Vital transitions

Member’s despatch | Week XIII, MMXXV

We have a number of fragmentary ways of looking at The Signal—approximate ideas that help us understand, in aspects, the underlying idea we’re developing with it as a whole. One is that The Signal is “an analog brand in a digital world.” That may be an odd one, given how much of The Signal is digital. But what we’re getting at isn’t really about digital technology; it’s specifically about algorithmic technology—because the media-business model for algorithmic technology is capturing as much of our attention as possible. The Signal isn’t interested in that. It wants to help you understand your world intentionally, respecting your time in the course of your week; it wants to bring you new music and experiences you wouldn’t otherwise have; it wants you to take them with you; and it wants you to come back.

Look forward to seeing you again.

—John Jamesen Gould

This week:

• Why are so many countries putting up new barriers to free trade? Martin Wolf on the globalization era’s end—and the signs of what’s coming next.
• How common is the corruption of public officials in the U.S.? Ben Freeman on what America’s “authoritarian friends” from the Persian Gulf are doing in Washington, D.C.
• How are America’s Democrats responding to being out of power? Daniel Schlozman on the deep problems beneath last year’s seemingly modest election loss.
• Why has Britain, “a byword for political stability for three centuries,” become so politically volatile? Jonathan Sumption on the waning era of parties in the U.K. and Europe.

+ Should the U.S. government continue supporting its international media organizations? Music from Kassian, Japanese Breakfast, Peter Murphy, Jenny Hval, and Destroyer. & Weather report: 42.0669° N, 81.3399° W.

But first …

• Showdown in Türkiye. A shift in Sudan’s civil war. & A new move for control of the courts in Israel. + “Europe’s last dictator” revels in victory. Pope Francis’s doctor sees a miracle. & The James Webb Space Telescope sees UV light from “one of the key moments in the lifetime of the universe.”

Developments

The world in brief, March 22-28

Showdown in Türkiye

On Sunday, police took the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, into custody on charges of taking bribes, rigging bids, and supporting terrorism. İmamoğlu, as it happens, is the leading challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who’s ruled Türkiye for 20 years—in increasingly dictatorial ways. And polls show İmamoğlu leading Erdoğan in a head-to-head matchup.