Times Literary Supplement (February 14, 2024): The latest issue features Thinking AI; London literary consequences, A new play in the great tradition, and Household terrors…
Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Feb 16, 2024
Monthly Archives: February 2024
News: Election Results In Indonesia, U.S. And NATO New Funding For Ukraine
The Globalist (February 14, 2024): It’s election day in the world’s third-largest democracy: we get the latest from Jakarta.
Then: we discuss Ukraine’s view on Nato and US funding, the latest setback to the EU-Mercosur trade deal and hear why cabin crew in the US and the UK are on strike. Plus: a new exhibition profiling Yoko Ono.
The New York Times — Wednesday, Feb 14, 2024
House Republicans Impeach Mayorkas for Border Policies
In a redo of their first failed attempt, Republicans pushed through the charges over solid Democratic opposition, making the homeland security secretary the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached.
Haley’s Hard-Line Immigration Record Runs Counter to Trump’s Attacks
Donald Trump has accused Nikki Haley of siding with Democrats on the border. In South Carolina, friends and foes alike do not recognize that portrait of the former governor.
Prevailing on Ukraine Funding, McConnell Took Political Hits
The minority leader’s handling of the border and foreign aid legislation drew scorching criticism from far-right Republicans, though he scored a legislative win on an issue he regards as existential and part of his legacy.
A Tunnel Offers Clues to How Hamas Uses Gaza’s Hospitals
New evidence shows Hamas operated under Al-Shifa Hospital but falls short of proving Israel’s early claims that there was a command center there.
Arts/Politics: The Atlantic Magazine – March 2024
TO STOP A SHOOTER
Why would an armed officer stand by as a school shooting unfolds? By Jamie Thompson
It was the early afternoon of Valentine’s Day 2018, and the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was full of kids exchanging stuffed animals and heart-shaped chocolates. Scot Peterson, a Broward County sheriff’s deputy, was in his office at the school, waiting to talk with a parent about a student’s fake ID. At 2:21 p.m., a report came over the school radio about a strange sound—firecrackers, possibly—coming from Building 12. Peterson stepped outside, moving briskly, talking into the radio on his shoulder. Then the fire alarm rang. Peterson, wearing a sheriff’s uniform with a Glock on his belt, started running.
A Trove of ‘Lost Basquiats’ Led to a Splashy Exhibition. Then the FBI Showed Up.
Why is it so hard to root out fakes and forgeries?
Culture And Traditions: The Porters Of Slovakia
But not in the High Tatras of Slovakia. When loaded, the wooden carrying frames used by the so-called ‘Tatra Sherpas’ weigh up to 100 kilos or more. The porters climb up to 2,000 meters with their loads, supplying essentials to remote mountain huts in the Slovakian national park. Števo Bačkor is one of around 60 porters in the region today. Two to three times a week, the 47-year-old loads his self-built frame with firewood or food.
With the goods stacked on his back, he climbs up the mountains to deliver them, come snow, ice, heat, rain or storm. The mountain huts of the High Tatras depend on the porters’ deliveries, as there are hardly any roads or cable cars. The high mountain region in the Carpathians is a strictly protected nature reserve and, together with the Polish national park, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. This film accompanies Števo Bačkor on his dizzying ascents. He falls into a meditative stride to cope with the exertion.
Strength and courage are not enough – passion is also a requirement for the tough job. It takes him just under three hours to climb 1,000 meters, ultimately reaching the Zbojnícka hut at an elevation of almost 2,000 meters. ‘Reaching the top is always a special moment. You may be exhausted, but you feel complete.’ Some of the ‘Tatra Sherpas’ have already lost their lives on delivery missions through the high mountains. In memory of colleagues who have died, the ‘Sherpa Rally’ takes place as a memorial run every year.
Previews: Country Life Magazine – Feb 14, 2024
Country Life Magazine – February 13, 2024: The latest ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ – Let me count the ways; Rough collies, red roses and royal caviar; Glass acts – the coolest conservatories; Head start – why real gentlemen wear hats….
The romance of the rose
With its velvety, softly scented depths, the red rose has long beguiled lovers. Charles Quest-Ritson falls under its spell
Thoroughly good eggs
Tom Parker Bowles savours the unctuous delights of caviar from the mother-daughter team at King’s Fine Foods, ethically farmed and utterly delicious
Taking the rough with the smooth
Famed for their loyalty, rough collies are happy finding hidden sheep, bounding up Munros or simply curling up with children. Katy Birchall meets Lassie
In the hat of the moment
Time was when every gentleman of every background wore a hat. It’s time to fall back in love with bowler, beret and bonnet, recommends John F. Mueller
Interiors
Amelia Thorpe admires the most stylish conservatories
Sir Karl Jenkins’s favourite painting
The composer chooses an ethereal Italian scene that literally reflects his own music
Behind the scenes at the cathedral
Fiona Reynolds explores the environs of St Albans in Hertfordshire, from the longest nave in Europe to the River Ver
A Georgian reinvention
With imagination and style, late-18th-century Marlwood Grange in Gloucestershire has been transformed into a family home fit for the 21st century, discovers Jeremy Musson
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell gets a handle on the most colourful handbags
Music to our ears
As the famous opera house at Glyndebourne, East Sussex, turns 90, the gardens are more glorious than ever. Tiffany Daneff admires a symphony of planting
More pudding, pease
Tom Parker Bowles tucks into the succulent, comforting suet pudding, an old favourite that deserves to return to our plates
More than a pretty face
Admired for his portrayal of dewy eyes and diaphanous fabrics, John Singer Sargent rose to the top of the portrait-painting world. Mary Miers follows his career from peripatetic childhood to Society favourite
News: Poland Foreign Policy And NATO, Egypt Mediates Israel-Hamas War
The Globalist (February 13, 2024): We discuss Poland’s foreign policy and the future of Nato.
Plus: Egypt’s mediation role in Israel’s conflict with Hamas, a round-up of headlines from the US and Saint Laurent’s new bookshop in Paris.
The New York Times — Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Israeli Raid in Rafah Rescues 2 Hostages and Kills Dozens, Officials Say
The hostages, who had been held by Hamas, returned to Israel after a military operation that Gazan health officials said killed at least 67 Palestinians.
A ‘Democracy Party’ Like No Other: One of the World’s Biggest Elections
The celebration of the act of casting a vote has particular resonance in Indonesia, which until a few decades ago was a brutal dictatorship.
Favoring Foes Over Friends, Trump Threatens to Upend International Order
Former President Donald J. Trump suggested that he would incite Russia to attack “delinquent” U.S. allies, foreshadowing potentially far-reaching changes in the world order if he wins the White House again.
Big Burden of Migrant Influx Strains Denver
The city has marshaled resources for the new arrivals, but after Congress rejected a deal aimed at slowing the flow of migrants, its support system is starting to buckle.
Arts/History: Smithsonian Magazine – March 2024
The Remarkable Untold Story of Sojourner Truth
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Feminist. Preacher. Abolitionist. Civil rights pioneer. Now the full story of the American icon’s life and faith is finally coming to light
On May 29, 1851, a woman asked to address the attendees of the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron. She cut a striking figure, close to six feet tall even without her crisp bonnet. She was more than likely the only Black person in the room.
A procession of participants had already sounded off about the plight and potential of the “fairer sex” during the two-day gathering. “We are told that woman has never excelled in philosophy or any of the branches of mathematics,” said abolitionist Emily Rakestraw Robinson before noting that women were largely barred from higher education. Lura Maria Giddings lamented: “The degraded, vicious man, who scarcely knows his right hand from his left, is permitted to vote, while females of the most elevated intelligence are entirely excluded.” A dispatch about women’s labor from Paulina W. Davis, who would later create the women’s rights periodical The Una, painted a verbal picture of “mother and sister toiling like Southern slaves, early and late, for a son who sleeps on the downiest couch, wears the finest linen and spends his hundreds of dollars in a wild college life.”
News: Israel Air Strikes On Rafah With Two Hostages Freed, Finland Elections
The Globalist (February 12, 2024): The latest on the Israel-Gaza war.
Plus: we head to Helsinki for the Finnish election results, Colombia’s Supreme Court battle and Australia announces a new domestic military drone programme.
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