THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 7.13.25 Issue features Emily Bazelon and Mattathias Schwartz on Amir Ali’s first months as a federal judge under the Trump administration; Ted Conover on the truth of the gang problem in Aurora, Colorado; M.H. Miller on 20 years of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”; Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO; and more.
Some of the highlights of this week’s Country Life.
Meet the coastal superheroes
John Lewis-Stempel celebrates the depth and breadth of sea-birds spotted over British waters, from the dive-bombing gannet to the pick-pocket herring gull
Heavy petal
Catriona Gray meets artist Rachel Dein, whose botanical bas-reliefs really stand out from the crowd
I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying
Tom Parker Bowles savours the ultimate thirst quencher — a fruity and refreshing sorbet
Arts & antiques
Kenilworth Castle is reliving its central role in the 19-day wooing of Elizabeth I exactly 450 years on, as Carla Passino discovers
Back to Brideshead
Britain’s historic country houses are the much-loved stars of a host of films and television dramas, often leaving big-name actors in the shade, finds Ben Lerwill
The Experts’ Experts
Designers and architects from Country Life’s Top 100 throw open their contacts books to reveal the specialists they turn to when seeking inspiration for a country-house project
Peter Jones’s favourite painting
The chair of the British-Italian Society chooses a compelling and mysterious portrait of Christ
SAVE at 50
Founding trustee Simon Jenkins reflects on 50 years of SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the charity’s battles to safeguard a string of historic buildings
The legacy
Dedication’s what you need and Ross and Norris McWhirter, the twins behind the Guinness World Records, had it in abundance, as Amie Elizabeth White learns
Suits you!
When did the sodden knitwear cossie give way to the glamorous bikini? Deborah Nicholls-Lee dives into the history of swimwear
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell is beach ready with a collection of coastal favourites
Sheer bliss
Caroline Donald hails the blend of love and laissez-faire that has created a spectacular garden on an escarpment overlooking the sea at Ash Park in Devon
A smell by any other name
Ian Morton profiles the flora and fauna causing a stink in the natural world, some to attract a meal or mate, others to repel a predator
Tyger, tyger burning bright
Tipu Sultan threw a spanner in the works of Britain’s Imperial ambition, but the Tiger of Mysore was an inspiration to Blake and Keats, reveals Lucien de Guise
Winging it
Mark Cocker pays tribute to the beauty, elegance and laser-like predatory precision of the kestrel
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 7.06.25 Issue features Nick Confessore on how the trans rights movement bet on the Supreme Court in U.S. v Skrmetti and lost; Charles Homans on Trump’s fight with Los Angeles on immigration; Oliver Whang on Luke Littler, an 18-year-old darts prodigy; and more.
Democrats Denied This City Had a Gang Problem. The Truth Is Complicated.
Trump’s claim that Venezuelan criminals took over Aurora, Colorado, became a rationale for his immigration crackdown. What really happened there?
Once viewed as a safeguard against global injustice, international law has become increasingly politicised and dysfunctional in recent years. As Linda Kinstler writes in a fascinating essay for the cover story of this week’s Guardian Weekly magazine, the norms, institutions and good faith essential to the system functioning effectively have been badly eroded, and it’s hard to see how the problems can be reversed.
Institutions like the UN security council and international criminal court (ICC) are now often simply ignored or manipulated by powerful member states. The ICC in particular has struggled with legitimacy and enforcement, delivering only a few convictions, amid resistance from big powers such as the US and Russia. The unilateralism of Trump has further undermined the system, while China’s growing influence is shifting the international focus away from human rights.
Spotlight | How the rise of Zohran Mamdani is dividing Democrats Many believe the New York mayoral hopeful signals time for the national party to evolve but others say his brand of politics will not appeal in key battlegrounds. Lauren GambinoandAlaina Demopoulos report
Environment | Tipping points, doomerism and catastrophic risks Climate expert Genevieve Guenther talks to Jonathan Watts on the importance of correcting the false narrative that climate threat is under control – and why it is appropriate to be scared
Feature | The politics of breasts Breasts have always been political – and now they’re front and centre again. Is it yet another way in which Trump’s worldview is reshaping the culture? By Jess Cartner-Morley
Opinion | The global order is being dismantled by an ageing generation Just when the world desperately needs wise elders, its fate is in the hands of old and ruthless patriarchs, argues David Van Reybrouck
Culture | The Herds: The animal marathon stampeding to the Arctic Why is a huge pack of puppet animals, from tiny monkeys to towering elephants, making a 20,000km cross-planet odyssey? Kate Wyver spent a week as an antelope to find out
The seaside lido is enjoying a fresh wave of popularity a century and more after its first appearance on the British coast. Kathryn Ferry dives in
Winging it
Watch out, watch out, there’s a thief about! Mark Cocker warns that no undergarment is safe from the resurgent red kite, a bird soaring back from near extinction
Travel
• Christopher Wallace checks in to a new opening in Marrakech, Morocco’s Mecca for luxury hotels
• Teresa Levonian Cole blazes a trail in the Spanish Pyrenees
• Pamela Goodman gets on her bike to explore the Welsh border country
Life’s a pretty picnic
Deborah Nicholls-Lee shares a hamper-full of tasty morsels from the long and varied history of alfresco dining on canvas
Ricardo Afonso’s favourite painting
The musical-theatre actor chooses an ‘otherworldly’ work that stirs complex emotions
The legacy
Amie Elizabeth White salutes Sir James Clark Ross, the vastly experienced naval officer who discovered Antarctica in 1841
In God’s acre we trust
Laura Parker learns how the absence of interference over centuries enabled our wildlife-rich graveyards to become a ‘Noah’s Ark of species’
Keeping a low profile
The countryside is littered with storm-damaged trees that simply refuse to die. Jack Watkins celebrates great arboreal survivors
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell puts her best foot forward with a selection of sandals
Interiors
Arabella Youens commends an elegant townhouse kitchen and Amelia Thorpe picks out rhubarb accessories to brighten the home
London Life
• Will Hosie assesses the cost of our partying in the parks
• How the style set are reaffirming that west is best
Lost, but not forgotten
George Plumptre applauds the masterful restoration of the Arts-and-Crafts garden at Knowle House in East Sussex
Arts & antiques
Laura Dadswell believes her pair of 18th-century Venetian mirrors is the fairest of them all, as she tells Carlo Passino
How we got to a situation where a President can reasonably claim that it is lawful, without congressional approval, to bomb a country that has not attacked the U.S. By Jeannie Suk Gersen
Anne Enright’s Literary Journeys to Australia and New Zealand
The Booker Prize-winning author recommends three works by writers who, thanks to geography, may have never received their due.
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?
The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education. By Hua Hsu
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 6.29.25 Issue features C.J. Chivers on the hundreds of cheap, long-range drones Russia is launching at Ukranian civilians at night; Nikole Hannah-Jones on the Trump administration’s dismantling of civil rights protections within the federal government; Parul Sehgal on the state of the modern biography; David Marchese interviews Andrew Schulz; and more.
How will Israel’s conflict with Iran play out? Only a brave person, or perhaps a weekly news magazine, would try to foresee the outcomes of a war in which the contours have shifted almost by the hour.
After the United States bombed Iran’s key nuclear facilities last weekend – and Tehran responded with a choreographed missile attack on a US base in Qatar – Donald Trump declared a ceasefire, clearly hoping that would be the end of it. Initially at least, Iran and Israel appeared not to have got the memo, provoking a sweary outburst from the US president on the White House lawn. But as of Wednesday, a fragile truce appeared to be holding (follow our latest coverage here).
How will Israel’s conflict with Iran play out? Only a brave person, or perhaps a weekly news magazine, would try to foresee the outcomes of a war in which the contours have shifted almost by the hour.
Julian Borger takes up the story of how the US was drawn into Israel’s war with Tehran and how it pulled off a remarkable, top-secret operation. And in another excellent commentary, Nesrine Malik laments an impotent western liberal political establishment that makes appeals for cool heads and diplomacy, but is entirely incapable of addressing the problem, namely its own lack of a moral compass or care for the norms it claims to uphold.
Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Spotlight | Russia surpasses 1 million casualties in Ukraine war As the grim tally of Moscow’s invasion is reached, an expansive propaganda campaign and state payouts are keeping grieving relatives onside. Pjotr Sauer reports
Science | A bug’s life: small ways to make a big change Insect species are under threat around the world but there are simple, science-backed actions we can all take to stem their decline. Tess McClure and Patrick Greenfield find out how
Feature | The mommas and the poppas
Italian-style late family meals, bed-sharing like the Germans, breaking down gender stereotypes the Icelandic way … f ive Guardian writers try f ive dif ferent European parenting styles. Will they make it out unscathed?
Opinion | From LA to London, the populist right hates our cities Once a conservative stronghold; Los Angeles is now occupied by the military. Liberal cities have become targets for politicians looking to stir up voters elsewhere, argues Andy Beckett
Culture | Danny Boyle on risks, regrets and returning to the undead In 28 Years Later, zombies maraud over a Britain broken by more than Brexit. Its director talks to Xan Brooks about cultural baggage, catastrophising – and why his kids’ generation is an ‘upgrade’
THE DRIFT MAGAZINE (June 24, 2025): The latest issue Fifteen features It’s morning in America. Daphne, chased by Apollo, grows hooves. We live in an age of conspiracism and insincerity. Spring and summer will not follow. Staying below two degrees might be a challenge. It’d be corny to call it Orwellian. We reached the limits of what moral outrage can do. Miraculously, we still made decisions. Acting recklessly. Lining up at the barricades. The more you have, the more you have to protect. Eye contact is everything. Already, the oil field was quieter. Misogyny converts reality. All that love for objects. It sanctifies him. He wore a face that spoke of multiple divorces. She was bitter about her beauty. That’s all in an evening screening. We’re in a definitional war. Publicity beats truth. Art that risks nothing is worth nothing. A negation of the possibility of forgetting. A private fiefdom. A child on whom childhood was wasted. A game of inches. Ask a pundit or professor. There are only so many laughs to be had.
Tom Howells explores the mystery and magnetism of the thousands of ancient British monoliths and monuments, from Cornwall to the Orkneys
Going down in a blazer of glory
It is a favourite of royalty and rowers, worn from Augusta to the Oscars — can there be a more versatile jacket than the blazer, asks Harry Pearson
Country Life International
• Russell Higham uncovers the secret society of Cascais • Holly Kirkwood finds the age of chivalry alive and well in Valletta • Matthew Dennison searches for traces of the Venetian Empire in Greece • Tom Parker Bowles savours superb Spanish dishes • Eileen Reid tracks the influence of two intellectual giants of Avignon
Winging it
Mark Cocker welcomes the renaissance of the peregrine falcon, a raptor that stoops to conquer at up to 240mph
New series: Scale model
Overfishing threatens the very existence of the cod, but Gadus morhua remains a monster of the deep for David Profumo
Dick Bird’s favourite painting
The stage designer chooses a monumental example of early-19th-century political art
The virtues of history
John Goodall celebrates 100 years of the headquarters of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, one of London’s Great Twelve City Livery Companies
The legacy
Leslie Hore-Belisha created a beacon of hope for road users everywhere, finds Kate Green
Luxury
Anniversary jewels and Art Deco delights with Hetty Lintell, plus Willow Crossley’s favourite things
Interiors
Arabella Youens admires the kitchen of a house in the Scottish Borders and considers the earthly pleasures of terracotta
Laying ghosts to rest
A spectacular garden now graces the grounds of the old Somerset-shire Coal Canal Company HQ, as Caroline Donald discovers
Water, water everywhere
John Lewis-Stempel delves into the depths of a field pond, mesmerised by the seemingly endless variety of aquatic life
Arts & antiques
A quartet of journeys with The King raised the profile of plein-air artist Warwick Fuller, who talks Royal Tours with Carla Passino
Making an impression
French Impressionism was a slow burner in Britain as Monet and Pissarro gradually influenced our art scene, reveals Caroline Bugler
And much more
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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