All posts by She Seeks Serene

My Journey of Reimagining Life, Love and Education

The Economist Magazine – July 20, 2024 Preview

A ticket to where?

The Economist Magazine (July 18, 2024): The latest issue featuresA TICKET TO WHERE?’ – Where would Donald Trump and J.D. Vance take America?…

Where would Donald Trump and J.D. Vance take America?

The anti-globalist MAGA enthusiast is more consequential than the average veep pick

Euphoric markets are ignoring growing political risks

Investors’ exuberance in the face of political ructions is unlikely to pay off

Inside AI’s black box

Researchers are figuring out how large language models work

Labour’s first week

What does Labour’s win mean for British foreign policy?

Will Biden’s dam break?

Joe Biden is failing to silence calls that he step aside

Ungovernable France

France is desperately searching for a government

Read full edition

News: EU President Von Der Leyen’s Second Term, China’s Third Plenum

The Globalist Podcast (July 18, 2024): EU leaders are deciding today on whether to reappoint Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president. But what would her second term look like?

Then: we examine the reforms being proposed in China’s third plenum and look at Joe Biden’s announcement on Supreme Court changes. Plus: the latest from Dhaka as protests escalate and we discuss the Emmy Awards nominations.

The New York Times — Thursday, July 18, 2024

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How J.D. Vance Won Over Donald Trump

It started with a meeting at Mar-a-Lago more than three years ago. Later, Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and other key allies made direct appeals on his behalf.

Biden Called ‘More Receptive’ to Hearing Pleas to Step Aside

The president has given no indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race but is said to be more willing to listen to the case for bowing out.

‘Our Nation Is Not Well’: Voters Fear What Could Happen Next

There is growing anxiety that the country’s political divide is nearly beyond repair, and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump only made things worse.

A Blind Spot and a Lost Trail: How the Gunman Got So Close to Trump

Even though local police were on the lookout for a suspicious man, critical minutes ticked by, allowing a would-be assassin to slip past, a Times analysis found.

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – July 19, 2024

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The Guardian Weekly (July 17, 2024) – The new issue features ‘Reset?’ – America reckons with the attempted assassination of Donald Trump…

The image of Donald Trump, his face smeared with blood after a bullet grazed his ear, marked a watershed moment in the already high-stakes 2024 US presidential election campaign. Opening our special report on the Pennsylvania rally shooting, Washington bureau chief David Smith examines how it could fuel Trump’s base and stoke further division in American politics.

Five essential reads in this week’s edition

1
Spotlight | On paw patrol in Sumatra
National Geographic explorer and photographer Danielle Khan Da Silva joins an all-female group of Indigenous rangers who protect a rare Indonesian rainforest ecosystem.

2
Spotlight | Evasive action
The doctors who treat cancer share their expert advice on what simple things we can all do to lessen the risk of getting the disease with Sarah Phillips.

3
Feature | Too hot to handle
As heatwaves become a common occurrence, outdoor workers are particularly vulnerable, explains Samira Shackle, as she documents the death from heat of one French labourer.

4
Opinion Simon Tisdall on the Nato summit
The 75-year-old alliance was created to counteract Moscow’s power and needs to keep its focus on containing Russian ambition.

Untitled #96, 1981.
Untitled #96, 1981. Photograph: Cindy Sherman/Hauser & Wirth

5
Culture | Selfies with Cindy Sherman
The US artist whose work changed the way we see women talks image, AI and Instagram to Nadia Khomami.

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – July 18, 2024

Volume 631 Issue 8021

Nature Magazine – July 17, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Long Reach’ – Salamander-like fossil expands geogrpahical range of early tetrapods…

AI tool can pinpoint dementia’s cause — from stroke to Alzheimer’s

Algorithm that distinguishes among a host of underlying causes of dementia could be used for diagnosis in hospitals and clinics.

Most accurate clock in history made by ‘quieting’ atoms

Strontium-based timepiece gains or loses only one second every 40 billion years.

Storm-chasing seabirds served supper by cyclones

The ocean-going Desertas petrel often follows storms for days over thousands of kilometres.

Wine grapes’ sweetness reveals Europe’s climate history

Records on the quality of the grape harvest sheds light on 600 years of weather.

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – July 19, 2024

Times Literary Supplement (July 17, 2024): The latest issue features ‘World at War’ – Humanity’s appetite for organized violence; Should we have babies; Posture panic; The boy on the burning deck and Wales…

News: EU Concerns Over Orbán’s ‘Peace Tour’, Day 2 Republican Convention

The Globalist Podcast (July 17, 2024): Following Viktor Orbán’s ‘peace tour’ to Israel, Moscow and China, European politicians plan to boycott meetings held by the Hungarian leader during his country’s EU presidency.

We also have a dispatch from the second day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and can the French left overcome their impasse and elect a new prime minister? Plus: a special interview with Brazil’s culture minister – and beloved singer – Margareth Menezes.

The New York Times — Wednesday, July 17, 2024

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At Trump Rally, Local Police and Gunman Were in Same Warehouse Complex

But a dispute over whether the local forces used the same building as the shooter is just one unsettled element in the effort to determine how security broke down.

Menendez Convicted of Corruption in Broad International Conspiracy

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, was found guilty of bribery, conspiracy, extortion, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent.

Biden Circle Shrinks as Democrats Fear Election Wipeout

President Biden, increasingly isolated during the biggest political crisis of his presidency, is in a historic standoff with his party.

After Saturday, Trump’s Devotees See ‘God’s Protection’

Some of Donald J. Trump’s followers had long viewed him as handpicked by God. The attempted assassination has only increased such quasi-religious devotion and rhetoric.

Previews: Country Life Magazine – July 17, 2024

Country Life Magazine (July 16, 2024): The latest issue features ‘500 Shades of Green’ – Why is it the eye’s favorite hue; Rex Whistler’s triumph and tragedy; Big hearts and funny faces – the bull terrier and Alan Titchmarsh’s favorite flower show…

Our green and pleasant land

Our eyes can detect more of its shades than any other colour and its many hues are bound up with everything from jealousy to British racing cars—it’s all gone green for Lucien de Guise

It’s a bullseye

‘Life is merrier when you live with a bull terrier’ owners tell Katy Birchall as she delves into the kindly and comic character beneath the muscular frame

Showing the way

Goodwill and gardening go hand in hand at the ‘beautifully formed’ Royal Windsor Flower Show—and Alan Titchmarsh wouldn’t miss it for the world

First to fall

Rex Whistler refused to leave fighting the Second World War to ‘young boys’, but his courage and leadership was to cost him his life, as Allan Mallinson reveals

Lyndon Farnham’s favourite painting

The Jersey chief minister picks a work that encapsulates the island’s spirit and determination

‘Most costly and church-wise’

In the second of two articles, John Goodall investigates the 17th-century expansion that provided Lincoln College, Oxford, with a quite outstanding chapel

The legacy

Music will ring around the Royal Albert Hall again this summer thanks to Henry Wood and his Proms, reveals Octavia Pollock

All The King’s Whales and all The Queen’s dolphins

With more species around our shores than anywhere else in northern Europe, Ben Lerwill keeps his eyes peeled for porpoises, whales and dolphins

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell shells out on fine jewellery that is sure to impress    

A stitch in time

Debo Devonshire’s love of chic, chickens and Chatsworth in Derbyshire is celebrated in a new exhibition, discovers Kim Parker

Interiors

Giles Kime explores large-scale wallpaper capable of transport-ing you to a whole new world

Country Life International

  • Jersey earns royal approval
  • Antonia Windsor marks 150 years of La Corbière lighthouse
  • Paul Henderson spices up his life with Jersey’s East Asian cuisine
  • Nick Hammond brews his own island tea
  • Holly Kirkwood picks the best properties for sale

Over the hills and far away

Tiffany Daneff marvels at the spectacular views that have been restored at the Old Rectory at Preston Capes, Northamptonshire

Kitchen garden cook

Crunchy fennel is a summer highlight for Melanie Johnson

Time for some merriment

Michael Billington is royally entertained as Shakespeare receives a modern, mirth-filled twist in Stratford and London

National Geographic Magazine – August 2024

National Geographic Magazine (July 16, 2024) The new issue features ‘Rebirth Of The Seine’ – Inside France’s efforts to restore the iconic river to its former glory, in time for the Olympics…

Paris made an Olympic-sized effort to clean up the Seine—did they succeed?

For centuries, the Seine River has been Paris’s dumping ground. A billion-dollar cleanup is trying to make it swimmable again.

How the Seine River shaped the city of Paris

The history of Paris is inextricably linked to the river that flows through its center—from Neolithic settlement to this year’s Olympic games.

Meet the ancient goddess of the Seine River: Sequana

The opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will take place on the fabled French waterway. But did you know it was named for a Gallo-Roman deity?