‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (August 21, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, is Germany once again the sick man of Europe? Also, China’s disillusioned youth (10:50) and why AI could make it less necessary to learn foreign languages (17:35).
Category Archives: Politics
Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – August 28, 2023
Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule
How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.
By Ronan Farrow
Last October, Colin Kahl, then the Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, sat in a hotel in Paris and prepared to make a call to avert disaster in Ukraine. A staffer handed him an iPhone—in part to avoid inviting an onslaught of late-night texts and colorful emojis on Kahl’s own phone. Kahl had returned to his room, with its heavy drapery and distant view of the Eiffel Tower, after a day of meetings with officials from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. A senior defense official told me that Kahl was surprised by whom he was about to contact: “He was, like, ‘Why am I calling Elon Musk?’ ”
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
I was searching for truth. Instead, I found a family.
By the time I was twenty-one, I had made two short films and was dead set on making a feature. I had gone to a distinguished school in Munich, where I had few friends, and which I hated so passionately that I imagined setting it on fire. There is such a thing as academic intelligence, and I didn’t have it. Intelligence is always a bundle of qualities: logical thought, articulacy, originality, memory, musicality, sensitivity, speed of association, and so on. In my case, the bundle seemed to be differently composed. I remember asking a fellow-student to write a term paper for me, which he did quite easily. In jest, he asked me what I would do for him in return, and I promised that I would make him immortal. His name was Hauke Stroszek. I gave his last name to the main character in my first film, “Signs of Life.” I called another film “Stroszek.”
News: Niger Junta Meets With ECOWAS, Zimbabwe Election, Russia Passports
The Globalist Podcast, Monday, August 21: The latest from Niger, as Ecowas again threatens military action, a crackdown on journalists ahead of elections in Zimbabwe and Russia weaponizing Ukrainian passports.
Plus: the latest from the Balkans and how the World Cup Final has changed women’s football.
Sunday Morning: Stories From Zurich, London, Helsinki & Copenhagen
August 20, 2023 – Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, Emma Nelson, Juliet Linely and Florian Egli discuss the weekend’s hottest topics. Plus: check-ins with our correspondents in London, Helsinki and Copenhagen.
Saturday Morning: News And Stories From London
Monocle on Saturday, August 19, 2023: A look at the week’s news and culture, with Georgina Godwin.
Also, Charles Hecker flicks through the morning’s papers and Monocle’s Washington correspondent, Christopher Cermak, examines the conspiracy theories perpetuated by Donald Trump media supporters.
Views: The New York Times Magazine – August 20, 2023
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (August 20, 2023) – In this week’s cover story, what are “forever chemicals” and what are they doing to us? Plus, inside the racism scandal that rocked an affluent town’s high school and checking in with the dancehall star Sean Paul.
‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Everywhere. What Are They Doing to Us?
PFAS lurk in so much of what we eat, drink and use. Scientists are only beginning to understand how they’re impacting our health — and what to do about them.
By Kim Tingley
The Faroe Islands, an incongruous speckling of green in the North Atlantic, are about as far away as you can hope to get on Earth from a toxic-waste dump, time zones distant from the nearest population centers (Norway to the east, Iceland to the west). Pál Weihe was born in the Faroes and has lived there for most of his life. He is a public-health authority for the nation, population around 53,000; chairman of the Faroese Medical Association and chief physician of the Department of Occupational Medicine and Public Health in the Faroese hospital system. He is also vice chairman of the Faroe Islands Art Society; a widower; a grandfather. A crumpled funeral program and half-empty juice boxes share space in the back seat of his Land Cruiser.
The ‘World’s Happiest Man’ Shares His Three Rules for Life
By David Marchese
Matthieu Ricard is an ordained Buddhist monk and an internationally best-selling author of books about altruism, animal rights, happiness and wisdom. His humanitarian efforts led to his homeland’s awarding him the French National Order of Merit. (Ricard’s primary residence is a Nepalese monastery.) He was the Dalai Lama’s French interpreter and holds a Ph.D in cellular genetics. In the early 2000s, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that Ricard’s brain produced gamma waves — which have been linked to learning, attention and memory — at such pronounced levels that the media named him “the world’s happiest man.”
News: U.S., Japan & South Korea Trilateral Summit, Spain Political Alliances
The Globalist Podcast, Friday, August 18: The US, Japan and South Korea gather for unprecedented trilateral talks, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, makes a deal with the Catalan separatist party and World Cup fever takes over Brisbane ahead of Sunday’s final.
Plus: the latest papers from Zürich, a roundup of the climate news with Monocle’s Edmonton correspondent, Sheena Rossiter, and the rise of Brazilian wine.
Previews: The Economist Magazine – August 19, 2023
Why are China’s young people so disillusioned?
Xi Jinping wants them to focus on the party’s goals. Many cannot see why they should
The crowd did not seem excited to see George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. When Wham! became the first Western pop group to perform in Communist China, the audience was instructed to stay in their seats. It was 1985 and, despite appearances, the young people in attendance were in fact joyous. The country around them was by no means free, but it was starting to reform and open up. Over the next three decades the economy would grow at a rapid pace, producing new opportunities.
China’s defeated youth
Young Chinese have little hope for the future. Xi Jinping wants them to toughen up
In the southern city of Huizhou an electronics factory is hiring. The monthly salary on offer is between 4,500 and 6,000 yuan (or $620 and $830), enough to pay for food and essentials, but not much else. The advertisement says new employees are expected to “work hard and endure hardship”. The message might have resonated with Chinese of an older generation, many of whom worked long hours in poor conditions to give their children a brighter future. But many of those children now face similar drudgery—and are unwilling to endure it. “I can’t sit on an assembly line,” says Zhang, a 20-something barista with dyed-red hair at a local tea shop. He scoffs at the idea of making such sacrifices for so little gain. The job at the tea shop pays just 4,000 yuan a month, but he enjoys chatting up customers.
News: Maui Wildfire Relief, US-Iran Talks On Drones In Russia, China Economy
Politics: The Guardian Weekly – August 18, 2023
The Guardian Weekly (August 18, 2023) – This issue features ‘Back to the office: Is the work from home revolution over?’; Bangladesh’s ‘lost children’; AI does architecture; Pathfinders – In Ukraine minefields and more…
‘Never again’: is Britain finally ready to return to the office?
With even the big internet firms warning staff they need to show up more often, is working from home over? Or have the attitudes and expectations of employees changed for ever?
‘My mother spent her life trying to find me’: the children who say they were wrongly taken for adoption
For years, Bibi Hasenaar felt rejected because she was adopted aged four. Then she saw a photo that described her as missing – and began to uncover an astonishing dark history
Boomers Daily 