Dilettante: How I learned to love the Olympics
The opening ceremony felt like France reintroducing itself to the world, warts and all
Highlights
Kamala has got Trump rattled. He is flailing, and he hates it
Kamala Harris has made a flying start to her presidential campaign, and so far Trump has no answer
Trump’s vision of division
Almost everything you have heard about Donald Trump and Project 2025 is true. And it is every bit as terrifying as it sounds
Peggy Guggenheim: the calm and the collector
How the British countryside saved modern art’s greatest champion
In this edition
Everyday philosophy: Do chatbots deserve moral rights?
The time may come where they’re viewed as fellow workers, treated with respect and consideration
Dilettante: How I learned to love the Olympics
The opening ceremony felt like France reintroducing itself to the world, warts and all
The naked truth of modelling
Nude modelling has been an integral part of French art schools for centuries but now the models are demanding respect and status
Italian justice is slow, but not that slow
A recent defamation case has shocked the public, not for its contents, but its speed
Morocco’s Mediterranean trump card
Morocco is claiming ownership of Ceuta as a way to put pressure on Spain
Belgium’s Babylonian mess
Knowing which language to speak to strangers in Brussels is a taxing task
How Byron became a Greek myth
Two hundred years after his death, Lord Byron is still considered among the founding fathers of modern Greece
A cull of hereditaries and elders in the Lords is not the answer. So what is?
A term limit, rather than an age limit, is key to reforming the upper house
Harris can beat Trump by learning from Starmer
Harris must learn how to construct a voter coalition in the places that matter through actions, not words
Germansplaining: Olaf Scholz is in Biden-esque trouble
The chancellor’s political standing is putting him in danger of having his own ‘Biden moment’
Gove’s train has left the station
With no job forthcoming and still to find a permanent home, Gove is becoming acquainted with the joys of public transport
Lie of the Week: “Labour has decided smaller parties like Reform are not allowed on select committees”
Kamala has got Trump rattled. He is flailing, and he hates it
Kamala Harris has made a flying start to her presidential campaign, and so far Trump has no answer
Alastair Campbell’s diary: JD Vance’s questionable rise to political fame
Vance is an odd choice. Insights from his memoir only make the decision stranger
Trump’s vision of division
Almost everything you have heard about Donald Trump and Project 2025 is true. And it is every bit as terrifying as it sounds
Nic Aubury’s 4-line poem: Trickle down
Asshole in one
What the golf-mad presidential frontrunner’s game says about him
Mitch Benn’s poem of the week: It’s Tory leadership contest time
The £112bn wasters
Rachel Reeves’s cuts come only after the previous government squandered vast sums of money
A long race to the bottom
Yet another Tory leadership battle is under way. But, outside of the six contenders, does anyone really care?
Letters: Harris’s hopes hinge on the abortion debate
The overturning of Roe v Wade could come back to bite Trump during this campaign and play into Kamala Harris’s hands
Cartoon: The Tory leadership hopefuls
Living in the shadow of Chernobyl
Pierpaolo Mittica’s photos capture everyday existence in the ‘new Pompeii’ – close to the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident
Taiwan’s eyes are on the Ukraine war
It aspires to be a beacon for democracy in Asia. But Putin’s invasion has left the nation in fear of attack from the Chinese mainland
Critical Mass.. on pandemics
The Covid inquiry report has exposed the systemic failures in the UK’s pandemic response
Peggy Guggenheim: the calm and the collector
How the British countryside saved modern art’s greatest champion
The best books since Brexit, part one
As the New European approaches a landmark, we look back at some of the gems – from expansive histories to personal stories – uncovered on these pages since 2016
A plague on plagiarism!
Why do we make so much fuss about ‘copying’ in the arts when almost everything we create is based on something else?
Josh Barrie on food: The majesty of the crêpe
It is the utilitarian nature of crêpes, their accessibility and the fact they enjoy French ceremony that I adore
Matthew d’Ancona’s Culture: Deadpool and Wolverine restore fun to the MCU
Our editor-at-large’s rundown of the pick of the week’s cinema, streaming and books
Bonnie Greer’s Vintage: Fear of a female president runs long and deep in cinema
Women presidents in film get into all kinds of trouble, mainly because they’re not at home taking care of their kids and cooking for their husbands
Enrico Caruso: The unlikely vanguard of a cultural revolution
With his gramophone recordings, the Italian transcended the closed world of performance to become a global phenomenon
Following the garden path
This technical terminology is easily understood and describes the act of parsing playful sentences that are designed to confuse
Multicultural Man: On street food
Is there no land so remote nowadays that its cuisine can’t receive the descriptor ‘street’ and be flogged from a stall at lunchtime to British workers?