October 11, 2021

In its 138-year history, the Metropolitan Opera has never hosted a performance by a Black composer -- until now. Terence Blanchard's new work is based on a 2014 memoir by New York Times columnist Charles Blow. The composer speaks with Walter Isaacson about his artistic process.

"Polexit," anyone? The term is tentatively being bandied about since tensions in Poland reached boiling point over EU membership. Meanwhile in the U.K., home of "Brexit," the economic chickens are coming home to roost with food industry supply chains in utter chaos. Michel Barnier, the EU's unflappable Brexit negotiator, has laid out his experience in a new book called "My Secret Brexit Diary."

In just three weeks, world leaders meet in Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference, where they'll reckon with a dispiriting report from the United Nations showing that the world is warming faster than scientists previously thought. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is on a state visit in New Delhi now, to convey the urgency of the climate crisis.