The Republican’s second presidential term heralds a more inward-looking US where resentment has replaced idealism and nobody wins without someone else losing

A dozen years ago – an eternity in American politics – the Republican party was reeling from its fourth presidential election loss in six tries and decided that it needed to be a lot kinder to the people whose votes it was courting.

No more demonising of migrants, the party resolved – it was time for comprehensive immigration reform. No more demeaning language that turned off women and minorities – it needed more of them to run for office.

Continue reading...

• Updates from the 3pm (GMT) match in Riyadh
• Get in touch! Share your thoughts with Tanya

Gauff is the youngest WTA Finals finalist since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Qinwen wins the toss and elects to serve. A huge crowd fill the arena and watches them warmup.

Who is going to win? The TV experts are split 1-1.

Continue reading...

With far-right parties gaining support across the globe, it is crucial we collaborate with our neighbours and restore faith in democracy

In the 1930s Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Marxist philosopher, warned that as the old order was dying, the new world was struggling to be born. In 2024, politics again strains, opening the doors to the chaos he feared. For too long, many have hoped that the rise of extremes could be ignored and the public would not be swayed. Following the US election, and as parties of the far-right gain support in Europe, all who cherish freedom must commit to fighting for a politics that unlocks talent not hatred. For us, that means the priority is the future relationship between the EU and the UK.

We cannot stand up for democracy and the rule of law if we do not value it – and the outcome of a ballot – even if we wouldn’t have voted the same way. President Trump must be given the respect to govern and the world must engage with him accordingly – but this does not mean we should be silent or complacent. In a cost of living crisis, a leader who threatens across-the-board tariffs risks damaging economic growth for us all. In a conflict crisis, a leader who sides with Vladimir Putin and encourages Benjamin Netanyahu to go beyond what he is already doing threatens peace everywhere. In a climate emergency, a leader who believes it is a hoax and green energy “a scam” endangers the planet for everyone.

Continue reading...

Patrick Grant says not even luxury clothing labels care enough about quality any more

Earlier this year Patrick Grant, The Great British Sewing Bee presenter and clothes designer, criticised the poor quality of Marks & Spencer’s jumpers and socks – and now the luxury British heritage brand Burberry is in his line of fire.

Speaking at an event organised by the Design Council last week, Grant had a simple message for the audience: “Most people who sell you clothes do not give a stuff about the quality.”

Continue reading...

Bestselling author Paula Hawkins set her new book on a fictional tidal island. Here she examines the power and appeal of islands

There is something about an island that stirs the imagination. Or, in any case, it seems to stir mine.

A few years ago, on a trip to the Côte de Granit Rose in Brittany, I walked along seaweed-strewn sands towards one of the many tidal islands dotted along that coastline. As I approached I noticed that on the nearest island, there was a tiny house – a single cottage, all alone – and I felt a familiar prickle running up my spine, the shrinking of the scalp that tells me to pay attention, that there’s something here: the beginning of a story.

Continue reading...

The rapid growth of ‘AI slop’ – content created by artificial tools – is starting to warp our perception of what is, or could be, real

My eye was caught by a striking photograph in the most recent edition of Charles Arthur’s Substack newsletter Social Warming . It shows a narrow street in the aftermath of the “rain bomb” that devastated the region of Valencia in Spain. A year’s worth of rain fell in a single day, and in some towns more than 490 litres a square metre fell in eight hours. Water is very heavy, so if there’s a gradient it will flow downhill with the kind of force that can pick up a heavy SUV and toss it around like a toy. And if it channels down a narrow urban street, it will throw parked cars around like King Kong in a bad mood.

The photograph in Arthur’s article showed what had happened in a particular street. Taken with a telephoto lens from an upper storey of a building, it showed a chaotic and almost surreal scene: about 70 vehicles of all sizes jumbled up and scattered at crazy angles along the length of the street.

Continue reading...

American Exchange Project helps high school seniors travel and meet youths from different sociopolitical backgrounds

For Baltimore native Jessica Osei-Adjei, a week-long trip to Anchorage, Alaska , last summer was more than just her first time traveling solo.

“I went hiking on a glacier, camping and paddleboarding for the first time,” she says. “I’m not really an outdoorsy person but doing that was definitely worth it.”

Trump wins the presidency – how did it happen?

With Trump re-elected, this is what’s at stake

Abortion ballot measure results by state

A masculinity researcher on the Democrats’ ‘fatal miscalculation’

Election deniers use Trump victory to sow more doubt over 2020 result

What a second Trump presidency means for big US tech firms

Who could be in Trump’s new administration

Continue reading...

A 250-year-old animal stable nestled in an Italian mountain village is now a family home – with a see-if-you-can-spot-it mirrored loo

Sheer Alpine mountains and forested valleys are both neighbour and inspiration for Italian designer and architect Riccardo Monte . His home, a 250-year-old former animal shed, is tucked into a tiny Italian village in the Ossola valley, not far from the Swiss border and Lake Maggiore.

Riccardo lives with his English partner, photographer and filmmaker Katie May, their six-year-old son, Julian, and collie, Lupa. The couple met in London more than a decade ago when their paths crossed in Hackney’s Dolphin pub. But they left a few years later, burned out by the frenetic pace of the metropolis, for a slower pace of life in Riccardo’s home county.

Continue reading...

This election has blown a hole in the worldviews of both leftists and centrists. The pandemic may be a more important factor

Donald Trump has won, and most shockingly, he won the popular vote. Unlike in 2016, which could be explained as a rejection of Hillary Clinton concentrated in the crucial midwestern states, this year he won convincingly. He has increased his share of the vote, as a percentage of the overall national popular vote, in each of the three elections he has run.

Who voted for Trump and why? Many analysts of all political stripes have ready-made explanations for what happened, explanations that usually conveniently reflect the exact beliefs of the analyst. Unfortunately for them, the most common narratives do not stand up to scrutiny. The election results have blown a hole in the worldview of both the center and the left.

Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC

Continue reading...