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Highlights

It is better for Rishi Sunak to lose an election than to win ugly

Anthony Seldon – biographer of six prime ministers – explains which lessons the current occupant of 10 Downing Street could stand to learn from history, and why the return of the ‘nasty party’ would be a mistake

<p>I rate Rishi Sunak highly as a thoroughly professional, hard-working and serious-minded politician</p>

<p>‘Wifedom’ is a tour-de-force that resurrects an invisible woman, and relitigates the saintly image of the man she called ‘Eric’ </p>

Why we can never look at George Orwell the same way again

<p>Stephen Graham in ‘Boiling Point’, a younger Marco Pierre White and The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White </p>

How The Bear is spicing up the dating game for chefs

How Rishi Sunak’s ‘small boats week’ ended in disaster

Voices

<p>There are a number of benefits to using a more conventional wine glass for champagne, instead of the traditional flute</p>

Taking care of fizz-ness! How to serve champagne at a top restaurant

<p>Trust me, Will, you don’t know how good it feels to wear a kilt until you’ve given it a go</p>

Why won’t Prince William wear a kilt? It’s quite simple, really

<p>What is Rishi Sunak if not the Toilet Tsar? Our rivers and seas are awash with sewage, and millions upon millions of people can feel their hopes and dreams being flushed away</p>

A Lavatory Tsar? Another gimmick that would be utterly self-defeating

The Longer Read

<p>On 20 July there were more planes in the sky than ever before on a single day – 262,000 of them</p>

The sky’s the limit: Can green flying ever take off?

The head of one of the world’s biggest airlines has described carbon offset schemes as a ‘fraud’, writes Nick Ferris. So what should the industry be doing to tackle pollution, while causing minimal turbulence?

<p>Children with extreme right-wing ideologies are ‘getting substantially younger’ police have warned after 19 children were arrested in connection with terrorism offences in 2021</p>

Why you might never have to remember your password again

<p>Scotland’s capital has always had a difficult relationship with the tourists who flock to it</p>

How a war on Airbnb is threatening tourism firms

Politics Explained

<p>Labour leader Keir Starmer with deputy leader Angela Rayner</p>

Another Keir Starmer retreat from a policy that made him Labour leader

<p>High train fares are an area that may influence ‘soft Tories’ to vote for the Liberal Democrats</p>

Which way will undecided voters swing?

<p>Humza Yousaf’s personal ratings have improved in recent weeks</p>

Does the latest polling mean the SNP faces being wiped out?

<p>Supply and demand is driving higher wages </p>

Wages are rising rapidly – what does this mean?

Most Commented

Lionesses fans blast Prince William for missing Women’s World Cup final

127 comments

Trump abruptly cancels press conference on Georgia ‘proof’

159 comments

Putin meets military commanders as Kyiv ‘shoots down 15 drones’ - live

116 comments

Labour rows back workers’ rights pledge in latest U-turn

93 comments

Editorials

<p>The truly frightening thing about Mr Malkinson’s case is that he was lucky </p>

The Independent View

Andrew Malkinson’s jailing was an appalling miscarriage of justice

The Independent View

This year’s A-level results pose questions that are tricky to answer

The Independent View

The government can’t take credit for the fall in inflation

Culture

<p>Ego, privacy, and gimmick: why do musicians choose masks? </p>

Inside the world of anonymous bands, from Sleep Token to Daft Punk

<p>Lindy Dufferin on her beloved Clandeboye estate in 2019 </p>

Portrait of a lady: remarkable story of the ‘last marchioness’

<p>Jo Ann Beard’s ‘Cheri’ recounts the last days, minutes and seconds of a woman who elects to undergo assisted suicide </p>

Essayist Jo Ann Beard may no longer be literature’s best kept secret

Travel

<p>Jack Whitehall (right) and father Michael have their own travel show, ‘Travels with my Father’ </p>

Pale, male and stale: we should send travel TV presenters into exile

<p>Antarctica has seen a huge uptick in visitors</p>

Sustainable travel

How climate crisis-induced phenomena became the latest travel trend

John Rentoul

The Independent’s chief political commentator

<p>Fundamentally, though, I misjudged the mood of the Tory grassroots, which wanted to be told fairytales </p>

We’re heading for a Liz Truss victory – here’s what I got wrong

<p>It is unfair to blame Sunak for the failings of May, Truss and Johnson, but that is how the party system works</p>

Is this Britain’s worst government ever? Not compared to this lot...

<p>There is a lot more going on between Starmer and Rayner than is visible to the naked eye</p>

‘Arranged marrieds’ Rayner and Starmer could face a very messy divorce

Andrew Grice

Political columnist who keeps his ear to the ground inside Westminster

<p>The loyalty of some SNP supporters will be hard to break</p>

Is Labour really Scotland’s best hope to ‘get the Tories out’?

<p>The PM’s nice guy image has been tarnished as he takes aim at Labour on social issues </p>

No more Mr Nice Guy: does Sunak have what it takes to fight dirty?

<p>The record increase in earnings will put pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates further next month</p>

Inflation down, Tory hopes up – but no ‘feel-good factor’ for Rishi

Chris Blackhurst

<p>The Bank must get tougher </p>

Cork the champagne: our inflation problem is worse than we thought

<p>Bruce Robinson wrote the screenplay for ‘The Killing Fields’ starring Haing S Ngor and Sam Waterson</p>

Business Analysis & Features

Film director’s despair at epic saga of ‘duplicitous’ energy bills

<p>Zoom has become such a fixture in our lives, it is unlikely we will see a return to the office for the whole five-day working week </p>

Computer says no: Is the Zoom boom really over?

News analysis

<p>Adelie penguins are among the species threatened by the dramatic Antarctic change </p>

‘Shocking’ loss of sea ice in Antarctica and what it means for us all

<p>Declines must be seen in context, says Simon Gammon of Knight Frank </p>

House prices are falling, but don’t give up on bricks and mortar

<p>An LTN in Oxford </p>

Why Rishi Sunak won’t be banning LTNs anytime soon

<p>Carles Puigdemont speaks at the European parliament in Brussels earlier this month</p>

Spain’s most famous fugitive may hold key to country’s next government

Sport

<p>Anthony Joshua en route to knocking out Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley in 2017</p>

What it’s really like to get punched by Anthony Joshua

Soccer for sale: What are Americans buying British teams playing at?

Mary Dejevsky

Expert on foreign affairs, Russian politics and diplomatic relations between the Kremlin and the west

<p>What, if anything, could stop his name appearing on the 5 November ballot paper? </p>

Trump may be down, but he isn’t out – yet

<p>A boy stands on top of a destroyed Russian tank exhibited outside St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv</p>

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has faltered – but who is to blame?

<p>Trump supporters believe that, one way or another, their hero’s victory was ‘stolen’ by a malevolent Washington </p>

Lock him up? Why Trump could still beat Biden from behind bars

America

<p>Joe Biden speaks in Belfast on 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement</p>

Biden says Brexit deal can bring ‘significant’ US investment to NI

<p>Such leaks remind countries like Russia – as well as US allies – of the sheer scale and reach of Washington’s operations</p>

The diplomatic damage done by the Pentagon leak won’t last long

<p>Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley wrote a tweet attacking ‘weak and woke’ ideology the day she declared her candidacy</p>

Republicans are running on ‘wokeism’ – but don’t know what it is