Donald Trump has been charged in the investigation into the discovery of hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The seven-count indictment, involving alleged violations of the Espionage Act, makes him the first former US president to face criminal charges. He called it a “continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time”. Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden have unveiled an agreement to strengthen economic ties between the UK and the US. The Atlantic Declaration falls short of a “full-fat” free trade deal, says the BBC’s Chris Mason, but it will allow British electric car firms to access the hefty green tax credits and subsidies offered in America. Thomas Cromwell’s Book of Hours has been rediscovered in a Cambridge library after 363 years. The collection of prayers, famously depicted in Holbein’s portrait of the minister, is thought to be the only object from any Tudor painting that has survived to this day.
Comment
What Biden gets right
Comment
Germany is the real sick man of Europe
Photography
The Queen’s Great Canopy is a new book showcasing some of Britain’s most famous trees. They include a majestic oak in West Sussex; a 16th-century sycamore in East Ayrshire; a huge yew in a Powys churchyard; and the apple tree in Lincolnshire that was said to have inspired Isaac Newton’s work on gravity. See more here.
Inside politics
Politicians’ language is being taken over by “corporate speak”, says Nesrine Malik in The Guardian. The worst culprit is Rishi Sunak, “who has probably said the word ‘deliver’ more than any other during his premiership”. Delivering for Britain, delivering for Scotland, delivering for voters – he’s always delivering for someone. Keir Starmer isn’t much better, with his “joined-up” thinking, “sleeves-rolled-up” partnerships and “mission-driven” politics. As for his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, she says Labour wants to focus on “securonomics” – whatever that is. Please, Westminster, enough of this “CEO-on-an-away-day patter”.
Zeitgeist
Rowdy behaviour on flights is becoming more common. The average number of unruly incidents has almost doubled from 1 per 1,000 flights in 2020 to 1.76 per 1,000 last year, according to new data from the International Air Transport Association. The probability of physical assaults has nearly tripled since 2020, and verbal abuse is up 61%. ✈️🤬
Staying young
Men obsessed with optimising their looks are now hankering after “hunter eyes”, says Vice – “narrow, deep-set” peepers that turn up at the ends, like those of Chris Hemsworth and Robert Pattinson. Videos tagged #huntereyes have racked up nearly 85 million TikTok views. One American cosmetic surgeon says those asking to achieve the look – in a procedure that costs around £6,000 – are almost all men. But many of his potential patients are chasing after an impossibility: the photos of “hunter eyes” they show him are usually just of people squinting.
Quirk of history
In 1945, an American marine biologist called Joel Hedgpeth became the founder and sole member of the Society for the Prevention of Progress. He rejected all membership applications, on the basis that “growth in members would represent progress”.
Snapshot
It’s Fraser Island, or at least it used to be. The world’s largest sand isle – just off the east coast of Australia – was until Wednesday named after Eliza Fraser, the Scotswoman who was shipwrecked there in the 1830s and became famous for falsely describing its Aboriginal inhabitants as cannibals. After a decades-long campaign by the Butchulla people, who have lived in the Australian island’s forests for more than 5,000 years, the 76-mile spit of sand will now be known by its traditional Aboriginal name, K’gari