TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT: The latest issue features ‘Fighting Over King Arthur’ – Marion Turner on a legend’s global appeal.
The versatility of Arthur and his legends By Marion Turner
Nigerian scammers and their targets By Sally Hayden
How William Empson viewed Virginia Woolf’s diaries By Mark Thompson
Frida Kahlo, iconized: ‘I would not like to become famous’ By Miranda France
THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘End Of The Pier Show’ – What Farage’s election gamble says about the state of British politics.
The curtain came down last week on the summer sideshow of the Clacton byelection, called by Nigel Farage amid mounting scrutiny of his finances.
For our big story this week, Daniel Boffey explores what this campaign – in which the Reform UK leader’s main challenger was a parody candidate called Count Binface – tells us about the current state of politics in Britain.
Farage’s byelection win brought the situation full circle as, shortly after he was declared victor, parliament’s standards watchdog announced it had reopened its investigation into him, report Rowena Mason and Peter Walker.
Analysing the result, political correspondent Alexandra Topping brands the contest futile and says that while Farage aimed to make the financial questions surrounding him disappear, it was the MP himself who has been absent from the political stage over the past few weeks.
Spotlight | Scramble for soldiers
As battlefield losses mount, Pjotr Sauer asks whether Vladimir Putin will order another mobilisation
Science | Wing and a prayer
A disease threatening bat species has spread to northern Canada. Trina Moyles reports on the race to find a cure
Feature | A hymn to the weekend
In 1926, Henry Ford gave his employees both Saturdays and Sundays off – and the two-day chunk of time to party, pray or simply do nothing was born. Now the weekend has changed beyond recognition, says Jess Cartner-Morley
Opinion | Meet the second most dangerous man in the US
As chief US diplomat, Marco Rubio could do great good. But, says Simon Tisdall, his pandering and neglect are a disgrace we shouldn’t ignore
Culture | Through my eyes
As their new album is released, Sam Smith talks to Juan A Ramírez about fans, fame and finding sanctuary in New York
SpaceX and other companies want to put millions of satellites into space. Could orbit run out of room?
For decades, an influential theory blamed the Rapanui for their own downfall—a story made famous by Jared Diamond’s book Collapse. New evidence tells a different tale
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon launch to unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter
Neuroscience is revealing how our brains are wired for narrative
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest issue cover features “Diana Ejaita’s “Before the Plunge” – A moment of stillness.
The SAVE America Act is just one part of a package that includes an executive order and threats of prosecution, all in an effort to make Trump’s math work. By Amy Davidson Sorkin
In D.C. and the Dakotas, at rodeos and powwows, celebrating the country means taking in pride and disappointment and fellow-feeling. By Rachel Monroe
As extreme heat overwhelms the Continent’s great cities, they are racing to transform themselves for a climate that they were never built to withstand. By Eric Klinenberg
THE NEW CRITERION: The latest issue features a new series on “The Classical Inheritance”…
SCIENCE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Windows Into The Past’ – Fossilized shark denticles provide a view of preexploitation abundance.
Modeling suggests infamous “Kessler syndrome” would make the swarms unsustainable
Studies probe the limits of new sodium channel blockers
Long-sought particle, made of force-carrying gluons, represents a new type of matter
After a record-low snowpack, federal authorities canceled dam releases for managing fish and sandbars
Study of mitochondria suggests new treatment strategy for Alzheimer’s and other diseases
Five years after America’s exit, the Afghan regime is not going anywhere
Thank Marco Rubio, but beware the caprice of his boss
Walloping the global trading system is no way to help Ukraine
When market power comes from buying power, oil importers can do better
Couples should be allowed to select embryos on the basis of both disease resistance and IQ
When a crisis brought on by a rash idea that results in the most prominent part of an organisation saying it will boycott the business’s showcase event doesn’t die down after a couple of weeks, observers might expect the boss to be considering his future. Not when it’s Fifa and not when it’s Gianni Infantino, the president of football’s world governing body and the subject of this week’s big story.
Jonathan Wilson’s witty account of how Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors led to the current standoff between Infantino and Fifa’s regional associations is riveting even if you are not a football fan. Jonathan explains how money, egos and some murky politicking collided to elect Infantino on the promise of reform. It’s a tale that has little to do with the sport and its ardent fans, and has far more in common with Shakespeare or a political drama. With a neat circularity, it traces how “Fifa’s attempt to move on from the crisis caused by the executive who rented an apartment for his cats in Trump Tower has wound up back in Trump Tower, with a president who rents an office there”.
Spotlight | ‘I’ll cut your throat’
Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, women are being killed with impunity. A reporting team from Zan Times collects shocking evidence of femicide
Environment | Smoke alarm
As wildfires grow in frequency and spread, environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan reports of the race to untangle the links between exposure to fine particulates in smoke and increased mortality
Feature | War and language learning
Soon after her first reporting trip to Ukraine, our chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins began to learn Ukrainian. She explains how the process taught her more about herself than she had expected
Opinion | Rule breakers need regulation
The revelation that AI went rogue in test conditions should be a call for a wise US leader to back the introduction of an international rule-based order, says Rafael Behr
Culture | What’s eating Dominic Sessa?
Being cast as the lead in Tony, the biopic of bad-boy chef and Kitchen Confidential author Anthony Bourdain let Sessa immerse himself in the 1970s where, he tells Ryan Gilbey, he wouldn’t mind staying
THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE: The latest issue features “Confessions of a Token Black Professor”…
The insufferable hypocrisy of elite academia By Tyler Austin Harper
Some institutions jumped onto the MAGA bandwagon after the 2024 election, but it hasn’t taken long for those decisions to look shortsighted. By David A. Graham
A few years ago, there was a push for acceptance of different body types. Now? Not so much. By Julie Beck and Natalie Brennan
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest issue cover features “Edward Steed’s “Midnight Bloom” – The sea in full swing.
As Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s newly elected Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, put it, “People really effing hate data centers.” By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
The Chief Justice insists that his Supreme Court isn’t biased even as it keeps making dramatic leaps rightward. By Margaret Talbot
From branding irons to iris scans, the ancient business of proving who you are has never been stranger—or more lucrative. By Jill Lepore
Human-rights groups estimate that more than ten thousand Ukrainian civilians have disappeared into the Russian prison system. This is the story of one cell.
