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  What Was the American Revolution For? Amid plans to mark the nation’s semiquincentennial, many are asking whether or not the people really do rule, and whether the law is still king. November 10, 2025 Ken Burns’s “The American Revolution” relates how the most important ideas of the modern world emerged, amid a bloody and courageous rebellion against tyranny which was at once a civil war and a global war. Illustration by Keith Negley This past June, at a No Kings rally outside a white clapboard church in a little brick town in the lower right-hand corner of Vermont, Green Mountaineers huddled together in raincoats under a pearl-gray sky. Some ironic anti-royalists wore golden paper crowns from Burger King, but the more sartorially, not to say lepidopterously, dedicated came dressed as orange-and-black butterflies, these being the only monarchs allowed in America. “Rejecting Kings Since 1776” read a sign carried by a woman wearing a rainbow bucket hat. In the matter of handmade pla...
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 IT'S TAKEN THEM THIS LONG! EU explores banning Huawei, ZTE Corp from mobile networks of member countries, Bloomberg News reports By  Reuters November 11, 2025 2:12 AM GMT+8 Updated 8 hours ago Item 1 of 2 A sign of Huawei is displayed at the company's booth at the expo of the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Tongxiang city, Zhejiang province, China November 8, 2025. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang [1/2] A sign of Huawei is displayed at the company's booth at the expo of the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Tongxiang city, Zhejiang province, China November 8, 2025. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang  Purchase Licensing  Rights
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  Tuesday 11 November 2025 News/ Comment This opinion glosses over the many failings and biases of the BBC (the disgraceful apology for Hamas, transgender filth), but it has merit.  PM must grasp that Beeb is fighting for its very survival It is said that BBC chair Samir Shah has never met Keir Starmer – which tells you something about the prime minister’s priorities  (Getty) Alan Rusbridger So now what? The two most senior BBC executives have walked out of almost impossible jobs. The governance of the organisation is an almost laughable mess. And we’re within four years of the strong possibility of a populist government that would gladly administer the last rites. Who, given the above, would willingly step into the shoes of Tim Davie or Deborah Turness, the outgoing director general and head of news? Who has the news chops and sheer backbone to lead one of the greatest news organisations in the world while simultaneously running a £5.4bn international corporation? And wh...
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  The Rich Get Richer The other week, Billie Eilish stood in a room full of innovators and  asked : “If you’re a billionaire,  why  are you a billionaire?”  Nir Kaissar  says  this chart is the answer : “Shares of Oracle, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta grew by more than 20% a year the past decade, including dividends. Tesla and Nvidia grew even faster, by 42% and 76%. At that rate, the leaders of these companies — already the world’s seven richest people — will very likely become trillionaires in the next three to five years,” he writes. Meanwhile  on planet earth , the rest of us are just hoping we can afford a roof over our heads. “The average age of a first-time homebuyer  is now 40 , up from 33 just a few years ago and 29 in 1981,”  Allison Schrager  notes . Having a mortgage with your name attached to it used to be an important box to check for the American dream. But now, a lot of people just rent — in...
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  SHOOT THIS RAT BITCH! The Lavish Lifestyle of an Alleged Chinese Agent Gets a Spotlight in Trial Listen (7 min) Linda Sun, a former beauty-pageant contestant, is on trial in a federal court in New York City.   kent j. edwards/Reuters Quick Summary Linda Sun, a former New York state aide, is on trial for allegedly acting as an undeclared agent for China, facing charges including bribery, bank fraud, and money laundering. Prosecutors allege Sun used her position to influence New York governors in favor of China, receiving millions through her husband’s businesses, including $15.8 million from a lobster-export business and $2.3 million in COVID-era kickbacks. Sun’s defense argues her interactions with Chinese officials were part of her official duties and aligned with U.S. policy, with her trial highlighting the complexities of foreign agent prosecutions. An artificial-intelligence tool created this summary, which was based on the text of the article and checked by an editor....
  Reasons to be bearish about China’s rise Rana Foroohar rana.foroohar@ft.com · 10 Nov 2025 Iam a contrarian at heart. Questioning any narrative that is all one way, all the time comes naturally. Take the rise of artificial intelligence, the evils of tariffs and, most recently, the sense that nothing will hinder the global ascendancy of China. Many investors have bought whole hog into that last argument in recent weeks. Beijing appears to have won the trade wars and is poised to win both the chip wars and the AI wars as well, seemingly making China’s role as the new global hegemon secure. But there are important caveats to this story. Let me start by humouring China bulls and pointing out the obvious: China’s economic engine is remarkable, and its long-term industrial planning enviable. It has met US President Donald Trump’s bullying with a great show of force in areas like rare earth minerals, agricultural purchases (where it has turned away from the US on a dime) and cutting-edge...