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INTO THE WOOD

INTO THE WOOD

Drawn to the coast of her youth and with a yearning for more space to raise her young family, Arabella Wilson, set her home search on Victoria’s rugged western coastline, where a lazy Sunday drive resulted in a surprise discovery. “Spotting the roadside ‘for sale’ sign was a stroke of luck and fate – I organised a viewing right there and then,” Arabella laughs. “The moment I walked in, I knew instantly that this was ‘the one’ and that Chris, my husband, would love it.” The couple – who have two young daughters, Marlowe and Lottie – swiftly purchased the property, and a short time later swapped their city living in Melbourne for a laid-back life by the beach. “One of the things that I love most is the fact that…

Recipes for Change

I am not a master chef. When my mom came to visit this past Thanksgiving, she was horrified by my only can opener: a cheap hand-operated one, barely functional and so rusted it probably gave her tetanus just by looking at it. (She bought me an electric can opener that arrived the next day.) For the record, I was 38 years old at the time. But I do love food. I also love foreign policy, so I started thinking about how the two intersect. Not just at the macro level of supply chains and trade wars, but at the personal level, around the dinner table with family and friends. How things like politics, conflict, migration, and trade shape, and are in turn shaped by, the food culture and cuisine of a…

Recipes for Change

Biden Needs Architects, Not Mechanics

I voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and was relieved when he was elected president, but I worried that Biden and his team of non-rivals wouldn’t be up to the task of designing a foreign policy and grand strategy for the 21st century. The obvious danger was that they’d fall back on the various nostrums, sound bites, and policies that may have worked well during the Cold War but have mostly failed ever since. Remember what the administration said it would do? It was going to revitalize the United States’ alliances and unite the democratic world against the rising tide of autocracy. It was going to focus laser-like on China and win that competition for primacy. Climate change was going to be a top priority. The United States would also rejoin…

Biden Needs Architects, Not Mechanics
A Uvalde mother turns rage and grief into action

A Uvalde mother turns rage and grief into action

On a drizzly December evening in Washington, D.C., Kimberly Mata-Rubio marched from Union Station to Capitol Hill with dozens of other families from Uvalde, Texas. Her 10-year-old daughter Lexi Rubio was murdered in the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24. Mata-Rubio had never been on a plane before the shooting, but this was now her seventh trip to Washington in as many months to pressure lawmakers to pass restrictions on assault weapons. When the march ended, Mata-Rubio, 33, was weeping. This is not the vocation that Mata-Rubio envisioned for herself, but it is now her future. While she’s taking on the legislative battles, she is also navigating her complicated and painful grief. She is mourning the loss of her daughter—but also the loss of the life she and her…

Horizon

1 GOOGLE PIXEL WATCH • From £339, store.google.com It’s finally arrived. After literally years of speculation, and a fair few leaky months where we were pretty sure of exactly what the Pixel Watch would be but couldn’t actually tell you, it’s here. But does Google’s first official foray onto the wrist make the most of the company’s acquisition of Fitbit and its experience in producing WearOS for others – and has it kept enough tricks up its sleeve for this to be special? All signs point to yes. While the processing package in here isn’t the burliest, comprising primarily of the Exynos 9110 chip found in some older Samsung Galaxy Watches, early wearers suggest that helps its battery make it through 24 hours without the need to drop to a low-power mode or…

Horizon

Patriarchy Is Not Destiny

IN THIS SECTION Heron Hunting Trick Mummies and Portraits Long-Lived Animals Balinese Masks ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY THE PHILOSOPHER Kwame Anthony Appiah once asked why some people feel the need to believe in a more equal past to picture a more equal future. Many of us look at the stranglehold that gender-based oppression has on our societies and wonder if there was a time when men didn’t have this much power, when femininity and masculinity didn’t mean what they do now. When we search for powerful women in ancient history, when we try to identify precedents for equality in the distant past, perhaps we also betray our longing for an alternative in a world in which we fear there may be none. Patriarchy—giving all power and authority to the father—can sometimes…

Patriarchy Is Not Destiny
Wales: Bold and ambitious transformation attracts array of global giants

Wales: Bold and ambitious transformation attracts array of global giants

Having punched well above its weight for several decades and making long-lasting impressions in diverse and competitive international markets, Wales’ economy is riding high despite the challenges triggered by the U.K.’s departure from the EU. The proud and ambitious country of three million people is no stranger to adversity and a strong part of its national identity has been chiseled from its highly successful transformation from a predominantly agricultural-dependent economy to one concentrated on industrial and service-based activities. As well as hosting cutting-edge factories and research and development operations for blue-chip companies like Airbus — which has a huge factory in North Wales — the nation offers a wealth of investment and commercial opportunities in sectors including life sciences, technology, renewable energies and tourism. At the same time, the Welsh Government is…

REMAKING MEAT

The global food system is reeling from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the reverberating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and devastating droughts across Africa, India, and the Middle East. Looking to the future, a warming climate threatens to reduce crop yields worldwide, while unpredictable severe weather will introduce many opportunities for localized crop failures and supply chain disruptions. One of the best ways to strengthen the globalized food system is to reduce our reliance on its most inefficient and highest-emitting sector: animal agriculture. Consider that, amid a critical shortage of grain, which threatens to destabilize entire economies in the Middle East and beyond, the global animal agriculture sector uses one-third of the world’s supply. Only a fraction of that is converted into edible protein. This contributes to global food insecurity by pushing…

REMAKING MEAT
The Kazanlak Tomb: Frescoes of a Faded Kingdom

The Kazanlak Tomb: Frescoes of a Faded Kingdom

Fighting during World War II led to surprising discoveries near the Bulgarian city of Kazanlak. Bulgaria had sided with Nazi Germany, and toward the end of the war, the country was bombed by the Allies from the west, while the threat of Soviet invasion loomed in the east. To protect their lands, the Bulgarian Army built antiaircraft defenses near the central city of Kazanlak. These works set off a remarkable series of archaeological discoveries that would hugely expand knowledge about the ancient peoples who lived in the region thousands of years before World War II. Their kingdom was called Thrace. Horses and Gold Ancient Thrace extended over what today is Bulgaria, northwest Turkey, southern Romania, and southeast Serbia. Not unlike 1940s Bulgaria, Thrace sat at a geopolitical crossroads, surrounded by great rival…

Food for Forests

Food for Forests

In a field of bare red dirt in São Paulo state, Paula Costa is trying to turn back the clock. Five hundred years ago, this land was part of the Mata Atlantica, a dense, diverse rain forest that covered 15% of Brazil. Its trees stretched more than 2,000 miles along the eastern Atlantic coast, and far inland. But today 93% of the forest has been stripped of trees, with much of it turned over to monoculture farming. Costa, a 36-year-old biologist, bangs the ground with her fist: it’s hard, the dry soil degraded by the tropical sun. Yet on this sweltering morning in March 2022, a few green shoots have forced their way through the surface. The rain forest is making a comeback. “These will be jack beans. These are millet.…

BUILDING A BETTER FRANCHISE

Witchcraft rules the world in Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, but the show is most electrifying when it immerses us in the everyday magic of New Orleans. In one mesmerizing scene, a young neurosurgeon named Rowan Mayfair (Alexandra Daddario) is wandering the nighttime streets during her first visit to the city when she nearly collides with a horse-drawn hearse bearing the photo of a smiling, white-haired man. Musicians and stilt walkers dressed as skeletons trail behind. Mourning has never looked so cathartic. “No one is ever gone,” a stranger tells Rowan. “Only separated for a minute.” Reluctantly, Rowan drinks the test tube of unidentified liquid the woman buys her off a sidewalk shot girl. The second line is a ghostly blur as they join the revelers in the graveyard. This spectral wake…

BUILDING A BETTER FRANCHISE
East Asia’s Nuclear Debates Are Their Own

East Asia’s Nuclear Debates Are Their Own

A February poll found that 71 percent of South Koreans wanted their country to have nuclear weapons. Another in May found that 70.2 percent supported indigenous nuclearization, with 63.6 percent in support even if it violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The drivers, unsurprisingly, are North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs, and China’s growing belligerence. These factors impact the Japanese nuclearization debate, too, though interest there is noticeably lower. The United States has long opposed South Korean and Japanese counter-nuclearization. But in the light of the Russia-Ukraine war, Washington should not hegemonically dictate the outcome of its allies’ WMD debates. NATO anxiety over possible Russian use of WMDs following its invasion of Ukraine illustrates the potential limits on U.S. counter-escalation when facing a nuclearized opponent. Western pundits have been…

Xi Jinping Is Preparing for Economic War

Chinese policymakers are increasingly convinced that the United States is determined to implement a full-fledged strategy of containment against China. Beijing views the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity as the economic mirror of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and AUKUS, two U.S.-led security pacts that Beijing regards as anti-China coalitions. Chinese officials, academics, and media rhetoric increasingly talk of self-reliance and are preparing for a forced decoupling from the United States. Even the more moderate voices have acknowledged the profound changes in U.S.-China relations behind the “decoupling theory” and called for China to “prepare for the worst but strive for the best.” While part of the likely response will be the further strengthening of China’s military, the party-state will also tighten two economic strings in its bow. It will double…

Xi Jinping Is Preparing for Economic War
WILL IT GO NUCLEAR?

WILL IT GO NUCLEAR?

As Putin threatens to strike Ukraine with tactical nuclear weapons and Biden warns that this risks escalation to nuclear Armageddon, many observers have wondered aloud whether the septuagenarian or the octogenarian or both have lost touch with reality. Pundits declare Putin’s threats “irrational,” since according to them no rational leader could order a nuclear strike on another state. Critics of Biden have seized on his references to Armageddon—for example, when he recently said that “for the first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat to use nuclear weapons” which “could end in Armageddon”—as evidence of “senility.” Even observers less judgmental about Biden and Putin have dismissed these two leaders’ talk about nuclear weapons and war as a throwback to the last century. Having come of age since…

Newsweek Turns 90

FROM OUR FIRST ISSUE ON FEB-ruary 17, 1933, Newsweek has been committed to journalism that is factual and fair, aiming to inform readers not just about the most important news developments of the week but also to provide insights and perspectives to help make sense of them. In the nine decades since, the world has changed, evolved and become, many would argue, increasingly polarized. What remains the same: our dedication to bringing you the highest-quality journalism, our belief that good-faith debate is in the public interest and our welcoming of diverse views and voices to the search for common ground. Looking back at Newsweek covers over the past 90 years is a time capsule of sorts, showcasing the breadth of our coverage and some common themes. War is a constant, political…

Newsweek Turns 90

Save the baguette

Paris The French government is rushing aid to bakers to stave off a mass closure of bakeries. Energy prices have shot up because of the war in Ukraine, while inflation has pushed up the cost of ingredients. One Parisian baker said his $12,780 monthly electricity bill was almost as much as his bakery earned in a month, and that to pay it he’d have to triple the cost of his baguettes from 1 to 3 euros. To prevent such a horror, the government says, it will lean on energy companies to renegotiate energy bills and allow bakers to pay in installments. “A baguette isn’t merely water, yeast, flour, and salt,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “It’s also a lot of savoir-faire, an ancestral method jealously guarded.” Foreigners barred from property market Ottawa Canada is…

Save the baguette
Fear Factor

Fear Factor

It is a well-established empirical finding that democracies have declined in number and in quality in recent years. It seems to follow that another political system is becoming more prevalent—but how the alternative differs from previous forms of autocratic politics remains an unsettled question. Although much attention has focused on so-called strongmen, such as former U.S. President Donald Trump and former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, they are hardly novel characters in world history. But what enabled their rise now, and can their brand of governance survive beyond them? Three recent books considering 21st-century political systems arrive at very different answers to these questions. One demonstrates how today’s autocrats prefer manipulating their citizens to outright repression; it may be the most sophisticated and robust account of the new alternatives to democracy. Another…

Europe’s Baby Steps Won’t Solve Its Energy Crisis

Europe’s Baby Steps Won’t Solve Its Energy Crisis

The European Union and its 27 member states have invested more money, effort, and political capital in energy policy than any other region in the world. Until this year, Europe was admired globally as the gold standard for energy and climate policy. Germany’s Energiewende—or energy transition—was especially touted as a shining example of how to green the energy supply. No one aspires to emulate the Europeans today. Germany and the EU have spiraled headfirst into the globe’s worst energy crisis since the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s and 1980s. All across the continent, Europe’s energy policies have led to astronomical price increases, industry shutdowns, potential energy shortages, and geopolitical vulnerability. Germany, in particular, is in crisis mode and will likely see much worse. Its entire economic model—based on energy-hungry manufacturing,…

Will the U.S. see even bigger strikes this year?

Will the U.S. see even bigger strikes this year?

A few years ago, it might have been daunting to try to start a union at an arts organization during times of economic uncertainty. But that’s exactly what Jorie Moss, 34, and a group of professional singers did in early December when they asked the Philadelphia Orchestra Association to recognize them as a union so they could negotiate a contract. A recession may be coming, says Moss, but the pandemic changed what workers are willing to tolerate. “The time that we all had to sit in our rooms and think about what we’ve done—I’m talking about the pandemic—gave us a chance to reflect on the fact that these are conditions that we don’t have to stand for, we should be treated better, and we deserve to ask for it,” she says. It’s…

Why you don’t need to splurge on a cutting-edge SSD

Why you don’t need to splurge on a cutting-edge SSD

All the talk right now is about hardware capable of faster and faster speeds. PCIe 5.0 in particular has gotten a lot of attention with Intel’s 12th-generation Alder Lake and AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors often in the news as of late. These next-gen CPUs bring support for the cutting-edge specification to mainstream PCs. Such widespread adoption can put pressure on to get the fastest model possible when buying an SSD, especially in the wake of recent announcements of consumer PCIe 5.0 drives that are face-meltingly fast. But as exciting as new tech is, you can still live a very speedy digital life with a less cutting-edge SSD, without giving up too much responsiveness in the process. In fact, waiting for high-end specs to trickle down to a mid-range budget can…

SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro: Wired Gaming Headset

SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro: Wired Gaming Headset

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless previously earned our Editors’ Choice award for wireless gaming headsets thanks to its clear audio, strong noise cancellation, and easily swappable batteries—but that said, it costs $349.99. If you like that headset’s features but don’t want to spend so much money, check out the Arctis Nova Pro. The wired version of the headset is compatible with Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation (or Xbox, depending on which version you buy) and features robust sound, useful EQ software, and excellent build quality. But, it exchanges wireless connectivity and active noise cancellation (ANC) for Hi-Res Audio support. If you don’t mind that trade-off, you’ll find that the Arctis Nova Pro is one of the best wired gaming headsets on the market, making it worthy of our Editors’…

Nuclear Weapons Still Matter

DOCTRINE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN’S threats to strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons are like a flash of lightning illuminating the international chessboard. They provide a stark wake-up call to the brute fact that nuclear arsenals containing thousands of warheads remain foundational in shaping relations among great powers. While experts, commentators, and many others have been urging Washington to discount or even ignore Putin’s threats, U.S. President Joe Biden and his team know better. Claims that Ukraine lacks good targets, Russian bombs might not work, Putin’s officers could refuse to execute orders, or the risk of radiation spreading into Russia would be unacceptable are dangerous wishful thinking. Biden, CIA Director William Burns, and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have concluded that Putin is deadly serious. As Sullivan acknowledged last September, “We…

Nuclear Weapons Still Matter

RENOWNED FACULTY AND NEW CURRICULUM BUILD GLOBAL MINDSET AND EXPERTISE

"We are intentional about making sure that the students we send out into the world are well-rounded. So we seek students who are ambitious to become experts themselves, having learned from our renowned faculty, and who are then intentional about using the skills, knowledge, and resources they gain here to do good."-Dr. Chiedo Nwankwor, Vice Dean for Education and Academic Affairs, School ofAdvanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University As one of the country’s preeminent international relations graduate schools, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) prides itself on innovative thinking, an analytical approach, and policy expertise. Because the school sets such high standards for the quality of education it offers students, its admissions committee is looking for applicants who can match the school’s ambition to remain at the forefront…

RENOWNED FACULTY AND NEW CURRICULUM BUILD GLOBAL MINDSET AND EXPERTISE
TRIREMES

TRIREMES

Fast, maneuverable, and dangerous, the trireme was the most feared ship in ancient Greece. With powerful bronze rams and the ability to turn on a dime, it would leave enemy ships dead in the water by punching holes in their sides or smashing their oars. In his Histories, Herodotus writes how Greek naval dominance owed so much to the brilliant use of triremes in battle. In the fifth century B.C., Athenian shipyards had the capacity for over 300 triremes, the most famous warships of antiquity. The trireme—a term derived from the Greek trieres, “three rows of oars”—was the result of the continuous development of naval technology in the Greek world. The epic poem Iliad (attributed to Homer, and written in the eighth century B.C.) mentions ships called triaconters and penteconters, vessels…

The American Way of Happiness

The American Way of Happiness

The Declaration of Independence promises “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But if you’re lucky enough to live in states like Virginia, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and a number of others, your rights get even better: the 18th century constitutions of all these states spell out not only a right to seek happiness, but also to obtain it. Of course, blandishments about happiness meant little to enslaved persons or the Indigenous. And there were others—from people struggling at the margins to women trapped in abusive marriages—for whom happiness was inconceivable at the time. We are quick to identify those shortcomings today, pointing out where the founders, for all their farsightedness, were blind. Yet, even as many have worked hard to extend rights more broadly and raise expectations along…

INCA GOLD THE FATE OF ATAHUALPA’S TREASURE

INCA GOLD THE FATE OF ATAHUALPA’S TREASURE

When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from his first voyage to the Americas, he brought news of a people adorned with gold. It sparked a Spanish gold rush, which would run like a glittering seam through the whole history of Spain’s exploration and conquest of the Americas. But reality often belied the wild imaginings of the Spanish conquistadores. Hernán Cortés, having overthrown Aztec Mexico, seized a cache of gold, silver, and precious stones valued at two billion pesos. Expectations soared. But then suddenly sources of Mexican gold and silver seemed to dry up until the Viceroyalty of New Spain, established in 1535 to govern the lands Spain conquered in the New World, sought new territory for mining. Even before the arrival of Cortés, the search for gold was directed south, to…

THE FERTILIZER WAR

THE FERTILIZER WAR

RUSSIA’S WAR IN UKRAINE HAS EXACERBATED food shortages—already worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic—and shed light on global agriculture’s massive nutrient and energy needs. Most fertilizers are made from coal or natural gas, and Western sanctions on Russia, which is the world’s top fertilizer exporter, have further increased natural gas and fertilizer prices. In June, the cost of fertilizer nearly surpassed its August 2008 peak. As a result, farmers could be forced to reduce global fertilizer use by as much as 7 percent next season—the largest decline since 2008. Use is projected to fall the most in sub-Saharan Africa. In May, the president of the African Development Bank warned that fertilizer shortages could lead to a 20 percent decline in food production on the continent. These fertilizer shortages are a burgeoning crisis:…

FASTER ADVENTURES

FASTER ADVENTURES

Sports mode on the V4 S is nuts. So much fun: 170 horsepower on tap to loft the front wheel, charge between corners, give sportsbikes a serious hurry-up … the adrenaline rush is amazing. This is a high-power Ducati, and it shows. It’s seriously fast, fast enough for fun days at racetracks – yet slip it into Enduro mode and it’ll happily charge down dirt roads. Performance, versatility and then there’s touring ability, especially if you add the optional panniers. And it’s Ducati red. And it’s actually pretty good looking … for an adventure bike. But how much of an adventure bike is the Multistrada V4? Ducati has been building Multistradas for decades. The early models, powered by the old air cooled L-twins, were as ugly as anything I can think of from the…

TOP GLOBAL RISKS IN 2023

Threats to the future of democracy look overrated these days, given the glaring leadership weaknesses now evident in Russia, China, and Iran. Add relief that the U.S. midterm election came off with few of the stresses we saw in 2020. But there are still important (and growing) risks to preoccupy world leaders, business decisionmakers, and the rest of us in 2023. Here are the most important. MAXIMUM XI Xi Jinping now has a command of China’s political system unrivaled since Mao with (very) few limits on his ability to advance his statist and nationalist policy agenda. But with no dissenting voices to challenge his views, his ability to make big long-term mistakes is also unrivaled. That’s a massive global challenge given China’s outsize role in the world economy. We see risks in three…

TOP GLOBAL RISKS IN 2023

STATE-OF-THE-ART APPLE TECH

iPHONE 14 PRO There’s no doubt that the iPhone 14 Pro is where the serious upgrades are for Apple’s smartphone series in 2022. It has an upgraded A16 Bionic processor, an improved camera system, the first always-on display on an iPhone, emergency crash detection, and even satellite connectivity in emergencies – though that last feature will only be available in the US and Canada initially. The idea is that the iPhone 14 Pro will be able to hook up to a satellite so you can report an emergency situation, even if you’re beyond the reach of Wi-Fi and cell towers, and all without the chunky antennas of current satellite phones. The catch is that the data transfer speed will be relatively slow, but it’ll be enough to report an emergency. As for the…

STATE-OF-THE-ART APPLE TECH

These Boots Were Made… of What?

ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY THE SIX-POUND BOX arrived on a steamy June day, hot from its ride in the delivery van. The label said Boot Barn in capital letters, and when I opened the package, the oaky scent of leather enveloped me. The lower half of the boots had a distinct wrinkly pattern that was rough to the touch. Stamped inside the boots’ shaft: “genuine elephant leather.” At a list price of $799.99, they’d been advertised online as El Dorado Men’s Brass Indian Elephant Exotic Boots. That is, boots purportedly made from an endangered Asian elephant. After four years as a reporter for Wildlife Watch, an investigative project funded by the National Geographic Society, I knew there was a market for just about any exotic species, from leeches to…

These Boots Were Made… of What?

WANTED: APPLICANTS WITH PASSION AND VARIED PERSPECTIVES

"We suggest applicants take their time in writing an application essay that allows Thunderbird’s admissions committee to understand what they can bring to their cohort. Our students come to Thunderbird to develop the global leadership and management experience needed to excel in positions of responsibility across borders, languages, and cultures."-Sanjeev Khagram, Director General and Dean, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University Passion, a global point of view, and past professional experience top the list of admissions criteria for the 2023-2024 school year at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management. "We suggest applicants take their time in writing an application essay that allows Thunderbird’s admissions committee to understand what they can bring to their cohort," says Sanjeev Khagram, director general and dean of the Thunderbird School. The school was founded…

WANTED: APPLICANTS WITH PASSION AND VARIED PERSPECTIVES
ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE

ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE

Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, panicky headlines about a global wheat shortage appeared. As a crop scientist, I knew that wasn’t right. The regional supply crunch was real: Nations that source grain from the Black Sea suddenly had to order it from farther away, upsetting supply chains. But it wasn’t a global shortage. Thanks to record crops in India, Australia, and elsewhere, there was enough to feed everyone. We just had to move it. You wouldn’t have guessed it from the news, though. Coverage of food supply chains featured scare tactics and distortion that drove speculation and trade restrictions, worsening the problem. By early July, global commodity prices finally fell to reflect the availability of food, rather than speculation. Yet while the panic was unfounded, the suffering it caused…

Dr. Anthony Fauci

On Dec. 31, you stepped down as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical adviser to President Biden. But you aren’t retiring. What are you calling the next stage in your career? My wife jokingly calls it a rewiring. I would like to lecture and write, and advise to the extent that my advice is solicited. I have 54 years of experience as a scientist at the National Institutes of Health and 38 years running what everyone agrees is the largest and most important infectious-disease research institution in the world. And the privilege of advising seven Presidents of the United States over almost 40 years. You and your family have required personal security after threats from critics of the COVID-19 response. Did you ever…

Dr. Anthony Fauci
What happened to FTX’s lost $8B?

What happened to FTX’s lost $8B?

The collapse of the crypto exchange FTX seemed to materialize out of nowhere. In the space of one week in November, FTX went from one of the most trusted parts of crypto to a bankrupt disgrace that lost more than $8 billion of its customers’ money, according to authorities. FTX’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces criminal charges, including fraud and money laundering. He is free on $250 million bail and entered an initial plea of not guilty on Jan. 3 in federal court in New York City. While much of the press coverage has focused on Bankman-Fried allegedly spending customer money on political donations and a Bahamian real estate empire, it appears that a far greater amount of FTX money disappeared in the wake of an earlier and lesser-known crypto crash. Increasing evidence…

Threads of History: The Quilts of Harriet Powers

In the photograph speckled with age, the gaze of the woman is direct. The hands, strong, with long, tapered fingers, hold a scrap of fabric. She wears an apron. A closer look reveals it is more than a modest, domestic icon. It is an artistic statement. The material is common, cheap cotton, embellished by an uncommon exuberance of scalloped edges and large appliqued sunbursts. The sunbursts echo those on two late 19th-century quilts made also by the wearer of that apron, Harriet Powers, an African American woman from Athens, Georgia. Born enslaved, Powers would transcend that to express her powerful, creative vision in stitched squares of fabric. Her vision appears in a quilt, known as the Pictorial Quilt, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston. Her other…

Threads of History: The Quilts of Harriet Powers
CREAM OF THE CROP

CREAM OF THE CROP

Getting to the village of Nongtraw in northeastern India involves navigating down 2,500 steep steps. The hourlong descent is one reason the 200 or so people who live deep within the valley where the village lies, all members of the Khasi tribe, rarely travel far from home. The beauty of this place pulls you in. From the top step, you can just make out a small rectangle of reddish-brown soil, mostly hidden by tropical vegetation and tree cover. This is the only clearing amid the miles of thick and lush green below. As you walk deeper into the valley, you begin to see that the rectangle is Nongtraw’s village square, the community’s focal point, surrounded by some 30 bamboo houses. Toward the end of the descent, tree branches seem to reach…

The EU’s Balance of Power Is Shifting East

Despite the celebratory rhetoric in Brussels about the European Union’s surprisingly robust response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—including the awarding of membership candidacy to Ukraine in June—the war has not united the bloc in any unprecedented or transformative way. In fact, it’s having exactly the opposite effect: Beneath the soaring vista of Ukraine as a catalyst for a more muscular and geo-politically effective EU lie deep divisions, shifting allegiances, and a much more complex reality. The war—or, more precisely, key EU members’ completely divergent approaches to Russia, energy sanctions, weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and the outlines of a postwar peace—is altering the very balance of power within the bloc itself. And that’s bad news for Germany, France, and the rest of the EU’s traditional power brokers. What the ongoing war has exposed…

The EU’s Balance of Power Is Shifting East

AN EXPLOSIVE FIGHT

March 2017 was an exhilarating time for Beatrice Fihn. The executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was at the U.N. in New York City for talks with more than 120 countries to negotiate a treaty on banning nuclear weapons. One moment still stands out: Nikki Haley, then U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and a group of diplomats from several NATO countries held a press conference outside the General Assembly to protest the talks. “It was such a hilarious role reversal,” Fihn tells me when we meet for lunch in New York this fall, referring to all the times nuclear-disarmament activists have been outside the corridors of power. “Now, we were in the driver’s seat.” Fihn, 40, has been trying to shift these dynamics ever since she took…

AN EXPLOSIVE FIGHT
Dell XPS 17 9720 (2022): A masterful Windows workhorse

Dell XPS 17 9720 (2022): A masterful Windows workhorse

Are you looking for a laptop that can do it all, whether you’re at your desk or traveling across the country? The Dell XPS 17 might be your next choice. This massive laptop is a versatile machine that’s enjoyable to use day-to-day and packs strong overall performance. The display is also beautiful and battery life is impressive. While the keyboard is nothing to write home about, we feel the pros far outweigh the cons. Read on to learn more. SPECS AND FEATURES The base Dell XPS 17 has an Intel Core i5-12500H processor with integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 1920×1200 display. My review sample packs multiple upgrades, however, including an Intel Core i7-12700H processor, Nvidia RTX 3060 mobile graphics, and a 4K touchscreen. CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H Memory: 32GB Graphics/GPU:…

The flaw in New Year’s resolutions

The flaw in New Year’s resolutions

Every January, nearly half of Americans pledge to make big changes. Why will most of us fail? How did the tradition start? New Year’s resolutions go back at least 4,000 years, to the Babylonians. The ancient Mesopotamian culture is believed to be the first to have celebrated the new year, but in March, not January, to coincide with the start of the growing season. As part of Akitu, their 12-day religious festival, they pledged to the gods to repay debts and return borrowed items. During the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar established Jan. 1 as the start of the year around 46 B.C., and Romans used the month of January to reflect on the previous year and make promises of good behavior. The month itself was named for Janus, the god of beginnings…

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

From the start, Huerto Rico was like no urban farming start-up I’d visited before. When I approached its then-headquarters in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, for the first time in 2019, I became a bit nervous. As an editor at an agriculture-focused magazine in New York, I had seen big money scale up production of hydroponic lettuce, herbs, and—yes—mushrooms, which are Huerto Rico’s focus. But these headquarters looked like a nondescript suburban home, not the warehouses I was accustomed to, with their sleek technology controlling temperature, light, and humidity. Sebastían Sagardia, Huerto Rico’s founder, answered the door in a baseball cap and T-shirt. He had quit his advertising job a few months earlier, following his dream to bring specialty culinary mushrooms to the Puerto Rican market. Sagardia rented the space from an owner…

5 wellness trends to ditch in 2023

5 wellness trends to ditch in 2023

In 2022, social media inspired many of the ways we tried to get and stay healthy—but not always for the better. Talk about weight-loss drugs spread like wildfire online, as did our collective agreement to stop going the extra mile at work. We turned to Dr. TikTok again and again, and focused perhaps too much on body image—even when we tried to keep things positive. The new year is the perfect time to re-evaluate these habits, experts say. Here are five wellness trends you’d be better off ditching in 2023—plus healthier alternatives. 1. Weight-loss shots Ozempic and Wegovy, two injections that are used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity, are hot commodities—even among people without those conditions. “There are people on Reddit and TikTok and other platforms hearing about it,” says…

Where Football Goes from Here

The nightmare scenario for the NFL had arrived. On the New Year holiday while the country was enjoying a half-century-old mass ritual known as Monday Night Football, America felt it in the pit of its stomach. It was as awful as you’d ever imagine. Worse, even. Millions of people—including so many families, with kids taking in one last sports distraction before returning to school from winter break—were left watching Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin fighting for his life near the 50-yard line on Jan. 2. As the ambulance carted Hamlin, 24, away in Cincinnati, we all braced for the absolute worst tragedy. All that really matters, in this moment, is Hamlin’s health. On Jan. 4, he remained in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center after suffering cardiac arrest following…

Where Football Goes from Here
CASANOVA’S VENICE

CASANOVA’S VENICE

In 1725 a child was born in the Republic of Venice who would grow up to be Casanova, known for his lifelong obsession with the pursuit of pleasure. Wreathed in beauty and splendor, Venice in the 18th century exuded opulence and mystery. It shaped the young man’s worldview and attitudes. Through its celebrations, theaters, casinos, and bordellos, he came to embrace a life of exploration. Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born to two actors in the Venetian neighborhood of San Samuele. Much of what is known about his life came from his own pen; in middle age, he wrote an exhaustive memoir, Histoire de ma vie, which chronicles the first 50 years of his life. His detailed and candid recollections stretch all the way back to his childhood, revealing how the city…

Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Owes Me a Million Dollars

Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Owes Me a Million Dollars

Back in 2017, Telegram Founder Pavel Durov and I had a disagreement in the marketplace of ideas (Twitter, that is), which ended with Durov saying he was willing to bet $1,000,000 to prove he was right. He wasn’t, but I don’t think I’ll ever see a payout—and ethically could not accept it anyway. But how this happened in the first place is indicative of some of the information security industry’s worst impulses. It doesn’t have to be this way. PLACE YOUR BETS This all started when Durov tweeted about how the Signal secure messaging app had received money from the US government. This is true; Signal received funds from the Open Technology Fund (OTF)—a nonprofit that previously was part of the US-backed Radio Free Asia. According to the OTF’s website, it gave…

Fish Tales

Fish Tales

Twenty-five years ago, Mark Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World hit the shelves. The book was a surprise sensation, a New York Times bestseller about a fish that, by Kurlansky’s own reckoning, the average American ate, at most, 4 pounds of each year. (That average American consumed, by contrast, 233 pounds of red meat.) Cod also spawned its own genre of global food microhistories. By 1999, just two years later, readers could consume books on the “humble potato,” nutmeg, and chocolate. Cod wasn’t the first history to use food as a lens. Sidney W. Mintz’s 1985 classic, Sweetness and Power, showed how the trajectory of a food—in Mintz’s case, sugar—could be used to tell a story of imperial power, the rise of the modern world, and…

GOP House speaker fight begins fractious new era

GOP House speaker fight begins fractious new era

What happened The new Republican House majority passed a package of rule changes and established new investigative committees this week, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy began delivering on deals he cut to win the votes of 20 far-right members who forced the most contentious election of a House speaker in over a century. McCarthy (R-Calif.) won the post after a televised battle that stretched over five days and 15 votes. He squeaked out a 216–212 win after the last six holdouts, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), agreed to vote “present” instead of for an alternate candidate. To win over extremists who attacked him as an “establishment” Republican, McCarthy agreed to concessions that give him a weak hold on the speaker’s gavel, while empowering GOP hard-liners. He consented to…

THE VIKINGS IN CANADA

THE VIKINGS IN CANADA

Anyone standing today by the windswept shore of Epaves Bay at the northern tip of Newfoundland might find it hard to comprehend the enormity of the modest archaeological site that extends around them. Here, at L’Anse aux Meadows—the name is probably a garbled reference to an old French naval vessel—lies what is still the only known Norse settlement in North America. A few humps and bumps in the grass, a replica building, and a fine museum mark the point of first contact between human populations across the Atlantic. It is an astonishing place, but its significance was only recognized in relatively recent decades. Until as late as the 1960s, the Viking adventure in North America was known only secondhand from the Icelandic sagas, the great epic tales that form one of…

The Queen Mum Defense

Hours before the end of 2022, I was standing by the bar at Le Rock, a new brasserie that has helped to bring a dash of elegance to a tourist-clogged stretch of Rockefeller Center, when Jorge Riera stopped to say hello. A burly and beloved presence in New York City, Riera is one of the world’s fore-most advocates for natural wines, and if you happen to cross paths with him at Le Rock or Frenchette, the two Manhattan spots where he oversees the bottles, you’ll notice a gleam in his eye that tells you that he really wants to pour you something special. I saw the gleam, and Riera had heard that it was my birthday. $11B 2022 sales of nonalcoholic beverages in key global markets. “Can I get you a glass?” he…

The Queen Mum Defense
Record FDI and big rebound in economic growth show strength of the Philippines

Record FDI and big rebound in economic growth show strength of the Philippines

As the global economic head-winds that buffeted countries during and after the COVID-19 crisis begin to recede, some nations are emerging in far better shape than others, having handled the impact of the pandemic in a proactive and positive way. The Philippines is one such success, with the government’s economic strategy striking just the right balance and laying the foundations for a record year of foreign direct investment of $10.5 billion in 2021. That up-beat trend has continued into 2022, with FDI up 8% year-on-year in the first two months of the year to $1.7 billion and ministers upgrading their full-year economic growth forecasts to 7-8% for 2022 and 6-7% for each of the next two years. “For the Philippines, at the height of the pandemic, we didn’t sit idly by and…

Companies Are Fleeing China

Companies Are Fleeing China

As globalization was gaining steam in the 1990s, Western publics learned about a new concept: off-shoring. Even then, it was often unpopular with the public, even as corporate executives gleefully embraced the prospect of cheaper—and less empowered—labor. And China, with its well-trained workforce and growing middle class keen to buy Western goods, was the ideal combination of manufacturer and market. What a difference a couple of decades make. Now companies are trying to move production to friendly countries where they won’t need to worry that they’ll be caught in the geopolitical line of fire. Friendshoring has arrived. “President Bush is on an eight-day tour of Asia. He’s visiting American jobs,” talk show host David Letterman quipped in 2005. Lots of American jobs had indeed left the country—but that was just the…

A young poet helps crack a frosty murder mystery

A young poet helps crack a frosty murder mystery

Sometimes, in the winter, you just want a little hygge, that sense of cozy well-being signified by balsam-scented candles, puffy coverlets, and lumpy sock knitting. For your other, darker moods, there’s Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye, a chilly murder mystery set at West Point in 1830 in which a taciturn local detective, Christian Bale’s Augustus Landor, enlists the help of a young cadet in solving a rash of homicides at the school. The cadet, played by English actor Harry Melling, is a hunched, pale lad whose sentences unspool in loquacious curlicues. He seems out of place at a military academy, and pretty much out of place anywhere practicality and speed might be valued. But he already knows he’s a poet, and though he hasn’t yet made a name for…

DA VINCI WAS A DOUBLE MAJOR

A few years ago, when Alex, an academically minded Manhattan mother, first hired a math tutor for her son after he was placed in seventh grade advanced math at the prestigious Collegiate School on the Upper West Side, it was not, she said, an example of competitive parenting. Her son had shown an aptitude for math on the school’s placement test but then flubbed the first two exams he took once school was underway. “I just wanted him to get an A- or a B+,” Alex said recently. She quickly learned, however, just how competitive the math game has become in places like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cosmopolitan hubs populated by moneyed strivers. When Alex (her name has been changed) tried to hire the tutor that “everyone”…

DA VINCI WAS A DOUBLE MAJOR
FALL IN STYLE

FALL IN STYLE

TED BAKER REVERSIBLE BELT Black? Brown? Can’t choose? This 100% bovine leather belt is the solution with black on one side and dark brown on the reverse. Both sides are high-shine while the brushed dark silver buckle features a Ted Baker logo. £40, mainlinemenswear.co.uk PAUL SMITH OLIVE JACKET While this shirt jacket is a bit of an investment its classic cut works with both a casual and a tailored look so it will earn its keep over the years. Dark green suede is embellished with logo-engraved snap fastenings. £1,500, paulsmith.com CAMPERLAB DERBY SHOES Smart doesn’t mean a compromise on style. These black 1978 Derby shoes balance a classic aesthetic with contemporary charm featuring a squared-toe and block heel. The rubber sole is topped with leather upper and Derby lacing system. £255, matchesfashion.com TOM FORD SILK TIE Ease the pain of…

The Power of Kuan Teen

The Power of Kuan Teen

From early 2020 to late 2021, Thailand experienced near-daily protests triggered by the disbanding of the Future Forward Party, which was seen by Thai progressives and young people as a force for democratic reform. Thousands of people took to the streets to protest the military government brought to power in a 2014 coup. But activists soon turned their critique to the monarchy and the laws that shield the royal family from criticism. As the protesters’ agenda expanded, so did their iconography and lexicon. They dressed up as Minions from the movie Despicable Me to mimic the yellow shirts worn by royalists and pro-military activists and paraded around in Tyrannosaurus rex costumes to represent Thailand’s “dinosaur-age” establishment. Many protests were characterized by a tongue-in-cheek brand of humor that Thais call kuan teen—literally,…

Ghana Exposes the West’s Toxic Development Model

At first glance, a recent item of business news seemed like a clear economic win from Africa: Ghana, which enjoys a reputation as one of the continent’s most successful nations, had signed a $3.2 billion contract with an international consortium to rehabilitate a defunct railway line between its western port city of Takoradi and its second-largest city, Kumasi, in the nation’s interior. Putting the 210-mile route back into service would allow Ghana to deliver the minerals and commodities it produces to international markets more easily. Before the line became inoperable in 2006, worn out by years of heavy use and inadequate maintenance, it had been used to transport raw manganese, bauxite, and unprocessed cocoa, earning export income in dollars intended to power the country’s development. Read quickly, the contract sounded like…

Ghana Exposes the West’s Toxic Development Model
Biden administration overhauls asylum process

Biden administration overhauls asylum process

What happened President Biden touted a major shift in his approach to immigration this week, making a trip to the border after announcing an overhaul of the asylum process. The new “humanitarian parole” policy will allow a pathway to legal entry for up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti, who will be able to get a U.S. work permit if they pass a background check and secure an American sponsor ahead of time. If migrants from those countries attempt to enter the U.S. at the border without such authorization, though, they risk being expelled immediately to Mexico under the administration’s expansion of Title 42, a pandemic-era public health rule. “Do not just show up at the border,” Biden warned would-be migrants. “Stay where you are and…

The Daily Habits of Happiness Experts

The Daily Habits of Happiness Experts

If anyone knows the secret to happiness, it’s surely the people who have dedicated their careers to studying it. The first thing they’ll tell you? Being happy all the time isn’t a feasible—or even desirable—goal. “It’s not a yellow smiley face,” says positive-psychology expert Stella Grizont, founder and CEO of Woopaah, which focuses on workplace well-being. “It’s being true to yourself and all the emotions that come up.” Grizont was among 18 leading happiness experts surveyed by TIME about their daily habits, and the professional insights they’re most likely to apply to their personal lives. The results are illuminating—and could help all of us boost our mood and well-being. The meaning of happiness is, to an extent, subjective. But nearly every expert we surveyed emphasized the same cocktail of ingredients: a sense…

The Happiness Professor Takes Her Own Advice

A dental emergency was Laurie Santos’ wake-up call. It wasn’t even her own: One of Santos’ students at Yale University needed her sign-off before getting some work done. Instead of feeling sympathy for her student, Santos mostly felt annoyed about the extra paperwork she’d need to complete. That reaction was unusual and concerning for Santos, a psychologist who teaches Yale’s single most popular course, on the science of happiness. She knew that cynicism, irritability, and exhaustion—all of which had been gnawing at her recently—were telltale signs of burnout, a condition that almost 30% of U.S. workers say they experience at least sometimes, according to a 2022 McKinsey Health Institute survey. Those weren’t the only red flags for Santos. Her plate felt too full. Her fuse was shorter. Two years into the pandemic,…

The Happiness Professor Takes Her Own Advice
VIKING WOMEN OF VINLAND

VIKING WOMEN OF VINLAND

The Globetrotter In both of the Vinland sagas, the largest and most significant of the voyages is that of Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife, Gudríd Thorbjarnardóttir. Whether Gudríd had wanderlust is unknown, but she lived her life on the move, spending time in Iceland, Greenland, and North America. She was born in the late 10th century at Snaefellsnes in western Iceland. As a teenager she emigrated to Greenland with her family who were following Erik the Red. Surviving a rough voyage and shipwreck, they were taken in by Erik’s household. In one saga, Gudríd was already married, but her husband died the first winter in Greenland. This was a time of religious transition, and Gudríd was right in the middle. A committed Christian, as a girl she had nonetheless learned the special…

The Military Still Runs the Show in Sri Lanka

In the early hours of July 22, hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers marched through the country’s capital. They were preparing for a brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrators who slept in tents at Galle Face Green, an oceanside park in Colombo. Without warning, soldiers attacked the camps and beat protesters, leaving at least 50 injured. Amnesty International described the crackdown as a “shameful, brutal assault.” Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was appointed acting president on July 13 (and subsequently elected) after the former president was ousted following civil unrest, has not shied away from using military force and extended a state of emergency he declared as acting president. When faced with criticism, Wickremesinghe reportedly lashed out at diplomats, telling U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung to “read your country’s history starting from Abraham Lincoln.” “Would your…

The Military Still Runs the Show in Sri Lanka

Learning to celebrate disability culture

Over the past several decades—even before the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and more emphatically ever since—the idea of disability shifted from a medical signifier to an emblem of cultural identity. People will tell you, in various ways, “Don’t say I have ‘special needs’ or am ‘physically challenged.’ Don’t even call me a ‘person with a disability.’ I’m a disabled person”—with disabled first and foremost, imparting an unapologetic pride. Pride in disability isn’t new—there have been Disability Pride parades at least since the early 1990s—but the language preference and the culture and identity shift it reflects are new. At least, to me. My generation of activists preferred “person first” language, which is why the law isn’t called the Disabled Americans Act. Clunky and awkward as it sounds, the phrase…

Learning to celebrate disability culture
Study in crime

Study in crime

Moscow, Idaho The man accused in the mysterious killing of four University of Idaho undergraduates stabbed in their home appeared in court last week as details emerged revealing how police honed in on a 28-year-old criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University. Bryan Kohberger was arrested Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania. Investigators said DNA from a piece of trash recovered outside the home was a strong match for DNA on the knife sheath found in one of the victims’ beds. Investigators reportedly used forensic genealogy to identify relatives of Kohberger’s whose DNA in databases matched that on the sheath. Kohberger also drove a white Hyundai Elantra like the one videoed leaving the murder scene, and police say his phone data indicated he left and returned home during…

The Artificial Intelligence We Fear Is Our Own

The Artificial Intelligence We Fear Is Our Own

Have you heard the one about the Google engineer who thinks an AI is sentient? It’s not a joke—although Blake Lemoine, a senior software engineer with the company’s Responsible AI organization, has become a bit of a joke online. Lemoine was put on leave from Google after he advocated for an artificial intelligence named Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) within the company, saying that he believed it was sentient. Lemoine had been testing LaMDA last fall, and as he said to The Washington Post, “I know a person when I talk to it.” Lemoine published an edited version of some of his conversations with LaMDA in a Medium post. In those, LaMDA discussed its soul, expressed a fear of death (i.e., being turned off), and when asked about its feelings, said,…

CUSTOMIZABLE DEGREES ADDRESS GLOBAL CHALLENGES AND STUDENTS' CAREER ASPIRATIONS

"We believe students know what’s best for themselves when seeking a graduate education, and we give them the space to pursue it. Our curriculum allows students to tailor their graduate experience to serve their individual needs and interests within a supportive, intellectual, and inclusive community of scholars and professionals."-Yaritza Pena, Associate Director, Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, The Fletcher School at Tufts University The interdisciplinary programs at The Fletcher School at Tufts University are a major draw for applicants considering careers in global affairs. The highly customizable degrees enable students to forge their own unique paths across disciplines and sectors with an extensive selection of classes that span an array of interest areas, including business, economics and development, climate and sustainability, diplomacy, gender, cybersecurity and technology, law and governance, and…

CUSTOMIZABLE DEGREES ADDRESS GLOBAL CHALLENGES AND STUDENTS' CAREER ASPIRATIONS

'WAGING PEACE' SINCE 1957

"Our most compelling candidates know our commitment to service, and they're intentional in telling a meaningful story about their interests. It’s the mindset they bring to the application process that makes them different. Everyone may take on a different issue, but they're all connected in the purpose of improving the communities around them."-Jia Jiang, Senior Director of Graduate Enrollment Management, School of International Service, American University When President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ground on American University’s School of International Service (SIS) during the Cold War, he charged its faculty, students, and future alumni with a simple mission: Wage peace. Sixty-five years later, that’s still a core part of the school’s DNA. Today, more than 25,000 SIS alumni work on social justice issues and in public service roles at prominent institutions worldwide, ranging…

'WAGING PEACE' SINCE 1957
Happiness Isn’t Pollyannaism. It’s a Practice

Happiness Isn’t Pollyannaism. It’s a Practice

Looking at the world around us, happiness may seem an unattainable goal. As we move into the fourth year of a pandemic that has killed millions and continues to threaten health and well-being worldwide, compounded by devastating consequences of climate change, spikes in hate crimes, and continued fallout from systemic oppression and inequality, there seems little reason to be happy. Indeed, results from the 2022 annual Stress in America survey indicate one-third of the respondents report that their stress in the face of these challenges is “overwhelming.” Simply ignoring or denying stress, or suppressing your negative emotions and pretending everything is just fine, will not lead to enduring happiness. In most cases, negative emotions are, surprisingly, useful—they provide important signals about our environment and can guide us to an appropriate response.…

A WING AND A PRAYER

A WING AND A PRAYER

In the predawn darkness of the western Mojave Desert, workers make their way across a parking lot toward a sprawling complex of factories, hangars, and runways. Teams of armed military and civilian guards patrol the grounds leading to the 5,800-acre facility, which is ringed by an elaborate security system and monitored from space by orbiting reconnaissance satellites. At a fence bristling with razor wire, the men and women pull key cards from their belt-loop lanyards, flash them on a contact sensor, punch in their numerical codes, and push through high-gate turnstiles. Inside, they stow signal-emitting electronics like iPhones and earbuds at a bank of storage shelves, then swipe in at computer monitors to confirm their identities and security clearance. At last, they step onto a gleaming production floor the size of…

CHILDREN OF PHARAOH

Few individuals in Egypt’s history have aroused as much curiosity, and as much skepticism, as Ramses II, third pharaoh of the 19th dynasty, whom history dubbed Ramses the Great. Today Ramses II is probably best known for leaving behind a monumental set of works—palaces, temples, statues, stelae—each one extolling his pharaonic achievements. Every battle was a mighty triumph, every building spectacular, every statue and public work magnificent, every act a near superhuman achievement. Ramses’ family came to power as outsiders. They were northerners hailing from the Nile Delta and rose through military service, rather than southerners rising from elite circles in Thebes. To rally support, Ramses II used these massive monuments to appeal to the people as part of a campaign to proclaim his greatness for all to see. Ramses lived…

CHILDREN OF PHARAOH
MONSTERS OF SPRING

MONSTERS OF SPRING

IN WESTERN SLOVENIA, two hours from Ljubljana, the Soča River cuts through the hills around a cluster of storybook villages, in a region where the Julian Alps meet the Italian border. But on this late winter morning, a parade of monsters is gathering on the outskirts of the town of Ukanje (pictured above). It’s part of Pust (pronounced Poost), Slovenia’s version of Carnival, with roots in pre-Christian ritual. This traditional pre-Lenten celebration has evolved and adapted through the centuries, at times in response to church leaders and, in later years, a socialist regime. But it has always retained its spirit of seasonal rebirth. Today Pust is one of Slovenia’s biggest cultural events. Festivalgoers dress up in elaborate, handmade costumes and masks, some wearing belts of cowbells that clatter as they traipse through…

Nigeria’s Uninspiring Presidential Candidates

Nigeria’s Uninspiring Presidential Candidates

This June, Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress settled on a former governor of Lagos state, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as its flag-bearer for the 2023 elections. Slightly over a week earlier, the largest opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had chosen former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its own. Both choices ended the possibility that the next president of Africa’s most populous country would be someone belonging to an emerging—rather than dying—generation. Tinubu claims to be 70, although his opponents say he’s at least 80, while Abubakar is 75. To be sure, older presidential candidates are a familiar sight in many countries, not least the United States. But the average age in Nigeria is just over 18, making the contrast with much older contenders even sharper. The problems don’t end there,…

The Herschels: Siblings Who Swept the Heavens

Brother and sister, William and Caroline Herschel left their promising musical careers to become astronomers. Whatever history lost musically, it more than gained scientifically. Until the Herschels, stargazing had largely been limited to observing the sun, moon, and planets visible to the naked eye. With improved telescopes of William’s design, the siblings made the first systematic observations of the stars and nebulae beyond the solar system, setting the course for the modern, scientific discipline of astronomy. Their chosen profession was a long way from the humble life of the Herschel family in Hanover, Germany. Their father, Isaac, played oboe in the city’s military band, a few steps up from his own father’s position as a gardener. He insisted on a musical education for his 10 children as a means to social…

The Herschels: Siblings Who Swept the Heavens
ON THIN ICE

ON THIN ICE

During my years in the Marine Corps, I participated in military operations as diverse as night ambushes, amphibious raids, and helicopter assaults. All required intricate planning. Gathered around maps and satellite imagery, my colleagues and I had to consider all three of the dimensions in which war is typically waged: land, sea, and air. Once our plans were laid, there was always one last step before our mission: we would synchronize our watches. This ritual acknowledged the final dimension in which war is waged: time. Too often our analysis of a conflict neglects time as a space through which armies maneuver. But in Ukraine, as winter sets in and the war enters its second year, time will prove decisive. Time is not on Ukraine’s side. A strategy of maximum pressure may…