A majority of Americans think the American dream is out of reach, according to a CNBC poll last month. James Truslow Adams’ 1931 vision of “a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank” has long been the calling card of the United States but, as the country prepares to celebrate its 250th Independence Day, many now think that dream is unattainable.

What did the commentators say?
A nation of immigrants, the US “has, at its best, treated the people flocking to its shores as a source of vitality and a validation of the American dream”, said The Economist. But, for some of its citizens, “the new American dream” is “to no longer live there”, said The Wall Street Journal. “Beneath the stormy optics” of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown “lies a less-noticed reversal: America’s own citizens are leaving in record numbers”.

The problem comes from the media, Gonzalo Schwarz of the Archbridge Institute think tank told The Washington Post: “If people are constantly told that the country is irredeemable, that its obstacles are permanent and that hope is naive, they will eventually believe it.”

There is a resurgence of optimism from a surprising source, though. “Liberal circles” have often dismissed the American dream as “gauche and conservative”, said Hua Hsu in The New Yorker. But when Zohran Mamdani won the race to be New York City’s mayor, former Democratic National Committee vice-chair David Hogg said the result was about making the dream “possible again”.

No one should discount America’s “unabated dynamism” and “capacity for reinvention”, said The Economist. The American dream was built on “the wisdom of the people”, and, whatever the country’s ups and downs, “time and again, that faith has been richly rewarded”.

What next?
Back in the 1930s, James Truslow Adams said the dream was less about “motor cars and high wages” but a fundamentally fair “social order”. Today’s generation may well agree. It “isn’t that perfect thing” that’s “designed by somebody else”, a young business owner from Detroit told USA Today. “The real American dream is to decide what you want to be.”

Taylor Swift’s nuptial celebrations are rumoured to have kicked off last night at a New York venue, with a star-studded guest list of around 100 people – ahead of a much larger celebration today. Her wedding to NFL star Travis Kelce is “shaping up to be the biggest in showbiz history”, said The Sun.

‘Military-grade organisation’
Keeping the wedding plans “almost completely secret” is a “feat” that will have required “military-grade organisation” and probably a “fair amount of legal paperwork”, said The Times. 

The money’s on Madison Square Garden as a venue because it has “discreet entrances, a windowless roof and well-practised security arrangements”, so the public and paparazzi, “including drones”, can be “kept at bay”. But some believe the Madison Square Garden rumour is a red herring to distract attention from the wedding’s real venue. MSG is “too tacky” for the “singer who writes about lakes, countryside, and enchanting fairy tales”, said the New York Post. 

Dogs and drones
The logistics of planning a celebrity wedding “sound a lot like warfare”, said The Wall Street Journal. Former Navy Seals are “stationed at the door”, German shepherd dogs are “sniffing the perimeter”, radio frequency jammers will be “scrambling the Wi-Fi signal” and drones to “shoot down spying drones” will be “locked and loaded”. Just “keeping things under wraps can involve multiple security teams, inner and outer circles of trust” and possibly “fake names and fake venues”. Sometimes, guests “won’t know their final destination until they arrive”. 

The city the wedding is planned for “might be plunged into a tailspin of resentment” by the prospect of being “invaded” by A-list celebrities and their “entourage”, said The Telegraph. Protest posters appeared in Palermo on the eve of Dua Lipa’s recent wedding to Callum Turner. 

And “rogue family members” can be “just as distressing”, said The Wall Street Journal. One specialist who has planned weddings for the likes of Brooklyn Beckham said, at one event, there was serious effort put into preventing an ex-wife from crashing the party.

An Adélie penguin propels itself from the water to the safety of an Antarctic iceberg in Mat Bell’s shortlisted entry for 2026 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year. The winner will be announced on 27 August.

Matt Bell / Australian Geographic 

North Yorkshire: Banks Farm, Thruscross
A traditional stone farmhouse ripe for renovation, in a superb rural setting within the Nidderdale National Landscape. 4 beds, family bath, kitchen, 2 receps, garden, a group of modern farm buildings and some traditional buildings with development potential subject to permissions, amenity grassland, parking. £595,000; Savills.

East Sussex: Braylsham Castle, Broad Oak
Fairy-tale castle built 25 years ago using reclaimed materials for an authentic period feel. 8 beds, 6 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, gardens of over 10 acres, parking. £2.25 million; Knight Frank.

Wiltshire: Coneybury House, West Amesbury
A delightful Art Deco country house set where several spectacular designated National Landscapes converge. 4 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, 2-bed cottage, outbuildings, garden, garage. £1.75 million; Rural View.

Hampshire: Winterbourne Cottage, Stoke
A charming Grade II thatched cottage in the heart of the Bourne Valley within the North Wessex Downs National Landscape. 4 beds, family bath, kitchen, 4 receps, 2-bed self-contained cottage, garden, summer house, workshop, garage. £1 million; Knight Frank.

Don’t be sad about the demise of Halifax – it was a truly terrible bank
James Moore in The Independent
Few will be “sorry to see” Halifax vanishing from our high streets, “replaced by the black horse” of its owner, Lloyds, writes James Moore. The bank’s “runaway train” growth strategy “smashed” it “into the buffers” during the financial crisis, leaving “the taxpayer to pay” £25 billion to get it “back on the rails”. Halifax’s “arrogant” bosses thought themselves “vastly superior to the fusty old competition” with their old-fashioned “risk management functions”. Lloyds “is right to ditch” the name.

Ignore prophets of doom, AI does great work
Rohan Silva in The Times
“The blinding pace of technological change” is making us “anxious” – and Gen Z actively “hostile”, writes entrepreneur Rohan Silva. “Given the strength” of feeling, it’s “only a matter of time before one of the big British political parties adopts a hardline anti-AI stance”. And that’s “alarming”: AI is having an “immensely positive impact” in “drug development, healthcare and scientific research”, and “those manifold gains” shouldn’t be “scuppered”. The industry must “demonstrate the tangible ways AI can improve people’s lives”.

Princess Kate just sent a brutal message to Prince Harry – he’ll be furious
Chris Riches in the Daily Express
Apparently, Prince Harry “is close to tears” about “not having full-time police protection” during his family trip to the UK, writes Chris Riches. Yesterday, the Princess of Wales “delivered a brutal riposte”. She spent the day at Wimbledon, walking past Henman Hill and “popping between courts to see the best of the action”. Where Harry and Meghan “would have been bustled” straight to the Royal Box, Kate sat “among the punters”. I reckon that’s “game, set and match to her”.