The New York Times – Saturday, March 15, 2025

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The Senate votes to avert a shutdown after Schumer relents.

After days of Democratic agonizing, the Senate voted to keep federal funds flowing through Sept. 30 just hours before a midnight deadline.

Putin Demands Ukrainian Troops in Kursk Region of Russia Surrender

Talks in Moscow with a U.S. special envoy indicated that Russia was keen to keep negotiating with the United States over Ukraine.

The Blood Moon Rises: A Total Lunar Eclipse

The first total lunar eclipse in more than two years lit up the sky last night as humanity, forever fascinated with the Earth’s only natural satellite, watched.

‘You’re Tough’: How Mexico’s President Won Trump’s Praise

A scientist and leftist with limited foreign policy experience, Claudia Sheinbaum seems to have connected with President Trump with her calm demeanor and toughness on the border.

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

THE WEEK IN ART (March 14, 2025): After a challenging year in which international galleries, auction houses and museums have been forced to scale back their operations and make redundancies on an alarming scale, a slower, more considered approach to business seems to be emerging.

So are we into an era of longer, more in-depth exhibitions and bespoke events concerned more with authentic connection than flashy spectacle? Ben Luke talks to Anny Shaw, a contributing editor at The Art Newspaper. In the Netherlands, just as in the US, cuts by far-right politicians to international development seem likely to have a huge impact on arts projects. As Tefaf, the major international art fair opens in the Dutch city of Maastricht, we talk to Senay Boztas, our correspondent based in Amsterdam, about fears of a funding crisis. And this episode’s Work of the Week is one of the greatest paintings ever made: The Hunters in the Snow (1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It is part of an exhibition called Arcimboldo – Bassano – Bruegel: Nature’s Time, which opened this week at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The museum’s director, Jonathan Fine, tells us more.

Arcimboldo–Bassano–Bruegel: Nature’s Time, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, until 29 June

Commentary Magazine – April 2025 Preview

April 2025 – Commentary Magazine

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE (March 14, 2025): The latest issue features ‘In Praise Of Big Pharma’; How American Aid has subsidized Terror and The Coalition of the Sentimental & Homicidal for Palestine…

In Praise of Big Pharma

 “If we allow the hatred of the industry to continue, we are going to lose investment and people are going to die.” by Tevi Troy

The Putin Trap

Washington Commentary by Matthew Continetti

The Evil of Rationalism

Social Commentary by Christine Rosen

The New York Times – Friday, March 14, 2025

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Under G.O.P., Congress Cedes Power to Trump, Eroding Its Influence

On spending, oversight and other issues, Republican lawmakers have willingly ceded power traditionally reserved for Congress to the Trump White House.

White House Withdraws Nominee for C.D.C. Director

Dr. Dave Weldon was to have appeared on Thursday in a confirmation hearing before the Senate health committee. He has close ties to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new health secretary.

Can a Billionaire Buy St. John’s a Basketball Championship?

Mike Repole, who loved the homegrown team of his youth, has helped assemble a juggernaut enabled by compensation rules that one critic says created “the wild West.”

Veterans Race to Bring Afghan Allies to U.S. Before Trump Travel Ban

The nonprofit No One Left Behind has raised millions of dollars for flights and other assistance to prevent Afghans from being stranded abroad and face retribution from the Taliban.

Science Magazine – March 14, 2025 Research Preview

SCIENCE MAGAZINE (March 13, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Interstellar Dust’ – Mapping dust properties in the Milky Way…

Studies seek signs of consciousness before birth

Fetal and infant brains offer clues to when human experience begins

In Ukraine, dam’s destruction sets off a ‘toxic time bomb’

Floods threaten to spread sediments laden with toxicants

Oceans’ trenches are home to ‘incredible’ diversity

In trio of studies, scientists explore life in the mysterious hadal zone

NIH kills existing grants on transgender issues

Some termination letters cite “biological realities” to dismiss usefulness of such research

Face to face with the first known Western European

At least 1.1 million years old, a fossil face suggests more than one type of early human inhabited Europe

The Economist Magazine – March 15, 2025 Preview

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THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE (March 13, 2025): The latest issue features America’s new foreign policy

America’s bullied allies need to toughen up

To avoid being crushed, they need a better plan than flattery and concessions

The new economics of immigration

A fresh critique of migration is gaining ground. Liberals must take it seriously

Trump’s erratic policy is harming the reputation of American assets

Like the stockmarket, the dollar is also suffering from falling confidence and rising confusion

The Guardian Weekly – March 14, 2025 Preview

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THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY (March 13, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Call to Arms’ – The remilitarization of Europe…

With unaccustomed speed, Paris, Berlin and London, along with the European Commission, are stepping up with a new “whatever it takes” mentality to create a framework for their own defence. Our coverage, led by Toby Helm and with contributions from our correspondents in Kyiv, Brussels and Berlin, examines how fiscal shibboleths are being shed to allow for increased military spending, and from Berlin a growing enthusiasm for Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz to consider sheltering under France’s independent nuclear umbrella.

Spotlight | ‘Here you will die’
Mark Townsend reports from Sudan on how the retreat of rebel RSF forces has led to the discovery of a torture centre, evidence of what could be one of the worst atrocities of the civil war

Technology | Roboshop
Can an AI agent prove itself smart enough to help Victoria Turk with her shopping? And, if it can order groceries and a takeaway, what else might it soon be able to do?

Feature | All the young Reform dudes
What is it about Nigel Farage’s Reform party that is attracting young men fed up with establishment politics? Gaby Hinsliff finds out

Opinion | The Sicilian ways of Donald Trump
The US president’s way of doing business is uncomfortably close to the fictional Corleone method, but without the mafia’s sense of honour, says Jonathan Freedland

Culture | Arthouse animation moves on up
Hot on the Academy Awards’ success of Flow, Xan Brooks looks at how independent animators are taking on the big-budget Hollywood studios and finding audiences are falling back in love with stop-go techniques

The New York Times – Thursday, March 13, 2025

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Trump’s Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Go Into Effect, Inciting Global Retaliation

President Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on metal imports, sparking new global trade spats as he attempts to shield the U.S. economy from foreign competition.

Power, Money, Territory: How Trump Shook the World in 50 Days

The system America took 80 years to assemble proved surprisingly fragile in the face of Trump’s assault, a revolution in how the country exercises power across the globe.

Tuberculosis Resurgent as Trump Funding Cut Disrupts Treatment Globally

The United States was the major funder of tuberculosis programs. Now hundreds of thousands of sick patients can’t find tests or drugs, and risk spreading the disease.

At Columbia, Tension Over Gaza Protests Hits Breaking Point Under Trump

There were protests, arrests, the departure of the school’s president. Then, a new administration arrived in Washington.

Modern Age Journal – Winter/Spring 2025

MODERN AGE – A CONSERVATIVE REVIEW (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Art of Civilization’; No Canon, No West; Kitsch- An Essay in Definition; Flannery O’Connor’s Century…

Canons Win Culture Wars

Daniel McCarthy

Civilization is a product of canons. The Bible is a canon, and while the Iliad and Odyssey were not quite sacred scripture to the ancient Greeks, the Homeric epics went a long way toward establishing what it meant for a man or a city to be part of the Greek world. That world was almost a synonym for civilization itself. What was not Greek was barbarian.

Noam Chomsky’s War on War

David Gordon

Noam Chomsky has attained fame in two different areas. He is a world-renowned authority in linguistics and also a major public intellectual. But while in the former area his achievements are universally recognized, even by those who disagree with him, this is not so for his work as a public intellectual, where he is idolized by some, respected by others, tolerated by yet others, and execrated by more than a few.

Flannery at 100—and Forever

O’Connor’s work, fiction and not, is Catholic, gothic, Southern, and timeless.

Chilton Williamson, Jr.

Nature Magazine – March 13, 2025 Research Preview

Volume 639 Issue 8054

NATURE MAGAZINE (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Good Or Bad?’ – Simple two-point rating system curbs racial bias in the gig economy.

Who’s likely to wake up from a coma? Brainwaves provide a clue

The presence of a pattern called a sleep spindle helps to predict which people will recover from an unresponsive state.

A super-gel stays supple from −115 ºC to 143 ºC

A network of two polymers plus sulfuric acid allows a hydrogel to keep its elasticity and softness at extreme temperatures.

Ancient puppets that smile or scowl hint at shared rituals

Clay figurines found on top of the remnants of a pyramid in what is now El Salvador might have been used in public ceremonies.

The surprising culprit for the loss of huge swathes of tropical forest

Analysis of satellite imagery of the Brazilian Amazon, the Congo Basin and New Guinea helps to show that ‘secondary’ roads take an outsized toll.