Tag Archives: Books

THE NEW YORK TIMES – THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2026

New Deadline Looms for U.S. and Iran as Truce Wavers

Fractures were already emerging in the limited cease-fire. Vice President JD Vance will lead a U.S. delegation in talks this weekend.

Israeli Strikes in Lebanon Threaten Shaky U.S.-Iran Cease-Fire

Israeli forces killed more than 200 people in strikes against Hezbollah on Wednesday. Top European diplomats called for Lebanon to be included in the cease-fire.

What to Know About the U.S.-Iran Cease-Fire

The two-week truce agreement already seems to be on shaky ground over two issues, the Strait of Hormuz and the status of Lebanon.

Once ‘Ultra MAGA’, Trump Supporters Fume About Iran on Truth Social

A growing chorus of disaffected Trump supporters is sounding off in the replies to his posts on the social media platform he founded.

Democrats Embrace a Four-Letter Word

In person, on social media and in campaign ads, Democratic politicians are swearing with glee. It is usually aimed at President Trump.

THE NEW YORK TIMES – WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2026

Fragile Cease-Fire Takes Hold as Both Sides Claim Victory

International relief was tempered by uncertainty over what comes next. Israel declared its support for the two-week truce between the U.S. and Iran, but said it had launched the largest wave of strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon since the war began.

International Relief Is Tempered by Uncertainty

Trump Finds His Offramp With Iran, but the War’s Causes Remain Unresolved

Even as They Praise Iran Cease-Fire, World Leaders Are Whipsawed by Trump

Across Europe and the globe, the war has damaged economies, roiled politics and underscored a lack of options in dealing with President Trump’s whims.

THE NEW YORK TIMES – TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2026

As Trump Ultimatum Looms, Iran Vows to Respond Harshly

Iran said it would respond “crushingly” if President Trump carried out his threats to strike power plants and bridges. An Israeli strike killed an Iranian intelligence chief overnight.

Trump Says Iran Proposal Isn’t Enough to Stop Attacks on Bridges and Power Plants

Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Undermines ICE Account

Prosecutors did not watch video of the nonfatal shooting until weeks after charging the wounded man, an official said.

Pakistan Says It Hit a Military Target. Investigations Suggest It Was a Rehab Center.

After the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over, families searched among photos and remains for signs of their relatives.

Ukraine Ramps Up Attacks on Russian Oil, Aiming to Curb Iran War Windfall

As the Persian Gulf conflict boosts the oil revenue that finances Moscow’s war against Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces are striking at Russia’s ability to refine and ship its crude.

THE NEW YORK TIMES – MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2026

As Trump Ultimatum Looms, Iran Vows to Respond Harshly

Iran said it would respond “crushingly” if President Trump carried out his threats to strike power plants and bridges. An Israeli strike killed an Iranian intelligence chief overnight.

Trump Keeps World Off Balance With Ever-Changing Threats

Global leaders are struggling to find a way to end the American-Israeli war with Iran, and they are spooked about what President Trump might do next.

The Islands That Give Iran Sway Over Hormuz

A U.S. invasion of islands in the world’s most vital oil corridor would come with extraordinary risks.

This Is Not China’s War, but Beijing Started Preparing for It Years Ago

China redoubled efforts to secure energy security when President Trump started raising the stakes in his first term.

THE NEW YORK TIMES – SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2026

U.S. Rescues Missing Airman Shot Down in Iran

Risky Night Mission Took Commandos Deep Into Iranian Territory

President Trump said on social media that the injured Air Force officer would “be just fine.” He added that there were no U.S. casualties.

Iran’s Downing of Plane and Daring U.S. Rescue Leave Both Sides Emboldened

Stephen Miller Is Still Pursuing His Immigration Agenda, but More Quietly

The architect of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign wants “a moratorium on immigration from third-world countries until we can heal ourselves as a nation.”

China Built the World’s Drone Industry. Now It’s Locking Down the Skies.

The Chinese government tightened rules to curb what it described as illegal drone use, but some users said the changes were restricting too many flights.

THE NEW YORK TIMES – SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2026

U.S. Searches for Airman as Israel Launches Fresh Strikes on Tehran

The U.S. military was racing to find a pilot who bailed out of a fighter jet that was shot down over Iran on Friday.

Missing Airman Raises Concerns That Iran Could Gain Leverage Over the U.S.

Since 1979, Iran has repeatedly used Americans and Europeans detained on its territory to win concessions over more powerful adversaries.

Europe’s Options in the Strait of Hormuz: Few, and Risky

European leaders and other officials have ideas for bringing shipping back to the strait once the Iran war ends. But none of them are sure bets.

New Attorney General, Same Albatross: Trump’s Quest for Retribution

The name atop the Justice Department’s organizational chart matters less than the presence of a president whose demands for revenge have become extreme.

Trump Wants to Make Deportation Deals. Autocrats Are Ready to Listen.

The White House has turned deportations, a signature domestic issue, into a major piece of foreign policy. Here’s what we know about the program.

THE NEW YORK TIMES – FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2026

Drone Hits Kuwaiti Oil Refinery in New Attack on Gulf Energy Sites

The strike set several refinery units ablaze, its operator said. President Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s infrastructure but there was no sign of a deal to end the war.

White House Seeks $1.5 Trillion for Military Spending

The massive proposed increase would be offset in part by steep cuts to domestic programs, some of which the administration describes as wasteful.

Strong Showing for Job Market in Latest Report

U.S. employers added 178,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3 percent, a robust showing after a run of weakness.

Jobs and Workers Are in Balance. Nobody Is Happy About It.

Lower immigration has brought labor supply in line with shaky demand, but economists worry that such a slow-moving job market is at risk of toppling over.

Bondi Wanted a Graceful Exit, but Trump Wanted Her Gone

Pam Bondi had a feeling her days as attorney general were numbered. But she didn’t expect President Trump to drop the curtain quite so soon.

4 min read

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS – APRIL 23, 2026

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features a dispatch from Tehran, Jed Perl on Morgan Meis’s funky kind of art criticism, Francine Prose on MAGA fiction, Caroline Fraser on the dump, Michael Gorra on Civil War diaries, David Cole on the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, Hermione Lee on Virginia Woolf’s letters, Trevor Jackson on American “retirement,” Kathryn Hughes on Tennyson’s cosmos, Colm Tóibín on Irish reunification, a collage by Lucy Sante, poems by Andrea Cohen and Timmy Straw, and much more.


From the Rooftops of Tehran

We in Iran own our grief, mourning all by ourselves.

Living Through the Civil War

George Templeton Strong’s diaries provide the North’s best record of daily passions and woes during its struggle against the South.

George Templeton Strong: Civil War Diaries edited by Geoff Wisner

‘A Vast Symphony of Stone’

In his renovation of Notre-Dame, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.

Viollet-le-Duc: Drawing Worlds an exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery, New York City, January 28–May 24, 2026

The Aging Class

Retirement, like so much of the American economy, is a broken system that benefits private interests and exploits the most vulnerable people.

Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappel

Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy by Teresa Ghilarducci, with a foreword by E. J. Dionne Jr.

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT – APRIL 3, 2026 PREVIEW

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT: The latest issue features Claude Rawson on the British Imagination; ‘Trump’s Whisperers; Hardy’s breakthrough novel; Thomas Mann today…

Cultural superpower?

An argument for ‘British is best’

The argument of Peter Watson’s hugely ambitious The British Imagination: A history of ideas from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II is that “The essential arc of British history – intellectual and creative history, just as much as political, economic and military history – is of a small, indeed tiny, country sequestered on the north-west coast of Europe that over the centuries would forge the largest and most unlikely empire the world has seen”. It may seem odd to be reading this in the present depressed state of the nation, although Watson stresses from the outset that the concept of “the British imagination” embraces its hospitality to foreign influences and eventually to the power of a wider “Anglosphere”.

English virtue battles the pagan

The genesis of Far from the Madding Crowd

The texture of etcetera

What smartphones can’t record

Freeing Thomas Mann

Modern English translations that do justice to the work

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – APRIL 3, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘The Tipping Point’ – A watershed moment for big tech’…

In a landmark case, a California jury last week found social media companies Meta and YouTube liable for deliberately designing addictive products. The ruling came the day after Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, was ordered to pay $375m after a jury in a separate trial in New Mexico found it misled consumers about the safety of its platforms.

Meta, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok are facing thousands of similar lawsuits in US courts, while governments around the world are starting to introduce measures to curb social media’s grip on children’s attention.

Guardian technology editors Dan Milmo and Robert Booth assess whether what has been called a “big tobacco” moment for the industry will lead to significant change. And in our opinion section, Jonathan Freedland argues that the court verdicts must be just the start of a global fightback.

The big story | A war of regression
Weeks into a war that was going to take days and has cost billions, Donald Trump has bombed the US into a worse position with Iran, writes Patrick Wintour

Science | ‘On the shoulders of giants’
Plant specimens and teaching materials that inspired Charles Darwin have been unearthed and will be used for the first time to teach contemporary students about botany, Donna Ferguson reports

Feature | Circuit training
After touring 11 Chinese companies making humanoid robots, Chang Che asks: just how close are we to a robotic future?

Opinion | Labour needs a thinker
Ed Miliband’s stock is rising in a party in need of an old-style intellectual heavyweight, argues Gaby Hinsliff

Culture | Gimme shelter
Catherine Slessor visits Henry Moore’s former countryside home Hoglands, now home to studios and a vast sculpture garden, to learn about a new exhibition of the drawings he made as a war artist, capturing people as they took sanctuary from the blitz