Image of the week: Labour territory
Poor old Larry the Cat, aka chief mouser to the UK cabinet office, was hoping for a quiet week padding about Downing Street, adjusting to the end of daylight saving time. Instead, with the first Labour budget since 2009 happening, it was all political fireworks, ministerial disturbances and media intrusion on the veteran tabby’s morning routine.
Soon after this photograph was taken, Rachel Reeves emerged from Number 11 with the red briefcase, and soon after that again, she become the first female chancellor of the exchequer to deliver a budget, choosing the day before Halloween to raise taxes by £40 billion (€48 billion) – the most since 1993 – and increase borrowing.
It’s all part of a bid to boost a flatlining UK economy, or “rebuild Britain”, as Reeves put it. And though there were some other headline-generating measures in there, like her “penny off the pint in the pub” cut to draft alcohol duty and a hike in air passenger taxes for private jets, the overall message was “invest, invest, invest”.
But would the package “put more pounds in people’s pockets”, as she alliteratively claimed? Beyond a rise in the minimum wage, the phrase seemed more of an anachronism than anything else, as anyone who has recently tried using cash in London will know.
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In numbers: Downvoting the Post
4,000
Subscribers added by the Washington Post in the year to the end of September, chief executive Will Lewis told employees in mid-October, as he hailed the fact that its digital subscription base was “growing for the first time since 2021″.
250,000
Washington Post readers who cancelled their subscriptions after owner Jeff Bezos intervened last week to block a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris for president. The number was first reported by NPR, then by the Washington Post itself.
10%
The cancelled subscriptions represent about this much of the title’s total digital subscriptions. “The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media,” was the headline on the Amazon billionaire’s defence of his non-endorsement. Well, they don’t now. Great work, Bezos.
Getting to know: Larry Krasner
Moving along from Larry the Cat to Larry Krasner, the Democrat district attorney of Philadelphia who has filed a civil lawsuit against Elon Musk and his pro-Donald Trump group America PAC over an “illegal lottery scheme”. Musk and America PAC, he says, are “lulling” people to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million. “That is a lottery. And it is indisputably an unlawful lottery.”
Krasner, who appeared sceptical that the winners of these sweepstakes were chosen at random, as claimed, said he was basing his case on Pennsylvania’s lottery and consumer protection laws. But does the law apply to the richest man in the world?
The list: Starbucks’ Oleato coffees
Some things are just not meant to be. After extending its olive oil-infused Oleato line of coffees from Italy to North America less than a year ago, Starbucks is now ditching them from its menu in the US and Canada. These drinks never made it to Ireland – but that might not be such a great loss.
1. Caffe Latte: In a long read detailing how Oleato was the “final creative act” of the now departed boomerang Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz, the New Yorker observed how “the buzzsaw of the coffee receded and left in its unctuous wake something fulsome and blubbery”.
2. Golden Foam Cold Brew: Did a BuzzFeed taste test fare any better? “After a few sips, I had remnants of oil on my lips,” its writer found. So, no.
3. Deconstructed: “An ode to the Italian tradition of combining olive oil with a squeeze of lemon,” according to Starbucks. This one appears to have been confined to the Oleato range’s initial launch city of Milan. It features a “luxurious passion fruit cold foam”, so that might be for the best.
4. Iced Cortado: The “most confusing and least redeemable” of the selection tried by the website Bon Appetit, it quickly separated into its constituent ingredients, “so that a centimetre-thick viscous layer floated on the surface”. Not ideal.
5. Golden Foam Espresso Martini: “Actually enjoyable,” according to the US site Tasting Table, though it conceded that this might be “just the alcohol talking”.
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