Category Archives: Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY —- JULY 17, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Andy Burnham’s path to No 10″…

Andy Burnham is to become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade, having secured the Labour leadership with the landslide support of his party’s MPs.

The former Manchester mayor is now set to replace Starmer as Labour leader on Friday before walking through the doors of No 10 and becoming prime minister next Monday.

For our big story this week, Daniel Boffey looks at how Burnham charted the route from school politics to No 10, while Jessica Elgot runs through the bulging in-tray awaiting him when he steps into the new role. And Gaby Hinsliff examines how the PM-in-waiting might fare on the global stage, asking whether, unlike Keir Starmer, he has the skills to deal with Donald Trump.

Spotlight | A revolution in ruins
Discontent with Venezuela’s Trump-backed government is mounting as Chávez heirs struggle to respond to the earthquake disaster, writes Tom Phillips

Science | We’re going on a water bear hunt
Scientists hope DNA sequencing tardigrades – tiny yet virtually indestructible creatures – could help us understand the secrets of their superpowers. Patrick Barkham reports

Feature | The battle of the Bell hotel
Tim Burrows visits the town of Epping in Essex to hear from local people about the impact of last year’s far-right protests that centred on a hotel housing asylum seekers

Opinion | The real source of Trump’s power exposed
The Nato summit showed the US president’s willingness to violate all norms, rules and laws – and leave everyone else to pick up the pieces, argues Robert Reich

Culture | Never-ending story
With Christopher Nolan’s take on the Odyssey set to break box office records, Charlotte Higgins asks why a poem from 600BC holds a vice-like grip on pop culture

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – JULY 15, 2026 PREVIEW

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features the magic, power and beauty of water, pays tribute to the king of British powerboating and enjoys the Victorian splendour of Scarborough.

Why our water is going down the drain

Investment, organisation and effort can guarantee secure water supplies for everyone in Britain, argues Lord Deben

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

The power of water

Kate Green surveys the surging strength of the Severn Bore, the haunting beauty of the flooded Somerset Levels, life on the edge at Dawlish and the capital’s mighty Thames Barrier.

Why every drop counts

People who work with water tell Kate Green and Mary Skipwith why we need to reconnect with our most precious resource

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

Up with the gulls, to bed with the owl

Patrick Galbraith experiences an eventful day in the life of the ever-changing, but enduringly beautiful Cley estuary in Norfolk

On peak form

Artists such as Turner, Bierstadt and Wolf took painting to new heights with their depictions of mountains, finds Michael Prodger

Let all the world sing

The 2026 BBC Proms promises to be a truly global spectacle, as Henrietta Bredin discovers

The queen of spas

Scarborough in North Yorkshire is the original Victorian seaside resort. Kathryn Ferry charts the development of its spa complex

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

The Revd Sam Wells’s favourite painting

The St Martin-in-the-Fields vicar chooses a painting where ‘magnificent humanity’ is laid bare

Country-house treasure

John Goodall unearths evidence of Bowood in Wiltshire’s wartime role as a ‘beacon of recovery’

Pooling assets

George Plumptre is charmed by the Anglo-Italian landscape at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

The legacy

Agnes Stamp pays tribute to speed merchant Sir Max Aitken, the king of British powerboating

Winging it

Mark Cocker assesses the anti-social antics of the herring gull

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

Luxury

Jonathan Self ponders the power of fine jewellery and Amie Elizabeth White finds coral for all

Interiors

Arabella Youens visits a kitchen giving a nod to history, and reveals that chequerboard floors are back

Travel

Rosie Paterson is looking for a New England in Nantucket

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino investigates the intriguing tale of ‘Mad Madge’, a pioneer of science-fiction

Truth, lies and somewhere in between

Michael Billington delves into a world of deceit and infidelity

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE – JULY 20, 2026 PREVIEW

For the World Cup finals soccer players on the field with a city skyline in the background.

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest issue cover features Jonathan Blitzer on ICE’s biggest detention center, Zach Helfand on steroids, Jessica Contreras on a family intertwined with A.I., and more.

An O.M.B. Plan to Defund Science—and Anything Trump Doesn’t Like

Under a new proposal, Administration officials could deny government grants to any group or project on the ground that it didn’t fit the President’s agenda. By Elizabeth Kolbert

When A.I. Is a Member of the Family

A single mom, her two daughters, and the chatbots that fill in the gaps. By Jessica Contrera

Inside ICE’s Largest Detention Center

On a military base in West Texas, where the government has built a sprawling tent complex to hold thousands of immigrants, deprivation and dire conditions are part of the design. By Jonathan Blitze

The Lost Art of the Bromance

New books, articles, and shows lament a crisis of connection among American men. But the picture of friendship that emerges can feel romanticized and brittle. By Katy Waldman

The American Scholar Magazine – SUMMER 2026

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THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR: The latest issue features ‘Forget Me Not’ – Some people remember their pasts with eerie clarity, for others, there’s only a void…

You Must Remember This

On the nature of autobiographical memory By Jonathan Weiner

Twain Town, U.S.A.

Samuel Clemens is everywhere in Hannibal, Missouri, but is the story the town tells about its favorite son grounded in reality or myth? By Ruth Franklin

Found in Translation

The act of rendering plays from Romanian to English has allowed me to discover my family’s past—and myself By Amanda L. Andrei

Thanatos Rising

A 1930s correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud laid out each man’s views on war and peace By George Makari

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE- JULY 12, 2026

Current cover

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 7.12.26 Issue features Pamela Colloff on the death penalty in Florida; Madelein Schwartz on positive parenting in France; Helen Ouyang on A.I. writing summaries of patient exams for doctors; and more.

Why Is Florida Executing So Many Prisoners?

In most of the country, executions are a thing of the past. But one state has been carrying them out at a record pace.

Did American-Style ‘Gentle Parenting’ Spoil French Children?

As positive parenting takes over France, one psychologist’s call for a return to discipline has set off a furious debate. By Madeleine Schwartz

How A.I. Might Change the Way Doctors Think

For generations, writing up a summary of a patient exam was a vital step for physicians trying to make an accurate diagnosis. What happens when A.I. does it for them? By Helen Ouyang

Has the MAHA Movement Given Up?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies promised public-health libertarianism. The idea couldn’t survive once they took power. By David Wallace-Wells

SCIENCE MAGAZINE ———– JULY 9, 2026 PREVIEW

SCIENCE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘LIFTOFF’ – Using flapping wings to leap out of the water….

As bird flu threatens, New Zealand vaccinates endangered birds

Arrival of H5N1 virus on Australian mainland triggers ambitious vaccination program

British ‘First Fleet’ brought smallpox to Australia

Colonists likely introduced the disease to a more populous continent than many imagined

Neil Shubin wants NAS to stay relevant

New president of the beleaguered National Academy of Sciences discusses its future and the precarious state of U.S. science under Trump

Uranus and Neptune may not be ‘ice giants’ after all

A growing number of theories propose Uranus and Neptune are rocky worlds

THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE – JULY 11, 2026 PREVIEW

THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘The man who would change Russia‘…

The man who would change Russia

A leading oligarch speaks out, warning of the looming disaster facing his country

Two cheers for Trump Accounts

The grubby scheme contains the seeds of a good idea

England needs fewer council homes, not more

Andy Burnham’s plan is no way to ease the housing crisis

A no-brainer for protecting your brain

One simple vaccination may dramatically reduce the risk of dementia

Who is capable of evil?

Stop lowering the age of criminal responsibility

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS – JULY 23, 2026

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features

An Uncertain Triumphalism

America’s centennial in 1876 was celebrated with a grand exhibition that projected an image of national unity and inventiveness in the anxious aftermath of civil war and recession.

Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America’s Future by Fergus M. Bordewich

Hungary: The Flood

Peter Magyar’s landslide electoral victory in April made clear that after sixteen years, Hungarians were tired of Viktor Orbán.

Space Oddity

Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff’s Muskism examines how Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, by selling a vision of the future that very few people would want to inhabit.

Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff

Song of Our Cells

Though a mystery to Darwin in his lifetime, the constant mutation of our genes is what allows for life’s magnificent diversity.

Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health by Roxanne Khamsi

NEW SCIENTIST MAGAZINE – JULY 11, 2026 PREVIEW

New Scientist Magazine: This issue features ‘How Healthy Is Your Brain’…

How healthy is your brain? We now know how to find out

Occam’s razor has lost its edge. Can we sharpen our search for truth?

Babies are born with the neural foundations for maths

Can the biggest problems in AI be solved by philosophy?

What is ‘SpudCell’? Arguably the greatest bioengineering feat yet

Random wobbles in time could finally solve gravity’s greatest mystery

Orangutan mothers seem to plan playdates for their offspring

The 4 best science-fiction shows of 2026 so far

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT – JULY 10, 2026 PREVIEW

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT: The latest issue features Allen Ginsberg at 100; Shere Hite and the female pleasure principle; Shakespeare’s politics…

Best of enemies

The Iranian regime’s long confrontation with America By Azadeh Moaveni

Allen Ginsberg at 100

Poet, counterculture critic and self-promoter By Douglas Field

Getting real

Do objects exist independently of human experience? By Emily Herring

Forgotten feminist

How Shere Hite put women’s pleasure first By Angela Saini