Today’s Edition – 22nd October 2024
Is Moldova’s vote really a victory for the EU?
The election has exposed what a deeply divided nation Moldova is.
Is Moldova’s vote really a victory for the EU?
The election has exposed what a deeply divided nation Moldova is.
If the banks aren’t exposed to the risks, then who is?
The question springs to mind every time a bank proudly declares that it has passed the most recent mandatory stress test.
The Chancellor’s taxing Budget choices
It’s hardly a secret that Reeves has inherited a difficult fiscal situation. The country is paying – and borrowing – more for services which, on many measures, are deteriorating.
Why Trump, the Page Six president, is winning
Despite the horrors of January 6 and his nonsense on tariffs, the Republican has the momentum. Why? He’s the zeitgeist candidate who understands media, the celebrity revolution and fame.
North Koreans troops fighting for Putin changes the conflict
North and South Korean soldiers are waging a war against one other, albeit with an unexpected twist.
Kamala Harris’s car-crash Fox interview shows she’s not fit to lead the free world
While liberal media agonises over the possibility of another Trump victory, Harris has escaped scrutiny.
Faust at the COC: Amy Lane has made a successful deal with the opera-devil
The triumph of this clever and subtle version of Faust is down not just to Lane but her entire creative team.
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Columnists
Will Reeves’s Halloween Budget spook the markets?
Gilt markets are soaring ahead of the Chancellor’s first Budget.
Hurricane season could influence how America votes
Donald Trump is desperate to capitalise off of Hurricane Milton.
Expect a far harsher Israeli response to Iran than in April
Tehran will be thinking through how far it wants to take this, even as the ground moves beneath its feet.
No clear winner in forgettable Vice-Presidential debate
Vance vs Walz was old-school politics: cordial and ever so slightly dull.
Time may be up for Tehran’s terror-sponsoring ayatollahs
The Iranian regime is looking ever more impotent and discredited at every turn.
Columnists
Tories heading for Cleverly v Badenoch run off
It’s uncertain where centrist Tugendhat’s twenty voters will now go. Though it is highly unlikely that Jenrick will pick up any.
Starmer needs a top civil servant who can stand up to Morgan McSweeney
What the Prime Minister’s new team will require to succeed.
The benefits system is designed around certain assumptions
People too often assume that life is about choices we make, rather than duties we are morally bound to take up.
Escalate to de-escalate: Israel’s high-risk strategy against Hezbollah
Israel is going for the nuclear option of threatening a ground war in the hope this persuades Hezbollah to back down.
Labour conference is packed but the mood is different to Brighton 1997
Luckily for Starmer, “Freebiegate” has not picked up momentum in Liverpool.
The politics of strong emotions
“If you love cats, vote for Trump” is the former President’s latest fear-driven appeal to the masses
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World
SNP feminists who broke ranks with Sturgeon are blind to Salmond’s woman problem
Alex Salmond’s female allies are culprits of selective feminism.
Poland and Britain are poles apart in growth prospects
The average standard of living in Britain has not risen in a decade.
Alex Salmond: a clever career but a toxic legacy
Salmond was a significant political figure who dominated Scottish public life for over a decade. But he was no titan.
Will the UK sanction extremist Israeli ministers?
British and American diplomats are weighing sanctions on ministers and weapons pauses as Israel’s assault on Gaza enters a new phase.
How the US and Canada took very different approaches to alleged Indian assassination plots
Relations between Canada and India are at rock bottom.
PMQs: Starmer accused of picking train drivers over pensioners
At the first PMQs following the summer recess, Sunak grilled Starmer over his party’s public spending priorities.
Culture
An intimate hour in Handel’s old home
The gifted English Concert fellows have a bright future ahead of them.
Stop and Look: Ruth Returning from Gleaning by Samuel Palmer
The sugar-loaf hills belong to the dreamlike landscape of Palmer’s evolving feelings for the natural world.
The success of the International Opera Awards is intellectual rigour
At the awards ceremony in Munich this year, a jury dug deep into the purpose of opera and its impact on society.
Word Watch: Outcomes
“Outcomes” was absent from our vocabulary a few decades ago and is now thriving at the heart of it.
Upstart: why it took the West so long to pay attention to China’s rise
Beijing has accumulated power by avoiding emulating the methods of its main competitor, argues Oriana Skylar-Mastro in her new book.
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