Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Owen Matthews

Putin can smell Washington’s desperation

Donald Trump has staked a big chunk of his political credibility on finding peace in Ukraine – and by doing so in partnership with Vladimir Putin, and on the Kremlin’s terms. But is Putin ready to play ball and help save Trump’s backside, politically and economically? The answer is yes: Putin will probably play along with small gestures like partial ceasefires and prisoner releases. But when it comes to the big stuff like actually stopping what Putin calls his “special military operation,” the Kremlin is likely to stick to its guns and ignore Trump’s special pleading while it continues pulverizing Ukraine’s cities. A summit between China’s Xi Jinping, Putin and

donald trump russia
Alexander Larman

Has Netflix missed a trick with Meghan Markle?

Now that Meghan Markle has successfully – in her own estimation, at least – once again won the battle for hearts and minds in Britain after her trip to Nottingham with Prince Harry, her thoughts have turned once again to her resumption of her former profession. I refer, of course, to acting, and to the rumors that she was to be given a plum starring role in the third series of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, in which she was said to be reading for an unspecified but pivotal part. A fly-on-the-wall documentary following their return to Britain would have been a guaranteed ratings hit These rumors have now been shut down. And, true to form with all things involving the Duchess of Sussex, there is a spat about who is telling the truth.

Robert Bryce

In Texas, it’s Musk vs Talarico

Here’s an update on the state of Trumpism in America: last month, the richest man in world history threw $158 million into a last-ditch attempt to rescue the worst candidate for US Senate in American history.  It’s part of what one US media outlet is calling “Elon Musk’s massive Texas rescue mission.” But even a trillionaire’s fortune may not be able to rescue the execrable Ken Paxton from defeat on November 3.  That $158 million donation followed a $10 million gift in August from the “Elon Musk Revocable Trust” to a political action committee closely tied to Paxton.  If Paxton, the sitting Texas Attorney General, loses to Democrat James Talarico, historians will remember it as a massive defeat for Donald Trump and Trumpism. Why?

Elon Musk
Druin Burch

Barbarism cannot triumph in France

On Bastille Day, 1883, the people of Limoges inaugurated a beautiful new town hall, paid for from the legacy of a rich burgher with no children. On Saturday, rioters set fire to it. “Barbarism is not the prehistory of humanity but the faithful shadow that accompanies its every step.” That was Alain Finkielkraut, but I know it because Clive James quoted him when he wrote of how to keep our societies and values alive. He said we liked to think being cultured warded off barbarism, but that barbarism doesn’t care if we are cultured or not. He was only half right. Barbarism does care: it hates us for being cultured. Barbarism, whether imported or home bred, wants to see our culture burn.

Sam Leith

The utter absurdity of the Sally Rooney affair

Last week I got an email from a colleague I respect on another magazine, prefaced with the assertion that it concerned “a matter we feel will be of importance to you as an artist, writer or journalist” and inviting me to subscribe my name to an open letter in support of the Irish novelist Sally Rooney. The issue in question, in case there are any readers of this who missed the news story, is that Rooney's publisher Faber has announced that with the full support of their author they are withdrawing all Rooney's novels from publication in the UK.  Governments shouldn't, if they can possibly avoid it, put themselves into the position of being arbiters of hermeneutics. The absurdities proliferate fractally That's a big deal. Sally Rooney sells a lot of books.

Americano Presents

Is libertarianism dead? Daniel McCarthy vs Robby Soave

Watch now

Thursday

Peter Van Buren

Will the Supreme Court make it easier to sue the media?

Donald Trump is suing CNN for $475 million for defamation, claiming the network associated him with Adolf Hitler and portrayed him as a Russian lackey. E. Jean Carroll is in turn suing Trump for defamation in connection with him allegedly raping her. Mike “MyPillow” Lindell is being sued for $1.3 billion for defamation in connection with remarks he made about the 2020 presidential election being false. And way outside politics in America, a foreign English teacher in Thailand faces two years in jail for defamation over a negative online review of a resort he stayed at. What is defamation? Why is it so hard to prove in the United States but relatively easy to prove in most other countries?

defamation

Tuesday

Rachel K. Paulose

Sarah Palin takes the New York Times to court

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is taking the New York Times Company (NYT) to trial in February for alleged defamation. Palin, according to her lawsuit, filed suit in order “to hold…NYT accountable for defaming her by falsely asserting what they knew to be false: that Governor Palin was clearly and directly responsible for inciting a mass shooting at a political event in January 2011.” Palin is alleging that NYT “falsely stated as a matter of fact to millions of people that Gov. Palin incited Jared Loughner’s January 8, 2011, mass shooting at a political event in Tucson, Arizona, during which he shot thirteen people, severely wounding United States congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and killing six others.

Monday

Ross Clark

Why should Dr Christian Jessen’s fans pay his legal bill?

From our UK edition

Wasn’t the whole point of crowdfunding supposed to be about enabling community and artistic projects to take place? That was how I remember it being sold to us, at any rate. But no, I got it wrong. It turns out that the real point of it is to help celebrities pay their legal bills.  Dr Christian Jessen, who appears on a Channel 4 show called Embarrassing Bodies, has been ordered by a Belfast court to pay £125,000 in libel damages to former Northern Irish first minister Arlene Foster for tweeting the false allegation that she was having an extra-marital affair. It is believed that legal costs could add a further £300,000 to his bill.  By Monday morning, Jessen had raised £7000 of the £150,000 he is hoping to raise. How to pay?

Thursday

Taki

My advice to Johnny Depp

From our UK edition

Gstaad Are any of you tired of reading about Ghislaine Maxwell and her sleazy life? Bored by old news repeated ad nauseam by people who hadn’t — and still don’t have — a clue? Well, your intrepid High life correspondent does have a clue, so here goes. But before I go on about la Maxwell, a few thoughts about the drama taking place in Court No. 13 of the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand, where I had the leading role in a 1986 drama — also starring Charles Moore and some lesser characters — that almost broke the poor little Greek boy and also impoverished our great ex-proprietor Algy Cluff.