23 November, 2023

In the headlines

Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement received mixed reviews in the papers this morning. The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail hailed what the Telegraph called “the biggest tax cuts in 35 years”, but the FT and the I newspaper emphasised that Britain’s tax burden is still on course to rise to a postwar high of 38% of GDP, as inflation pushes workers into higher tax brackets. The hard-right populist leader Geert Wilders has won a shock victory in the Dutch general election. His Freedom party is set to take 37 seats in the 150-seat parliament, the most of any party, after a campaign dominated by migration. A 1,400-year-old temple built by an ancient English king may have been discovered in Suffolk. Archaeologists have found the remains of a building close to Sutton Hoo, thought to be the burial site of King Redwald, who was said to have constructed a temple honouring both Christ and pagan gods.

Comment

Demonstrators led by the families of hostages entering Jerusalem on Saturday. Alexi J Rosenfeld/Getty

A “glimmer of hope” in Gaza

Finally, we look set to have a “long-awaited truce” in the Israel-Hamas war, says Andreas Kluth in Bloomberg. If all goes to plan, there will be at least a few days of ceasefire as Israel releases Palestinian prisoners, Hamas lets go some of the women and children it took as hostages, and humanitarian aid is brought into Gaza. The credit for this “glimmer of hope” must be given to America – Benjamin Netanyahu “would never have considered such a pause” without pressure from Joe Biden and his secretary of state, Antony Blinken. Until now, the Israeli PM seemed bent on making his country’s main geopolitical ally “almost irrelevant” to the conflict, listening instead to the cries for vengeance from his ultra-nationalist coalition partners. But Israel is “the world’s largest recipient of US aid”; many of the bombs it has been dropping over Gaza “came out of American forges”. Biden has “finally bared teeth” and asserted US influence.

Israel and Hamas have their own reasons to agree to a pause in fighting, says Limor Simhony Philpott in The Spectator. Hamas has been struggling to withstand the onslaught – it had counted on Hezbollah attacking Israel from Lebanon and drawing military resources away from Gaza, but the Iran-backed militia has consciously avoided being drawn into the war. Hamas’s leaders hope that several days of ceasefire “will allow them to regroup and fight back”. On the Israeli side, families of hostages have led large demonstrations pressuring the government to change tack from merely “destroying Hamas” to diplomacy, as it has become clear “that releasing the hostages by military means – and alive – is a near-impossible task”. It’s a move with considerable public support. “There will probably not be a dry eye left in Israel when these children are returned.”

Eating in

It’s Thanksgiving today, which means there’s a good chance someone in America will burn their house down trying to deep-fry a turkey, says the BBC. The greasy cooking method is popular because it takes just 45 minutes for a whole bird, leaving the meat juicy and succulent. But it also involves a naked flame and a large vat of burning-hot oil – if the turkey isn’t thawed properly, or the flame isn’t extinguished when the bird is dunked, it can result in a spectacular conflagration. In its annual warning (above), the US Consumer Product Safety Commission urged Americans to “cook your turkey, not your home”. Watch the full video here.

On the way in

Net migration to the UK rose to a record high of 745,000 in 2022, according to revised figures released this morning, while the provisional numbers for the 12 months to this June hit 672,000. High as these figures are, says economist Jonathan Portes on X (formerly Twitter), the “big picture remains the same”. Migration spiked after the pandemic, driven by increases in non-EU arrivals for work and study, refugees from Hong Kong and Ukraine, and asylum seekers. But many of those people are now leaving, so the net figure will likely stabilise, starting next year, at around 300,000.

The Knowledge Book of Notes & Quotes

The Knowledge is publishing its first book, just in time for Christmas: a collection of the best quotes we’ve run in the newsletter, along with a few of our favourite stories and anecdotes. It will be published on 30 November, for £12.99 incl P&P (UK only). Click here to pre-order.

Sport

Instagram/@runjennyrunusa

A 45-year-old Harvard physics professor has become the fastest woman to run from San Francisco to New York, says Outside magazine. Jenny Hoffman covered the 3,037-mile stretch in 47 days, 12 hours and 35 minutes – an average of 64 miles a day – shaving more than a week off the previous record. It was the second time the ultrarunner had attempted the feat; she got most of the way in 2019 but had to quit in Ohio after tearing the cartilage in her knee. “I don’t think I’m particularly talented,” says Hoffman, “but I’m pretty stubborn.”

Comment

The Bundestag in Berlin: “Europe’s greatest danger is weariness.” Getty

The US is leaving Europe in the dust

Since 2022, the world’s democracies have faced a “brutal shift in history”, says Nicolas Baverez in Le Point. The global order is fragmenting into “irreducibly opposed” blocs, based on deep disagreements about fundamental values. We have seen the return of war in Ukraine and Gaza. And a new economic cycle has begun, defined by painfully high interest rates. Yet while “America’s power is strengthening”, the EU is getting weaker. With the return of hard power, the bloc has struggled to fulfil the new requirements of “sovereignty and security”, and is “regressing” in the economic field that used to be its strength. The eurozone is in recession, while US growth peaked at nearly 5% this year. The EU’s GDP is 65% of America’s, down from 90% a decade ago. Europeans’ wealth per capita “stagnates at $35,200 per year” compared to $76,350 across the Atlantic.

This divergence could quickly become irreversible, with the massive relocation of industrial investment, research centres and high-paying jobs to America. And all the while, China is starting to dominate industries from pharmaceuticals and chemicals to renewable energy and electric vehicles. The problem with the EU is the “heaviness and slowness of its decision-making process”, and a “chronic inability to manage crises”. In 1935, the German philosopher Edmund Husserl, noting the rise of totalitarianism, warned an audience in Vienna: “Europe’s greatest danger is weariness.” We cannot repeat this mistake. Europe has all the “assets and resources” it needs to “get back to work” and make up the gap with the US and China. “It lacks only the essentials: willpower, vision and cohesion.”

Food and drink

Pass the aspirin. James Andanson/Sygma/Getty

Booze boffins have discovered the precise chemical to blame for red wine headaches. It’s called quercetin, part of a group of molecules called flavonoids that are responsible for many of the touted health benefits of a nightly Bordeaux (or whatever you prefer). But quercetin is also thought to inhibit an enzyme that breaks down alcohol – so toxic chemicals that are normally flushed out of the system build up, causing headaches, flushing and nausea. Researchers also found that fancy wines have up to four times more flavonoids than supermarket plonk – meaning they’re better for you, but also much more headachey.

Noted

San Franciscans have literally lost sleep over the turmoil unfolding at OpenAI this past week, says Quartz. According to EightSleep, which sells a widely used sleep tracking app, the ousting of Sam Altman as CEO last Friday was followed by a spike in low-quality shut-eye, with a 27% increase in people getting under five hours.

Snapshot

Snapshot answer

It’s a wire fox terrier, the “plucky” breed that inspired Tintin’s dog Snowy, which has totally fallen out of fashion, says The Daily Telegraph. The white-haired woofmaker topped pedigree popularity rankings back in 1947, thanks to public adoration of Hergé’s “quiffed hero” and his hound. But numbers have since fallen by 94% – this year, fewer than 300 of the pallid pooches have been registered by the Kennel Club.

Quoted

“Balancing the budget is like going to heaven. Everyone wants to do it, but nobody wants to do what you have to do to get there.”