Rishi Sunak finally confirmed that he was scrapping the Birmingham-Manchester leg of HS2 in his conference speech today, saying the £36bn saved would be spent on other transport projects. The PM also proposed raising the legal age for buying cigarettes and tobacco in England every year, so that eventually no one can buy them. The Speaker of the US House of Representatives has been ousted from office for the first time in history. Eight right-wing Republicans forced the vote of no confidence in Kevin McCarthy after he struck a bipartisan deal on Saturday to avoid a government shutdown. A 104-year-old from Chicago has become the world's oldest skydiver. Dorothy Hoffner said she wasn't nervous before the 10,000ft descent, and had "no idea" she would be breaking the record. Her main thought, she said, was: "What are we having for dinner?" |
Giorgia Meloni: probably wouldn't do so well in Britain. Valeria Ferraro/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty |
No far-right, please, we're British |
"The Economist recently published a map of Europe, says Janan Ganesh in the FT, with each country rendered a shade of red according to its level of support for the hard right. Populist-run nations like Italy, Poland and Hungary are "Ferrari-red". France and Germany are "a sort of trout-fillet colour"; Spain, Portugal and much of Scandinavia one shade lighter. And Britain? A very pale pink, darker than only a handful of tiny countries. It's often overlooked that the UK "hasn't got a far-right to reckon with". But this is one area in which Britain clearly "outdoes the continent". |
Of course, some on the left insist the Conservatives are hard right beneath it all. "Please." They imposed Covid lockdowns of "world-leading severity", enshrined net zero in statute, and supported Ukraine against Russia "with little or no internal dissent" – all "heresies" from the populist point of view. This is a party that has filled three of the great offices of state with non-white descendants of immigrants, and in which Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch – "one generation removed from east Africa and west Africa respectively" – are heroines of the base. Conflating it with parties led by the likes of Viktor Orbán or Giorgia Meloni is "whataboutery at its sour and desperate worst". So yes, make fun of the "unbuilt train lines", and despair of its "featherweight politicians". But give Britain its due as "Europe's haven of moderation". |
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Today marks the start of Fat Bear Week in Alaska, says CNN. The annual competition – a public vote to crown the state's tubbiest bear – features 12 ursine competitors from the Katmai National Park. Favourites include four-time winner Otis, an older bear who "moves less to catch more" when fishing; current title holder 747, a "skilled and efficient angler" named after the jumbo jet; and Holly, a "remarkable mum" who raised one injured cub and adopted another years later. Cast your vote here. |
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As Liz Truss attempted a "triumphant return" at the Tory party conference this week, says Matt Chorley in The Times, pollsters YouGov asked voters whether they wanted to hear from the former PM. One in 25 said they were "very interested" – roughly the same proportion who think the moon landings were faked. |
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Google Arts and Culture has released an online game to teach people about great works. In The Art Handler, players have to steer a one-wheeled robot carrying a priceless painting through a gallery without falling over. The idea, says designer Carol Mertz, is to help people develop a "feeling of familiarity" with the artworks through exposure, rather than "force-feeding them trivia". It's also pretty good fun. Try it for yourself here. |
Xi Jinping inspecting troops in 2017. Anthony Kwan/Getty |
Over the past two months, says Joel Wuthnow in Foreign Affairs, several senior Chinese generals have "disappeared from public view". First came the removal of the two top officials in the army's "rocket force", responsible for China's intercontinental ballistic missiles – perhaps in response to rumours about "corruption and the sale of military secrets". Next to be ousted was the head of China's military court, dismissed by the National People's Congress. Then it emerged that Defence Minister Li Shangfu is under investigation for graft in the procurement system. That's a big deal: Li is one of only six uniformed officers who sits on China's Central Military Commission, and the country's top military diplomat.
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These scandals have taken China-watchers by surprise. Xi Jinping tends to be portrayed as "the most powerful head of the Chinese military" since Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s: he is the son of a Red Army commander, and his military treatises have become "required reading for service members". Yet now the feeling is that his hold over the People's Liberation Army might be "less complete than imagined". This is good news for the West. If corruption is a problem for the Chinese military – particularly in procurement – Xi will have less confidence about the quality of its kit. And that could affect his decision-making on Taiwan – you don't want to launch an invasion, only to find that none of your equipment actually works. The US has long worried about how best to deter Chinese aggression. "The critical constraint might be one much closer to home." |
New blinds, please: an artist's impression of the Sphere in Stratford |
The Sphere, the newly opened $2.3bn arena in Las Vegas, was supposed to have a sister venue in east London, says The Daily Telegraph. An identical project in Stratford was proposed in the same month as the one for Sin City, back in 2018, but has been languishing in the capital's planning system. Rivalling Big Ben in height (96m), and the same width as the London Eye (120m), the giant orb would have a capacity of 21,500 visitors. But locals say the blackout blinds they have been offered by developers won't make up for the nuisance of having a giant glowing ball outside their windows. |
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| If you think speed dating isn't speedy enough, says The New York Times, courtship entrepreneurs in Brooklyn have launched a group night that "fast-tracks intimacy". Attendees at The Feels meditate together, silently stare into each other's eyes for minutes on end, and even feel each other's heartbeats. Host and founder Allie Hoffman says the event, held inside a "candlelit loft" in Williamsburg, is "designed to get past that first layer of 'What do you do? Where do you live? What do you like to do for fun?' and into 'Where are you at this moment in this wild human ride that is your life?'" |
It's a "dust devil" – a type of mini-tornado that whips up a vortex of loose dirt – which was spotted on Mars by Nasa's Perseverance rover at the end of August. The six-wheeled robo-geologist inadvertently captured an image of the twister during its mission to investigate the western rim of the red planet's Jezero Crater. Earth-based boffins estimate that the swirling column of red sand was probably 200 feet wide and more than a mile high.
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"The trouble with setting goals is that you're constantly working toward what you used to want." American writer Sarah Manguso |
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