All posts by She Seeks Serene

My Journey of Reimagining Life, Love and Education

The New York Times — Tuesday, April 16, 2024

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Israel Weighs Response to Iran’s Attack as Allies Push for Restraint

The Israeli war cabinet met again on Monday to discuss the strike, with some hawkish members of the prime minister’s government calling for a swift and forceful retaliation.

With Nuclear Deal Dead, Containing Iran Grows More Fraught

The U.S., Europe, Russia and China worked together on a 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program. The arrangement’s unraveling and the spike in superpower tensions make this a dangerous moment.

Chinese Company Under Congressional Scrutiny Makes Key U.S. Drugs

Lawmakers raising national security concerns and seeking to disconnect a major Chinese firm from U.S. pharmaceutical interests have rattled the biotech industry. The firm is deeply involved in development and manufacturing of crucial therapies for cancer, cystic fibrosis, H.I.V. and other illnesses.

Prospective Jurors Are Dismissed in Dozens as Trump’s Trial Begins

Jury selection began in the Manhattan criminal case, but many who might weigh Donald J. Trump’s fate told a judge that they could not be impartial.

Austria Travel: A Tour Of Hallstatt And Bad Ischl

DW Travel (April 15, 2024): Hannah Hummel traveled to Hallstatt and the spa town of Bad Ischl to find out what special events and activities await visitors this year.

Video timeline: 00:00 Intro 00:46 Where the Salzkammergut region is located 01:02 Hallstatt 02:16 Gondola ride to the World Heritage View 03:42 Meet Hallstatt’s mayor Alexander Scheutz 05:03 Try local food 05:28 Spa town Bad Ischl 05:58 Kaiservilla 07:09 Zauner confectionary 08:03 Exhibition at Altes Sudhaus 09:24 Meet Elisabth Schweeger, Artistic director of European Capital of Culture Salzkammergut, 10:17 Looted art 10:57 Eggenberg brewery

Hallstatt in Austria’s Salzkammergut region is a world-famous tourist magnet. Its popularity is likely to increase this year because the region is holding the title of European Capital of Culture in 2024.

Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine – May 2024

HARPER’S MAGAZINE – April 15, 2024: The latest issue features The Life and Death of Hollywood – Film and television writers face an existential threat; The Race for Second Place – The Republican primaries as farce

The Life and Death of Hollywood

Photo illustration by Nicolás Ortega

Film and television writers face an existential threat

by Daniel Bessner

In 2012, at the age of thirty-two, the writer Alena Smith went West to Hollywood, like many before her. She arrived to a small apartment in Silver Lake, one block from the Vista Theatre—a single-screen Spanish Colonial Revival building that had opened in 1923, four years before the advent of sound in film.

Smith was looking for a job in television. She had an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and had lived and worked as a playwright in New York City for years—two of her productions garnered positive reviews in the Times. But playwriting had begun to feel like a vanity project: to pay rent, she’d worked as a nanny, a transcriptionist, an administrative assistant, and more. There seemed to be no viable financial future in theater, nor in academia, the other world where she supposed she could make inroads.

The Race for Second Place

Illustration by Nate Sweitzer

The Republican primaries as farce

by Kyle Paoletta

On the Saturday before the Iowa caucuses, the super PAC supporting Florida governor Ron DeSantis staged a “drop by” for the candidate at its headquarters in West Des Moines. Outside the modernist office park, much of the Upper Midwest was under a deep freeze brought on by a low-pressure system that had deposited more than a foot of snow in advance of a surge of arctic air that brought the wind chill into the negative thirties. Despite the atrocious road conditions, DeSantis was keeping his schedule as a “special guest” of the Never Back Down PAC, beginning the day at the far western end of Iowa, in Council Bluffs, and concluding it three hundred miles east, in Davenport.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – April 22, 2024

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The New Yorker (April 15, 2024): The new issue‘s cover features Ana Juan’s “Clickbait” – The artist captures the mesmerizing—and distracting—glow of modern entertainment.

Can the World Be Simulated?

Video-game engines were designed to closely mimic the mechanics of the real world. They’re now used for movies, TV shows, architecture, military trainings, virtual reality, and the metaverse.

Are Flying Cars Finally Here?

They have long been a symbol of a future that never came. Now a variety of companies are building them—or something close.

By Gideon Lewis-Kraus

News: Israel Weighs Iran Missile Strike Response, Thailand-Myanmar Unrest

The Globalist (April 15, 2024): The latest on the conflict in the Middle East following Iran’s reprisal attack on Israel. Then: after days of clashes, we discuss the unrest at the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Plus: the implications of Senegal’s new presidency for regional dynamics and fashion news.

The New York Times — Monday, April 15, 2024

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Biden Seeks to Head Off Escalation After Israel’s Successful Defense

The president told Israel that the interception of nearly all of the Iranian drones and missiles used to attack it constituted a major victory, and so further retaliation might not be necessary, U.S. officials said.

Iran’s Strikes on Israel Open a Dangerous New Chapter for Old Rivals

Experts say Tehran does not want a broader war. But it is far from clear whether Iran or Israel will choose to escalate a conflict that has become more direct and out of the shadows.

Inside Donald Trump’s Embrace of the Jan. 6 Rioters

The former president initially disavowed the attack on the Capitol, but he is now making it a centerpiece of his general election campaign.

Protests, Traffic, Crowds: Court Braces for a Trump Trial Like No Other

Strict security measures — and plenty of headaches — are expected as the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president gets underway in Manhattan.

The New York Times Magazine – April 14, 2024

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (April 14, 2024):The latest issue features…

How a ‘Nerdy’ Prosecutor Became the First to Try Trump

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan D.A., campaigned as the best candidate to go after the former president. Now he finds himself leading Trump’s first prosecution — and perhaps the only one before the November election.

The Playwright Who Fearlessly Reimagines America

In her new play, ‘Sally & Tom,’ Suzan-Lori Parks brings exuberant provocation to the gravest historical questions.

Sunday Morning: Stories And News From London, Geneva And Marseille

Monocle on Sunday, April 14, 2024: Emma Nelson, Dimi Reider, Tessa Szyszkowitz and Kat Hanna on drone strikes on Israel by Iran overnight, as well as more of weekend’s biggest talking points.

We also speak to Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, in Geneva and we check-in with Monocle’s correspondent in Marseille, Mary Fitzgerald, for the latest headlines from the regions.

The New York Times — Sunday, April 14, 2024

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Israel Reports Light Damage After Iran Launches Large Strike

Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel overnight. The U.S. military shot dozens of them down, but most were intercepted by Israel’s military.

‘Waiting for My Time to Come’: Ukraine’s New Draft Law Unsettles the Young

Reporters from The New York Times spoke to men who could be affected by the change.

How the War in Gaza Mobilized the American Left

As the death toll in Gaza climbed, the pro-Palestinian movement grew into a powerful, if disjointed, political force in the United States. Democrats are feeling the pressure.

The New York Times Book Review – April 14, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (April 12, 2024): The latest issue features  the cold-sweat-inducing premise of the two books on our cover this week, Annie Jacobsen’s “Nuclear War” and Sarah Scoles’s “Countdown.” 

Let’s Say Someone Did Drop the Bomb. Then What?

In “Nuclear War” and “Countdown,” Annie Jacobsen and Sarah Scoles talk to the people whose job it is to prepare for atomic conflict.

The Culture Warriors Are Coming for You Smart People

In Lionel Shriver’s new novel, judging intelligence and competence is a form of bigotry.

Doris Kearns Goodwin Wasn’t Competing With Her Husband

Richard Goodwin, an adviser to presidents, “was more interested in shaping history,” she says, “and I in figuring out how history was shaped.” Their bond is at the heart of her new book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s.”