Plus: the Hong Kong police’s bounties for self-exiled activists, the inauguration of Thailand’s new government and the soft power of military hospital ships.
‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (July 3, 2023) – A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist: The humbling of Vladimir Putin, how misfiring environmentalism risks harming the world’s poor (10:20) and some tips to design better flags (18:55).
The Wagner mutiny exposes the Russian tyrant’s growing weakness. But don’t count him out yet
The last pretence of Vladimir Putin to be, as he imagines, one of his nation’s historic rulers was stripped away on June 24th. A band of armed mercenaries swept through his country almost unopposed, covering some 750km (470 miles) in a single day, seizing control of two big cities and getting to within 200km of Moscow before withdrawing unharmed.
The trade-off between development and climate change is impossible to avoid
Thank goodness for the enthusiasts and the obsessives. If everyone always took a balanced view of everything, nothing would ever get done. But when campaigners’ worldview seeps into the staid apparatus of policymaking and global forums, bad decisions tend to follow. That, unfortunately, is especially true in the world of climate change.
Have you ever met a vexed vexillologist? This is someone who frets when flags are badly designed. Sadly, too many flags flutter to deceive: they are cluttered with imagery, a mess of colours and all too easily forgettable. Yet flags matter. Witness Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow banner, which now serves as a potent symbol around the world (not to mention on this newspaper’s covers).
The Globalist Podcast, Monday, July 3, 2023: Riots continue to rock France and threaten to impede preparations for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, Russia expert Jenny Mathers examines the fate of Wagner troops in Africa.
Also, the future of local news in Canada as Meta and Google block content. Plus: film critic Karen Krizanovich on the latest in Hollywood and new space technology is put under the microscope.
July 2, 2023– Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, discusses the weekend’s biggest news stories with Eemeli Isoaho and Christof Münger. Plus: check-ins with our friends and correspondents in London and Tokyo.
Monocle on Saturday, July 1, 2023: The week’s news, newspapers and culture with Georgina Godwin, artist and journalist Siân Pattenden, and Monocle’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Robert Bound.
The Art Newspaper (June 29, 2023): In the final episode of this season, James Goodwin, a specialist on the art market and its history, tells us about what high inflation and interest rates mean for the art market and what lies ahead.
As Spain heads to the polls in July, we talk to Emilio Silva, president of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory in Madrid. What could the election mean for the controversial Spanish laws of Historical Memory and Democratic Memory relating to the Civil War of 1936 to 1939 and the period of Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship?
And this episode’s Work of the Week is a project by the Swedish duo Goldin + Senneby. The work, called Quantitative Melencolia, involves recreating the lost plate for Albrecht Dürer’s famous engraving Melencolia I. It is part of the exhibition Economics: The Blockbuster, which opens this week at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, UK.
Economics the Blockbuster: It’s not Business as Usual, Whitworth Art Gallery, until 22 October. The Manchester International Festival, until 16 July.
The Globalist Podcast, Friday, June 309, 2023: We speak to NYU professor and ACLU president Deborah Archer about the US Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, the latest from France as riots rock major cities and an update on the EU Council summit in Brussels.
The Globalist Podcast, Thursday, June 29, 2023: Wagner sets up camp in Belarus – but what will they do next and who will they be fighting for? Why do so many people not like the way Joe Biden is handling the economy?
The Globalist Podcast, Wednesday, June 28, 2023:We discuss how the Russian propaganda machine is trying to retell the weekend’s events to its citizens and explain how Russian influence may sway Polish voters.
The Globalist Podcast, Tuesday, June 27, 2023: New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, visits China for trade talks as Saudi Arabia sends a top delegation to an economic forum in Tianjin.
Kiwi journalist Lisette Reymer and China analyst Isabel Hilton discuss what’s on the agenda and why Beijing is turning its attentions to the Middle East. Plus: the latest claims from Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Progizhin and Guatemalans go to the polls in an election mired by democratic backsliding.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious