18 h. ago The Guardian view on Trump and the law: a restraint on the executive is morphing into its weapon | Editorial

The indictment of critics including John Bolton rings alarm bells as the US president expands his power and seeks to use the justice system to exact revenge“He who saves his country does not violate any law,” Donald Trump posted after beginning his second term – emboldened, perhaps, by the supreme court’s bombshell ruling on presidential immunity last year, which many say gave the office-holder the powers of a monarch.Millions of Americans are expected to push back against the president’s growing power at No Kings protests across the US on Saturday. The demonstrations come as former intelligence and national security officials warn that the country is sliding towards “competitive authoritarianism”, in which elections and courts survive but are systematically manipulated by the executive. Continue reading...

Politics

18 h. ago The Guardian view on Austen and Brontë adaptations: purists may reel, but reinvention keeps classic novels alive | Editorial

The appetite for onscreen versions of much-loved literature is endless, but dogged faithfulness to a text is not the only way to stay true to authors’ spiritIt is a truth universally acknowledged that every classic novel must be in want of a sexed-up adaptation. Ever since Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy waded out of the lake in a wet shirt in the BBC’s 1995 Pride and Prejudice adapted by Andrew Davies, we have expected the undercurrents of novels to be writ large on screen: the novel is dripping in sexual tension – who knew? No one objects when Jane Austen’s couples kiss on TV, although it never happens on the page. But we are reluctant to imagine more troubling historical realities, such as maternal mortality, or where the fortunes behind the big houses came from.As part of the 250th celebrations of Austen’s birth, Davies shocked audiences at the Cliveden literary festival last week with revelations that he is working on versions of Emma and Mansfield Park that will include death...

Politics

41 h. ago The Guardian view on the US and Venezuela: Trump’s ‘war on drugs’ ramps up military threats to Maduro | Editorial

Hawks want regime change. Democrats and others are right to warn against illegal and unauthorised use of forceThe drumbeat is growing louder. Covert operations are supposed to remain just that, but on Wednesday Donald Trump confirmed that he had approved secret CIA actions in Venezuela and suggested that he was considering strikes on its territory. These comments follow the administration’s extrajudicial killings at sea: attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean that have left at least 27 dead – a frightening new precedent denounced by UN experts as illegal. The US has already built up forces in the region, with about 6,500 troops now stationed there. “No to war in the Caribbean No to regime change No to coups d’état orchestrated by the CIA,” railed Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, after Mr Trump’s remarks.The US president’s repeated claim that each boat strike saves 25,000 American lives is even more preposterous than it first sounds. The fentanyl that killed 48,000 peopl...

Events

41 h. ago The Guardian view on UK national security: a case of state failure | Editorial

This week’s partisan blame game is the wrong response to the collapse of the alleged Chinese spying case. The failure of governance runs deeperThe China spying row has revealed disturbing weaknesses in the processes of the UK state. It cannot be in the national interest for a case involving national security to get so close to the courts and then for it to be abandoned in what remain mysterious circumstances. Public confidence, as well as security itself, are inevitably placed at risk. But this genuinely important issue now risks being blanketed by the fog of the party-political battle at Westminster.For the third time this week, MPs spent Thursday trading accusations about whether the Conservatives or Labour are more to blame for the fiasco of last month’s collapsed prosecution. To be fair, the latest exchanges did not descend to the abject “did-didn’t” level that was reached at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday. Politicians from Sir Keir Starmer...

Events

65 h. ago The Guardian view on the China spy trial: an opportunity for Labour to prove it understands the threat from Beijing | Editorial

Dispelling confusion about the collapsed case would build confidence that the government has a coherent policyNo single word describes the challenge that China poses for UK foreign policy. There is threat and opportunity; a requirement to engage and an imperative to be guarded. The Communist party in Beijing represses dissent and pursues its interests overseas with coercive nationalist determination. It is not a regime with which Britain can build a relationship based on common values.But China is also a superpower with near-monopoly control of some mineral resources and pre-eminence in important manufacturing supply chains. Trusting friendship is not an option; hostile rejection is unrealistic. It is not easy to manage relations through private diplomacy, let alone under public scrutiny. But Sir Keir Starmer’s government has looked especially awkward in its response to the collapse of a high-profile espionage case, involving the alleged transmission of secrets from inside parliamen...

Events

66 h. ago The Guardian view on EU accession for Ukraine: Orbán must not be allowed to call the tune | Editorial

In a critical phase, Brussels should find a way to bypass Hungary’s prime minister in the interests of European solidarityHosting European Union leaders in Copenhagen earlier this month, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, described Europe as facing “the most difficult and dangerous situation since the second world war”. There have been other moments of high tension, such as during the 1980s when US cruise missiles were deployed in Germany in response to an escalating arms race with the Soviet Union. From next year, long-range missiles will be back on German soil, amid fears that recent Russian incursions into EU airspace herald a new and ominous phase of the war in Ukraine.As Donald Trump’s US continues to carry the status of an unreliable ally, European unity, cohesion and solidarity are of critical importance. But little of substance emerged from the Copenhagen talks. Disagreement persists, for example, over the advisability of leveraging €140bn of frozen Russian assets...

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on the IMF’s warning: Britain’s economy runs hot for profits, cold for pay | Editorial

Labour is misreading the economics – leaving it unable to deal with the G7’s worst inflation and flat living standardBloomberg’s headline said it all: “UK Faces Worst G-7 Inflation and Flat Living Standards, IMF Says”. The International Monetary Fund warns that inflation will be higher in the UK than in any other major advanced economy – including in the US, where Donald Trump’s tariffs are driving up costs for American consumers. This while GDP growth per head crawls at 0.4%, the weakest of any major economy. Real wages have stagnated for 11 months. Meanwhile, official figures show that unemployment has climbed to 4.8%, the highest since spring 2021. Forget talk of Britain’s “upgraded growth”; the economy, under Labour, is running hot only for those collecting profits.The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) projects that by 2029 average disposable incomes will be £570 lower than today, a fall of 1.3% – the sharpest drop in living standards since records began in 1961. This isn’t a sim...

Events

3 d. ago The Guardian view on the rising risk from flooding: uninsurable buildings should focus minds on climate adaptation | Editorial

The bleak future faced by one small town offers a cautionary tale about the threat from global heatingThe bleak prospect facing the market town of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire, due to rising flood risks, is first and foremost a problem for locals. After seven floods in four years, and with plans for new flood defences around the town abandoned after costs rose to £30m, the town council announced this month that three buildings it owns, including a theatre and historic pump rooms, no longer have insurance. Independent retailers are in a similar situation, and some are packing up as a result. The number of empty properties is growing.Tenbury is at higher risk than most places from floods, due to its low-lying position between the River Teme and Kyre Brook. But the threat it faces is not unique, and will become more common in future. Last year UK insurers paid out a record £585m for weather-related damage to homes and possessions, after unusually s...

Events

3 d. ago Charli XCX says her tracks for Wuthering Heights sound very different to Brat

The Brat singer is providing music for the soundtrack of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of the classic Emily Bronte novel.

Politics

4 d. ago The Guardian view on peace in Gaza: the relief is real, but Trump’s promise of a ‘golden age’ rings hollow | Editorial

Hostage and prisoner releases are bringing joy to families. But there is no guarantee that the ceasefire will end Palestinian sufferingThe reprieve brought by the end of fighting in Gaza is immense. In Israel, the release of the living hostages has led to widespread elation. In Gaza and the West Bank there are also celebrations, as up to 2,000 Palestinian detainees start to be released – though there is distress, too, due to uncertainty about who is being freed and where they will be sent. In northern Gaza, people can finally return to dig through rubble for the remains of an estimated 10,000 missing people.As recently as three weeks ago, the likelihood of a ceasefire appeared remote. But it has taken effect, and on Monday Donald Trump travelled from Jerusalem, where he was cheered in the Knesset, to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. There, he joined a high-powered peace summit of more than 20 world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer. The plan for peace begun there is due to be c...

Politics

4 d. ago The Guardian view on the online scam industry: authorities must not forget that perpetrators are often victims too | Editorial

A lucrative sector is spreading fast as criminal enterprises force abused and trafficked workers to cheat othersA Chinese court last month sentenced 11 people to death over their roles in a illegal scam empire along the border with Myanmar. But it won’t end a noxious multibillion-dollar industry that devastates the lives of two sets of victims. The first are those cheated out of money, often by people posing as potential romantic or business partners in what are known as “pig‑butchering” schemes. The second are those who are forced to cheat them, working in conditions amounting to modern slavery.The recent study, Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime Compounds, by Ivan Franceschini, Ling Li and Mark Bo, paints a terrifying picture of the sector. Workers are trafficked into heavily guarded, prison-like compounds, where they are routinely abused and tortured for failing to meet targets, or extorted for ransoms. Others take the jobs willingly, but find that they cannot repay ru...

Events

5 d. ago La Bohème review – noirish reframing of Puccini’s classic weepy

Glyndebourne, SussexFloris Visser’s stylish bohemia recalls Brassaï’s Paris, while Puccini’s score is delivered with crispness and elasticityDitching the penguin suits and picnic hampers for affordable tickets and a smart-casual elegance, Glyndebourne’s autumn season opened with Floris Visser’s stylish La Bohème. Seamlessly revived by Rachael Hewer, it not only looks good, it does full justice to Puccini’s classic weepy while finding novel ways to raise the odd goosebump.Dieuweke van Reij’s set – a metaphorical highway to heaven – serves for all four acts with more than a nod to Brassaï’s noirish photos of 1930s Paris. Bare walls and glistening cobblestones are breathtakingly lit by Alex Brok, while Jon Morrell’s monochrome costumes ooze couture. Visser’s bohemians inhabit a kind of twilight zone, a world of fogs, gendarmes and prostitutes, where the spectre of Death stalks the streets with the consumptive Mimì firmly in his sights.At Glyndebourne, Sussex, until 2 November. Continue...

Politics

5 d. ago The Guardian view on gen Z protests: these movements share more than an interest in anime | Editorial

A new global wave of unrest is unfolding, driven by generational discontents and taking cues from each otherAfter a quarter-century of existence, the global triumph of Monkey D Luffy – a fresh-faced and rubber-bodied pirate captain – had seemed almost complete. The One Piece manga series, of which he is the freedom-fighting hero, had become the bestselling of all time, with more than 500m copies bought. The anime was a similar hit, with viewers immersing themselves in over a thousand episodes following his struggle against the World Government, a corrupt and tyrannical oligarchy.Yet Luffy has now found a new lease of life as inspiration to protesters in a wave of youthful unrest across continents. His crew’s flag – a skull and crossbones crowned with his jaunty straw hat – has appeared from Morocco to Madagascar in recent days. Indonesians enthusiastically adopted it this summer, in a riposte to the president’s urging to fly the national standard. Officials were so alarmed that...

Events

7 d. ago The Guardian view on an AI bubble: capitalism still hasn’t evolved to protect itself | Editorial

Warnings about inflated tech stocks suggest investors never learn and central bankers learn too lateThe message from global regulators this week was blunt: the AI boom is driving stocks to dotcom-bubble highs – and the world is finally listening. With so much cash riding on so few firms, any loss of faith could send shares tumbling and drag down the wider economy. China’s proposed export controls on rare earths add a fresh threat: not just to sentiment, but to advanced chip supply chains themselves. It’s a long way down from such dizzying heights if gravity reasserts itself.Warnings from the past abound in Charles Kindleberger’s history of financial crises, Manias, Panics and Crashes, which begins with tulip mania in 1636. What commonly happens, he wrote, is “that some event changes the economic outlook. New opportunities for profits are seized, and overdone.” Once the mistake is realised, there’s a panicked exit with a crash in the price of “whatever has been the subject of the man...

Politics

7 d. ago The Guardian view on AC Milan playing a ‘home’ game in Perth: the clue should be in the name | Editorial

Famous European football clubs should not be shunted around the globe in search of sports promoters with deep pocketsFootball clubs are community assets, possessing a value, history and meaning which cannot be captured on a balance sheet. They belong to the cities and towns that have sustained them over the decades. For the vast majority of supporters, the sense of identity and matchgoing rituals associated with following their team are worth as much as the occasional trophy or glorious victory.That culture becomes harder to maintain, however, if your club’s next game is taking place 5,000 miles away. European football’s governing body, Uefa, this week announced that it will allow a Spanish league fixture between Villarreal and Barcelona to take place closer to Cuba than Catalonia, in Miami’s Hard Rock stadium. This will be followed, in February, by the relocation to Australia of an Italian Serie A match between Milan and Como. Global sports promoters, rubbing their hands ...

Politics

8 d. ago The Guardian view on Trump and the ceasefire deal: hope at last, but the real work is just beginning | Editorial

This is the best prospect of ending Israel’s war in Gaza since it began. But a long-term solution remains distantDonald Trump called the pause in hostilities he has brokered the first step to a “strong, durable and everlasting peace”. No one can do more to determine the outcome than the US president. This was, for him, a modest statement, acknowledging that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his plan – it being their decision, not his, to break a multi-point agreement into a multi-stage discussion. Two parties so far apart agreed on one thing: both would rather defer the really difficult issues.In Israel and Gaza, there was joy – however tentative – at the announcement. An end to the annihilation, the release of all hostages and the resumption of large-scale aid have all been desperately needed. There is every reason to fear that this will not lead to a lasting peace, and every reason to strive to ensure that it does. In finally reining in Benjamin Netanyahu, and...

Economics

1 week ago The Guardian view on political chaos in France: the gift that keeps on giving to Marine Le Pen and the far right | Editorial

Influential abroad, Emmanuel Macron’s strategic errors at home are bringing mainstream French politics into disrepute at a crucial momentIn Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1944 play No Exit, hell is portrayed as a locked room in which characters are condemned to fall out and squabble for all eternity. Ever since foolishly calling a snap election which delivered a deadlocked and divided national assembly, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has found himself trapped in a modern political version of the same plot.On Monday morning, the third prime minister Mr Macron has appointed in just over a year became the latest to throw in the towel, after only 27 days in the job. Hours after unveiling his ministerial team, Sébastien Lecornu stood down following a backlash from centre-right allies, who objected to the number of carryovers from François Bayrou’s previous administration. By Monday evening, Mr Macron had persuaded Mr Lecornu to conduct a round of last-ditch negotiations to try to resolv...

Politics

1 week ago ‘Absolutely divine!’ How Jilly Cooper changed the world – one bonkbuster at a time

Her romances were so intelligent, raunchy and outrageously readable that she created her own category, bewitching generations of readersJilly Cooper, who has died unexpectedly at the age of 88, sold 11m copies of her various epic books over her half-century of writing. Beloved of anyone with any sense over a certain age (45), she was introduced to a new generation last year with the Disney+ adaptation of Rivals.Cooper purists would have preferred to watch the Rutshire chronicles in order: starting with Riders, first published in 1985, in which Rupert Campbell-Black, cad, heartbreaker, rider, is first introduced. But that’s a sidebar – what was striking about seeing Rivals as a box set was how well Cooper’s universe had aged. The chronicles distilled the 80s: the shoulder pads and puffball skirts; the obsession with class, aristocrats sneering at the Technicolored nouveau riche, both ignoring everyone else while they snipped about how warm their champagne was; the sexual politics, wi...

Politics

1 week ago The Guardian view on Trump’s Gaza plan: the bloodshed must end, but this proposal betrays Palestinians | Editorial

An end to the annihilation, and the release of Israeli hostages, is urgently needed. But lasting peace cannot be built on the denial of basic rightsTwo years after the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023, in which militants killed about 1,200 Israelis, and amid the genocide in Gaza, in which Israel has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, the need for peace has never been more urgent. Palestinians are desperate for an end to starvation and airstrikes. Israelis want the war to end for the sake of remaining hostages and soldiers. Violence has reverberated across the region. Momentum has been growing around Donald Trump’s proposal, with both Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas grudgingly indicating acceptance under US threat.With indirect talks between Israel and Hamas beginning in Egypt on Monday afternoon, there are frail hopes of progress at last. Yet both parties have made it clear that they reject major parts of the 20-point US plan, which begins with an immediat...

Politics

2 w. ago The Guardian view on Tilly Norwood: she’s not art, she’s data | Editorial

The first 100% AI actor is a cause for alarm. But the human connection of great acting can never be replacedThe threat to human creativity from technology took another step closer this week with the appearance of Tilly Norwood, the first 100% AI-generated actor. Unsurprisingly, her unveiling at the Zurich film festival in a comic sketch called AI Commissioner caused an outcry. Emily Blunt described the film as “terrifying” and the actors’ union Sag-Aftra condemned it as “jeopardising performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry”.There is much that is problematic about Norwood, not least the message her “girl-next-door vibe” sends to young women. But the more serious point is that her face has been made from those of real actors without their knowledge or consent. Her lighthearted debut masks the fact that she is part of a new model of media production that rides roughshod over longstanding norms and laws governing artists and their work. Hollywood has been anticipating Norwood...

Politics