LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features Tariffs Before Trump; Boccaccio’s Dirty Book and Constance Marten’s Defiance
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS – AUGUST 14, 2025 PREVIEW
Category Archives: Opinion
THE NEW YORK TIMES – FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2025
Netanyahu, Aiming to Capture Gaza City, Risks Ending in Familiar Deadlock
Time and again, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to defeat Hamas by force. The decision to capture Gaza City repeats a strategy that has failed in the past.
Trump Escalates a Fight Over How to Measure Merit in American Education
President Trump’s demand for college admissions data enters a debate over how grades and test scores should be weighed against less quantitative measures.
Can Russia’s Economy Withstand Trump’s Pressure?
The Russian economy was slowing even before President Trump’s latest threats. But the Kremlin has enough money to keep fighting in Ukraine.
THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE – AUGUST 9, 2025 PREVIEW
THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Why Israel must hold itself to account‘
Why Israel must hold itself to account
And how it can be made to do so
Donald Trump’s awful trade policy will outlast him
He thinks America is winning. It is not
Buy now, pay later gets a bad rap. But it could be useful
Provided lenders open up
THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – AUGUST 8, 2025 PREVIEW
Images of starving Palestinians have appeared with increasing insistency across the world’s media over the past few weeks. Deciding whose child and which picture best illustrates the territory’s slide into famine is a grim task. Five-year-old Lana Salih Juha, on this week’s cover, weighed just 8kg when this photograph was taken in Gaza City on 28 July.
As Malak A Tantesh reports from Gaza for this week’s big story, Lana’s parents are among many inside the territory forced to watch children waste away as deliberate aid restrictions from Israel mean hunger is becoming a killer. It was, as Malak reports, a week when two milestones were reached: a Palestinian official record of 60,000 deaths and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a group of UN and aid organisations, stating that the whole population of 2.2 people were now living in a state of famine.
Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Spotlight | Transatlantic barbs traded over social media safety
The UK’s new law restricting under-18s’ internet access has only just come into force but already US tech giants and rightwing commentators are bolstering Nigel Farage’s efforts to turn restriction into a free speech issue, reports Dan Milmo
Environment | The best job in the world
Matthew Jeffery explains to Donna Ferguson how he became Cambridge University’s first expedition botanist since Darwin and how he prepared for his new post
Feature | Has nature writing strayed off the path of success?
In the footsteps of the controversy over The Salt Path, Alex Clark explores how, despite public appetite, memoirs of redemption through the natural world may have reached journey’s end
Opinion | A good jigsaw is simply champion
Why did the Lionesses bring Lego, sourdough starters and a puzzle or two to the Women’s Euro 2025? Because they are perfect ways to build mental resilience, explains Amy Izycky
Culture | AI rescues Woody Guthrie’s basement tapes
The legendary folk singer’s daughter and granddaughter tell Dave Simpson how they became custodians of his vast archive, including tracks that have now been released
THE NEW YORK TIMES – THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025
As Trump’s Tariffs Reorder World Trade, Hardest-Hit Countries Rush to Respond
Few major trading partners have been spared the import taxes, which have already disrupted supply chains and are expected to drive up prices for Americans.
What Putin Wants From a Meeting With Trump
President Vladimir Putin of Russia sees direct talks with President Trump as essential to achieving his ultimate aims in Ukraine.
Trumps Seeks New Census to Exclude Illegal Migrants
The census, which is mandated by the Constitution, is next due in 2030. President Trump tried a similar move during his first term, but was unsuccessful.
Trump’s Deals With Top Colleges May Give Rich Applicants a Bigger Edge
Demanded by President Trump, the public release of data on test scores and race could wind up making wealth even more influential in admissions.
THE NEW YORK TIMES – WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2025
Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts
The vaccines, first used for Covid-19, can be developed quickly and altered as a virus changes. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been critical of the technology.
Rebuilding Faces, Lives and a Sense of Self in Ukraine
Surgeons have made significant strides in tending to the war’s wounded, particularly through the use of 3-D printing.
War Shattered His Face. Technology Helped Reconstruct It.
Truce Quiets Syrian City Torn by Sectarian Clashes
The fighting has stopped in Sweida, three weeks after a deadly eruption of violence. But the area remains tense as clashes continue beyond the city.
PHILOSOPHY NOW MAGAZINE – AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2025
PHILOSOPHY NOW MAGAZINE (August 5, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Sources of Knowledge Issue’
Xuanzang & the Gettier Problem
Maya Koka journeys through the desert to seek knowledge about knowledge.
The Philosophical Method of Exception
Peter Keeble spotlights and critiques a common philosophical technique.
Popper, Science & Democracy
Brian King follows Popper’s idea of the evolution of knowledge, life and society.
Challenging the Objectivity of Science
Sina Mirzaye Shirkoohi observes science to get the facts straight about it.
Gödel, Wittgenstein, & the Limits of Knowledge
Michael D. McGranahan takes us to the edge of language, mathematics and science.
THE NEW YORK TIMES – TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2025
Trump Says He Will Hit India With New Tariffs Within 24 Hours
President Trump has ratcheted up pressure over India’s purchases of Russian oil. India has said its treatment is “unjustified and unreasonable.”
Republicans Suddenly Distrust Jobs Data After Trump Fires Statistics Chief
Trump’s Deal-Making With Other Elite Schools Unsettles Harvard Negotiations
The university was open to President Trump’s demand of $500 million, but a $50 million settlement with Brown has prompted new debates in Cambridge, Mass.
As Vouchers Threaten Public Schools, Some Up Their Marketing Game
A decline in the number of children and rise in the number of choices has caused some public schools to try new strategies to recruit students.
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE – AUGUST 11, 2025 PREVIEW
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest cover features ‘Amy Sherald’s “Trans Forming Liberty” – The art and politics of representation.
The Politics of Fear
As a Presidential candidate, Donald Trump made his world view plain: there was “us” and there was “them.” Once he was in the White House, the fear factor would prevail. By David Remnick
The Pain of Perfectionism
It’s the fault people humblebrag about in job interviews. but psychologists are discovering more and more about the real harm it causes. By Leslie Jamison
The Engines and Empires of New York City Gambling
As plans are laid for a new casino, one can trace, through four figures, a history of rivalry and excess, rife with collisions of character and crime. By Adam Gopnik
THE NEW YORK TIMES – MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2025
Netanyahu Squanders His Moment to Halt the War
After securing a victory over Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is pushing for an “all or nothing” deal with Hamas without offering compromises.
A Weakened Hezbollah Resists Pressure to Give Up Its Weapons
The Lebanese militant group has lost much of its power but is balking at demands to surrender whatever is left of its once formidable arsenal.
What’s It Like to Deal With Brutal U.S. Tariffs? Ask Malaysia.
The solar industry profited from Chinese investment. Now it’s becoming a case study of what happens when the U.S. closes its markets.
Texas Democrats Leave State to Block G.O.P. From Redrawing Political Map
Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, threatened to remove lawmakers who walked out if they did not return by Monday.
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