The first album written by Taylor Swift that was ever deemed respectable enough for Pitchfork to review was performed by Ryan Adams. The music blog gave the 1989 cover album by the since disgraced rocker a 4/10. No matter that Swift, who earned her first of 32 Grammy nominations over a decade ago, and became the youngest Album of the Year winner while still a teenager, has spent more than half her lifetime becoming one of the most prolific and successful singer-songwriters of all time. It’s only now that Pitchfork has decided that Swift’s career is worth considering as part of a serious canon of modern music.
Pitchfork began with a focus on independent music, and if the site simply ignored pop and country altogether, the absence of Swift from its reviews wouldn't have registered on any cultural Richter scale. But the same year that Pitchfork was reviewing Adams' cover, they reviewed Purpose by Justin Bieber. The Canadian crooner barely even wrote it. If Pitchfork wanted to reward artists who don't just perform but also create their own craft, it made no sense for them to validate Purpose, which required dozens of writers, and not any album by Swift, who's been writing her chart-toppers on her own since her debut album at age 16.
Pitchfork finally came around to reviewing the original 1989 as well as the rest of her oeuvre retrospectively, nearly two years after describing Reputation as "sadly conventional" in its first review of a Swift album. It only took Swift selling as many records as Whitney Houston and the Rolling Stones for them to do it.
"Back then," writes Maura Johnson at the blog of Swift's debut, "she had doubters."
Chief among them, the self-ordained tastemakers of the music industry. Pitchfork seems to have changed its tune on Swift, though, recognizing Joni Mitchell's influence on the singer's dexterous writing and artistic evolution, albeit with slight digs at Swift's "squeaky clean" image.
Swift, of course, would have the last laugh regardless of whether or not Pitchfork decided to cave. The site will be shuttered behind a paywall by the year's end. But still, four years after granting credence to the Adams cover, they finally covered 1989. They gave it a 7.7.
In our globalized economy, highly mobile capital works in favor of investors and consumers who value democratic protections. That dooms China's authoritarian model unless Beijing can force the world to submit to its peculiar form of feudal mercantilism.
Just look at Hong Kong.
Multiple reports on Thursday suggest that Alibaba, China's equivalent of Amazon, has suspended its plan to float shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. That's just the tip of the iceberg. The head of Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways recently resigned, and the head of a subsidiary airline's union, Cathay Dragon, has been forced out. Qantas airlines is reducing flights to the Chinese territory, and Hong Kong's service economy is in free fall. The simple takeaway: Witnessing Hong Kong's battle between individual freedom and state authoritarianism, international businesses are turning away.
That Chinese weakness is America's opportunity. Our countermanding investment model: one that balances democratic protections and the rule-of-law to free-market capitalism is one that can attract those investors now disillusioned by Hong Kong. Defending against Chinese aggression and strengthening an investor-friendly stable economy, we can take advantage from China's economic isolation.
Still not convinced?
Then just look at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (with my annotation). It has been spiraling downwards since the start of protests in April. Market stabilization has been impossible in face of oscillating protests.
(Screenshot via Hong Kong Stock Exchange)
Again, this is Beijing caught between reality and ideology.
The reality is that people do not want to kneel in submission to Chinese President Xi Jinping in return for whatever scraps he throws at them. They prefer to earn profits under protection of democratic law. But because Xi's ideology is centered in a long-term project to reshape the world under Chinese rule, he cannot yield to the protesters, which further hurts China's investment appeal.
It's not just absent freedom which makes China weak. It's the very model that Xi pursues. Where free markets allocate capital based on objective assessments of a return, Xi burns capital at the altar of his all-knowing delusion. Xi and his cronies believe they know better than the invisible hand. They are manifestly wrong.
Still, America must not take for granted our great systemic comparative advantage over China. President Trump's cultivation of chaos over the Federal Reserve is extraordinarily misguided. So too is it alarming that Democratic presidential front-runners now deride free markets. We should refocus on that which makes us economically great: freedom matched to capitalism.
If we do, Hong Kong shows that we'll win this new struggle for the 21st century.
A Muslim convert who joined the Islamic State group as a teenager has had his British citizenship revoked, the BBC understands.
Jack Letts - nicknamed Jihadi Jack in the press - was 18 years old when he left school in Oxfordshire in 2014 to join IS fighters in Raqqa, Syria.
He was jailed after being captured by Kurdish YPG forces while attempting to flee to Turkey in May 2017.
The Home Office said it would not comment on individual cases.
Mr Letts converted to Islam when he was 16 and is a dual UK-Canadian national.
Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood has been critical of the government's decision to revoke Mr Letts' British citizenship.
In a statement, tweeted on Sunday, he said removing the radicalised fighter's citizenship "shunts the responsibility elsewhere" when many fighters were "radicalised here in the UK".
He added that Britain "should be leading calls" on how "foreign fighters face justice and who is ultimately responsible for bringing them to justice".
While the Home Office would not comment on the issue, a spokesman said: "Decisions on depriving a dual national of citizenship are based on substantial advice from officials, lawyers and the intelligence agencies and all available information.
"This power is one way we can counter the terrorist threat posed by some of the most dangerous individuals and keep our country safe."
He dropped out of studying for his A-levels at a school in Oxford in 2014 before moving to Syria and joining the so-called Islamic State - the jihadist terror group which became known worldwide for its brutal mass killings and beheadings.
In an interview with the BBC's Quentin Sommerville, Mr Letts said: "I know I was definitely an enemy of Britain."
After being pressed on why he left the UK to join the jihadist group, he said: "I thought I was leaving something behind and going to something better."
He told ITV News earlier this year that he wanted to return to the UK as he felt British - but understood it was unlikely he would be able to.
"I'm not going to say I'm innocent. I'm not innocent. I deserve what comes to me. But I just want it to be... appropriate... not just haphazard, freestyle punishment in Syria," he said at the time. .
Mr Letts's parents, John, 58, and Sally Lane, 57, were convicted in June this year of funding terrorism after sending their son £223.
The couple were sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, following an Old Bailey trial.
Under international law, a person can only be stripped of their citizenship by a government if it does not leave them stateless.
The decision to revoke Jack Letts of his citizenship is thought to be one of the last decisions made by Theresa May's government.
It comes after then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped Shamima Begum of her UK citizenship earlier this year.
She was one of three girls from east London who left the UK in February 2015 and travelled to Syria, where she married an Islamic State group fighter.
Mr Javid said Ms Begum could claim Bangladeshi citizenship because of her family background.
But Bangladesh has said she is not a citizen and would not be allowed into the country.
A No 10 source told the BBC a former minister leaked the dossier to try to influence discussions with EU leaders.
The documents say the cross-government paper on preparations for a no-deal Brexit, codenamed Operation Yellowhammer, reveals the UK could face months of disruption at its ports.
It also states plans to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are unlikely to prove sustainable.
The dossier, reported by the Sunday Times, says leaving the EU without a deal could lead to:
Fresh food becoming less available and prices rising
A hard Irish border after plans to avoid checks fail, sparking protests
Fuel becoming less available and 2,000 jobs being lost if the government sets petrol import tariffs to 0%, potentially causing two oil refineries to close
UK patients having to wait longer for medicines, including insulin and flu vaccines
A rise in public disorder and community tensions resulting from a shortage of food and drugs
Passengers being delayed at EU airports, Eurotunnel and Dover
Freight disruption at ports lasting up to three months, caused by customs checks, before traffic flow improves to 50-70% of the current rate
The Downing Street source told the BBC the leaked document "is from when ministers were blocking what needed to be done to get ready to leave and the funds were not available".
Michael Gove, who is responsible for overseeing the devolution consequences of Brexit, said in a tweet that Operation Yellowhammer was "a worst case scenario".
"V significant steps have been taken in the last 3 weeks to accelerate Brexit planning," he added.
Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "I think there's a lot of scaremongering around and a lot of people are playing into project fear."
'Completely insane'
But a former head of the British civil service, Lord Bob Kerslake, who described the document as "credible", said the dossier "lays bare the scale of the risks we are facing with no-deal Brexit in almost every area".
"These risks are completely insane for this country to be taking and we have to explore every avenue to avoid them," he told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House.
Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney said, in a tweet, that Ireland had "always been clear" a hard border in Ireland "must be avoided".
The Irish backstop - the provision in Theresa May's withdrawal agreement that could see Northern Ireland continue to follow some of the same trade rules as the Republic of Ireland and the rest of the EU, thus preventing a hard border - was an "insurance policy" designed to protect the peace process, he said.
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said the leaked documents showed the effects of a no-deal Brexit should be taken more seriously.
"The government have simply, I think, pretended that this wasn't an issue," he said
The government was in "a real pickle", since the "the US has said that if that border is jeopardised, we're not going to get a trade deal with them", he said.
The leak comes as the prime minister prepares to travel to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday, before going to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.
Mr Johnson is expected to say Parliament cannot and will not change the outcome of the 2016 referendum and insist there must be a new deal to replace Mrs May's withdrawal agreement - defeated three times by MPs - if the UK is to leave the EU with a deal.
However, it is thought their discussions will chiefly focus on issues such as foreign policy, security, trade and the environment, ahead of the G7 summit next weekend.
Boris Johnson had been reluctant to fly to meet European leaders until it seemed a breakthrough was likely.
But - it still doesn't.
When Mr Johnson meets the EU's most powerful leaders - Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron - he will repeat his message that the UK is leaving, no matter what, at the end of October.
He will tell them face-to-face for the first time that the only way the UK will sign up to a deal is if the EU thinks again, and replaces the agreement brokered by Mrs May.
But there seems to be little chance of any serious progress in the coming days.
No 10 does not seem particularly optimistic and says it expects both sides will say their piece, then move on to other issues.
Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller said the Government had "unequivocally" accepted it could not shut down Parliament to clear the way for a no-deal Brexit.
She told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: "What they have said is, unequivocally, they accept that to close down Parliament, to bypass them in terms of Brexit - stopping a no-deal Brexit, in particular - is illegal."
But Ms Miller said she would continue to seek further reassurances that MPs would be able to pass legislation to stop a no-deal Brexit.
Meanwhile, a cross-party group of more than 100 MPs has urged the prime minister to recall Parliament and let it sit permanently until the UK leaves the EU.
In a letter, MPs say the country is "on the brink of an economic crisis".
It continues: "Parliament must be recalled now in August and sit permanently until 31 October, so that the voices of the people can be heard, and that there can be proper scrutiny of your government."
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has reiterated his call for MPs to work together to stop a no-deal Brexit.
Speaking to the Observer, Mr Corbyn said his plan to be installed as an interim prime minister was the "simplest and most democratic way to stop no deal".
The Labour leader has said, as a caretaker PM, he would delay Brexit, call a snap election, and campaign for another referendum.
But Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson said Mr Corbyn was "divisive" and instead suggested Conservative MP Ken Clarke or former Labour leader Harriet Harman could head a temporary government.
Elsewhere, in a letter seen by the Mail on Sunday, Mr Johnson warned rebel Tory MPs their opposition to a no-deal Brexit was damaging the prospect of getting a new deal.
He said it was "plain as a pikestaff" that the EU will "not compromise as long as they believe there is the faintest possibility that Parliament can block Brexit on 31 October".
Rockall, an uninhabited rock in the Atlantic, is the subject of a song.
Photo:
Alamy
DERRYBEG, Ireland—
Brian Warfield
has promised to reverse Britain’s last act of imperial expansion, and claim the Atlantic island of Rockall for Ireland.
Rockall is an 80-foot wide, uninhabitable rock, battered by 50-foot waves. The nearest habitable land, Scotland, is around 230 miles away. Mr. Warfield is a 73-year-old Irish folk musician without a boat.
Philip Casey, 62, first read about Mr. Warfield’s promise in a newspaper.
“I thought, good on him,” he said, as he waited for the Wolfe Tones to hit the stage.
The U.K. annexed Rockall in 1955, in what London newspapers dubbed the last act of the Empire, to stop the Soviet Union using it to spy on British missile tests.
Though it doesn’t claim the rock as Irish, Dublin has never recognized British sovereignty, saying nobody should own the remote island. Nor has Mr. Warfield and his band, the Wolfe Tones, who first took up the cause in 1976 with the satirical song “Rock on Rockall.”
This June, as the Scottish government ordered Irish boats to stop fishing the squid-rich waters around Rockall, Mr. Warfield told a newspaper: “We’d be prepared to go up there in a trawler ourselves and claim the rock back for Ireland.”
Then the band went on a tour of the U.S. and Mr. Warfield mainly forgot about his promise.
Tommy Byrne and Brian Warfield looked over a song list in Derrybeg, Ireland.
Photo:
Alistair Macdonald/The Wall Street Journal
Back in his native Ireland, he is discovering that not everybody else has.
“You shouldn’t say you are going to do something, unless you are going to do it,” said Anne Cassidy, who had come to watch the band play in Derrybeg, a village in the northwest coast of Ireland.
But there is the question of finance and logistics, Mr. Warfield said, from his hotel ahead of the show.
Share Your Thoughts
How long could you stay on an 80-foot wide, uninhabited island? Join the conversation below.
The logistics would require the aging musicians to brave gales and rough seas in a journey that could take up to 30 hours from an Irish port.
“It’s essentially just a big rock in the middle of nowhere, covered in bird excrement,” said Englishman Nick Hancock, who spent a record 45 days on Rockall in 2014.
Aside from the waves, the band will have to conquer huge swells at the base of the rock that make it difficult to get close, warns Tom McClean, a Brit who spent 40 days there in the 1980s.
With no place to land, visitors have to swim or leap onto the rock from a boat. Once on, the Wolfe Tones would need to climb 50 feet up the rock to plant the Irish flag. Mr. Hancock is an experienced rock climber and plays rugby. Mr. McClean is a former member of Britain’s elite Special Air Service group.
Englishman Nick Hancock spent a record 45 days on Rockall in 2014.
Photo:
Getty Images
The Wolfe Tones play golf.
“How can the Wolfe Tones do it? We are just a band,” Tommy Byrne, the 75-year-old guitarist, asked Mr. Warfield, as they settled into comfy chairs and pints of beer. “I’m not saying that I am not up for it, but 40-foot waves?” he said.
Noel Nagle, the band’s 75-year-old whistle player, wasn’t surprised to hear of Mr. Warfield’s promise on his and Mr. Byrne’s behalf.
“I’ve known him for over 50 years, I know what he’s like,” he said. “He’s gung ho.”
Mr. Warfield, who is currently writing a musical about Ireland’s Great Famine, is feeling positive. He posits a drone to get the flag onto Rockall. Mr. Byrne suggests a helicopter.
Calls for the Wolfe Tones to live up to their promise, and the band’s reaction to those demands, come with humor. The episode has also reminded the band members of their own mortality.
Having talked about the trip to Rockall since the 70s, the “Wolfers” know the trip gets harder every year. Meanwhile, the band’s retirement no longer seems distant after 50 years plus of touring.
Politics is forcing the issue. Though Scotland can already claim exclusive fishing rights in the 12 miles off Rockall, champions of Brexit made control of British waters a high-profile issue.
“Rockall is very much British…the Irish will fish the squid and fish there to extinction,” said
Mike Park,
who used to fish haddock there and is now chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association Limited.
Brian Warfield, Tommy Byrne and Noel Nagle of the band The Wolfe Tones perform during a cultural festival in 2013.
Photo:
Jaroslav Ozana/CTK/ZUMA PRESS
In recent decades, the U.K. and Ireland have enjoyed a mainly harmonious relationship. But the sticking point in Britain’s attempts to strike an EU exit deal has been treatment of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, raising hackles on both sides.
The Wolfe Tones are sometimes called anti-British, with songs such as the “Rifles of the I.R.A,” about the Irish Republican Army, which was responsible for a string of bombings in the U.K. The band, which began in England, says songs about past injustices don’t imply dislike for Britain as a whole or as it is now.
As the Derrybeg gig approached, the Wolfe Tones concluded that Rockall was worth pursuing.
“With a no-deal Brexit, the Brits will only end up making it even harder for Irish fisherman,” Mr. Nagle said, getting up to leave, but struggling to rise from his seat.
“And you want to go to Rockall?” Mr. Byrne said, putting down his beer.
The group opened to a raucous welcome from a crowd bedecked in the Irish flag. But the night’s loudest cheer went to “Rock on Rockall.”
“Oh the Empire it is finished, no foreign lands to seize, so the greedy eye of England is stirring towards the seas,” Mr. Warfield sang.
“Who’s got a boat to bring the Wolfers out to Rockall?” he shouted
Hands shot up, including Oran Gallagher, standing at the front of the stage.
“No matter the waves, I’ll take him,” the 20-year old said later.
Another boat was also offered that night, according to Mr. Warfield.
Even one-time Rockall residents Mr. McClean and Mr. Hancock believe that, with great determination, the Wolfers can maybe do it. Now in his 80s, Mr. McClean doesn’t rule out a Rockall return himself. His website describes his vessel as “the world’s only giant whale-shaped boat.”
Mr. Hancock remembers moments of great beauty on Rockall, with real whales blowing water and gannets divebombing into the ocean for food.
But, “when the weather is bad, you really don’t want to be there,” he said.
