6 h. ago France has survived revolutions and wars: its crisis now is deep, but not terminal | David A Bell

From the raid on the Louvre to the spectacle of Sarkozy in jail, it is tempting to think France is on a downward spiral. But history tells the tale of its resilienceIn the classic dinner-party scene in the film Notting Hill, Tim McInnerney’s character promises a brownie to “the saddest act here”. In response, the guests (including the glamorous movie star played by Julia Roberts) try to outdo each other with tales of their painful suffering and pathetic failures.In our gloomy autumn of 2025, western democracies could play quite a convincing version of this game. There is the depressed United Kingdom, where Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have fallen to record lows and Reform leads in the polls. There is the deeply broken United States, where a supine opposition seems incapable of preventing Donald Trump from chopping away one guardrail after another of our constitutional order. There is Spain, where this summer a Socialist party scandal threatened to topple the fragile minority gove...

Events

27 h. ago ‘Still work to be done’: Iceland marks 50 years since Women’s Day Off protests

President says country is not free from feminist backlash being seen around worldIceland is the only country to have closed the gender gap by more than 90%, according to the World Economic Forum, and, for the first time in its history, every national leadership position – including president, prime minister, bishop and police chief – is now held by a woman.But as people go on strike on Friday to mark the 50th anniversary of “kvennafrí” (“Women’s Day Off”) strike, the protest that kickstarted a global equality revolution, the Icelandic president warned that her country was not immune to gender-related “red flags” and a global “backlash” against feminism. Continue reading...

Events

30 h. ago Icelandic women urged to strike on Friday to mark 50th anniversary of seminal protest

President, who will join ‘Women’s Day Off’, says Iceland is not free from feminist backlash being seen around worldIceland is the only country to have closed the gender gap by more than 90%, according to the World Economic Forum, and, for the first time in its history, every national leadership position – including president, prime minister, bishop and police chief – is now held by a woman.But as people go on strike on Friday to mark the 50th anniversary of “kvennafrí” (“Women’s Day Off”) strike, the protest that kickstarted a global equality revolution, the Icelandic president warned that her country was not immune to gender-related “red flags” and a global “backlash” against feminism. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago The Revolutionists by Jason Burke review – from hijackings to holy war

A colourful study of the evolution of extremism in the tumultuous 1970sNo one knew what to call them. For some they were “skyjackers”, for others “air bandits”. Neither name stuck, but by 1970, these figures were fixtures of the western political landscape. It helped that hijacking planes was easy. Bag checks, metal detectors and frisking at airports were proposed, only to be dismissed as overkill.The result was a lethal carnival of transnational terrorism that peaked in the 70s, when commandeering a plane was as much a rite of passage as backpacking to Kathmandu for some countercultural types. Spanning four continents and drawing on sources in a dozen languages, Jason Burke’s survey of this set combines a flair for period detail – sideburns and aviator shades, berets and Beretta pistols – with impressive digests of Arab and Iranian history. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago The UK is nearing a wellbeing crisis point and people are in deep pain, says GP Dr Amos Ogunkoya

‘There are lots of walking well whom, if I asked, ‘are you in pain?’ the answer is yes.’ says Dr Amos Ogunkoya in this episode of Well Enough

Events

last month Ageing revolutionary Guardiola is waging war on his own tactical orthodoxies | Jonathan Liew

What is the City manager’s new faith? Punting for territory and bypassing the midfield combat zone often entirelyForgive me father, for I have sinned. This is my first confession.Thirty-three per cent possession against Arsenal. Five shots. Gianluigi Donnarumma getting more touches than Phil Foden. And at this point, we have to acknowledge that Pep Guardiola is one of the principal reasons this kind of possession pornography exists in the first place: a serendipitous consequence of reinventing the game at exactly the moment we could start measuring the ways in which he was reinventing it, and exactly the moment we could beam it around the world in meme-sized fragments. Continue reading...

Events