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Highlights

Inside Story

The real reason Oxford University has lost the top spot

When the UK’s most prestigious university was beaten by Imperial in a global university table this week, many believed it was down to slipping standards. The real explanation, says Alastair McCall, who has spent nearly 25 years compiling tables like these, may surprise you...

Alastair McCall

<p>Oxford and Cambridge have been knocked off their perch</p>

<p>As we live longer, we are all going to have to rethink the segments of our life</p>

Health and Wellbeing

Why ‘chrysalis thinking’ is key to successful midlife reinvention

<p>A ‘civilised agreement’ has been made between the two friends to avoid overshadowing the couple’s big day, insiders say </p>

Inside Story

Harry’s difficult ‘divorce’ from Hugh Grosvenor’s wedding of the year

The real reason Oxford University has lost the top spot

<p>There is a world of allusions, revisions, and slowly changing metaphors to be found in Swift’s work </p>

Inside Story

Taylor Swift should be studied like Jonathan Swift – here’s why

Voices

<p>Farage has tried and failed to become an MP seven times and is now on his eighth attempt </p>

James Moore

What would Nigel Farage’s immigration plan mean for the economy?

<p>Rishi Sunak’s minor mistakes have kept alive the narrative of a particularly gaffe-strewn campaign</p>

John Rentoul

Is Rishi Sunak running the worst election campaign in history?

<p>The King is a committed environmentalist </p>

Alan Rusbridger

The climate crisis has gone woke: Can King Charles save us?

The Longer Read

<p>Pupils run across the historic cobbled yard at Eton College </p>

When it comes to parents being snooty about state schools, I’ve won

There’s no area where the great British taste for oneupmanship and hypocrisy flourishes more flagrantly than within the Bash Street Comp vs Public School divide, says Rowan Pelling. Which is how she brought a dinner party of friends fretting about Labour’s VAT plans to a crashing standstill…

<p>‘Me? Out of fashion? I don’t believe it!’: Richard Wilson as Victor Meldrew in ‘One Foot in the Grave’</p>

You won’t be ‘chuffed’ to hear it... These words are showing your age

<p>Khrystyna Drahomaretska has been infected with rabies and been hit by a rocket in her pursuit to save stray animals and stop the spread of the disease in Ukraine and further afield </p>

The Longer Read

The war against rabies in Ukraine and the race against time to stop it

Politics Explained

<p>Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves would inherit extremely tight public spending budgets should Labour win in July </p>

Politics Explained

Which taxes could rise if Labour wins the general election?

<p>Davey’s party are only polling at 9 per cent for voting intention </p>

Politics Explained

Will the Lib Dems getting more MPs than Reform UK spark calls for PR?

<p>Nigel Farage’s ability to grab media attention will probably propel the issue higher up the agenda</p>

Politics Explained

Has Nigel Farage turned this into the ‘immigration election’?

<p>Rishi Sunak’s Tories trail Labour and Keir Starmer by more than 20 points in the latest polls </p>

Politics Explained

How are Starmer and Sunak preparing for election TV debates?

Most Commented

Mordaunt condemns Sunak as ‘wrong’ over D-Day as TV debate becomes ‘unedifying’ row

133 comments

Tice accuses Tories of ‘dirty tricks’ to persuade Reform candidates to stand down

131 comments

Lib Dem manifesto to pledge under 35s can live, study and work in EU despite Brexit

115 comments

Keir Starmer heading for 10 years in power, new poll says

183 comments

Editorials

8 June 2024

The Independent View

D-Day service may be remembered as the moment Sunak lost the election

<p>Charles speaks during a D-Day commemoration in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy, on Thursday </p>

The Independent View

They did not flinch – and we salute them for that

<p>Rishi Sunak during the ITV debate with Keir Starmer on Tuesday </p>

The Independent View

TV debate seemed promising for Sunak – but it’s thrown him into chaos

Culture

<p>Flannery O'Connor in 1952, the year ‘Wise Blood’ was published </p>

Book of a lifetime: Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

<p>Francesca Hayward (Titania) in ‘The Dream’, The Royal Ballet</p>

Ashton Celebrated: a loving tribute to Royal Ballet choreographer

<p>Audrey Hepburn starred with the cantankerous Rex Harrison in the 1964 film </p>

My Fair Lady at 60: Creepy and chauvinistic or cosy and comforting?

Travel

<p>Isle of wonder: just off the coast of Sicily is an archipelago steeped in myths </p>

A real-life journey through the mythical lands of the ‘Odyssey’

<p>A couple’s tour to Japan was paid for at a much higher exchange rate than experienced in the country on their trip </p>

Can we claim rate rebate after the yen dropped while we were in Japan?

John RentoulThe Independent’s chief political commentator

<p>The real leader of the opposition will be Angela Rayner</p>

The opposition to a Starmer government will come from within Labour

<p>Rayner, left gave a strong performance in a crowded, disconnected and occasionally disorderly format</p>

Angela Rayner had a very successful debate... against Liz Truss

<p>There will inevitably be polls in the next few days, if not hours, putting Reform ahead of the Tories</p>

Farage poll shock! Cue Tories in full headless chicken mode…

Andrew GricePolitical columnist who keeps his ear to the ground inside Westminster

Labour took a risk calling Sunak a liar – but it will pay off

Rishi Sunak’s tax bombshell has blown up in his face

<p>Knights of the long knives: Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Ed Davey have agreed an unofficial pact</p>

Could Keir Starmer and Ed Davey’s bromance give Labour its landslide?

Chris Blackhurst

<p>Jen-hsun Huang in his trademark black leather jacket </p>

How the new Steve Jobs cashed in on AI – and amassed a $100bn fortune

<p>Up to his neck in... the water crisis: Ed Davey in Lake Windermere this week </p>

Business Comment

How our water crisis could be fixed – without costly nationalisation

<p>Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers a speech during a visit to Rolls-Royce in Derby</p>

Will Rachel Reeves’ charm offensive with the City work for Labour?

News analysis

<p>David Cameron meeting Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday</p>

Why the UK should not rule out sending troops to Ukraine

<p>Buyers are reluctant to pay through the nose for houses, and prices have been falling month on month </p>

House prices are falling – but what does it mean for the future?

<p>Rishi Sunak welcomes Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame to Downing Street earlier this month </p>

Is the capital of Rwanda really safer than London?

<p>Demonstrators wave Iran’s flag as they gather in front of the British embassy in Tehran</p>

Could conflict between Israel and Iran trigger a third world war?

Sport

<p>Gareth Southgate watches on at Wembley on Friday night</p>

Southgate’s ruthless England cull is the gamble that will define him

<p>Tyson Fury, left, and Oleksandr Usyk will finally clash in Saudi Arabia months of negotiations </p>

Why Fury and Usyk aren’t just fighting for belts and bragging rights

Mary DejevskyExpert on foreign affairs, Russian politics and diplomatic relations between the Kremlin and the west

<p>Swedish soldiers operate on a Combat Vehicle 90 during training with Finnish hunting units as part of Nato’s Nordic Response exercise</p>

EU voters close to Russia crave one thing above all – security

<p>If the ban casts doubt on Biden’s credentials as a Democrat, he could lose as many votes as he gains</p>

Biden’s ‘border order’ is the new ‘Trump’s wall’, but will it work?

<p>After the jury’s guilty verdict, Donald Trump declared the whole process had been engineered by the Biden administration to keep him out of the White House</p>

Now it’s Donald Trump vs the US justice system – who will win?

America

<p>Joe Biden speaks in Belfast on 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement</p>

Biden says Brexit deal can bring ‘significant’ US investment to NI

<p>Such leaks remind countries like Russia – as well as US allies – of the sheer scale and reach of Washington’s operations</p>

The diplomatic damage done by the Pentagon leak won’t last long

<p>Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley wrote a tweet attacking ‘weak and woke’ ideology the day she declared her candidacy</p>

Republicans are running on ‘wokeism’ – but don’t know what it is