Monocle on Saturday (December 14, 2024): Join Georgina Godwin, Tyler Brûlé, and Latika Bourke for a roundup of the week’s news and culture in this Christmas special, broadcast live from our festive market. Plus: a conversation with Monocle’s Paris bureau chief, Simon Bouvier.
Category Archives: Politics
Commentary Magazine – January 2025 Preview
The Anti-Woke King of Hollywood Lets Loose
Taylor Sheridan’s shows explain how and why we got Trump again by Rick Marin
Israel Chose, and the World Changed
The Trumpmoon
The Times Will Stop at Nothing
The Economist Magazine – December 14, 2024 Preview
How the new Syria might succeed or fail
The end of the house of Assad. Much will go wrong. But for now, celebrate a tyrant’s fall
What Spain can teach the rest of Europe
Our number-crunching suggests it was the best-performing rich economy in 2024
America’s searing market rally brings new risks
Financial innovation is just as much to blame as the technological sort
Multilateral institutions are turning away from the poorest countries
Even bail-outs are getting expensive
News: Rebuilding Syria After 13 Years Of Civil War, Ukraine-Russia War
Politics: The Guardian Weekly-December 13, 2024
The Guardian Weekly (December 11, 2024): The new issue features The fall of Syria’s brutal dictatorship. Plus The best books of 2024.
Not even the most optimistic of rebels could have predicted the rapid collapse, last weekend, of the Assad dynasty that ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than 50 years. Yet while there was relief and joy both inside Syria and among the nation’s vast displaced diaspora, it was also accompanied by apprehension over what might come next.
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Spotlight | Russia and Ukraine wait warily for Trump transition
The idea of the US president-election as a saviour for Ukraine, as unlikely as it may seem, holds an appeal for an exhausted nation without a clear path to victory. Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer report
2
Environment | The jailed anti-whaler defiant in face of extradition threat
Capt Paul Watson talks to Daniel Boffey about his arrest on behalf of the Japanese government, his ‘interesting’ Greenland prison, and separation from his children
3
Feature | The growing threat of firearms that can be made at home
One far-right cell wanted to use 3D-printed guns to cause ‘maximum confusion and fear’ on the streets of Finland. Could the police intercept them in time? By Samira Shackle
4
Opinion | Farage is lying in wait. Britain can’t afford for Starmer to fail
It is not enough for the Labour leader’s ‘milestones’ to be achieved. Voters must feel the improvement in their daily lives, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
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Culture | The best books of 2024
From a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn to Al Pacino’s autobiography, our critics round up their favourite reads of the year
Arts: The Brooklyn Rail – December/January 2025
The Brooklyn Rail (December 11, 2024): The latest issue features…
“When you invent the ship, you must also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane, you must also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution… Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.”
–Paul Virilio
“The human spirit must prevail over technology.”
–Albert Einstein
Art
- SARA CWYNAR with Chloe Stagaman
- MARA DE LUCA with Tom McGlynn
- LEE MARY MANNING with Jean Dykstra
- JOEL STERNFELD with Geoffrey Batchen
- All the Feels – By Suzanne Hudson
Critics Page
- For Love or Money: Surviving Criticism – By Lilly Wei and Barbara A. MacAdam
- Ann Binlot
- William Corwin
- Will Fenstermaker
- Manami Fujimori
- Melissa Gronlund
- Eleanor Heartney
- Karen Michel
- Carter Ratcliff
- Walter Robinson
- Andrew Russeth
- Jillian Steinhauer
- Sean Tatol
- Xintian Wang
ArtSeen
Sylvia Plimack Mangold: Tapes, Fields, and Trees, 1975–84 – By Rebecca Allan
David Smith: The Nature of Sculpture – By Phong Bui
Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350 – By David Carrier
Jaeheon Lee: Ghosts in the Garden – By William Corwin
Edges of Ailey – By Ekin Erkan
Patterns in Abstraction – By Leia Genis
Jordan Nassar: THERE – By Robert Alan Grand
Jay DeFeo: Trees – By Suzanne Hudson
Nour Mobarak: Dafne Phono – By Eana Kim
Yuli Yamagata: Ghosts Don’t Wear Watches – By Alfred Mac Adam
Soledad Sevilla: Ritmos, tramas, variables – By Valerie Mindlin
Mark Bradford: Keep Walking – By Charles Moore
André Griffo: Exploded View – By Rômulo Moraes
Jesse Krimes: Corrections – By Joanna Seifter
Lynne Drexler: Color Notes – By David Whelan
Rosemarie Beck: Earthly Paradise – By Leah Triplett Harrington
Francesco Clemente: Summer Love in the Fall – By Selena Parnon
Sean Scully: Duane Street, 1981–1983 – By Raphy Sarkissian
Henni Alftan: Stop Making Sense – By Ann C. Collins
Hap Tivey: Perception is the Medium – By Benjamin Clifford
William Gropper: Artist of the People – By Margot Yale
Preview: Philosophy Now Magazine January 2025
Return to God?
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: December 2024 / January 2025
Lost Hegel lecture notes now being digitized • Professor Ted Honderich dead at 91 — News reports by Anja Steinbauer
SOCIAL MEDIA
Plato’s Cave & Social Media
Seán Radcliffe asks, has Plato’s Allegory of the Cave been warning us of social media for 2,400 years?
Trolls, Skeptics & Philosophers
Rosemary Twomey questions our online epistemology.
THE RETURN OF GOD?
Exploring Atheism
Amrit Pathak gives us a run-down of the foundations of modern atheism.
A Critique of Pure Atheism
Andrew Likoudis questions the basis of some popular atheist arguments.
Evil & An Omnipotent, Benevolent God
Zdeněk Petráček looks at the biggest problem facing monotheism.
A God of Limited Power
Philip Goff grasps hold of the problem of evil and comes up with a novel solution.
The Best Possible World, But Not For Us
Mohsen Moghri gives a Godless but principled response to the problem of evil.
Medieval Islam & the Nature of God
Musa Mumtaz meditates on two maverick medieval Muslim metaphysicians.
ARTICLES
Metaphors & Creativity
Ignacio Gonzalez-Martinez has a flash of inspiration about the role metaphors play in creative thought.
Seeing & Knowing
Shashwat Mishra explores the limits of perception via the Molyneux problem.
Perpetuating the Santa Deception
Jimmy Alfonso Licon wonders whether pretending there’s a Santa is naughty or nice.
Volney (1757-1820)
John P. Irish travels the path of a revolutionary mind.
How Can We Make A Computer Conscious?
Each answer below receives a random book. Apologies to the entrants not included.
INTERVIEWS
Robert Stern
Robert Stern talks with AmirAli Maleki about philosophy in general, and Kant and Hegel in particular.
LETTERS
Letters
Thoughts on Thoughts on Thoughts • Get Smarter • Decoding A Decoding • A Swift Rebuttal • Basic Arithmetic • A Message on Meaning
COLUMNS
Xenophanes (c.570-c.478 BCE)
by Terence Green
Philosophers on Dance
by Matt Qvortrup
“I refute it thus”
Raymond Tallis kicks immaterialism into touch.
Seneca On Anger
Massimo Pigliucci tells us how to avoid becoming irate.
REVIEWS
Too Late To Awaken by Slavoj Žižek
T.W.J Moxham reads Slavoj Žižek’s little book of Hegelian horrors.
Barriers to Entailment by Gillian Russell
Christopher John Searle recommends a study of which moves are allowed in logical arguments.
It’s A Wonderful Life
Becky Lee Meadows considers questions of guilt, innocence, and despair in this classic Christmas movie.
News: Israel Strikes 500 Military Targets In Syria, Macron Battles Far Right
News: Future Of Syria To Be Discussed At United Nations, Netayahu Trial
Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec. 16, 2024
President Emmanuel Macron Has Plunged France into Chaos
Lawmakers have toppled the government for the first time since 1962. How did we get here? By Lauren Collins
What Will Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Accomplish with Doge?
Two political newcomers have arrived to slash big government, but so far the project seems less revolutionary than advertised.
Boomers Daily 