Scientific American (December 17, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Search for Planet Nine’….
If there’s a hidden world in the solar system, a new telescope should find it
National Geographic (December 16, 2024): The latest issue features….
On the hunt for Shackleton’s lost ship
A journey to the mountain forests of China
Inside one of the world’s boldest conservation plans
Searching for climate clues in Greenland
The New Yorker Magazine (December 16, 2024): Kate Beaton’s “A Murder Mystery” – Take a closer look at the cover of the annual Cartoons & Puzzles Issue.
The scramble is on to define the future of Syria, quickly, to avert a war even more divisive than the conflict that has riven the nation for thirteen years. By Robin Wright
The dish is governed by a set of laws that are rooted in tradition, rich in common sense, and aching to be broken or bent. By Anthony Lane
“The Brutalist,” the director’s nearly four-hour study of immigration, identity, and marriage, flowed from his own struggle to create art without compromise. “You really have to dare to suck to transcend,” he said. By Alexandra Schwartz
The American Prospect (December 14, 2024): The latest issue features ‘What Now?’ – Election 2024 and its aftermath….
It’s time to go after the nation’s real elite—not the Republicans’ largely fictitious one. Harold Meyerson
A decade of depression in construction led to a concentrated, sclerotic industry. Ryan Cooper
The Yes In My Backyard, or YIMBY, movement believes that solving the housing shortage entails removing impediments to adding supply. Robert Cruickshank
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (December 14 2024): The 12.15.24 issue features ‘The Silence of Alice Munro’…
The Nobel-winning author’s husband was a pedophile who targeted her daughter and other children. Why did she stay silent?
In Louisa, an unbearable social crisis has become the main source of economic opportunity.
Officials in Oklahoma are laying the groundwork to push Christianity into public schools.
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An injectable HIV drug with a novel mechanism shows remarkable ability to prevent infection
When the forces of plate tectonics tear continents apart, it’s an incredibly violent process, unfolding in slow motion. It was also thought to be very local: Magma from hot, rising mantle rock seeds volcanoes along the rift zone, while the far-removed cold interiors of continents remain intact.
Microscopic algalike fossils from China reported early this year astounded evolutionary biologists with their extreme age. Dated at 1.6 billion years old, the specimens suggest one of the hallmarks of complex life—multicellularity—arose far earlier than previously thought.
For 98 years, physicists knew of two types of permanently magnetic materials. Now, they’ve found a third. In familiar ferromagnets such as iron, unpaired electrons on neighboring atoms spin in the same direction, magnetizing the material so that, for example, it sticks to a refrigerator. Antiferromagnets such as chromium have zero overall magnetism, but they possess an atomic-scale magnetic pattern, with neighboring electrons spinning in opposite directions. Novel altermagnets—hypothesized 5 years ago—share aspects of both.
Taylor Sheridan’s shows explain how and why we got Trump again by Rick Marin
The end of the house of Assad. Much will go wrong. But for now, celebrate a tyrant’s fall
Our number-crunching suggests it was the best-performing rich economy in 2024
Financial innovation is just as much to blame as the technological sort
Even bail-outs are getting expensive
The Guardian Weekly (December 11, 2024): The new issue features The fall of Syria’s brutal dictatorship. Plus The best books of 2024.
Not even the most optimistic of rebels could have predicted the rapid collapse, last weekend, of the Assad dynasty that ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than 50 years. Yet while there was relief and joy both inside Syria and among the nation’s vast displaced diaspora, it was also accompanied by apprehension over what might come next.
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Spotlight | Russia and Ukraine wait warily for Trump transition
The idea of the US president-election as a saviour for Ukraine, as unlikely as it may seem, holds an appeal for an exhausted nation without a clear path to victory. Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer report
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Environment | The jailed anti-whaler defiant in face of extradition threat
Capt Paul Watson talks to Daniel Boffey about his arrest on behalf of the Japanese government, his ‘interesting’ Greenland prison, and separation from his children
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Feature | The growing threat of firearms that can be made at home
One far-right cell wanted to use 3D-printed guns to cause ‘maximum confusion and fear’ on the streets of Finland. Could the police intercept them in time? By Samira Shackle
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Opinion | Farage is lying in wait. Britain can’t afford for Starmer to fail
It is not enough for the Labour leader’s ‘milestones’ to be achieved. Voters must feel the improvement in their daily lives, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
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Culture | The best books of 2024
From a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn to Al Pacino’s autobiography, our critics round up their favourite reads of the year
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