The Tories have fallen to "their lowest level of public support in a quarter of a century", says The Times. The latest YouGov poll gives Labour a 33-point lead, suggesting more than half the country would back the opposition in a general election. Vladimir Putin will hold a signing ceremony today in Moscow to officially "annex" four areas of Ukraine, says the BBC. The move comes after sham "referendums" in the Kremlin-controlled areas garnered overwhelming support for Russian rule. The Royal Mint has unveiled the portrait of King Charles III to be used on new currency, says the Daily Mirror, starting with a commemorative £5 coin. "Soon to be worth about 50p." | Gas leaking from the damaged pipes in the Baltic Sea | Why Russia would blow up its own pipeline | It seems a safe bet Russia was behind the apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, says Mark Galeotti in The Spectator. The big question is why. What's the point of blowing up your own infrastructure, especially when neither pipeline was actually pumping gas to Europe at the time? The answer may well be that Vladimir Putin is sending a warning to the West. He wants to signal he's willing to hit foreign pipelines and "other undersea assets", in particular the underwater cables that serve as the "arteries of the global internet". The safest way to do that, without risking retaliation, is to "hit your own". | Russian submarines and Spetsnaz (special forces) have no shortage of targets. It is surely no coincidence Nord Stream was hit just before the opening of the new Baltic Pipe between Norway and Poland. A strike on underwater internet cables wouldn't put us offline for long, but even a temporary disruption would have "substantial economic impacts – and potentially even greater political ones". How stiff will the West's anti-Russia resolve be if our Netflix keeps going down? "Other targets might come into play, too." Cyberattacks; hitting the West's supply lines to Ukraine – everything is on the table. With Ukraine winning on the battlefield, Putin clearly feels "he has to do something" to get the West to change course. If the price of that is bombing your own pipelines, so be it. | 😱 The Nord Stream sabotage may create "one of the worst natural gas leaks ever", says The Guardian. One pipe reportedly contained as much as 200,000 tonnes of the potent greenhouse gas methane, equivalent to the annual emissions of a million cars. | | | A huge search and rescue effort is continuing in Florida, says the BBC, as the state deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. The death toll currently stands at 10 but is expected to rise considerably, and a blackout is still affecting 2.2 million homes and businesses. | | | Businesses know which way the political wind is blowing, says the I newspaper. At the Labour Party conference, industry leaders were "queuing round the block to meet Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves", to the extent that she's had to add more "business day" events to her calendar. Even big banks dispatched representatives, "some for the first time". As one attendee observed: "There are Tories in suits everywhere!" | | | Enjoying The Knowledge? Click below to share | | | The US Library of Congress allowed pop star and classically trained flautist Lizzo to play a 200-year-old crystal flute once owned by President James Madison. "It's like playing out of a wine glass, so be patient," Lizzo said to a cheering crowd in DC, before shouting: "History is freaking cool, you guys!" Listen to it here. | Influencer Elsa Hosk in Riyadh in 2019. Daniele Venturelli/Getty | Saudi's army of western influencers | "Influencers can and will shill for anything, or anyone, at any time," says Eve Peyser in Air Mail. But it's government-funded trips to Saudi Arabia, "a country with a laundry list of human-rights abuses", that are at the "pinnacle" of moral dubiousness. The Gulf kingdom, helmed by the despotic Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wants "to rebrand from a conservative, oppressive regime to an emerging cultural hub" – and to do that, it pays celebrities to holiday there. One agency takes an estimated 10 to 20 influencers to Saudi Arabia every week. | Those signed up rave about the country, posting pictures with captions like: "When I was a kid, I used to watch Aladdin… never did I think I could live it too 😍 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." They don't always escape "public scolding", however. A Saudi jolly at an electronic music festival in 2019, held at the same time as a women's-rights activist was being tortured in prison, didn't help the image of the Hollywood actors and "hotshot models" who attended. When Justin Bieber agreed to perform at last year's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist murdered in 2018 on the orders of MBS, publicly urged the singer to boycott the event. He ignored her, posting an Instagram picture of him performing in an oversized red jumpsuit, captioned: "Thank u Saudi arabia". | Nice work if you can get it | The Inbetweeners star James Buckley has become the UK's first Cameo millionaire, says The Independent. Since joining the platform in 2020, the 35-year-old actor has recorded more than 10,000 personalised messages for fans of the show, generally "hurling abuse" at them in the style of his foul-mouthed character. Get yours, for £41 a pop, here. | They're rival chocolate bunnies made by Lidl (left) and Lindt (right) – and a Swiss court has ruled that the former is too similar to the latter. Judges decided the Lindt bunny deserved protection from copycats, and ordered Lidl to get rid of its stock. The court said the ruling was "proportionate" because the chocolate wouldn't necessarily "have to be destroyed", which suggests the German discount retailer could reuse its melted-down bunnies in other confectionery. | | | "A saint is a person whose life has been under-researched."
Theologian Henry Chadwick | | | Been forwarded this newsletter? Sign up for free to receive it every day | | | https://link.newsletters.theknowledge.com/oc/60897464f90441077868de3checu5.k2x/0e4ee3a7&list=mymail | | | |
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