The Globalist Podcast (September 8, 2023) – As G20 agrees to grant membership to the African Union, what else is on the agenda at the summit in India?
Plus: China drafts ‘national spirit’ law to ban harmful clothing, the US Department of Defense will cut support for Hollywood directors whose films are censored by China and the return of a Paris-Berlin train service.
The Globalist Podcast (September 5, 2023) – Who is Ukraine’s new defence minister, Rustem Umerov? Monocle’s Kyiv correspondent, Olga Tokariuk, profiles the Crimean Tatar with experience in Russian negotiations.
Plus: US officials visit Saudi Arabia to discuss Palestine, Olaf Scholz’s government slumps in the polls and we review the latest Indian newspapers.
The Globalist Podcast (September 4, 2023) – Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meets with Vladimir Putin in Sochi to discuss grain deals, we get the lowdown on the Chinese economy with Patricia Thornton and Mexico’s opposition selects a female candidate with Indigenous roots to run for office.
Plus: France debates the height of ceilings, we get a roundup of news from the Nordics with Helsinki correspondent Petri Burtsoff and we check in with Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival.
September 3, 2023 – Emma Nelson reviews the top stories from London, Tyler Brûlé reports from Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, and the latest from Bangkok, Thailand.
Monocle on Saturday, September 2, 2023: A look at the week’s news and culture with Georgina Godwin.
Also, we are joined by Charles Hecker for a look through the morning’s papers, Monocle’s Helsinki correspondent, Petri Burtsoff, investigates the growing popularity of e-bikes in Finland and we examine India’s space programme with Maya Sharma.
The Globalist Podcast (September 1, 2023) – We present a special episode of ‘The Globalist’ live from Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference in Munich.
Hear from our editors and correspondents, including Monocle’s editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, Asia editor and Tokyo bureau chief, Fiona Wilson, and Europe editor at large, Ed Stocker. Plus: Charles Hecker discusses Russia’s allies and enemies, and David Bodanis explores the politics of cartography in the wake of China’s new national map.
The Fraud, Zadie Smith’s first historical novel, asks if we might all be frauds of some sort, wearing masks and performing as people who are not quite ourselves.
The Fraud by Zadie Smith; Penguin Press, 454 pp
A groundbreaking show at the Metropolitan Museum displays, among other treasures from India, works of Buddhist art that bear the mark of ancient animist cults that long preceded the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama.
Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE–400 CE, an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, July 21–November 13, 2023; and the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, December 22, 2023–April 14, 2024
Catalog of the exhibition by John Guy; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 343 pp.
In 2003 Indian archaeologists working on a remote hilltop in the southern state of Telangana uncovered a remarkable early Buddhist monastic complex. Phanigiri, “the snake-hooded hill,” had clearly been one of the most important Buddhist monasteries in India. All around were found spectacular fragments of sculpture, including substantial sections of elaborately carved ceremonial gateways and a torso now judged to be one of the masterworks of Buddhist art. Many of the statues had been dismantled and carefully buried in soft earth for their protection after the monastery was abandoned in the fifth century CE, and they were found in almost mint condition.
Boomers Daily 