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WASHINGTON — The chair of the Democratic National Committee informed party leaders on Monday that the DNC will choose his successor in February, an election that will speak volumes about how the party wants to present itself during four more years of Donald Trump in the White House. Jaime Harrison, in a letter to members of the party’s powerful Rules & Bylaws Committee, outlined the process of how the party will elect its new chair. Harrison said in the letter that the committee will host four candidate forums — some in person and some virtually — in January, with the final election on Feb. 1 during the party’s winter meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. The race to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, while an insular party affair, will come days after Trump is inaugurated for a second term. Democrats’ selection of a leader after Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 loss will be a key starting point as the party starts to move forward, including addressing any structural problems and determining how to oppose Trump. Members of the Rules & Bylaws Committee will meet on Dec. 12 to establish the rules for these elections, which beyond the chair position will include top party roles like vice chairs, treasurer, secretary and national finance chair. The committee will also use that meeting to decide the requirements for gaining access to the ballot for those top party roles. In 2021, candidates were required to submit a nominating statement that included signatures from 40 DNC members and that will likely be the same standard for the 2025 campaigns. “The DNC is committed to running a transparent, equitable, and impartial election for the next generation of leadership to guide the party forward,” Harrison said in a statement. “Electing the Chair and DNC officers is one of the most important responsibilities of the DNC Membership, and our staff will run an inclusive and transparent process that gives members the opportunity to get to know the candidates as they prepare to cast their votes.” Two Democrats have announced campaigns for chair: Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and a vice chair of the national party, and Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor and current commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Other top Democrats are either considering a run to succeed Harrison or are being pushed by party insiders, including former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke; Michael Blake, a former vice chair of the party; Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin; Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan and a former Chicago mayor; Sen. Mallory McMorrow, majority whip of the Michigan Senate, and Chuck Rocha, a longtime Democratic strategist. The next chair of the committee will be tasked with rebuilding a party demoralized by a second Trump victory. They will also oversee the party’s 2028 nominating process, a complex and contentious exercise that will make the chair central to the next presidential election. Harrison, of South Carolina, made clear in his letter to the rules committee that the four forums hosted by the party would be live streamed and the party would give grassroots Democrats across the country the ability to engage with the process through those events. He also said he intends to remain neutral during the chair election. This story has been corrected to show that McMorrow is a senator, not a representative.Memphis fights off No. 2 UConn in OT in Maui Invitational thriller

Power planners have found nuclear energy does not stack up for Australia even after considering new parameters, with large-scale solar and big batteries still the lowest-cost option. or signup to continue reading In the draft generation cost update released on Monday, scientists and energy officials warn taxpayers will need deep pockets and a lead time of at least 15 years to develop nuclear energy generation. For the seventh straight year, renewables were the lowest-cost of any new-build electricity-generating technology. After a global energy crisis and equipment supply crunch several years ago, large-scale solar and lithium battery storage have weathered the inflationary period the best of all technologies. The cost of batteries recorded the largest annual reduction, with capital costs down by one-fifth. Rooftop solar costs are also coming down. The draft GenCost 2024-25 Report comes as the coalition pushes for an end to Australia's nuclear ban and promises to have reactors online in as soon as 10 years if elected in 2025. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, eyeing sites in seven regional centres, has pledged to release the coalition's nuclear costings "this week". But nuclear energy generation would be 1.5 to two times more expensive than large-scale solar, according to the analysis released by the national science agency CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator. A one-gigawatt nuclear plant has a price tag of roughly $9 billion, but the bill would double to $18 billion as the first of its kind. Operators would also need to establish new connection points to safely supply the national electricity grid, experts warn. Advocates have demanded greater recognition of the potential cost advantages of nuclear's long operating life compared to solar panels and wind turbines, but CSIRO chief energy economist and GenCost lead author Paul Graham said he found none. "Similar cost savings can be achieved with shorter-lived technologies including renewables, even when accounting for the need to build them twice," Mr Graham said. Nuclear's capacity factor - referring to how much of a year a reactor could operate at full tilt - remains unaltered at 53-89 per cent based on verifiable data and consideration of Australia's unique electricity generation needs. Nor would the often-touted United Arab Emirates example of a relatively quick 12-year nuclear construction time-frame be achievable here, the report found, because Australians require consultation. An increase in gas generation costs in the update included a premium for hydrogen readiness that was not included in previous data. All new gas turbine projects, including Kurri Kurri in NSW, are expected to include the capability for hydrogen blending and eventual conversion to hydrogen firing when supply becomes more readily available. The draft report is open for feedback until February 11, with a final version due in the second quarter of 2025. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Advertisement AdvertisementParts of more than 30 states experienced well below normal precipitation from September through November. Ben Noll/The Washington Post; data source: ECMWF/ERA5 Even after a polar plunge, a bomb cyclone and atmospheric river, and heavy lake-effect snow, over 71% of the United States was still facing abnormally dry conditions as of early December. That number is down from a record-breaking 87% in November. But the winter season, which officially begins on Dec. 21, does not typically come with this much drought. Only the years 2012, 2021 and 2022 were more unusually dry this late in the year, putting 2024 in fourth place for countrywide dryness since such records began in 2000. Moderate drought is still happening in all but one state, Alaska, making up 27% of the land area in the country. With its dryness, the United States continues to be a global outlier. Last month was the third wettest November on record for the planet, which was associated with flooding in Greece, Malaysia and Thailand, and Cuba. Because the dryness was most pronounced during the crop harvest rather than the growing period, the impact on crop conditions wasn’t as bad as it could have been. In the case of corn and soybeans, yield reached near-record levels. STATES STILL DEALING WITH EXTREME DROUGHT Parts of 23 states, from California to New Hampshire, are experiencing extreme (level 3 out of 4) or exceptional (level 4 out of 5) drought. Precipitation deficits are stark. Climate data from September through November confirmed that over 30 states had well below normal rainfall. However, drought severity is not just about intensity – it’s about duration, too. Over the past six months, deficits of six inches or more were observed in more than two dozen states. That could equate to two to three months’ worth of rain, depending on the location. Parts of Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have also experienced similarly stark deficits. IS THERE ANY RELIEF IN SIGHT? Most regions are forecast to continue to have below normal rainfall in the short-term. The exceptions will be the East Coast, Deep South and Pacific Northwest. Much-needed rainfall is forecast in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire – states that still have areas of extreme or exceptional drought. The Northwest, Deep South and East Coast will probably experience soaking precipitation over the next 10 days. Ben Noll/The Washington Post; data source: ECMWF The map below shows the chance of daily precipitation exceeding an inch over the next 10 days. In the green area extending from Louisiana to Maine, two surges of soaking precipitation are likely from Monday through Wednesday. For many areas, this will fall as rain, but for interior New England, snow is possible. This should result in a broad improvement in the drought status in these areas. DROUGHT’S TYPE, IMPACTS Meteorological drought, a prolonged period of below normal precipitation, typically takes at least a month or two to develop. But new research is investigating the emergence of flash droughts, which come about in just weeks, typically because of high temperatures, high evaporation rates and low rainfall. Agricultural drought develops when low precipitation translates to low soil moisture and water stress for plants. The third category is hydrological drought, which occurs when the above deficits translate to very low river flows and reservoir levels and reduced wetlands – culminating in the potential for environmental, social and economic impacts. The 2024 U.S. drought, which developed during late summer and intensified throughout fall, had cascading effects across all three drought types. Persistently below normal rainfall contributed to a significant reduction in soil moisture levels and stream flows. Reservoir levels in New York City recently slipped below 60%, compared with a normal of 82%. But because these effects were most pronounced during the crop harvest rather than the growing period, barley, corn, oats and soybeans reported the highest proportion of good or excellent conditions in several years, with record or near-record yield for corn and soybeans in particular. While that’s the good news, droughts take a long time to build and a long time to ease, meaning the impact of this year’s drought won’t be erased overnight. And it could easily linger into 2025. If that happens, farmers could be in for challenging times ahead – and that could have consequences for grocery prices. We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use . More information is found on our FAQs . You can modify your screen name here . 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Published 23:43 IST, December 23rd 2024 President Droupadi Murmu on Monday said there is hesitancy among people towards organ donation and urged the medical fraternity to motivate people for the noble New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Monday said there is hesitancy among people towards organ donation and urged the medical fraternity to motivate people for the noble cause. Addressing the 6th Convocation ceremony of Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital, she underlined that the list of people waiting for organ transplant is growing. "To address this issue, development of artificial organs and organ donation by the families of the deceased is necessary," Murmu said. "There is a kind of hesitancy among people towards organ donation. Doctors can play an important role in removing this and can help build awareness to motivate people for the noble cause," she stated. To boost organ donation, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) was set up in this institute, she said. Growing use of technology in medical stream has made collaboration between engineering and medical institutes very important, she said. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), mRNA technology, robotics and the likes are going to bring a major change in the field of medical science, she added. Murmu mentioned that she recently inaugurated India's first CAR-T cell therapy developed through collaboration between the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH). She urged the Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung hospital to tie up with premier engineering and technical institutes to boost research and innovation. Interdisciplinary knowledge is beneficial for everyone, she said. The president said medical profession is unlike any other profession. It involves the noble cause of treating and curing people of diseases and saving lives. She said doctors provide the healing touch to humanity and they can make a difference between life and death. "You have a big responsibility being doctors, because you will be taking care of people's health," she stated. Crediting Safdarjung Hospital for treating 10,000 people every day, she said, "It is a matter of pride that Safdarjung Hospital is among the top 20 medical institutes in the country as per the latest NIRF rankings." She also noted the achievements in the healthcare sector during the last 10 years. "The number of medical institutions has increased and the number of PG seats has doubled. New AIIMS have been established and undergraduate courses have been introduced in these institutions." "The recently announced Ayushman Vay Vandana scheme will help catering to the needs of the 70 plus elderly population," she said (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed.) Get Current Updates on India News , Entertainment News along with Latest News and Top Headlines from India and around the world. Updated 23:43 IST, December 23rd 2024The consequences of falling for a romance scam can be devastating, both financially and emotionally. They're something a 67-year-old woman who now lives in her car in Vista knows all too well. Katherine Goodson told NBC San Diego that she sent thousands of dollars to scammers, thinking it was for actor Keanu Reeves. She decided to share her story to prevent others from losing it all, as she did. Before you make any judgments, you should know that romance scams are very common. According to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, $1.1 billion was lost to romance scams in the U.S. In 2023, San Diego County victims lost $1.3 million. “There is nothing that hasn’t already been done to make me feel any worse,” Goodson said when NBC San Diego warned her she may receive unkind comments on this story. An internet search shows victims all over the country who've fallen for celebrity romance scams, with Keanu Reeves one of the more popular actors scammers like to imitate. His reps have said in the past that he doesn’t have any social media accounts. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t maybe listening to the warning signs,” Goodson said. “I don’t blame anyone but myself.” So how did Goodson end up here? She said it all started in 2022 when she connected with someone claiming to be Reeves. He asked her to send him a $500 gift card to prove she wasn’t just interested in his fame and money. “I did send it, but said, ‘I want to hear your voice,’ and once I heard his voice, I said, ‘You’re not him,’ and I blocked him,” Goodson said. Goodson posted a warning on social media about how she was duped by an imposter. Then, she received a message from the real Reeves – or so she thought – saying he felt awful that she lost money to a scam. They started messaging, and, she said, they fell in love: “He wanted to marry me.” Goodson showed NBC San Diego dozens of receipts for Bitcoin and gift card transactions, as well as wire transfers, a total of tens of thousands of dollars she thought she was sending to Reeves and his team over two years. When asked how she was convinced to send money over and over again, Goodson responded, “Well, No. 1: I was lonely.” Goodson said she constantly asked to speak with or meet Reeves in person, but there was always an excuse. She said the scammers always had a good reason why she needed to send money, too. While it seems hard for Goodson to explain now, she said it all made sense to her in the moment. “The scammers are really, really, really good,” said Temple University Professor Aunshul Rege, who studies romance scams. “This is not like any other type of financial scam where they get your money and you’re done,” Rege said. “They also rob you of the very essence of what makes a human.” Rege said it’s common for them to isolate you and get you into a communication platform of their choice. Another red flag is if they are overly affectionate. “It’s called love bombing," Rege said. "And what they do, they’re just showering you with all this attention and affection.” Then the scammer will ask for something, usually gift cards. If they refuse to meet with you, that’s another big red flag. Goodson said the messages turned hostile in August when she ran out of money, and that’s when she finally fully accepted it as all a scam. “It was just a mess,” Goodson said. “It was mind-boggling to the point that I didn’t know my head from anything.” Goodson has a long road ahead to get back on her feet, but she’s ready to do it on her own: “I've got 29 miles of gas left in my car, and that’s the lowest I’ve ever been.”

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It has been a year of adjusting for North Dakota State Junior Guard Brennan Watkins, who has found a new home in Fargo after two seasons at VMI. "It's different in the stand point that I get to just focus on basketball more. At VMI there was military, a lot of academics and then basketball was kind of an after thought. Obviously there is time for academics but I have more time to be in the gym and get more shots up," said Watkins looking back at his time out east. As the Missouri native navigates his first season with the green and gold, Watkins also has to adjust to some new headgear after a gruesome injury in the game against Weber State earlier this season. "I didn't even know where I got hit. I just knew there was pain radiating around my face. My reaction was to just put my hands to my face. I kind of took my hands away and my hands were just completely filled with blood and I was like oh no that's not good" he said. Watkins suffered a compound fracture breaking his nose in two places. "When I was at the game the team doctor readjusted it partially there and they said it was too swollen to completely adjust it. I think once I go back to the doctor they are going to adjust it a second time too. There is not pain but it is difficult to breathe. I'm not really getting as much airflow through my nose as I am used to" said Watkins describing his challenges with the broken nose. Despite the injury, Watkins hasn't missed a game or a beat becoming the "Masked Man" for the Bison. "It's completely different. I can't really see out of my peripherals. Once I start to sweat the clear mask starts to fog up so that creates another problem. It's truly difficult. I don't think people understand how much of a difference it makes," he said. "Brennan has always been a really talented basketball player. Gifted offensive player and we have challenged him on the little things, the winning plays and he is starting to understand those and execute those things and that's the next step for him," said NDSU Head Coach, Dave Richman. A warrior, Watkins is determined to stay on the floor and make those winning plays for North Dakota State. "Just do anything for my team and help them win that is just kind of the player I am. It doesn't matter if I have a broken nose. If I am able to play I'm going to be out there," said Watkins. The Bison Men's Basketball Team has one more non-conference match up against CSU-Bakersfield on Monday night before conference play begins on January, 2nd.After a delegation from the Samajwadi Party (SP) was prevented from visiting the violence-hit Sambhal district on Saturday, party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the administration's statements were being dictated by the government. Addressing the media, Yadav accused the government and the administration of orchestrating the events leading to the Sambhal violence . "A Samajwadi Party delegation was on its way to Sambhal. We all support peace and justice. The administration's statements are made at the government's behest. It is the government's responsibility to ensure justice for the people," he said. Yadav questioned the need for a second survey in Sambhal and criticised the involvement of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in the process. "When the survey was conducted on the first day, everyone cooperated. Why did the administration conduct another survey? And why were BJP workers accompanying the survey team? The government and the administration are complicit in this injustice. BJP does not want peace," he added. 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"The divisional commissioner's standing order is being implemented in Sambhal. No delegation is permitted to visit. Once the situation normalises, everyone will be allowed," Singh told ANI. He urged the SP to cooperate and postpone their visit. "They wouldn't want the situation in Sambhal to worsen. They should visit after some time. The investigation is underway, and we are gathering evidence. So far, 30 people have been arrested," he added. You Might Also Like: Ban on outsiders' entry extended in Sambhal, SP MPs barred from entering Samajwadi Party leader Mata Prasad Pandey claimed the Sambhal District Magistrate had personally requested him to refrain from visiting. "The Justice Commission and the media are visiting the area. Will there be unrest if we go? The government is stopping us deliberately to hide its actions," said Pandey, the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, to ANI. SP leader Ataur Rehman criticised the government's approach, stating, "The law and order situation is deplorable. The government has adopted a dictatorial stance. Today, our committee, including LoP Mata Prasad Pandey, Lal Bihari Yadav, the state president, and other MPs, MLAs, and district heads, was stopped. Some have been placed under house arrest in Lucknow, while others have been detained." The SP's official handle on X claimed that UP SP President Shyam Lal Pal had been placed under house arrest. The party condemned the UP Police's actions, accusing the state government of "dishonouring the Constitution and democracy." Former Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam alleged that Akhilesh Yadav played a role in the Sambhal violence. "Akhilesh Yadav has a direct and indirect role in the violence. MPs and MLAs from his party incited the people. The police and administration's actions are aimed at restoring peace. By sympathising with the Muslim vote bank, Yadav is deceiving Muslims. Their visit to Sambhal is mere political tourism," he said. Circle Officer Pankaj Singh reported that SP workers, led by party district president Shivcharan, attempted to reach Sambhal but were detained after defying police orders. District Magistrate Rajender Pensiya advised against visiting the area before December 10. "Section 163 of the BNS has been imposed. Everyone is urged to refrain from visiting before December 10. The situation is peaceful; shops have reopened. This directive is to ensure sensitivity is maintained," said Pensiya. Tensions in Sambhal have been high since November 19, when a local court ordered a survey of the mosque. Clashes between protestors and police over the court-ordered survey of the Jama Masjid resulted in four deaths. The survey was initiated following a petition claiming the mosque site was originally a Harihar temple. (ANI) (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )

This month, Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain turns 100. One of the 20th century’s towering literary achievements, it is a sweeping critique of the dangerous totalitarian political forces that shaped – and very nearly destroyed – Europe in Mann’s lifetime. The novel also reflects Mann’s own dramatic public and political evolution. Initially politically reserved, he became an ardent patriot at the outbreak of World War I, only to become disillusioned by the rise of political extremism in postwar Germany. This shift set Mann on a collision course with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis – and ultimately led to him fleeing Germany in 1933. This intellectual novel is interested in the weightiest of topics – time, love, mortality, culture – and the fragility of civilisation. There are worrying parallels between 1924, when Mann’s magnum opus was published, and 2024, when we’re seeing a worldwide resurgence of these same impulses. There is the rise of the far-right in France , Austria and Germany . And then, American president-elect Donald Trump’s apparent admiration for dictatorial and authoritarian modes of governance. These forces loom ominously over our own era, threatening the democratic ideals Mann ultimately embraced. Things you’ve never dreamed of This encyclopedia of a novel (nearly 800 pages) opens in transit: An unassuming young man was travelling, in midsummer, from his native city of Hamburg to Davos-Platz in the Canton of the Grisons, on a three weeks’ visit. It is August 1907. Hans Castorp, a “perfectly ordinary” 23-year-old from an upwardly mobile merchant family is journeying to meet his cousin, Joachim Ziemssen – a patient at a tuberculosis sanitarium, located (Mann’s narrator estimates) 1,600 metres above sea level in the Swiss Alps. Mann’s amenable, omniscient narrator outlines the effect on the novel’s youthful protagonist: This being carried upward into regions where he had never before drawn breath, and where he knew that unusual living conditions prevailed, such as could only be described as sparse or scanty – it began to work upon him, to fill him with a certain concern. Home and regular living lay not only far behind, they lay fathoms deep beneath him, and he continued to mount above them. Poised between them and the unknown, he asked himself how he was going to fare. This is a sign of things to come. Joachim, who has already been at the Berghof Sanatorium for five months, implores Castorp to get properly “acclimatized” when he meets him at the train station. He continues: it isn’t so easy, you’ll see. And the climate isn’t the only queer thing about us. You’re going to see some things you’ve never dreamed of – just wait. Joachim advises his cousin to disabuse himself of the “class of ideas” typical of those who dwell at sea level “down below” – especially assumptions about time. He openly scoffs at Castorp’s woefully naïve assertion that he’ll be “going home in three weeks”. Soon after his arrival, Castorp catches a cold. Berghof’s medical director spies a suspicious dark spot on his lung and recommends he extend his stay indefinitely. Castorp spends the next seven years living at altitude. Time warps and wends in increasingly strange ways, and the pace of daily life gradually grinds to a near total halt. Seasons change. Visitors come and go. Some of the patients die. Castorp falls in love with a Russian temptress resident. When he isn’t pining for her, he spends his time in conversation, gorging on elaborate and seemingly endless meals, listening to records, and occasionally attempting to commune with the spirits. In one memorable and symbolically charged moment, he gets hopelessly lost in a life-threatening blizzard. It takes the outbreak of World War I to finally shatter the spell the mountain has cast over him. The reader parts company with Castorp on a Flanders battlefield in 1914. The odds of survival don’t seem to be stacked in his favour. Of course, potted plot summaries of this sort cannot hope to do justice to the sheer ambition, thematic richness and formal rigour of The Magic Mountain. Origins: world war and political awakenings The novel’s origins can be traced to May 1912, when Thomas Mann embarked on a three-week trip to Davos, Switzerland. His wife, Katia, had been falsely diagnosed with tuberculosis and was staying at the recently opened Wald Sanatorium . Mann’s stay served as the catalyst for a new literary venture. Initially conceived as a satire, The Enchanted Mountain was meant to be a comedic counterweight to his just-published Death in Venice , which traces the tragic obsession of Gustav von Aschenbach, an ageing author, with a beautiful young boy during a vacation in cholera-racked Venice. Mann started in on what should have been a fairly straightforward, small-scale undertaking. But world history had other ideas. On August 4 1914, German troops flooded into neutral Belgium, bringing the British Empire into the week-old World War I – and shattering the cultural ideals and intellectual suppositions of pre-war Europe. Mann was 39 when the fighting broke out. A prominent figure in the German cultural establishment, Mann, who lived in Munich at the time, was in many senses a model bourgeois citizen. As intellectual historian Mark Lilla observes, Mann attended concerts, he befriended composers, he read Goethe, he sent his children to the Volksschule , and he never expressed any views about politics. That is, until 1914. “From one month to the next Mann became an intransigent and inflammatory defender of the German cause internationally,” Lilla adds, “writing articles and giving speeches that made him a favorite on the volkish nationalist right”. Rabid patriot to fleeing Nazi Germany The conflict seems to have absorbed all of Mann’s energy and focus. In 1915, he abandoned work on his novella, which had by then expanded significantly in both scope and size. Instead, he turned his attention to Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man . Published in October 1918, this 600-page tirade is a reactionary, rabid screed in which Mann lashes out at the progressive political forces and institutions he believed were intent on nothing less than the destruction of the German nation. Indeed, he goes as far as to admit that from the very start of the war, he had been consumed by a patriotic feeling so profound, he would not want to live anymore if Germany were beaten by the West, humbled, her belief in herself broken so that she would have to “conform” and accept the rationale of her enemies. Mann’s jingoistic fervour persisted even after Germany’s defeat, carrying over into the spring of 1919, when he finally returned to The Magic Mountain. However, everything had changed for Mann by 1922. Appalled by the waves of extremist political violence coursing through Germany, Mann was forced to take stock and reappraise his beliefs. That year, in an unprecedented move that shocked his supporters and critics, he wrote and delivered his speech, On the German Republic . In it, he publicly embraced the postwar Weimar Republic and the principles of its democracy, distancing himself from the types of authoritarian nationalism he had so passionately defended just a few years earlier. This remarkable development, which led to him fleeing Nazi Germany, left an indelible mark on the development of The Magic Mountain. Europe teetering on the abyss By the time he finished writing, the work had been transformed from a satirical novella into a sweeping Bildungsroman , focused on moral education and psychological development. It was now also an allegory of European civilisation teetering on the abyss – a “world festival of death”, as Mann puts it in the novel’s final sentence. Specifically, the phrase is a reference to World War I. More broadly – and just as powerfully – it reflects the sense of postwar disillusionment and social malaise that shaped the novel. The intense intellectual debates that unfold in The Magic Mountain, particularly between charismatic humanist Lodovico Settembrini and nihilistic, “terroristic” Jesuit communist Leo Naphta, offer Mann the means to reflect and comment on the totalitarian forces that were threatening to tear the world asunder. A century after the novel first appeared, its nuanced discussions of ideological conflict, the dangers of extremism and the fragility of civilisation remain, depressingly, as pertinent as ever. In 2024, the far-right has taken a firm foothold across Europe and the rest of the world, challenging the very democratic principles Mann came – albeit reluctantly – to value to champion. One can’t help but wonder what Mann, who wrote while the skies were slowly closing in over Europe, might have made of this situation. Read more: Germany's post-Holocaust moral remaking is being challenged by wars in Gaza and Ukraine – and the rise of the far-right History repeating? Would he, for instance, discern echoes of the same forces he grappled with in his modernist masterpiece, now manifesting in new, yet strangely familiar ways? And would he recognise the dangers of cultural and political polarisation and the allure of authoritarian forms of thought and activity that are currently casting increasingly long shadows over our own precarious moment? I suspect he might. In any case, these are just some of the questions worth asking as we mark the anniversary of a novel that, much like its creator, challenges us to confront the currents of history and their unsettling tendency to repeat. Near the end of the book, Mann writes: “These were such singular times.” Viewed from the perspective of 2024, I’m not so sure.Duke to punish Murphy for raising middle fingers