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THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – FEBRUARY 6, 2026 PREVIEW

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THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘USA-IRAN’ – Collision Course….

Have Donald Trump’s hard talk and the arrival of a strike-ready flotilla finally made Tehran blink? It certainly seemed so by Monday evening, when Iran said it was willing to talk. A week of trading threats turned to strong indications that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, and Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s minister for foreign affairs, were readying to meet in Istanbul on Friday. In this week’s big story, Ashifa Kassam and Andrew Roth chart how momentum to war slowed and fears of a wider regional conflict eased, albeit marginally.

The background to Trump’s war of words against Tehran was the huge protests that rocked Iran last month, until they were brutally repressed by the regime. Analysts suggest a fragile domestic security situation prompted the Iranian government’s softening towards US demands. Our diplomatic editor and longtime Iran watcher, Patrick Wintour, explains that while the streets are now quiet, a shift in the balance of power between the people and the government has emboldened domestic demands for a full investigation of the killing and imprisonment of protesters.

Spotlight | The Epstein files, part two
Daniel Boffey details the biggest bombshell among the 3m newly released documents: disgraced former minister Peter Mandelson’s deep and compromising relationship with the convicted paedophile

Environment | Nature runs wild in Fukushima
Free of human habitation after the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, Fukushima is now teeming with wildlife. But this haven could vanish if people come back, finds Justin McCurry

Features | From hope to despair
The postwar new town of Newton Aycliffe with its boarded up shops is a symbol of the Britain’s economic gloom – and a warning for Labour as it battles the rise of Reform UK, reports Josh Halliday

Opinion | Art, groceries, Greenland – thieves are everywhere
Jonathan Liew reflects on how we all seem to live in a world defined by petty theft and no one, whether it’s the pickpocket or the big AI company, seems to get punished

Culture | Small acts of magic
Mackenzie Crook tells Zoe Williams how his approach to comedy has mellowed with age. Gone is the nervous, awkward energy of Gareth from The Office, to be replaced by the gentle curiosity that animates his new series Small Prophets

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

LITERARY REVIEW —- FEBRUARY 2026

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LITERARY REVIEW : The latest issue features Norma Clarke on Charlie Chaplin’s London; Richard Bourke on revolution; Lucasta Miller on George Sand; Peter Davidson on Constable; Philippe Marlière on far-right France; Munro Price on the Marquis de Morès; Piers Brendon on Trotsky’s demise; Mark Glancy on Hitchcock’s scores

High-Builded Clouds – Constable’s Year: An Artist in Changing Seasons By Susan Owens

Where Fry Met Laurie – The Cambridge Footlights: A Very British Comedy Institution By Robert Sellers

Partners in Suspense – Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores That Changed Cinema By Steven C Smith

Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Literary Review Of Canada – March 2026 Preview

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March 2026 Archives | Literary Review of Canada

Literary Review of Canada The latest issue features:

Ulysses Unbound

Navigating this Age of Appetite by Krzysztof Pelc

Here’s a question I often bat around with graduate students in my International Political Economy seminar: In book 12 of the Odyssey, how do the shipmates know which Ulysses to trust?

You know the story. Ulysses and his crew have been on Circe’s island for a year. They’re finally about to depart when the goddess takes Ulysses aside and warns him of the dangers that await them. The first of these is the “piercing songs” of the Sirens. “So listen,” she says, “I will give you good instructions; another god will make sure you remember.”

Circe tells Ulysses to put wax in his sailors’ ears but that he can listen to the Sirens if he wants to — as long as his shipmates bind him “hand and foot” to the mast: “So bound, you can enjoy the Sirens’ song. But if you beg your men to set you free, they have to tie you down with firmer knots.”

As their ship approaches the Sirens’ sharp rocks, the wind dies down, they pull the sails, and they begin to row. As predicted, Ulysses yells out to his men to set him free. He is still their captain. But instead of obeying his orders, Eurylochus and Perimedes stand up and “tie him down with firmer knots.” How, I ask my students, do they know to trust the first Ulysses over the second? How is it that as readers, we never question their choice?

Cemented Legacy

Form follows Ford by Kelvin Browne 

Albert Kahn has been called “the father of industrial architecture” and “the architect of Detroit.” His firm was certainly prolific: it was responsible for the Ford Motor Company of Canada factory in Toronto, near a laneway that bears his name, and the General Motors assembly plant in Regina, along with nearly 900 buildings in Motor City alone. Kahn’s oeuvre encompassed offices, grand homes for his industrialist clients, and libraries and fraternity houses at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, not to mention a post office, a synagogue, and multiple hospitals and skyscrapers. Many of Kahn’s buildings reflect a pastiche of styles that might be considered a precursor of a postmodern eclectic. Yet this prolific architect is relatively unknown today, especially outside of Michigan.

Albert Kahn Inc.: Architecture, Labor, and Industry, 1905–1961 by Claire Zimmerman

The MIT Press / 488 pages, hardcover

Floe State? – On trouble in Greenland

By Michael Strizic

The mood on the Sea Adventurer’s bridge was grim. “She’s only making eight knots,” said our expedition leader. “We need to hit at least fourteen to keep to our itinerary.” We were four days into a two-week sailing and anchored off Ilulissat, near a UNESCO World Heritage site nestled into the crenellated western coast of Greenland.

Earlier that day, I had found myself at the helm of a Zodiac, manoeuvring the rubberized craft through thick fog, near-freezing water, and growlers. The ten high-paying passengers under my care likely had no idea that this was my first trip with the tour operator or my first time north of the Arctic Circle.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 30, 2026 PREVIEW

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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

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

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS – FEBRUARY 12, 2026

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Table of Contents - February 12, 2026 | The New York Review of Books

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features Alma Guillermoprieto on the US’s mad invasion of Venezuela; Fintan O’Toole on the nightmare of Trumpian imperialism; Hermione Lee on Gertrude Stein; Ian Frazier on the sea of chicken; Jérôme Tubiana on the crisis in Darfur; Jenny Uglow on precious stones; Beatrice Radden Keefe on Gothic fever; Aryeh Neier and Gara LaMarche on the dire state of philanthropy in Trump’s America; Regina Marler on Jane DeLynn; Laurence H. Tribe on Jill Lepore; poems by Fernando Pessoa, Ben Lerner, and Kathleen Ossip; and much more.

A More Pliant Chavista

President Trump’s decision to support Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s new leader makes clear that oil, not democracy, is his main concern.

Whose Hemisphere?

The US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro reinforces the Trump administration’s capacity to invent any pretext to justify the use of armed force.

Epic Ambitions

A new life of Gertrude Stein treats her as a philosopher of language to trust, not explain—and gathers force from archival discoveries and intriguing plots of her reception and reputation.

Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade

Is the Constitution ‘Dead, Dead, Dead’?

The difficulty of amending the Constitution does not mean that it is a flawed and outdated relic of a distant past.

We the People: A History of the US Constitution by Jill Lepore

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 23, 2026 PREVIEW

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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

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Philosophy, Politics

n+1 Magazine – Winter ’26

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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.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 16, 2026 PREVIEW

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THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘The New Age of Empire’

We’re just a couple of weeks into 2026 and already it feels like an eternity has passed.

From Venezuela to Greenland, a blitz of revanchist US foreign policy moves by Donald Trump has thrown the world into turmoil. Domestically, it’s little better: in Minneapolis, the killing last week of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent – who was defended aggressively by Trump – prompted shock and fury across America.

While some argue that recent events simply represent a more honest, open approach towards US policy goals than in the recent past, others believe such brazen expansionism profoundly threatens the world order.

In a terrific essay this week, our senior international correspondent Julian Borger argues that these events signal a shift away from the postwar rules-based order and into a new age of global imperialism where, alongside Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China, powerful nations use overtly brute force to achieve their objectives.

Spotlight | Iran protests: ‘The streets are full of blood’
After several days of protests amid an information blackout and a brutal crackdown, demonstrators recount their experiences on the frontlines to Deepa Parent and William Christou

Technology | Elon Musk’s pervert chatbot
‘Add blood, forced smile’: Amelia Gentleman and Helena Horton investigate how Grok’s AI nudification tool went viral

Feature | Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian
The US president has vowed to kill off ‘woke’ in his second term in office, and the venerable cultural institution a few blocks from the White House is in his sights. Charlotte Higgins reports

Opinion | As the bombs fell, my family planted hope in a garden in Gaza
Amid constant danger, Taqwa Ahmed ­al-Wawi’s seed-planting was a tiny act of resistance, offering food – and a sense of achievement among the devastation

Culture | Interview with Park Chan-wook
The South Korean film director talks to Steve Rose about cultural dominance, the capitalist endgame and why we can’t beat AI

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 9, 2026 PREVIEW

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THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘The Donroe Doctrine’ – Donald Trump stakes his claim to the Western Hemisphere.

Donald Trump consigned the remnants of the rules-based international order to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea as US forces extracted Nicolás Maduro to face trial in the US. With allies and adversaries of Washington still adjusting to last weekend’s audacious assault on Caracas, Trump and his inner circle are thinking about their next steps to secure US interests in what they regard as “our hemisphere”.


Our reporting team, led by Latin American correspondent Tom Phillips, gauges the reaction to Maduro’s abduction on the ground in Caracas and among Venezuela’s closest neighbours, while Dan Sabbagh explains how the US military had planned and executed the operation.

Since the start of the US military buildup and blockade of Venezuela, Trump had claimed that Maduro needed to be “brought to justice” for his alleged role in drug trafficking, which Trump claimed had caused thousands of deaths in the US. But, as international commentators Julian Borger and Nesrine Malik explain, that has proved the thinnest of justifications and already by last Saturday it was clear that Venezuela’s huge oil reserves were uppermost on his mind.

Spotlight | Iran in turmoil
An ailing economy and plummeting exchange rate have prompted the biggest street protests in many years, report Deepa Parent and William Christou

Science | Is de-extinction really possible?
Bringing woolly mammoths and dire wolves back to life captured the public’s imagination last year but, Patrick Greenfield reports, there are questions around what can actually be achieved

Feature | The power and purpose of guilt
Psychologist Chris Moore saw first-hand how powerful and complex an emotion it is, as he explains to Emine Saner

Opinion | Adieu to the French art of lunch
Paul Taylor mourns the demise of a convivial lunch at a bistro serving freshly prepared food and the end of an unpretentious part of working culture

Culture | Is the crisis in masculinty just a joke?
It’s a ridiculous time to be male – and that’s good news for a new genre of social media comedy poking fun at the manosphere, finds Matthew Cantor

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 2, 2026 PREVIEW

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THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Payback Time’ – Europe’s very big, very expensive problem with state pensions.

As populations age, the number of younger people entering the workforce is shrinking – and that’s a big problem for “pay as you go” state pension schemes where employees fund the pensions of an expanding cohort of retired people.

Confusingly, a new poll of six European nations reveals how most voters can see this problem and realise their state pensions will soon become unaffordable. But at the same time, they also believe state pensions are too low, and are unwilling to support reforms to them.

Where do governments under increasing pressure from populists go from here? For our first big story of 2026, the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, Jon Henley, reports on a ticking timebomb for the continent’s social contract.

Spotlight | The prospects for peace in Ukraine in 2026
As Russia inches forward on the battlefield and – despite Donald Trump’s optimism – peace talks remain deadlocked, Kyiv’s best hopes of progress may be on the economic and political fronts, writes Dan Sabbagh

Science | How great a threat is AI to the climate?
The datacentres behind artificial intelligence are polluting the natural world – and some experts fear the exponential rise in demand could derail the shift to a clean economy. Ajit Niranjan reports

Feature | Returning to the West Bank after two decades
The former Guardian correspondent Ewen MacAskill used to report frequently from the Palestinian Territory. Twenty years after his last visit, he went back – and was shocked by how much worse it is today

Opinion | Need cheering up after a terrible year? I have just the story for you
A single act of kindness reminded columnist Martin Kettle that, despite so much evidence to the contrary, the better angels of our nature are not necessarily doomed

Culture | The Brit boom
Whether it’s Charli xcx or chicken shops, UK culture is having a moment. Can it be future-proofed from the diluting forces of globalisation? Rachel Aroesti investigates