News and Opinion

Tim Walker reviews South Pacific at Chichester Festival Theatre and Be More Chill at Shaftesbury Theatre

In his younger days, Billy Wilder was a journalist in Europe. A new book of his writings doesn’t give much of a glimpse of the continent, but does provide insights into his later career

Covid travel restrictions have dealt a serious blow to the import of holiday tunes from the continent

A new exhibition shows how Bristol’s love of what used to be called graffiti art fuelled a global movement

Rob Hughes asks how long Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will stay at the top before they finally retire from football Some day, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will cease being the most extraordinarily gifted among more than 250 million men and women playing football around the world. Their body clocks are ticking. They face […]

Levelling up has become a government cliche. But that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the concept. SUNA ERDEM talks to enthusiast Lord Kerslake about the reality and necessity Does levelling up harm the south? Amid the soul-searching following the Tories’ shock by-election loss of leafy Chesham and Amersham, this issue was raised so much that […]

Bonnie Greer explains why the data held by the NHS makes it so attractive to US big pharma – and why Boris Johnson could use it for leverage in a trade deal Before I saw the video of Daniel Hannan, now Baron Hannan of Kingsclere and an advisor to the Board of Trade, disparaging the […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how one place name came to have two very different word associations Bethlehem is associated with the nativity of Christ, peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Bedlam is associated with the complete opposite: mad confusion and noisy uproar. It is something of a surprise to discover that they were originally the same word. […]

New Netflix series Workin’ Moms gets close to exploring some fascinating issues, but sticks to safer, more tedious territory My best friend is, in her public life, a remarkably accomplished person who worked in an underserved charity sector for years and went on to use that knowledge to create new academic courses on the subject. She’s got […]

A 13-year-old skateboarder, a German policewoman, an Afghani woman cyclist attacked for daring to ride her bicycle... some of the most absorbing European stories at this Olympic Games.

Mitch Benn looks at anti-maskers, the Boris Johnson U-turn on isolating and more in his review of the week in politics Hello, and let me wish you all a belated Happy Freedom Day!  Yes, the day after which we are all now free to take one look at all our fellow citizens and decide immediately […]

Hand-wringing about the plight of migrants crossing the Channel and Mediterranean by boat - and angry words about their treatment - will only go so far. What would liberal progressives actually like to see done?

The fight against ‘woke’ carries with it echoes of their doomed battle to hold back gay rights. 

Those who are grabbing their new-found freedom don’t deserve our criticism.  People rush to judgement very quickly. All it takes is for a crowd to congregate on a beach, or for young people to go clubbing, and a great puritanical curtain-twitching mania is unleashed on them. This week, Twitter is ablaze with sneering commentary about […]

The film festival defies the pandemic with plenty of touching, flesh and sex

Tim Walker reports on the latest revamp at Chequers

The home secretary was once a maverick outsider. She hasn’t changed, but the country has.

The week’s weirdest news from around Europe… Rome police dressed up as priests to bust a ring of con men disguised as cardinals. Five suspects aged between 58 and 75 have been arrested for a total of 20 offences committed since 1988, involving a total of around 1.7 million euros (£1.45m). Police said the fraudsters […]

As disquiet grows, Boris Johnson may not hold the whip hand for much longer.

‘Thank you’ might seem an easy phrase to learn in a foreign language. But that is not always the case says PETER TRUDGILL Sometimes, when people are going to visit a country they have never been to before, they say they plan to learn a little of the language which is spoken there, but “just […]

Anton Chekhov transformed theatre. But many critics and audiences of his era were not so enamoured by the change, writes CHARLIE CONNELLY

Great European Lives with Charlie Connelly is now available as a podcast, brought to you by Charlie Connelly and The New European.

Turkey’s president Erdoğan has criticised a European court’s ruling that has allowed employers to ban workers from wearing religious veils in the workplace.  The EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), made the ruling on Thursday. Employers will need to justify that the veil does not “project an image of neutrality to customers […]

The costs of Brexit continue to mount – and they dwarf what Boris Johnson has set aside for “levelling up” in the regions It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, as the Brexit waste goes on and on without ever making sense – a bit like Boris Johnson’s speech […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on what we can expect from Boris Johnson's much-discussed and long-delayed book on William Shakespeare

The sovereignty promised in the EU referendum only benefits the Tory party

Nina Hamnett's artistic career shone brilliantly and briefly, until overshadowed by her lifestyle. A new show restores the focus on her work

How can pop respond to politics? With this year’s album BRUT, Polish alt-pop star Brodka has provided an object lesson, writes SOPHIA DEBOICK