Europe & World

With its fun new series, Julian Fellowes’ preposterous ‘transatlantic’ Downton has morphed from joylessly pompous to truly joyful TV. Consider me a convert!

The Gilded Age is a curious, unwieldy thing. It is rich in qualities that I love, such as Broadway stars of a certain pedigree and truly extravagant hats. But, for a series that clearly takes a great effort to make, at what appears to be an enormous expense, it is oddly slight. The events of New York society in the late 19th century glide on by, as women dressed in fine, frilly clothing dip in and out of dramas that are sometimes important, sometimes entirely trivial, but almost always afforded equal weight, regardless of how much they matter. To watch it is to sink into a comfortable fugue, and think mostly about the hats.

The household of the sisters Agnes Van Rhijn (Christine Baranksi) and Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon) has undergone a significant shift in power. After their nephew Oscar (Blake Ritson) almost ruined the family by losing Agnes’s fortune, the crisis of impending poverty was averted at the last minute by the revelation that Ada’s husband, the Rev Luke Forte, who died not long after they were married, was actually stinking rich thanks to a profitable textiles business, leaving Ada a fortune. Fancy that! The Gilded Age can be so soapy that the suds practically foam on the screen.

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Source: The Guardian

Researchers say satellites may be at risk and impact could create a spectacular meteor shower in the skies

If a giant asteroid smashes into the moon in 2032 it could send lunar debris hurtling towards Earth, researchers have said, posing a risk to satellites but also creating a rare and spectacularly vivid meteor shower visible in the skies.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 triggered a planetary defence response earlier this year after telescope observations revealed the “city killer” had a 3% chance of colliding with Earth.

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Source: The Guardian

The EU’s 27 international affairs ministers were anticipated to respond to a recent review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement which found “indicators” that Israel breached its human rights obligations with actions in Gaza.

Source: Euronews

The heatwave media formula is still extravagantly weird: all stock photos of ice-creams and suns with their hats on. It is time we recognised this extreme weather for exactly what it is

I think I must be on someone’s Rolodex of killjoys, because whenever something good happens – schools break up, summer holidays start, the weather’s nice, it’s Christmas, it’s Easter – I get a call from a talk radio show asking if I’ll come on and explain why that’s bad, actually. Usually I say, in the nicest possible way, that I don’t want to: sure, kids are much more annoying when they’re not at school; yes, it’s irresponsible to fly; no, Christmas isn’t magic, it’s an orgy of overconsumption; yes, Easter was pillaged from pagans (probably?), and Christianity itself is the imperialist template (arguably?) – in which case, the last way we should mark it is with a Creme Egg. But I just don’t want to be that person. Let someone else ruin everything for a change.

On Friday, however, I agreed to make the argument the next morning on LBC that heatwaves aren’t a treat, they’re a problem. We have to do more than just ready our infrastructure for the more intense temperatures to come: we have to bring our narrative a bit closer to reality. The climate crisis isn’t tomorrow’s problem, it’s today’s, and its impacts aren’t better conditions for vineyards in Kent, they are a broad-spectrum enshittification, in which everything, from bus journeys to growing dahlias, becomes harder, and takes longer, and is worse. It was, in other words, exactly the kind of true, unlovely thing that I don’t like being the person to say, and I don’t know why I said yes – it’s possible that I was just too hot.

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Source: The Guardian

Chinese foreign affairs spokesperson issued an appeal during a press briefing in Beijing following US calls for China to intervene with Iran on the vital global waterway.

Source: Euronews

Confessing to being incorrect can be tough. However ‘intellectual humbleness’ is a trainable attribute that grows relationships

You might be familiar with the feeling. Somebody factchecks you mid-conversation or discredits your dishwasher-loading method. Warmth climbs to your face; you may feel defensive, embarrassed or mad. Do you urge you’re right or can you approve the correction?Admitting to being incorrect can

be awkward and hard. But the ability to confess to incorrect ideas or ideas– what psychologists call “intellectual humbleness”– is essential. Study shows that individuals with higher intellectual humbleness assume more critically, and are much less prejudiced and less prone to dogmatism.

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Source: The Guardian