The Globalist Podcast (October 16, 2023) – Poland centrist opposition parties declare victory in election, Australia’s historic “Indigenous Voice to Parliament” referendum, a review the papers and give you the latest business news. Plus: Disney turns 100.
All posts by She Seeks Serene
The New York Times — Monday, October 16, 2023
As Israeli Invasion Looms, Diplomats Seek to Meet Gaza’s Dire Human Needs
The U.S., Egypt and other countries are urging the delivery of food, water and fuel to counter the desperate shortages facing Gaza’s two million residents.
Gaza’s Hospitals Face ‘Impossible’ Choices With Israel Evacuation Order
As a widely anticipated ground invasion looms, hospitals in Gaza City said they had no way to evacuate thousands of sick and injured patients.
Slaughter at a Festival of Peace and Love Leaves Israel Transformed
In this massacre of its youth, Israel’s 75-year-old quest for some carefree normalcy met the murderous fury of those long-oppressed Palestinians who deny the state’s right to exist.
Inside Trump’s Backroom Effort to Lock Up the Nomination
As the former president dodges debates, it can seem as if he’s bypassing the primary. But he and his team have been working quietly to twist the delegate rules in their favor.
Fall Foliage: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Western North Carolina
Videographer: Charles Schultz. @NationalParkService
Culture: In The Footsteps Of Poets In Ronda, Spain
“I have searched everywhere for the city of dreams,” he wrote after wandering far from Paris to overcome writers’ block, “and found it here, in Ronda.”
German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1913)
Teetering at the edge of the Tajo river gorge, Ronda, 90 minutes’ drive west from Malaga, remains the most spectacular urban setting in Europe. Its cat’s cradle of white streets is haunted by the ghosts of Moorish princes, soundtracked by the strum of guitars and the tinkle of fountains.
If you’re in the mood for romance, nowhere in Spain comes close, Ernest Hemingway reckoned. He’s still right, so long as you’re happy to share your precious moment with massed day-trippers from the Costa del Sol. Expect visitor numbers to grow again when a £1.1 million suspended gorge walk, the Camino del Desfiladero del Tajo designed by the architect behind Malaga’s Caminito del Rey, opens later this year.
Even so, what everyone is really coming to Ronda for – to inland Andalusia – is Old Spain. You won’t find it written on signposts but, like the crackle of duende during a flamenco concert, you’ll know it when you experience it. It’s the country of pueblos blancos and half-remembered battles and scenery of savage beauty; the one that attracted Grand Tour visitors such as Disraeli and Irving long before anyone had thought of the Costa del Sol.
Sunday Morning: Stories And News From London, Ljubljana, Turin & Zurich
October 15, 2023 – From London, Emma Nelson, Latika Bourke and Yossi Mekelberg on the weekend’s big talking points. We also speak to Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, as well as our friends and correspondents in Ljubljana, Turin, and Zurich.
The New York Times — Sunday, October 15, 2023
The Secrets Hamas Knew About Israel’s Military
Hamas gunmen surged into Israel in a highly organized and meticulously planned operation that suggested a deep understanding of Israel’s weaknesses. Here is how the attacks unfolded.
Poised for Attack, Israel Steps Up Calls for Gaza Residents to Leave ‘Battle Zone’
Nearly one million displaced Gazans are facing shortages of food, clean water and shelter, while Americans remain trapped in the enclave.
Fact or Fiction? In This War, It Is Hard to Tell.
Social media is full of false and misleading posts. The rise in A.I. is making it worse. And the trust in traditional news sources has declined.
Behind a Senator’s Indictments, a Foreign Spy Service Works Washington
The charges against Senator Robert Menendez and his wife highlight how Egypt’s powerful intelligence agency wields influence.
Literary Review Of Canada November 2023 Preview
Literary Review of Canada – November 2023: The latest issue features Who Keeps Killing Canadian History; The Influencers – A dual biography from Charlotte Gray, and more…
The Influencers – A dual biography from Charlotte Gray
Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons: The Lives of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt by Charlotte Gray
They were born the same year. Their families left Paris the same year. Their sons entered institutions that would shape their lives the same year. If Stephen Sondheim had written Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons instead of Charlotte Gray, he might have employed one of the timeless lines from his Broadway show Company to depict the lives and loves of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt: “Parallel lines who meet.”
Fowl Lines – Speaking of speakers
Anthony Rota stepped down as Canada’s thirty-seventh Speaker of the House of Commons on September 27, for reasons pretty much the entire world knows. Between his unprecedented resignation and the election of Greg Fergus to take up that fancy oak and velvet chair, the electorate was treated to some familiar headlines. “Who Can Bring Back Commons Decency?” the Toronto Star asked on its front page. “Being Speaker Isn’t Easy,” the CBC reminded us. “And It Just Got a Lot Harder.”
World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Oct 14, 2023
0:15 Why engagement in the news is in decline – A massive media survey looked at trust and engagement in the news and found both are in steady decline. Just 48% of people say they are very or extremely interested in the news in 2023 down from 63% in 2017. Trust in the news has fallen 2 percentage points in a year. Now, only 40% say they trust the news most of the time and 36% say they actively avoid the news sometimes or often.
1:53 This robot can help people with disabilities dress – The robot was designed by a team at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). They used a simulation to teach it how to perform its task. The team used an AI-driven approach called ‘reinforcement learning’. The robot was rewarded each time it correctly placed a shirt further along an arm.
3:25 Company captures and stores CO2 with limestone – Heirloom takes crushed limestone and heats it in a kiln powered by renewable energy. The reaction generates two products. These are CO2, which can be permanently stored underground or in materials like concrete and a powder, which is hydrated with water to make calcium hydroxide. When the calcium hydroxide is spread onto trays, it absorbs CO2 from the air to become limestone and the whole process can begin again.
5:24 How to use ChatGPT more safely – ChatGPT is an AI tool that gives detailed, natural language answers to prompts based on a database of 300 billion words drawn from books and articles. The AI learns from its interactions with you, so here are 5 ways to ensure you’re using it safely.
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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
Arts & Culture: The New Criterion — Nov 2023
The New Criterion – November 2023 issue:
The burden of the humanities by Wilfred M. McClay
A lyrical populist revolt by Victor Davis Hanson
Blanquette de Bard by Anthony Daniels
Polymorphous Peretz by Myron Magnet
New poems by David Mason & Ian Pople
The New York Times Book Review – October 15, 2023
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (October 15, 2023): This week’s issue features a fabulous historical novel, the Janet Malcolm-like account of an Australian murder trial, a sprightly history of the Oxford English Dictionary, a homage to “The Haunting of Hill House”, historical fiction, thrillers, crime novels, romance, horror & Gothic fiction, science fiction & fantasy.)
A Fitting — and Frightening — Homage to ‘The Haunting of Hill House’
Apparitions, black hares and time warps festoon the pages of Elizabeth Hand’s “A Haunting on the Hill,” set in the same moldering mansion as Shirley Jackson’s classic horror novel.
The Wife Has Committed Murder but It’s the Husband Who Scares Her Lawyer
In Marie NDiaye’s new novel, “Vengeance Is Mine,” a woman is haunted by a decades-old trauma she feels, but cannot quite remember.
VENGEANCE IS MINE, by Marie NDiaye. Translated by Jordan Stump.
The characters in Marie NDiaye’s novels are an unsettling brood. They fret and pace around their homes, tormented by their pasts. Their minds trap and trick them. A daughter can’t shake memories of her mother’s murder; a man gropes for the truth about his imprisonment in a deserted vacation town; a chef pursues culinary perfection at any cost; a woman — reminded of a friend, a schoolteacher or was it her mother? — fatally chases an apparition in green.
Boomers Daily 