THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (February 7, 2025): The 2.9.25 Issue (The Love and Sex Issue) features Mireille Silcoff on Generation X womens’ improving sex lives; Lisa Miller on how weight loss drugs can upset a couple’s intimacy; Daniel Oppenheimer on his realization through couples therapy that the problem in his marriage was him; Stella Tan on confessions from those who ghosted their dates; The Ethicist answers a series of sex related queries; and more.
Right-wing officials in Israel, evangelical Christians in the United States and Trump appointees have become increasingly outspoken in calling for Israel to take more territory.
The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.
The Army helicopter that collided with a passenger plane above the Potomac River boasted an experienced crew doing “an unforgiving job.” Friends and relatives are still baffled and mourning their loss.
House Committee to Examine Secret Navy Effort on Pilot Brain Injuries
The Navy quietly started screening elite fighter pilots for signs of brain injuries caused by flying, a risk it officially denies exists.
‘I don’t think character exists anymore’, Rachel Cusk declared in a 2018 interview. This was not the first time Cusk appeared to be announcing the atrophy of the traditional novel. In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, Cusk stated she was ‘certain autobiography’ was ‘increasingly the only form in all the arts’. Inversely, fiction and its conventional preoccupation with ‘making up John and Jane’, Cusk argued, was only becoming more ‘ridiculous’, ‘fake and embarrassing’. It is precisely this disregard for literary orthodoxy that runs through Cusk’s widely acclaimed trilogy of autofictional novels – Outline (2014), Transit (2016) and Kudos (2018).
My twin brother calls from the hospital. He’s finished his blood draw and wants to know the word in Portuguese for watermelon. I recite the word for him – melancia – though my brother’s mind isn’t likely to keep hold of it. Zach can no longer keep a hold of his house keys or his phone, which he left yesterday in the bathroom sink. Before we hang up, I ask him to please wait for me in the lounge area for outpatient services, not to wander outside the hospital.
Jacqueline Feldman’s Precarious Lease: The Paris Document – out from Fitzcarraldo Editions on 30 January – delivers captivating literary reportage on Parisian squats of the early 2010s. Feldman introduces us to people who transformed abandoned buildings into homes, shelters and hubs for artistic creation. With echoes of Agnès Varda’s work, Feldman’s prose is compassionate and honest, acknowledging her own role as an observer. She answered these questions by email about her fifteen-years-long project, begun in 2009.
With Canada, Mexico, China, Colombia and the Middle East, President Trump has wasted no time threatening to use American might to force recalcitrant countries to back down and do what he wants.
China chose swift retaliation for trade measures in the first Trump administration, but that led to an upward spiral of trade measures and much broader tariffs.
‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump
More than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders revealed a party struggling to decide what it believes in, what issues to prioritize and how to confront an aggressive right-wing administration.
Israeli forces killed at least 22 people and injured dozens more in southern Lebanon on Sunday, Lebanese officials said. In Gaza, Israel said Hamas had violated the terms of the truce.
President Trump said he had spoken to Jordan’s leader and planned to call Egypt’s. Mr. Trump’s suggestion echoes proposals from far-right Israelis. A Hamas official rejected the idea.
Agencies are gripped with uncertainty about how to implement the blizzard of new policies as workers frantically try to assess the impact on their lives.
Flashes Then Flames: New Video of Eaton Fire Raises More Questions for Power Company
Investigators are still trying to determine what started a fire that raged through Altadena, Calif. A new video appears to show sparking on a power line near the origin of the blaze.
HISTORY TODAY MAGAZINE (January 23, 2025): The latest issue features the destruction of medieval England’s Jews, British soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, unreported murder in East Germany, ‘mad duchess’ Elizabeth Cavendish, and more.
For the Portuguese empire to rise, an old world had to give way. Rivals in Europe’s lucrative spice trade, how much did they know about the powerful Mamluk sultanate?
Man-Devil: The Mind and Times of Bernard Mandeville, the Wickedest Man in Europe by John J. Callanan revels in the making of the controversial satirist and philosopher.
An exhibition of Franz Kafka’s postcards, letters, and manuscript pages rekindles our sense of him as a writer deeply connected to his own time and place.
Franz Kafka – an exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, May 30–October 27, 2024, and the Morgan Library and Museum, New York City, November 22, 2024–April 13, 2025
Bernardo Arévalo’s inauguration last year as president of Guatemala symbolized the revival of democracy in a notoriously corrupt country. A concerted effort by obstructionist elites now threatens to oust him on specious grounds—and bring repression back.
Bruce Ragsdale’s Washington at the Plow examines the connections between the first president’s commitment to agricultural innovation and his evolving attitudes toward his enslaved laborers at Mount Vernon.
Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of Slavery by Bruce A. Ragsdale
In his second inaugural address, the president reprised dark themes from his first and laid out an expansive policy agenda.
For Trump, a Vindication for the Man and His Movement
Donald John Trump took the oath of office again during a ceremony in the Capitol, promising a new “golden age of America” four years after he was evicted by voters.
President Biden used his executive clemency power to protect people targeted by Donald J. Trump, including five members of his family as well as Liz Cheney, Anthony S. Fauci and Mark A. Milley.
A Determined Trump Vows Not to Be Thwarted at Home or Abroad
Wiser about the use of power, the newly sworn-in president suggests that this time he will not take no for an answer, whether in enacting an ambitious domestic agenda or in his expansionist worldview.
More than 3 billion people worldwide log on to Meta’s apps every day, the sort of reach most aspiring global megalomaniacs can only dream of. It’s also one of the main reasons why the decision by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta – the company behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads – to scrap its third-party factcheckers in the US is so significant.
That Zuckerberg, who has been under huge pressure from US president-elect Donald Trump, made the decision is hardly surprising. But it should be another worrying moment for anyone who is concerned about the survival of objective truth.
Spotlight | The devastation of Los Angeles Gabrielle Canon reports from Pacific Palisades, where the traumatised and displaced have been picking over the wildfire-ruined remains of beloved homes and communities
Feature | Caroline Darian interview The daughter of Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot is coming to terms with being the child of both victim and perpetrator in the biggest rape trial in French history. Angelique Chrisafis hears her story
Feature | The deadliest beings on the planet Microscopic bacteriophages are everywhere – it’s estimated that they can infect and destroy between 20% and 40% of all microbes every day. But some scientists believe phages can help in the f ight against superbugs. ByJackson Ryan
Opinion | We forget Sudan at our peril Almost two years into a civil war, Sudan is facing anarchy, famine, genocide – and ambivalence from the rest of the world, writes Nesrine Malik
Culture | By a thread – the art of Doris Salcedo The Colombian artist Doris Salcedo transforms collective grief into art, confronting the scars of conflict and displacement with delicate yet powerful creations. Tim Adams spoke to her
The agreement, which must still be approved by the Israeli cabinet, incited joy in the Gaza Strip and Israel, even as some feared that it could fall apart.
Rarely have representatives of current and new presidents of different parties worked together at such a high-stakes moment. But the president and the president-elect didn’t quite share credit.
F.D.A. Bans Red Dye 3 in Foods, Linking It to Cancer in Rats
Consumer and food safety groups have long urged the agency to revoke the use of this dye and others. The F.D.A. says studies have shown that it causes cancer in rats, but not in humans.
Shattered in the Fire: A Historic Black Haven
For Black residents, Altadena represented something more than suburban living. It was a foothold in generational prosperity.
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