2 w. ago Europe is holding the line against Trump’s and Putin’s plans for Ukraine. But it won’t be able to for ever | Martin Kettle

In the 21st-century imbalance of power, Europe and Nato have neither the arms nor the wealth to impel Russia or the US to take its peace settlement seriouslyThe failure of this week’s peace talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff fits into a now well-established pattern of standoffs on Ukraine during Trump’s second term. But the dynamic that produced these talks may be becoming more entrenched. The US and Russian interests driving the process have not changed, while the conflict on the ground is intensifying. The lack of progress this week means there will be another attempt to end the war soon, and perhaps another after that, until, one day, there is some kind of US-backed deal to halt the conflict on terms broadly favouring Russia.The geopolitical algorithm driving this effort is too consistent to ignore. It has been repeated ever since Trump re-entered the White House in January. On the campaign trail, Trump had claimed he could stop the war in a day. ...

Politics

2 w. ago Gnarly Buttons: Maximiliano Martín on performing the music of John Adams with the SCO

With a “rodeo ride” of a second movement, featuring cow noises and jangling banjo, to a deeply emotional finale, there’s never a dull moment in John Adams’s Gnarly Buttons, Maximiliano Martín tells David Kettle

Politics

2 w. ago Millions of hybrid drivers face double tax under Rachel Reeves's plans

Millions of hybrid drivers face being taxed twice under Rachel Reeves's plan to introduce a pay-per-mile electric levy that will also apply to petrol and diesel cars.

Economics

2 w. ago Voting in Keir Starmer was a big mistake... the Budget opens the floodgates for handouts: Benefits Street star White Dee's withering verdict on Rachel Reeves's welfare bonanza

White Dee, 54, as she is better known, famously said her friends and neighbours in the 'welfare ghetto' of Birmingham 's James Turner Street were simply claiming what they were entitled to.

Events

2 w. ago Trans woman who bombarded Rachel Reeves's MP sister with threatening emails calling her 'transphobic' and accusing chancellor of assaulting her is jailed for harassment

Tracey Smith, pictured, a trans woman, sent Chancellor's sister Ellie Reeves - her local MP - a stream of emails and voicemails amounting to harassment.

Events

3 w. ago Rachel Reeves's Budget shows Labour is reversing Tory injustice, Neil Kinnock says

Neil Kinnock, who called for the two-child benefit limit to be scrapped, says the Chancellor's decision to remove the policy is a 'fine way of combatting child poverty and good for the economy'

Politics

3 w. ago Rachel Reeves’s budget has inflamed, not calmed, Britain’s febrile mood | Martin Kettle

The chancellor’s statement will be remembered for the many taxes it raised, rather than the big one – income tax – it did notRachel Reeves’s chancellorship was already balanced on a knife-edge, even before the 2025 budget. After she delivered her second budget statement, it still is. Even more than usual, Wednesday’s speech was full of significant fiscal changes, altered spending commitments and adjusted economic forecasts, most of them accidentally (and, for journalists, conveniently) released a short while in advance by the obviously misnamed Office for Budget Responsibility. Politically, however, almost nothing has changed at all.Reeves arrived in the Treasury last year offering what she, like Keir Starmer, had promised as the Conservative years ebbed: competence, stability and, above all, a focus on economic growth. Her problem, despite her upbeat assessments, is that she has delivered none of them. Nothing about the 2025 budget guarantees any early change in that, however defia...

Politics

3 w. ago £14,000 handouts to 18,000 families: Reeves's Budget will raise taxes to fund benefits windfall for parents of six or more children

Official figures show the Chancellor's Budget plan to scrap the two-child benefit cap will be worth more than £14,000 a year each to 18,000 low-income families with six or more children.

Economics

3 w. ago £14,000 handouts to 18,000 families: Rachel Reeves's Budget will raise taxes to fund benefits windfall

Official figures show the Chancellor's Budget plan to scrap the two-child benefit cap will be worth more than £14,000 a year each to 18,000 low-income families with six or more children.

Economics

3 w. ago From Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules to sitting down in new jeans: Edith Pritchett’s week in Venn diagrams – cartoon

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Politics