Independent Premium

A selection of Premium articles available exclusively to our subscribers

From high living to heartbreak - why ladette Zoe Ball said enough

Head shot of Zoë Beaty

<p>Ball’s career and presence in British pop media spans more than three decades, and many more incarnations</p>

<p>Julian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter in ‘A Room With A View’ </p>

We all experienced the triumph and loss of the Merchant Ivory years

<p>1968, file photo made available by NASA shows the Earth behind the surface of the moon during the Apollo 8 mission</p>

Life at the edge of the universe is becoming clearer every day

<p>Leo is seen by many as being one of the architects behind the Trump 2.0 era</p>

Meet Leonard Leo – Trump’s most powerful weapon in his war on woke

News analysis

<p>A retired senior man in his 70s sits at home inside his cold house in winter</p>

‘I spend my fuel allowance on dinner at The Ivy – others need help’

<p>At least 70,000 farms lose out under Keir Starmer’s proposed tractor tax </p>

‘The tractor tax means we’re sleepwalking into food shortages’

<p>Terrible twosome: Trump and Putin at at press conference in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018 </p>

Europe is in grave danger if Trump hands victory to Putin in Ukraine

<p>An inflatable dinghy carrying around 65 migrants crosses the English Channel on 6 March 2024 in Dover, England</p>

Hunting ‘The Scorpion’: My mission to track gangs smuggling migrants

The Longer Read

<p>In the first 10 months or so of taking Ozempic, users can lose an average of 13-15 pounds, according to clinical studies</p>

Health and Wellbeing

What really happens when you come off Ozempic and Wegovy

<p>Karen Pierce with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2020</p>

Why Karen Pierce is key to reviving Starmer’s relationship with Trump

<p>For liberal women, the election has became an endorsement of sexual violence</p>

Why some women are going on ‘men strike’ – cutting them out completely

Voices

<p>The announcement that the US embassy in Kyiv – and some EU embassies – are shutting for fear of Russian airstrikes adds to the mood of growing crisis over Ukraine</p>

Nobody can stop the juggernaut of war – not even Putin

<p>Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, standing in at Prime Minister’s Questions, repeated the mantra: ‘We took the difficult decisions’ </p>

Can the Tories ever get past Labour’s ‘…But you crashed the economy’?

<p>Children ride on toy tractors as part of the farmers’ protest in central London</p>

Labour is losing the PR battle over the ‘tractor tax’

<p>Home secretary Yvette Cooper has launched a new Home Office unit to collect data to monitor police performance</p>

The police won’t win back public support with a new data unit, Yvette…

Editorials

<p>Protesters gathered in the capital today to dispute changes to inheritance tax </p>

The Independent View

The tractor tax has done lasting damage to ‘Starmer the farmer harmer’

<p>Almost three years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden has approved Zelensky’s use of long-range US missiles</p>

The Independent View

Biden is taking steps to help Ukraine – but is it too little too late?

<p>Farmers will protest in Westminster on Tuesday over the inheritance tax changes </p>

The Independent View

Rachel Reeves’s flawed inheritance tax for farmers demands a rethink

Politics Explained

<p>Rachel Reeves giving her Mansion House speech</p>

Politics Explained

Why is Rachel Reeves accused of ‘lying’ on her CV?

<p>Keir Starmer shakes hands with president Xi Jinping in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil</p>

Politics explained

Are overtures to China a ‘reset’ too far?

<p>The Lords were warned: ‘Do not be on the wrong side of history’ </p>

Politics Explained

Is the government any closer to releasing prisoners held under IPP?

<p>The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has resigned</p>

Politics Explained

Why the choice to replace Welby is important for British politics

World

Trump’s election will make Brexit even more painful for Britain

<p>Lebanese soldiers gather outside a phone shop on Wednesday after what was believed to have been an explosion due to a walkie-talkie within</p>

Exploding pagers and walkie-talkies – are phones and cars next?

America

<p>Trump won a historic victory, but he is still President-elect of a desperately divided country </p>

He may be capable of random cruelty, but Trump is no Nazi dictator

<p>Meghan and Harry may have to think again about staying in California </p>

Trump’s election victory may drive Harry and Meghan out of America

<p>Across Europe and beyond, populists like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni will be emboldened by the 47th president’s resounding success</p>

The world’s ‘Brexit’: Trump’s friends in Europe will get more extreme

How American TV channels will decide who wins the US election

Health and Wellbeing

<p>Jeremy Clarkson holding a sign that says ‘with our farmers’
</p>

Anyone can reinvent themselves in midlife – just look at Clarkson

<p>Hunkering down isn’t the answer – it’s time to get out and experience the changing weather </p>

Fitness and wellbeing

Cold, dark... and not remotely miserable: How to live well in winter

<p>A balanced protein diet is good for weight loss </p>

Fitness and wellbeing

How to get the right amount of protein – at every age

Culture

<p>David Hoffman, ‘Nidge and Laurence Kissing’, 1990</p>

The 1980s: gritty or glossy? Tate’s new photography show takes a side

<p>Joan Armatrading: ‘I still get the same thrill, writing a song from beginning to end. It’s quite a thing, you know?’</p>

Joan Armatrading: ‘I love gossip – but my private life is off limits’

<p>‘Johanna was my closest friend, but she was also like a younger sister. Some sort of unspoken authority was vested in me, some sort of wild freedom in her’ </p>

Sigrid Rausing: ‘We – the living – are the ghosts haunting the dead’

<p>Georges Perec was a French novelist, essayist and filmmaker. ‘Life A User’s Manual’ was published when he was 42. He died three years later </p>

Book of a lifetime: Life A User’s Manual by Georges Perec

Lifestyle

<p>UK consumers are expected to spend £3.18bn on Black Friday alone</p>

Black Friday is coming – here’s an expert’s guide on how not to be had

<p>‘Nobody Wants This’ tells the story of two singletons in search for a happy ever after</p>

I’m happier now than I was being a ‘smug married’

Travel

<p>Crete has all the benefits of a longhaul holiday but without the extra costs </p>

Travel questions

Where can I take my wife for a warm anniversary trip?

<p>A London-Singapore-Perth (pictured) journey issued as a through-ticket comes with solid protection </p>

What’s the best way to fly to Australia on a one-way trip?

<p>Ghent makes for a classy short stay en route to taking the ferry to northern Europe </p>

How can we best plan our Scandinavian road trip?

<p>After so much devastation, it is the women who are building back stronger </p>

The female tour guides blazing a trail through the Atlas mountains

Sport

<p>Mike Tyson, former heavyweight world champion </p>

Why is rapist Mike Tyson allowed to fight again for a Netflix payout?

<p>Leap of faith: the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham cost the city £778m, a level of cost that probably factored into the city’s council declaring of bankruptcy in 2023 </p>

Is the crisis-hit Commonwealth Games about to run its last race?

John RentoulThe Independent’s chief political commentator

<p>Catch a falling star: the Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak in the early hours of Monday morning (18 November) </p>

Errors & Omissions

Mea Culpa: a masterpiece from much longer ago

<p>Britain could be made to choose between the US and EU when it comes to free trade </p>

If Trump forces Britain to choose, we have to go with the EU

<p>The figures are a blow to Chancellor Rachel Reeves (Isabel Infantes/PA)</p>

We need more than your ‘Crisis? What crisis?’ response, Chancellor

Simon CalderThe Independent’s travel correspondent – and one of the UK’s most trusted travel journalists

Snow to hit UK over weekend as Met Office warns of danger to life

<p>On time? Passengers at London St Pancras International, home of Eurostar as well as Thameslink, East Midlands Railway and Southeastern</p>

Ex-Eurostar boss tells government to stay out of running railways

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

<p>Donald Trump would want a trade deal to include the UK accepting cheap American food imports such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef</p>

Can Keir Starmer fix Britain’s Trump problem?

<p>Health secretary Wes Streeting told the health industry that poor senior leaders were the NHS’s ’guilty secret’</p>

Hard medicine is not what the NHS wants – but exactly what it needs

<p>In 2029, Keir Starmer’s Labour will have to fight an election on its record in power – against parties offering ‘change’ </p>

What Sir Keir can learn from the Kamala calamity

Chris BlackhurstRenowned business journalist and former editor of The Independent

<p>Donald Trump said he would make the US ‘the Bitcoin superpower of the world’ – and, after his win, shares hit a record high of $75,389</p>

What a Trump White House means for the dollar, for China… and beyond

<p>Neck and neck: the industry cannot separate Donald Trump and Kamala Harris</p>

Just how accurate are the latest Trump and Harris polls?

<p>Filling holes in the road was the most eye-catching spending announcement in Wednesday’s Budget </p>

Yes, the Budget was disappointing – but not for the reasons you think

Sean O'GradyAssociate Editor of the Independent, known for his columns on politics and economics

<p>The Ford Puma ST-Line X, a petrol-powered Fiesta-sized hatch/SUV ‘crossover’ </p>

Ford Puma: What’s new fussy cat?

<p>Donald Trump shakes Robert F Kennedy Jr’s hand after Kennedy endorsed the now president-elect at a rally in August. RFK Jr will be nominated to serve as Trump’s HHS secretary, Politico reports</p>

Trump putting anti-vaxxer RFK Jr in charge comes with a health warning

<p>Farmers protesting outside the Northern Farming Conference in Hexham, Northumberland, against the proposals to reform inheritance tax </p>

Politics Explained

Why are the farmers ploughing ahead with a major protest next week?

Alan RusbridgerPulitzer Prize winning journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Guardian

<p>Donald Trump and Elon Musk attend a campaign event on 5 October 2024</p>

Trump can smell weakness – but there is a way to beat his dark arts

<p>‘Trump will make Musk much richer’ </p>

Trump isn’t the real danger to America – it’s Musk

<p>King Charles at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Samoa</p>

It’s time for the royal family to come clean on their finances

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

<p>Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz was investigated for sex trafficking </p>

Trump’s appointment of Matt Gaetz has put American justice on trial

<p>During her campaign, Kamala Harris steered clear of highlighting either her gender or her ethnicity</p>

Do American voters have a woman problem?

<p>Joe Biden has always been pro-Nato Atlanticist </p>

Biden’s foreign policy legacy looks even worse in the rear-view mirror

Jon SopelFormer BBC North America Editor and co-host of the News Agents podcast

<p>‘The failure of the Democratic Party is not just down to Kamala Harris, it is an epic fail with a wide cast-list of characters who must shoulder their share of blame’ </p>

Kamala’s catastrophe: How it all went so badly wrong

<p>During his victory speech in Florida, Donald Trump thanked ‘the greatest political movement in history’ for returning him to the White House </p>

Jon Sopel: The moment I knew the ‘bro’ vote won it for Trump

<p>The Democratic candidate and current vice-president speaks at a campaign rally in swing-state Georgia </p>

Kamala is in trouble – Trump’s opponents don’t know how to fight him

Jim WhiteFounding member of The Independent, celebrated football pundit and sports presenter

<p>Gary Lineker will still front the BBC’s coverage of the World Cup in 2026 </p>

Dumping Gary Lineker is a self-destructive move the BBC will regret

<p>‘I love you, Daddy’: Adam Peaty hugs his son George after winning silver in the men’s 100 metres breaststroke</p>

Why Paris 2024 is turning into the ‘Dadlympics’

<p>Thomas Tuchel as he is announced as the new England manager at Wembley Stadium</p>

Appointing Thomas Tuchel is a damning indictment of English football