'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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The ‘menopause gold rush’Under the Radar Women vulnerable to misinformation and marketing of ‘unregulated’ products
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Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decisionFeature A Supreme Court ruling against the Voting Rights Act could allow Republicans to redraw districts and solidify control of the House
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No Kings rally: What did it achieve?Feature The latest ‘No Kings’ march has become the largest protest in U.S. history
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Ukraine: Donald Trump pivots againIn the Spotlight US president apparently warned Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Vladimir Putin’s terms or face destruction during fractious face-to-face
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The UK-made Storm Shadow missiles Ukraine is using in RussiaThe Explainer Ukraine reportedly deployed the long-range British missiles this week, following a tense meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump
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Proposed Trump-Putin talks in Budapest on holdSpeed Read Trump apparently has no concrete plans to meet with Putin for Ukraine peace talks
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What is Donald Trump planning in Latin America?Today’s Big Question US ramps up feud with Colombia over drug trade, while deploying military in the Caribbean to attack ships and increase tensions with Venezuela
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Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s Iron Lady set to be the country’s first woman prime ministerIn the Spotlight Takaichi is a member of Japan’s conservative, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party
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Can Gaza momentum help end the war in Ukraine?Today's Big Question Zelenskyy’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles hints at ‘warming relations’ between Ukraine and US
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Remaking the military: Pete Hegseth’s war on diversity and ‘fat generals’Talking Point The US Secretary of War addressed military members on ‘warrior ethos’
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How does the Nobel Peace Prize work?The Explainer Activist María Corina Machado wins prestigious prize, despite public campaign by Donald Trump