Now that her plane has left Taiwan and she is on her way, and now that we, the wider world, are waiting for and watching China’s response, perhaps we can ask – what did Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan achieve? What did it get Taiwan, which, unlike the US House Speaker, is left to live with China’s reaction? Is Taiwan safer than it was before the visit? Is its democracy more secure? Is it less threatened by Beijing than it was before she touched down? What we did most certainly get were stories about Pelosi’s long commitment to Taiwan, her long history of standing up to China. We got history-focused essays, the images of Pelosi standing in 1991 with a banner ...

This is as bad a day for the British economy as I can remember. The Bank of England, through its actions and loose talk by governor Andrew Bailey, is driving the UK into a deep recession. Their forecasts suggest something truly horrible to come before the end of the year.  It doesn’t help that the UK has no permanent prime minister and that we don’t know who will be chancellor and be tasked with stopping the recession turning into a depression. The markets will not like the lack of preparedness and the pound, increasingly likened to an emerging-market currency, is especially vulnerable.  This is the first time I have ever seen the Bank of England use the word “recession” in its forecasts. ...

“We all sort of knew”: an increasingly common phrase to hear when someone famous is accused of sexual assault. On 26 April the BBC and The Guardian jointly publicised accusations that the veteran DJ Tim Westwood had, over three decades, engaged in “opportunistic and predatory sexual behaviour” against women in their late teens and early twenties. In a documentary shown on BBC Three, six women testified that Westwood, now 64, used his status and power within the music industry to engage in deeply disturbing sexual behaviour including groping, unwanted touching and rape. All the women are black, and indeed anyone on black Twitter is most likely incredibly unsurprised by these accusations, which have been circulating for some time. The first ...

On Tuesday 2 August, Kansas voters rejected a referendum that would have removed the right to an abortion from the state constitution. This referendum was the first major test of support for stripping away abortion rights since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade in June. It failed. The referendum was held during a primary in a state with more registered Republicans than Democrats. Voters who are not registered with either party cannot vote in the primary elections, though they could vote on the ballot referendum, which meant independents would have to remember to turn out for an election when they’d have normally stayed at home. The former president Donald Trump won the state handily in 2020. The referendum still failed. Those ...

Liz Truss has been channelling her inner Margaret Thatcher. This isn’t new – from the furry Russian hat worn to Moscow to the photoshoots on tanks. But since the race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader kicked off, her attempted imitation has gone into overdrive. Consider the vocal coaching the Foreign Secretary has clearly had to lower her voice and her refrain that all Britain’s problems can be solved with a smaller state to see the strategy in action. However, it increasingly seems there’s another Conservative prime minister influencing the way Truss is running her campaign: Boris Johnson. I don’t just mean the way that Truss, once an ardent Remain campaigner, has reinvented herself as the Brexiteer’s Brexiteer – just as ...

“Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios” is the cheery headline of the latest piece of climate research to hit my inbox. This scientific warning comes as the world battles heatwaves, drought, fire and floods. If we don’t all pull together we will commit “collective suicide”, says António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations. Suggesting to friends during the summer holidays, however, that it would be a good idea to forget flying or curb their carnivorous cravings to save humanity is a lonely path. The journalist and activist George Monbiot believes the media bears even more responsibility for the climate crisis than the fossil fuel industry. “The media grants a social licence to the fossil fuel industries to continue to operate,” he ...

Big Brother is back. Last night, during the Love Island final, ITV announced that the reality TV show that launched a thousand reality TV shows would be returning in 2023. Given the enormous popularity of Love Island, it makes sense that the network wants to try to usher in a new golden age of reality television. It makes sense for ITV, that is. Otherwise, the timing feels very queasy. Following the numerous suicides of reality TV contestants over the past decade, the morality of locking people up in fabricated environments for weeks and inviting the public to watch has become a frequent topic of public debate. Documentaries have been made about the aftermath for contestants. (Ovie Soko, a former Love Island ...

It’s not hard to understand why Liz Truss went in studs-up on Nicola Sturgeon last night. It’s become clear that in this Tory leadership contest there’s little to be gained from a considered and measured approach. It’s more like a headbangers’ ball where you’re expected to play the hits. The hall full of Tory members in Exeter lapped up the frontrunner’s dismissal of Scotland’s first minister as an “attention seeker”. “I think the best thing to do with Nicola Sturgeon is ignore her,” she added. I hold no brief for Sturgeon, and I am as critical of the many failings of her government as anyone. Having a dig at her is not the same thing as having a dig at Scotland. She’s ...