Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
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Edinburgh International Festival — where do we go from here?
Festival board member ANN HENDERSON reports on the opening of a cultural behemoth determined to now embrace a more social role
Cuban dancers in Bristo Square, August 7, 2023
BEN CHACKO speaks with Knesset member OFER CASSIF about rising political violence, the prospects for peace and his continuous ‘silencing by suspension’
The City is leaning on Rachel Reeves to cut welfare spending — when what’s needed is cuts to all the benefits given to the mega rich, corporations and banks to help them not pay or blatantly dodge their fair share of tax, explains BERNIE EVANS
The choice between two Blairites to revamp the tepid centrism of our ruling party doesn’t even come as cold comfort as we wander the city streets suffering from their third decade of austerity and the fifth of wage stagnation, writes MATT KERR
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns
HENRY FOWLER puts the strike of public-sector workers in New Zealand in the wider context of deteriorating employment conditions throughout the world’s major economies
MAT COWARD looks back at a protest 105 years ago this month, whose reporting by the media bears uncomfortable similarities with demos today
THE Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) opened last weekend, with fantastic performances and an energy which was very refreshing. In her first year as festival director, Nicola Benedetti has taken as her theme from Martin Luther King Junior’s last book Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community?
The Hub, the building at the top of the Royal Mile by Edinburgh Castle, where the staff team is based and which was traditionally a festival hub, is open to the public, with a range of free (ticketed) events and evening performances. The opening night there, on Sunday August 6, brought some of those musicians together in warm and high-spirited performances, joined at various points by Benedetti.
Benedetti also played earlier that afternoon, with the Grit Orchestra, a unique ensemble which brings together leading jazz, folk and classical musicians, played in the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens for all to hear — in collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the performance was well received.
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