Tag Archives: Culture

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 30, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Showdown’ – Minneapolis, Ice and A Moment of Truth.

Is the worm turning against Trump? Last week saw a concerted pushback against the US president by western allies over Greenland. This week, it is on the domestic front where the Trump administration seems to be buckling – this time under intense criticism after the killing of another American citizen by federal agents in Minneapolis.

The massive winter storm that swept across North America last weekend could not obscure from the nation video footage of an ICE agent shooting dead Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse and father of three who was seemingly rushing to protect a woman as she was pepper-sprayed by Border Patrol personnel.

As our Washington bureau chief David Smith writes in this week’s big story, the events were seen by many as clear evidence of fascistic overreach and a potential moment of reckoning for Trump in the US. A wave of condemnation from politicians across the political spectrum led to a swift softening of tone from the White House, though not before leading administration figures had wrongly tried to pin the blame on the victim.

From Minneapolis, Rachel Leingang reports on the sense of shock and fury in the city, while in a stark commentary, Francine Prose voices her fears that the US may be on the brink of an authoritarian takeover.

Spotlight | Are Trump’s tantrums pushing America’s allies closer to China?
After a week of diplomatic turmoil, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat. Amy Hawkins reports

Science | Fly me to the moon, again
Nasa is readying its most powerful Artemis II rocket for a new, 1.1 million km lunar circumnavigation flight – and lift-off could come as soon as next week. Science editor Ian Sample sets the scene

Feature | Secrets of the superagers
Why do some people age better than others? Five extraordinary individuals – who scientists are studying – share their tips with Isabelle Aron

Opinion | It’s now clear. Labour needs a new leader – and quickly
UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s dismal decision to block likely leadership challenger Andy Burnham from standing in a byelection has bought him time, but it won’t change his fate, says Polly Toynbee

Culture | Has Netflix killed our attention spans?
Matt Damon has got it right, argues Stuart Heritage: the streaming giant knows we all just watch TV with one hand gripping our smartphones, which is why we need plotlines explaining to us over and over again

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE – FEBRUARY 2, 2026

Biking delivery workers are carrying food in bright orange boxes during a snow storm in the city.

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest issue features Jason Zengerle on Tucker Carlson, Joshua Yaffa on Trump and Greenland, Hermione Hoby on David Foster Wallace, and more.

Trump’s Greenland Fiasco

The President caused a crisis in NATO and deepened European distrust toward the U.S. to end up with basically the same set of options that existed months ago. By Joshua Yaffa

What MAGA Can Teach Democrats About Organizing—and Infighting

Republicans have become adept at creating broad coalitions in which supporting Trump is the only requirement. Democrats get tied up with litmus tests.

How Shinzo Abe’s Assassination Brought the Moonies Back Into the Limelight

A shocking act of political violence exposed the cult’s deep influence. By E. Tammy Kim

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE- January 25, 2026

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 1.25.26 Issue features C.J. Chivers on semiautonomous killer A.I. drones in Ukraine; Jim Rutenberg on the MAGA plan to take over TV; Taffy Brodesser-Akner on seeing the musical “Operation Mincemeat” 13 times; and more.

What Keeps Max Greyserman in Golf Obscurity? Less Than One Stroke Per Round.

He is ranked No. 33 in the world. Can he rise to the top by using lessons from his father’s time on Wall Street?

Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.: Meltdowns, Chaos, Vendettas

Forty-five current and former employees on the changes they say are undermining the agency and making America less safe. By Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser

Takeaways From The Times’s Inside Look at the F.B.I.

Many current and former employees say Kash Patel’s first year as F.B.I. director was marred by vendettas, mismanagement and meltdowns. By Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser

The American Scholar Magazine – Winter 2026

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THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR: The latest issue features ‘The Chronicler of Harlem’ – Rudolph Fischer’s singular legacy…

Renaissance Man

Doctor, writer, musician, and orator: Rudolph Fisher was a scientist and an artist whose métier was Harlem By Harriet A. Washington

Acid Blues (Slight Return)

The music of Jimi Hendrix continues to strike a chord By James McManus

Netflix Goes to Vietnam

When a filmmaker wanted to understand the war that changed his father, he decided to make a documentary By Thomas A. Bass

Back to Bellevue

Two deaths nearly five decades apart and the hospital that felt like a nightmare By Natalie Angier

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 23, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘On Thin Ice’ – Why Trump wants Greenland – and what it means for the western alliance.

The dystopian nightmare of 2026 continued apace this week with Donald Trump seemingly hell-bent on taking over Greenland, either by purchase or military force if necessary, while potentially collapsing the entire western security alliance in the process.

Updates were delivered by the US president to European leaders in a trademark stream of social media insults and invective. As ever with Trump, it’s hard to tell if it all should be read as maximalist positioning ahead of a negotiation, or a genuine precursor to a military attack. But as Patrick Wintour and Jennifer Rankin write in this week’s Big Story, the damage among fellow Nato members already looks to have been done.

Melting sea ice has much to do with Greenland’s increasing strategic desirability. With the help of some great graphics, visuals editor Ashley Kirk explains what’s changing in the Arctic and who lays claim to what.

Spotlight | The man who trusted Trump – and paid with his life
Many Iranian protesters believed a US president would – for the first time – rescue them, but now people can only despair after mass arrests and brutality. Deepa Parent and William Christou report

Environment | Where have all Thailand’s dugongs gone?

The Andaman coast was one of few places in the world with a viable population of the marine mammals, but then dead ones began washing up. Now half have gone. Gloria Dickie reports from Phuket

Feature | Cuba edges closer to collapse
Disillusioned with the revolution after 68 years of US sanctions and a shattered economy, one in four Cubans have left in recent years. Can the regime, and country, survive? By Andrei Netto in Havana

Opinion | Take a lesson from the past, and light the way forward
As Martin Kettle writes his last regular column for the Guardian, his thoughts turn to the examples and hope we can take from history

Culture | Michael Sheen on launching Welsh National Theatre
As the newly founded national company’s first show comes to the stage, the proudly Welsh actor tells Kate Wyver about his plan to bring big productions back to his homeland

HARPER’S MAGAZINE – FEBRUARY 2026 PREVIEW

HARPER’S MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘America Goes For Broke’ – Inside the National Sports Betting Craze…

On Tilt – America’s new gambling epidemic

by Jasper Craven

The Sanctuarium – The Philippines reckons with its war on drugs

by Sean Williams

Another London – Excavating the disenchanted city

by Hari Kunzru

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE – JANUARY 26, 2026

A woman in the subway is looking at her vacation memories under the gaze of onlookers.

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest cover features Adrian Tomine’s “Post-Vacation” – Staying warm.

Why Trump Supports Protesters in Tehran but Not in Minneapolis

During the President’s second Administration, universal principles such as self-determination and due process are wielded only opportunistically.

By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

The Lights Are Still On in Venezuela

After the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro, some residents fear that one unelected despot has been swapped for another.

By Armando Ledezma

n+1 Magazine – Winter ’26

n+1 Magazine: The latest issue features the ‘Winter 2026 issue, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS’ – H is for hawks. Trump’s cleavage: a semiotic investigation. Haters, waiters, trash containers. Emily Callaci and Dayna Tortorici on intra-feminist debates. Matthew Porges on new space odysseys.

Sinophobic Sinophilia

In the contemporary Chinese context, the idea that crucial parts of the central government could simply cease to operate for more than a month, as part of a procedural standoff between rival governing factions, would beggar belief. And in turn, to an American observer, the thought that miles of new high-speed rail lines could simply materialize by bureaucratic fiat, unencumbered by years of legislative horse-trading, environmental review, suburban backlash, and budgetary overshoot, is no less astonishing.

City of Meh

Adams will be remembered for his petty corruption, his self-mythologizing, and his ignominious dealmaking with the Trump White House; but he should also be remembered as the mayor who got New Yorkers to stop tossing giant bags of trash onto city sidewalks as if there were no alternative. You can laugh at a New York mayor who walks into a press conference wheeling out a trash can, beaming as if he invented the contraption, while “Empire State of Mind” blares triumphantly in the background. But truly, Adams’s proclaimed “trash revolution” represented a tremendous advance over abysmal past practice.

Mere Domination

“Men make their own history,” Marx wrote, “but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.” That may be broadly true, but Dick Cheney got to make history under the exact circumstances he would have chosen.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE- January 18, 2026

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 1.18.26 Issue features Robert Draper on Marjorie Taylor Greene; Ferris Jabr on a science experiment to help make the oceans less acidic; Jonathan Mahler on Christian Zionism and MAGA; and more.

Kílian Jornet on What We Can Learn From Pushing Our Bodies to Extremes

Imagine yourself on an isolated mountain pass. The wind is whipping, the air is thin, there is nothing around you except the sky and the sound of your feet hitting the craggy ground. Many of us have experienced the wonder and exertion that comes with a great hike in a wild landscape. These are places we may love to visit, but for Kílian Jornet, this is where he is most at home.

The MAGA Plan to Take Over TV Is Just Beginning

Under Trump, the F.C.C. has used obscure regulatory powers to crack down on network TV. Some conservatives are pushing back. By Jim Rutenberg

Trump’s Fight With Minnesota Is About More Than Immigration

The state embodies a civic ideal that the administration in Washington wants to discredit. By Charles Homans