The Globalist (April 23, 2024): Paul Rogers of OpenDemocracy explains why global defence expenditure is at its highest level since records began.
Elsewhere, Monocle’s Istanbul correspondent, Hannah Lucinda Smith, tells us about Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Iraq, the Maldives shifts its allegiance from India to China and we ask why the US is withdrawing troops from Niger. Plus: art and culture news.
The prosecution’s opening statement sketched a seamy scheme meant to further the election of Donald J. Trump. His lawyer said the government’s case is merely “34 pieces of paper.”
Israel has failed to achieve its two primary goals of the war, while the suffering of Palestinians erodes support even among its allies.
The strike on Iran on Friday was originally intended to be much broader in scope, but after intense pressure from allies, Israeli leaders agreed to ratchet it down.
With the right changes, it can continue as an engine of global growth, say Arjun Ramani and Thomas Easton
The consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, a city in Uttar Pradesh, in January was a matter of supreme importance to Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister; attendance was thus de rigueur for those seeking his approval. The attendant courtiers included not just politicians, officials and foreign dignitaries but also India’s biggest corporate bosses. Uttar Pradesh is not their normal stamping ground, and Ayodhya has not until recently been much of a destination for tycoons. Now it has 115 hotels under construction, and some of those January visitors may soon be finding reasons to return.
The Globalist (April 22, 2024): Monocle’s Middle East correspondent Leila Molana-Allen discusses the latest on tensions in the region.
Also in the programme: Ukrainian MP Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze on the relationship between Washington and Kyiv following the US House of Representatives’ vote on military aid for Ukraine. Plus: a flip through the papers, Balkans news and an interview with Romanian artist Serban Savu.
Monday will see opening statements in the People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump. The state’s case seems strong, but a conviction is far from assured.
The mundanity of the courtroom has all but swallowed Donald Trump, who for decades has sought to project an image of bigness and a sense of power.
The mundanity of the courtroom has all but swallowed Donald Trump, who for decades has sought to project an image of bigness and a sense of power.
Much-needed munitions like artillery shells could start arriving relatively quickly, but experts say it could take weeks before U.S. assistance has a direct impact on the war.
The New Statesman – April 21, 2024:
They bet that direct attacks would not lead to a disastrous escalation. The Middle East is now on the…By Jeremy Bowen
The drone and missile strike conveyed as much weakness as it did strength.By Lawrence Freedman
Why was the prescription of puberty blockers to distressed children allowed to continue for so long?By Hannah Barnes
Monocle on Sunday, April 21, 2024: Emma Nelson, Simon Brooke and Lynne O’Donnell on the weekend’s biggest talking points.
We also speak to Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, in Marbella, Monocle’s New Delhi correspondent, Lyndee Prickitt, for the latest on the India elections and Monocle’s Bangkok correspondent for the news in Thailand.
The case, involving multiple swimmers who seven months later won medals at the 2021 Games, prompted accusations of a cover-up and concerns over why antidoping regulators chose not to intervene.
Rebel fighters have handed Myanmar’s army defeat after defeat, for the first time raising the possibility that the military junta could be at risk of collapse.
A lawsuit by a group of homeless residents of a small Oregon town could reshape the way cities across the country deal with homelessness.
After months of delay at the hands of a bloc of ultraconservative Republicans, the package drew overwhelming bipartisan support, reflecting broad consensus.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (April 20, 2024): The latest issue features….
In “The Anxious Generation,” Jonathan Haidt says we’re failing children — and takes a firm stand against tech.
By Tracy Dennis-Tiwary
THE ANXIOUS GENERATION: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt
Inside the book conservation lab at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
By Molly Young
Not every workplace features a guillotine. At a book conservation lab tucked beneath the first floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the office guillotine might as well be a water cooler or a file cabinet for all that it fazes the staff. “We have a lot of violent equipment,” said Mindell Dubansky, who heads the Sherman Fairchild Center for Book Conservation.
In “Muse of Fire,” Michael Korda depicts the lives and passions of the soldier poets whose verse provided a view into the carnage of World War I.
Boomers Daily 