Category Archives: Stories

Opinion: Xi Tightens His Grip, Emerging Market Calm, Legalizing Cocaine

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, China’s next chapter, why emerging markets look unusually resilient (10:05) and why it is time to legalise cocaine (15:40). 

An obsession with control is making China weaker but more dangerous

The Communist Party’s five-yearly congress will further tighten one man’s grip

Sunday Morning: Stories From Zurich And London

Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, Priska Amstutz and Benno Zogg on the weekend’s biggest talking points. Plus: ‘Zeit Magazine’ editorial director Christoph Amend and Monocle’s Andrew Tuck and Petri Burtsoff on the latest developments in their areas.

Culture: New York Times Magazine – Oct 16, 2022

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The Culture Issue – 10.16.22

The Elusive Power of Cate Blanchett

The actress has stayed one step ahead of audiences by constantly being in motion. In her new movie “Tár,” she’s as inscrutable as ever.

American Culture Is Trash Culture

It’s not just that trash is what Americans want from movies; it’s who we are. So where did it go?

Can Black Literature Escape the Representation Trap?

A crop of recent novels strains against the expectations of a publishing industry attempting to embrace diversity.

Cover Preview: Harvard Magazine – Nov/Dec 2022

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Justice Elena Kagan, in Dissent

Ebbing trust in the Supreme Court, and what to do about it

The Off-Kilter Economy

Reckoning with inflation and its remedies

Energy-Saving, Low-Cost Air Conditioning

Two new technologies could provide an eco-friendly cooling solution.

Books: The New York Times Book Review – Oct 16, 2022

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The Genre-Shattering Fictions of Alan Moore

With his first story collection, “Illuminations,” the British writer and comic-book titan works his subversive power on a smaller scale.

There’s more, of course, including Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s powerful novel in stories, “Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions”; Maggie Haberman’s “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America”; Buzz Bissinger’s “The Mosquito Bowl,” about a game played on Guadalcanal between two Marine regiments in 1944; and Amal El-Mohtar’s latest science fiction and fantasy column.
Don’t miss the latest entry in our “Read Your Way Around the World” series, which will whisk you to the brightly hued streets of Reykjavík, or our excerpts from Bob Dylan’s new book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song.” (In 1971, 45 years before he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Book Review opined, rather tartly, that “Dylan is not a literary figure. Literature comes in books, and Dylan does not intend his most important work to be read.”)

Cover for @nytimesbooks Junot Diaz’s review of Alan Moore’s new story collection “Illuminations”.

The New York Times Book Review

World Economic Forum: Top Stories Of The Week

World Economic Forum ‘Stories of the Week’ for October 14, 2022:

00:15 How a Chinese village eradicated poverty – In 2017, nearly a third of villagers lived below the poverty line. Here’s how one the project saw poverty drop from 28% to zero in just 3 years.

02:28 New mosquito repellent – From 2015 to 2019, dengue fever cases in Southeast Asia rose by 46%. This new repellent may be the answer.

03:35 Australia to end species extinction – More than one in ten species have gone extinct in the past 200 years. The Australian government is now taking steps to prevent further extinctions.

05:12 Firefighters’ AI helmet – The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service trialled the helmet which could help them better locate victims and teammates in firefighting situations.

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

Preview: New York Review Of Books – Nov 3, 2022

November 3, 2022 issue cover

Gored in the Afternoon

Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux, translated from the French by Alison L. Strayer

Annie Ernaux, the 2022 Nobel Literature laureate, has published a diary of a sublime love affair—both a quest for self-awareness and a desire to escape the self—in which she traces a familiar arc of loss.

Reform or Abolish?

American prisons are often unjust, inhumane, and ineffective at protecting public safety. Mariame Kaba and Ruth Wilson Gilmore believe they should be eliminated entirely.

We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba, edited by Tamara K. Nopper and with a foreword by Naomi Murakawa

Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, edited by Brenna Bhandar and Alberto Toscano

Then What Happened?

Yasmine Seale’s new translation of The Thousand and One Nights has a texture—tight, smooth, skillfully patterned—that make previous versions seem either garish or slightly dull by comparison.

The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1,001 Nights translated from the Arabic by Yasmine Seale, edited and with an introduction and notes by Paulo Lemos Horta

The Limits of Press Power

To what extent did newspapers influence public opinion in the US and Britain before and during World War II?

The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler by Kathryn S. Olmsted

The Media Offensive: How the Press and Public Opinion Shaped Allied Strategy During World War II by Alexander G. Lovelace

‘We Know What That’s Like’

The filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s recent arrest in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison marks the latest phase in a campaign that the Iranian judiciary has been waging against him for over a decade.

No Bears a film written and directed by Jafar Panahi

A Prisoner of His Own Restraint

Felix Frankfurter was renowned as a liberal lawyer and advocate. Why did he turn out to be such a conservative Supreme Court justice?

Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment by Brad Snyder

The Illusion of the First Person

A historical survey of the personal essay shows it to be the purest expression of the lie that individual subjectivity exists prior to the social formations that gave rise to it.

News: Trump Subpoena, A Russia ‘Gas Hub’ In Turkey, New Italian Parliament

Vladimir Putin says that Russia could develop a “gas hub” in Turkey. Meanwhile, can Peru’s embattled President Castillo finish his term despite impeachment attempts and criminal investigations? Plus: Italy’s new parliament is convening this week to instal its 68th government in 76 years.

News: January 6 Hearings, FBI Search Of Mar-a-Lago, Venezuela Migrants In U.S.

New evidence, witnesses and insight into Trump’s actions on Jan. 6. More details on why FBI searched Mar-a-Lago. White House expel illegal Venezuelan migrants as it offers some a legal path to entry.

Previews: Times Literary Supplement – Oct 14, 2022

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This week’s @TheTLS , featuring Rosemary Righter and @peterfrankopan on Xi Jinping; @LaurenElkin on Annie Ernaux; @pottmeister on John le Carré; @MirandaFrance1 on Clarice Lispector; @Lordoflongitude on measurement – and more.

Times Literary Supplement (The TLS) Website