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Arts & Literature, Books, History, Magazines, Opinion, Reviews

LITERARY REVIEW MAGAZINE – MAY 2026 PREVIEW

May 1, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

LITERARY REVIEW : The latest issue features Ritchie Robertson on Weimar * Charles Darwent on Louise Bourgeois * John Guy on the Tudors * Kirsten Tambling on dogs in art * Piers Brendon on Churchill and the crown * Saul David on AI warfare * Simon Nixon on private equity predators * Nigel Andrew on outsider animals * Zoe Guttenplan on Beatrice Warde * Maren Meinhardt on women and music * Lucy Lethbridge on swimming * Diane Purkiss on being published * Anthony Pagden on the West * Michael Reid on Lula * Anthony Teasdale on Tory leaders * Anna Reid on Vera Gedroits * Wendy Holden on Elizabeth II * Harriet Rix on trees * Emma Smith on Shakespeare’s identity * Jane Yager on Herta Müller * Sheena Joughin on Siri Hustvedt * Adam Kucharski on evidence * Keith Miller on Douglas Stuart * Natalie Perman on Jem Calder * and much, much more…

Weimar Germany: Death of a Democracy By Victor Sebestyen

Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe By Katja Hoyer

The small town of Weimar is overladen with historical associations. Goethe spent more than fifty years there as an employee and friend of Duke (later Grand Duke) Karl August. After the last grand duke abdicated in November 1918, the National Assembly met in Weimar to draw up a new republican constitution for Germany. Other symbolically charged venues considered were Nuremberg (home of Dürer) and Bayreuth (because of Wagner), but it was Weimar that gave its name to the period of German history from …

Knife-Woman: The Life of Louise Bourgeois By Marie-Laure Bernadac (Translated from French by Lauren Elkin)

Having been named for her father, Louis, a mere dealer in antique tapestries, seemed insufficiently romantic to Louise Bourgeois, who was born on Christmas Day in 1911. She preferred the idea that her namesake was Louise Michel, ‘the red virgin of Montmartre’, an anarchist heroine of the Paris Commune. It wasn’t true, of course, but …

This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England By Nandini Das

A phrase like ‘fortress England’ seems to echo down the centuries, and turns up again in This Little World, Nandini Das’s new study of identity and belonging, cross-border migration, assimilation and estrangement in the period between 1500 and the restoration of Charles II. Das seeks to unmask the period’s most fundamental assumptions about English … read more

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

THE NEW YORK TIMES – FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2026

May 1, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Since Congress Let Obamacare Subsidies Expire, Millions Are Dropping Coverage

Many Americans can’t afford the higher health insurance premiums that resulted from Congress’s failure to extend federal tax credits.

Trump’s Plans to Boost Weapons Production Might Not Deliver for Years

While the defense industry has announced plans to make more munitions, much of that expanded production will not quickly kick in.

As Israel Entrenches in Lebanon, Frustration With Hezbollah Turns to Support

With the cease-fire fraying, many Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon are putting aside their frustration with the group and turning to it for protection.

Hezbollah’s Latest Challenge to Israeli Forces: A Stealthier Drone

The Last Moments of Jeju Air Flight 2216

The crew of the South Korean flight faced a cascade of unforgiving decisions. The kind other pilots might look at and ask: What would I have done?

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY —- MAY 1, 2026 PREVIEW

April 30, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Chornobyl’s Long Shadow’ – Forty years after the world’s worst nuclear accident, could it happen again?

In March 2022, soon after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Kyiv-based illustrator Masha Foya produced what I think is one of the Guardian Weekly’s most powerful covers on the war, concerning the devastation of Mariupol. So it’s a pleasure to feature Masha’s work again for the current edition, this time marking 40 years since the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

“Since childhood, the story of Chornobyl has always made me feel a strange dissonance – such a tragedy occurring on a beautiful spring day in April,” explains Masha on the thought process behind her design, in which seasonal greens fade away into ominous skies.

It also reflects present-day anxieties. For a special report, Pjotr Sauer visits the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident and sees up close how the giant containment structure around the failed reactor is in urgent need of costly repairs after a Russian drone strike, as fears grow of a possible new catastrophe.

Five essential reads in this week’s edition

Environment | Why apes are more like us than we ever thought
Imagination, reason and ability to recognise faces from the past are not the sole preserve of humans, studies show. Gloria Dickie reports

Finance | The wagering of war
Once largely siloed to sporting events, betting has now spread to include contracts on news events where insider information could pay handsomely. With over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war having recently been seen, Lauren Aratani explores what exactly is going on

Feature | The big game hunters who believe they can save Africa’s wildlife
One way to pay for wildlife conservation is to allow the rich to bag a few animals for high prices. But critics see this approach as an exercise in neocolonialism. Cal Flyn went in pursuit of answers

Opinion | Starmer’s listless government shows zombie politics is the new norm
Distracted, listless and unambitious – the British PM’s true form has finally emerged. But whatever comes next must end this ruinous cycle for the country, argues Nesrine Malik

Culture | Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal madness
As a career-spanning documentary hits cinemas, the legendary rock band revisit their path from pubs to stadiums over half a century of headbanging hits. Harry Sword buckles up

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

THE NEW YORK TIMES – THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2026

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Oil Hits 4-Year High as Hormuz Standoff Shows No End in Sight

Oil prices surged above $120 a barrel before pulling back in volatile trading on concerns that the war could escalate. Gasoline in the U.S. hit $4.30 a gallon.

Iranians Live With Pain and Powerlessness, Beneath a Veneer of Normalcy

The War in Iran Has Cost America $25 Billion So Far. Is That a Lot?

It exceeds the annual budgets of numerous federal agencies, and the Pentagon’s yearly budget for munitions.

In Narrowing Voting Rights Act, Conservative Justices See Progress on Racism

The majority said the law was a victim of its own success and no longer needed. Dissenters responded that Congress should make the call.

Trump and Putin Talk, and Ukraine Shrugs

More than a year of similar conversations have failed to bring the country any closer to peace, so Ukrainians have stopped hoping they will.

Arts & Literature, Fiction, Magazines, Poetry, Previews, Views

Zyzzyva Magazine —– Spring 2026 Preview

April 29, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

ZYZZYVA Magazine: The latest issue features…

Nonfiction

“Saguaro in the Sea” by Sophia Acuña: on surfing and indigeneity in Southern California, told through collage.

“Care Directive” by Sarah Matsui: a daughter’s attempt to keep her aging father in Hawaii from all sorts of calamity, but having to monitor him from the mainland.

“Triptych: A Biographer’s Sketchbook” by Carolyn Burke: “The Baroness was lively, curious, and still blond at eighty-five. She received me in a flurry of franglais, the mingling of two languages in which we would converse, and put us at ease with pink champagne, her favorite.”

Fiction

“Decoys” by Will Boast: goofing around working at the town supermarket, burning through the days till it all comes to head.

“Lilac Mud” by Anita Felicelli: A Bay Area artist in Amsterdam is approached one night by a man claiming to be a former student, leading to a crisis of identity and purpose.

“Grote geplumaceerde” by Emily Nemens: “Afterward, staring hard at her phone, which was her radio, which was the bearer of bad news, she wondered what mattered at all.”

Poetry

Kevin Cantwell, Geraldine Jorge, Jonathon Keats, Caroline Kessler, and Noelani Piters.

In Conversation

Lydia Kiesling talks to acclaimed author Karen Russell about Russell’s latest novel, The Antidote, and about Russell’s “fascination with foundational myths, the things we choose to know, and the things we choose to ignore or forget.”

Art

Ian Everard

Arts & Literature, Books, History, Literature, Magazines, Reviews

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT – MAY 1, 2026 PREVIEW

April 29, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT: The latest issue features ‘A View of Her Own’….

Out of nothing

Tracey Emin’s self-fashioning By Sophie Oliver

Amateurs in name only

Women landscape painters reconsidered By Jenny Uglow

Bomb culture

Mankind has escaped nuclear war, for now By P. D. Smith

So close to the United States

Mexico’s challenge to received historical ideas By Benjamin T. Smith

Greedy for light

The bittersweet contentment of old age By Rory Waterman

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Opinion, Reviews

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS – MAY 7, 2026 PREVIEW

April 29, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features ‘Who Owns The Arctic?’ by Laleh Khalili; De Kooning in Cuba by T.J. Clark; Politics on Speed by William Davies…

Who owns the Arctic?

Laleh Khalili

From the 16th century onwards, as European powers feverishly colonised the world, the possibility of a Northern Sea Route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Scandinavia to the Bering Strait, tantalised the Dutch and the British as an alternative to the southern routes to Asia and the Americas, which were dominated by Portugal and Spain. But the route only became a reality in the Soviet era, after investments in scientific, economic, industrial and military infrastructure in Siberia.

Politics on Speed

William Davies

This is what distinguishes hyperpolitics from the mass democracy of the mid-20th century. Symbolic political gestures are now commonplace, but paid membership of organisations and parties has plummeted. The left has failed to find a replacement for trade unions as a basis for collective action in civil society. Political movements are easy to join, and just as easy to leave.

De Kooning in Cuba

T.J. Clark

De Kooning’s Suburb in Havana is a counter-revolutionary painting. Well, of course. It is counter-revolutionary because it is counter everything, versus everything, lost in suburbia. It wants to show us how hard it had to work to get precisely nowhere. Why nowhere was where it wished to get to is a question it leaves to the viewer.

Orbán’s Fall

Jan-Werner Müller

Can there be poetic justice in politics? Perhaps once in a lifetime. In 1989, a young Viktor Orbán bravely told the crowds in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square that it was time for the Russians to go home, just as protesters had demanded in 1956; almost four decades later, he was heckled on the campaign trail with the same words.

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

THE NEW YORK TIMES – WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2026

April 29, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Beneath the King’s Jokes and Decorum, Some Subtle Rebuttals to Trump

On the first full day of his state visit to the U.S., King Charles gently pushed back against President Trump’s attacks on Britain and NATO.

At State Dinner, Charles Charms the Court of Trump

King Charles presented President Trump with a golden bell. “Should you ever need to get hold of us,” the king said, “well, just give us a ring!”

Supreme Court Considers Trump’s Plan to Revoke Deportation Protections

The Trump administration wants to terminate humanitarian protections known as Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti and Syria.

Epstein Obtained Objects From Islam’s Holiest Site for His Island ‘Mosque’

Jeffrey Epstein’s messages cast light on an unusual building on his private island and show how his connections helped him secure tapestries from Mecca for it.

News, Newspapers, Opinion, Politics

THE NEW YORK TIMES – TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2026

April 28, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

United Arab Emirates Says It Will Leave OPEC in Blow to Oil Cartel

The Persian Gulf government has long complained about the group’s quotas, which officials believe unfairly limited their exports.

The World Needs Natural Gas Now, but the U.S. Is Exporting All It Can

U.S. Gas Prices Hit Highest Level Since Beginning of War in Iran

Republicans Brace for Brutal Midterms as Trump’s Popularity Slips

The House is now favored to fall into Democratic hands while control of the Senate, once seen as a G.O.P. bulwark, is increasingly up for grabs.

Blockbuster OpenAI Trial Pits Elon Musk Against Sam Altman

Elon Musk’s legal showdown with Sam Altman’s OpenAI could have far-reaching consequences for the future of artificial intelligence.

Et Tu, Brute? What Elon Musk’s Clash With Sam Altman Is Really About.

Mr. Musk’s lawsuit against Mr. Altman and OpenAI, which went to trial this week, makes the case that all-encompassing greed is Silicon Valley’s defining feature.