
THE NEW CRITERION: The latest issue features….

THE NEW CRITERION: The latest issue features….

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘A Season In Hell’ – Tourism on a heating planet.
California’s Big Sur coastline is often called a slice of heaven. But this year – beset by wildfires, road closures and disruptions to tourist amenities – it has endured a long summer of hell. Now questions are being asked about how many visitors it can sustain in the face of the climate crisis.
For our big story this week, Andrew Gumbel visits Big Sur, where the tourist industry accounts for about 90% of the local economy, to hear why the community fears its ethos is under threat.
The UN has warned that the El Niño climate phenomenon is “supersizing before our eyes”. Environment editor Damien Carrington reports on the latest forecasts, which predict the event is near certain to shatter temperature records.
Then, the mayors of Paris, Milan and Phoenix write about how their cities are learning from each other on responding to the heat crisis. “How do you protect millions of people,” they ask, “when extreme heat is no longer an exceptional event, but an increasingly familiar part of summer?”
Spotlight | ‘It breaks my heart’
Kate Connolly reports from Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, where voters are digesting the far-right Alternative für Deutschland’s state election triumph
Science | Forbidden planet
Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate, writes Tim Dowling
Feature | Your lying AIs
LLMs have an alarming tendency to deceive and manipulate their users. As they become ever more embedded in society, the race is on to find out why – and stop them doing it. Snigdha Poonam explains
Opinion | The route to a brighter future
The world is being driven to the brink by thugs and dictators, says Simon Tisdall, but ordinary people have more power than we think
Culture | A stitch up
As the Bayeux tapestry goes on show in London, cartoonist Edith Pritchett offers an alternative 21st century take, capturing today’s battles, while art critic Jonathan Jones reviews the British Museum’s blockbuster exhibition of the original masterpiece

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features…
Choices, choices
With a seemingly endless array to select from, Country Life contributors reveal the tulips they will be planting for spring.

Charles Quest-Ritson is hoping for warm days and cool nights to fuel a spectacular display of countryside autumn colour
Who let the dogs out?
Music and Man’s best friend go hand in hand. Harry Pearson collars canines calling the tune
Well, hello Salar!
David Profumo heads for the West Country in the wake of his fishing hero Ted Hughes
Luxury
Jonathan Self is dazzled by Coco Chanel jewellery and Tiffany Daneff is talking trugs
George Saumarez Smith’s favourite painting
The architect chooses a bold graphic linocut of the feline form
Country-house treasure
John Goodall admires the revival of the Tapestry Drawing Room at Castle Howard, North Yorkshire

The legacy
Tiffany Daneff pays tribute to the family who cooked up the secret recipe for Pulhamite rock
Grandstand views
An inspirational outlook makes for a magnificent garden at Mount St John, North Yorkshire. Kendra Wilson surveys the scene
Hot pots
Amelia Thorpe picks standout planters to showcase top tulips
Forever flowers
Blooms of Hydrangea paniculata are a must for every garden, suggests Charles Quest-Ritson
Why build a new country house
George Saumarez Smith weighs up the allure of a new country house in place of an historic pile

A point of prospect
John Goodall finds a striking new memorial tower worth the climb at Doddington Place, Kent
Picture this
Independent rural cinemas will always offer the best big-screen experience for Madeleine Silver
Interiors
A feast of design ideas awaits visitors to key events such as Focus/26, reveals Amelia Thorpe
Back to the future
Harry Pearson meets the art conservators giving historic paintings a new lease of life

Shell we?
The secret to dressed-crab perfection is keeping it simple, as Tom Parker Bowles reveals
Lord of the flies
Fruit flies are more than a mere pest — Ian Morton reveals their critical role in medical research
New series: Countryside mysteries
Otherworldly cramp balls — or King Alfred’s cakes — fire the imagination of John Wright
Travel
Gabriella Le Breton unpacks the winter latest, from new Swiss ski lifts to the high life in Courchevel
Arts & antiques
Benvenuto Cellini’s golden Saliera is a 16th-century cellar worth its salt, as Carla Passino discovers

For much of its history, Albania remained as shadowy and remote as the fictional Syldavia of the Tintin comics. Letters to Albania were sometimes returned from Albany, New York, with the postal direction “Try Europe.” The country came into existence only after 1912, with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Its first ruler, King Zog, was hounded out by Mussolini when he invaded in 1939. Five years later, the Italians and…
In August, Donald Trump sided with consumers by increasing the tariff-free quota on imported beef for 90 days beginning September 1. The concession will last three months. It would be a minor story with any other president in the White House. But under Trump, even dull-sounding trade news can take on a sudden importance, especially when mixed up with foreign affairs. Trump’s justification for favoring Argentina, whose 2026 quota he increased by 80,000 metric tons, is partly geopolitical: he wants to give support to Javier Milei’s free-market regime, seeing it as a foil to left-leaning governments elsewhere in Latin America.
Pete Hegseth has a face for television and a machismo of sorts. It appears, even to parts of MAGA, that Donald Trump put him in charge of the armed forces because the President likes attractive people on TV. “Right out of central casting,” Trump once told Secretary Hegseth, patting him on the bicep. “Pete loves war!”

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest issue cover features “Lennart Gäbel’s “Showstopper” – Commuter couture.
A quarter century after the attacks, the grief, wars, and political furies of their aftermath still shape American life. By Jill Lepore
The culture wars have come for lingerie as the right, once the advocates of promise rings and purity culture, embarks on a crusade to “Make America Hot Again.” By Jennifer Wilson
The kingdom, seeking to rebrand as a culinary juggernaut, has bankrolled new restaurants and conscripted big-name chefs. Will it succeed? By Ruby Tandoh
A coterie of advisers, planners, and architects is enabling the President’s passion project—renovating D.C. in his own image. By Antonia Hitchens

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 9.6.26 Issue features Benjamin Wallace on the summer ticks took over; Ruth Franklin on teaching Huck Finn in 2026; Susan Dominus on Collien Fernandes and her quest to find out who was impersonating her online; and more.
A scientific and civilizational horror story.
But every crisis is an opportunity. By David Wallace-Wells
“Familects” emerge out of in-jokes and mispronunciations, but they reveal something about how all language evolves. By Nitsuh Abebe
George W. Bush, Billy Crystal, Tino Martinez and others describe how baseball and a thrilling postseason became a rallying cry for the country. By Garrett Graff

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Swept Away’ – After the Nepal-Tibet flood disaster…
Over the last week, the world has watched with horror the scenes from the Tibet-Nepal border where a devastating torrent of mud, water and ice tore along the Bhotekoshi River, destroying entire communities and leaving more than 1,000 people dead and several thousand more missing.
From the Nepali town of Devighat, our south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen describes a nightmarish scene of overflowing mortuaries and unidentifiable bodies, as shellshocked survivors of the flood slowly return to the ruins of their homes.
The disaster happened after the collapse of a glacier – and while global heating has not been definitively attributed as the cause, it is undeniable that steep mountain slopes and valleys are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides, while extreme weather events such as monsoons and melting glaciers have become more common because of warming due to human-caused climate breakdown, as our global environment writer Jonathan Watts explains.
Then columnist Nesrine Malik paints a wider picture and argues that while for many people these floods may feel as though they have happened a world away, the climate crisis is coming for us all, one way or another.
Spotlight | Mark Carney shows combative nature in face-off with Trump
The Canadian PM is one of the few world leaders to stand up to the US president. Former colleagues say they are not surprised. Leyland Cecco, Heather Stewart and Kalyeena Makortoff report
Science | The robots are coming!
… Or are they? As entrants at the World Humanoid Games lurched from triumph to farce, Robert Booth finds that a robotics revolution may not be as close as it first appears
Interview | Gordon Brown on Burnham, billionaires – and a better Britain
The former UK prime minister is still shaping politics (even if he doesn’t want to interfere). He tells Charlotte Edwardes about keeping his temper, staying fit – and why he won’t splash out for a Scotland football shirt
Opinion | The tech titans must be stripped of their power, and soon
Those who said Meta harms children struck a blow, but the ability of big tech to gouge profits and cause harm is barely diminished. That’s the battle to come, argues Jonathan Freedland
Culture | Dolly Parton’s peerless career turned country music cliches inside out
Beneath the wig and rhinestones, the late US country singer was the genius behind strings of classic songs that continue to inspire new artists, says Alexis Petridis

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features…
Edward Impey admires the ambitious attempt to revive early-12th-century interiors at Norwich Castle keep in Norfolk
What did the Normans ever do for us?
Jason Goodwin examines how the 1066 invasion by William the Conqueror changed the character of England forever

Walk on the wild side
Nicholas Crane re-creates the 1,000-mile, 12th-century journey undertaken by Gerald of Wales, Britain’s first great travel writer
Architecture as power
The monumental castles and churches the Normans left behind still express their strength in stone, reveals John Goodall
That sinking feeling
Quicksand is the stuff of many a nightmare. Harry Pearson tries not to get sucked in

Arts & antiques
Artists have long been inspired by the Battle of Hastings, as Carla Passino discovers
Michael Whitehall’s favourite painting
The podcast co-host chooses an arresting work expressing movement and fleeting beauty
Save our seeds
Seed Detective Adam Alexander issues an appeal to gardeners to revive the Victorian tradition of gathering life-giving pips

The legacy
The fossil-hunter Mary Anning helped put palaeontology front and centre, finds Kate Green
Country-house treasure
The golden Jean Tijou gates at Burghley House in Lincolnshire catch the eye of John Goodall
New series: Countryside mysteries
In the first of a series on rural riddles, John Wright cracks the old conundrum of strip lynchets
Yell for leather
Corinne Julius meets the animal-hide experts conserving historic objects from their Leicester HQ

You little cracker
The neglected Kentish cobnut is making an overdue come-back, suggests Susan Low
Luxury
The runway returns and Amie Elizabeth White’s earthy tones
Interiors
Amelia Thorpe picks out elegant fittings to elevate the bathroom
Will Hosie asks what makes a pub a pub and eyes properties with a pop of colour, plus our writers have all you need to know this month and Gio Fio marvels at the reinvention of the north bank of the Thames

Out on the prairie
American plants may be the answer to our warming climate, reports Charles Quest-Ritson
Travel
Pamela Goodman roots around in the Nadder Valley in Wiltshire

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 8.30.26 Issue features Charles Homans on Democratic Socialists; Chien-Chi Chang on civil-defense drills in Taiwan; Jon Ronson on Greg Chism’s strange journey with YouTube; and more.
Her latest novel appears to savage a celebrity. But Cusk has, once again, managed to turn herself into the victim.
In 1980, feminists were often stereotyped as man-hating or out of touch. Then Parton gave the movement a boost — and an anthem. By Susan Dominus
I traveled around the country to find out if “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” still has a place in the classroom. By Ruth Franklin
The word today applies to more than religious sects, but it says something about our worshipful attitude toward consumption. By Sophie Haigney

THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest issue cover features “Nicole Rifkin’s “Pure Gold” – We will always love you.
Dolly Parton belonged to a beloved category: the outlaw Christian, who loved Jesus and refused to hate anyone else.
Why do we love trash and hate slop? Neil Breen’s so-bad-they’re-great movies elucidate the difference.
Flash floods, triggered by a glacial collapse in the Himalayas, have killed at least five hundred people in a nation that has contributed little to climate change but is disproportionately affected by it. By Ishaan Tharoor
Even while refusing to admit legal fault, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has accepted, for the first time, that much of its business model is unacceptable for children. By Nathaniel Lubin
The breakneck expansion of settlements in the West Bank has rendered American talk of a two-state solution increasingly irrelevant.