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16 August, 2023

The UK annual inflation rate dropped sharply to 6.8% last month, down from 7.9% in June. However, the Bank of England is still expected to increase interest rates to a high of 6%, due to greater-than-expected wage growth putting upward pressure on prices. Three alleged Russian spies who have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police are said to have posed as journalists to scope out targets in London and Europe. All Bulgarian nationals, the suspected spooks have been charged with possessing fake passports and other forged documents. A new species of snake has been named after Harrison Ford. Discovered in Peru, Tachymenoides harrisonfordi (pictured), measures a modest 16 inches and is not harmful to humans. “He spends most of the day sunning himself by a pool of dirty water,” says the actor. “We probably would’ve been friends in the early ‘60s.”

Conservation International

Fani Willis: an “ambitious indictment”.  David Walter Banks/Getty

Why this Trump indictment is different

On Monday night, says former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy in the New York Post, a district attorney in Georgia unveiled an “ambitious indictment” of Donald Trump and 18 of his campaign operatives for trying to overturn the 2020 election result. This is “the most perilous threat” to the former president yet. In the other election interference case he is facing, the Justice Department has had to invoke federal statutes about fraud and civil rights that don’t “clearly and narrowly” target his alleged misdeeds. As a result, special counsel Jack Smith will have to “stretch the law” to secure a conviction. Georgia’s Fani Willis, by contrast, should have much “smoother sailing”.

Under the US constitution, it is not the federal government but individual states that have primary responsibility for policing elections. Each state has special laws specifically targeting voting irregularities and attempts to subvert the certification process. So, unlike Smith, Willis can invoke Georgia legislation that explicitly deals with the type of actions Trump was involved in. This indictment is also likely to be the “most enduring”. If Trump wins re-election next year, he can immediately order the Justice Department to drop the federal charges. But presidents have “no authority to pardon state crimes”. It remains to be seen whether a Georgia jury will convict the Republican favourite. But if they do, the sentence “would stick” – even if Trump wins the presidency.

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Slovakian artist Tomáš Libertíny works with bees to produce “collaborative sculptures” of human skulls. He creates a skull-shaped framework and places it in the beehive, whereupon the insects cover it with wax to create the final piece. Libertíny tells My Modern Met the process is a reversal of death, because the structure is “covered in flesh with the help of nature”.

America’s southern states are unbearably hot right now, says The Atlantic. Toddlers are suffering second-degree burns from stepping on concrete; gardeners are being scalded by water from hosepipes. Yet still people are flocking to live there. Twelve of the 15 fastest-growing US cities are in the Sun Belt; of the 50 zip codes with the largest post-pandemic influxes, 86% are in “blazing-hot” Texas, Florida and Arizona. The appeal of places like Phoenix and Austin is simple: “less expensive housing, lots of jobs and warm winters”. It appears to be no deterrent that they are also “approaching the approximate ambient temperature of Venus”.

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Hailey Bieber is back with another viral beauty trend, says Hannah Coates in Vogue: “strawberry girl” make-up. It’s all about flushed, freckled cheeks that look as though you’ve been basking in sunshine all day – perfect for the warmer months. The key is applying your products to the places the sun would hit if you’d been “outdoors for real”: the apples of your cheeks for faux freckles; the bridge of your nose for tint. Then it’s just a case of “channelling your inner prairie girl, et voilà”: strawberry girl summer.

Zelensky: grappling with corruption. Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty

The threat to Ukraine’s survival from within

Those who stand firmly behind Ukraine are starting to worry about “the fatigue of the West”, says Slavoj Žižek in The New Statesman. “But a more serious case concerns Ukraine itself.” It’s not just the “burdens of war” wearing people down – fighting through relentless aerial bombardments with “no end in sight” – but “serious ideological and political mistakes” made by Volodymyr Zelensky and his government. For a start, there are endless privileges for the oligarchs, most of whom have fled the country and organised for their children to be exempted from military service. Then there’s the corruption: Zelensky recently announced he was dismissing the heads of all the regional military recruitment offices, after a state investigation turned up widespread graft.

There’s also a growing split between poorer liberals – many of whom have volunteered and are now on the front line – and the “conservative nationalism” of the rich. The former view government initiatives like banning works by Russian composers as trivial and “futile”. The plight of the popular documentary maker Sergei Loznitsa, who was effectively banned from returning to Ukraine for his refusal to boycott Russian films, is indicative of the warped priorities of “conservative cultural bureaucrats”. Another long-running issue is sexism – women volunteering for military service frequently complain that they are stigmatised and treated badly by male colleagues. Ukraine is fighting on two fronts: against Russian aggression, and over “what sort of country it will be after the war”.

An illustration of a Parthian horse-archer, possibly unleashing a parting shot

The expression “parting shot” comes from the Parthians, who ruled Persia for around 500 years until 224AD, says The Times. Whereas their long-term enemies the Romans liked to fight face to face, the Parthians used horse-archers to “dart about, delivering a fatal shot while galloping away”. This was known as the Parthian shot, which, over time, became the “parting shot”.

The Guardian has compiled a list of the best one-liners from this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. They include: “Getting mythology wrong is my Hercules ankle” (Olaf Falafel); “What does Kylie sing while counting sheep? I can’t get ewe out of my head” (Alison Spittle); and “Last year, I had a great joke about inflation. But it’s hardly worth it now” (Amos Gill). See the rest of the top 10 here.

It’s supposedly a photo of a large panther-like cat living wild in the UK. Discovered in the files of a zoology organisation, the picture was accompanied by an unsigned note saying it had been taken in Smallthorne, Staffordshire. The letter was dated 17 March, but, rather unhelpfully, didn’t provide a year. Carl Marshall, who discovered the snap, tells the Panthera Britannia Declassified documentary that if it’s genuine, it’s “probably the best photo of a British big cat that exists”.

“Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”

Oscar Wilde

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