THE NEW REPUBLIC MAGAZINE – JUNE 2026

The Magazine - June 2026

THE NEW REPUBLIC MAGAZINE: The latest issue features a cover story analyzing the president’s mental fitness alongside reporting on administration impacts on higher education, energy, and agriculture. The issue also explores social issues, including the anti-abortion movement, the rise of digital misogyny, and cultural critiques of television and literature.

Donald Trump Is Finally Cracking Up for Real

His recent tirades confirmed what more than half of America now believes: The president is mentally unfit. How will we survive two and a half more years of this? And what’s he got in store for us?

Trump’s January 6 Slush Fund Is a Criminal Enterprise

The president has long been operating under the assumption that he is immune from prosecution. His latest scheme, however, may be a step too far.

Losing It

Seriously – 2 1/2 more years of this?

The Election Fraudsters Who Will Follow in Tina Peters’s Footsteps

We can debate all day whether Colorado Governor Jared Polis should have commuted her sentence. Meanwhile, state and local officials are openly preparing to meddle in the midterm elections.

Why Trump Is So Afraid of Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and The View

Political scientist Meredith Conroy says that late-night shows are still politically relevant in as their audiences shrink.

SCIENCE MAGAZINE ———– MAY 21, 2026 Preview

This depiction of viral threats confronting both bacteria and people, and  the protein and cellular defenses

SCIENCE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Shared Defenses’ – Bacterial antiviral systems are echoed in human immunity.

The oscillatory biology of sleep: Linkage to dementia

Magnon hydrodynamics in an atomically thin ferromagnet

Interacting effects of human presence and landscape modification on birds and mammals

A deep-time landscape of plant cis-regulatory sequence evolution

THE NEW YORK TIMES – FRIDAY, MAY22, 2026

In a Rarity, Republicans Stand Up to Trump

President Trump faced a wall of opposition from Senate G.O.P. lawmakers, in part over his plan to create a $1.8 billion fund to reward his allies.

Inside the Senate G.O.P. Meltdown Over Trump’s Fund

The acting attorney general went to Capitol Hill to allay Republicans’ concerns over a fund to pay people who claim government mistreatment. It did not go well.

Iran and Oman in Talks Over Strait of Hormuz Ship Payment System

The discussions suggest that the U.S. and the Iranian government may not be close to reaching a deal to end a war that has badly damaged the global economy

House G.O.P. Cancels Vote to End War as More Party Members Defect

Oil Prices Jump on Impasse Over Reopening the Strait of Hormuz

Before Europe Anoints Someone to Talk to Putin, It Debates What to Talk About

Europeans are considering appointing an envoy to Ukraine peace talks with Russia. First, many warn, they need to decide what to ask.

THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE – MAY 23, 2026 PREVIEW

THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘A Starship enterprise’

SpaceX is capitalism on rocket fuel

Make what you will of Elon Musk, his rocketry firm is a marvel of free markets

American growth could be even better

MAGAnomics shows the world what not to do. But also what America keeps getting right

Why NATO needs a Plan B

Mark Rutte is wrong to quash talk of one. The risks of the alliance unravelling are too great to ignore

How to stop the Ebola outbreak

The latest epidemic in central Africa is a warning about future pandemics

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY —- MAY 22, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘All At Sea’ – Why are Europe’s leaders so unpopular…

After a week like Keir Starmer just had, what could one possibly do to cheer up the beleaguered UK prime minister? (Aside from his beloved Arsenal winning the Premier League title, that is.)

Perhaps remind him he’s not Friedrich Merz or Emmanuel Macron. Starmer may not be flavour of the month with UK voters or his own Labour MPs right now, but both the German and French leaders have barrel-scraping approval ratings that make the British PM look popular in comparison.

Even among the less-disliked European leaders, Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Pedro Sánchez of Spain are only marginally more liked than Donald Trump is in the US – and neither of them have started a war in Iran.

What’s behind this widespread disaffection for Europe’s leaders? Are they a generationally bad crop of politicians or have they been dealt an impossible hand of social and economic circumstances – or is it a mixture of both?

For our cover story this week, Daniel Boffey asks what Europe’s embattled leaders can do to reverse that sinking feeling. Then, from our UK political team, Pippa Crerar and Peter Walker look back on a week when Starmer was left looking increasingly like an interim PM.

Spotlight | Xi rolled out the red carpet for Trump, but that was all
There was no swift end to the Iran war, uncertainty over Taiwan and only vague outlines of commercial deals – but the US president at least got to bask in the company of his Chinese counterpart, reports David Smith

Technology | Despite rise of AI, is there still hope for Europe’s translators?
A booming tech sector has disrupted translation jobs in publishing – but they could be needed for a while longer yet, writes Philip Oltermann

Feature | The sinister spread of France’s killer seaweed
After a series of deaths on the beaches of Brittany, one bereaved family set out to prove the foul-smelling bloom was to blame. Marta Zaraska investigates

Opinion | Normalising Reform UK’s ideas turns neighbour against neighbour
“Concern” about immigration has now morphed into policing how ethnic minorities exist in our communities, argues Nesrine Malik

Culture | How Backrooms upended the horror movie
It started off just as a creepy picture on the internet. Now it’s the year’s freakiest film. Steve Rose meets its auteur, Kane Parsons, and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve


What else we’ve been reading

 The Guardian’s new list of the 100 best novels of all time provoked extensive discussion in my household. How many have you read? I won’t embarrass myself by divulging my own total, except to admit there is considerable catching up to be done. Graham Snowdon, editor

 Politidex is a Pokémon-like mobile phone game where players can build their own political party by “catching” local councillors and MPs. Having started life as an April Fools’ Day joke, the game’s mission is now to humanise both politics and politicians, says its creator in this interesting pieceBowie Qiu, Marketing manager

FREE INQUIRY JOURNAL – JUNE/JULY 2026 PREVIEW

In This Issue June/July 2026 | Free Inquiry

FREE INQUIRY JOURNAL: The latest issue features ‘The U.S.’ – Where It’s Been, Where It Is, Where It Should Go….

Medieval Christendom? Are They Serious?

Marian TupySteven Pinker

Would we be better off living in the Middle Ages? Astonishingly, influential voices on the American intellectual Right now seem to think so. Rather than affirming the Enlightenment ideals that inspired this country’s founding—reason, rights, markets, liberal democracy, and church–state separation—they are longing for, of all things, rule from the throne and altar. Last October …

The ‘Wall of Separation’ Needs a Good Patch Job!

Robert Louis Semes

On the 200th anniversary of his death on July 4, 1826, and the 250th anniversary of his Declaration of Independence, we need Thomas Jefferson now more than ever. We especially need his progressive views on the severance of church from state by a “wall of separation.” We in the United States live in troubling times …

Secular Approaches to Moral Education: Building Character without Commandments

Steve Grumette

The question confronting American educators today is not whether we should teach ethics to children—virtually everyone agrees that moral education is essential. The question is how we should teach ethics in an increasingly diverse society where traditional religious approaches no longer work for everyone. I believe we need to fundamentally rethink our approach to moral …

THE NEW YORK TIMES – THURSDAY, MAY21, 2026

Fund Shows Acting Attorney General Choosing Loyalty to Trump Over Moderation

Once seen by some as the most conventional of President Trump’s political appointees, Todd Blanche has been uncompromising in his role as acting attorney general.

Trump’s $1.8 Billion Fund Appears to Violate Administration’s Own Policies

The fund that could offer payouts to Trump allies seems to contradict a policy instituted under former Attorney General Pam Bondi last year, legal experts said.

Military Fraternity Running Iran Has Long History of Hard-Line Positions

Decision making in Iran is guided by a small group of men associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

U.S. Charges Former Cuban President With Murder in Downing of Planes in 1996

The indictment against Raúl Castro was an extraordinary escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Cuba’s Communist government.

Nimitz Aircraft Carrier Enters Caribbean as Trump Pressures Cuba

THE NEW STATESMAN MAGAZINE – MAY 22, 2026

Definitely, maybe

THE NEW STATESMAN: The latest issue features ‘Definitely, maybe? – Inside Andy Burnham’s leadership bid – and the campaigns under way to stop him.

Keir Starmer is a dishonest man

His successor must make a break with this failing government By Freddie Hayward

The Europe dilemma

Should the UK rejoin the EU? Caroline Lucas and Anand Menon weigh in By Caroline Lucas and Anand Menon

ECHR derangement syndrome

The great bête noire of the modern right is driving them beyond reasonBy Marina Wheeler

HARPER’S MAGAZINE ——— JUNE 2026 PREVIEW

HARPER’S MAGAZINE: The latest issue features memoir from a Quebec garbageman; Katie Thornton on the undying dream of Esperanto; Wyatt Williams on weather modification; Andrew Cockburn on the data-center divide; Kevin Lozano on Bernie Goetz; and a story from Kevin Brazil. 

The Conscience of the City

On the life of the garbageman by Simon Paré-­Poupart

Love Language

[Letter from the Czech Republic]

The undying dream of Esperanto by Katie Thornton

Hard Rain

The battle over weather modification by Wyatt Williams

News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious