‘Halldór Laxness had the kind of face, like Rilke’s, that took decades to compose, that looked more plausible in age than youth. Baldness and an RAF moustache settled it. One would address him as “squire”.’

Michael Hofmann on the Icelandic novelist: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/…

'A Mexican drug cartel used death threats to force a tribal leader to back out of testifying to Congress this week, according to another tribal leader who did show up to tell lawmakers just how much power the drug lords have accumulated.'
washingtontimes.com/news/2024/apr/…

The perils of being a migrant worker in Russia after the Crocus City attack.
csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2…

The fact that the Turkish opposition—which defeated Erdogan’s AKP in the recent nationwide local elections—is composed mainly of ardent secularists (along with religiously motivated voters) undercuts the preferred Western narrative that sees Erdogan himself as the primary cause…

A Lloyds underwriter said in 1912 that his firm would be obligated to pay out for a German ship destroyed by the British Navy: “I quite see the point, and I saw it all through, but that is rather governed, from our point of view, by the honorable carrying out of our bargain.”

“The very act of seizing Russian assets would pose dangers to the U.S. economy, because other countries, not just Russia, would view it as an act of brigandage,” writes Christopher Caldwell.

Read: nyti.ms/3vMKXmo

Tammany Hall is now a Petco

My piece on South Africa thirty years after the end of apartheid in April's New Criterion The New Criterion

newcriterion.com/issues/2024/4/…

Book Review: ‘The Wide Wide Sea,’ by Hampton Sides. - The New York Times nytimes.com/2024/04/09/boo…

The AFP can reveal that methamphetamine manufactured in North America is Australia’s largest supplier of the illicit drug, with Mexican cartels increasingly targeting Australia. afp.gov.au/news-centre/me…