Category Archives: Politics

Preview: The Economist Magazine – June 25, 2022

How to fix the world’s energy emergency without wrecking the environment

Even as they firefight, governments must resolve the conflict between safe supply and a safe climate.

This year’s energy shock is the most serious since the Middle Eastern oil crises of 1973 and 1979. Like those calamities, it promises to inflict short-term pain and in the longer term to transform the energy industry. The pain is all but guaranteed: owing to high fuel and power prices, most countries are facing soggy growth, inflation, squeezed living standards and a savage political backlash. But the long-run consequences are far from preordained. If governments respond ineptly, they could trigger a relapse towards fossil fuels that makes it even harder to stabilise the climate. Instead they must follow a perilous path that combines security of energy supply with climate security.

Morning News: Russia-Baltic Nations Tensions, Macau Casinos & Films

Tensions rise between the Baltic nations and Russia. Plus: the EU-Western Balkans Summit, a landmark casino bill in Macau and the house lights are dimmed for the start of the London Indian Film Festival.

Historic Hotels: Schloss Elmau In Bavaria, Germany

Heads of state are meeting for the G7 World Economic Summit at the luxury Schloss Elmau hotel in Bavaria. And they won’t just be talking about global problems there, they’ll also be staying at the hotel, protected from the outside world.

We take a look behind the scenes at the five-star superior hotel close to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the south of Germany. What does German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s hotel room look like? And US President Joe Biden’s bathtub? How’s the view from the balcony over the Alps? What’s the food like at the hotel’s two-star Michelin restaurant? How much does it all cost? And why is the hotel manager such a fan of elephants?

Schloss Elmau, built by the philosopher and theologian Johannes Müller and architect Carl Sattler between 1914 and 1916, is a four-story national monument with hipped roof, tower and porch, situated between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald in a sanctuary of the Bavarian Alps, Germany.

Cover Preview: Harper’s Magazine – July 2022

Empire Burlesque by Daniel Bessner

What comes after the American Century?

In February 1941, as Adolf Hitler’s armies prepared to invade the Soviet Union, the Republican oligarch and publisher Henry Luce laid out a vision for global domination in an article titled the american century. World War II, he argued, was the result of the United States’ immature refusal to accept the mantle of world leadership after the British Empire had begun to deteriorate in the wake of World War I. American foolishness, the millionaire claimed, had provided space for Nazi Germany’s rise. The only way to rectify this mistake and prevent future conflict was for the United…

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Climate Change: A World Of Future Food Shocks?

Recent crises such as the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have thrown the vulnerability of supply chains, and with them, food supplies, into sharp focus. But as the FT’s Camilla Hodgson reports, a landmark UN report says climate-related shocks such as extreme weather events will become more common and severe and could further upend food supply chains. But what can we do about it?

Morning News: January 6 Attack, Ukraine Eastern Front, Crypto Flaws

The House Jan. 6 committee reconvenes for another public hearing. Russia appears close to capturing a key Ukrainian city in the eastern part of the country. And crypto-currency could be vulnerable to security threats.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – June 27, 2022

Victoria Tentler-Krylov’s “Sidewalk Connoisseurs”

The artist discusses urban spaces and classic Russian children’s books.

New York may be a city where a person can, for the amount one might reasonably expect to pay for a month’s rent in many parts of this country, partake in an hours-long omakase experience featuring toro topped with osetra caviar and uni served with white truffle. Its temples of art may house some of the most renowned—and well-insured—art in the world. But it is also a city that embraces the epicure of the hot dog and the patron of the sidewalk artist. I recently spoke to this week’s cover artist, Victoria Tentler-Krylov, about city planning and sketching people on the subway.

Opinions: Globalization Remade, Latin America Mired, Battle Tank Fix

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the remaking of globalisationLatin America’s vicious circle (9:55), and does the tank have a future? (17:55).