THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (January 26, 2024): The new issue features ‘America’s 21st-Century E-Commerce Economy Has Stoked A 19th-Century Form of Crime: The Train Robbery’….
The former president’s opposition has all but killed the prospects for a bipartisan border deal, reflecting how his influence in Congress has grown as he gains ground in the Republican primary.
The former president’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire were the product of a win-or-else ethos, a fractured opposition and his power to make the party stand for whatever he stands for.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of downing the craft, which it says carried 65 Ukrainian P.O.W.s. The claims cannot be independently verified. Kyiv says Russia is exploiting the episode for propaganda.
An Olympic Dream Falters Amid Track’s Shifting Rules
Track and field’s decision to bar intersex athletes from women’s events has raised questions about fair play and inclusion ahead of the Paris Games.
The temple inaugurated by the prime minister is on the disputed site of a centuries-old mosque destroyed in a Hindu mob attack that set a precedent of impunity in cases of violence against Muslims.
The former president’s win in New Hampshire has melted away much of the remaining opposition to him among Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Biden Receives Endorsement from United Automobile Workers Union
The group, which endorsed President Biden in the 2020 election, made the self-described most “pro-union president in history” work for its official approval.
The former president’s victories in Iowa last week and in New Hampshire on Tuesday leave his main Republican rival, Nikki Haley, with an uphill battle.
A U.N. office said Israel’s detention and treatment of detainees might amount to torture. It estimated thousands had been detained and held in “horrific” conditions. Some were freed wearing only diapers.
Israeli Soldiers Clearing Buffer Zone in Gaza Die in Blast
On the deadliest day for Israelis since the ground invasion against Hamas began, about 20 soldiers were killed as they prepared to level buildings near the border.
As Nikki Haley celebrated Ron DeSantis’s departure from the Republican primary, Donald J. Trump turned his firepower toward his final rival
Haley Mounts Last Stand in New Hampshire Against an Ascendant Trump
On the last day of campaigning before the New Hampshire primary, Nikki Haley dashed from event to event. Tuesday could be her final chance to prevent Donald J. Trump from securing the Republican nomination.
The Florida governor, who once appeared to be Donald Trump’s most daunting challenger, ran a costly, turbulent campaign that failed to catch on with Republican voters.
The Israeli military took reporters on a tour of an underground compound in the Gazan city of Khan Younis, where it says about 20 hostages were held by Hamas.
As Switzerland’s Glaciers Shrink, a Way of Life May Melt Away
Rising temperatures and retreating glaciers threaten Europe’s water tower, forcing local farmers to adapt and presaging larger troubles downstream.
Some Israeli commanders said the government’s two main goals were mutually incompatible. To eradicate Hamas, the military would have to engage in a lengthy war that would most likely cost the hostages’ lives.
The old guard of the Republican Party has rallied around Nikki Haley ahead of New Hampshire’s primary, in a long-shot bid to stop the former president’s march to the nomination.
The backlash against “wokeism” has led a growing number of states to ban D.E.I. programs at public universities. Thousands of emails and other documents reveal the playbook — and grievances — behind one strand of the anti-D.E.I. campaign.
How Allegations of an Office Romance Came to Complicate the Case Against Trump
The claims involving Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to manage the sprawling case in Georgia, have led to new questions about Mr. Wade’s qualifications.
Protesters demanded action to free hostages, a war cabinet minister criticized the military campaign and the Israeli prime minister publicly ruled out a two-state solution, rebuffing the U.S.
Unable to fathom a 2020 rematch, many Americans are clinging to forlorn hopes and floating wild theories — including that Michelle Obama might replace President Biden.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 19, 2024): The latest issue features the excitement over advance copy reviews of a January novel, Kaveh Akbar’s “Martyr!” …“You’ve got to read this,” one editor said. “One of the most electric novels I’ve read in a long while,” another said. This kind of thing — everyone thrilled by the same book — is unusual at the TBR, and explains why “Martyr!,” about a grieving young man’s search for meaning, graces our cover this week.
In “Martyr!,” the poet Kaveh Akbar turns a grieving young man’s search for meaning into a piercing family saga.
Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar
Reviewed by By Junot Díaz
Cyrus Shams, the aching protagonist at the heart of Kaveh Akbar’s incandescent first novel, is a veritable Rushdiean multitude: an Iranian-born American, a “bad” immigrant, a recovering addict, a straight-passing queer, an almost-30 poet who rarely writes, an orphan, a runner of open mics, an indefatigable logophile, a fiery wit, a self-pitying malcontent. But above all else Cyrus is sad; profoundly, inconsolably, suicidally sad.
Here are the books discussed in this week’s episode:
“Knife,” by Salman Rushdie
“James,” by Percival Everett
“The Book of Love,” by Kelly Link
“Martyr,” by Kaveh Akbar
“The Demon of Unrest,” by Erik Larson
“The Hunter,” by Tana French
“Wandering Stars,” by Tommy Orange
“Anita de Monte Laughs Last,” by Xochitl Gonzalez
“Splinters,” by Leslie Jamison
“Neighbors and Other Stories,” by Diane Oliver
“Funny Story,” by Emily Henry
“Table for Two,” by Amor Towles
“Grief Is for People,” by Sloane Crosley
“One Way Back: A Memoir,” by Christine Blasey Ford
“The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir,” by RuPaul
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (January 19, 2024): The new issue features ‘The Whale Who Went AWOL’ – How do you solve a problem like Hvaldmir?; How Group Chats Rule the World – They quietly became the de facto spaces to share dumb jokes, grief or even plans for an insurrection…
Hvaldimir escaped captivity and became a global celebrity. Now, no one can agree about what to do with him.
By Ferris Jabr
On April 26, 2019, a beluga whale appeared near Tufjord, a village in northern Norway, immediately alarming fishermen in the area. Belugas in that part of the world typically inhabit the remote Arctic and are rarely spotted as far south as the Norwegian mainland. Although they occasionally travel solo, they tend to live and move in groups. This particular whale was entirely alone and unusually comfortable around humans, trailing boats and opening his mouth as though expecting to be fed. And he seemed to be tangled in rope.
They quietly became the de facto spaces to share dumb jokes, grief or even plans for an insurrection.
By Sophie Haigney
I am texting all the time. I am, at the very least, receiving texts all the time, a party to conversations in which I am alternately an eavesdropper and an active participant. This is because I am in a lot of group chats — constant, interlinked, text-message-based conversations among multiple friends that happen all day long. I dip into and out of these conversations, on my phone and on my computer. Sometimes I will put both away for two hours and return to find 279 new messages waiting.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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