Monocle on Saturday (December 21, 2024): Join Georgina Godwin and Charles Hecker reflect on the week’s top news stories and cultural highlights.
Plus: an engaging conversation with Ferdia Lennon, the winner of the prestigious Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Comic Fiction Prize.
The Senate passed the measure, sending it to President Biden’s desk, shortly after the midnight deadline for funding to lapse.
Without insurance, it’s impossible to get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans can’t buy a home.
In Michigan, the state’s largest insurer has tightened restrictions around medications like Wegovy. Patients are panicking.
Syria’s new rulers say they will spare conscripts of Bashar al-Assad and pursue those who oversaw his regime’s abuses. Hundreds are lining up to learn which promise applies to them.
Monocle Radio (December 20, 2024): Is the time finally ripe for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas? Plus: Ukraine’s Ark Project with Czech help, why the US government could shut down on Saturday and the world’s first luxury theme park.
The world’s richest man led the charge to kill a bipartisan spending deal, in part by promoting false and misleading claims about it.
Dozens of right-wing Republicans joined Democrats in opposing a bill ordered up by President-elect Donald J. Trump to tie a government funding extension to a two-year deferral of the debt limit.
Funding its war against the United States, the Taliban reaped millions from boom towns trading opium, heroin and meth. Victorious, the group crushed the trade, leaving ghost towns in its wake.
Dozens of men who abused Gisèle Pelicot were convicted, including the man who invited them to do so: her husband of 50 years. She wanted the public trial to show rape victims they were not alone.
The Globalist Podcast: Border tensions in Syria continue as Israel claims it will maintain a buffer zone in the country. Plus: a look at Asheville’s hurricane recovery, a flick through Monocle’s Greece handbook and how Portugal’s passports are getting a makeover.
Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions, a New York Times investigation found.
Still stinging from the election, President Biden is pushing for his final priorities but has largely absented himself from the national conversation about Donald Trump after warning repeatedly that he was a threat to American democracy.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has never been shy about his desire to see his enemies punished. But he often shows a measure of caution about taking credit for potential prosecutions himself.
Statements by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk tap into a dispute over whether lifestyle changes or drugs are a better way to treat obesity.
Monocle Radio (December 18, 2024): The European Union is reopening its delegation in Syria while France is sending envoys to Damascus. How can diplomacy help rebuild the country?
Then: we look at what Moscow describes as “inevitable retribution” towards Ukraine following the killing of a top general. Plus: Ecowas approves three-nation exit from the bloc, Taiwan gets new US-made tanks to boost its defences and ‘Le Monde’ newspaper turns 80.
A Ukrainian official said Kyiv was responsible for the assassination in Moscow of Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defense forces.
One of Europe’s powerhouses is losing its competitive edge, and the political class can’t agree on why — or what to do about it.
Federal agencies have opened at least three reviews into whether the company and its leader complied with disclosure protocols intended to protect state secrets, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Unable to find effective treatments at home, veterans with brain-injury symptoms are going abroad for psychedelics like ibogaine that are illegal in the U.S.
Monocle Radion (December 17, 2024): As reports emerge of significant losses to North Korean troops fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, we assess whether the war between Moscow and Kyiv is at a turning point. Then: Israel’s isolationism continues as it shutters its Dublin embassy.
Plus: transport changes in London, fashion news, ‘Forbes’ magazine opens a private-members’ club and we remember India’s legendary tabla maestro Zakir Hussain.
Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani positioned himself as a statesman who can unite Syria, in a meeting with foreign journalists in Damascus.
The rocket company’s executives haven’t sought a higher security clearance for its CEO to avoid questions about his drug use and contact with foreign officials. The answers might no longer matter.
Marc Rowan is one of the few private-equity chiefs who hasn’t clearly designated an heir apparent.
Boomers Daily 