Times Literary Supplement (September 8, 2023): The new issue features Modern conspiracy theories, China’s Platonic republic, Jonathan Raban’s last days, Sebastian Faulks’s Neanderthal, the English country house, and more….
Kim Jong-un is likely to seek missile and warhead technology in an expected visit to Russia, and he is already getting a public embrace he has long sought.
The prison term for Enrique Tarrio was the most severe penalty handed down so far to any of the more than 1,100 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
For decades, the university required students seeking medical leaves to withdraw and reapply. A campus suicide set off a cascade of revisions.
The African country has volunteered to send forces to Haiti as its security crisis spirals out of control. But the plan is facing pushback.
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.
Russia seeks more weaponry for its war in Ukraine, and a North Korean delegation recently traveled to Russia by train to plan for Mr. Kim’s visit this month, officials say.
The case of Johan Floderus, kept under wraps for more than a year, has become part of Iran’s “hostage diplomacy” as Tehran seeks concessions from the West.
The effort to help the Texas attorney general, whose impeachment trial starts Tuesday, is part of an ongoing struggle over the Republican Party’s future.
A new generation of cheaper and more flexible vessels could be vital in any conflict with China, but the Navy remains lashed to big shipbuilding programs driven by tradition, political influence and jobs.
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.
The fate of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, had been the subject of increasing speculation in Ukraine. It was the biggest shake-up in Ukraine’s government since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Environmentally, economically and in terms of pure human suffering, the destruction of the Kakhovka dam unleashed untold damage. Months later, many communities are still reeling.
Officials urged campers to conserve food and water on Sunday, as the police investigated one death. The annual burning of a manlike figure was postponed.
As Beijing tries to enlist the “whole of society” to guard against foreign enemies, the line between vigilance and paranoia fades.
With their contract expiring Sept. 14, the United Auto Workers and the companies are far apart in talks. A walkout could take a big economic toll.
An extensive paper trail reveals that the authorities in Johannesburg were warned repeatedly about the dangers in the derelict building where 76 people died in a fire this week.
As Ukraine pushes slowly forward in its counteroffensive, it’s relying heavily on the effort of hundreds of small-scale assault groups, each tasked with attacking a single trench, tree line or house.
With songs like “Margaritaville” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” he became a folk hero to fans known as Parrot Heads. He also became a millionaire hundreds of times over.
Literary Review – September 2023: The new issue features Yoga Goes To Hollywood by Dominic Green; How England Lost France; Who’s Afraid of AI?; Don’t Mention Tiananmen; Anne Boleyn’s Ascent and Tastes of China….
RICHARD VINEN
Turning Points: Crisis and Change in Modern Britain, from 1945 to Truss By Steve Richards
In the good old days, dates were for foreigners. France, to take the obvious example, had repeatedly been turned upside down by war, revolution and changes of regime. But the English tourist in Paris rarely bothered to find out which of these distasteful events might be commemorated by, say, the rue du Quatre Septembre. The history of England (this was less true of Scotland and not at all true of Ireland) was a smooth and mostly benign progression. Educated people could tell you what the Glorious Revolution was but might be hazy about when exactly it had happened.
BLAKE SMITH
The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs By David Runciman
Artificial intelligence, it is commonly acknowledged, will pose one of the gravest challenges to humanity in the coming years. In the minds of some, it is already the most urgent problem we face. While there are a number of possible dangers that might bring about the extinction of our species, AI confronts us with a particularly dire situation, because it may well be that we have only a brief amount of time – perhaps a generation – in which to set up norms and constraints on the development of autonomous, non-human intelligences that may otherwise escape our control.
Disinformation will become easier to produce, but it matters less than you might think
Politics is supposed to be about persuasion; but it has always been stalked by propaganda. Campaigners dissemble, exaggerate and fib. They transmit lies, ranging from bald-faced to white, through whatever means are available. Anti-vaccine conspiracies were once propagated through pamphlets instead of podcasts. A century before covid-19, anti-maskers in the era of Spanish flu waged a disinformation campaign. They sent fake messages from the surgeon-general via telegram (the wires, not the smartphone app). Because people are not angels, elections have never been free from falsehoods and mistaken beliefs.
Cynical leaders are scaremongering to win and abuse power
People seek strength and solace in their tribe, their faith or their nation. And you can see why. If they feel empathy for their fellow citizens, they are more likely to pull together for the common good. In the 19th and 20th centuries love of country spurred people to seek their freedom from imperial capitals in distant countries. Today Ukrainians are making heroic sacrifices to defend their homeland against Russian invaders.
Boomers Daily 