One of Jupiter’s biggest moons has the potential to harbour life in a subsurface sea. The nature of its core will provide information about that ocean.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS MAGAZINE (February 5, 2025): Today, about 20 percent of southeastern Ukraine is under Russian occupation, including Crimea and large parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has painted the war in Ukraine as a nationalist campaign to repel Western advances and reclaim territory that, in his view, rightfully belongs to Russia. But conquest has another motivation: economic gain. If Russia maintains military control over these regions, it may be hoping to reap that benefit. At this stage, however, it is hardly clear that they would become economic assets for Moscow; supporting the war-torn territories could just as easily become a drain on its coffers.
The human costs of this war are enormous. Russian forces are ruling occupied Ukraine with an iron fist, engaging in a ruthless campaign of torture, kidnapping, violence, and arbitrary killing. Any assessment of the war’s economic consequences should not minimize its awful depravity or the immense suffering it has inflicted. But its economic outcome will affect future judgments of Putin’s decision to invade in February 2022. If Russia benefits economically from the occupation of Ukraine, the war may be remembered as a strategic success, albeit a coldblooded one. If Russia instead suffers economically, the invasion will be seen as a self-defeating, barbaric blunder.
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (February 5, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Turbulent Priest’ – Pope Francis’s autobiography; Richard Flanagan in the atomic age; Poetry from Gaza; Richard Ayoade’sdoppelganger and Eimear McBride on repeat…
This week’s @TheTLS, featuring A. N. Wilson on Pope Francis; @funesdamemorius on Richard Ayoade; @lindseyhilsum on writing from Gaza; Adam Mars-Jones on The Brutalist; Damon Galgut on Eimear McBride; Beejay Silcox on Richard Flanagan – and more pic.twitter.com/Ks0liMNF0k
The ‘McKinley Tariffs’ were some of the largest hikes in U.S. history, but in his second term, McKinley changed his mind, and argued for more free international trade as a way of helping the U.S. economy. WSJ explores how McKinley used tariffs, how Trump is following a similar playbook and why McKinley. Actually came to speak out against them.
THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE (February 3, 2025): That Donald Trump may unleash a global trade war is a frightening but familiar risk. Less well understood is the danger that he may also provoke a tax war. One of his first actions on returning to the White House was to warn other countries that if they adopt tax policies America dislikes, he may double tax rates on their companies and even their citizens.
Baby boomers have safeguarded and perpetuated a grand myth through which they interpret past and present events, and derive motivations. Myth is one hell of a drug.
Baby boomer conservatism arose during the salad days of American capitalism, the apex of American military might, and the drama of the Cold War. That’s all gone and the young right stands at a crossroads.
The Wall Street Journal (February 3, 2025): The New Orleans Superdome is set to host Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. The stadium’s latest $560M renovation–from the concession stands to the seating bowl–helped save it from demolition after Hurricane Katrina.
Chapters: 0:00 Evolving stadiums 0:52 Superdome history 1:32 The path to your seat and crowd control 3:33 New concession stands 4:54 The seating bowl 6:42 What’s next for stadium innovation?
NFL games have increasingly become more expensive with the addition of amenities like luxury field suites and club lounges, but all of these redesigns are done in order to increase revenue and efficiency. WSJ spoke with the architect behind the Superdome’s plan, who explains how stadium design is evolving to create more revenue streams.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS MAGAZINE (February 3, 2025): Donald Trump begins his presidency with ambitions of being a peacemaker. He laid out this vision in his inaugural address, declaring that his administration “will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars we end, and perhaps most importantly, by the wars we never get into.” Later that day, he basked in the success of the hostage cease-fire deal in Gaza, including by bringing the families of Israeli hostages to the inaugural parade. “We’re getting a lot of people out in a short period of time,” he proclaimed.
There is no doubt that Trump helped secure the cease-fire deal. But to be a peacemaker who transforms the Middle East, he has more work to do. The main issues he confronts are Gaza and Iran. In Gaza, Israel and Hamas have different views of what is required to achieve the second phase of the deal, which would save the remaining hostages and produce a permanent cease-fire. Iran, meanwhile, is accelerating its nuclear program—with its “foot on the gas pedal” according to Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Tehran thus continues to existentially threaten Israel. Both issues are likely to dominate upcoming talks between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
DAVID MAKOVSKY is the Director of the Program on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy and an Adjunct Professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He served as a Senior Adviser to the special envoy of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in the Office of the Secretary of State during the Obama administration.
DENNIS ROSS is Counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a Professor at Georgetown University. A former U.S. Envoy to the Middle East, he served in senior national security positions in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations.
Was Trump just “weaving” when he ranted about diversity initiatives after a horrific plane crash, or getting back on message after a week of executive overreach? By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
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The U.S. Military’s Recruiting Crisis
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One of the most valuable substances in the world has never been replicated. Are we close? By Nicola Twilley
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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