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Country Life Magazine – February 12, 2025 Preview

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Van Gogh's bedroom on the cover of Country Life

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (February 11, 2025): ‘The Fine Art Issue’ features ‘What makes an Old Master?’….

Let the art rule the head

The UK’s status as a world leader in creative industries will be in peril if we fail to nurture art-and-design skills in our schools, argues Tristram Hunt

Let’s fall in love

Laura Parker investigates the boxing, croaking, crooning, dad dancing and even murder that passes for courtship ritual in the animal kingdom

Beauty and the blimp

Could a new airship designed in Britain deliver eco-friendly aviation, asks Charles Harris

Country Life 12 February 2025

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe picks out glass acts in world of garden rooms, greenhouses and orangeries

Soup-er charged

Tom Parker Bowles reveals how to beef up a boozy, hot-as-Hades French onion soup

A leap in the dark

The play of light and shade has long defined Western art. Michael Hall examines what Constable called ‘the chiaroscuro of nature’

The Duke of Richmond’s favourite painting

The owner of Goodwood picks a work that reflects the sporting history of the West Sussex estate

Three wishes for food and farming

Minette Batters calls for the UK to set a self-sufficiency target for producing its own food

Nature and nurture

In the final article of a three-part series, Tim Richardson ponders the innovation and imagination behind the wonderful grounds at Bramham Park, West Yorkshire

Bramham Park

The legacy

Amie Elizabeth White applauds altruistic John Ritchie Findlay, who paved the way for Scotland’s National Portrait Gallery

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell backs a winner with a range of horseshoe jewellery

Light work

Tiffany Daneff is dazzled by the transformation of a dark London garden into a light-filled oasis

Foraging

Winter mushrooms are a rarity, but the striking velvet shank earns John Wright’s approval as a welcome addition to game pie

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino marvels at the masterpieces amassed by Swiss collector Oskar Reinhart as the works go on show in London

Wick me up before you go-go

The wick trimmer’s work was never done in candlelit times, discovers Matthew Dennison

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

The New York Times – Monday, February 10, 2025

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Why Federal Courts May Be the Last Bulwark Against Trump

With a compliant Congress and mostly quiet streets, the president’s opponents are turning to the judicial branch with a flurry of legal actions. But can the courts keep up?

Trump Will Impose Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum on Monday

The president said he planned sweeping tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports on Monday and would take other action to even out tariff rates with the rest of the world later this week.

As Trump and Musk Upend Washington, Congressional Phones Can’t Keep Up

In the three weeks since President Trump took office and gave Elon Musk free rein inside the federal government, millions of calls have poured in to members of Congress, jamming the system.

For Stunned Federal Workers, Sleeplessness, Anger and Tears

One thing lost in the Trump administration’s war on the federal bureaucracy is the collective voice of the employees. But some have begun to speak out.

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

The New York Times – Sunday, February 9, 2025

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Young Aides Emerge as Enforcers in Musk’s Broadside Against Government

Much of the billionaire’s handiwork — gaining access to internal systems and asking employees to justify their jobs — is being driven by a group of engineers operating in secrecy.

As Ground Shifts, ‘Flailing’ Democrats Struggle to Find Footing in Diversity Fight

President Trump’s aggressive moves against transgender rights and diversity, equity and inclusion programs have left the Democratic Party casting about for a strategy for how to respond.

For New Orleans, the Superdome Is More Than a Stadium

The distinctive domed building, turning 50 this year, is known for hosting the Super Bowl, but to locals, it’s also “the city’s living room.”February 6, 2025

Why Federal Courts May Be the Last Bulwark Against Trump

With a compliant Congress and mostly quiet streets, President Trump’s opponents are turning to a flurry of legal actions. But can the courts keep up?

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

The New York Times – Saturday, February 8, 2025

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U.S.A.I.D. Turmoil Threatens Key Aid Supplies to Gaza, Officials Say

Washington has funded roughly a third of the aid sent to the enclave since the war began. With most agency workers set to be put on leave, officials say that those supplies are under threat.

Musk Wields Scythe on Federal Work Force, With Trump’s Full Blessing

The president defended Elon Musk’s role in seeking to slash budgets and cut payrolls as the young aides burrowing into federal agencies came under scrutiny.

Trump’s Gaza Takeover Plan May Sound Death Knell for the Two-State Solution

Already unlikely, the prospects for creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel could vanish altogether if the United States takes over Gaza and displaces the population, as President Trump proposes.

Trump’s New Line of Attack Against the Media Gains Momentum

First Amendment experts say Mr. Trump’s lawsuits, based on an unproven legal theory, lack merit. But more could be on the way.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

The New York Times Magazine – Feb. 9, 2025

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (February 7, 2025): The 2.9.25 Issue (The Love and Sex Issue) features Mireille Silcoff on Generation X womens’ improving sex lives; Lisa Miller on how weight loss drugs can upset a couple’s intimacy; Daniel Oppenheimer on his realization through couples therapy that the problem in his marriage was him; Stella Tan on confessions from those who ghosted their dates; The Ethicist answers a series of sex related queries; and more.

Why Gen X Women Are Having the Best Sex

In an era plagued by sex negativity, only one generation seems immune: mine.

Digital Drugs Have Us Hooked. Dr. Anna Lembke Sees a Way Out.

The psychiatrist and author of “Dopamine Nation” wants us to find balance in a world of temptation and abundance. By Lulu Garcia

The Other Side of Getting Ghosted

Ten people explain why, instead of saying it’s over, they decided to just disappear.Interviews by Stella Tan

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

The New York Times – Friday, February 7, 2025

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Trump’s Gaza Plan Reflects Broader Push for Annexation of Palestinian Land

Right-wing officials in Israel, evangelical Christians in the United States and Trump appointees have become increasingly outspoken in calling for Israel to take more territory.

Abandoned in the Middle of Clinical Trials, Because of a Trump Order

The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.

A ‘Stellar Crew,’ a ‘Tragic Accident’ and a Black Hawk’s Last Flight

The Army helicopter that collided with a passenger plane above the Potomac River boasted an experienced crew doing “an unforgiving job.” Friends and relatives are still baffled and mourning their loss.

House Committee to Examine Secret Navy Effort on Pilot Brain Injuries

The Navy quietly started screening elite fighter pilots for signs of brain injuries caused by flying, a risk it officially denies exists.

Arts & Literature, Literature, Magazines, Poetry

The London Magazine – February/March 2025

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THE LONDON MAGAZINE (February 3, 2025): The latest issue features…

Cusk, Experimentalism and the Limits of Autofiction

Zuhri James

‘I don’t think character exists anymore’, Rachel Cusk declared in a 2018 interview. This was not the first time Cusk appeared to be announcing the atrophy of the traditional novel. In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, Cusk stated she was ‘certain autobiography’ was ‘increasingly the only form in all the arts’. Inversely, fiction and its conventional preoccupation with ‘making up John and Jane’, Cusk argued, was only becoming more ‘ridiculous’, ‘fake and embarrassing’. It is precisely this disregard for literary orthodoxy that runs through Cusk’s widely acclaimed trilogy of autofictional novels – Outline (2014), Transit (2016) and Kudos (2018). 

Heat Signature

.Idra Novey

My twin brother calls from the hospital. He’s finished his blood draw and wants to know the word in Portuguese for watermelon. I recite the word for him – melancia – though my brother’s mind isn’t likely to keep hold of it. Zach can no longer keep a hold of his house keys or his phone, which he left yesterday in the bathroom sink. Before we hang up, I ask him to please wait for me in the lounge area for outpatient services, not to wander outside the hospital.

Jacqueline Feldman: ‘It’s salutary to spend time around people who have arranged their lives in radical ways.’

.Julia Steiner

Jacqueline Feldman’s Precarious Lease: The Paris Document – out from Fitzcarraldo Editions on 30 January – delivers captivating literary reportage on Parisian squats of the early 2010s. Feldman introduces us to people who transformed abandoned buildings into homes, shelters and hubs for artistic creation. With echoes of Agnès Varda’s work, Feldman’s prose is compassionate and honest, acknowledging her own role as an observer. She answered these questions by email about her fifteen-years-long project, begun in 2009.

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

The New York Times – Monday, February 3, 2025

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Trump Tariffs Threaten to Upend Global Economic Order

The invoking of national security to unravel trade agreements could scramble the international trading system in China’s favor.

Trump Favors Blunt Force in Dealing With Foreign Allies and Enemies Alike

With Canada, Mexico, China, Colombia and the Middle East, President Trump has wasted no time threatening to use American might to force recalcitrant countries to back down and do what he wants.

Trump’s Tariffs Put China in a Difficult Spot

China chose swift retaliation for trade measures in the first Trump administration, but that led to an upward spiral of trade measures and much broader tariffs.

‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump

More than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders revealed a party struggling to decide what it believes in, what issues to prioritize and how to confront an aggressive right-wing administration.

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Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Reviews, Travel

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – January 29, 2025 Issue

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COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (January 28, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ – The wonderful thing about Springers…

Full of the joys of spring(ers)

The non-stop English springer is still our number one working spaniel, reveals Matthew Dennison, as he delves into this enthusiastic, energetic breed

Snake, rattle and roll

Rob Crossan investigates the deeply spiritual origins of that enduring family board-game favourite Snakes and Ladders

Heard it on the radio

The wireless broke new ground as the first form of home-based mass entertainment and is still going strong in the age of the smart speaker, finds Ben Lerwill

Friends with benefits

Nematodes are a natural way to halt the march of all manner of garden pests and Charles Quest-Ritson is a convert

Mould and behold

Josiah Wedgwood was a brilliant businessman with a remarkable social conscience. Tristram Hunt assesses his life and legacy

Catch us if you can

Owain Jones sizes up six of the best as he picks out the players to watch in this year’s Guinness Six Nations rugby extravaganza

Roger Morgan-Grenville’s favourite painting

The conservation campaigner selects a work that inspired his lifelong obsession with seabirds

A Palladian premonition

Richard Hewlings offers a fresh analysis of the architecture at Bramham Park, a highly original West Yorkshire country house

The legacy

Kate Green remembers Robert FitzRoy, the founder of the Met Office whose name lives on in the BBC’s Shipping Forecast

Dear country diary

Paul Fleckney flicks through The Guardian’s Country Diary, which has offered a snapshot of rural life for more than 120 years

Interiors

The best stoves and fireplaces picked by Amelia Thorpe, plus the alternatives to burning logs

Luxury

Hetty Lintell’s top timepieces and James Haskell’s favourite things

Magnificent mahonias

Charles Quest-Ritson makes the case for mahonias, arguing that their pleasantly scented flowers are a seasonal delight

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson pairs peppery horseradish with salmon fillets

Ring-dove beauteous!

John Lewis-Stempel coos over the much-maligned wood pigeon, that canny, keen-eyed and fast-flying stalwart of our countryside

Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Reviews

Exhibitions: ‘Franz Kafka’ At The Morgan Library

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MORGAN LIBRARY (January 28, 2025): Our curator Sal Robinson discusses the importance of the Bible in the history of literature in “Franz Kafka.” Few could have predicted the influence Kafka’s relatively small body of work would have on every realm of thought and creative endeavor over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st.

This exhibition will present, for the first time in the United States, the Bodleian Library’s extraordinary holdings of literary manuscripts, correspondence, diaries, and photographs related to Kafka, including the original manuscript of his novella The Metamorphosis.

Other highlights include the manuscripts of his novels Amerika and The Castle; letters and postcards addressed to his favorite sister, Ottla; his personal diaries, in which he also composed fiction, including his literary breakthrough, the 1912 story “The Judgment”; and unique items such as his drawings, the notebooks he used when studying Hebrew, and family photographs. In addition to presenting unique literary and biographical material, the exhibition examines Kafka’s afterlife, from the complex journeys of his manuscripts, to the posthumous creation of a literary icon whose very name has become an adjective, to his immense influence on the worlds of literature, theater, dance, film, and the visual arts.

Drawing on institutional holdings and private collections in the United States and Europe, the Morgan will show a selection of key works, among them Andy Warhol’s portrait of Kafka, part of his 1980 series Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century.

“Franz Kafka” is open to the public November 22, 2024 through April 13, 2025.