Andy Burnham will promise to give people “more breathing room” when he gives his first speech as prime minister outside No 10 on Monday. He is expected to say he is “acutely conscious” of the UK’s high turnover of prime ministers – and that politics needs to be more stable and responsible. And he is…
In the next few months, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) will make one of the highest-profile decisions in its 29-year history: whether to send the conviction of Lucy Letby for the murder of seven babies, and attempted murder of seven others, back to the court of appeal. Given the level of interest in this…
The crowds that snaked around the National Mall in Washington on Saturday, America’s 250th birthday, were dressed for a party. They wore red dresses, blue shorts and white tank tops with bald eagles on them. Some wore glittery hats emblazoned with “U.S.A.,” and most were slathered in sunscreen as they sweltered in the 101-degree heat…
It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. Shakespeare’s villains used it at the Globe, walking toward the groundlings to whisper their twisted truths. Since then, it’s been supersized. At big moments in musicals like “A Chorus Line” and “Ragtime,” the cast storms the footlights as if to mow them down — and then…
This week, we saw two distinct visions of what it means to honor and celebrate the United States. The first is the one you know, the Ultimate Fighting Championship spectacle in Washington, where President Trump presided over pyrotechnics, blood sport and general mayhem. Ostensibly planned to mark the 250th anniversary of the nation — which,…
Have we lost the ability to surrender to a story? Surely, if there’s any narrative that deserves our undivided attention, it’s that of a crown court judge fighting the legal system’s approach to sexual violence against women, when she discovers her own son has been accused of rape. But as Rosamund Pike discovered last weekend,…
Available for over a year A Labour leadership challenge would mean Britain could have a seventh prime minister in a decade. Each change of leadership promises renewal, but each delivers fresh disappointment. Meanwhile the problems compound: crumbling infrastructure, polluted waterways, a cost-of-living crisis, a planet warming faster than our policy responses. Why can’t a mature…
Legendary rockers The Rolling Stones have announced the release date of their new album ‘Foreign Tongues’ and confirmed that it will feature guest appearances from the likes of Paul McCartney and The Cure’s Robert Smith. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The rock veterans’ 25th studio album – the follow up to 2023’s ‘Hackney Diamonds’ – has been teased…
How fast do you have to strike a match to get it to light? Not the chemistry of the ignition, but the actual speed, in metres per second, that the little piece of wood and its bulbous head have to move to spark the chain reaction behind the flame. It was a question born of…
The Shadow of the Object, the new novel from Mexican-American author Chloe Aridjis, opens with an eruption of violence: Flora, a fortysomething woman, is visiting her mother and stepfather in Mexico City for the first time in many years when one evening, as she is bidding them goodnight, Diego – the household’s beloved guard dog – springs…
