Society

Today, the Pope celebrated mass in Abu Dhabi and you do know what that means? It’s a mass in the Arabian peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. And for the first time in centuries – whenever the Nestorian church last had its rites there, maybe 1300 years ago, the gospel was said in Arabic there. It was a happy, celebratory affair (way more cheerful, I may say, than the Pope’s mass in Dublin) preceded last night by a more serious affair, the signing of a joint declaration on Human Fraternity by the Pope and the grand imam of al Azhar. It’s the culmination of the Year of Tolerance proclaimed here by

We’re meant to be a nation of pioneers. Back in the seventeenth century we set sail in search of exotic bounty. This was a time when most people still believed that the earth was flat, and if you sailed too far, you’d simply fall off the edge. But as we  set sail into even choppier Brexit waters, a riddle remains at the heart of the banking industry: Why aren’t more of us prepared to switch current accounts? Over the last few years it’s been hammered home that switching is easy. The Current Account Switch Guarantee, run by Bacs, claims to make it simple, reliable and stress-free. It’s even available for

For the latest challenge you were asked to submit a poem or a short story that begins ‘It started with a tweet…’. Hats off to Philip Machin for an appropriately pithy submission: It started with a tweet — There’s nothing wrong in that — But, sadly, indiscreet: It ended with a cat. Elsewhere, in a varied and engaging entry, there were echoes of Shelley’s skylark, Lear’s owl and Hitchcock’s Birds. The winners below are rewarded with £25 each. W.J. Webster It started with a tweet, a joke at his expense, okay, but just a quip intended to provoke a smile or some quick counter-thrust: instead he opted to deplore its

In reading your recent leading article on Huawei (‘Red-handed’, 2 February), I feel I should point out that it is not solely the British government who have been wrong-footed by the rise of China. Here in Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau has long desired to open up Canadian markets to Chinese companies, going so far as to express admiration for the country’s ‘basic dictatorship’. The Chinese press even bequeathed him with a charming nickname: the Little Potato. Now, in the face of the Huawei charges, Mr Potato has been forced to change course and has fired his ambassador, John McCallum, after he defended Huawei’s Chinese executives rather than supporting Canadians who have recently been imprisoned

It’s been a hectic week in Westminster. After the Brady amendment passed on Tuesday, Theresa May finally got a second chance to get her Brexit deal through parliament. But can she persuade the EU to renegotiate? James Forsyth writes in this week’s cover article that there is good reason to think the EU will budge, but persuading Brussels is only one of the challenges May faces. To finally pass her Brexit deal, she might have to reach across the aisle for some Labour votes. And does the ‘Jacob Rees-Mogg–Len McCluskey strategy’ have any chance of success? James is joined by Peter Foster, the Europe editor of the Telegraph, calling us

The start of the year sees the elite of the chess world divided between Wijk aan Zee in Holland and the Gibraltar Masters. In Gibraltar, from where I am writing this column, grandmasters such as Wesley So, Lev Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura cross swords with the British aspirants Michael Adams, Gawain Jones and Nigel Short. In Wijk aan Zee, the world champion Magnus Carlsen reasserted his authority with a decisive victory. Leading scores were: Carlsen 9/13; Giri 8½; Nepomniachtchi, Ding and Anand 7½.   Van Foreest-Carlsen: Wijk aan Zee 2019 (see diagram 1)   Here the Dutch grandmaster made a brave (possibly foolhardy) decision to take Carlsen on in the line