Monocle on Saturday (September 28, 2024): The 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly concluded this week but what did it achieve? What can we expect from Keir Starmer’s meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday?
And what is behind the surge in popularity of South Korean skincare in the UK? Georgina Godwin and international broadcast correspondent, Nina dos Santos, discuss this and more of the week’s news and culture. Plus: Monocle’s Gunnar Gronlid attends the opening of the world’s first commercial CO2 capture-and-storage facility in Norway, and we get the latest on The Book Hive, a UK-based independent bookshop and publisher, with the owner, Henry Layte.
Monocle Radio Podcast (September 27, 2024): As international calls grow louder for a three-week ceasefire in Lebanon, Allison Kaplan Sommer joins Georgina Godwin to discuss the likelihood of a pause in fighting.
Plus: Monocle’s Christopher Cermak looks ahead to the Austrian elections and Karen Krizanovich joins us for the latest in the world of film.
In the space of a few days, the focus of Israeli military operations appears to have shifted decisively from Gaza in the south to Lebanon in the north.
A dizzying escalation between Israel and Hezbollah began last week with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies and culminated in a ferocious Israeli bombardment of alleged Hezbollah military targets, killing hundreds of people.
With Iran’s support, the Lebanon-based Shia militia has conducted a background conflict with Israel since the 1980s. Is this the intensification that finally signals all-out war?
Five essential reads in this week’s edition
1
Spotlight | The brutal truth behind Italy’s migrant reduction A Guardian investigation reveals EU money goes to forces involved in abuse, leaving people to die in the desert and colluding with smugglers
2
Technology | Why aren’t humanoids in our homes yet? The development of robots is dogged by technical and safety challenges. But the dream of a multipurpose domestic droid lives on, writes Victoria Turk
3
Feature | An Israeli and a Palestinian discuss 7 October, Gaza – and the future Could Couples Therapy’s Orna Guralnik and former participant Christine try to understand one another without the conversation breaking down?
4
Opinion | Zelenskyy needs Biden to back his plan to win peace In besieged Kharkiv, Timothy Garton Ash saw how Ukraine is approaching a perilous moment. To turn the tide, it needs to decisively knock back Russia
5
Culture | Chappell Roan on sexuality, superstardom and the joy of drag She’s gone from obscurity to the A-list, but not without struggle. Kate Solomon talks to the singer about teenage angst and her queer inspirations
Times Literary Supplement (September 25, 2024): The latest issue features‘Body and Soul’ – Noel Malcolm on Diamaid MacCulloch’s history of sex and Christianity; Jean Genet’s lost drama; Becoming Lucy Sante; Poor little kids and How the compass got its points…
Monocle Radio Podcast (September 25, 2024): Joe Biden delivers his final address as US president on “how the world should come together”; attacks across the border between Lebanon and Israel escalate; and why union leaders at Boeing have rejected a “best and final offer”.
Plus: we have the latest on the US election and headlines from the world of technology.
Richard Negus reveals how the ancient art of hedgelaying plays a crucial role in creating countryside highways for British Wildlife.
Playing fast and loose
Matthew Dennison unmasks the tough-talking, gun-toting highwaywomen who brazenly ruled the roads of Britain
US Special
The latest in Stateside luxury on land and sea; Charles Harris Charts the birth of Liberty; Agnes Stamp relives the golden age of transatlantic travel; Charlie Thomas gets his kicks on Route 66; Russell Higham tunes up for Newport and all that jazz; Rosie Paterson checks in on New York hotels; Tom Parker Bowles finds out what’s hot in US food; and Melanie Bryan looks at Country Life across the pond.
The Legacy
Laurence Olivier takes centre stage once more as Kate Green applauds his crucial role in the founding of the National Theatre
Foraging
It’s a magnet for dirt and earwigs, but don’t let that put you off — anyone for cauliflower-fungus cheese, asks John Wright
Love in a dry climate
Kendra Wilson marvels at the innovative design of a desert garden at Ghost Wash in the Paradise Valley, Arizona
The swing of the pendulum
It’s high time we celebrated the golden age of British horology, suggests Huon Mallalieu, as he finds out exactly what made our master clockmakers tick.
A well-resorted tavern
In the first of two articles, Jeremy Musson charts the remarkable history and preservation of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s former home in Virginia
Singing the end-of-summertime blues
A does of digging is just what the doctor ordered for John Lewis-Stempel as he attends to shake off his gloomy mood
Navigating nostalgia
Joseph Phelan is at the tiller for a joyous canal-boat journey — to the Industrial Revolution and back — on Britain’s canal network
Monocle Radio Podcast (September 24, 2024): Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky and other leaders make their case in New York and Washington; the US helps Taiwan make China-proof drones; why the Swiss object to biodiversity; and Australia’s supermarket scandal.
Christie’s (September 23, 2024): The first ever Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery in London suggests that he was not so much a tortured genius as an artist who planned his work meticulously and thought deeply about its execution and meaning.
Christie’s Chairman, Europe, Giovanna Bertazzoni talks to curators Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle about the inspiration for the exhibition, which is supported by Christie’s.⠀
Featuring more than 60 works, the exhibition is focused on the years that Vincent van Gogh spent in the south of France — in Arles and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence — between February 1888 and May 1890.
Monocle Radio Podcast (September 23, 2024): As world leaders flock to New York this week for the 79th UN General Assembly, Emma Nelson talks to Julie Norman and Mark Lowcock to discuss how the crisis in the Middle East will affect the proceedings.
Plus: we find out what the election results might mean for Sri Lanka’s economic future and check in at Milan Fashion Week.
The National Gallery (September 22, 2024): What colour do you think of most when you think of Vincent van Gogh? Probably his glorious use of yellow – most famously in his series of ‘Sunflowers’ paintings.
Dive in with Catherine Higgitt from the National Gallery’s scientific department to discover the secrets of how he used chrome yellow pigment in his work. You’ll even see the chemistry of how this fantastic colour is made.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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