Editorial: The government’s latest U-turn, over business rate relief, will be welcomed by publicans – but it only comes after a noisy nationwide campaign that saw MPs banned from more than a thousand boozers. It is sadly emblematic of how this administration goes about its business
© Getty
Donald Trump’s Venezuela policy confirms he has no time for rules or process. America’s allies must find new ways to guarantee their own interests
Occasionally, history generates smooth changes from one era to another. More commonly, such shifts occur only gradually and untidily. And sometimes, as the former Downing Street foreign policy adviser John Bew puts it in the New Statesman, history unfolds “in a series of flashes and bangs”. In Caracas last weekend, Donald Trump’s forces did this in spectacular style. In the process, the US brushed aside more of what remains of the so-called rules-based order with which it tried to shape the west after 1945.
The capture of Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro has precedents in US policy. But discerning a wider new pattern from the kidnapping is not easy, especially at this early stage. As our columnist Aditya Chakrabortty has argued this week, the abduction can be seen as a assertion of American power, but also as little more than a chaotic asset grab.
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© Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
A wave of humiliating sexualised imagery must prompt regulators and politicians to step up
An online trend involving asking Grok, the Elon Musk-owned chatbot, to undress photographs of women and girls and show them wearing bikinis has rightly sparked outrage in the UK and internationally. Earlier this week Liz Kendall, the science and technology secretary, described the proliferation of the digitally altered pictures, some of which are overtly sexualised or violent, as “unacceptable in decent society”. What happens next will depend on whether she and her colleagues are prepared to follow through on such remarks. The government’s generally enthusiastic approach to AI, and the growing role they see for it in public services, do not inspire confidence in their ability to confront such threats.
In addition to the deluge of bikini images, the Internet Watch Foundation, a charity, has evidence that Grok Imagine (an AI tool that generates images and videos from prompts) has been used to create illegal child sexual abuse images. Yet while X says that it removes such material, there is no sign of safeguards being tightened in response to bikini images that are cruel and violating even where they do not break the law.
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© Photograph: Photographer: Bjoern Steinz/Björn Steinz/Panos Pictures
© Photograph: Photographer: Bjoern Steinz/Björn Steinz/Panos Pictures
© Photograph: Photographer: Bjoern Steinz/Björn Steinz/Panos Pictures
Editorial: The United States does not need a 51st state to defend Nato’s interests. But as the president considers taking the vast Arctic territory by force, his allies must dissuade him from doing so – in private, and with some creative solutions
© Dave Brown
The chaos that Donald Trump is causing in the world makes the case for continental solidarity and explicit repudiation of Brexit divisions
Sir Keir Starmer’s plan for 2026 was to talk more about the domestic issues that concern British voters. Donald Trump knocked that plan off course. US intervention in Venezuela inevitably demanded the prime minister’s attention, as did this week’s summit of Ukraine’s allies, the “coalition of the willing”, in Paris. Progress towards agreeing security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a peace deal with Russia was overshadowed by Mr Trump restating his ambition to wrest control of Greenland from Denmark. The dust had not settled when American special forces boarded a Russian-flagged oil tanker in European waters, ostensibly to enforce a blockade against Venezuela.
Prime ministers have to multitask, but under these circumstances it is understandable if Sir Keir’s mind has been filled with foreign affairs. He should be used to this by now. Mr Trump’s return to the White House guaranteed that an already uncertain international climate would become increasingly volatile. Any hope that the incoming president’s rhetoric contained more bluster than intent was dashed when he announced his “liberation day” tariffs. He sees no value in America’s historic alliances. He despises institutions of multilateral governance. His actions may not be wholly predictable, but it is safe to assume he means what he says. He wants Greenland for America. Denmark and its Nato partners have to take the ambition seriously.
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© Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP/Getty Images
Anthropomorphising tech helps Silicon Valley shares to soar, but our empathy should be directed to worthier causes
Most readers of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun will have been moved by the portrait of its eponymous AI narrator. As a solar-powered “artificial friend”, bought as a companion and potential substitute for a sick teenage girl, Klara fulfils her duties with a loving loyalty that makes it impossible to think of her as a mere piece of tech.
Brilliant, thought-provoking fiction. But back in the real world, anthropomorphising AI may not be such a clever idea. During the summer, Anthropic, a leading tech company, announced that in the interests of chatbot welfare, it was allowing its Claude Opus 4 model to avoid supposedly “distressing” conversations with users. More broadly, amid explosive growth in AI capacities, there is emerging speculation over whether future Klaras may even deserve to be accorded legal rights like human beings.
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© Photograph: TCD/Prod.DB/Universal/DNA Films/Film4/Alamy
© Photograph: TCD/Prod.DB/Universal/DNA Films/Film4/Alamy
© Photograph: TCD/Prod.DB/Universal/DNA Films/Film4/Alamy
Editorial: Following the coalition of the willing’s Paris meeting, it is clear that the moment where Western powers feel fully confident about their own security has not yet been reached – but Donald Trump now knows that the future of Greenland is not for Washington to determine
© Reuters
Editorial: Following the coalition of the willing’s Paris meeting, it is clear that the moment where Western powers feel fully confident about their own security has not yet been reached – but Donald Trump now knows that the future of Greenland is not for Washington to determine
© Reuters
© Aleksey Kondratyev for The New York Times
Editorial: Washington’s new imperialism has trashed the transatlantic alliance – but Keir Starmer and other leaders can yet persuade the US that they have much to contribute to its national security
© PA
Editorial: As Washington acted unilaterally to capture Maduro, the prime minister was reduced to watching and waiting. The episode lays bare the fragility of the UK’s post-Brexit foreign policy and where its alliances truly lie
© Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Media
Editorial: The US’s vigilante intervention in Caracas was reckless and unlawful – but rebuke alone is not enough. The international community must move fast to stabilise the country and restore democratic rule
© @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
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