Theaters of war
The weekend despatch: The many faces of Operation Epic Fury. An Oscar-nominated screenwriter under bombardment picks up the phone. + What does it mean when the beat answers back?
‘Quiet death’
Briefing: The U.S. Navy sinks an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. Senate votes to keep the war going. + What held the post–World War II order together—and what’s coming apart?
Copper rush
Feature: Why is there so much of it—and yet not enough to go around? Adam Simon on the “huge stakes” of global competition for the metal.
Four objectives, five days
Briefing: Washington continues fighting with no public definition of victory. Hezbollah breaks its ceasefire with Israel, while Lebanon outlaws Hezbollah. + How could an unexpected event transform a work of art?
Lone and level sands
Feature: How could an unexpected event transform a work of art? Bryan Singer on a secret monument in Southern Lebanon, its tangled politics, and his first film in seven years.
Smoke in the streets
The weekend despatch: What’s happening inside Iran? + Why now?
Havana nocturne
Briefing: The last fuel in Cuba. The first strikes on Afghanistan since the Americans left. + Why is Los Angeles’s entertainment industry in such crisis?
Hollowed-out in Hollywood
Feature: Why is Los Angeles’s entertainment industry in such crisis? Andrew deWaard on the shape-shifting effects of financialization and monopoly.
A most wanted man
Briefing: The logic of Mexico’s surprise killing of the head of its most powerful cartel. The distance between the American president and the Pentagon on war with Iran. + Why are so many countries rethinking their nuclear strategies?
‘The Chernobyl parameter’
Feature: Why are so many countries rethinking their nuclear strategies? Serhii Plokhy on the emerging dangers of a new arms race.
