Ayşe Zarakol in The Ideas Letter:
Something very fundamental is happening in world history, again. If anyone had been hoping that the Western alliance’s rallying together after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 or the scattered (and at times self-contradictory) efforts of the Biden administration to shore up international law would be enough to save the so-called liberal international order, the first few months of the second Trump administration should be enough to dispel that notion. The three pillars of liberal internationalism—multilateralism, democracy, and free trade—have already taken severe hits and more are likely to come. At the very least, this moment marks the end of the post–Cold War order.
Almost as striking as the speed with which things are getting dismantled is the fact that no one—academics, policymakers, journalists, social media influencers, podcasters—seems to have a clear idea about what comes next. Talk of crisis and disorder abounds; some analogies to the 19th and 20th centuries pop up here and there, with comparisons to imperial competition and lessons from the interwar period or predictions about a Cold War 2.0. But this is all very backward-looking, all very muddled. Contrast the present with the end of the Cold War. Those who were around for that last world-historical moment will remember that there was no shortage of projections about the future then, some optimistic, some pessimistic—which is to say, too, that there is no greater proof that liberalism’s current crisis is real than the establishment’s inability today to imagine anything about what will follow.
More here.
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Democratic National Committee (
At Friday afternoon’s
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It’s been an enormous week for nuclear. On Monday, in a landmark policy U-turn, the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz finally dropped his country’s longstanding opposition to nuclear energy at the European level. In a 
Majorities of Americans across the political spectrum have long understood that their system of government doesn’t serve them well. Institutional obstacles at all levels em- power elite minorities to safeguard their own interests and block popular policies that would broadly serve the American people, from universal health care to a higher minimum wage. Of course, Trump’s attacks on political institutions have little to do with constraining the power of elites or advancing such policies; on the contrary, with Elon Musk at the head of DOGE, they are advancing rank corruption and kleptocracy for the benefit of the ultrawealthy and extreme ideologues. But Trump does tap into the sentiment that our institutions are broken. Acknowledging the flaws in our system does not mean endorsing his, or any president’s, unlimited power. Nor does it mean there is no form of checks and balances that can serve American democracy. Rather, it clarifies the necessity and urgency of reforming government so it responds better to the needs of ordinary people.
The Phoenician Scheme:
Humans have a new way of seeing infrared light, without the need for clunky night-vision goggles. Researchers have made the first contact lenses to convey infrared vision — and the devices work even when people have their eyes closed.
Every year, judges for the International Booker Prize search for the best works of fiction translated into English over the previous twelve months. We asked Anton Hur, the novelist, translator and 2025 judge, to talk us through the six-book shortlist—including five novels and this year’s winner, the first short story collection ever to triumph.
Every time you see an apple spontaneously break away from a tree, it falls downward. You therefore claim that there is a law of physics: apples fall downward from trees. But how can you really know? After all, tomorrow you might see an apple that falls upward. How is science possible at all? Philosophers, as you might expect, have thought hard about this. Branden Fitelson explains how a better understanding of probability can help us decide when new evidence is actually confirming our beliefs.
Virginia Woolf might be at once the English novelist who is the most accomplished and the most shrugged off. The characters of Mrs Dalloway were never going to appear on cigarette cards, as Dickens’ characters did. Orlando even irritated Elizabeth Bowen (because it had too many in-jokes for Vita Sackville-West). Admirers must admit that, as Penelope Fitzgerald said, Woolf’s techniques were taken as far as they could go. She had the genius to exhaust a whole line of artistic inquiry, and many have felt exhausted by her.