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Feminism never did much for me
š³ Madeley vs Clinton | šļø Motorbike chariots | šÆ Bingo raves
In the headlines
The Conservatives are āon the rackā, says the FT, after being ātrouncedā in the Blackpool South by-election and suffering big losses in yesterdayās local elections. The party was beaten by Labour in Blackpool with a whopping 26% swing, only just pipping Reform UK into second place, and ācould lose half the council seats it was defendingā. In one bit of good news for No 10, Tory Ben Houchen was re-elected as Tees Valley mayor. Fossil fuel companies will be allowed to explore for oil and gas under offshore wind power sites for the first time. In a decision clearly intended to quell ārestive backbenchersā, says The Guardian, Rishi Sunak will grant around 30 firms a licence to hunt for hydrocarbons at locations earmarked for future wind farms. King Charles has been presented with his official āCoronation rollā: a 69ft-long, 11,500-word scroll detailing his coronation. The hand-stitched manuscript, which took a calligrapher 56 days to complete, is the first in 700 years not to be made with any animal skin.
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š³ļø Has Britain moved to the left?
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š¶ Kristi Noem | āŖļø AI priest | š Bee monster
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Book Talk podcast
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Comment
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Petronella Wyatt (left) and Allison Pearson. David Benett/Emily Mott/Getty
Feminism never did much for me
Iām beginning to think feminism has āfailed my generationā, says Petronella Wyatt in The Daily Telegraph. Growing up, I was taught over and over again that career was everything ā that in our new, enlightened times, marriage and children were a secondary consideration. At St Paulās Girlsā School, we were told: āPaulinas do not cook, they think.ā Well, I more or less followed that advice, and where has it left me? Iām 54, single, and childless. Itās miserable ā my āsolitary existenceā has made me so depressed Iāve had several spells in hospital. Iām far from alone: one in 10 British women in their 50s have never married and live alone. And I canāt help thinking what my life would have been had I not accepted the feminist credo that I had to ābehave and think like menā.
Women were certainly led to believe they could āhave it allā, says Allison Pearson, also in The Daily Telegraph. In reality, having it all meant a ābrutal double shiftā of doing our fathersā jobs while retaining our mothersā responsibilities with the children. But I think many women just enjoyed behaving like men, and āfound it hard to give upā. I certainly did ā I waited until 36 to have my first child, after āalmost two decades of love affairs and selfishnessā. Besides, feminism brought women āunimaginable opportunitiesā: Wyatt would never have become the deputy editor of The Spectator without it, for example. And while her āsearingā honesty is laudable, plenty of women get a huge amount of life satisfaction without marrying or having children. Jane Austen never did either ā if she had, we may have been denied some of the greatest novels in the English language. āThere are more ways than one to give birth.ā
Fashion
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This yearās Met Gala is on Monday, says Vogue, and though the event āwasnāt always the supersized spectacle it is todayā, it was always very fashionable. When Getty photographers began covering the event in 1975, āthere were no themed dress codes ā everyone simply wore their most glamorous cocktail or black tie attireā. Above is a selection of some of the best turned-out attendees, from Jackie Kennedy, Lee Radziwill and Andy Warhol in the 70s to Diana Ross in the 80s and Kate Moss in the 90s. See more photos here.
Inside politics
Richard Madeley is not to be underestimated, says Tom Peck in The Times. One of the daytime TV hostās most infamous interviews, āsadly not on YouTubeā, was with Bill Clinton in the early 2000s. Madeley explained to the former US president that they had both endured āthe unforgiving glare of the public spotlightā: Clinton when he faced impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky affair, and Madeley when he was accused of shoplifting from Tesco. āBut what got me through it,ā Madeley said, āis that I knew I was telling the truth. But you were lying, werenāt you?ā Oof.
Zeitgeist
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A burlesque bingo show in Las Vegas. Ronda Churchill/AFP/Getty
The latest nightlife trend is, improbably, Bingo, says Axios. Nightclubs, raves and pop-up parties themed around the chance-based number game are becoming popular not only in the UK but across the US too, in cities including New York and Los Angeles, with top prizes including everything from giant teddy bears to holidays and lawnmowers. Two fat ladies? You betcha.
Comment
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Protesters in Brussels last month. Theirry Monasse/Getty
The dangers of using Russian cash to buy weapons
āUsing Russiaās money to pay for Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine seems like a clever idea,ā says Wolfgang MĆ¼nchau in The New Statesman. āMaybe itās too clever by half.ā Of Russiaās $280bn in foreign currency reserves, $210bn is held at Euroclear, āa financial depository based in Belgiumā ā and the US is proposing that the G7 raid these assets, which have been frozen since the Ukraine invasion. It would put us in uncharted territory. āNever before has anybody tried to extract war-crimes reparation payments while the war was still raging.ā Russia might retaliate by moving against the substantial number of Western businesses still operating in the country ā German firms alone are said to have ā¬21.3bn in turnover there. Thereās also the risk of jeopardising trust in our financial systems: the likes of China and Saudi Arabia could pull their assets out of the EU and ācreate their own financial infrastructureā.
Two G7 countries are currently against the idea: Germany and Japan. They worry that expropriating Russian money will make them more vulnerable in their own tussles with reparations. Poland wants ā¬1.3trn from Berlin to compensate for World War Two war crimes, and āJapan is facing similar compensation claims from South Koreaā. Nevertheless, the asset seizure is probably inevitable. Previously, the Westās support for Ukraine was funded by large deficits. Now nations are tightening their belts, theyād rather use Russian money than their own. Western leaders will be too tempted by the short-term benefits of the move to consider its long-term dangers.
From the archives
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/414f6255-08cc-4f0d-a8ae-4773f9546d2d/ScreenRecording2024-05-03at10.02.14-ezgif.com-optimize.gif?t=1714732961)
Back in the 1920s, some innovative American motorsport enthusiasts came up with motorbike chariot racing. The sport, which later spread to Australia and the UK, typically involved two riderless motorbikes joined together, controlled by a charioteer using āreinsā attached to the throttle and the handlebars. As the commentator from this race in Australia says: āRome was never like this.ā
Eating out
Diners in London and New York are now paying through the nose to buy reservations at hot restaurants from touts, says Howard Chua-Eoan in Bloomberg. Some of Japanās top culinary establishments take a different approach: ichigensan okotowari, or āno first-time customersā. These restaurants let in only regulars and their guests. If the guests āpass musterā, they are then allowed to book seats under their own names. In Tokyo, āI had one of the most memorable meals of my lifeā at one of these places with a friend who was āa member of the restaurantās faithfulā. To my dismay, āI wasnāt asked about a reservation for my next visitā.
Snapshot
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Snapshot answer
Itās what a Neanderthal woman would have looked like 75,000 years ago, says New Scientist. The remarkable reconstruction was produced using the flattened, shattered remains of a skull excavated in Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan five years ago. Researchers say the bones initially had the consistency of āa well-dunked biscuitā, but after a year of painstaking restoration work they were able to reassemble the various fragments. These were then used by a pair of Dutch twins renowned for their ancient hominin reconstructions to create the life-like face.
Quoted
āA man who correctly guesses a womanās age may be smart, but heās not very bright.ā
Lucille Ball