The Sunday Magazine for May 18, 2025
This week on The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay:
What Trump's Middle East tour means for U.S. foreign policy
The White House is championing a diplomatic breakthrough with Syria and deepened investment ties in the Gulf region, following U.S. President Donald Trump's state visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this past week. The New York Times White House correspondent Luke Broadwater, who was on the trip, joins Chattopadhyay to break down the visit's implications for U.S. foreign policy. Then, The Economist's Middle East correspondent Gregg Carlstrom explains the broader impact of Trump's visit in the region, especially as Israel's war with Hamas continues to rage in Gaza, and relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump reportedly grow sour.
Will we still need to learn foreign languages if AI can do the translating?
If you're planning a summer vacation abroad and your packing list includes a phrasebook or bilingual dictionary… this might be the last time you need one. Several big tech companies have live translation devices either in the works or already on the market. But tech watchers say they raise larger questions about how AI tools are changing language learning and translation – and what might get lost in the process. WIRED's senior business reporter Louise Matsakis and Muhammad Abdul-Mageed, the Canada Research Chair in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning at the University of British Columbia, join Chattopadhyay to spell it all out.
After a week of clashes over talks, is peace any closer in the Russia-Ukraine War?
This past week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to join him for face-to-face peace talks in Turkey. The Russian leader didn't show. But delegations from both countries did hold their first direct talks in three years, negotiating a prisoner-of-war exchange. Michael Bociurkiw, a global affairs analyst and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joins Chattopadhyay to make sense of these latest efforts at bringing a diplomatic end to the years-long conflict.
Uncovering the stories that paved the Trans-Canada Highway
For many Canadians, the May long weekend means the official kick-off of the summer travel season. And if you're out on a road trip, there's a good chance you may end up sailing down the Trans-Canada Highway. Mark Richardson wants us all to know the often overlooked stories that paved this roughly seven-and-a-half thousand kilometre road system. The automotive journalist speaks with Chattopadhyay about the history, people and politics that shaped "Canada's Main Street", as he explores in his book The Drive Across Canada.
Cabin, camp or cottage? The word you use is more revealing than you think
If you've ever innocently called someone's summer home a "cabin" or "camp" when they prefer to call it a "cottage," you'll know how evocative those descriptors can be. As cabin/camp/cottage season kicks off, linguist Sali Tagliamonte walks us through the cultural, geographic and economic factors that have shaped the language we use when describing Canada's summertime escape hatches.