Category Archives: Politics

Views: The New York Times Magazine – Sept 3, 2023

Current cover

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

All the photographs in this article are black-and-white. This shows a raised fist with a tennis ball in it.

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

Naomi Klein.

If you’re Naomi Klein, you write a book about it.

By Jennifer Szalai

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

Image

Foreign Policy Magazine – Fall 2023: The new issue features 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; 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 and more…

The G-7 Becomes a Power Player

Foreign Policy – the Global Magazine of News and Ideas

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

Vivek Ramaswamy's Foreign Policies Raise Eyebrows in Washington – DNyuz

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

Image

The Economist Magazine (September 2, 2023): This week’s issue features AI voted: How artificial intelligence will affect the elections of 2024; How paranoid nationalism corrupts; How to stop a three-way nuclear arms-race, and more…

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.

News: Military Leaders Seize Power In Gabon, Lachin Corridor Crisis

The Globalist Podcast (August 31, 2023) – Military leaders seize power in Gabon. What does the takeover mean for stability in the wider region?

Plus: an update on the Lachin corridor crisis, the latest urbanism news and Andrew Mueller’s ‘What We Learned’.

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – September 1, 2023

Image

The Guardian Weekly (September 1, 2023) – The issue features Prigozhin’s downfall – What next for Putin, Russia and Wagner?; Zadie Smith returns to the streets of London; Protecting the Arctic Sea, and more…

Andrew Roth explores what the legacy of the Wagner warlord might be for Russia – which may well hinge on Putin himself and how the war in Ukraine turns out.

Pjotr Sauer looks at the array of methods used to dispose of Putin’s political enemies in the past, while Dino Mahtani asks what will happen to Wagner group’s clandestine operations in Africa now its enigmatic boss is no longer in the picture.

In Spotlight, a beautiful photo-essay by Ossie Michelin and Eldred Allen transports us to the Canadian Arctic where, amid alarming signs of warmer winters and receding ice, Inuit people are planning to turn 15,000 sq km of the Labrador Sea into a unique conservation zone.

News: Imran Khan Court Cases In Pakistan, China-Japan Wastewater Stress

The Globalist Podcast (August 30, 2023) – We discuss Imran Khan’s suspended conviction and rising tensions between Beijing and Tokyo over Fukushima’s wastewater.

Plus: our Washington correspondent, Chris Cermak, flicks through the day’s papers and we look ahead to Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference in Munich.

News: Ukraine Elections, Afghanistan Women’s Rights, New Arctic Express

The Globalist Podcast, Monday, August 28: Logistics of elections in war torn Ukraine with historian Alex von Tunzelman and Kyiv correspondent Olga Tokariuk, and former Afghan politician Shukria Barakzai brings us up-to-date on the crackdown on women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Plus: Finnair’s new Arctic Express service and the latest business news with Isobel Hamilton.

Opinion: No Fix For China’s Economy, Firms Fighting Disrupters, Palestine Wine

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (August 28, 2023) Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, why China’s economy won’t be fixed, America’s corporate giants are fighting back against disrupters (10:15) and the challenge of making wine in Palestine (21:50).

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Sept 4, 2023

A man hides behind a tree while a woman and dog run past.

The New Yorker – September 4, 2023 issue: The issue’s cover features James Thurber’s “New Tricks”, discussed by the artist’s granddaughter and his legacy and his love for his canine companions.

How a Man in Prison Stole Millions from Billionaires

With smuggled cell phones and a handful of accomplices, Arthur Lee Cofield, Jr., took money from large bank accounts and bought houses, cars, clothes, and gold.

Illustration of an IPhone showing modern home on the screen surrounding the phone shows a prison.

By Charles Bethea

Early in 2020, the architect Scott West got a call at his office, in Atlanta, from a prospective client who said that his name was Archie Lee. West designs luxurious houses in a spare, angular style one might call millionaire modern. Lee wanted one. That June, West found an appealing property in Buckhead—an upscale part of North Atlanta that attracts both old money and new—and told Lee it might be a good spot for them to build. Lee arranged for his wife to meet West there.

Coco Gauff’s Glorious Progress

Tennis player Coco Gauff smiles on a tennis court

Gauff has the charisma and talent to be not just a champion but a star, and this summer she has played better than ever before.

By Gerald Marzorati

Last weekend, at a tournament in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Coco Gauff beat Iga Świątek for the first time. It was one of those moments in tennis when the ground seemed to shift: Gauff had never taken a set from Świątek, the current world No. 1, in the seven previous times they’d met. It was the biggest win of Gauff’s young career—but it was in keeping with a high-summer revving of her already formidable game. In the hard-court tournaments held across North America which are essentially warmups for the U.S. Open, Gauff has been the imposing presence that the tennis world has been waiting for her to become—waiting avidly, for sure, but a little anxiously, too. As recently as early July, when she lost in the first round at Wimbledon, there was fretting that she wasn’t making quick enough progress.