Monocle on Sunday, February 11, 2024: Damita Pressl and Sarah Frattaroli join Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, to discuss the weekend’s hottest topics.
We also speak to Monocle’s Helsinki correspondent, Petri Burtsoff, about Finland’s presidential election, Hannah Lucinda Smith gives us the latest news from Istanbul and Monocle’s design editor, Nic Monisse, joins us from London.
Monocle on Saturday, February 10, 2024: Will China’s economy recover during the Year of the Dragon? What is the UK’s new tech that could control the weather?
And how is the ‘Bayeux Tapestry’ being updated? Join Georgina Godwin and David Bodanis for a round-up of the week’s news and culture. Plus: the owner of The Steam Room, Tony Chung, joins us to talk about his collaboration with Ai Weiwei and Avant Arte for the Lunar New Year.
The Guardian Weekly (February 8, 2024) – The new issue features ‘Final Straw’ – What’s eating Europe’s Farmers?; Joe Biden’s Middle East masterplan; Can anything stop the AI deepfakes? and The Pet Shop Boys are back in town…
If you live in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland or Greece, you may well have already run into one of the numerous roadblocks or protests formed in recent weeks by furious farmers. If you’re in Spain and Italy, take cover – because they are coming to you soon, if not already.
In this week’s cover story, we explore what has proved to be the final straw for Europe’s farmers. A combination of rising costs, environmental rules and grievances over EU policies, coupled with more localised complaints, seem to be the factors driving the convoys of tractors. But far-right and anti-establishment parties, who could make major gains in forthcoming European parliament elections, have also picked up on the protests as part of their agenda against EU influence.
Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis and Europe correspondent Jon Henley delve into the protests (if not the piles of steaming dung being dumped on the continent’s roads, as illustrated wonderfully by Neil Jamieson on this week’s cover), and ask what can be done to placate them.
Times Literary Supplement (February 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Cancel Culture’ – The limits of academic free speech; An Auschwitz memoir; Wittgenstein’s bombshell; Horrible legions and Dutch artobiography…
The Globalist (February 7, 2024): We discuss the bill worth $118bn (€109bn), which will be debated by the US Senate today.
Plus: protests in Senegal after parliament delays the presidential election, Marine Le Pen meets with the Alternative for Germany party and we catch up with J A Bayona, director of ‘Society of the Snow’.
Country Life Magazine – February 6, 2024: The latest features The Travel Issue – View the world from the very best hotels; The map-makers who broadened our horizons; Out of the ashes – Chillingham Castle rescued and Waxwing explosions and snowdrop heaven….
Travel
Richard MacKichan rides with the eagle hunters of Mongolia
Jo Rodgers asks what makes a good hotel great as we introduce Country Life’s inaugural list of the world’s top establishments
All the latest travel news and new openings with Rosie Paterson
Nigel Tisdall tails the elusive jaguar in Belize
Catherine Fairweather is on the strait and narrow in Istanbul
Richard MacKichan puts the fun back into flying
Pamela Goodman swims with pigs in the Caribbean
A castle of curiosities
The history of Chillingham Castle in Northumberland is a turbulent and memorable one, peppered with family disputes, imprisonments and a live toad. John Goodall explores
Windows on the world
The urge to chart our surroundings is centuries old. With map in hand, Matthew Dennison ventures forth in search of mammoth tusks and globes
Irruption of the waxwings
Mark Cocker marvels at the exquisite plumage of this European songbird as it flocks to our shores to feed on a glut of its favoured winter berries
Get down on your knees
James Alexander-Sinclair joins the wandering throng as snow-drop lovers descend on Thenford in Northamptonshire to luxuriate in 900 varieties of Galanthus
Joanna Jensen’s favourite painting
The founder of Childs Farm chooses a rural scene to sum up ‘a picture of my England’
Groundhog day
The shortest month can also feel like the longest, delaying the arrival of spring, but what can February tell us about the year ahead? Lia Leendertz reveals all
Thunderous waterfalls and torrents hoarse
From the most dramatic plumes to the calmest cascades, we seek out the corners of the kingdom where water and gravity collide to magical effect
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell says green for go with a selection of stylish and useful khaki travel accessories
Interiors
Sally Stephenson on the secrets of illuminating period houses and Amelia Thorpe’s lighting picks
London Life
Russell Higham on piazza plans for the Docklands
Carla Passino meets the man who shaped Mayfair
Martin Fone reveals the saga of ‘London’s Eiffel Tower’
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson harnesses the delicious flavours of rosemary
The Globalist Podcast (February 5, 2024) – We discuss Antony Blinken’s fifth Middle East trip since the 7 October attacks and how US strikes in the region are affecting talks.
Plus: Pakistan’s elections, Liz Truss’s comeback bid and the headlines in Southeast Asia.
The Globalist Podcast (February 5, 2024) – The latest on the US response to the drone attacks in Jordan, assess how Azerbaijan’s presidential election will impact the wider region and review the day’s papers.
Plus: we meet designer Camille Jaillant of Olistic The Label and look at last night’s Grammy Awards.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious