Climate change has brought both fiercer rains and deeper droughts, leaving the city with brush like kindling—and the phenomenon is on the rise worldwide. By Elizabeth Kolbert
Traversing the Metropolitan Museum’s Eight Hundred Galleries, One by One
Dan and Becky Okrent spent seven years on the Met Project, a labor of love that took them from ancient Sumer to Synchronism. By Ben McGrath
After the Fires, a Slow Night in Hollywood
The freeways were traffic-free, and so were hotels, where a handful of forlorn locals waited for what would come next. By Sheila Yasmin Marikar
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (January 18, 2025): The The 1.19.25 Issue features Jennifer Kahn on chronic pain; Moises Velasquez-Manoff on raw milk; Alia Malek on Syrians in Turkey; and more.
After developing chronic pain, I started looking into what scientists do — and still don’t — understand about the disease. Here is what I learned.By Jennifer Kahn
Despite the serious risks of drinking it, a growing movement — including the potential health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — claims it has benefits. Should we take them more seriously?By Moises Velasquez-Manoff
THE ART NEWSPAPER (January 17, 2025): This week: the Los Angeles wildfires. The Art Newspaper’s West Coast contributing editor in LA, Jori Finkel, tells our associate digital editor, Alexander Morrison, about the devastation in Southern California, and its effect on artists and institutions.
The World Monuments Fund (WMF), the independent organisation devoted to safeguarding global heritage has released its biennial World Monuments Watch, a list of 25 sites that are potentially threatened. The aim of the list is, according to the WMF to “mobilise action, build public awareness, and demonstrate how heritage can help communities confront the crucial issues of our time”. Ben Luke talks to John Darlington, the director of projects for WMF Britain, who also reflects on the future of the organisation’s project to train Syrian refugees in stonemasonry skills, in the wake of the change in government in Syria. And this episode’s Work of the Week is All About Painting in Colour: An Illustrated Book, a portfolio in two volumes made by the leading artist of the late Edo period in Japan, Katsushika Hokusai. The last of his drawing manuals, made by the artist at the very end of his life, it features in a new book, Hokusai’s Method. We talk to Ryoko Matsuba, one of the authors of the new book.
Hokusai’s Method, with texts by Kyoko Wada and Ryoko Matsuba, is published by Thames and Hudson. It is out on 23 January in the UK, and priced £35, and on 4 February in the US, priced $45.
The Art Newspaper’s book The Year Ahead 2025, an authoritative guide to the year’s unmissable art exhibitions, museum openings and significant art events, is still available to buy at theartnewspaper.com for £14.99 or the equivalent in your currency. Buy it here.
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
Democrats displayed more depression than anger in the weeks following Donald Trump’s 2024 victory. Alas, partisans on the progressive left and their camp followers among conventional liberals could avoid succumbing to nihilism for only so long. An occasion to indulge their negative passions came along soon after the election in an act of cold-blooded murder on a predawn December morning in midtown Manhattan.
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (January 15, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Bloomsbury treasures’ – Newly discovered poems and photographs…
This week’s @TheTLS featuring Jonathan Rée on a new translation of Kapital; @knott_sarah on motherhood; @sophieolive on two newly discovered Woolf poems; Estelle Shirbon on Baalu Girma; Emma Greensmith on hybrid creatures; @bjkingape on cats – and more pic.twitter.com/4EfVcWxJQR
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