‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (September 11, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, how much will artificial intelligence affect the elections of 2024? Also, the ways cynical leaders are using scaremongering tactics both to win and to abuse power (9:35) and why everyone wants to own an airline these days (17:00).
Category Archives: Politics
Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Sept 11, 2023
The Transformative, Alarming Power of Gene Editing
A rogue scientist showed that crispr gives humans the ability to transform ourselves. But should we?
Crispr, which may be the single most transformative biological technology of the twenty-first century, is a natural phenomenon, evolved over billions of years. It was first observed in the nineteen-eighties, when researchers noticed unexplained sequences of viral DNA in E. coli. Eventually, they realized that these sequences played a role in the bacteria’s immune system: they could find and destroy other pieces of viral DNA.
The Holy Heresies of George Eliot
Her greatest rebellion against Victorian moralism was to reclaim the sacred for herself.
By James Wood
Literature bores me, especially great literature,” the narrator of one of John Berryman’s “Dream Songs” says. George Eliot sometimes bores me, especially the George Eliot draped in greatness. Think of the extremities of nineteenth-century fiction: labile Lermontov; crazy, visionary Melville; nasty, world-hating Flaubert; mystic moor-bound Brontës; fanatical, trembling Dostoyevsky; explosive Hamsun. There’s enough wildness to destroy the myth of that stable Victorian portal “classic realism.” It was not classic—certainly not then—and not always particularly “real.”
News: Putin Meets With Erdogan, China Economic Concerns, Mexico Politics
The Globalist Podcast (September 4, 2023) – Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meets with Vladimir Putin in Sochi to discuss grain deals, we get the lowdown on the Chinese economy with Patricia Thornton and Mexico’s opposition selects a female candidate with Indigenous roots to run for office.
Plus: France debates the height of ceilings, we get a roundup of news from the Nordics with Helsinki correspondent Petri Burtsoff and we check in with Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival.
Sunday Morning: Stories And News From London, Bavaria And Bangkok
September 3, 2023 – Emma Nelson reviews the top stories from London, Tyler Brûlé reports from Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, and the latest from Bangkok, Thailand.
Saturday Morning: News And Stories From London
Monocle on Saturday, September 2, 2023: A look at the week’s news and culture with Georgina Godwin.
Also, we are joined by Charles Hecker for a look through the morning’s papers, Monocle’s Helsinki correspondent, Petri Burtsoff, investigates the growing popularity of e-bikes in Finland and we examine India’s space programme with Maya Sharma.
Views: The New York Times Magazine – Sept 3, 2023
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (September 3, 2023) – The 9.3.23 Issue features Michael Steinberger on how the war in Ukraine turned tennis into a battlefield; Keri Blakinger on the Dungeons and Dragons players on death row; Jennifer Szalai on Naomi Klein’s new book about her doppelganger; and more.
How the War in Ukraine Turned Tennis Into a Battlefield
For Ukrainian players, as well as those from Russia and its allies, the unceasing conflict at home has bled into the game. Now they face off at the U.S. Open.
By Michael Steinberger
It was a few days before the start of Wimbledon this summer, and Elina Svitolina, just off a flight from Geneva, had come to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to check in for the tournament. She was returning after a year’s absence. “It feels like it has been 10 years,” she said as she got out of the car. A lot had happened since she last competed at Wimbledon, in 2021. She had given birth to a daughter named Skaï, the first child for her and her husband, the French player Gaël Monfils. Also, her country, Ukraine, had been invaded by Russia.
When Your ‘Doppelganger’ Becomes a Conspiracy Theorist
If you’re Naomi Klein, you write a book about it.
In June, the Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein was sitting in the dark gray booth of a recording studio in Lower Manhattan. Dressed simply for the New York City heat — white linen top, light cropped pants, white sneakers — she was reading from a script, and there was a line that was giving her a bit of trouble.
Preview: Foreign Policy Magazine – Fall 2023
The G-7 Becomes a Power Player
Russia’s war and China’s rise are turning a talking shop into a fledgling alliance of democracies.
By G. John Ikenberry, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University.
Time and again over the last century, the United States and the other liberal democracies in Europe, East Asia, and elsewhere have found themselves on the same side in grand struggles over the terms of the world order. This political grouping has been given various names: the West, the free world, the trilateral world, the community of democracies. In one sense, it is a geopolitical formation, uniting North America, Europe, and Japan, among others. It is an artifact of the Cold War and U.S. hegemony, anchored in NATO and Washington’s East Asian alliances.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s Foreign Policies Raise Eyebrows in Washington
The GOP’s rising star offers up a grab bag of ideas cribbed from Eminem to Richard Nixon.
By Jack Detsch
End American dependence on Taiwan’s semiconductor factories. Declare economic independence from China. Give India an AUKUS-like submarine deal. And stage a dramatic visit to Moscow to broker a deal to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
News: Counteroffensive In Ukraine, Russia – North Korea Ties, Quality Of Life
The Globalist Podcast (September 1, 2023) – We present a special episode of ‘The Globalist’ live from Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference in Munich.
Hear from our editors and correspondents, including Monocle’s editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, Asia editor and Tokyo bureau chief, Fiona Wilson, and Europe editor at large, Ed Stocker. Plus: Charles Hecker discusses Russia’s allies and enemies, and David Bodanis explores the politics of cartography in the wake of China’s new national map.
Previews: The Economist Magazine – Sept 2, 2023
How artificial intelligence will affect the elections of 2024
Disinformation will become easier to produce, but it matters less than you might think
Politics is supposed to be about persuasion; but it has always been stalked by propaganda. Campaigners dissemble, exaggerate and fib. They transmit lies, ranging from bald-faced to white, through whatever means are available. Anti-vaccine conspiracies were once propagated through pamphlets instead of podcasts. A century before covid-19, anti-maskers in the era of Spanish flu waged a disinformation campaign. They sent fake messages from the surgeon-general via telegram (the wires, not the smartphone app). Because people are not angels, elections have never been free from falsehoods and mistaken beliefs.
How paranoid nationalism corrupts
Cynical leaders are scaremongering to win and abuse power
People seek strength and solace in their tribe, their faith or their nation. And you can see why. If they feel empathy for their fellow citizens, they are more likely to pull together for the common good. In the 19th and 20th centuries love of country spurred people to seek their freedom from imperial capitals in distant countries. Today Ukrainians are making heroic sacrifices to defend their homeland against Russian invaders.
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