U.S. VC firms have invested $2 billion in gambling businesses since 2018. At least six of the firms are simultaneously betting on problem gambling treatments.
Some of the highlights of this week’s Country Life.
Meet the coastal superheroes
John Lewis-Stempel celebrates the depth and breadth of sea-birds spotted over British waters, from the dive-bombing gannet to the pick-pocket herring gull
Heavy petal
Catriona Gray meets artist Rachel Dein, whose botanical bas-reliefs really stand out from the crowd
I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying
Tom Parker Bowles savours the ultimate thirst quencher — a fruity and refreshing sorbet
Arts & antiques
Kenilworth Castle is reliving its central role in the 19-day wooing of Elizabeth I exactly 450 years on, as Carla Passino discovers
Back to Brideshead
Britain’s historic country houses are the much-loved stars of a host of films and television dramas, often leaving big-name actors in the shade, finds Ben Lerwill
The Experts’ Experts
Designers and architects from Country Life’s Top 100 throw open their contacts books to reveal the specialists they turn to when seeking inspiration for a country-house project
Peter Jones’s favourite painting
The chair of the British-Italian Society chooses a compelling and mysterious portrait of Christ
SAVE at 50
Founding trustee Simon Jenkins reflects on 50 years of SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the charity’s battles to safeguard a string of historic buildings
The legacy
Dedication’s what you need and Ross and Norris McWhirter, the twins behind the Guinness World Records, had it in abundance, as Amie Elizabeth White learns
Suits you!
When did the sodden knitwear cossie give way to the glamorous bikini? Deborah Nicholls-Lee dives into the history of swimwear
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell is beach ready with a collection of coastal favourites
Sheer bliss
Caroline Donald hails the blend of love and laissez-faire that has created a spectacular garden on an escarpment overlooking the sea at Ash Park in Devon
A smell by any other name
Ian Morton profiles the flora and fauna causing a stink in the natural world, some to attract a meal or mate, others to repel a predator
Tyger, tyger burning bright
Tipu Sultan threw a spanner in the works of Britain’s Imperial ambition, but the Tiger of Mysore was an inspiration to Blake and Keats, reveals Lucien de Guise
Winging it
Mark Cocker pays tribute to the beauty, elegance and laser-like predatory precision of the kestrel
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 7.06.25 Issue features Nick Confessore on how the trans rights movement bet on the Supreme Court in U.S. v Skrmetti and lost; Charles Homans on Trump’s fight with Los Angeles on immigration; Oliver Whang on Luke Littler, an 18-year-old darts prodigy; and more.
Democrats Denied This City Had a Gang Problem. The Truth Is Complicated.
Trump’s claim that Venezuelan criminals took over Aurora, Colorado, became a rationale for his immigration crackdown. What really happened there?
More than 700 ETFs launched last year, including ones that hold crypto or make leveraged bets on individual stocks like Nvidia. How to make sense of it all.
Once viewed as a safeguard against global injustice, international law has become increasingly politicised and dysfunctional in recent years. As Linda Kinstler writes in a fascinating essay for the cover story of this week’s Guardian Weekly magazine, the norms, institutions and good faith essential to the system functioning effectively have been badly eroded, and it’s hard to see how the problems can be reversed.
Institutions like the UN security council and international criminal court (ICC) are now often simply ignored or manipulated by powerful member states. The ICC in particular has struggled with legitimacy and enforcement, delivering only a few convictions, amid resistance from big powers such as the US and Russia. The unilateralism of Trump has further undermined the system, while China’s growing influence is shifting the international focus away from human rights.
Spotlight | How the rise of Zohran Mamdani is dividing Democrats Many believe the New York mayoral hopeful signals time for the national party to evolve but others say his brand of politics will not appeal in key battlegrounds. Lauren GambinoandAlaina Demopoulos report
Environment | Tipping points, doomerism and catastrophic risks Climate expert Genevieve Guenther talks to Jonathan Watts on the importance of correcting the false narrative that climate threat is under control – and why it is appropriate to be scared
Feature | The politics of breasts Breasts have always been political – and now they’re front and centre again. Is it yet another way in which Trump’s worldview is reshaping the culture? By Jess Cartner-Morley
Opinion | The global order is being dismantled by an ageing generation Just when the world desperately needs wise elders, its fate is in the hands of old and ruthless patriarchs, argues David Van Reybrouck
Culture | The Herds: The animal marathon stampeding to the Arctic Why is a huge pack of puppet animals, from tiny monkeys to towering elephants, making a 20,000km cross-planet odyssey? Kate Wyver spent a week as an antelope to find out
The seaside lido is enjoying a fresh wave of popularity a century and more after its first appearance on the British coast. Kathryn Ferry dives in
Winging it
Watch out, watch out, there’s a thief about! Mark Cocker warns that no undergarment is safe from the resurgent red kite, a bird soaring back from near extinction
Travel
• Christopher Wallace checks in to a new opening in Marrakech, Morocco’s Mecca for luxury hotels
• Teresa Levonian Cole blazes a trail in the Spanish Pyrenees
• Pamela Goodman gets on her bike to explore the Welsh border country
Life’s a pretty picnic
Deborah Nicholls-Lee shares a hamper-full of tasty morsels from the long and varied history of alfresco dining on canvas
Ricardo Afonso’s favourite painting
The musical-theatre actor chooses an ‘otherworldly’ work that stirs complex emotions
The legacy
Amie Elizabeth White salutes Sir James Clark Ross, the vastly experienced naval officer who discovered Antarctica in 1841
In God’s acre we trust
Laura Parker learns how the absence of interference over centuries enabled our wildlife-rich graveyards to become a ‘Noah’s Ark of species’
Keeping a low profile
The countryside is littered with storm-damaged trees that simply refuse to die. Jack Watkins celebrates great arboreal survivors
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell puts her best foot forward with a selection of sandals
Interiors
Arabella Youens commends an elegant townhouse kitchen and Amelia Thorpe picks out rhubarb accessories to brighten the home
London Life
• Will Hosie assesses the cost of our partying in the parks
• How the style set are reaffirming that west is best
Lost, but not forgotten
George Plumptre applauds the masterful restoration of the Arts-and-Crafts garden at Knowle House in East Sussex
Arts & antiques
Laura Dadswell believes her pair of 18th-century Venetian mirrors is the fairest of them all, as she tells Carlo Passino
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