'Donald Trump is right to describe 2024 election as a final battle'
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day

Trump’s Final Battle Has Begun
Frank Bruni in The New York Times
Donald Trump has repeatedly called the 2024 presidential race the "final battle", said Frank Bruni in The New York Times. And he "just may be right", at least in terms of how "profoundly meaningful the 2024 election could be" if he is the Republican presidential nominee. And if he wins the election, "the America that he moulds to his self-interested liking may bear little resemblance to the country we've known and loved until now".
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Sunak is ready to take lessons from Romney
Katy Balls in The Times
Rishi Sunak met the failed 2012 US presidential candidate Mitt Romney last year and "there are hints that Sunak is learning lessons from him", said Katy Balls in The Times. Sunak's priorities "appear to have a closer resemblance to Romney’s 2012 blueprint" such as a big tax cut over several years, a cut to spending, energy self-sufficiency and better schools. But the question for Tory MPs is "whether this adds up to a plan to stop [Keir] Starmer or a route to respectable defeat".
How progressive ideology hijacked the festive season
Gareth Roberts in The Spectator
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"Fireworks at New Year are the purest distillation of the spirit of frippery," said Gareth Roberts in The Spectator. So Sadiq Khan "appending a civic lecture to a firework display" was like "adding tripe to a trifle". And ITV "decided to ring in the New Year with a toe-curlingly sanctimonious montage of ludicrously wealthy actors, including Glenn Close and Idris Elba, lecturing its viewers about climate change", said Roberts. "For heavens' sake, bureaucrats and boondogglers – take a day off!"
Can technology’s 'zoomers' outrun the 'doomers’'?
John Thornhill in the Financial Times
The Oxford physicist David Deutsch's "principle of optimism" says that all knowledge that does not contradict the rules of physics can eventually be obtained through the application of science and reason, says John Thornhill in the Financial Times. AI is opening up new avenues for discovery, and many "zoomers" in Silicon Valley believe we should be "racing ahead with technological development at full speed", while "doomers" caution over the "collateral harms of new technology". But "the principle of optimism is a comforting theory, albeit a largely unprovable one, to carry into the new year".
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August 17 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include voting rights of felons, misdirection on the way to the Alaska summit, and more
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5 crime-ridden cartoons about National Guard deployment in DC
Cartoons Artists take on the crime of littering, the real criminals in DC, and more
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Trump and Modi: the end of a beautiful friendship?
In the Spotlight Harsh US tariffs designed to wrest concessions from Delhi have been condemned as 'a new form of imperialism'
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Will Ukraine trade territory for peace?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Kyiv’s defences are wearing thin but a land swap is constitutionally impossible and crosses Zelenskyy's red lines
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Russia tries Ukraine land grab before Trump summit
Speed Read The incursion may be part of Putin's efforts to boost his bargaining position
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Europe counters Putin ahead of Trump summit
Speed Read President Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this week for Ukraine peace talks
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Is Trump's new peacemaking model working in DR Congo?
Talking Point Truce brokered by the US president in June is holding, but foundations of a long-term peace have let to be laid
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Who wins from a Trump-Putin meeting?
Today's Big Question Trump might get the leaders together for a photo op but brokering a peace deal won’t be easy
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How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctions
The Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
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US and EU reach trade deal
Speed Read Trump's meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen resulted in a tariff agreement that will avert a transatlantic trade war
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Trump threatens Russia with 'severe tariffs'
speed read The president also agreed to sell NATO advanced arms for Ukraine