Opinion

Brexit and a risky Covid strategy means that the UK is the focus of close global attention this summer. Rashmee Roshan Lall reports on what the rest of the world is saying

In his younger days, Billy Wilder was a journalist in Europe. A new book of his writings doesn’t give much of a glimpse of the continent, but does provide insights into his later career

Covid travel restrictions have dealt a serious blow to the import of holiday tunes from the continent

Rob Hughes asks how long Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will stay at the top before they finally retire from football Some day, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will cease being the most extraordinarily gifted among more than 250 million men and women playing football around the world. Their body clocks are ticking. They face […]

Bonnie Greer explains why the data held by the NHS makes it so attractive to US big pharma – and why Boris Johnson could use it for leverage in a trade deal Before I saw the video of Daniel Hannan, now Baron Hannan of Kingsclere and an advisor to the Board of Trade, disparaging the […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how one place name came to have two very different word associations Bethlehem is associated with the nativity of Christ, peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Bedlam is associated with the complete opposite: mad confusion and noisy uproar. It is something of a surprise to discover that they were originally the same word. […]

A 13-year-old skateboarder, a German policewoman, an Afghani woman cyclist attacked for daring to ride her bicycle... some of the most absorbing European stories at this Olympic Games.

Instead of watching England in the Euros, WILL SELF went walking around London… and noticed something interesting about his fellow football sceptics Errol over the park coaches local lads in football – most of them black British. He’s pretty successful, and has placed at least 20 over the past decade or so as juniors with […]

Mitch Benn looks at anti-maskers, the Boris Johnson U-turn on isolating and more in his review of the week in politics Hello, and let me wish you all a belated Happy Freedom Day!  Yes, the day after which we are all now free to take one look at all our fellow citizens and decide immediately […]

Hand-wringing about the plight of migrants crossing the Channel and Mediterranean by boat - and angry words about their treatment - will only go so far. What would liberal progressives actually like to see done?

The fight against ‘woke’ carries with it echoes of their doomed battle to hold back gay rights. 

Reader letters: Trigger issues were critical in the 2016 EU referendum and US presidential votes.

Those who are grabbing their new-found freedom don’t deserve our criticism.  People rush to judgement very quickly. All it takes is for a crowd to congregate on a beach, or for young people to go clubbing, and a great puritanical curtain-twitching mania is unleashed on them. This week, Twitter is ablaze with sneering commentary about […]

The film festival defies the pandemic with plenty of touching, flesh and sex

Tim Walker reports on the latest revamp at Chequers

The home secretary was once a maverick outsider. She hasn’t changed, but the country has.

As disquiet grows, Boris Johnson may not hold the whip hand for much longer.

‘Thank you’ might seem an easy phrase to learn in a foreign language. But that is not always the case says PETER TRUDGILL Sometimes, when people are going to visit a country they have never been to before, they say they plan to learn a little of the language which is spoken there, but “just […]

Anton Chekhov transformed theatre. But many critics and audiences of his era were not so enamoured by the change, writes CHARLIE CONNELLY

The costs of Brexit continue to mount – and they dwarf what Boris Johnson has set aside for “levelling up” in the regions It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, as the Brexit waste goes on and on without ever making sense – a bit like Boris Johnson’s speech […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on what we can expect from Boris Johnson's much-discussed and long-delayed book on William Shakespeare

The sovereignty promised in the EU referendum only benefits the Tory party

How can pop respond to politics? With this year’s album BRUT, Polish alt-pop star Brodka has provided an object lesson, writes SOPHIA DEBOICK

Tchéky Karyo’s fame reaches a whole new level appearing as Baptiste

The Russian defector’s fatal poisoning has been turned into an opera, approved by his widow, says KIRSTY LANG In the 15 years since Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned drinking tea in a central London hotel, there have been numerous books, film documentaries and a stage play inspired by his story. Now for the first time, there […]

The murder of its president in his own home is yet another chapter in Haiti’s miserable history, says RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL, who spent three years living in the extraordinarily tragic nation Within minutes of the news flash of the assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moise last week, two things became clear about the killing: it […]

Novelist WILL SELF explains why tuning in to religious station Advent Radio has renewed his faith in the medium The local pharmacist – who I call the fundamentalcist for reasons that will soon become clear – has some sort of evangelical radio station playing over the shop’s PA system all day every day, such that I’m […]

Dotted along the north west coast of Africa, the residue of Spanish empire – two sizeable cities – lies at the heart of a summer of high tension Monte Hacho, the hill that rises above the Spanish city of Ceuta on the North African coast, is often cited as one of the Pillars of Hercules […]

Jason Solomons returns to the Croisette with movie reviews of Annette, Cow,  The Worst Person In The World, Everything Went Fine, The Souvenir Part II, Jane by Charlotte and more So much for the return of glamour. My Cannes started by spitting into a plastic tube in a makeshift Covid testing centre. Due to political […]

The shooting of a prominent Dutch crime reporter has prompted a national debate about the country’s reputation as the nexus of the continent’s illegal drugs trade.  Almost from the moment the last bullet tore into the Netherlands’ best-known crime reporter Peter R. de Vries on the evening of July 6, a peculiar debate erupted among […]

Former president Donald Trump’s lawsuit suing Google, Facebook and Twitter is as crazy as it sounds – but BONNIE GREER says he is still dangerous The latest lawsuit from former president Donald Trump is as stupid as you think it is. In brief: he is suing Google, Facebook and Twitter in what he calls a […]

It’s a decade since the demise of the News of the World and today’s toothless tabloids are a shadow of their former ferocious selves. Should we mourn or celebrate their decline? And could they have stopped Brexit?  They were the cheeky chappies, rumbustious and irreverent, saucier than a Donald McGill postcard; always game to poke […]