Joe Biden has for the first time authorised Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory using US-made long-range missiles. The tactical weapons, long requested by Kyiv, are expected to be used initially against Russian and North Korean troops fighting in the Kursk region. Moscow has accused the US of throwing “oil on fire”. Keir Starmer has become the first UK prime minister in six years to meet Xi Jinping in person. Speaking after their sit-down at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, the PM said a “strong UK-China relationship is important for both of our countries”. Britain is bracing itself for colder temperatures than Moscow this week with daily highs of just 3C. Scotland will be hardest hit, with some areas expected to get up to 10cm of snow.

It’s amazing how the conversation about what constitutes a good society is “framed by the rich and their interests”, says Will Hutton in The Observer. Take the row over farming. Under Rachel Reeves’s plan to cut back inheritance tax relief for farms worth more than £1m, around 500 or so people a year will have to “join the rest of society” and pay up for what they are bequeathed – albeit “at half the rate, with an enlarged exemption and 10 years to pay it”. Lucky them, you might be thinking. Instead, everyone from the National Farmers’ Union to the Tory party (“and, inevitably, Elon Musk”) have portrayed this as some sort of “new communist dictatorship”. Never mind that the revised rules will help drive down land prices, and therefore farmers’ rents. “Rarely have 500 very privileged people got so hysterical – and commanded so much attention.”

The idea that these farmers have it good is for the birds, says Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph. Most work seven-day weeks. I once asked the chap whose brother rented our farm how much holiday they took, and “he told me they had been to Wales for four days in 1949”. That was it, in 40 years. Numbers-wise, a farming neighbour says the new inheritance tax due on 500 acres of arable land (worth about £5m) would be equivalent to 13 years’ worth of farm profits. So it could only be paid by selling up. And farmers are already getting it in the neck: the increase in minimum wage and employers’ National Insurance; a carbon tax that will add around 20% to the cost of fertiliser imports. Soon, all that will be left will be tiny farms whose owners make money elsewhere and enormous agri-businesses that can pay accountants to “work round the taxes”. Family farms – the lifeblood of the countryside – will be gone forever.

The conventional wisdom is that Donald Trump’s election victory is a “nightmare” for Keir Starmer, says Tom McTague in UnHerd, but it may also present an opportunity. Kamala Harris’s defeat is a clear rejection of the “obsessions and prejudices” of American identity politics – a movement the PM’s inner circle is keen to distance itself from. With such a clear result in the US, it will be easier than ever for serious-minded Labour types to make the case for ditching all that virtue signalling and getting on with actually helping people.

Tesco’s £25 champagne has beaten Moët & Chandon to be crowned the best Christmas fizz, says The Guardian. A blind taste test by Which? saw four independent wine experts try a selection of non-vintage champagnes costing up to £50. The Tesco Finest Premier Cru Brut won the top score at 82%, followed by other supermarket buys from Waitrose and Aldi, while Moët & Chandon’s £44 Brut Impérial lagged behind at 77%. The consumer group also put supermarket mince pies through their paces, with Waitrose’s No 1 brown butter mince pies winning first place.

I was living in Washington when Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump four years ago, says Janan Ganesh in the FT, and you could tell at once that the Republicans had left town and Democrats had moved in. You were suddenly much likelier to hear someone vow to be “intentional” or use the phrase “redemption arc” or accuse people of having “main character syndrome” or of being “performative”. You were likelier to hear “toxic” and “narcissism” and “cosplay”. Today, these verbal tics are no longer unique to “ultra-neurotic people in one necessarily unusual town”. Among certain kinds of graduates in the world’s big anglophone cities, this kind of talk is more or less “ambient”.

Those who speak this liberal dialect tend to have “no earthly idea how odd it sounds to others”, and therefore what a competitive disadvantage it is compared to the “plain-speaking right”. Among conservative megastars like podcaster Joe Rogan, and Trump himself, what stands out is an “Orwellian directness”. Their straight talk is far clearer to normal people than the “psychotherapeutic jargon” that defines progressive speech. Conservatives are also far less likely to commit “Upspeak” – the annoying habit of lifting one’s vocal pitch towards the end of sentences that aren’t questions. People who regard Rogan as a “dangerous fool on vaccines” nevertheless prefer three hours of his ramblings over 30 minutes of “someone? who speaks? like this?” Style and substance are linked: if you can’t tell that a word lacks resonance outside your bubble, you can’t tell that a candidate does either. Even I don’t know for sure what “gaslighting” means, “and I’m such a cartoon metropolitan that I have a favourite Eurostar seat”.

The data analyst and blogger Stephen Follows has compiled a list of 138 movie dialogue clichés and tracked how often they feature in around 72,000 films released since 1940. Topping the chart was “What the hell”, which appeared in just over a third of all the movies studied. “What are you doing here?” came second, and in third was “Honey, is that you?” Other hot phrases included: “What the fuck?” (20%); “Let’s get out of here” (10%); “Did you hear something?” (9%); “Try to get some sleep” (7%); and “Why are you doing this to me?” (6%). See the rest here.

Last week’s story about a moth infestation in a £32.5m Notting Hill house made me think of an old Barry Cryer joke, says Patrick Kidd in The Times. A husband arrives home early to find his wife in bed and a naked man in the bathroom clapping his hands. “I’m from the council, your wife reported moths,” explains the man in the bathroom. “You’re naked!” says the husband, whereupon the lover stops clapping, looks down in surprise and says: “The bastards...”

It’s Karoline Leavitt, who has been chosen by Donald Trump to be his White House press secretary. The 27-year-old, who served as his campaign press secretary, will be the youngest person ever to assume the role, says The New York Times. She has plenty of experience, though: she began working for the first Trump White House shortly after graduating in 2019, first as a speechwriter and later as assistant press secretary. She has said her tasks included preparing her boss for press briefings and fighting against the “biased mainstream media”.