Daniel Rey is the author of 'Checkmate or Top Trumps: Cuba's Geopolitical Game of the Century'. He lives in New York.
If you’ve recently been to the cinema or turned on your streaming platform of choice, no doubt you’ll have been offered ‘new’ stories that are fundamentally familiar. From Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, to Dune: Part Two, and now Bridget Jones 4 – the film industry is being driven by franchises and sequels. Of the top 10 highest-grossing films released
Ten years ago this week, Barack Obama announced the historic US rapprochement with Cuba. Alongside Obama during years of secret negotiations was Joe Biden – then Vice President, and a trusted advisor on foreign affairs. But while Obama’s policies reduced Cubans’ reliance on the communist state, President Biden’s actions have done the opposite: spurring extreme hardship
Facing parlous humanitarian conditions, and an economy under tighter and tighter sanctions, Cubans have decided to leave in record numbers
Keir Starmer’s government has just made itself even more unpopular. This week, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, author of One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up, specified which junk foods will be banned from online and TV adverts before 9pm. The prohibition, set to begin next October, is so extensive that it includes lentil-based crisps and
When Rafael Nadal triumphed in the 2005 French Open, he was still just a teenager. The Spaniard won 21 more Grand Slam titles, and became the second most decorated man in tennis history. He retired this week after Spain were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup by the Netherlands. His final match, played
Of the eleven recessions since World War Two, ten have begun under the GOP
When it comes to the economy, Americans typically trust the Republicans. They’re the party traditionally aligned with big capital; and their policies – low taxes and minimal government interference – sound sweet in a believer’s ear. Donald Trump, leading the GOP for the third election in a row, is a famous businessman; and the party’s
Watch or attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies, and you may well see something surprising: an electronic billboard encouraging people to vote by post. It’s a big u-turn for Trump, who has spent years maintaining that postal votes are manipulated. Ahead of the 2020 election – which took place in the pre-vaccine era of the
Joe Biden did the honourable thing. It took dire polls and home truths from donors and allies, but the President finally admitted that his political race is over. Biden was trailing Donald Trump in the swing states – in some cases with a wide margin – and was showing little sign of being able to
The president performed a global service when he beat Trump in 2020
If the president won’t leave willingly, then he could be pushed
In a sense, Democrats ought to be relieved. After his calamitous presidential debate, Joe Biden delivered one of his most embarrassing gaffes on Thursday, when he introduced Volodymyr Zelensky as ‘President Putin’, and called Kamala Harris ‘Vice President Trump’. These howlers – which could have been mistaken for hard-right disinformation – are incontrovertible evidence the
Tonight, Donald Trump and Joe Biden face each other in the first of two presidential debates. With about ten per cent of the electorate undecided, the debate – the first between a current and a former president – could change the momentum of the race. Both candidates want to debate. Trump thinks he can trounce
Debating against a much more dynamic candidate might seem like a risk for Biden. But in fact, it’s a good idea
US cricket is rising. After beating Pakistan and pushing India, the Americans have reached the last eight of the T20 World Cup. On Sunday, they play England. The success comes at a time of vast growth for American cricket. The US, the co-host of the tournament, launched a professional league last year and added T20 cricket to the
The worry for English cricket is that, financially, it won’t keep pace
Joe Biden is a pragmatist. With just five months to go until his rematch against Donald Trump, the veteran Democrat is making political decisions based on an electoral calculation. These decisions, intended to undermine Trump’s appeal among wavering voters, cross into economic, domestic and foreign policy. They are taking him closer to the views of
‘Phantom of the MAGA’ is the kind of spoof you’d expect from a prep schooler
With Donald Trump confirmed as the Republican nominee, a group of NeverTrump conservatives have tried to hit the former president somewhere vulnerable: the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The Lincoln Project, an organisation led by old-school Republicans, has released a video parodying one of the tunes most associated with Trump’s rallies – the theme song
Candida Moss invites readers to look beyond the Bible’s named authors and imagine their collaborators