The Globalist Podcast, Friday, June 16, 2023: We give you the latest as African leaders begin their peace mission in Ukraine.
Plus: a new rural plan for France, a check-in from the Brussels Urban Summit and Andrew Mueller’s rundown of the week’s more unusual stories.
At issue in the case was whether a law aimed at keeping Native American adoptees within tribes is constitutional.
Conservatives with close ties to Donald J. Trump are laying out a “paradigm-shifting” legal rationale to erase the Justice Department’s independence from the president.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive has enjoyed some early successes, but with every step forward, the soldiers are increasingly exposed to Russian firepower.
The former president has long stowed papers and odds and ends in cartons that he liked to keep close. His aides have called it the “beautiful mind” material.
The Liverpool Biennial’s latest edition opened last weekend and has a South African curator, Khanyisile Mbongwa, and an IsiZulu title, uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things. The Art Newspaper’s contemporary art correspondent, Louisa Buck, visited the biennial and reviews it for us. And it is Art Basel this week, in its original Swiss location, so this episode’s Work of the Week is one of the most notable works for sale at the fair.
Valentine was painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1984 and given to his then girlfriend, Paige Powell, on Valentine’s Day. Jeffrey Deitch, who is selling the work at Art Basel, tells us its story.
Africa Rising: Morocco is on the BBC iPlayer now. The Nigeria episode is on BBC Two on 20 June at 9pm for UK viewers and on BBC iPlayer, and South Africa is broadcast on BBC Two at 27 June at 9pm. For listeners outside the UK, check your local listings.
For most of history, the only lights made by humans were naked flames. Daily life was governed by the times of sunrise and sunset, outdoor nighttime activities depended on the phase of the Moon, and viewing the stars was a common and culturally important activity. Today, the widespread deployment of outdoor electric lighting means that the night is no longer dark for most people—few can see the Milky Way from their homes. Outdoor lighting has many legitimate uses that have benefited society. However, it often leads to illumination at times and locations that are unnecessary, excessive, intrusive, or harmful: light pollution.
Data on shark populations in coral reefs raise concern and hope for recovery
Sharks and their relatives are some of the most threatened vertebrates on Earth, with approximately one-third estimated or assessed as threatened with extinction (1). This is a major problem because as predators that help keep the food web in balance, these animals play a variety of vitally important ecological roles (2) and in doing so help to keep healthy many ecosystems that humans depend on. Coral reefs provide homes for countless fish species that are vital for fisheries and are therefore an especially important ecosystem for humans—and one where the decline of shark populations seems to be especially acute
Under the tyrannical rule of Kim Jong Un, North Koreans are forbidden from making contact with the outside world. A spokesperson for the North Korean government has disputed the claims, which they said were “not entirely factual”.
Hotel in the Perche region’s main hub
Southern Normandy’s Perche region is a succession of gentle hills clad in beech and oak. Much of it is designated a natural park. There is great diversity here, in landscape and architecture, which come in a palette of colours thanks to different building materials. Its main hub is Mortagne-au-Perche, a market town of cobbled streets, antique shops, magnificent mansions and its famed black pudding.
Rustic retreat in cider country
The Pays d’Auge, to the east of Caen, is an unhurried, painterly landscape, mixing oak and hazel woodland with cattle-filled orchards where morning mists lie low in the valleys and the autumn colours are magnificent. This is cider country, and there are still 20-odd cider makers on the 25-mile Cider Route. The former farm of Domaine de la Cour au Grip is on that route in the village of Repentigny, not far from Beuvron-en-Auge, one of the prettiest villages in France.
Restaurant with rooms west of Cherbourg
Not every ferry traveller wants to hurry home. Le Landemer, barely ten miles along the coast from the ferry port of Cherbourg, is for those who like to linger. This designer conversion of a coastal house is as much an eating as a sleeping place, with five traditional rooms in the main house, and four yacht-style rooms — more modern with big picture windows — smuggled away in an adjacent building.
India does not love the West, but it is indispensable to America
No country except China has propped up Russia’s war economy as much as oil-thirsty India. And few big democracies have slid further in the rankings of democratic freedom. But you would not guess it from the rapturous welcome Narendra Modi will receive in Washington next week. India’s prime minister has been afforded the honour of a state visit by President Joe Biden. The Americans hope to strike defence deals.
The Brazilian president faces resistance from Congress, the state oil company and agribusiness
Its real test will come when it hits Russia’s prepared defences
A deadly shipwreck in Greek waters highlights its dangers
The Globalist Podcast, Thursday, June 15, 2023: Western allies pursue security agreement with Kyiv – does it still fall short of Ukraine’s demands?
Plus: South Korea sea salt demand grows ahead of Japan’s Fukushima contaminated water release, and a special interview with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Central bankers have raised rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s, but now they’re taking time to survey how the changes are working.
Judge Aileen M. Cannon, under scrutiny for past rulings favoring the former president, has presided over only a few criminal cases that went to trial.
The former president is surrounded by people who have provided testimony and evidence to federal investigators. He’s not supposed to discuss the case with any of them.
Nuclear power companies rely on cheap enriched uranium made in Russia. That geopolitical dilemma is intensifying as climate change underscores the need for emissions-free energy.
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