Category Archives: Politics

News: Israel-Hamas Truce; Former Ireland President Mary Robinson Interview

The Globalist Podcast (November 28, 2023) – We unpack the extended truce deal between Israel and Hamas. Also, a special interview with former Ireland president Mary Robinson, a look at the Marrakech International Film Festival and the latest business news.

Previews: The Progressive Magazine – December 2023

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theprogressive Magazine December 2023/January 2024:

Tunnels for Safety and Tunnels for Death

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An underground nuclear arsenal in Israel dwarfs the tunnels alleged at a Gaza hospital.

It’s one thing to burrow beneath the ground, digging to construct a tunnel for refuge, a passage of goods, or to store weapons during a time of war. It’s quite another for a small child to use one hand to dig their way out of the rubble that has collapsed on them. 

Vox Populist: Planet Wins; News Wins

Words from populist author, public speaker, and radio commentator Jim Hightower. 

Which Path Will You Choose?

Editor’s Note for the October/November 2023 issue. 

Gen Z Is Taking the Reins

A variety of young candidates are signing up to run for elected office at local, state, and national levels.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec 4, 2023

Dancers and musicians can be seen practicing in the Juilliard School at night.

The New Yorker – December 4, 2023 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Sergio García Sánchez’s “Ready to Soar” – The artist discusses rhythm, rigor, and the linguistic capabilities of art.

How Jensen Huang’s Nvidia Is Powering the A.I. Revolution

A portrait of Jensen Huang made of computer chips.

The company’s C.E.O. bet it all on a new kind of chip. Now that Nvidia is one of the biggest companies in the world, what will he do next?

By Stephen Witt

The revelation that ChatGPT, the astonishing artificial-intelligence chatbot, had been trained on an Nvidia supercomputer spurred one of the largest single-day gains in stock-market history. When the Nasdaq opened on May 25, 2023, Nvidia’s value increased by about two hundred billion dollars. A few months earlier, Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s C.E.O., had informed investors that Nvidia had sold similar supercomputers to fifty of America’s hundred largest companies. By the close of trading, Nvidia was the sixth most valuable corporation on earth, worth more than Walmart and ExxonMobil combined. Huang’s business position can be compared to that of Samuel Brannan, the celebrated vender of prospecting supplies in San Francisco in the late eighteen-forties. “There’s a war going on out there in A.I., and Nvidia is the only arms dealer,” one Wall Street analyst said.

Why Trump’s Trials Should Be on TV

Why Trumps Trials Should Be on TV

The conduct of the trials, their fairness, and their possibly damning verdicts will be at the center of the 2024 election. Transparency is crucial.

By Amy Davidson Sorkin

On November 6th, Donald Trump emerged from a New York City courtroom, where he had testified in a civil trial alleging that he and others in the Trump Organization had committed fraud, and gave himself a great review. “I think it went very well,” he told reporters. “If you were there, and you listened, you’d see what a scam this is.” He meant that the case was a scam and not that his company was. “Everybody saw what happened today,” he went on. “And it was very conclusive.”

How to Play a Nazi

Sandra Hüller photographed sitting in a chair by Mark Peckmezian.

The German actress Sandra Hüller probes characters with unusual depth. But to portray a Fascist wife, in “The Zone of Interest,” she reversed her usual approach—and withheld her empathy.

By Rebecca Mead

In “Anatomy of a Fall,” Hüller stars as a successful novelist accused of murdering her husband. The camera often lingers on her face as it shifts like quicksilver between playfulness, defiance, and evasion.Photograph by Mark Peckmezian for The New Yorker

News: Calls For Israel-Hamas Truce Extension; 2023 ‘Soft Power’ Survey

The Globalist Podcast (November 27, 2023) – The latest on the war between Israel and Hamas. Plus: the Philippines considers returning to the ICC, the latest climate news and Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’.

The New York Times Magazine – Nov 26, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 17, 2023): The latest issue features Was Peace Ever Possible in the Israel-Palestine Conflict?; Finding a Moral Center in This Era of War; The Beatles Are Still Charting the Future of Pop. It Looks Bleak – Their latest song points toward a future where no golden goose need ever stop laying, and more…

Was Peace Ever Possible?

Thirty years ago, a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seemed achievable. The story of how it fell apart reveals why the fight remains so intractable today.

MODERATED BY EMILY BAZELON

Finding a Moral Center in This Era of War

By David Marchese Photograph by Mamadi Doumbouya

Phil Klay, as both a participant and a writer, has been thinking deeply about war for a long time. In his two acclaimed works of fiction, the book of short stories “Redeployment,” which won a 2014 National Book Award, and the novel “Missionaries” (2020), and in the nonfiction collection “Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War” (2022), Klay has interrogated, to profound effect and with a deeply humane and moral sensibility, what war does to our hearts and minds, individually and collectively, here and abroad. “I’m interested in the kinds of stories that we tell ourselves about war,” says Klay, who is a 40-year-old veteran of the Iraq war. 

Everybody Knows Flo From Progressive. Who Is Stephanie Courtney?

Stephanie Courtney gets makeup for her character Flo.

A polo shirt, a white apron and a retro hairdo changed an actor’s life forever.

Sunday Morning: Stories From London And Tokyo

Monocle on Sunday, November 26, 2023 – Emma Nelson, Latika Bourke and Tina Fordham on the weekend’s biggest talking points. We also speak to ‘Konfekt’ editor Sophie Grove and get the latest from our editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, in Tokyo.

Saturday Morning: News And Stories From London

Monocle on Saturday, November 25, 2023: David Bodanis, author of ‘Art of Fairness: The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean’, joins Georgina Godwin for a look at the week’s news and culture.

Also this week, Marketing Manager, Carley Bassett, and Sales Director, Chris Unger, give us a taste of a limited-edition magnum from Hattingley Valley. The award-winning English winery specialises in sparkling wine and released the special bottle to celebrate a decade of excellence in wine-making. Plus: Jorg Zupan became the chef of the first restaurant in Ljubljana to earn a Michelin star – and the first to give one up. Guy de Launey finds out why.

Previews: The Economist Magazine – Nov 25, 2023

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The Economist Magazine (November 25, 2023): The latest issue features The Climate report – Some progress, must try harder….

Progress on climate change has not been fast enough, but it has been real

And the world needs to learn from it

The agreement at the conference of the parties (cop) to the un Framework Convention on Climate Change, which took place in Paris in 2015, was somewhat impotent. As many pointed out at the time, it could not tell countries what to do; it could not end the fossil-fuel age by fiat; it could not draw back the seas, placate the winds or dim the noonday sun. But it could at least lay down the law for subsequent cops, decreeing that this year’s should see the first “global stocktake” of what had and had not been done to bring the agreement’s overarching goals closer.

Lessons from the ascent of the United Arab Emirates

How to thrive in a fractured world

In Argentina Javier Milei faces an economic crisis

The radical libertarian is taking over a country on the brink

News: 4-Day Truce Takes Effect In Gaza, Finland Closes Russia Borders

The Globalist Podcast (November 24, 2023) – As a four-day ceasefire is announced in the Israel-Hamas conflict, we look at how the first two hours of humanitarian pause have unfolded and what comes next.

Plus: Finland closes all but one of its border crossings with Russia, what the Dutch election results mean for the right in Europe and the historic HMV shop on London’s Oxford Street reopens.

Special Report: ‘Carbon Dioxide Removal’ (NOV ’23)

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The Economist SPECIAL REPORTS – CARBON DIOXIDE REMOVAL (NOVEMBER 25, 2023): The new economy net zero needs – It is vital to climate stabilization, remarkably challenging and systematically ignored.

Carbon-dioxide removal needs more attention

It is vital to climate stabilisation, remarkably challenging and systematically ignored

St Augustine’s climate policy

The temptations of deferred removals

Carbon dioxide removals must start at scale sooner than people think

On the other hand…

The many prices of carbon dioxide

Not all tonnes are created equal