
Gulliver’s Warning
Like Gulliver in Lilliput, “greatness” in the political realm depends on the existence of a group deemed puny or weak.

Like Gulliver in Lilliput, “greatness” in the political realm depends on the existence of a group deemed puny or weak.

Under pressure from President Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel held off from attacking Beirut. But he vowed to continue Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, which could threaten peace talks with Iran.
The war has not been going the Kremlin’s way recently, with battleground losses and mounting casualties. With renewed strikes, Moscow hopes to gain a better position for negotiations.
Moscow’s repeated warnings of a major strike, combined with the delay before it happened, seemed intended to inflict a psychological toll on the Ukrainian capital.
Doctors in the U.S. are encountering more children with bacterial infections and other serious illnesses, as well as more adults refusing tetanus shots.
The race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom has been unpredictable for months. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass is trying to fend off two challengers.

APOLLO MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Hare Style’ – Vienna’s Albertina at 250…


By Andrea Wulf
An exemplary tour of the High Enlightenment might go something like this. You’d begin in the streets of 1760s London to feel the pulse of Georgian commerce. You’d then hop aboard one of Captain Cook’s colliers and cruise through the Pacific, having encounters every day. Returning to Europe you might watch Benjamin Franklin in diplomatic action at Passy and dine with Casanova in Vienna, before sailing up the Rhine with Humboldt. Having inspected the Soho Manufactory in Birmingham and admired the picturesque scenery of the Peak District, you’d cross the Channel just in time for the grand and bloody finale in Paris.
By Colin Kidd
Arriving as an undergraduate at Cambridge in 1961, Terry Eagleton was both overawed and underwhelmed by his supervisor, a man he calls Greenway in his memoir. ‘Greenway was the first truly civilised man I had ever encountered,’ Eagleton recalls.
By Deborah Lutz
We know so little about Emily Brontë. There are just a few snapshots, like the vivid recollection of her sister Charlotte’s great friend Ellen Nussey: ‘Her extreme reserve seemed impenetrable, yet she was intensely loveable … one of her rare expressive looks was something to remember through life, there was such a depth of soul and feeling..

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest issue cover features ‘Sergio García Sánchez and Lola Moral’s “The Secret Life of Books” – A living library. By Françoise Mouly
Why read historical fiction? A new novel by the author of “Hamnet” offers one answer: because it’s fun. By Katy Waldman
For the critic Leslie Fiedler, the country’s best and worst fiction was shaped by visions of escape from society—and therefore from maturity. By Becca Rothfeld
FIFA’s powerful president is remaking global soccer in his own image. Can the sport survive him? By Sam Knight

The U.S. military intercepted two Iranian missiles early Monday and no American personnel were harmed, Central Command said. The attacks threatened to further complicate talks to end the war.
Lebanon’s government has long wanted the powerful militia to give up its weapons. Before the Iran war began, there were signs of progress toward that goal.
Jim Rigby, who does not much care for the word “God,” is a key to understanding the Senate candidate trying to pull off something unusual in Texas.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s onetime right-hand man is accused of embezzling millions of dollars and consulting a fortuneteller on political decisions.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 5.31.26 Issue features Taffy Brodesser-Akner on the A.I. actress Tilly Norwood; Daniel Waite Perry on sperm racing; Jeffrey Toobin on how to get a pardon in Trump’s Washington; and more.
The A.I. actress on her craft, the future of film and how she definitely does not intend to murder us.
Laurie Santos on what will really bring meaning and fulfillment to your life, and what won’t. By Lulu Garcia-Navarro
After being removed from the United States, a family tries to rebuild their life back in Colombia. Photographs by Juan Arredondo
One reason I love my partner is his sharp mind and critical thinking. Using A.I. for every decision is something I don’t understand. By Kwame Anthony Appiah

Talks among lawyers with allegiance to President Trump were so closely held that some senior White House officials told others that they were blindsided.
The departure of more than 10,000 lawyers has left some agencies without sufficient staff and has boosted the ranks of state attorneys general offices.
His changes to the proposed deal were potentially designed to speed up the process by pressuring Iran to accept the current framework, one official said.
Olha Reshetylova has been tasked by the government with overseeing soldiers’ rights. Some commanders resent her, but she says her work makes the armed forces stronger.
A furious rally for chip stocks has raised fears of a new bubble. If and when the party ends, five stocks will be left standing. They all remain undervalued.
Walmart and Target are among the retailers that should be capable of finding their niche in an ever-shifting consumer landscape.
Investors are worried about loans that private-credit funds have made to fund buyouts, but the funds do a lot more than that.
Shares of Charles Schwab and other firms have swooned on concerns that AI tools could erode the profit they derive from cash that clients hold in so-called sweep accounts.
When looking at the stock market right now, the increasingly obvious question is to paraphrase that catchy 1940s tune: “Is you is, or is you ain’t, in a bubble?”
Indisputably, there are signs—some of which hark back to the dot-com era—that it is. For instance, take a gander at this not-so-little equation: $1.75 trillion divided by $18.674 billion equals 93.71 times.
That’s the expected midrange market capitalization of SpaceX’s initial public offering ($1.75 trillion), divided by the company’s 2025 revenue ($18.674 billion), with the quotient of 93.71 being SpaceX’s price-to-sales ratio. Which is ridiculous. (The S&P 500 index’s ratio is just 3.38—and that’s with stocks at record highs.)

A remote gold mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo is under siege, as medical workers struggle to beat back a surge of deaths and infections.
President Trump appears to see the matter of his heir as unsettled, adding a layer of tension to his relationship with the vice president.
From Iran to Gaza, Eid al-Adha celebrations were muted as war dragged on and shortages of food and fuel roiled the region.
At a security conference in Singapore, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Asian military leaders how they could get to “the front of the line” for U.S. assistance.