Category Archives: Reviews

Analysis: What Trump Can & Can’t Do On Day 1 (WSJ)

Wall Street Journal (November 22, 2024):President-elect Donald Trump has a long list of policy objectives that he wants to implement quickly including border policy for immigration, closing the Department of Education, implementing tariffs and more.

Video timeline: Chapters: 0:00 Trump’s second term 0:38 Immigration 2:23 Military 3:06 Education 4:34 Energy 5:32 Tariffs 6:48 Checks and balances

For most of Trump’s objectives for his second term, there are limitations including checks and balances within the process or limitations directly from Congress. WSJ explains which of these plans he can carry out on his own, which he’ll need help from Congress for, and what might end up in the courts.

Arts/History: Smithsonian Magazine – December 2024

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Smithsonian Magazine (November 21, 2024) – The latest issue features ‘The Hidden History of Bermuda’ – New archaeological finds are reshaping our views of early colonial life in the Americas…

The Forgotten Colony

What excavations in Bermuda are revealing about one of Britain’s first settlements in the Americas—and the surprising ways it shaped the New World. By Andrew Lawler. Photographs by Nicola Muirhead

The Feminist Behind the Man Behind the Curtain

The untold story of Matilda Gage, the freethinker who inspired her son-in-law L. Frank Baum’s classic novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. By Evan I. Schwartz

It’s Not Easy Being Seen

Glass frogs use translucence to evade predators. So why are researchers trying to find as many as they can? By Alex Fox

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Nov. 15, 2024

Science issue cover

Science Magazine – November 21, 2024: The new issue features ‘All Of It’ – Three-dimensional single cell imaging of the entire mouse brain…

Prospect of RFK Jr. at HHS alarms biomedical community

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to scrutinize proven vaccines and slash staff at research and regulatory agencies

China’s hunger for minerals spurs massive geology survey

$1 billion SinoProbe II will map the depths with drill rigs and instrument arrays

Previews: BBC History Magazine – December 2024

BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE – NOVEMBER 21, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Churchill’ – Is he still the greatest Briton?

‘Churchill’ – Is he still the greatest Briton?

2024’s Best History Books

Chose by our experts

Who Killed The King Of Scots?

The medieval murder mystery that’s yet to be solved

Pedigrees, pets and piles of poo

A bite-sized history of dogs

The Economist Magazine – November 23, 2024 Preview

All weekly editions | The Economist

The Economist Magazine (November 21, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Disrupter-In-Chief’….

The opportunities—and dangers—for Trump’s disrupter-in-chief

Elon Musk is given the ultimate target: America’s Government

Germany cannot afford to wait to relax its debt brake

It should move before the election

From Nixon to China, to Trump to Tehran

Iran is weak. For America’s next president that creates an opportunity

Too many master’s courses are expensive and flaky

Governments should help postgraduates get a better deal

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – Nov. 22, 2024

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The Guardian Weekly (November 21, 2024): The new issue features ‘The crisis in the Church of England’…

Existentialist crises might more commonly be associated with some who seek out religion, rather than with those religions themselves, but that’s where the Church of England has found itself in recent days.

The resignation of Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, followed a damning report into the church’s shameful failures over the serial child abuser John Smyth, which detailed even more disturbing details of cover-ups by some senior clergy.

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Spotlight | Trump’s shock-and-awe team
A flurry of controversial and extremist picks for Trump’s administration has provoked criticism and made heads spin. David Smith reports from Washington

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Science | The inverse link between cancer and dementia
Scientists have long been aware of a curious connection between these common and feared diseases. At last, a clearer picture is emerging, writes Theres Lüthi

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Feature | Kernels of hope
During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection, the first of its kind, had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger. By Simon Parkin

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Opinion | Seven lessons from a long-serving economics editor
From Thatcher to Trump and Brexit, the Guardian’s outgoing economics editor, Larry Elliott, reflects on his 28 years in the role.

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Culture | Faking history
Film and TV have a slippery relationship with the truth when it comes to historical epics. Simon Usborne meets the experts whose advice goes unheeded

The Atlantic Magazine – December 2024 Preview

The Atlantic Magazine – November 20, 2024: The latest issue features ‘How the Ivy League Broke America’ – The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new.

How the Ivy League Broke America

The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new. By David Brooks

How One Woman Became the Scapegoat for America’s Reading Crisis

Lucy Calkins was an education superstar. Now she’s cast as the reason a generation of students struggles to read. Can she reclaim her good name?

The Exhibit That Will Change How You See Impressionism

The National Gallery’s “Paris 1874” explores the movement’s dark origins.

Country Life Magazine – November 20, 2024 Preview

Country Life Magazine (November 20, 2024): The latest issue features Winston Churchill – The wit and wisdom of the great man…

‘Let us go forward together’

As we approach the 150th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s birthday, Amie Elizabeth White and Octavia Pollock pay homage to the great man, in his own words.

Entertaining His Majesty

In the second of two articles, John Goodall charts the 1560s and 1620s expansion of Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire

Landscape of ‘seamless sameness’

England’s heather moorland and its glorious purple swathe is a wonder of the Western world, suggest John Lewis-Stempel

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Do you know a Yonerywander from a Vinvertuperator? Engage your inner Edward Lear as Daniel McKay welcomes you into his wacky world of whimwondery

Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, jelly made of paint

Food, glorious food is fuelling the creativity of modern still-life artists discovers Catriona Gray

Sex, lies and sewing machines

The sewing machine rose to be an emblem of domesticity, but its invention is a story of Saints and Singers. Matthew Dennison follows the thread

Interiors

Raze to the ground or renovate? Has the open-plan layout had its day? Cart shed or garage? Giles Kime considers some key architectural conundrums

Wisley reinvented

John Hoyland is captivated by the spectacular transformation of Piet Oudolf’s double borders at the RHS garden in Surrey

Some like it hot

If you like your chili ‘hotter than the hinges of hell’, Tom Parker Bowles has just the dish for you (and there’s not a bean in sight)

Wooden walls restored

John Goodall lauds a decade-long project to rescue a unique painted church at Ursi, Romania

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Nov. 22, 2024

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Times Literary Supplement (November 20, 2024): The latest issue features The Uncommon Reader’ – Virginia Woolf in literary tradition..

What we want from her books

Virginia Woolf as reader, writer and literary inspiration By Sophie Oliver

A star is torn

The unravelling of Vivien Leigh’s marriage amid her mental health breakdown By Vanessa Curtis

Ignorant armies

History as an ideological battleground By Niall Ferguson

Bergson’s boom and bust

How the world’s most famous thinker fell out of fashion By Mark Sinclair

Analysis: The World Ahead In 2025 – The Economist

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The Economist The World Ahead 2025 (November 20, 2024) : In 2025, as seen on the cover, the main event is Trump’s return to the White House and the global consequences of his policies, such as a new wave of trade wars with China. There is also an expected rise in technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

Tom Standage’s ten trends to watch in 2025

A letter from the editor of The World Ahead

The three forces that will shape 2025

Watch the interplay between Donald Trump, technology and radical uncertainty

The cover mentions climate issues and hints at a new phase in the fight for social equality, especially among women. Last year, the cover predicted geopolitical instability, an economic crisis, climate disasters, and the g