61 m. ago West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen delivers major blow to Arsenal’s title hopes

So it turns out Arsenal should have signed a striker. Fourteen months after they last put a major dent in Arsenal’s title aspirations, a goal from Jarrod Bowen secured West Ham’s second successive Premier League away win over their north London rivals as Mikel Arteta’s side saw their hopes of maintaining the pressure on leaders Liverpool evaporate.To compound Arteta’s misery, substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a straight red card in the second half as Arsenal – who had toiled with Mikel Merino again filling in as a makeshift attacker – struggled to find an equaliser against a defence that would have done Graham Potter’s predecessor, David Moyes, proud. Yet while this was a welcome triumph for Potter, it also laid bare the deficiencies in Arsenal’s squad caused by so many injuries to forward players that has made their task of overhauling Arne Slot’s side almost impossible. A first defeat in 15 games – a run that had stretched back to the start of November – almost leaves them n...

Politics

8 h. ago Culture wars: Trump’s takeover of arts is straight from the dictator playbook

US president’s attempt to control or dismantle cultural institutions plays into a long history of authoritarians using arts to push their agendaIn 1937, leaders of Germany’s Third Reich hosted two simultaneous art exhibitions in Munich. One, titled the Great German Art Exhibition, featured art viewed by the regime as appropriate and aspirational for the ideal Aryan society – orderly and triumphant, with mostly blond people in heroic poses amid pastoral German landscapes. The other showcased what Adolf Hitler and his followers deemed “degenerate art” (“Entartete Kunst”). The works, chaotically displayed and saddled with commentary disparaging “the sick brains of those who wielded the brush or pencil”, were abstract, profane, modernist and produced by the proclaimed enemies of the Reich – Jewish people, communists or those suspected of being either.The Degenerate Art exhibition, which later toured the country, opened a day after Hitler declared “merciless war” on cultural disintegrati...

Politics

24 h. ago Backstroke at the Donmar Warehouse review: the opposite of a good night out

I used to think I’d crawl over hard ground to watch Celia Imrie or Tamsin Grieg. Here, I felt I had

Events

34 h. ago Mohammed bin Salman wants an alternative to Trump’s Gaza plan – but one that most benefits Saudi Arabia | Madawi al

The crown prince sees Hamas as a regional threat, and may propose a deal that risks sidelining PalestiniansSaudi Arabia has suddenly experienced a diplomatic awakening after lukewarm engagement with the conflict in Gaza. Today, leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will gather in Riyadh to discuss Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza. (Keen to be viewed as a global deal maker, Saudi Arabia will also be hosting negotiations over Ukraine this week.)Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was alarmed by Trump’s outrageous “Riviera plan” to reconstruct Gaza following eviction of its people to neighbouring countries. Alongside Arab leaders, he hopes to propose an alternative plan with the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem its capital at its core. The crown prince has insisted that there will be no normalisation of Israel without a Palestinian state.Madawi al-Rasheed is a fellow of the British Academy and a visiting professor at the Midd...

Politics

44 h. ago CPAC’s MAGAfest returns to rub it in the faces of DC’s liberals

Analysis: Conservative culture warriors at CPAC take a victory lap and vow not to let the party stop this time around

Politics

49 h. ago US culture war show comes to London – and strikes a chord with European populists

US culture war show comes to London – and strikes a chord with European populists  The Guardian

Events

54 h. ago JENNI MURRAY: I ignored a letter and it was the worst mistake of my life

It's a long time ago, 20 years in fact, that I made the biggest mistake of my life. I was 54 years old with a demanding job; two sons, one of whom was still a teenager; and ailing, elderly parents.

Politics

58 h. ago Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War by Ash Sarkar – identity fraud

A Marxist critique of left-liberal politics that delivers its message with punch and panacheThe British left used to be a force to reckon with. Edward Heath’s government was famously felled by the miners in 1974 – the only instance in postwar European history when working-class power resulted in the overthrow of a ruling party. These days, however, the concept of the working class has an almost retro feel. Trade union membership has plummeted. Expressions of collective solidarity have likewise vanished. Disaffection has far from disappeared, only now it manifests in the form of petty crime and race riots.In Minority Rule, Ash Sarkar blames the rightwing press for this shift. Thanks to tabloid agents provocateurs and their political creatures in Westminster, she says, the lower orders have abandoned class war for the culture wars. Accordingly, more and more of them spend their weekends not on the barricades but behind computer screens, fuming over small boats and gender ideology...

Events

64 h. ago The rise of chemsex: Once a niche of the gay scene, TRACEY COX reveals why straight women are indulging in drug

Taking part behind closed doors at an alarming rate across London, TRACEY COX explores the alarming rise of chemsex parties across London.

Events

3 d. ago EU accused of leaving ‘devastating’ copyright loophole in AI Act

Architect of copyright law says EU is ‘supporting big tech instead of protecting European creative ideas’An architect of EU copyright law has said legislation is needed to protect writers, musicians and creatives left exposed by an “irresponsible” legal gap in the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act.The intervention came as 15 cultural organisations wrote to the European Commission this week warning that draft rules to implement the AI Act were “taking several steps backwards” on copyright, while one writer spoke of a “devastating” loophole. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Emil Bove takes leading role in implementing Trump takeover of DoJ

Dismissal of case against Eric Adams reflects new directive for prosecutors to toe line on White House’s policiesEmil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, moving with ruthless efficiency last week to dismiss the corruption case against the New York mayor, Eric Adams, appeared to reflect the new praxis at the justice department where Trump’s political agenda will guide prosecutorial decisions.The department filed the motion to dismiss on Friday with the signatures of Bove and two trial attorneys – the public integrity section’s senior litigation counsel Edward Sullivan and the acting head of the criminal division Antoinette Bacon – that cemented the decision. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Trump’s Gaza takeover won’t happen. But it has already changed the face of Israeli politics | Yair Wallach

The US president’s support for forcibly relocating Palestinians has laid the ground for Netanyahu’s ultimate fantasyWhen President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to Hamas last week to release all hostages by noon on 15 February, warning that otherwise “all hell [will] break loose”, the Israeli right was ecstatic. Here was a chance to finally move ahead with the complete occupation and annihilation of the Gaza Strip. The families of Israeli hostages were petrified about the prospect of the ceasefire collapsing, yet members of the ruling coalition called to kill the deal. “We have international support, give the order!” demanded the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.But the order never came. Hamas abided by the agreement and freed three hostages; Israel then released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Trump shrugged and said that it was Israel’s decision. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, who visited Israel on Sunday, signalled that the direction of travel is not towards resuming h...

Politics

4 d. ago This is Farage’s moment of reckoning: he can choose British voters – or Putin and Trump | Gaby Hinsliff

The Reform leader and Kemi Badenoch have struck the wrong alliances at the wrong time. Ukrainian sovereignty is a cause close to rightwing heartsTiming is everything in politics. So when the leader of the opposition realised she was due to be making a speech heaping praise on Donald Trump, just as the president plunged her own country into a national security crisis, you might think even she would have hesitated.But seemingly nothing can keep Kemi Badenoch from a culture war, not even the threat of an actual war. So, at a rightwing conference in London on Monday morning, she duly ripped into corporate diversity policies, climate activism, Keir Starmer taking the knee four and a half years ago, and various other imagined threats to western civilisation that are not forcing Britain to consider deploying troops against them, before concluding triumphantly that when people ask her what difference a change of leader makes, her answer is, “Take a look at President Trump.”Gaby Hinsliff is ...

Politics

4 d. ago Austin and London Roar in Protest Against Trump's Controversial Gaza Takeover Plan

Austin and London Roar in Protest Against Trump's Controversial Gaza Takeover Plan  Hoodline

Politics

5 d. ago Badenoch condemned for culture wars speech as Europe on brink of defence crisis

The Tory leader was accused of ‘competing with Nigel Farage to fawn over Donald Trump’

Events

8 d. ago ‘Another woke disaster from Hollywood!’ How Captain America joined the culture wars

In the latest film from the Marvel franchise, Captain America: Brave New World, a Black hero squares up to a raging red baddie trashing the White House. Cue the conservative outrage Of all the times to recast the most iconically American comic-book character with a Black actor and then pit him against a violently angry supervillain with an unnaturally reddish skin tone, who also happens to be the new US president Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but it is in the trailer for the new Captain America: Brave New World, just released into a tumultuous Trump-run America that’s itching for another culture war.If Marvel was looking for some attention to reignite its beleaguered movie franchise, it seems to have found it – but not necessarily the good kind. If nothing else, the image of a raging red superbeing rising up from behind the presidential podium and then trashing the White House is sure to provoke a reaction. As Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson takes up the star-spangled shield passed on to h...

Events