Category Archives: Opinion

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec 19, 2022

A portrait of Santa.
“Believe,” by George Booth.

@NewYorker Magazine – December 19, 2022 issue:

Shooting Shakespeare with Jean-Luc Godard

Molly Ringwald as Cordelia in Godard’s surreal 1987 adaptation of “King Lear.”

The actress and writer recalls working with French cinema’s enfant terrible.

The World-Changing Race to Develop the Quantum Computer

Such a device could help address climate change and food scarcity, or break the Internet. Will the U.S. or China get there first?

The Promise and the Politics of Rewilding India

Ecologists are trying to undo environmental damage in rain forests, deserts, and cities. Can their efforts succeed even as Narendra Modi pushes for rapid development?

Opinion: The End Of Cheap Money, Great Britain’s Tier 2 Cities, Age Of ‘Boring AI’

December 11, 2022: A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week features ‘The End of Cheap Money’, Britain’s Second-Tier Cities & The Age of ‘Boring AI‘.

News: Georgia & Arizona Senators, Brittney Griner

PBS NewsHour – New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including how a win in Georgia expands Democrats’ majority in the Senate despite the loss of a party member in Arizona and the release of wrongly detained basketball superstar Brittney Griner.

Opinion: Xi Jinping Zero-Covid Policy, Activision Blizzard, UK Emigration

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Xi Jinping’s zero-covid policy, why trustbusters should let Microsoft buy Activision Blizzard (11:44) and why emigration is in the air for Britons (16:38).

Politics: Democrats Shift Primaries, Railroad Strike

PBS NewsHour (December 2, 2022) – New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the Democrats’ plan to shakeup the road to the White House, President Biden and Congress halt a potential railroad strike and lawmakers shield gay marriage.

Preview: New York Times Magazine – Dec 4, 2022

Photo illustration by Todd St. John.

@NYTMagDecember 4, 2022 issue:

Where Does All the Cardboard Come From? I Had to Know.

Entire forests and enormous factories running 24/7 can barely keep up with demand. This is how the cardboard economy works.

‘Avatar’ and the Mystery of the Vanishing Blockbuster

It was the highest-grossing film in history, but for years it was remembered mainly for having been forgotten. Why?

After Covid, Playing Trumpet Taught Me How to Breathe Again

The benefits of group (music) therapy.

Tom Stoppard Fears the Virus of Antisemitism Has Been Reactivated

Previews: The Progressive Magazine – December 2022

The Progressive Magazine - Reporting the truth since 1909. - Progressive.org

@theprogressive Magazine December 2022/January 2023:

Revitalizing America’s News Deserts

The devastating loss of local news outlets is a crisis for democracy. We can still fix it.

Edge of Sports: The World Cup of Shame

Qatar’s event is a human rights disaster—and a spectacle of sportswashing in an age of capitalist decay.

Big Brother at the Border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is searching, downloading, and storing electronic data from thousands of travelers’ devices each year without a warrant.

Preview: The Economist Magazine – Dec 3, 2022

Image

The Economist – December 3, 2022 issue:

Xi Jinping’s zero-covid policy has turned a health crisis into a political one

Caught between raging disease and unpopular and costly lockdowns, he has no good fix

Will the cap fit?

Why the West’s proposed price cap on Russian oil is no magic weapon

CoD and chips

Why trustbusters should let Microsoft buy Activision Blizzard

Previews: The Guardian Weekly – December 2, 2022

Warning signs: inside the 2 December Guardian Weekly | China | The Guardian

Warning signs: inside the 2 December Guardian Weekly | China | The Guardian

Discontent over China’s zero-Covid suppression policy came to a head last weekend in a series of unprecedented protests across the country. The civil disobedience – remarkable just for the fact it was happening at all in a state where such behaviour is rarely tolerated – seemed to have been smothered by police by the start of the week. Even so it revealed to the world signs of a hitherto unseen fracture in China’s totalitarian political system.

From one Cop to another: hot on the heels of the recent climate conference comes this month’s global summit on biodiversity, which is being held in Montreal. To set the scene, biodiversity reporter Phoebe Weston explains how the damage done to the natural world is a tale of decline spanning thousands of years. Can delegates at Cop15 seize their chance to change the narrative?

With five Grammy awards off the back of four albums spanning everything from folk to jazz and pop, the British multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier is a global phenomenon. But despite being feted by music royalty including Stormzy, Chris Martin and Herbie Hancock, the 28-year-old has kept a relatively low profile. Global music critic Ammar Kalia takes a trip into Collier’s colourful, polyharmonic world of quarter-tones and non-standardised pitch.

Analysis & Opinion: Energy Crisis Politics, Crypto To Zero, U.S. Organized Crime

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Europe’s crisis of energy and geopolitics, how crypto goes to zero (10:19) and the consequences of America’s success against organised crime (16:32).