Why is the London Review of Books putting out records? We liked the idea of marking the paper’s 45th anniversary with a series of 45 rpm vinyl singles, and drawing on our rich archive of poems made sense (LPs of readings by Dylan Thomas or Stevie Smith used to sell by the bucketload). But which poems? There are thousands of contenders. A seven-inch record has space for about eleven minutes of spoken word, which is more than you get with music: the bass requires deeper and therefore wider grooves. Happily, this equates to a long-ish poem – the kind that takes up a whole page or even a double-page spread in the LRB – being read in full.
Police officers and a protester on Balmedie Beach ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to his Menie golf course in Aberdeenshire, 28 July 2025. (PA / Jane Barlow)
I don’t suppose Donald Trump or Keir Starmer saw the row of flags, black, white and green with a red triangle, on a high dune near the Trump International golf course, eight miles north of Aberdeen, when they flew in together on Monday evening.
During the curtain call for the closing performance of Verdi’s Il trovatore at the Royal Opera House on 19 July, one of the cast, Danni Perry, took their bow holding a Palestinian flag. The moment, filmed by several people in the audience, went viral, with videos showing someone appearing from the wings and trying to wrest the flag from Perry’s hands.
England celebrate their victory over Spain in the Euro 2025 final in Basel, Switzerland (Harriet Lander / FA / Getty)
Compared to 2022, when England was the host nation, there has been a distinct lack of interest in this summer’s Euros. After England beat Italy last Tuesday to qualify for the final, I texted my nearest and dearest to say I would see them on Sunday. I hoped this loosely veiled threat would pay off. Does it matter if we don’t show our support for the women competing? If you follow football but have ignored this tournament, it matters.
Israel’s allies are still buying time for Israel to change course or come to a deal with Hamas over how many trucks to allow in, as though food were a legitimate bargaining chip. Gazans cannot afford to wait for either. Every day that foreign governments stand by, devastating starvation becomes harder to avert.
Preliminary data published in 2021 strongly suggested that testing positive for Covid was linked to a traumatic stress response during pregnancy and childbirth. According to a study from 2022, ‘pregnant mothers reported fear of infection, fear of vertical transmission, fear of poor birth and child outcomes, social isolation, uncertainty about their partner’s presence during medical appointments and delivery, increased domestic abuse, and other collateral damage, including vaccine hesitancy.’ During the first two years of the pandemic, maternal mortality rose in the United States (especially among Black and Hispanic communities), Japan, Australia and the Netherlands.
Malak Musleh, who was among those killed in the bombing of al-Baqaa Café in Gaza City on 29 June
Trauma centres in Gaza are recording the questions that children are asking: when it rains will we drown in the tent? When they bomb the tent, will we burn? Why do they always bomb us? I don’t want to die in pieces. Will the dogs that ate the dead bodies of the martyrs turn into humans? Do children who have their legs amputated grow new legs? Do the Israeli pilots who bomb children have children?