Tag Archives: Politics

News: Xi Jinping Meets With Putin, Credit Suisse Bank Purchased By UBS

March 20, 2023: Xi Jinping heads to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin. Plus: an Asia-Pacific round-up, a flick through today’s papers, Saddam Hussein’s tourist-attraction superyacht and jewellers preparing for King Charles’s coronation.

News: Macron Forces French Pension Reform, Poland Sends Fighter Jets

March 17, 2023: Emmanuel Macron bypasses parliament to force through pension reform in France. Plus: Poland’s announcement that it will be the first Nato country to send fighter jets to Ukraine, Andrew Mueller’s irreverent round-up of the week’s events and the latest theatre news.

Cover: The New Statesman Magazine – March 17, 2023

New Statesman | Britain's Current Affairs & Politics Magazine

The New Statesman – March 17, 2023:

After Iraq: the great unravelling

After Iraq: the great unravelling

The breakdown of the West’s rules-based order began with the invasion of 2003.By Peter Ricketts

The road to war in Iraq

The road to war in Iraq

Could a resolute cabinet and a more sceptical press have stopped Tony Blair?

The long shadow of the Iraq War

The long shadow of the Iraq War

How do you mourn soldiers killed in an “unjust” war? For years the town of Wootton Bassett showed us…By Jason Cowley

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – March 17, 2023

Image

The Guardian Weekly (March 17, 2023)

In his closing speech at China’s annual parliamentary meeting on Monday, Xi Jinping, the country’s most powerful leader in generations, had an ominous message for his people and for those listening beyond its borders. “After a century of struggle, our national humiliation has been erased … the Chinese nation’s great revival is on an irreversible path,” he warned.

The UK was gripped this week by a saga that started off about controversial government plans to deter migrants crossing the Channel in small boats, and ended with Gary Lineker, host of the BBC TV football highlights show Match of the Day, being taken off the air. We reflect on a furore that revealed much about the contradictions of modern Britain.

From the buzzer to the finish line, the finest sports photography reveals human achievement and emotion at the extremes. In a feature special this week, Simon Hattenstone talks to award-winning Guardian sports photographer Tom Jenkins about capturing the perfect picture – followed by 20 of the most iconic sports pictures ever taken and the stories behind them.

Opinion: Avoiding War In Taiwan, Mystery Of Dead Britons, Office Irritations

March 13, 2023: A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, how to avoid war over Taiwan, the mystery of 250,000 dead Britons (9:50) and the small consolations of office irritations (18:20).

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – March 20, 2023

Sergio García Sánchez's “Pulling Ahead” | The New Yorker
Art by Sergio García Sánchez, March 2023

The New Yorker – March 20, 2023 issue:

What Conversation Can Do for Us

Two figures talking through speech bubbles that weave into one another.

Our culture is dominated by efforts to score points and win arguments. But do we really talk anymore?

There was once a time when strangers talked to one another, sometimes eagerly. “In past eras, daily life made it necessary for individuals to engage with others different from themselves,” Paula Marantz Cohen explains. In those moments of unpredictability and serendipity, we confronted difference. There were no smartphones, message boards, or online factions. Maybe because life moved at a slower pace, and every interaction wasn’t so freighted with political meaning, we had the opportunity to recognize our full humanity. Nowadays, she argues, we are sectarian and “self-soothing,” having fallen out of such practice. What we need is to return to the basics: to brush up on the art of conversation.

A Coup at the WestView News

Newspapers and a highheel shoe sitting on stairs.

A succession battle involving a fight for the patronage of Sarah Jessica Parker threatens to stop the presses at a Greenwich Village newspaper.

The Little-Known World of Caterpillars

An illustrated collection of colorful caterpillars drawn in marker.

An entomologist races to find them before they disappear.

Caterpillars are to lepidoptera—butterflies and moths—what grubs are to beetles and maggots are to flies; they are larvae. Even among nature lovers, larvae tend to be unloved. For every ten butterfly fanciers, there are approximately zero caterpillar enthusiasts. The reason for this will, to most, seem obvious. The worm in the apple is usually a caterpillar.

Previews: The Guardian Weekly – March 10, 2023

Methane leaks: inside the 10 March Guardian Weekly | Climate crisis | The  Guardian

The Guardian Weekly (March 10, 2023)

It’s no secret that methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, with scientists attributing 25% of global heating to its atmospheric release. A new Guardian analysis by environment editor Damian Carrington lays bare the extent of the problem, identifying more than 1,000 of the world’s worst emitters.

But methane is also a double-edged sword: while it traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, it fades from the atmosphere in about a decade, far faster than the century or more taken by CO2, which is why urgent action to tackle leaks would be so effective in the push to limit global heating. Find out more in Damian’s Big Story report for us this week.

Opinion: Curing Obesity, Ron DeSantis’ Foreign Policy, Entrepreneur Hype

March 6, 2023: A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, how to cure obesity, Ron DeSantis’s foreign policy doctrine (10:53) and why hype can help and hinder entrepreneurs (17:00).