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How Trump made his name
đš Sumac drink | đď¸âPlain Mr Chamberlainâ | Tories đĄ London
Life
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Trump with his second wife, Marla Maples, in 1992. Vinnie Zuffante/Getty
How Trump made his name
Donald Trump made his name in Manhattan power circles by making his life a âfixture in the cityâs vibrant tabloidsâ, says Sarah Ellison in The Washington Post. When Marla Maples was about to give birth to his fourth child, Tiffany, in 1993, New York Daily Newsâs gossip columnist, Linda Stasi, had simple orders: âGet in the room to see the baby.â Maples objected, but Trump invited Stasi into the coupleâs private hospital room after the birth for a quick interview. When she asked for a photo, Maples âshooed her outâ. But Trump soon followed, holding an empty blanket. âHere, take my picture,â he told her. âJust pretend thereâs a baby in here.â
Trump gave the tabloids juicy bits of gossip and bombastic quotes to craft his image as a billionaire playboy, says Jill Brooke in The Hollywood Reporter. He impersonated other people, including a made-up PR representative called John Barron, to plant stories about himself and his enemies. During his acrimonious divorce from Ivana Trump, he reportedly phoned up the New York Post demanding a front-page story. âDonald, you just donât demand a front-page story,â editor Jerry Nachman told him. âThere has to be a story.â âWhat gets a front-page story?â Trump asked. âUsually murder, money or sex,â Nachman replied. Donald fired back: âMarla says with me itâs the best sex sheâs ever had.â âThatâs great!â said Nachman. âBut you know I need corroboration.â âMarla,â Trump yelled into the background. âDidnât you say itâs the best sex you ever had with me?â A faint, high pitched voice replied: âYes, Donald.â
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Food and drink
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Getty
Sumac â the small, shrub-like tree common in English gardens â was once used by Native Americans to make a ârefreshing beverageâ, says Elisabeth Luard in The Oldie. Mash whole clusters of red sumac berries roughly in a bowl, cover with cold water and leave to soak for 10 to 15 minutes until the liquid is âthoroughly soured and blush pinkâ, and then strain. The flavour is more âsour appleâ than citric, more delicate than lemon, and less aggressive than vinegar â perfect for a fish soup, say. For a quenching drink or to freeze as a sorbet, sweeten with honey or sugar syrup, or use a dash of undiluted sumac water in cooking as you would a squeeze of lemon.
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Inside politics
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Johnson: an âobvious affectionâ for London. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
The Tories need to fall back in love with London
If thereâs one âiron law in politicsâ, says Robert Shrimsley in the FT, itâs that âpeople will not vote for parties that do not seem to like themâ. Which makes it hard to understand why the Tories are so down on London. They snarl at the capitalâs âmetropolitanâ values and rail against the evils of north London elites. For the forthcoming mayoral election, they have chosen as their candidate Susan Hall, a âspikyâ nobody whoâll struggle beyond the suburban base and tries to depict Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan as some sort of âdemonic figureâ. There is no optimism, no love for this âvibrant metropolisâ. Recent Tory HQ campaign ads supporting Hall depict the city as a âcrime-ravaged hellholeâ.
The Tories donât need to âgo wokeâ to reclaim the affection of Londoners. They just need to demonstrate that they actually care about the capital: a post-Brexit strategy to attract investment; a proper plan to build more homes. Previous leaders have shown that you can follow mainstream Conservative values and still be viable in London. Boris Johnson won two mayoral elections in part because of his âobvious affectionâ for the city; David Cameron and his allies were happily known as the âNotting Hill setâ, and used issues like gay marriage and environmentalism to look at ease with the times. This is not to argue that winning London is the path to a future Tory victory. âBut being chased out of it will certainly herald defeat.â
đˇđź Will the Toriesâ Rwanda plan work? Click here to read our explainer
Zeitgeist
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Katherine Birbalsingh: discouraging prejudice. Dan Kitwood/Getty
No wonder kids today hate Britain
In a recent after-school detention, says an anonymous teacher in The Sunday Times, a handful of pupils did their best to convince me that âAfghanistan was much nicer now the Taliban were in controlâ. They do let girls go to school, one boy insisted, âbut they stop them when they turn 11, which is very fairâ. It turned out these children not only supported gender inequality but were âfans of executing all manner of criminals tooâ. My school is a large academy in the south of England, catering to those from poor families. Most are Muslim, and their hero is the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate. The more I get to know them, âthe more distressed I amâ by some of their views.
I asked a class of 13-year-olds if they hated Britain. âThirty hands shot up with immediate, absolute certainty.â Many of the boys hold âshocking views on womenâ â one of them regularly interrupts lessons with diatribes about how Western society is âbrainwashing young menâ into becoming more feminine. A Kurdish boy tells me he admires Saddam Hussein. âIraqâs just a bit rubbish now,â he reasons. Due to the Gaza war, no group is more despised than the Jews, with pupils âregularly making comments of pure hatredâ. As repugnant as this all is, the fact that our children hate Britain is hardly a surprise. Their curriculum is âpacked with hand-wringing about Western imperialism and institutional racismâ. I once taught at a school for mostly white, middle-class children, and even there, without the influence of Islamism, the kids were âimbued with a sense that their country is particularly badâ. Solving this problem is tricky. But it might help if â like at Katherine Birbalsinghâs Michaela academy â schools started dissuading students of these prejudices, instead of confirming them.
Life
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Chamberlain proclaiming âpeace for our timeâ after meeting with Hitler in 1938
Itâs time we gave Chamberlain his due
When most people hear the name Neville Chamberlain, says Kevin Williamson in The Dispatch, they think only of the British PMâs worst and most consequential mistake: believing he could âbuy off Adolf Hitler and thereby avoid an unprofitable warâ. Only last week, a US lawmaker joked that a political opponent who opposed sending aid to Ukraine should have her office renamed the âNeville Chamberlain Roomâ. But Chamberlain wasnât a bad man. Pursuing peace with Germany was a mainstream view at the time, and trying to avoid unprofitable wars had long been a key plank of British foreign policy. âWe have a clear conscience,â he said when war broke out. âWe have done all that any country could do to establish peace.â
Contrary to his cartoonish historical portrayal, Chamberlain was âa patriot and a statesmanâ. After standing down as PM, and despite suffering âexcruciating painâ from intestinal cancer, he continued to serve in Winston Churchillâs war cabinet for the few months he had left to live. Churchill himself was in little doubt about his predecessorâs qualities. âIt fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events,â he eulogised in parliament. âBut what were these hopes in which he was disappointed⌠they were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart â the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour.â When Churchill offered Chamberlain the Order of the Garter, he refused. âI prefer to die plain âMr Chamberlainâ,â he said, âlike my father before me, unadorned by any title.â
Weather
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Quoted
âMy mother had a theory about Englishmen: they are permanently all two gin and tonics under par. They need two gin and tonics to become human.â
Hugh Grant