| The Chancellor will use the budget to raise capital gains tax on the sale of shares, says The Times. The levy on those profits is likely to rise by "several percentage points", but the rate on the sale of second homes and buy-to-let properties will remain untouched. Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic could cut opioid abuse by up to half, according to new research. In a study of 500,000 people with a history of opioid use, those who were prescribed so-called GLP-1 drugs had a 40% lower rate of overdose than those who weren't. Former One Direction star Liam Payne has died at the age of 31 after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. Police say they were called after reports of an "aggressive man who may be under the effects of drugs and alcohol". Former X Factor presenter Dermot O'Leary said Payne was "always a joy" and "had time for everyone". | | |  | Gilad Erdan, Israel's outgoing ambassador to the UN, shredding pages of the UN charter |
| Israel's "war" with the UN | Israel has launched assaults on multiple countries and occupied territories over the past year, says Mehdi Hasan in The Guardian. But it has also targeted one specific organisation with "unprecedented rhetorical and violent attacks": the United Nations. At the most recent UN general assembly, Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the body as "contemptible" and a "swamp of antisemitic bile", while Israel's outgoing ambassador "shredded a copy of the UN charter with a miniature paper shredder". In Gaza, the Israeli military has struck UN schools, warehouses and refugee camps, killing a record 228 of the organisation's employees. And now the IDF is hitting the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as Unifil: five "Blue Helmets" have been injured, and one UN position has even been invaded by Israeli tanks. "How is any of this OK?" How has Israel been allowed to "declare war on the UN" and get away with it? | Sorry, but Unifil "had one job", says The Wall Street Journal: to keep Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon so that it couldn't attack Israel. They completely failed. Under their watch, the terror group has entrenched itself in the region, stashing arms in residential houses and building a network of "fully stocked attack tunnels". For 11 months these Jew-hating terrorists fired more than 8,500 rockets and missiles across the border, and Unifil "said little and did less". Yet now that Israel has sent troops in – to do the job Unifil was so manifestly unable to do – the peacekeepers have suddenly found their voice. They have rejected repeated requests to move north out of harm's way, and blamed Israel entirely for putting its "non-peacekeepers" at risk. What a sham. Truly, "Hezbollah couldn't have scripted it better". | 🇮🇪🕊️ Among the peacekeepers in Lebanon are the Irish, who have had a battalion there since 1978, says Tom Clonan in The Guardian. The relationship is so deep-rooted that in some areas, local Lebanese people speak English with an Irish accent. One video of a man with a particularly fruity brogue has racked up over eight million views on X – watch the clip here. | | | | Britain's top architecture prize has been awarded to the Elizabeth Line in London. Muyiwa Oki, chairman of the RIBA Stirling prize jury, said the cross-London rail route offers a "flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport". Quite right, says Oliver Wainwright in The Guardian. Walking through the "streamlined white tunnels" is like being in a parallel universe to the "creaking, sooty Tube network". Amid all the chaos surrounding HS2, it's a welcome reminder that "Britain is still capable of pulling off gargantuan transport infrastructure projects with style and panache". |
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| | | The extent to which the US is outperforming other rich countries really is astonishing, says The Economist. America now accounts for about half of the G7's combined GDP, up from two-fifths in 1990. On a per-person basis, US economic output is about 40% higher than in western Europe and Canada, and 60% higher than in Japan – roughly twice what the gaps were three decades ago. And America's outperformance is accelerating. Since just before the pandemic, the US has had real growth of 10%, three times the average for the rest of the G7. | | | | Advertisement | | Exclusive for The Knowledge readers: use code TK10 to receive £10 off orders over £100. Take our County Corduroy Trousers. We have been making them from the get-go and they are our hardy perennials: sturdy, warm and hard-wearing, yet comfortable and soft to the touch. Made from 100% cotton wale, they are warm enough for the coldest winter but still wearable all year round. They also feature our expanding comfort waistband and come in 13 versatile colours. Click here to shop now with this exclusive offer. |
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| | |  | Taylor Swift at Wembley in August. Gareth Cattermole/Getty |
| There are plenty of reasons to lay into the Labour government, says Janice Turner in The Times, but allowing Taylor Swift a police escort is not one of them. The singer isn't a diva: she didn't demand the blue-lights treatment for her first UK dates in June. It was only after an Islamic State terror plot forced her to cancel her Austrian dates – and the stabbing of three little girls in Southport at a Swift-themed dance class – that she became uneasy. Can you imagine the uproar if the home secretary had denied the request and the UK gigs – worth £1bn to the economy – had been cancelled? The Tories would have made exactly the same decision (and accepted all those free tickets) had they been in charge. And rightly so. I'm no Swiftie, but this supposed "scandal" is utter nonsense. | | | | Enjoying The Knowledge?
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| | |  | Oprah Winfrey has spoken about using weight-loss drugs. Instagram/@oprah |
| How "fatty's little helper" changed my life | Ever since I wrote about using the "miracle" weight-loss jab Mounjaro, says Allison Pearson in The Daily Telegraph, readers have asked whether they should try it themselves. "Yes, I reply, without hesitation." After just eight weeks on "fatty's little helper", I've lost an incredible 18lbs. I've suffered none of the side-effects that everyone bangs on about, and the "excruciating pain" I used to have in my arthritic hip has disappeared. Nothing in my wardrobe fits me any more – and I couldn't be more delighted. "What a relief to finally be freed from my abusive, co-dependent relationship with the Cookie Monster." | All of which is why I'm firmly behind Labour's plan to give unemployed people weight-loss jabs to get them back to work. Many are angry that yet more public money is being spent on "useless lumps who have enough benefits already". Why, they ask, can't these lazy fatties just follow a healthy lifestyle, eating well and exercising regularly? But it's obviously not that simple. Being overweight is a vicious cycle: people who are fat generally feel depressed, so they comfort-eat rubbish. Plus, it's much harder to start exercising when you're "living inside a Michelin Man suit". Britons "have never been tubbier" – around 64% of adults in England are overweight or obese, and the NHS spends billions a year treating obesity-linked diseases. Either we waste our time fat-shaming these people, or we give them a kick-start to lose weight – and help our ailing economy in the process. | | | | The Sahara Desert has flooded, says CNN. Areas of the arid expanse in southeast Morocco experienced nearly eight inches of rain across two days last month – as much as the area would normally get in six months. And because the dry land offers no place for water to drain, the landscape has been transformed, with pools and lakes forming between dunes. According to Moroccan meteorologist Houssine Youabeb, "it's been 30 to 50 years since we've had this much rain in such a short space of time". | | | German pedants are up in arms, says Katja Hoyer in The Spectator, since the country's word regulator – The Council for German Orthography – looked at the English-style use of apostrophes to denote possession and declared: "Das ist gut". The pervasive punctuation mark, known to tetchy Teutons as the "idiot's apostrophe", has become widespread in shop signs, which patriotic Germans view as a kind of anglicising Anschluss. The tabloid Bild says it is "pained" by the phenomenon; the regional newspaper Volksstimme feels the council has "capitulated". | | | | | | It's the skull of a goat that once "provided milk for Napoleon", says Storyful. The landmark lactater was aboard HMS Bellerophon in 1815 when it was transporting the fated Frenchman to England following his defeat at Waterloo. The ship's captain cannily kept hold of the animal's remains, which were then passed down through the generations to his descendants – and the current lot have decided to cash in. The skull is expected to fetch between £2,000 and £3,000; put your bid in here. | | | "Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied."
Otto von Bismarck |
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