The New York Review of Books

Our 6/11 issue is now online, with Zadie Smith on what art is for, @suzyhans on Pete Hegseth, @JoannaBiggs on Makenna Goodman, Quinn Slobodian on America’s backfiring sanctions, @jonmingle on the methane miasma, Neal Ascherson on the death of Hitler, and much more. go.nybooks.com/4wIDSxJ

“Even though the same number of people, if not more, are impacted by the issue, abortion seems to have fallen off the media radar.” —an interview with @amylittlefield go.nybooks.com/4wRHWMa

“America’s effort to maintain its global economic dominance has backfired, leaving it more isolated and in control of a shrinking share of the global economy—reliant on undependable policy tools to preserve its edge.” —Quinn Slobodian go.nybooks.com/4u8zWnC

There is “blatant legal and ethical impropriety,” David Cole (@DavidCole_Gtown) writes, in “Trump, the civilian, demanding a $10 billion judgment from Trump, the president—and then effectively ‘settling’ with himself.” go.nybooks.com/3Q4jW7Z

“As Soviet troops approached the bunker, the world’s first question was: Where is Hitler?” —Neal Ascherson go.nybooks.com/3PqnG3z

“What I know about the dangerous American ignorance in men like Hegseth...is that it prevents them, on some elemental level, from understanding that Iran is a real country full of real people.” —@suzyhans go.nybooks.com/4v0K81Z

“I just spoke to someone in Iran today…. She said to me, Everything’s been worse since Mr. Khamenei died. And this was someone who’d been praying for the end of the Islamic Republic and for the demise of Khamanei.” —@bellaigueC go.nybooks.com/4dzfsOn

Greg Grandin (@greggrandin) on how Pope Leo XIV was shaped by his time in Peru, the cradle of liberation theology go.nybooks.com/3PFzMG2

Walker Mimms on Emily Kraus at Luhring Augustine go.nybooks.com/4f4AgQj

Martin Filler on the return of Tristan und Isolde to the Met go.nybooks.com/42WNdEC

In the latest episode of Private Life, the artist Lisa Yuskavage reads Ingrid D. Rowland’s essay ‘Radiant, Angry Caravaggio,’ published in the May 27, 2010, issue of The New York Review of Books. go.nybooks.com/4dGgtEw

The right-wing billionaire Vincent Bolloré’s “escalating control over the mediascape,” writes Harrison Stetler (@harrstetler), “will stand as a fitting bookend to the Macron era.” go.nybooks.com/4eYdae7

“As long as I’ve been covering abortion access, it has been defined by wealth and geography.” —Amy Littlefield, interviewed by Nora Caplan-Bricker go.nybooks.com/4aaSgVH

A decade since “the biggest documented methane leak in US history,” the smellier greenhouse gas’s “part in the climate crisis remains largely overlooked, even though it is responsible for around 30 percent of all global warming to date.” —@jonmingle go.nybooks.com/3PJhtzw

“Of all Walter Lippmann’s mysteries, none was greater than his conflicting desires to see the play and to be in it, too.” —Samuel Earle go.nybooks.com/42Gg2VE

“In death Marat was not an emblem of unity...he stood for the force, the obdurate power of a vaguely defined ‘people,’ those who had counted for so little for so long and who were ecstatic to find someone who wanted to speak for them.” —Lynn Hunt go.nybooks.com/42K9QMq

“Censorship of the arts has become a fact of life in Hong Kong. At least thirteen movies have been banned and around fifty have been censored under new legislation [since the 2019 protests].” —@limlouisa go.nybooks.com/42MsBPf

NEXT WEEK: Join David Cole (@DavidCole_Gtown), Sherrilyn Ifill, and Pamela Karlan for a conversation on the Supreme Court and the future of elections. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish and open to the public. Register below: go.nybooks.com/49h2kfI

“The left and the entire religion of Islam offer Hegseth something he seems to have craved at least since he walked into a Waspy eating club: a righteous claim to victimhood.” —@suzyhans go.nybooks.com/4uW9FcE

David W. Blight (@davidwblight1) on reclaiming American history from Trumpist ideologues go.nybooks.com/3Q0iTG5