Climber Alex Honnold’s recent ascent of Taipei 101  raises a few questions regarding the modern monetised spectacle. On the 25 th  of January 2026, Netflix livestreamed Honnold’s climb with a ten second delay. Without any safety gear, just one error would have resulted in thousands of spectators lining the tower’s base being witness to a catastrophic death. Questions would have been raised over Netflix’s ethical rights to stage and film such an event. Resignations would be in

We live in a world increasingly connected through social media, yet simultaneously increasingly disconnected from reality and political awareness. In various parts of the world, becoming a trend seems more important than developing innovative proposals. Politics has, in many ways, been hijacked by fame, and this hijacking has ultimately eroded debate and critical thinking. Politics understood as the serious exercise of power has been sidelined, giving way to a distorted and s

Across Europe, a striking consensus has taken hold. Quiz a passerby on the streets of Paris, Berlin or London on the state of society and you are likely to hear all too familiar lamentations concerning the declining state of both government performance and social cohesion. The cost of living continues to rise whilst wages stagnate and public services buckle, politics is brittle and the future looks more precarious than the past. This transnational belief , one which has been

In the late hours of the 6 th  of February, Donald Trump posted a bizarre, AI generated video  that depicted his political opponents as animals on Truth Social.  The now-deleted clip had the faces of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez superimposed onto jungle animals, whilst The Lion Sleeps Tonight blared in the background. Amongst them, former President Joe Biden took the form of a mon

The increasing national instability that we currently see in the UK isn’t aided by constant leadership changes. Having said this, the competence of the Labour Party’s seventh prime minister is up for question, in view of the many failures in communications over the past 18 months of Labour in Downing Street. I am not a Labour hater; I’ve campaigned for them in the past, know many local Labour activists and feel that their local strategy is stronger than their work nationally.