The Gaza ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas appear to have hit a roadblock. China's president heads to France for a state dinner — hoping to drive a wedge between Europe and America. Boeing is hoping it has better success in space than it's lately had inside the atmosphere.
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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Vincent Ni, Nick Spicer, Russell Lewis, Lisa Thomson, Elana Perl and Ben Adler. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Phil Edfors. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
If you think about it, on the downsizing principles this is like a years worth of content, and two sentences is endless show notes. Or something, I dunno, the scaling doesn't really make any sense, much like the conceptual map surrounding altruism. Enjoy!
Thirty years of democracy have not led to uniform prosperity, and nearly everyone disagrees about the equality of opportunity. How will the disenchantment manifest at the polls? How two small Texas towns became the patent-law centre of America (12:16). And a tribute to Eleanor Coppola, mastermind of the award-winning behind-the-scenes look at her husband’s epic, “Apocalypse Now” (19:26).
Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
May Day is the title of Jackie Kay’s new collection. The former Makar of Scotland explores a history of political protest, and the cultural influencers of the past, from Rabbie Burns to the poet Audre Lorde and Paul Robeson. She also celebrates the lives and activism of her parents, and grieves for their loss.
The Green MP Caroline Lucas wants to reclaim and rewrite England’s national story in her book, Another England. By exploring its radical tradition through its literary heritage she seeks to foreground the diverse writers and poets who spoke of a shared sense of identity and purpose, and a deep-rooted commitment to the natural world.
The journalist and writer Simon Heffer looks back a century to the interwar period, a time of radical transformation of British society post the Great War, as many of the old attitudes started to be swept away. In his history, Sing As We Go, he shows how the culture of the time both shaped and reflected these changes.
Rustam Alexander's Gay Lives and 'Aversion Therapy' in Brezhnev's Russia, 1964-1982(Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) examines the autobiographies and diaries of Soviet homosexual men who underwent psychotherapy during the period from 1970 to 1980 under the guidance of Yan Goland, a psychiatrist-sexopathologist from Gorky. The examination of these unique and little-known documents contributes to our scant knowledge about the practices that many would call a Soviet proto-type of 'aversion therapy'. It also helps us understand the way homosexual people faced "queer dilemmas" of the self and how they sought to reconcile their queer desire with being Soviet.
Tatiana Klepikova is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Regensburg, where she leads a research group on queer literatures and cultures under socialism.
In 1940, much of the world was at war, but the United States wasn’t. A strong isolationist sentiment kept the US on the sidelines while Germany and Japan ran roughshod over their neighbors.
While the US wasn’t in the war, many people in the US military knew that it was only a matter of time before we got sucked in.
Over a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, a plan was developed for just that eventuality.
Learn more about the Plan Dog Memorandum on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
We're telling you about more tense confrontations on college campuses, including one that has gone viral.
Also, major tornadoes are possible today.
Plus, we'll talk about the Air Force plan for AI-powered fighter jets, how much it now costs to own a pet, and one of the most dramatic finishes in Kentucky Derby history.
Those stories and more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Former President Donald Trump held an audition of sorts on Saturday for his top vice presidential picks. At least seven known Veep wannabes attended the Republican National Committee’s spring retreat at Mar-a-Lago, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. The attention-seeking behavior continued into the Sunday talk shows when Scott refused to say whether or not he would accept the 2024 election results during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
And in headlines: Israel and Hamas traded blame over an impasse in the latest round of cease-fire negotiations, the Israeli government shuttered Al Jazeera’s news operation in the country and raided one of its offices, and the first civil trial over the lethal crowd surge at rapper Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld music festival has been delayed over a free speech claim by Apple.