The Saturday Read: Operation Epic CalamityInside: Iran, Keir Starmer's New Year resolutions, Pete Hegseth's fury, the looming energy crisis, a new history of Rasputin and a timeless defence of Ulysses
When deputy editor Will came back from Ukraine – his most recent in a series of trips to the war-stricken country – America’s campaign in Iran, Operation Epic Fury, was just about to start. “You went to the wrong war Will!” so went the joke. But reading his story makes it very clear that he didn’t – in Ukraine they are convinced that this is not just a local conflict, but a front in a third world war that the West is unprepared for. The situation in Ukraine is becoming stranger and stranger, just as less and less attention is being paid towards it. Yes Iran could spell disaster for many reasons, but we cannot forget about that expensive, attritional and potentially existential conflict happening on Europe’s Eastern frontier. I want to draw attention, too, to the brilliant photographer out there with Will – Viacheslav Ratynskyi – who shot our cover this week.
But hey! It’s Saturday so we also have a lot of distraction available down below – my favourite is Professor Jonathan Bate’s sturdy defence of Ulysses. There’s also a jaunty new history of Rasputin, and I investigate the spate of tyrannical chefs reigning over the world’s best restaurants. Our journalism is only available to paying subscribers at the moment, but you can save a lot of money if you take out a subscription now. We are so grateful to the many Saturday Readers who already subscribe. And as ever, thank you for reading and don’t forget to enjoy your weekend. 1. Cost of living latest
We all struggle to keep the promises we make in the flush of a new year, but Keir Starmer is in the invidious position where his failed resolutions affect us all. At the start of January, Starmer declared that the purpose of his government was to reduce the cost of living and, after “17 long years” of stagnancy, improve British people’s lives. But, like Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, a cost of living crisis induced by a foreign war looks set to destroy his best-laid plans. Ailbhe Rea reports. Nicholas 2. The strategic waterway
The sound you heard over the past few weeks was a thousand journalists scrabbling to find out what the Strait of Hormuz really meant for this war. But Katie Stallard was already well versed. And in this epic tour d’horizon, she lays out the major economic stakes at this tanker-full choke-point, and how everything will develop around it. Nicholas 3. How ready are we?
Okay, but Iran and the Strait are very far away. So how will it matter for a small island in Western Europe? Hannah breaks it down for us: from prohibitively expensive fruit to potential school closures, an oil crisis will mean a lot more than long queues at the petrol station. Finn 4. Pete Hegseth’s process of annihilation
You really would hope that Department of War (formerly Defence) boss and leader of Operation Epic Fury Pete Hegseth knows what he’s doing. The bad news, according to Will Dunn, is that Hegseth doesn’t seem to have much of a clue. But boy, he sure can do a lot of pull ups! George
If you like the Saturday Read then can I urge you to buy a subscription to the New Statesman (with thanks to all the Saturday Readers who already subscribe). It’s the best way to support our journalism – and, at the moment, the only way to read it. 5. Architecture’s new horizon
In this capacious profile of Thomas Heatherwick, a British “designer” (not technically an architect) I learned of all the ways he informed the visual culture of the 2010s: the Google offices, the 2012 Olympic tower-thing, Boris Johnson’s unrealised “garden bridge”. A treat of a read from Anoosh. ----Nicholas 6. Things can always get worse!
Megan Gibson gets a grim report
from oil expert Rory Johnston. If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed,
Johnston argues, we’re looking at more than a global recession: “a
global depression”. Nobody panic, please. ----George 7. The Rasputin legend
And
how exactly did a belligerent, drunk and scarcely literate Siberian man
hasten the demise of one of the world’s oldest autocracies?
8. High lowlife
I enjoyed Nick’s TV review this week (and every week!). He takes on Ladies of London, a kind of Real Housewives-style reality TV show cast with sort-of-not-really-maybe-if- 9. “A cycle of hand-me-down aggro”
In Silver Spoon this week I reckon with the archetype of the tyrannical chef. René Redzepi of Noma – world’s greatest restaurant, and all that – has resigned after a New York Times investigation found him to be, well, rather tyrannical indeed. One chef told me that the culture of hazing and raging is on the way out of the kitchen – I am not so sure. ----Finn 10. Long live Ulysses
It was St Patrick’s Day on Tuesday (wahey!), which happened to coincide with some emergent online “discourse”. Ulysses, haven’t you heard, is far from the greatest novel ever written but instead a deluge of self-indulgent Hiberno-pap.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment