The Economist: ‘Before he became prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer’s favourite weapon was disgust. He was disgusted by the lies of Boris Johnson; disgusted by the tolerance that Jeremy Corbyn, his predecessor as leader of the Labour Party, showed towards antisemitism; disgusted by the effects of 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule. He never had a plan for what to do when the disgust turned back on him.’

And: ‘The outgoing prime minister leaves behind some successes. He helped steer international support for Ukraine (…), worked to position Britain for a leading role in the AI revolution and brought net immigration down from the record levels that had fuelled support for the populist right.’

But the Labour Party is ‘grumpy.’ As always.

Conclusion: ‘Sir Keir was not a great leader, but he could prove a tough act to follow.’

Ten years after Brexit, there are only tough acts. And disgust.

(a sf 2163)

Harrison Hill in TLS: ‘In the summer of 1891, a blue-eyed social reformer named Alzire Chevaillier arrived, with her mother, at a spiritualist colony just north of Santa Rosa, California. Raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Chevaillier had worked variously as a speaker, teacher, magazine editor and metaphysical healer. She was a seeker type, unsatisfied by (…) mainstream Christianity. She wanted more. She found it in the figure of the self- proclaimed prophet Thomas Lake Harris.’

And: ‘Harris said the grapes grown by the group there were so divinely blessed that it was impossible to get drunk on the wine they produced.’

As well: ‘All religions have objectively strange beliefs and practices (see: the virgin birth). Conversely, all cults are engaged in the kind of transcendent, redemptive processes that we associate with mainstream religion.’

Hill calls cults the wrong answer to the right question. But what is the right answer?

(a sf 2162)

Der Spiegel: ‘Nearly six million Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner and several hundred of them were held in camps near Ludwigsfelde. Countless numbers died of starvation, cold or disease. The Nazis buried many of them beside the Reichsautobahn 10, built by Adolf Hitler’s terror regime.’

And: ‘Estimates hold that 27 million Soviet citizens died in the violence, more than half of them civilians. Among them were more than two million Jewish men, women and children whom the Germans murdered in the Soviet Union through mass shootings, known as the "Holocaust by Bullets." Nearly five million people from the Soviet Union were deported to Germany as slave laborers – among them Ukrainians, Russians, Balts, Poles and Belarusians.’

And: ‘The dispute over how the past is to be understood is always part of the present.’

The past is the battleground of today’s culture wars, which sometimes become real wars.

(a sf 2161)

Sean Jacobs in NYT: ‘But the continuous treatment of Iran is scandalous — that the team is permitted entry into the United States only a day before each match. Second, we could see in the France-Senegal match that the partial travel ban on Senegalese fans affected their support in the stadium. And though the official American broadcaster, Fox, is not a state broadcaster, its hydration break, which is basically an ad break, lines up well with Trumpism. The Spanish-speaking channels do not cut away for the water break.’

And: ‘Even mighty FIFA, which normally expels a soccer federation if the state interferes in football matters, bends to Trump.’

As well: ‘Watching England versus Croatia fighting like two punch-drunk boxers until England wore Croatia down, in a bar with no air-conditioning on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn — that’s football.’

Steamy sex? Steamy soccer.

Soccer proves that the end of capitalism is far away.

(a sf 2160)

Zvi Bar'el in Haaretz: ‘Is U.S. President Donald Trump the one who threw Israel under the bus (which he was driving)? Or was it Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who decided that this was the surest way to commit diplomatic suicide?’

And: ‘Let's imagine that the family of the one committing suicide – in this case, the State of Israel – were to sue Trump for encouraging Netanyahu to take that desperate step. After all, the two marched arm in arm into a war against Iran that was doomed to fail. And Trump even hit the gas while still under the influence of the intoxicating drug of power.’

As well: ‘Intelligence depends on credibility and credibility depends on partnership. But the partnership has been eroded year after year – with Netanyahu's speech to Congress in 2015, arranged behind U.S. President Barack Obama's back.’

What comes after diplomatic suicide? Real defeat? Liberation? Another bloody war?

(a sf 2159)

Nir Hasson and Yaniv Kubovich in Haaretz: ‘On Tuesday, the number of Gazan fatalities since the cease-fire began on October 11 crossed 1,000, reaching 1,003. In all cases, the Israeli military claimed its forces were firing at legitimate targets for one of two reasons. They were either targeting Hamas members or suspects who approached the Yellow Line and were thereby endangering soldiers. But the military has not provided detailed explanations for each attack, much as it hasn't throughout the war in Gaza.’

As well: ‘A UN official told Haaretz that 15 of 121 women killed during the cease-fire died in incidents where all the victims were women and children.’

And: ‘In the view of Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, director of Nasser Hospital's pediatric department in southern Gaza, the war is far from over.’

The world got bored with Gaza. Israel has become a pariah, but the Palestinians are once again being discarded.

(a sf 2158)

Simon Skinner in LRB: ‘The World Cup, launched in 1930, is the most popular sporting event on the planet: one of Fifa’s less implausible recent claims is that 1.5 billion people watched the 2022 final in Doha.’

And: ‘It is a global soap opera with a cast of geographically varying heroes and villains and imperishable stereotypes, and we check back in confident of picking up where we left off: (…) elite French not considered French by many French, joyous Senegalese, inexhaustible South Koreans, tragic Dutch, hapless English, even more hapless Scots and inexplicably absent Italians.’

As well: ‘And a gallery of timeless images serves as the World Cup’s wallpaper, scrolling from blurry monochrome to UHD: (…) Frank Rijkaard’s fleck of gob caught mid-parabola towards Rudi Völler’s perm, and Gazza’s tears, and Maradona’s tears (Italy 1990).’

That’s what I watch soccer for. Waiting for another fleck of gob.