15 August, 2023

In the headlines

Donald Trump has been charged with racketeering, forgery and other election-related crimes in the state of Georgia, where he demanded that officials “find” extra votes for him after his 2020 defeat. As these are state rather than federal offences, the former president would not be able to pardon himself if re-elected. The personal information of Northern Irish police officers is in the hands of dissident republicans, the region’s police chief has confirmed, after a huge accidental data release. A redacted version of the document was posted near a Sinn Féin office in west Belfast yesterday. Rupert Murdoch may have found love again, says the Daily Mail. Four months after ending his engagement to an American radio host, the 92-year-old media mogul is in the “early stages” of a romance with Elena Zhukova, 66, a retired scientist and Roman Abramovich’s former mother-in-law.

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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu at an Ecowas crisis summit last month. Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty

Africa will decide its own destiny

There has been plenty of talk about the crisis in Niger turning into a “proxy skirmish” between America and Russia, says Nesrine Malik in The Guardian. Columnists point to the presence of Wagner mercenaries as evidence of “Russian mischief”, with the “diplomatic scrambling” by the US further entrenching the idea that Moscow and Washington will dictate the region’s fate. The reality is “more complicated, and perhaps even oddly hopeful”. First, Wagner is hardly establishing a pro-Russian regime in Niger. Its main concern is “economic piracy”: nabbing gold, diamonds and uranium. It’s an enabler rather than a cause of Africa’s recent uprisings; far more important factors are government weakness, military strength, and a “demographic bulge” of underemployed young people.

What’s more, neighbouring governments clearly want to stop this “contagion” of coups disrupting the continent’s prospects. As it stands, the airspace over Libya, Niger and Sudan is basically closed, making it harder to transport cargo and destabilising the region’s economy. The result has been an “unprecedented” response from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), threatening military action if democracy is not restored in Niger. Last week, President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria warned that the alliance may have to intervene because “no one else will do it for us”. It was a “clear-eyed declaration” that Africans, not Moscow or Washington, will “plot the continent’s path”.

Gone viral

Web designers Logan Engstrom and Garrett Finucane have created Hextris, a highly addictive online puzzle inspired by the arcade game Tetris. You control the rotatable black hexagon in the middle; the aim is to clear the stack by matching three colour blocks, which makes them disappear. Try it for yourself here.

Nice work if you can get it

Under a new deal that was signed to head off potential strike action, full-time UPS drivers in the US will make around $170,000 a year in pay and benefits by 2028. The announcement has sparked a 50% rise in searches for “UPS” on Indeed, the online jobs board, says Bloomberg. But “the path to a coveted driving position is far from a smooth ride” – employees first have to do shift work sorting packages back in the warehouse, a rite of passage that “often takes several years”.

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Letters

Cillian Murphy with Florence Pugh: good actor, but does he know any communists?

To The Sunday Times:

Rod Liddle notes the odd notion that “authenticity” requires that only Jewish actors should play Jewish people. In Robert Oppenheimer’s case, complete authenticity would also require the actor to be a gifted atomic physicist, whose closest friends are card-carrying communists, and whom the USSR codenamed “Chester”. Casting directors may find this a difficult task.

Wade Smith, Sheringham, Norfolk

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Obama in his student days: no Spandau Ballet lyrics for him. Steve Liss/Getty

Who would share their ex’s love letters?

Reading the newly released love letter that Barack Obama sent when he was a student, says Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph, my first thought was: “Dude, you really need to lighten up a bit.” Sure, the former president has always been a “lofty, cerebral” type – but shouldn’t student ramblings be all “froth, clichés and Spandau Ballet lyrics”? Not for 21-year-old Barack, clearly, who wrote to his ex-girlfriend Alex McNear that “I make love to men daily, but in the imagination”. Cue 50 million Google searches for “Is Obama gay?” and countless chat show hosts asking if this is an “admission of homosexuality”. Personally, I’ve been left pondering a completely different question: who would share their ex’s love letters?

It’s an “unthinkable, crass, shameful” thing to do, no matter how famous your former lover becomes. Scratch that – it’s “more despicable” if they become famous, because you’re just adding your betrayal to a whole heap that they will already have suffered. I have a “Miss Havisham-style shoe box” of old letters, mix tapes and cinema stubs I would never show a soul – not my girlfriends, my daughter or my husband. Because however “unimportant or fleeting” these youthful relationships were, they still deserve to be “cordoned off, sacred”. The idea of someone snickering at my ex who would write me poems “after a few too many vodka Red Bulls” is simply unthinkable. We’re all ridiculous when we’re young and in love. Betraying the people we shared it with is just plain “grubby”.

Sport

Chloe Kelly’s match-winning penalty for England against Nigeria last week was not only the fastest shot in the Women’s World Cup so far, says The Guardian – it was struck more powerfully than any male player managed in the Premier League last season. The ball travelled at 69mph, easily trumping the 66.6mph strike by West Ham’s Saïd Benrahma that topped the men’s rankings.

Inside politics

Ivo Dawnay’s recent book review in The Oldie offers a rather unflattering assessment of his brother-in-law Boris Johnson. The husband of Rachel, Boris’s sister, writes that the former prime minister has “charmed, entertained and horrified” him for more than 30 years. “During this time,” he adds, “I can barely remember him ever asking me a single thing about myself.”

Snapshot

Snapshot answer

It’s a “wife-pleaser” – at least, that’s what Gen Z TikTokers are now calling it, says Maddy Mussen in the Evening Standard. For years, the humble white vest was known as the “wife-beater”, associated with “Stella Artois-sloshing, red-faced male abusers”. But that somewhat unsettling nickname has been “largely retired”, and with the garment now coming back into fashion, a new name was needed. Hence: wife-pleaser.