The Globalist Podcast (December 12, 2023) – We examine Volodymyr Zelensky’s efforts to bolster unity amid a rift between the Ukrainian leader and his top general.
Also, pro-democracy activist Nathan Law unpacks Hong Kong’s “patriots only” elections, a flick through today’s papers and a look at Swarovski’s new flagship store on Fifth Avenue.
Top Israeli officials hinted at a powerful response to attacks by Hezbollah across the northern border with Lebanon, as to the south Israeli troops wage street battles against Hamas in Gaza.
From the halls of Congress to America’s streets and universities, a once largely academic issue has roiled national discourse, inciting accusations of bigotry and countercharges of bullying.
State and local leaders are proposing to roll back part of the nation’s pioneering drug decriminalization law and step up police enforcement.
More tenants than ever spend half or more of their income for shelter, leaving less for everything else, taking an emotional toll and leaving some without a place to call their own.
Deeply entwined with its cultural heritage, the mountainous territory carries a historic tradition of craft metalwork – as a center for the production of hand-crafted ornaments, teapots and spiritual artefacts, destined for temples, and held in high regard by India’s king dynasties.
But the craft has entered a point of decline, continued by just a handful of artisanal metalworkers who fight for its preservation.…
We routinely test for chemicals that cause mutations. What about the dark matter of carcinogens—substances that don’t create cancer cells but rouse them from their slumber?
In the nineteen-seventies, Bruce Ames, a biochemist at Berkeley, devised a way to test whether a chemical might cause cancer. Various tenets of cancer biology were already well established. Cancer resulted from genetic mutations—changes in a cell’s DNA sequence that typically cause the cell to divide uncontrollably. These mutations could be inherited, induced by viruses, or generated by random copying errors in dividing cells. They could also be produced by physical or chemical agents: radiation, ultraviolet light, benzene. One day, Ames had found himself reading the list of ingredients on a package of potato chips, and wondering how safe the chemicals used as preservatives really were.
The law, passed in a frenzy after the First World War, is a disaster. Why is it still on the books?
In March, 1940, Edmund Carl Heine, a forty-nine-year-old American automobile executive, reached an understanding with a company then known as Volkswagenwerk GmbH. Heine, who immigrated to the United States from Germany as a young man, had spent years at Ford, first in Michigan and then in its international operations in South America and Europe, landing finally in Germany. In 1935, two years after the Nazi regime came to power, Ford fired him, for reasons that are unclear. Heine next signed on with Chrysler, in Spain, but the Spanish Civil War was tough on the car business. And so he was out of a job again.
The Globalist Podcast (December 11, 2023) – The latest on the war between Israel and Hamas, examine the results of Egypt’s presidential election and debate Japan prime minister Fumio Kishida’s uncertain political future.
Also, the dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over Essequibo, art news and a dispatch from the Monocle Christmas Market.
As Israeli forces pound Gaza, the area where Palestinians can seek shelter is shrinking, raising concerns that they could be forced into Egypt.
Republicans have been attacking elite universities for years. After a tense congressional hearing last week, many on the left are joining them.
Some border communities in the U.S. and Mexico are suddenly cut off from each other after a border crossing closed to cope with large numbers of migrants.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt grew increasingly unpopular amid a deep economic crisis. But the war in neighboring Gaza has given him a vital role on the international stage.
He reflects upon the incredible animals and habitats he has seen, and what the future could hold – for both us and them.
This northeasterly nook of Catalonia’s Costa Brava, between the Pyrenees to the north and the Mediterranean to the south, was the landscape that Dalí called his “ongoing inspiration” and is a recurring motif throughout his work.
While the Casa Natal Dalí took me on a tour of Dalí’s life, its near neighbour, the gigantic Dalí Theatre-Museum (£15; salvador-dali.org), just five minutes’ walk away, was designed by the maestro himself. It opened in 1974 and showcases his style at its most eccentric, not to say egocentric.
With its pink façade and giant white eggs on its roof, like decorations on a cake, this is where you’ll find not only the Mae West “lips” sofa, but also numerous grandiose paintings and drawings, trompe l’oeils and painted ceilings — as well as Dalí’s tomb in the crypt.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (December 10, 2023):
The Book Review’s daily critics — Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs and Jennifer Szalai — reflect on the books that stuck with them in 2023.
By Jennifer Szalai, Alexandra Jacobs and Dwight Garner
Films, TV shows, albums, books, art and A.I.-generated SpongeBob performances that reporters, editors and visual journalists in Culture couldn’t stop thinking about this year.
Monocle on Sunday, December 10, 2023 – Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, is joined by Emma Nelson for a festive show during our Christmas market at Midori House, London. Andrew Tuck, Nina dos Santos and Charles Hecker complete the panel.
Boomers Daily 