s decades-long, always-interesting career.
Scotland: experience the UK at its most elemental with a trek across the frost-covered Highlands.
St Vincent and the Grenadines: culture and conservation on a Caribbean island-hopping tour.
Kyrgyzstan: the formidable Tian Shan mountains are home to one of the world’s most enigmatic predators.
Canada: everything you need to know about planning a once-in-a-lifetime Canadian road trip.
Berlin: the movers and shakers reinventing the German capital’s enduring arts and culture scene.
Dubai: a hidden history lies behind the ultramodern facade of this grand and luxurious metropolis.
Murcia: River rafting, bar-hopping and empty beaches in one of southeast Spain’s most overlooked regions.
Bogota: Indigenous ingredients are king in Colombia’s fertile, mountain-bound capital.
Hong Kong: In Asia’s ‘World City’ unforgettable stays come with dazzling dining options and skyline views.
Plus,France marks 150 years of Impressionism; music festivals in Petra and beyond; the flavours of West Bengal; Nashville for music-lovers; Zanzibar’s hotel scene; a family adventure in North Queensland; a city break in Dijon; a woodland stay in Beaulieu; top reads for 2024; and kayaking essentials.
We talk with author Dom Joly on travelling to Canada’s Fogo Island with a flat-earther, and Louis Alexander discusses running a marathon on all seven continents. In our Ask the Experts section, the experts give advice on unique safari experiences, travelling to Japan for cherry-blossom season, off-road bikepacking trails in the UK and the best group tours for wheelchair users. The Info celebrates 50 years of Bhutan opening its borders to international travellers, while Hot Topic explores the potential disruption caused by Iceland’s volcanoes and Report asks whether the aviation industry can really achieve net zero CO2 by 2050. Finally, photographer Josh Humbert talks about capturing Tahiti’s surfers for How I Got the Shot.
