News and Opinion

The small South American nation has produced two exceptional bandleaders from two different eras, who helped transform music in the UK Georgetown is 3,500 miles across the Atlantic from Britain, but it has exercised a huge influence on the music of the imperial mother country. This little city of low-rise colonial architecture, with the unspoilt jungle […]

Brexiteers promised mobile phone roaming charges would not return if we left the EU. It was just another lie It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, where mobile phone users are discovering what Matt Hancock has already learned: Roaming can be costly. If UK tourists are ever allowed into […]

The New European has been praised for having some of the best front covers on the newsstands. And now, after five years, we’re looking to declare the best cover of all time.  We’ve painstakingly whittled down the selection to just ten out of 250 editions, with the readers now being given their opportunity to vote […]

Czech president Miloš Zeman has found himself in hot water after calling transgender people ‘disgusting’ during a recent television interview.  Zeman was being questioned on the recent legislation in Hungary that bans the public portrayal of homosexuality and gender reassignment. Senior figures within the European Union have harshly criticised the policy. Unless it scales back […]

More than 100,000 people have waited for more than three months for their applications to the EU Settlement Scheme to be processed, according to official figures obtained by a think tank. Some 102,000 EU citizens and family members, including 23,900 children, had applications outstanding for more than three months as of May 7, IPPR said. […]

Muhammad Ali took part in some of history’s most memorable fights. One of his least remembered took place 45 years ago this week. It was certainly the most bizarre of his long career, and also one of the most consequential There are many ways to remember Muhammad Ali: cocky, young rapping poet; outspoken political and cultural icon; arguably […]

Mads Mikkelsen's drinking comedy Another Round is set for a Hollywood remake after winning the Oscar for Best International Film

After losing a vote of no-confidence, prime minister Lofven had two options; call a snap election or resign. He has chosen the latter, handing in his resignation. He has left it up to Andreas Norlen, parliamentary speaker, to appoint his successor. Norlen will have to consult every party before naming his choice, meaning that the […]

TIM WALKER on Amélie the Musical at the Criterion Theatre in London. An admirable effort, but for what purpose? I counted 16 cast members on the stage in Amélie the Musical and I was stunned. It’s the sort of thing that, before the pandemic, I would have taken for granted. Now, I find myself fixating on the arithmetic: West […]

GAVIN ESLER on the frustrations of political debate in an era where reason counts for little Recently an American reader sent an email to my website angrily denouncing a newspaper feature I had written. It was about gun control, or rather the lack of it. I’ll call him ‘John’ and he wrote: “I have lived in Texas for […]

A new exhibition at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum examines the tools of the cruel slavery trade It looks like a dog collar, albeit a rather fine one, in richly decorated brass and engraved with acanthus leaves. Dated 1689, it is embossed with the names of its owners, Maurits, Count of Nassau La Lecq and his wife. When […]

The much-discussed culture war is being manufactured by the right, in order to obscure the real wounds in society The Remainers have been routed, the immigrants outed. Jeremy Corbyn has gone and Keir Starmer never really arrived. Everything should be wonderful in Great Borisland. But it isn’t, so who is to blame? The kraken wokes: […]

Five years on from Brexit, the issue is far from being “done”, despite promises from Boris Johnson.

The Chesham and Amersham by-election results show what can be achieved from tactical voting

With over 84% of Japan still waiting for their first jab, why are the Olympic Games being held there? Is the sporting world, and compliant politicians, playing fast and loose with the pandemic? The European football tournament across 11 countries, the Copa América in Brazil, the fast-approaching Tokyo Olympics, might all be seen as brave defiance […]

In the 1970s, Italian film-makers forgot spaghetti westerns and made Poliziotteschi – violent detective thrillers that echoed the likes of Dirty Harry.., and their own crisis at home Here is a hypothesis for you: if you’re looking for art that explains the mood of times past, you should look not at the acclaimed, serious-minded and […]

New columnist PETER BARRON is a former Newsnight editor turned tech executive, who has been renovating a barn near Fuentes de León in remote southern Extremadura. From there, he will be writing a regular diary on Spanish life, cuisine and culture A couple of years ago, we turned up for Corpus Christi wearing shorts. It was a […]

Françoise Hardy helped create French youth culture. Now, as she nears death, she is starting a new national debate about ageing and euthanasia Françoise Hardy’s son would like it to be known that his mother – a pillar and adornment of French pop music for almost 60 years – is still alive. A few days ago, Hardy, […]

Eighty years ago this week Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, launching the most decisive clash of the Second World War. JONATHAN DIMBLEBY, author of a new book on the campaign, explains what was at stake and the consequences we live with today Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in the early hours of June 22, 1941, was the […]

John Blankenstein was back-page news when he took charge of England’s first match at the 1992 Euros – but it wasn’t his refereeing the newspapers were interested in… When England faced Denmark in their opening match of the 1992 Euros, many tabloid-reading fans knew as much about the referee as they did about the Danes. […]

Megan Nolan on Believe Me, a show which seems to stray the wrong side of the fine line trod by true crime series In Tampa, Florida, in 1984, 17-year-old Lisa McVey (now Lisa Noland), suffered an unimaginably extreme trauma after being kidnapped by the serial killer Bobby Joe Long. Over the course of her 26 hour […]

Writers have long been drawn to islands. Few have managed to express – and satisfy – that yearning like Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins  “If I could wish something good for someone, I would wish for them an island with no address.” When Tove Jansson wrote those words sitting in her Helsinki apartment in 1962, the tiny cottage on […]

The hunt for renegade soldier Jürgen Conings may have ended, but the country’s quest for answers goes on On Sunday a small-town Belgian mayor, out on a bike ride near the Dutch border, and a local hunter, did what hundreds of soldiers and police had been unable to achieve for more than a month. They found Jürgen Conings, the […]

On a trip to Batley ahead of its forthcoming by-election, ROBYN VINTER finds little enthusiasm for the Tories, as they eye up another piece of the Red Wall, but not much more for Labour either, as it faces a familiar foe

PETER TRUDGILL takes on the linguistic purists once again for their attachment to words’ ‘true’ meanings There are some pedantic people around who reckon that it is wrong to use the word aggravate to mean ‘irritate, vex’ or ‘annoy’ – as in “please stop doing that, it’s very aggravating!” This is probably the most common usage of the word […]

EU leaders have failed to agree on the proposal of holding a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the near future.  It is not yet clear whether this proposed summit would include all 27 leaders or only Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s chief executive, and Charles Michel, its chairman.  Leaders’ decision to reject […]

Has Marine Le Pen changed her politics, or is it that France has shifted to the right? Respectable France is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, again. In less than a year the country could have a far-right government. The fear is not new. The Le Pen family –Jean Marie and then more his user-friendly […]

The Lib Dems' by-election victory was morale-boosting for opponents of the government, but the most significant action is needed elsewhere