The tough guys who learned to love tyranny
For decades, US survivalists have warned about a future with troops on the street and plain-clothes goons disappearing the White House’s enemies. Now it’s all happening under Trump, they are silent
The Magazine
How Trump lost the moral high ground to China
Right now, Xi Jinping is letting Trump do all the soft power heavy lifting for him
Bashir Noorzai, the Taliban’s godfather
Drug tycoon Bashir Noorzai was seized and jailed for life by the US. Yet somehow he is free – and has reinvented himself as gatekeeper to Afghanistan’s trillion-dollar rare earth treasure trove
Rejoin isn’t the issue of the era. Racism is.
Britain is drowning in hate. We can’t let Farage remake us into a truly nasty nation
The tough guys who learned to love tyranny
For decades, US survivalists have warned about a future with troops on the street and plain-clothes goons disappearing the White House’s enemies. Now it’s all happening under Trump, they are silent
No Other Choice, the new Parasite
Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice is a masterfully savage comedy of murder and capitalist ruin
Why go online, when you can paint?
I once fled my flat at every opportunity – but oil paints have taught me about the joy of being indoors
Audio
Angela Rayner, Take 2. She should go.
On Tuesday the Matts were staunch in their defence of Angela Rayner. Then she came out and admitted she had paid too little tax on her new flat. The Matts work through the various scenarios available to her and conclude she should resign – but not for the obvious reason. Also – Nigel Farage was […]
How Trump lost the moral high ground to China
Right now, Xi Jinping is letting Trump do all the soft power heavy lifting for him
Why Authoritarians can’t silence journalists
In today’s world, media doesn’t need AI – it needs real journalists
How much does the Daily Mail hate Angela Rayner?
Labour’s Deputy PM Angela Rayner has been the brunt of a propaganda campaign waged relentlessly by the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph. What is it about her authentic working class credentials that these two newspapers find so threatening? The Matts have some thoughts. But first, will Keir Starmer’s government reshuffle change the trajectory his premiership […]
Did Artificial Intelligence kill Adam Raine?
The Matts are shaken by the story of a 16-year-old who took his own life after pouring his heart out to ChatGPT which, his parents claim, encouraged him to act. It’s a desperate case and raises profound questions about the technology and how it will change society. The conversation focuses on the need for governments […]
Farage, migrants and racism … it’s complicated
The pod is back after its summer break! The Matts analyse Reform’s anti-immigrant policies and ask themselves how might Labour counter them? Which leads them into a discussion about what is, and what isn’t racist, and how helpful is it for centrists to sneer at every St George’s flag they come across. But first, Matt […]
Does Trump deserve the Nobel?
His desperation to follow in Barack Obama’s footsteps deepens day by day, unsolved war by unsolved war
Why xenophobes love flags
A cross of St George or a union jack flown today means the same as it did in 1977: ‘You’re not welcome here’
What cricket tells us about life
Americans may have Apple, Amazon and the lead in the AI race, but Donald Trump is killing their soft power
There are no prizes for trophy hunting
Like bullfighting, this practice shows little respect for animals’ capacity to suffer and turns their deaths into a spectacle
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Puzzles
Sudoku Hard
Sudoku Medium
Sudoku Easy
Number Fit
Jigsaw
Cryptic Crossword
Crossword
Codeword
Politics
Gen Z vs democracy
Two speeches, 20 years apart, show Starmer how to tackle Farage
Sarah Vine’s Windsor knot
The rehabilitation of Putin
Did Farage just lie to US congress under oath?
Chicken Farage bans The New World
Letter of the week: The far right are preventing a civil conversaiton on immigration
Tommy Robinson’s long shadow
Writers
Alastair Campbell
How Trump lost the moral high ground to China
Marie Le Conte
Yes, I’m a performative female. Does that make me awful?
Matthew d’Ancona
Tom Cox, one of our best authors
Patience Wheatcroft
Rachel Reeves is not the answer
Tanit Koch
Christina Block and the legal thriller that’s gripping Germany
Paul Mason
Rejoin isn’t the issue of the era. Racism is.
Latest
Graduates can’t find employment – is it AI’s fault?
Gen Z vs democracy
Tom Cox, one of our best authors
Taylor Swift: the capitalist juggernaut
Yes, I’m a performative female. Does that make me awful?
How I ruined an influencer’s photoshoot
Podcasts
The Two Matts
Angela Rayner, Take 2. She should go.
The Two Matts
How much does the Daily Mail hate Angela Rayner?
The Two Matts
Q&A: Should Tony Blair be getting involved in Gaza?
The Two Matts
Did Artificial Intelligence kill Adam Raine?
The Two Matts
Farage, migrants and racism … it’s complicated
The Two Matts
From the archive – Zbig: the man who shaped the world
Brexit
Sarah Vine’s Windsor knot
The Daily Mail commentator thinks bringing the late Queen into politics is distasteful. It’s hard to imagine a more hypocritical view
No, the Queen didn’t back Brexit
The Sun claimed the late Queen backed leaving the EU. Now, nine years later, its then editor has been forced to change his tune
The Reform voters who think Brexit has failed
Labour have failed to connect Farage with economic disaster in the minds of ordinary people. That must change
Nigel Farage, the man who broke Britain
The man who would be PM has already spent a decade getting much of what he wanted – and none of it has worked
This is the moment Britain went wrong (and it’s not Brexit)
The financial crisis left Britain weaker, poorer and more vulnerable to liars – and we’ve never recovered
The next Brexit battle has begun
Speeding up the UK/EU reset agreement could help cut food prices – and put Farage on shaky ground
Ukraine
The Ukrainians reclaiming Odesa’s history
Vladimir Putin claimed the city was Russian in 2023, but staking the claim doesn’t make it so
Why Trump can’t end the Ukraine war
Donald Trump says his interventions have brought Ukraine and Russia close to peace. So why does it feel further away than last week?
The warm embrace that could freeze Europe
Donald Trump has favoured Ukraine over Russia in recent weeks. But when he meets Putin in Alaska, all that could change
War in the quiet hours
Russia has intensified its aerial assault on Kyiv. One night may pass in relative calm, giving a fragile sense of normality. The next, destruction starts again
The drone and the death of compromise
The first unmanned flying weapon was launched over a century ago – the full implications of that flight are only now being understood
How to beat Putin
Europe could save Ukraine and defeat a dictator by shutting down Russia’s shadow fleet and scaling up its own defence production. But will wary voters accept rising tension as the price of peace?
The big picture
The last ride of James Dean
Seventy years after his fatal crash, a pilgrimage to the place where an actor died and a legend was born
Françoise Demulder, the model who watched the world burn
Tall and glamorous, Demulder did not seem meant for war zones. And then she made them her life’s work
Great Lives
Sérgio Mendes, the man who drove the new Brazilian sound to worldwide acclaim
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and the studio that changed music for ever
Aretha Franklin, the Lady of Mysterious Sorrows
Nancy Wake, the White Mouse the Gestapo couldn’t corner
Gore Vidal, the man who lived for verbal jousting
