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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Readers of the Bible, you are almost certainly in for a shock. A new book, drawing on recent archaeology and literary criticism, persuasively argues that some of the most important parts of the New Testament were written or edited by slaves. Its author, Candida Moss, presents this thesis in God’s Ghostwriters, a general interest book
It’s 25 years this week since Hugo Chávez – an inspiration for leftwingers like Ken Livingstone and Jeremy Corbyn – was elected president of Venezuela. Chávez may not be the person primarily responsible for his country’s descent into dictatorship, anarchy and humanitarian disaster (that would be his hand-picked successor, Nicolás Maduro) but the foundation was
There’s only a year to go until the most complex and consequential US presidential election ever. Ukraine, the Middle East, geriatric candidates, big-name independents, the criminal charges against Trump, a new House speaker (who must ratify the outcome) who didn’t recognise Biden’s victory in 2020 – the complexity is staggering. The two main candidates, Biden
Temperate weather, perfect apples, and leaves turning yellow, red, and purple – ‘Fall’ ought to be the most charming time to be in the US. But the season’s natural beauty is defiled by a grotesque American obsession – Halloween. For all of October (and most of September) Halloween kitsch is as ubiquitous as leaves and
One August afternoon, my dad, my uncle, and I were walking along Hadrian’s Wall. It was pouring. Our shoes were full of water, our glasses had steamed up, and our pac-a-macs were sticking to our bodies. Seemingly out of nowhere, we came upon a little dip in the cliff, within which was nestled a tall
For 25 years, Melvyn Bragg and his guests on Radio 4’s In Our Time have discussed most things from antimatter to Zoroastrianism. Their conversations have attracted a live audience of two million, and provide the BBC’s most-listened-to weekly podcast. At 9 a.m. today, In Our Time will broadcast its one thousandth episode. How has the BBC’s flagship
If you thought American book-banning couldn’t get any more ridiculous, think again. A school district in Utah, one of the most religious states in the country, has banned the Bible. The Bible – fundamental to the state’s Protestant, Catholic and Mormon churches – is to be removed from elementary and middle school libraries for containing
Test cricket should be in its prime. England is the most aggressive team in history, India and Australia are uncommonly good, and New Zealand has just played two of the most exciting matches of all time. Yet from Marylebone to Melbourne to Mumbai, administrators are sabotaging cricket’s finest form. Every cricket lover knows that the charm
