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 S12The art and science of hyper-personalised shopping   I recently joined a boxing gym, and as I was on my way home, I received a text from Sam. He said he was a representative with the gym, and he wanted to know if I had enjoyed my first class. (I had.) A few days later, he followed up again, telling me about a package of classes suited to a beginner. Sam has continued to text me ever since, talking casually in the first person as he suggests other options, like a studio membership, that I might be interested in. I'd willingly handed over my phone number to this gym when I initially signed up, and knew full well it might be used for marketing purposes. What I didn't know, however, was that that a seemingly real person would be talking to me, armed with unique information about my experience.
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S1Big Oil's Favorite Climate Change Solution  This year’s United Nations climate summit will be the biggest in history–and the first held in a major petrostate. Host United Arab Emirates wants to bring the fossil fuel industry into the climate fold, but to make that happen requires wide deployment of carbon capture and storage. Proponents argue the new technology could help preserve the energy security of fossil fuels without the emissions. Critics say it’s unproven at scale and a convenient fig leaf for Big Oil.
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S4Leading in the Flow of Work  Leadership development programs traditionally provide extensive training in how to influence and coach people, give feedback, build trust, and more. A new approach, which draws on faculties everyone already possesses, can greatly enhance those efforts. The leadership-in-flow model focuses on activating your inner core—your best self—by tapping into five energies: purpose, wisdom, growth, love, and self-realization. That can be done in the moment through one or more of 25 actions that take just seconds to perform, like appealing to purpose and values, creating the right frame, affiliating, and sparking joy. Now the basis of a popular course at Columbia Business School, leadership-in-flow can be used by people at all levels to unlock peak performance.
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S5 The Hidden Opportunity in Paradoxes  The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The author reviewed relevant academic literature; conducted in-depth interviews with executives, advisers, and intrapreneurs with firsthand experience in organizational paradox; and conducted analysis using systems psychodynamics (a set of tools to study the interaction between structures, norms, and practices of groups and the cognitions, motivations, and emotions of group members) as part of INSEAD’s Executive Master in Change program.
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S6 Get Ready for More Transparent Sustainability Reporting  The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.Rigorous sustainability-related financial disclosure is coming. The era of inconsistent, voluntary disclosure is giving way to mandatory reporting — but don’t treat this regulatory revolution as simply an exercise in compliance. It is instead essential work to gain greater visibility into your business’s exposure to risk and long-term prospects for success — for the benefit of both investors and management.
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S7 Tackling AI's Climate Change Problem  The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.In an era defined by both the promise of technological innovation and the threat of climate change, artificial intelligence has emerged as both a valuable tool and a difficult challenge. As we use AI to tackle tough problems, we must also grapple with its hidden environmental costs and consider solutions that will allow us to harness its potential while mitigating its climate impact.
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S8 Our Guide to the Winter 2024 Issue  The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.Top Takeaways: Companies need to grapple with setting critical goals to reduce carbon emissions while continuing to meet business demands. Moving the needle on addressing major sustainability issues requires setting objectives that are ambitious enough to reflect an organization’s vision but sufficiently realistic as well. The authors walk readers through a five-step process for identifying and setting environmental intentions and for managing the tension between the urgent need for climate action and maintaining business health.
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S9Good Questions | Elizabeth Heichler  The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.One of the enduring challenges of leadership is avoiding being persuaded that you have all the answers. When anxious employees seek certainty, it might feel like it’s your job to deliver. But numerous articles in this issue of MIT Sloan Management Review remind us how much more important it can be to ask questions.
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S10'Shrinkflation' isn't a trend - it's a permanent hit to your wallet  If you've noticed you're getting less while your bill at the till stays the same, it's not just you.'Shrinkflation' – reducing a product's size or quantity while keeping its price stable – is rampant. As the global economy grapples with issues including rising raw material costs, supply chain backlogs and higher post-pandemic labourer wages, consumers are bearing the brunt of spiking production expenses.
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S11UAW auto strike: Why US Automotive CEOs make more than global competition  At 23:59 on 14 Sept, roughly 13,000 workers at three of the largest automakers in the US went on strike. After eight weeks of unsuccessful negotiations among the United Auto Workers union (UAW) and the companies – General Motors (GM), Ford and Stellantis – workers walked off the job when contracts expired. Thousands more workers have since joined the strike in 38 locations across 20 states, and President Biden is expected to show support by walking the picket line this week.At the top of the UAW's demands is a 40% pay increase across four years (that number was lowered to 36% a few days after the strike began, after ongoing negotiations). Union president Shawn Fain has made the canyon-like gap between CEO and worker pay the foremost banner of the strike.
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S13Mark Ruffalo on Poor Things' raunchy sex scenes: 'It's shaking off cultural oppression'  The critically acclaimed Poor Things, which was released in the US last week, has been called "the raunchiest movie you're likely to see this year". Its frequent nudity and numerous sex scenes featuring its star, Emma Stone, are a major talking point, leading Justin Chang in the LA Times to call it "one of the most sexually forthright movies ever released under the Disney banner".More like this:- Poor Things review: 'Daringly outrageous and hilarious'- The 20 best films of 2023- Peeping Tom: The flop that invented the slasher
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S14Rishi Sunak's Rwanda bill: how much trouble is the prime minister really in as MPs threaten a parliamentary rebellion?  The legislative process in Britain consists of a series of discrete stages, each with its own purpose and function. A bill’s second reading is the discussion of, and vote on, the principle of the legislation. As Erskine May, the so-called bible of parliamentary procedure, puts it: “Its whole principle is at issue, and is affirmed or denied by the House.” The last time a government lost a vote on the second reading of one of its own bills was 1986. The significance of that particular vote is not just that it took place almost 40 years ago, but that it was the only occasion a government with a working majority lost a bill at second reading in the entire 20th century. So, while we can say that it would not be unprecedented if the government went down to defeat over the Rwanda bill, it would be extremely unusual.
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S15England Rugby captain's decision to prioritise mental health could inspire more athletes to do the same  England Rugby Union captain Owen Farrell recently announced he was deciding to step away from international duties. The 32-year-old said his decision to sit out of the 2024 Six Nations tournament was so that he could prioritise his and his family’s mental wellbeing.Farrell’s decision to step back, especially as an elite athlete, was undoubtedly not an easy one to make. Not only do professional athletes face intense pressure to perform their best at all times, many still find it difficult to speak up when it comes to voicing their own mental health concerns.
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S16Work Christmas parties: know your rights so things don't go wrong at your office do  Back in 2000, financial publisher Bloomberg blew a reported £1 million on an office party with a “seven deadly sins” theme for its 1,500 British employees. As well as a “lust room” containing a 25-foot-wide bed of purple satin, the party boasted ten bars – one, themed “gluttony”, with a trough of truffles and sweets, according to New York magazine.Your organisation may not even formally arrange a party, employees might sort their own get-together. Even so, employers can be held liable outside of the workplace and outside of normal working hours for any inappropriate behaviour – even at an unofficial event.
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S17How Christmas music in adverts and shops harnesses nostalgia to encourage you to spend more  This year, Tesco’s Christmas advert tells the tale of a teenager resisting the urge to succumb to the Christmas spirit to the tune of OMC’s 1995 song, How Bizarre. John Lewis’s sees a young boy raise a giant – and troublesome – Venus flytrap to the score of Festa, a new composition performed by Andrea Bocelli. Morrisons and Waitrose both opt for 1980s hits, featuring Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Stop us Now and Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough respectively, while Marks & Spencer presents us with Rita Ekwere’s contemporary cover of Meat Loaf’s 1993 anthem, I’d Do Anything for Love.
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S18Weird Medieval Guys: this deeply researched book takes you on a romp through the Middle Ages  Packed full of satire, stunning imagery and interactive maps and quizzes, Weird Medieval Guys is a deep-dive into some of the most extraordinary – and quirky – aspects of medieval daily life. This little book, which should appeal to older children as well as adults, is split into two parts: The Struggle: Surviving Life, Love, and Death, and The Bestiary. Weird Medieval Guys is a riot, packed full of brilliant medieval facts. Its author, Olivia Swarthout, has been creative in using quizzes and puzzles to engage readers who might like history but don’t get on with dense scholarly texts in the wonderful, wacky world that is the Middle Ages.
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S19Scientists and space agencies are shooting for the Moon -- 5 essential reads on modern lunar missions  The year 2023 proved a big one for lunar science. India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed near the south pole of the Moon, a huge accomplishment for a country relatively new to the space scene, especially after its Chandrayaan-2 craft crashed in 2019. At the same time, NASA’s been gearing up for a host of Moon-related missions, including its Artemis program. In 2023, the agency gained nine signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international agreement for peaceful space exploration, for a total of 32 countries that have signed so far.
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S20Customizing mRNA is easy,  I am a molecular biologist who studies how cells control their mRNAs to make the proteins they need, a basic question of how life works at the cellular level. While most scientists studying mRNAs are not creating new drugs, this fundamental understanding of how mRNA works laid the foundation for other scientists to create effective mRNA medicines like COVID-19 vaccines. By tweaking these instructions, scientists can create powerful new medicines to repair a variety of problems in your cells.
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S21What's the point of giving gifts? An anthropologist explains this ancient part of being human  Have you planned out your holiday gift giving yet? If you’re anything like me, you might be waiting until the last minute. But whether every single present is already wrapped and ready, or you’ll hit the shops on Christmas Eve, giving gifts is a curious but central part of being human.To me as an anthropologist, this is an especially powerful question because giving gifts likely has ancient roots. And gifts can be found in every known culture around the world.
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S22Could UPS and FedEx get holiday packages to their destinations faster? This research suggests yes  Every year, parcel delivery companies – think UPS and FedEx – hire tens of thousands of seasonal driver helpers to handle the deluge of presents that arrive with the holidays. At peak times, shipping firms depend on their helpers just as much as Santa depends on his elves. And those companies could save millions of dollars each year – and shave time off their deliveries – simply by tweaking the roles they gave those workers to be more efficient, my colleagues and I recently found. As a a professor of supply chain management, I’m interested in how shipping companies can reach complex logistical goals. And there are few goals more challenging than getting 90 million parcels to their destinations every day, which was the industrywide average during the 2022 U.S. holiday season.
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S23S24S25Israel-Hamas war may not restore Israelis' support for military reserves  One of the first Israeli government responses to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack was the mobilization of about 360,000 reservists into active duty for the Israel military. This amounts to roughly 4% of the nation’s population and boosted the strength of the 170,000 people already serving in the military, either doing compulsory service or as career soldiers.As someone who has studied Israel’s security policies and society for the last 20 years, I see the rare decision to mobilize more than three-quarters of Israel’s entire reserve forces, as reflecting more than the practical need for soldiers to secure the nation and respond to Hamas’ attacks. I believe the mobilization decision was also intended to signal that Israel is prepared to fight any other potential adversaries who might consider the country vulnerable.
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S26Somali pirates are back in action: but a full scale return isn't likely. Here's why  An Iranian fishing vessel, Almeraj 1, was reportedly hijacked by Somali pirates in November 2023. According to media reports, the pirates demanded US$400,000 in ransom and threatened to use the Iranian ship for additional hijackings if the payment was not made.Two days later, other Somali pirates hijacked a tanker, Central Park, off the Yemeni coast. The tanker sent a distress signal during the attack. Forces from a nearby American warship captured the pirates as they tried to flee in a small boat.
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S27Madagascar cave art hints at ancient connections between Africa and Asia  Unique, prehistoric rock art drawings have been discovered in the Andriamamelo Cave in western Madagascar. I was part of a team that discovered and described these ancient treasures. They’re the first truly pictorial art, depicting images of nature with human-like and animal-like figures, to be seen on the island. Until recently, rock art in Madagascar had only yielded a few sites with basic symbols.
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S28Sierra Leone's attempted coup and a cost of living crisis put peace to the test  There is no specific event or cause which can be identified as the trigger for the recent attacks. There were attacks on Wilberforce, the country’s main military barracks, and two maximum security prisons, the Special Court and the Pademba Road Prison complexes. The barracks and the prisons are all based in Freetown, the country’s capital.But there has been growing discontent in the country over the rising cost of living and the post-election stalemate between the two main political parties. In June 2023, the inflation rate increased to 44.81% compared to 27.95% in June 2022. There has also been growing unrest since the re-election of President Julius Maada Bio in June. These may have all contributed to what happened. Even the budget speech by the finance minister in November 2023 acknowledged rising food prices in the country, warning it could “inflict greater hardship” on citizens.
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S29Rizz: I study the history of charisma - here's why the word of the year is misunderstood  The Oxford English Dictionary has selected rizz as its word of 2023. If you’ve heard of it at all, you’ll probably have heard that it comes from the word charisma. However, the OED definition pins it down as “style, charm or attractiveness, and the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner”.So, wait – which is it? Charm or charisma? The difference seems small – most people switch them up all the time. However, there has always been a subtle rivalry between the two ideas, because each embodies a quite different vision of how power works. Rizz takes this in a fascinating – and troubling – new direction, with implications for how young people talk about politics and masculinity.
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S30Four ways to tell the designer fashion items worth investing in from the ones that aren't  Whether it’s aspiring to the “quiet luxury” or “old money” looks taking over TikTok, or cringing at the “ludicrously capacious bag” scene in the last season of Succession, designer clothes and accessories have been a hot topic in 2023. But with continued sales growth in designer fashion, and concerns about shopping more sustainably, it’s worth considering investing your money in products that will last longer.Sales in luxury fashion have increased significantly since the pandemic. Louis Vuitton, for example, has increased its sales from 2019. And British luxury brand, Burberry, reported sales growth to be 86% higher in the year following the pandemic (though there has been another dip in sales more recently).
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S31Thrush: zinc may prevent yeast infections - new research  Around half a billion women experience a vaginal yeast infection (thrush) every year – with around 140 million women suffering from multiple infections throughout their lifetime. The majority of vaginal yeast infections are caused by the fungus Candida albicans. For most of us, this fungus exists as a normal part of our microbiome and is harmless. But when the microbiome is disturbed (for example, as a result of antibiotic use), this can change how C. albicans grows – making it more likely to cause an infection.
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S32S33COP28: countries have pledged to cut emissions from cooling - here's how to make it happen  Cast your eyes over the statistics in a new report I helped author on staying cool in a warming climate and the urgency becomes clear: 1 billion people, mostly in Africa and Asia, are at high risk from extreme heat because they lack access to cooling, while a further 2.9 billion only have intermittent access. As the climate crisis deepens, close to half of the world’s people have little defence against deadly heat.At the same time, energy demand from cooling – by those who can afford it – could more than double by 2050. This demand, when met with electricity generated by burning fossil fuels, increases emissions in turn, exacerbating climate change.
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S34Why we should consider a transitional administration for Gaza  Chargé de cours en science politique et chercheur à la Chaire Raoul-Dandurand en études stratégiques et diplomatiques, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Président de l'Observatoire sur les États-Unis de la Chaire Raoul-Dandurand et professeur de science politique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
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S35The NZ aviation industry is making bold climate claims - and risking anti-greenwashing litigation  On the same day last week that Air New Zealand announced the purchase of its first fully electric aircraft, Christchurch Airport announced it had reached “a new standard for decarbonisation”. On the face of it, great news for reducing aviation emissions in Aotearoa. The reality is a little more complex – and risky. As the climate warms, so too is the temperature in boardrooms and courtrooms. The aviation industry is under increasing scrutiny for its sustainability claims, and climate litigation is on the rise.
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S36River deltas are threatened by more than climate change - leaving hundreds of millions of people at risk  Perilously situated between rising sea levels and pressures from upstream lie coastal river deltas and their roughly half a billion inhabitants. These regions have played an important role in societal development since the last ice age, offering flat, fertile lands with abundant freshwater which are ideal for agriculture.In recent times, coastal river deltas have become hubs of the global shipping trade, giving rise to fast-growing megacities such as Dhaka, Cairo and Shanghai. But these areas are now under threat. And not all of the blame can be placed on climate change.
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S37S38How to assess the carbon footprint of a war  We know that war is bad for the environment, with toxic chemicals left polluting the soil and water for decades after fighting ceases. Much less obvious are the carbon emissions from armed conflicts and their long-term impacts on the climate.Colleagues and I have estimated that the US military alone contributes more greenhouse gas emissions than over 150 countries, but too often discussions of the links between militaries and climate change focus only on future risks to global security in climate-affected settings. There are many tepid attempts by militaries to green their war machines – developing electric tanks or navy ships run on biofuels – yet there is very little discussion of how they contribute to climate change, especially during war.
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S39S40Left is Not Woke: a philosopher's plea for universalism and 'progress' is a frustrating polemic  Some years ago I was surprised to come across a person whose politics I knew to be conservative at a Greens fundraiser. When I asked him why he was there, he said he supported any gay candidate, irrespective of party.It is this emphasis on identity against values that most annoys American philosopher and writer Susan Neiman. She could well have echoed Cate Blanchett’s character in the film Tar, an acclaimed conductor who is appalled when one of her students discards Bach’s music because he was a white, cis male.
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S41We rely heavily on groundwater - but pumping too much threatens thousands of underground species  Groundwater is the world’s largest unfrozen freshwater reserve. Australia’s Great Artesian Basin alone holds enough water to fill Sydney Harbour 130,000 times. Worldwide, groundwater provides drinking water for half the world’s population. Countries like Denmark and Austria rely entirely on it for drinking water.Globally, we pump almost 1,000 cubic kilometres of this ancient water each year. We’re using it far faster than it can naturally replenish. About a third of the world’s largest groundwater basins are in distress, meaning levels are continuously declining.
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S42S43China-Africa relations in 2023: key moments and events to remember  In a year when headlines have been dominated by conflict in Europe and the Middle East, and geo-economic tensions between China and the West, China-Africa relations were, in comparison, a steady and stable norm. Having followed China-Africa relations for two decades, I wanted to flag a few key moments from this year. These reveal that the relations between China and the continent have focused on building momentum and deepening ties, especially when it comes to trade and the promotion of African exports.
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S44S45S46S47S48Program at Hamilton Public Library shows how libraries can expand the social services they provide  When we need help or advice, it’s not always clear where to go, what resources are available to us, or who to turn to when we need support. Public libraries are often easily accessible and free to the public. That means the local public library is often the first port of call for people looking for help or advice.This is changing how community members engage with their library and how staff engage with community members entering their doors. While libraries often act as an informational resource for folks looking to access community and social services, the public’s intensifying needs necessitate an expansion of the library’s role in our communities.
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S49S50S51New laws to deal with immigration detainees were rushed, leading to legal risks  The release of detainees as a consequence of the High Court’s decision in NZYQ v Minister for Immigration resulted in a frenzy of law-making, which is likely to rebound to the High Court in further constitutional challenges. In both the NZYQ case and previous cases, the High Court has held that, apart from some identified exceptions (such as mental health and infectious disease), the involuntary detention of a person amounts to punishment. According to the doctrine of separation of powers, it is exclusively the job of the courts to judge and punish criminal guilt.
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S52S53S5420 people, 2.4 quintillion possibilities: the baffling statistics of Secret Santa  Christmas, we’re told, is the most wonderful time of the year. For many of us, however, it is preceded by one of the least wonderful times: the awkward social spectacle of the office Secret Santa or Kris Kringle, where employees agree to purchase a gift for a randomly allocated colleague.As you watch your co-workers unwrap their often wildly inappropriate gifts, each chosen by a office mate they barely know, cast your mind to the sheer statistical improbability of what you’re seeing. The odds of such a combination of these cheaply re-gifted photograph frames, inexplicably scented candles or unwanted Lynx Africa gift sets being passed around your office is, in its own way, truly a Christmas miracle.
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S55S56US elections 2024: a Biden vs Trump rematch is very likely, with Trump leading Biden  Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The United States general election will be held on November 5 2024. In early 2024, there are Democratic and Republican presidential nominating contests that will elect delegates to the parties’ nominating conventions. These conventions, in July (for Republicans) and August (Democrats) officially select their parties’ presidential candidates.
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S57S58S59S60S61S62Can Guatemalans Save Their Democracy?  Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arévalo, who won a landslide victory in August, is scheduled to take office on January 14th, but nobody is certain that he will. Not Arévalo, who has repeatedly denounced an “ongoing coup d’état” attempt orchestrated by the country’s entrenched political system, which has been mired in corruption for decades, including under the current President, Alejandro Giammattei. Not the Biden Administration, the European Union, the Organization of American States, or the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, all of whom are backing Arévalo’s claim to office. And not the huge crowds of peaceful protesters who have taken to the streets during the past two months to demand that the election results be respected. As autocrats are being voted into office across the region and the world, Guatemala, a country with a long history of dictatorships and corrupt governments, is fighting to insure a victory for democracy. In an unprecedented step, the protests are being led by Indigenous communities, who lost more than a hundred thousand people in a three-decade-long genocidal war, from 1960 to 1996, and who remain, still today, deeply marginalized.Arévalo is a sixty-five-year-old center-left sociologist and former diplomat who, before the elections, was best known in Guatemala as the son of Juan José Arévalo, the country’s first democratically elected President. Bernardo Arévalo’s Semilla (Seed) party ran on an anti-corruption campaign, and has been fighting against the efforts of a special-interest network that includes politicians, businessmen, and people involved in organized crime widely known as el pacto de corruptos, the pact of the corrupt. The pact has attempted to use the judicial system, especially the electoral tribunal, the highest authority in electoral matters, to invalidate the election results, and the Congress to refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the twenty-three Semilla legislators who won the election and, if seated, would constitute the third-largest congressional bloc. At midnight on November 30th, the pact lifted the immunity of the four of the five judges on the electoral tribunal who refused to overturn the election; three of them immediately fled the country. A week later, the special prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who last year was named on the U.S. State Department’s list of corrupt and undemocratic actors, requested in a press conference that the results of the runoff be annulled.
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S63How Andrew Dosunmu Makes the Street His Studio  Newly arrived from Lagos, in the early nineties, Andrew Dosunmu, solitary and broke, sometimes slept in the Paris Metro. He had little in his possession beyond his clothes. And it was his manner of dress that first drew the curiosity, and then the care, of a stranger—the nascent fashion designer Lamine Badian Kouyaté. Lamine took Dosunmu into his home, and the two began collaborating on images: Lamine designing the clothes, and Dosunmu capturing them in motion and in life on Super-8 film.“I didn’t know this brother from nowhere,” Dosunmu recalls to the cinematographer Arthur Jafa, in the introductory conversation to “Andrew Dosunmu: Monograph,” a collagist collection of Dosunmu’s portraiture used across film, music, video, and photography. But knowledge arises from the gravity of a slung belt, the height of a gele wound about the head. Dosunmu is a great chronicler of presentation as a portal to personality. This might explain his lack of faith in fashion per se; lauded as he is among editors and designers, having shot spreads for more than twenty years after those early days in Paris, he has eschewed becoming a fashion aristocrat. Even his commercial images are a rejoinder to the industry’s interest in using the body as a vehicle for platforming clothes. “It was never about what the people were wearing,” Dosunmu has said. In his vision of a contemporary world defined by wardrobe, Dosunmu works human-first—the wearer and her dress are in symbiosis with each other, and meaning flows between them.
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S64What Trumpâs Civil Trial Tells Us About His Upcoming Criminal Cases  Courtroom 300 at the New York County Courthouse was quiet on Monday following Donald Trump's last-minute decision not to testify again in his civil trial on charges of business fraud. The proceeding, which began in early October, is now approaching an end. Trump's lawyers are wrapping up the defense's case. They had been scheduled to call him as their final witnessâone of them had said last week that he wanted to testifyâbut, on Sunday, Trump announced on his social-media site that he wouldn't be showing up. "I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt,"Â he wrote.Of course, the Biden Administration has nothing to do with this case, which is being brought by New York's attorney general, Letitia James. Last month, James's lawyers called Trump as a witness for the prosecution. On the stand, he tried to dismiss the significance of his inflated statements of net worth, which are at the heart of the case. If he had testified again on Monday, it would have given him another chance to defend himself and take some more potshots at James and Judge Arthur F. Engoron, who is presiding over a bench case with no jury. But it would also have given the prosecutors a second crack at him, on cross-examination.
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S65The War in Gaza Has Been Deadly for Journalists  On October 13th, Issam Abdallah, a video journalist with Reuters, was filming in southern Lebanon from on a hill overlooking the border with Israel. Tensions between Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli military had been rising, and several crews of journalists were stationed nearby. Abdallah was shooting footage of an Israeli outpost when the group was hit by incoming Israeli shelling. Six other journalists were injured, including the Agence France-Presse photographer Christina Assi, and Abdallah died from the blast.Last week, Human Rights Watch reported that the Israeli strike on Abdallah and the others appeared to be deliberate, based on images from the scene, as well as interviews with witnesses. Reuters also released an investigation of the attack finding that an Israeli tank fired twice on the group of journalists and demanding answers about what occurred. (H.R.W., and a third report, from Amnesty International, called for the killing to be investigated as a war crime.) Israel denies targeting journalists, but said it was investigating the incident. In total, more than sixty journalists have been killed in the conflict since October 7th.
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S66Colorado Reconsiders Letting Trump on the Ballot  There is only one real conclusion to draw from the oral arguments before the Colorado Supreme Court last Wednesday, about whether Donald Trump is constitutionally disqualified from running for President again because of his role in the events of January 6th, and it’s that the U.S. Supreme Court needs to rule on that question as soon as possible. Otherwise, the country will be headed for even more electoral upheaval than it already faces. The Colorado litigation is one of several similar cases on the disqualification question, but it has proceeded the furthest. It won’t be the last.Trump, after all, is poised to be the Republican nominee. What if, on Super Tuesday, or at the G.O.P.’s Convention, or even on Election Day, there is still an unresolved legal controversy about his eligibility? If he wins next November, some parts of the country might not accept the outcome. If he loses, his supporters might also not accept the outcome, arguing that the threat of disqualification unfairly hurt him; they’ve already been primed to believe in stolen elections. When one of the Colorado justices worried openly about the potential for “chaos”—if some states allowed Trump on the ballot and some not, each potentially using a different standard—the best reassurance that Eric Olson, one of the lawyers seeking to disqualify Trump, could give him was that such disorder would “be figured out pretty quickly.” Presumably, the Supreme Court would do the figuring out. But the process does not look all that quick or easy right now.
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S67Hunter Biden and the Things Left Unsaid  Many Americans, it is safe to assume, would prefer if less were said about Hunter Biden. The troubled son of the President has been a ubiquitous subject of conversation since 2019, when his misadventures inspired Donald Trump’s extortion attempt against Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine. Since then, we’ve rummaged through Hunter’s laptop, read reams of his expletive-heavy texts, examined the ravaged stumps of his teeth, and glimpsed him in the shower with a pipe and a lady friend. His dubious paychecks and I.R.S. woes and benders and paternity drama and naked selfies make up a tragicomic monument to human frailty, one that seems out of place even in the hall of ne’er-do-well White House relatives—your Billy Carters, your Roger Clintons. The closest Hunter has to a forerunner may be turn-of-the-millennium Robert Downey, Jr.: a painfully public avatar of squandered privilege, a darkly hilarious rogue casting off sparks of pathos and augurs of doom, America’s favorite dirtbag.House Republicans believe that there is more dirt to be dumped out of the bag, and that their constituents should know about it. In November, James Comer, a congressman from Kentucky and the chair of the House Oversight Committee, issued a subpoena to depose Hunter as part of the committee’s ongoing impeachment investigation into President Biden. Hunter agreed to testify, in a session scheduled for December 13th, but only in a public hearing. His defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, wrote to Comer, “We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door.” Days later, Comer and Jim Jordan, the Republican from Ohio and the chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, rejected the demand. The dispute seemed like a surprising reversal—unfettered access to the inner world of Hunter Biden is something that his adversaries have conditioned us to expect.
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S68The First CRISPR Gene Therapy Was Finally Approved In The US -- Here's How It Works  Casgevy is the world’s first gene-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia. In the ever-evolving realm of modern medicine, a once-distant dream to conquer disease through genetics has now inched closer to reality. Last Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved exa-cel, also known by its brand name Casgevy, the world’s first gene-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia for people aged 12 and over. The decision comes just under a month after the drug’s approval in the UK, where it was approved for both sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia.
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S6915 Years Ago, Keanu Reeves Rebooted a Sci-Fi Classic With a Crucial Twist  The idea that an advanced alien species would judge humanity harshly is one of the oldest sci-fi tropes. From Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End to several iterations of Star Trek — including the inaugural episode of The Next Generation — pondering judgment from outer space is the source of one of the genre’s most important questions. Our species might be smart enough to get into space, but will we be good enough for the aliens we find there?In the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, a flying saucer comes to us and produces a man who, by all accounts, appears human. Klaatu, a kindly, philosophical alien who simply wants humanity to calm down and stop destroying each other, was played by Michael Rennie, and it’s hard for sci-fi aficionados to picture another actor in the role. But we should, because Keanu Reeves’ take on the character in the 2008 remake has an intriguing dark edge. Reeves gave the world a great take on an old character, making the story’s concept more relatable.
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