The New York Times — Wednesday, Sept 6, 2023

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North Korea Finds New Leverage in the Ukraine War

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un with Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin in Vladivostok, Russia, in 2019. Russia has long been a crucial ally for the isolated North Korea.

Kim Jong-un is likely to seek missile and warhead technology in an expected visit to Russia, and he is already getting a public embrace he has long sought.

Ex-Leader of Proud Boys Sentenced to 22 Years in Jan. 6 Sedition Case

Enrique Tarrio led the Proud Boys during a period when far-right extremists moved from the fringes toward the center of conservative politics.

The prison term for Enrique Tarrio was the most severe penalty handed down so far to any of the more than 1,100 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack.

At Yale, a Surge of Activism Forced Changes in Mental Health Policies

For decades, the university required students seeking medical leaves to withdraw and reapply. A campus suicide set off a cascade of revisions.

Can Kenya Bring Order to Haiti? Doubts Are Swirling.

The African country has volunteered to send forces to Haiti as its security crisis spirals out of control. But the plan is facing pushback.

Previews: Country Life Magazine – Sept 5, 2023

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Country Life Magazine – September 6, 2023: The new issue features Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer’s vision for the countryside; Chelsea Physic Garden and motoring on at Goodwood; Remembering Elizabeth II and more…

Labour’s vision for rural Britain

Sir Keir Starmer promises a new politics of partnership and respect for rural communities

Not your average Fiesta

As Goodwood revs up for its Revival, the Duke of Richmond tells Octavia Pollock about 75 years of motorsport on his estate

Feudal splendours

In the second of two articles, John Martin Robinson steps inside Arundel Castle in West Sussex

Travel Tour: Cycling The Atlantic Coast In Norway

MatthewNorway Films (September 5, 2023) – In early May 2023, Matthew Tolley set off to document Norway’s most famous long-distance route. The Atlantic coast, which is part of the Eurovelo 1, is perhaps the most spectacular coastline in the world.

This 6 episode series will take you beyond what you may have seen on YouTube before. We pull out all the stops to capture this unique area in all its wonder and beauty.

Landscape Design: Tour Of Boulder House In Sydney

The Local Project (September 5, 2023) – In Sydney’s Watsons Bay area, Creative Director at Wyer & Co. Anthony Wyer designs the landscape architects own family home.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Landscape Architects Family Home 00:45 – A Coastal Location 01:11 – A Walkthrough of the House 01:59 – The Fundamental Features 02:43 – Behind the Interior Design of the Home 03:30 – Weathering All Seasons and All Conditions 04:20 – The Plant Palette 05:00 – A Mediterranean Inspired Design

“When designing a garden, I believe it comes down to balance – balance of hard surfaces, soft surfaces, understanding the natural environment and the plant palette,” says Anthony of his approach to the house, which sits on a corner allotment.

On arrival, one is immediately met with a beautiful mature olive that overhangs the entrance, setting the scene for a home that clearly interacts with its garden and foliage. The interior design of the landscape architects own family home was designed with the help of interior designers Marco Meneguzzi and Tamsin Johnson, who saw the vision for the interior spaces align with the vision for the garden. It is the garden of the landscape architects own family home that is most impressive.

Anthony takes cues from both local and Mediterranean architecture and sensibilities to create an immersive outdoor retreat. One of the main features was the boulder in the rear garden – an impressive natural element central to the whole design. Other key features include a cabana structure covered in greenery, with its own planted roof, a fireplace, an open pergola that is waterproofed and a pool.

Whilst there is an expression of style, at the core of the garden is pragmatism and comfort, ensuring the outdoors can be enjoyed without needing to withstand the elements. The front, multi-tiered garden of the landscape architects own family home is elevated, faces the street and acts as an extension of the interior entertaining space. A plant palette of mature trees is used to create vibrancy and scale, which is combined with hedging and underplanting to imbue the home with softness.

British Artist Views: David Hockney’s “Perspectives”

Phillips (September 5, 2023) – From Phillips’ London photo studio, Head of Sale Rebecca Tooby-Desmond uncovers the masterful manipulation of perspective that characterizes David Hockney’s work.

  • DAVID HOCKNEY Hotel Acatlán: Second Day, from Moving Focus, 1984-85
DAVID HOCKNEY Hotel Acatlán: Second Day, from Moving Focus, 1984-85
  • DAVID HOCKNEY Pembroke Studio Interior, from Moving Focus, 1984
DAVID HOCKNEY Pembroke Studio Interior, from Moving Focus, 1984

News: Ukraine Defense Minister Umerov, U.S.-Saudi Arabia, Polls In Germany

The Globalist Podcast (September 5, 2023) – Who is Ukraine’s new defence minister, Rustem Umerov? Monocle’s Kyiv correspondent, Olga Tokariuk, profiles the Crimean Tatar with experience in Russian negotiations.

Plus: US officials visit Saudi Arabia to discuss Palestine, Olaf Scholz’s government slumps in the polls and we review the latest Indian newspapers.

The New York Times — Tuesday, September 5, 2023

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Kim Jong-un and Putin Plan to Meet in Russia to Discuss Weapons

A photograph released by North Korean state news shows Kim Jong-un, right, with Sergei K. Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, in July. Mr. Kim is expected to travel to meet President Vladimir V. Putin in Russia.

Russia seeks more weaponry for its war in Ukraine, and a North Korean delegation recently traveled to Russia by train to plan for Mr. Kim’s visit this month, officials say.

E.U. Official From Sweden Imprisoned in Iran for Over 500 Days

An advertisement featuring Johan Floderus.

The case of Johan Floderus, kept under wraps for more than a year, has become part of Iran’s “hostage diplomacy” as Tehran seeks concessions from the West.

A Conservative Push to Save Ken Paxton

The effort to help the Texas attorney general, whose impeachment trial starts Tuesday, is part of an ongoing struggle over the Republican Party’s future.

Faced With Evolving Threats, U.S. Navy Struggles to Change

A new generation of cheaper and more flexible vessels could be vital in any conflict with China, but the Navy remains lashed to big shipbuilding programs driven by tradition, political influence and jobs.

Opinion: AI Disrupting 2024 Elections, A Rise In Scare Tactics, Owning An Airline

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (September 11, 2023) Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, how much will artificial intelligence affect the elections of 2024? Also, the ways cynical leaders are using scaremongering tactics both to win and to abuse power (9:35) and why everyone wants to own an airline these days (17:00).

New Museum Exhibitions: ‘Manet/Degas’ At The Met

Photo collage of two paintings, with the words Manet/Degas overlaid on top; Left of boy wearing pink shirt and hat sitting on a red couch with a dessert; Right: Two people wearing tan and black sitting at a table against a tan wall.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (September 4, 2023) – This exhibition examines one of the most significant artistic dialogues in modern art history: the close and sometimes tumultuous relationship between Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas. Born only two years apart, Manet (1832–1883) and Degas (1834–1917) were friends, rivals, and, at times, antagonists who worked to define modern painting in France.

Manet/Degas

Manet/Degas - Yale University Press London

September 24, 2023–January 7, 2024

Through more than 150 paintings and works on paper,  Manet/Degas  takes a fresh look at the interactions of these two artists in the context of the family relationships, friendships, and intellectual circles that influenced their artistic and professional choices, deepening our understanding of a key moment in nineteenth-century French painting.

Manet/Degas is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, Paris.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Sept 11, 2023

Office space and mall.

The New Yorker – September 11, 2023 issue: The new issue features Dana Goodyear on editing humans with crispr, Elizabeth Kolbert on decoding whale communication, James Wood on George Eliot, and more.

The Transformative, Alarming Power of Gene Editing

Hands cutting DNA with a pair of scissors. Growth of a human baby is displayed in the background.

A rogue scientist showed that crispr gives humans the ability to transform ourselves. But should we?

By Dana Goodyear

Crispr, which may be the single most transformative biological technology of the twenty-first century, is a natural phenomenon, evolved over billions of years. It was first observed in the nineteen-eighties, when researchers noticed unexplained sequences of viral DNA in E. coli. Eventually, they realized that these sequences played a role in the bacteria’s immune system: they could find and destroy other pieces of viral DNA. 

The Holy Heresies of George Eliot

Two people lying with their faces close to each other with their long hair flowing over an open book

Her greatest rebellion against Victorian moralism was to reclaim the sacred for herself.

By James Wood

Literature bores me, especially great literature,” the narrator of one of John Berryman’s “Dream Songs” says. George Eliot sometimes bores me, especially the George Eliot draped in greatness. Think of the extremities of nineteenth-century fiction: labile Lermontov; crazy, visionary Melville; nasty, world-hating Flaubert; mystic moor-bound Brontës; fanatical, trembling Dostoyevsky; explosive Hamsun. There’s enough wildness to destroy the myth of that stable Victorian portal “classic realism.” It was not classic—certainly not then—and not always particularly “real.”