11 October, 2023

In the headlines

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops are massing near the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive. The death toll from Saturday’s terrorist atrocities has jumped to 1,200; retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza have left more than 1,000 dead. Joe Biden yesterday called the attacks by Hamas an “act of sheer evil”, saying they brought to mind “the worst rampages of Isis”. British spymasters want the next James Bond to be black or female, according to a 30-year Foreign Office veteran. John Taylor, who worked for the UK government in Moscow, claims intelligence bosses think the change would encourage more diverse candidates to apply for MI5 and MI6. A fierce mother bear has been crowned the winner of this year’s Fat Bear Week in Alaska. Organisers said Grazer (below), only the third-ever female champion, won over fans with her “gutsy” willingness to challenge bigger rivals.

National Park Service

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Pro-Palestine protesters in London. Leila Dougan/Gallo/Getty

The insidious antisemitism of the soft left

The “largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust” hasn’t been met with universal condemnation, says Bret Stephens in The New York Times. On Sunday, more than 1,000 pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered in Midtown Manhattan for a rally where the atrocity was gleefully celebrated. The atmosphere was “euphoric”, as if “someone’s team had won the World Cup”. Similar scenes unfolded in London, where 5,000 people turned up at the Israeli embassy to jeer and set off fireworks. At a demonstration outside Sydney Opera House, chants of “free Palestine” soon gave way to the true emotion underlying all this: “Fuck the Jews.”

If nothing else, these bloodthirsty antisemites deserve “points for honesty”. But a far broader swathe of the left must face up to the role it has played in creating the “moral and intellectual climate” for what has unfolded. I’m talking about the bien-pensants for whom anti-Zionism – not just legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies, but the “denial of Israel’s right to exist” – is viewed as a “respectable political position”. Consider the nearly three dozen Harvard student groups that have declared Israel “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence”. Or those who casually traffic in the lie that Israel deliberately turned Gaza into an “open air prison”, never mentioning that the Palestinian territory shares a 25-mile border with Egypt. This is why the nation of the Jews is routinely treated, as some have said, like “the Jew of nations”. If some on the left look on in horror at what happened last weekend, “now is a good time for them to take a long, hard look at themselves”.

🇮🇱 The death toll from the terrorist attack is now 1,200 – around 0.013% of Israel’s population. The equivalent in Britain would be around 8,800 people killed; in the US, 43,450. For context, 52 died in the 2005 London bombings, and 2,977 on 9/11.

Photography

A celestial picture of a tri-spine horseshoe crab in the Philippines has earned Frenchman Laurent Ballesta the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year for the second time. Other winning snaps include a hippo with her offspring in a South African lake; an icy ibex in the French Alps; a pod of orcas preparing to “wave wash” a seal; a pair of nesting barn owls in an abandoned concrete building in Israel; and a shy-looking tapir in Brazil. See the full list of winners here.

Shopping

A closed-down Ikea store in Tottenham has been transformed into one of the world’s largest nightclubs, says The Guardian. The new 15,000-capacity venue, Drumsheds, is hoping to host “the biggest names in dance music”. The cafe selling £4 plates of meatballs has been replaced by a bar with £13 glasses of “tropical rumbull”; the main shop floor has become an “eerie, low-roofed hall” the size of a football pitch. The biggest attraction is the old warehouse, which stretches for 100 metres in each direction, with “hefty ranks of speakers and lighting rigs” dangling overhead. “Not a Viktigt or Örfjäll in sight.”

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Drink

One of the best events at Oktoberfest is steinholding, says Inside Hook. The rules are simple: contestants have to hold up a stein full of Bavarian beer, which weighs around five pounds, for as long as they can. The world record is, obviously, held by a German, who reportedly lasted 45 minutes. The best part? Once you’re done, you get to enjoy a litre of beer.

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Starmer and his wife Victoria before his conference speech. Christopher Furlong/Getty

The most underrated politician of his generation

Keir Starmer has to be one of the most underrated politicians of his generation, says Janan Ganesh in the FT. The Labour leader is on course to become only the third person in 44 years – after Tony Blair and David Cameron – to take over as prime minister by winning a general election. And even that “understates the achievement”. Blair and Cameron inherited parties that were already in good shape; when Starmer replaced Jeremy Corbyn in 2020, Labour was “on a plausible course to extinction”, 22 points behind the Tories. He remained a “joke figure” well into 2021.

His critics claim he has been lucky. “Come on.” The first 18 months of his leadership were lost to a pandemic that made the opposition party irrelevant. And while he was certainly helped by Liz Truss immolating the Tories’ reputation for economic management, he had already built up a double-digit poll lead by then. The other big criticism is that he lacks a clear vision for Britain. But that’s a charge levelled at all incoming premiers – even Tony Blair back in 1997. (“Come this way for a vague new world,” said one representative headline). Besides, this country’s finances aren’t up to the sort of grand plans people want him to set out. Disappointment in him is “a sublimation of disappointment with Britain”. Whether Starmer should be prime minister is a different question. The fact that he’s in contention at all is “up there with Brexit, Donald Trump and the rise of Emmanuel Macron as the democratic feat of the past decade”.

Noted

Zeitgeist

Many working adults see LinkedIn as a necessary evil, says Anya Kamenetz in The Cut: “you feel like you have to be there, but you’d really rather be anywhere else”. But a lot of younger users love it – Gen Z is one of the fastest-growing demographics on the platform. They like the fact that it’s a “zero-irony zone”, where they don’t have to put up with the “angry rants” and “dark humour” they get elsewhere. “It’s a place for connection,” says Zachary Clifton, a high-school senior. “It’s such a celebratory, positive, uplifting environment.”

Snapshot

Snapshot answer

It’s a concept design for the world’s first zero-emission superyacht. The Domus trimaran would be powered inside by hydrogen fuel cells, solar panels and the spare energy created while sailing. This would, in theory, give the 40-metre pleasure boat unlimited range, with the added advantage of no generator noise or exhaust fumes. Designers are planning a single-storey villa-like living space with a spa, a gym, a pool, beach platforms, a cinema and lounge areas.

Quoted

“Ah, scrambled eggs and bacon – the only two things in the world that never let you down.”