14 h. ago The Guardian view on Donald Trump and India: the tariff war that boosted China | Editorial

The White House wanted India to bow. Instead, Narendra Modi flew to China, shook Xi Jinping’s hand and left Washington sidelined Donald Trump’s imperial tendencies see the US president wield tariffs and sanctions in the expectation that America will receive tributes. Yet his latest move – punishing India with 50% tariffs for Russian oil purchases once encouraged by the US – has produced not submission but spectacle. It has sent India’s Narendra Modi to China for the first time in seven years as Xi Jinping hosted more than 20 leaders for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin. And it is in Tianjin, not Washington, where it looks as if the hinge of history is moving.The SCO is easy to dismiss: the bloc is a bundle of contradictions. India and Pakistan remain adversaries. China and India still stare across a garrisoned Himalayan frontier, though relations have thawed since last October’s border breakthrough. Russia and China vie for influence in Central Asia. Unl...

Politics

15 h. ago Cooper accused by Labour MP of ‘scapegoating’ migrants over asylum plans

Kim Johnson called for ‘more humane policies’, such as safe routes for migrants, as she criticised the Government’s plans.

Events

39 h. ago The Guardian view on the killing of Gaza’s journalists: Israel wants to stop the world from seeing what it’s doing | Editorial

This is the most lethal war for the media in recent times. A generation of journalists is being wiped outDay by day, the death toll rises, the war crimes mount, and the outrage grows. Last Wednesday, the pope demanded that Israel stop its “collective punishment” of Gaza’s population. A day later, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, warned that “the levels of death and destruction are without parallel in recent times”. More than 500 UN staff have pressed the human rights chief, Volker Türk, to call it genocide. Half of registered voters in the US have already concluded that that is what Israel is doing in Gaza.The agony is deepening. On Friday, the Israeli military declared famine-hit Gaza City to be a combat zone, intensifying its assault and ending “tactical pauses” that allowed limited – if utterly inadequate – food delivery. Many inhabitants are physically incapable of fleeing again, and fear that they would be no s...

Events

39 h. ago The Guardian view on GCSE resits: admitting the problem is just the first step | Editorial

The low pass rate in compulsory retakes is one of many challenges in 16-19 educationFor years, rigid rules and a shocking failure rate in compulsory GCSE retakes have been one of the exam system’s dirty secrets. At last this dire situation is getting some of the attention it deserves. This year, nearly a quarter of all maths and English language entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were for students aged 17 or older on a repeat attempt – with just one in six of those retaking maths managing to pass.By calling this a crisis, Jill Duffy, who heads the OCR exam board, has thrown a spotlight on the problem. But admitting that there is an issue with resits, as officials are now doing, is only the first step. There are differing views about what ought to happen next. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on Trump and the Fed: independence is no substitute for accountability | Editorial

The US president’s move against Lisa Cook shows his despotic bent, but the Fed was never democracy’s guardian. It’s time to rethink who really controls moneyDonald Trump’s attempt to sack the Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, is the familiar authoritarian trick of bending institutions to serve the leader’s immediate ends. The widespread condemnation is deserved. This is not some daring experiment in popular control of monetary policy. Yet what should follow censure is reflection. For the furore over Ms Cook has revealed a peculiar reflex: to defend the Fed’s independence as though it were synonymous with democracy itself.But is independence of the Fed, or central banks generally, really that? Eric Levitz at Vox thinks so, or at least that it is close enough. He argues that Congress sets the Fed’s objectives; independence applies only to the means. Without independence, politicians would be free to game rates for votes – as Richard Nixon did in 1972, leaning on the ...

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on Christopher Marlowe: it’s time to read him and honour him | Editorial

England’s second most famous playwright is the star of a new play. But his own works should be staged more, and he should be commemorated betterFor a limited season this autumn, Christopher Marlowe will become a star of the London stage again. Enjoy it while you can, for Marlowe has become an ephemeral figure in Britain’s national culture. His plays, once staples, are now produced only intermittently, if at all. Today, Marlowe is probably better known for his dramatic death, stabbed in a London riverside tavern, than for anything he wrote or for being the literary pioneer that he was.From next week, however, the sexy and brilliant figure of Kit Marlowe will be the centrepiece character, played by Ncuti Gatwa, in Liz Duffy Adams’s two-hander, Born With Teeth, which is currently in previews in the West End, with its offical opening next week. The play teases with the possibility, first reported in this newspaper in 2016, that Marlowe and William Shakespeare, played by Edward...

Politics

4 d. ago Voices: Mon dieu, France – this is no time for un political meltdown!

Next month’s surprise confidence vote could bring down an already crisis-hit minority government, test the country’s governability and end with a drastic power shift – it might also be bad news for Keir Starmer and his coalition of the willing, says Mary Dejevsky

Politics

4 d. ago The Guardian view on Russia’s strike on Kyiv: Putin is testing Trump’s will and Europe’s resolve | Editorial

The Kremlin sent a clear message with its lethal overnight raid on the Ukrainian capital. Will the US heed it?Wednesday night brought a grim return to Russia’s form: one of the heaviest air raids on Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began. Moscow eased off its strikes on major cities in the run-up to the Alaska summit, and it held off its attack on the Ukrainian capital until Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy, had finished his visit there. But within hours of his departure, at least 18 people, including several children, were dead in an attack on a residential block, and the European Union mission had been severely damaged.Donald Trump periodically suggests that he is drawing a line for Vladimir Putin. Yet each time he appears to set a limit, the Russian president breezes through it. The Kyiv attack shows that it is Mr Putin who is testing the US president. Mr Trump threatened “severe consequences” if Moscow did not immediately agree to a ceasefire – but in Anchora...

Politics

4 d. ago UK, France and Germany to revive sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme

The three European powers plan to impose sweeping sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation after efforts to restart diplomatic talks stalled.

Events

5 d. ago The Guardian view on UK attitudes to Europe: Labour is following where it could be leading | Editorial

There are signs of ministerial courage in making the case for closer ties to our neighbours, but the government could go further and fasterBritain’s relationship with the European Union was not a prominent issue in national debate when Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister, and Downing Street has striven to keep it that way. Labour strategists have seen Europe as a fissile topic, and Sir Keir’s opposition to Brexit in the 2016 referendum as a liability with swing voters. The prime minister has moved Britain closer to Europe, but in timid increments. The summit that formally “reset” relations early this year was long on statements of ambition, but short on substance. The government’s private recognition that economic logics impel Britain back into a European orbit has been in constant tension with fear of making that case in public.The balance now appears to be shifting. In a speech on Wednesday, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for EU relations, made the...

Politics

5 d. ago The Guardian view on France’s latest political crisis: François Bayrou’s gamble on austerity does not deserve to pay off | Editorial

The likely fall of another prime minister is a further blow to Emmanuel Macron’s becalmed presidency. A change in priorities is neededFollowing a startling victory for Marine Le Pen in European elections last June, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, foolishly called a snap legislative poll. The idea was to give voters a salutary wake-up call, daring them to repeat their embrace of Ms Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party in a domestic election. The unanticipated result was a suddenly deadlocked parliament, in which the influence of the National Rally and the left significantly increased, and a lame-duck status for Mr Macron’s second term.That failed gamble has now led to another, which appears equally doomed. This week, Mr Macron’s fourth prime minister in two years put the future of his minority government on the line, in an attempt to pass a deeply unpopular budget this autumn. François Bayrou, intending to deliver his own wake-up call to MPs, has unexpectedly called a confi...

Politics

5 d. ago Macron backs Bayrou and calls on budget critics to show responsibility

Spokesperson says government in ‘fighting spirit’ after PM called confidence vote he is expected to loseEmmanuel Macron has given his “full support” to France’s beleaguered prime minister, François Bayrou, who is expected to lose a confidence vote next month, which would be likely to cause the government to collapse.Macron chaired a cabinet meeting on Wednesday as France faces a fresh political crisis. The government spokesperson Sophie Primas said after the meeting that Macron fully supported Bayrou and the government was in a “fighting spirit”. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago France on the brink: how a budget deficit became a political crisis

With the government facing defeat in a confidence vote, the nation’s economic problems will still need to tackledFrance is stuck in economic limbo, without a budget and soon, possibly, without a government. The prime minister, François Bayrou, has called for parliament to hold a confidence vote on 8 September and, now that parties of the left and far right have pledged to bring down the government, on paper he doesn’t have the numbers to win.On Tuesday, the Socialist party (PS) added its voice to the dissenters, allying it with the Greens and the far-right National Rally. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago France faces new political crisis as PM expected to lose confidence vote

François Bayrou says he will ‘fight like a dog’ to stay in power but he appears almost certain to be toppledFrance is braced for another political crisis as the minority government of François Bayrou appears almost certain to be toppled in a confidence vote next month, amid deep political divisions over an unpopular austerity budget and debt-reduction plan.“I will fight like a dog,” the centrist prime minister told L’Express on Tuesday after his surprise decision to call a vote of confidence from parliamentarians. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago The Guardian view on Nigel Farage’s mass deportation plan: Trumpism in a union jack | Editorial

Reform UK’s leader isn’t offering border control. He’s dismantling democratic constraints and replacing them with fear and authoritarian fictionNigel Farage wants you to believe Britain could deport 288,000 people annually. That’s nearly 800 a day – 30 times the current rate of asylum-related returns. This is a fantasy concealing his real aim: to destroy public trust in democratic institutions, crush legal constraints and turn fear into power. Mr Farage isn’t trying to fix the asylum system. In fact, he wants to dismantle the political framework necessary to achieve that goal: the treaties, parliamentary conventions and centuries of legal protections. In their place, a Reform government would operate by executive fiat cloaked in nationalist rhetoric.“Operation Restoring Justice” is a louder, more extreme version of Rishi Sunak’s failed 2023 strategy to detain everyone, deport everyone and process no one. This led to a backlog of unheard asylum claims, spiralling hotel costs and publ...

Politics

6 d. ago Yusuf says mass deportation feasible as Reform to unveil small boats plan

Reform’s proposals were dismissed as ‘unworkable gimmicks’ by a Government minister on Tuesday.

Politics

7 d. ago Nigel Farage sets out his 'mass deportations' plan as ministers 'ready to send 100 small

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage will set out his plan to tackle the small boats crisis on Monday

Politics

7 d. ago Ministers prepare to deport migrants as Reform unveils small boats plan

Reform UK, which has sought to gain from public dissatisfaction about migration, will reveal its plans to tackle the small boats crisis.

Politics

7 d. ago The Guardian view on protests in Serbia: a battle for democracy that the EU must not ignore | Editorial

An authoritarian crackdown on mass demonstrations in an EU candidate country requires a stronger response from BrusselsDuring a summer in which European leaders have focused on shuttle diplomacy with Donald Trump over trade and Ukraine, they have maintained a discreet silence regarding another crisis in Europe’s east. For more than nine months, mass student-led protests in Serbia have been challenging the authoritarian rule of Aleksandar Vučić, who has been in office as prime minister and president for 11 years. Up to now, Brussels has largely opted to look away.The catalyst for some of the largest demonstrations in Serbia’s history was the collapse of a newly renovated railway station roof in the country’s second city, Novi Sad, leading to the deaths of 16 people. The disaster was widely attributed to entrenched fraud and corruption presided over by Mr Vučić’s ruling Serbian Progressive party, and swiftly became the spark for a movement for democratic reform. The students are deman...

Events

7 d. ago The Guardian view on the carnivore diet: red meat for influencers, but bad news for health | Editorial

A fad for consuming high-protein, high-fat food, while avoiding vegetables, has taken off online. Followers are doing themselves no favoursOnce, it seemed that much of the world was intent on drastically cutting back on meat for health and environmental reasons. Vegetarian and vegan options appeared on restaurant menus and the very idea of a bloody red steak became almost unthinkable in liberal circles. And yet the carnivore diet is now all over Instagram and TikTok, prompting health bodies to start issuing warnings.Followers of this diet eat meat, fat, seafood, eggs and butter, avoiding all vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes as if plants were, as Paul Saladino, an advocate of this diet alleged, “poison”. Dr Saladino is a US psychiatrist and health influencer with a range of supplements called Heart and Soil that contain dried animal organ meat. He appears shirtless on social media, denouncing vegetables, which he says will harm us. Other Instagrammers tuck into plates of huge s...

Events