Could Poland replace Hungary as the EU’s biggest internal nightmare? ✏️ John Kampfner

The short-lived ex-PM declared the president "right abour everything" as she continues her quest to be a successful podcaster ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

The US secretary of state told his audience he was only being tough on Europe because he loved it. It was almost as offensive as JD Vance a year earlier ✏️ @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social

For those who make it to the next stage in life, the risk is that they become members of the “sandwich generation”, trying to care not only for their children but also for their ageing parents ✏️ Patience Wheatcroft

The Green candidate – a local plumber – is convinced she can win. But does a Labour-Green fight risk splitting the vote on the left, and handing the seat to Reform? ✏️ @jamesrball.com

Reform's candidate in the Gorton & Denton by-election pulled out of a hustings at 30 minutes' notice amid rumours he wanted his own green room ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

The Saltburn director ropes in Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi to give a bleak classic the Bridgerton treatment ✏️ John Bleasdale

Beliefs about equality are colliding with a constitutional ban on female conscription as a drive to increase Bundeswehr numbers ramps up ✏️ Tanit Koch

A narcissistic trend is teaching young men the worst lesson women were ever taught: your appearance is everything ✏️ Olive Pometsey

When leaders meet at Munich, they must start the process of European rearmament in a way that takes account of the threat from Putin – and Trump ✏️ @paulmason.bsky.social

Emerald Fennell’s third film is far from a well-behaved literary adaptation, but it's thoroughly enjoyable ✏️ Matthew d’Ancona 🔗 Full article: buff.ly/9QdZ5kg

The disgraced sex offender was able to gather a group of scientists and thinkers around him who shared his anti-woke, anti-women and Silicon Valley techno-fascist views. But it doesn’t end with Epstein ✏️ Philip Ball

Nigel Farage's local councillors continue to embarrass themselves and their party ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

The God delusions of Jeffrey Epstein’s secret brotherhood Full article 🔗 buff.ly/S5NNptm

An extraordinary tech surge is underway. At its core are female founders solving the untouchable problems ✏️ Victoria Woollaston

The Saltburn director ropes in Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi to give a bleak classic the Bridgerton treatment ✏️ John Bleasdale

Trawling through the latest dump of the Epstein files, it strikes me that he represents a necessary morality tale about the need to be very, very careful when power, money and “friendship” crowd into the same space ✏️ @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social

The party wants everyone back in the office. Happily, deputy leader Richard Tice knows where you can find one ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

Jack Thorne has followed Adolescence with another triumphant and troubling piece of work ✏️ @rostaylor.bsky.social

The British honours system has never looked so dishonourable. Why not dump it altogether? ✏️ @sanglesey.bsky.social

The number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training is now 946,000 – close to an all-time record. Around 707,000 graduates are unemployed. Many of them are claiming benefits, often related to mental health Full article 🔗 buff.ly/ajcgRKq

This week's Tim Bradford cartoon 👨‍🎨

The actor talks gangsters from New Jersey to Washington DC – and why he feels ‘sick’ about the state of his country ✏️ Ian Winwood

NEW EPISODE 🎙️ The Matts reflect on the last week, and address their own fallibilities (and thank you, dear listeners, for pointing them out!). But the argument around Keir Starmer’s premiership remains solid. Listen now 🎧️ buff.ly/wAigKS1

I find it hard to think he didn’t hear and see things that made him feel he had to get Epstein out of his life ✏️ @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social

When Man United’s co-owner talks about being "colonised by immigrants”, does he mean Monaco? ✏️ @jontybloom.bsky.social

BOOK REVIEW 📚️ The novel is crude. It embarrassed and angered me simultaneously - and it’s one of my favourite pieces of fiction I’ve ever read ✏️ Eleanor Longman-Rood

Starmer is a notoriously stubborn and ambitious man, and he has always insisted he would fight to hold the premiership until the bitter end ✏️ @jamesrball.com

Our latest issue is now on sale - To the bitter end Featuring @jamesrball.com, Matthew d'Ancona, Françoise Thom, Olive Pometsey, @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social and more Get 10 weeks for £10: buff.ly/3cfnpSS

Bangor's debating society declined Sarah Pochin's demand to speak before them - so the party plans to take away £3 ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

Elon Musk is getting excited about a new social media platform for AI systems. For once – unusually – he might not be completely in the wrong ✏️ Matt Muir

Gustavo Petro went to the White House as Trump’s South American enemy No 1. But things turned out a little different than expected ✏️ @harrietbarber.bsky.social

The paedophile fixer’s depraved, narcissistic, super-rich circle have come to believe that they are beyond mortality and morals ✏️ Matthew d'Ancona

While older Britons have their final salary pensions and the triple lock, young people today can’t even afford to start a family ✏️ Patience Wheatcroft

Viciously abused by her father, Ghislaine Maxwell made the horrible mistake of falling for a sexual predator ✏️ John Sweeney

Epstein used several Russian banks, now under sanctions, to process payments related to his sex trafficking network, establishing a direct financial link between his criminal enterprise and financial institutions in the region ✏️ Françoise Thom

Starmer has to get through the Mandelson files and the Gorton & Denton by-election just to survive February. What is it that he’s holding on for? @jamesrball.com

Kubrick made elite depravity look operatic. The Epstein files show the real thing as vile and vacuous ✏️ John Bleasdale

The party's treasurer appears a number of times in the documents released by the US Department of Justice ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

People in autocratic and chaotic countries believe in their governments more than we do in ours - it’s about feeling that your children will be better off ✏️ Vince Cable

FREE TO READ 🔓 Editor-at-large @arusbridger.bsky.social on Jeff Bezos and the decline of the Washington Post buff.ly/goLE4YZ

The Mail on Sunday columnist is fuming about Peter Mandelson's appointment as US ambassador. But what did he write about it at the time? ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

A woman leading Labour could mark a decisive break from a culture that has normalised looking the other way, and could finally put an end to the boys’ club that keeps failing us ✏️ @zoegrunewald.bsky.social

A permacrisis premiership is finished. A Labour defeat in the Gorton & Denton by-election would signal even deeper problems for his successor ✏️ @jamesrball.com

MAGA opponents Bad Bunny and Green Day will provide the entertainment for the NFL’s big game - and the president is staying away ✏️ Ian Winwood

BONUS EPISODE ⭐️ The Matts digest the events of the past 24 hours. Will Morgan McSweeney’s departure delay or hasten the existential crisis facing Keir Starmer? Listen now 🎧 buff.ly/jHLCE72

In his first feature for The New World, editor-at-large Alan Rusbridger examines whether Jeff Bezos can still rescue his legacy amid The Washington Post crisis @arusbridger.bsky.social

FREE TO READ 🔓️ "This Labour government is now looking like the last Tory one as it lurches from one big bad moment to the next" ✏️ @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social

Kent councillor Matthew Fraser Moat has fallen on his sword after admitting his party had failed to find any waste to cut ✏️ Rats in a Sack 🐀

Read @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social on the reaction to the Mandelson affair, the calls for Starmer to go, and what happens to this government - and the United Kingdom - next Full story 🔗 buff.ly/3cfnpSS