The hollowness of the RN revolution became clear this week, when Marine Le Pen announced she would be standing again to become France’s head of state, despite a criminal conviction for embezzlement being upheld. In 2013, she had asked: ‘When will we implement a lifetime ban on holding office for anyone convicted of offences committed thanks to their mandate or while in office?’
Jude Bellingham scoring for England against Mexico at the Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, 5 July 2026 (Li Muzi / Xinhua / Alamy)
The football games we obsess over are the ones that tell a story and this World Cup has been full of stories. I made it till after midnight waiting for England v. Mexico at 1 a.m. but when it was announced that kick-off would be delayed an hour because of the weather I decided to call it a day and watch in the morning.
The dodgy financing, the undeclared cash and the association with a flagrant crook could permanently tarnish Farage’s vaunted anti-establishment credentials. We all reach for the familiar when we’re desperate, and for Farage that means engineering a ‘people v. the establishment’ by-election.
A week into his second presidential term, Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14186: The Iron Dome for America, calling for ‘a next-generation missile defence shield’. By the time the US National Security Strategy was published last November, the name had changed, irresistibly, to ‘a Golden Dome for the American homeland’.
We chase away the dark. Since the industrial revolution humanity has been progressively shortening and lighting up the night. Cheap LED lights now turn suburban gardens into fairgrounds and industrial units into film sets. Our main roads are visible from space. But the darkness that we have abolished was nature’s essential counterbalance, which ecosystems needed to thrive. Many species are suffering, and few more than the glow worm.
The Met Police chief, Mark Rowley, recently announced that his force would be releasing more bodycam footage as standard. It used to be published very rarely and only following the conclusion of criminal proceedings. The move is aimed at increasing transparency and highlighting the realities of frontline policing. It could also be seen as an example of another legacy institution making the shift to short-form video content.
Emma Hayes has described the difference between men’s and women’s football as cortisol v. dopamine. Under her management between 2012 and 2024, Chelsea won the Women’s Super League seven times, the FA Cup five times and the League Cup twice. In 2024 Hayes was recruited by the US national team and they won gold at the Olympics. I was delighted when I heard that she’d be part of the ITV line-up for their coverage of the men’s World Cup this year. But – as a lot of people have been asking on social media – why did the set designers feel the need to put her in a kitchen?