America’s centennial in 1876 was celebrated with a grand exhibition that projected an image of national unity and inventiveness in the anxious aftermath of civil war and recession.
Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America’s Future by Fergus M. Bordewich
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff’s Muskism examines how Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, by selling a vision of the future that very few people would want to inhabit.
Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff
Attacks on ships were followed by new U.S. strikes on Iran, which responded by firing at Gulf nations. The pattern of hostilities has all but collapsed a cease-fire, with little sign that either side will step back.
Tanker Attacks Risk Overplaying Iran’s Hand and Reigniting a War
Iran’s history shows it is willing to dig in, even when it may suffer big losses.
While President Trump insulted allies and demanded loyalty, the military alliance moved quietly closer to accepting more European responsibility for defense.
Censors demanded 127 cuts to the film that explores a dark period of police brutality in Punjab state. Filmmakers say it’s the latest, chilling example of entrenched censorship.
‘A Slow-Rolling Disaster’: Inside the Implosion of the Platner Campaign
Graham Platner’s bid for the Senate inspired progressive Democrats. But the campaign, which he suspended Wednesday, was messy, disorganized and ultimately doomed by a steady drip of scandal.
Depletion of the ozone layer has been traced mainly to the widespread use of industrial chlorofluorocarbon chemicals, but there might have been an additional culprit.
Coffee plants are critically endangered by climate change. Researchers are finding solutions to keep scientists supplied with their favourite discovery fuel.
In case you missed Donald Trump’s triumphalist address marking America’s 250th anniversary, you weren’t alone. Lightning storms caused by an extreme heatwave sent the Washington crowds scattering and delayed the US president’s address by four hours – but it was still a trademark piece of Trumpian dystopia, a highly politicised polemic that followed on from a white nationalist march on the streets of the capital.
David Smith’s brilliant feature essay this week reveals how the US president has hijacked the country’s milestone anniversary and turned it into a joyless, farcical series of largely self-serving events. And from Moscow to Mexico City, there’s a terrific reported feature from our correspondents around the globe on how the world views America at 250 in the age of Trump.
Spotlight | At the ayatollah’s funeral, Iranians call for revenge Crowds swelled through Tehran as mourners dressed in black carried flags proclaiming: ‘We will rise’, reports diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour
Environment | The changing symphony of Britain’s dawn chorus The country has lost an estimated 73 million wild birds from its landscape over the last 50 years, but a new project aims to recreate their sound. By Sandra Laville and Madeleine Finlay
Feature | Morality and the machine Since 2017, philosopher Iason Gabriel has worked at Google DeepMind, trying to anticipate – and think through – the impact of AI. But as commercial and geopolitical pressures escalate, can ethicists make any difference, asks Robert P Baird
Opinion | Thank heavens for the pope In a political wasteland dominated by billionaires, war criminals and mega-corporations, the head of the Catholic church is a rare figure of moral leadership, argues Simon Tisdall
Culture | An invitation you can’t refuse Director Olivia Wilde and co-star Edward Norton talk to Catherine Shoard aboutThe Invite, their new movie about marital bed death that is the season’s buzziest, funniest release
“I think it’s over,” President Trump said, referring to the preliminary truce. Iran earlier said it had targeted U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. strikes.
The notion of a “global structural crisis of capital” defining our times was first introduced by István Mészáros in the third edition of his Marx’s Theory of Alienation in 1971, and in his Isaac Deutscher Memorial Lecture, “The Necessity of Social Control” that same year.2 In 1995 in Beyond Capital, Mészáros distinguished the emerging, epochal structural crisis of capital from the cyclical and conjunctural crises that are “capital’s natural mode of existence.”
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