Plus: Cinecittà in focus, Wangechi Mutu at the Galleria Borghese, the light touch of Antoine Watteau, Egypt’s new home for antiquities, how polenta caused a stir in Venice, the Aspen art scene continues to snowball, and the revival of London’s art market; in reviews: Amy Sherald’s portraits, King James VI and I’s cultural legacy, and what is a Jewish country house?
How we got to a situation where a President can reasonably claim that it is lawful, without congressional approval, to bomb a country that has not attacked the U.S. By Jeannie Suk Gersen
Anne Enright’s Literary Journeys to Australia and New Zealand
The Booker Prize-winning author recommends three works by writers who, thanks to geography, may have never received their due.
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?
The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education. By Hua Hsu
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is set to transform astronomy. Its wide and fast survey will discover billions of dynamic objects while building up a deep map of the universe
How will Israel’s conflict with Iran play out? Only a brave person, or perhaps a weekly news magazine, would try to foresee the outcomes of a war in which the contours have shifted almost by the hour.
After the United States bombed Iran’s key nuclear facilities last weekend – and Tehran responded with a choreographed missile attack on a US base in Qatar – Donald Trump declared a ceasefire, clearly hoping that would be the end of it. Initially at least, Iran and Israel appeared not to have got the memo, provoking a sweary outburst from the US president on the White House lawn. But as of Wednesday, a fragile truce appeared to be holding (follow our latest coverage here).
How will Israel’s conflict with Iran play out? Only a brave person, or perhaps a weekly news magazine, would try to foresee the outcomes of a war in which the contours have shifted almost by the hour.
Julian Borger takes up the story of how the US was drawn into Israel’s war with Tehran and how it pulled off a remarkable, top-secret operation. And in another excellent commentary, Nesrine Malik laments an impotent western liberal political establishment that makes appeals for cool heads and diplomacy, but is entirely incapable of addressing the problem, namely its own lack of a moral compass or care for the norms it claims to uphold.
Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Spotlight | Russia surpasses 1 million casualties in Ukraine war As the grim tally of Moscow’s invasion is reached, an expansive propaganda campaign and state payouts are keeping grieving relatives onside. Pjotr Sauer reports
Science | A bug’s life: small ways to make a big change Insect species are under threat around the world but there are simple, science-backed actions we can all take to stem their decline. Tess McClure and Patrick Greenfield find out how
Feature | The mommas and the poppas
Italian-style late family meals, bed-sharing like the Germans, breaking down gender stereotypes the Icelandic way … f ive Guardian writers try f ive dif ferent European parenting styles. Will they make it out unscathed?
Opinion | From LA to London, the populist right hates our cities Once a conservative stronghold; Los Angeles is now occupied by the military. Liberal cities have become targets for politicians looking to stir up voters elsewhere, argues Andy Beckett
Culture | Danny Boyle on risks, regrets and returning to the undead In 28 Years Later, zombies maraud over a Britain broken by more than Brexit. Its director talks to Xan Brooks about cultural baggage, catastrophising – and why his kids’ generation is an ‘upgrade’
THE DRIFT MAGAZINE (June 24, 2025): The latest issue Fifteen features It’s morning in America. Daphne, chased by Apollo, grows hooves. We live in an age of conspiracism and insincerity. Spring and summer will not follow. Staying below two degrees might be a challenge. It’d be corny to call it Orwellian. We reached the limits of what moral outrage can do. Miraculously, we still made decisions. Acting recklessly. Lining up at the barricades. The more you have, the more you have to protect. Eye contact is everything. Already, the oil field was quieter. Misogyny converts reality. All that love for objects. It sanctifies him. He wore a face that spoke of multiple divorces. She was bitter about her beauty. That’s all in an evening screening. We’re in a definitional war. Publicity beats truth. Art that risks nothing is worth nothing. A negation of the possibility of forgetting. A private fiefdom. A child on whom childhood was wasted. A game of inches. Ask a pundit or professor. There are only so many laughs to be had.
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (June 25, 2025): In this week’s TLS , If all Russian writers are supposed to have come out of Gogol’s Overcoat, then “all American literature”, according to Ernest Hemingway, “comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn”. James Marcus reviews Ron Chernow’s 1,200-page biography of Twain – the Great American Novel seems fated to be twinned with the Great American Door-Stopper.
Inventing a history
How Stalin shaped the Soviet collective memory By Bryan Karetnyk
‘A dear little genius’
Mark Twain and the making of an American literary revolution By James Marcus
Triumph at Camp David, disaster in Iran
Jimmy Carter’s abrasive foreign policy adviser and rival to Henry Kissinger By Edward N. Luttwak
Tom Howells explores the mystery and magnetism of the thousands of ancient British monoliths and monuments, from Cornwall to the Orkneys
Going down in a blazer of glory
It is a favourite of royalty and rowers, worn from Augusta to the Oscars — can there be a more versatile jacket than the blazer, asks Harry Pearson
Country Life International
• Russell Higham uncovers the secret society of Cascais • Holly Kirkwood finds the age of chivalry alive and well in Valletta • Matthew Dennison searches for traces of the Venetian Empire in Greece • Tom Parker Bowles savours superb Spanish dishes • Eileen Reid tracks the influence of two intellectual giants of Avignon
Winging it
Mark Cocker welcomes the renaissance of the peregrine falcon, a raptor that stoops to conquer at up to 240mph
New series: Scale model
Overfishing threatens the very existence of the cod, but Gadus morhua remains a monster of the deep for David Profumo
Dick Bird’s favourite painting
The stage designer chooses a monumental example of early-19th-century political art
The virtues of history
John Goodall celebrates 100 years of the headquarters of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, one of London’s Great Twelve City Livery Companies
The legacy
Leslie Hore-Belisha created a beacon of hope for road users everywhere, finds Kate Green
Luxury
Anniversary jewels and Art Deco delights with Hetty Lintell, plus Willow Crossley’s favourite things
Interiors
Arabella Youens admires the kitchen of a house in the Scottish Borders and considers the earthly pleasures of terracotta
Laying ghosts to rest
A spectacular garden now graces the grounds of the old Somerset-shire Coal Canal Company HQ, as Caroline Donald discovers
Water, water everywhere
John Lewis-Stempel delves into the depths of a field pond, mesmerised by the seemingly endless variety of aquatic life
Arts & antiques
A quartet of journeys with The King raised the profile of plein-air artist Warwick Fuller, who talks Royal Tours with Carla Passino
Making an impression
French Impressionism was a slow burner in Britain as Monet and Pissarro gradually influenced our art scene, reveals Caroline Bugler
And much more
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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