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25 August, 2023

Donald Trump has handed himself in to police in Georgia on 13 charges of plotting to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. His arrest means the first ever mugshot of a former US president (below). The week that eight Republican politicians hoped would “kickstart their presidential ambitions”, says David Charter in The Times, “will instead be remembered for one stunning, historic image of the man they can’t catch”. Energy bills will fall by 7% from 1 October after Ofgem reduced the price cap. The average annual payment will be lowered to £1,923 a year, due to a steady fall in wholesale gas and electricity prices. An original sketch by Winnie-the-Pooh illustrator EH Shepard has been found wrapped in an old tea towel in a bookseller’s cellar. The drawing of Pooh and Piglet walking into the sunset, made in 1958, is expected to fetch around £30,000 when it’s auctioned off next month.

Ukrainian troops firing towards Donbas. On a hiding to nothing? Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency/Getty

Prighozin’s death doesn’t change the war

The presumed assassination of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin’s “enigmatic comments” about him highlights the “rivalry, bitterness and strife” at Russia’s summit, says Max Hastings in Bloomberg. But it would be rash to see it as heralding some radical change. With or without the mercenary warlord, “Putin’s calamitous war seems bound to go on”. And Ukraine’s much-vaunted summer offensive is struggling. Western hawks who promised governments that donating billions of dollars of advanced weapons guaranteed a “decisive victory” were wrong. The Russians have dug deep defences, including minefields, that the Ukrainians simply cannot hope to break through. For all the “courage and ingenuity” of its commanders, Kyiv has “no realistic prospect” of winning back Crimea or the Eastern Donbas.

What’s more, whatever Kremlin-watchers claim, there’s little to suggest Putin’s fall is imminent. The “brief revolt” by Prigozhin was swiftly dealt with, despite “crazily optimistic” Western claims about the Russian people’s hatred for Putin. The Wagner boss’s death “emphasises the likely fate of any challenger”. And in the highly unlikely event Putin is deposed, he will almost certainly be replaced by someone “equally unpleasant and likewise committed to the war”. We must go on arming President Zelensky’s troops, but not out of any “fantasy” that they can win, but to give him the best possible standing in any future peace negotiations, and to disabuse tyrants everywhere of the idea that “aggression pays”.

French photographer Laurent Ballesta takes underwater pictures that capture the ocean’s “remarkable aquatic personalities”, says Colossal. Striking snaps include a hefty crab weighed down by barnacles; a colony of shrimp looking as though they want to say hello; a shiver of sharks swarming round a meal; and an iridescent squid floating through the water. See more here.

To The Economist 

Your article on smuggling banned products into Iran reminded me of the problems encountered by foreign embassies in Saudi Arabia when the importation of alcohol was prohibited. Import papers had to be crafted so as not to raise alarms. As a result the British embassy was informed by Saudi customs that “your consignment of pianos is leaking”.

Roger Hartley, Sydney

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When US food boffins investigated the health benefits of different superfoods, says Country & Town House, the most “nutrient dense” of all turned out to be the humble watercress. Its many benefits include preventing tissue damage related to the development of some cancers, reducing inflammation in general and supporting eye health. It’s rich in vitamins K (good for bones) and A (good for everything) and contains so much vitamin C that just 100g of the leafy green would be enough to cover our entire daily requirement. 

Vivek Ramaswamy: the only other candidate with a real shot at the nomination? Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty

The real heir to Donald Trump

A few months ago, most Americans had never heard of Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old Republican presidential hopeful, says Olivia Reingold on Substack. But after Wednesday night’s debate, the crowd were “screaming his name at full volume”. The political newcomer dominated the Milwaukee meeting, and despite plenty of jabs from his opponents – Chris Christie said he “sounds like ChatGPT” – Ramaswamy appeared to be “having a spectacular time”. And why shouldn’t he? The biotech entrepreneur was polling around 1% a few months ago; he’s now almost at 10% and seems sure to surpass former favourite Ron DeSantis in the coming weeks.

His strategy, put simply, is to brand himself as a younger Trump. He pushes similar wacky policies: Ramaswamy claims “more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change”, and wants to dismantle the Education Department and the FBI. He promises Republican voters an “America First 2.0” agenda, but in the package of a Harvard Man with a private jet who regularly quotes the Founding Fathers and the Bible. Like the former president, “he easily goes viral”: a video he posted on Monday “grunting and leaping” while playing tennis shirtless has racked up more than seven million views. And “he also has his own hat”, but instead of MAGA, it’s labelled “TRUTH”. The only chance anyone has of beating Trump is to present themselves as his natural heir. For precisely this reason, Vivek is quickly becoming the only candidate to “actually have a shot” at securing the nomination.

🏆🧡 The real winner of the Republican debate, says The Economist, was the absent Donald Trump. He pre-taped an interview with Tucker Carlson that was posted to X (formerly Twitter) just as the debate began. In the “genial-back-forth”, Trump acted as though he’d already won the nomination, largely ignoring his rivals and attacking Joe Biden instead. And just in case another candidate did have a “breakout moment”, the former president had arranged to turn himself in at a Georgia courthouse the following day, which “guaranteed he would command the forthcoming news cycle, regardless of the outcome in Milwaukee”.

As marriage rates steadily decline, diamond firms are having to adopt new tactics to sell their wares, says The Atlantic. Recent ads from Hallmark, Jared and Brilliant Earth feature female friends, sisters, and mothers and daughters buying bling for each other. According to one industry analyst, “bridal” diamond sales have declined from half to a third of the overall market over the last few decades, while “self-purchase” has risen from 10% to over 30%.

China’s military academies have enjoyed their best recruitment period since 2017, says the South China Morning Post, signing up 17,000 high school graduates this year. It might have something to do with dreary job prospects of civilian life: youth unemployment in the country is at an all-time high, with more than 20% of 16-to-24-year-olds in urban areas out of work in June.

It’s an eerie and “possibly cursed” portrait of a little girl, says The Daily Telegraph, which buyers keep returning because of its “creepy aura”. The painting was dropped off at a charity shop in Hastings, and has since been bought and returned twice, with both customers reportedly being left “shaky and distressed” by its presence. It’s now up for grabs again, with a note attached reading: “She’s back!!!... Are you brave enough???”

“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well.”

Margaret Thatcher

That’s it. You’re done.

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