Books Magazine
Politics: Cautiously watching what newly elected Prime Minister Peter Magyar will do in Hungary to try and return the country to the mainstream after his victory. It seems like some of his first actions will be towards the ideologically captured state media (here's some pre-election reporting from CJR on the state of media in Hungary). I'm deeply worried that we will find out this week how a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz (for ships traveling to or from Iranian ports) could possibly play out, and none of the options are good: firing missiles on ships carrying oil would cause an environmental disaster, launching boarding parties would escalate the conflict. Meanwhile, the last tankers that have passed the Strait are reaching refineries so there's no end to the crunch in supply in sight. That's particularly dire news for Asia - nearly 90 % of its crude oil passed through the Strait. And an Australian tidbit: a blaze in a Geelong refinery that is a "significant part of Australia's fuel supply" is "not great timing" (as per Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen). Pop Culture: I'm still weighing up whether to write about The Handmaid's Tale sequel series The Testaments - an intriguing concept, to switch perspectives to June's teenage daughter Hannah stuck in Gilead, and the dynamics within a "wives" training school (a teenage drama series set in the context of a fascist prep school, in the year 2026!). The first trailer for the third season of anthology series The Terror is out: this one is based on Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver (and LaValle is showrunner as well as the scriptwriter along with Halt and Catch Fire's Chris Cantwell). There are so many great actors in these few minutes alone (always excited to see Marin Ireland and CCH Pounder) that it looks very promising. Some films I'm looking forward to: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's Soudain (All of a Sudden), Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Xiaodan He's Montréal, ma belle, Ian Tuason's Undertone.
