Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Ireland will hold a general election on November 29, Taoiseach Simon Harris said, as his conservative Fine Gael party, in office since 2011, seeks a record fourth term.
The prime minister confirmed to RTÉ television on Wednesday that he would dissolve parliament on Friday on his return from an EU summit in Hungary.
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“I hope we will have polling day on November 29,” said Harris, 38, who took over as Taoiseach in April this year following the surprise resignation of Leo Varadkar as premier.
Nicknamed the “TikTok Taoiseach” for his social media savvy, Harris has revitalised the fortunes of a lacklustre-looking party and has travelled the country tirelessly in the past six months. Fine Gael is the most popular party, on 26 per cent, according to an Ireland Thinks poll at the weekend.
The current coalition of Fine Gael, centrist Fianna Fáil and the Green party, has been in power since 2020 and its term ends in March 2025.
But Harris had long been expected to go to the country this month after a giveaway budget, boosted by the huge surpluses Ireland has enjoyed from corporate taxes paid by global tech and pharma groups.
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The next government will have to grapple with the possibility that President-elect Donald Trump could impose tariffs and slash US corporation tax with potentially far-reaching results for Ireland’s open economic model.
Fianna Fáil, Harris’s party’s former arch rival, has 20 per cent support according to the Ireland Thinks poll for the Sunday Independent.
Sinn Féin, the main opposition party, goes into the election having suffered a spectacular collapse in support. Until a year ago, the pro-Irish unity party had been seen as a shoo-in to lead the next government based on its promises to fix Ireland’s chronic housing crisis.
But its popularity has virtually halved to around 18 per cent after alienating some of its core working-class base amid a backlash over immigration.
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Harris will campaign separately from Micheál Martin, Fianna Fáil leader, as the two parties seek to pull off the delicate balancing act of being government allies but election rivals.
The housing crisis is expected to loom large and Harris has admitted that Ireland’s failure to solve key infrastructure challenges is a potential drag on economic growth.
The Green party, the junior coalition member, has only 4 per cent support, sparking speculation that independents could hold the balance of power in a new government.
A SUPERFAN who collected EVERY copy of NME magazine for 52 years is selling them for an eye-watering £3,000.
Tony Howard’s attic nearly collapsed under the weight of his massive magazine hoard – which started when he was just 12-years-old.
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Tony Howard began collecting the magazine when he was just 12-years-oldCredit: SWNS
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The hoard is expected to fetch up to £3,000Credit: SWNS
He bought his very first copy in August 1966, and took one home every week until 2018 – when the magazine stopped printing paper editions.
The 64-year-old stashed his jaw-dropping collection of 2,700 copies of The New Musical Express in his Lincolnshire loft.
But now he’s decided to put them under the hammer after his attic was in danger of collapsing.
The NMEs are being sold individually, with some rare copies expected to fetch up to £50 each.
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The collection is going up for auction at John Taylors Saleroom in Louth, Lincs., on November 12.
Auctioneer James Laverack said: “Tony’s interest was triggered at a particularly exciting time when British groups were taking the world by storm, all faithfully reported and reviewed in the NME.
“The very month that he bought his first issue of the New Musical Express, The Beatles released Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby on a double A-side single and then flew off to their final tour in America – and into a massive row over John Lennon’s remark about being more famous than Jesus Christ.
“Tony has decided that the time has finally come to let the astonishing collection go to relieve the weight pressure on his attic and enable other enthusiasts to fill gaps in their NME archives.”
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The collection will be sold in three parts, 1966-72, 1973-2018, and a duplicate copies lot.
James added: “In total the collection extends to around 2,700 copies, an almost complete run spanning the years 1966-2018.
“There are just a handful of issues from the sixties missing, mistakenly thrown out by Tony’s mother when she was tidying up.
“There were some weeks in the seventies when printer’s industrial action stopped publication, but apart from that they’re all there.
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“It’s quite remarkable.
“It is an extraordinary collection, perhaps the finest ever to be offered at auction.
“Other sales have had runs of the NME, some quite early, but involving limited periods. Nothing of this magnitude.
“We’ve given it a pre-sale estimate of £2,500-£3,000.”
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NME MAGAZINE
NEW Musical Express (NME) is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website.
It was founded as a newspaper in 1952, and fell within the ‘rock inkie’ category.
It was the first British newspaper to include a singles chart, adding that feature in the edition of 14 November 1952.
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In the 1970s, it became the best-selling British music newspaper.
From 1972 to 1976, it was particularly associated with punk rock through the writings of Julie Burchill, Paul Morley, and Tony Parsons.
While NME began as a music newspaper, it evolved into a magazine during the 1980s and 1990s, changing from newsprint in 1998.
The magazine’s website NME.com was launched in 1996, and became the world’s biggest standalone music site.
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It garnered over millions of users per month.
Due to falling sales, in March 2018 the publisher announced that the print edition of NME would stop publication after 66 years.
It transitioned into an online-only publication.
But, in 2023, NME revealed that it would revive its print magazine as a bimonthly release.
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NME was acquired in 2019 by Singaporean music company BandLab Technologies.
This comes as many people are discovering their unusual collections could fetch them thousands at auction.
Robert Puddester paid up to £250 for some of the rarer coins, but the value of East India Company coins has shot up over the last 30 years.
The top selling lot was a Bombay half-mohur from 1765 which sold for £117,800.
A 1765 Bombay gold mohur sold for £99,200, as did a rare 1770 Bombay gold 15 rupees, which was one of only four known examples.
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Suprising household items that are worth a fortune and how to find them
Experts believe the average UK attic hides valuables totalling a staggering £1,922, and around £33billion worth of “junk” lurks in our cupboards and drawers
Antiques expert Charlie Ross, who regularly appears on Bargain Hunt and Flog It!, has listed several items to look out for in your home.
’90s vinyl
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“Records made from about 1992 to 1999 are especially valuable as not a lot was made at that time. Vinyl from bands like Mansun might sell for £80 or Kula Shaker, £65,” said the expert.
Star Wars
“What really sells well is carded figures, One auction recently sold a rare character called Yak Face, from Return Of The Jedi, for over £1,500,” said Charlie
Fountain Pens
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The Bargain Hunt presenter said: “A rare Namiki fountain pen once sold for £6,000 at auction, while auction house Dreweatts sold a limited-edition Montblanc for an incredible £14,000.”
Old mobiles
“Even if they are not worth a huge amount now, there is no doubt that they will become valuable, so they are worth keeping. The first one of any particular series might also be worth something in years to come”. said Charlie.
Autographs
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“If you have a collection of all the Beatles’ autographs, you are sitting on a fortune!” Charlie added.
“I recently met a chap who had a book full of cricketers’ autographs – even that was worth £100.”
Comics
“A Batman Adventures Comic from 1993 could make you around £800. Comics are valuable as they are typically limited edition and quite rare,” explained the expert.
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For more information on hidden valuable items, read here
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Rare copies are set to rake in up to £50 eachCredit: SWNS
Even before Donald J. Trump was re-elected, his best-known backer, Elon Musk had come to him with a request for his presidential transition.
He wanted Mr. Trump to hire some employees from Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, as top government officials — including at the Defense Department, according to two people briefed on the calls.
That request, which would seed SpaceX employees into an agency that is one of its biggest customers, is a sign of the benefits that Mr. Musk may reap after investing more than $100 million in Mr. Trump’s campaign, pushing out a near-constant stream of pro-Trump material on his social media platform, X, and making public appearances on the candidate’s behalf across the hard-fought state of Pennsylvania.
The outreach regarding the SpaceX employees, which hasn’t been reported, shows the extent to which Mr. Musk wants to fill a potential Trump administration with his closest confidants even as his billions of dollars in government contracts pose a conflict to any government role.
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Mr. Musk and executives at SpaceX and Tesla, his electric-vehicle company, did not respond on Wednesday to requests for comment. A spokesman for Mr. Trump’s transition team also did not respond to a request for comment.
The six companies that Mr. Musk oversees are deeply entangled with federal agencies. They make billions off contracts to launch rockets, build satellites and provide space-based communications services.
Tesla makes hundreds of millions more from emissions-trading credits created by federal law. And Mr. Musk’s companies are facing at least 20 recent investigations, including one targeting a self-driving car technology that Tesla considers key to its future.
Now, Mr. Musk will have the ear of the president, who oversees all of those agencies. Mr. Musk could even gain the power to oversee them himself, if Mr. Trump follows through on a promise to appoint him as head of a government efficiency commission. Mr. Trump has told Mr. Musk that he wants him to bring the same scalpel to the federal government that he brought to Twitter after he bought the company and rebranded it as X. Mr. Musk has spoken of cutting at least $2 trillion from the federal budget.
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The effect could be to remove, or weaken, one of the biggest checks on Mr. Musk’s power: the federal government.
“All of the annoying enforcement stuff goes away,” said Stephen Myrow, managing partner at Beacon Policy Advisors, a firm that sells corporations daily updates on regulatory and legislative trends in Washington.
Hal Singer, an economist who has advised parties filing antitrust challenges against technology companies and also is a professor at the University of Utah, said that Tesla and SpaceX can expect less scrutiny from the Justice Department.
“They are unlikely to go after Elon — Trump’s D.O.J. won’t,” he said. “Abstain from investigating your friends, but bringing cases that investigate your enemies — that is what we saw during the first Trump administration.”
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Change of Heart
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump made clear that Mr. Musk was already reshaping his views. He once railed against government efforts to promote electric cars, the heart of Tesla’s business. Not anymore.
“I’m for electric cars,” Mr. Trump said in August, after Mr. Musk first endorsed Mr. Trump’s re-election effort the month before. “I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly.”
Mr. Trump also made it clear in recent interviews that he would use his executive power to help out Mr. Musk.
“We have to make life good for our smart people,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Michigan in July, continuing, “and he’s as smart as you get.”
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Already, on Wednesday, Mr. Musk’s wealth surged by $20 billion as Tesla’s stock rose in the aftermath of the election, bringing his total net worth to $285 billion, according to an estimate by Forbes.
Tesla benefits from a $7,500 tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases, which helps bring down the cost of buying one of its cars. Tesla last year also earned $1.79 billion from carbon credits, according to its most recent annual report. It sells the credits to other car manufacturers whose fleets do not meet emission limits imposed by the federal government, as well as to the European Union, California and China.
Changes to the tax credit given to new car buyers and to the federal emission standards on new cars could impact the benefits Tesla receives, though its competitors General Motors and Ford need the credit even more than Tesla, economists and regulatory lawyers said.
Mr. Musk has had a much more contentious relationship with President Biden, who snubbed him and his car company in 2021 when he invited all the big carmakers to an electric vehicle summit and did not include Tesla, one of the largest at the time. Mr. Musk has repeatedly complained about the slight since then.
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The biggest ties to the federal government among Mr. Musk’s operations are with SpaceX, which just last year secured $3 billion in new federal government commitments and a total of about $11 billion in contracts over the five years.
But Mr. Musk is seeking more.
His allies in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission have already challenged a decision by the commission to revoke a plan to offer SpaceX an $856 million subsidy to provide broadband internet service in rural parts of the United States. The effort was led in part by Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner at the F.C.C. He has championed Mr. Musk and SpaceX on his social media feed in recent months, even intervening in Mr. Musk’s battle with the government of Brazil over X, even though the social media company is not in Mr. Carr’s purview. (Starlink, which was caught up in the dispute, is.)
Mr. Carr did not immediately return a request for comment.
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House Republicans recently started an investigation into the F.C.C.’s position on the rural internet request, suggesting that the agency’s decision might be reconsidered if Republicans take control of the commission, as is likely once Mr. Trump is sworn in.
Unexciting Moon Missions
SpaceX also holds huge contracts with the Defense Department, so many that Pentagon officials have grown concerned that they are over-reliant on Mr. Musk’s company for rocket launches.
“Having a good friend in the White House could be a very good thing for Tesla and SpaceX,” said Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a group that monitors federal contracting, particularly at the Pentagon. “You have to worry about decisions that are not best for taxpayers when you have those kinds of cozy relationships.”
At NASA, which also has large contracts with SpaceX, Mr. Musk may press for the agency to adopt his longstanding obsession with travel to Mars, in place of its current ambitions to return to the moon. Mr. Trump has previously expressed support for such a move.
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“Hey, we’ve done the moon,” Mr. Trump said back in 2019, during his first term as president. “That’s not so exciting.”
Currently, NASA expects to spend a total of $93 billion between 2012 and 2025 on this moon mission, called Artemis. There have already been calls to re-evaluate this commitment, which includes a contract with SpaceX of up to $4.4 billion for two landings on the moon.
The most concrete evidence of Mr. Musk’s efforts to reshape the agencies he does business with are his efforts to install his employees in the Defense Department. People familiar with those efforts said Mr. Musk recommended two SpaceX employees — a retired Air Force general and a government-affairs executive — as possible hires.
Among the SpaceX executives who have been recommended by Mr. Musk, Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, an adviser who is retired from the Air Force, and Tim Hughes, a government affairs executive, are among Mr. Musk’s closest advisers, according to one of the people briefed. Mr. Hughes did not return a request for comment and Mr. O’Shaughnessy could not be reached.
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The role that Mr. Musk could play for Mr. Trump could be similar to what another tech mogul, Peter Thiel, played for Mr. Trump eight years ago. Mr. Thiel seeded the transition team, and eventually the government, with several of his top allies and Mr. Musk likely would have the same opportunity, given Mr. Trump’s admiration for him.
Mr. Musk has already met with Howard Lutnick, the lead of Mr. Trump’s transition team. Several of Mr. Musk’s closest friends in politics, such as the tech investors David Sacks, Joe Lonsdale and Ken Howery, have publicly or privately said that they would be open to helping the Trump administration, according to their public comments or people who have spoken with them. Mr. Lonsdale declined to comment.
What seems clear is that Mr. Musk will likely see some kind of a return for his efforts to help Mr. Trump secure a second term. The weeks and months ahead will give greater clarity about what those benefits will be.
“He was going to do fine either way,” Mr. Myrow of Beacon Policy Advisors said. “But he definitely does better under Trump. It was probably worth his investment.”
SUBWAY have revealed their new festive menu and hungry Brits can’t wait to try the “ultimate Christmas sarnie”.
The popular fast food chain rolled out their latest scrumptious items today – and customers were glad to see an old favourite make a comeback.
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The V.I.Brie SubMelt was welcomed back by customers who were sad to see it leave last yearCredit: Subway
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There is now be a limited-edition festive choice in the form of a Gingerbread Footlong CookieCredit: Subway
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Subway’s new Chocolate Hazelnut CookieCredit: Subway
The V.I.Brie SubMelt was hailed by fans who were sad to see it leave last year.
It boasts a festive combination of bacon, brie, American-style cheese, red peppers, caramelised red onions, and a sweet onion sauce.
The mouth-watering bread is also toasted to golden perfection, making it the “ultimate cheesy winter warmer”.
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The V.I.Brie SubMelt will set you back around £8.19 and they’re 469 calories.
Subway announced their Footlong Sidekicks range earlier this year, which features the Footlong Cookie.
And, there is now be a limited-edition festive choice in the form of a Gingerbread Footlong Cookie.
The warmed sweet treats, topped with edible snowflakes, are filled with Christmas spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg.
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Their size makes them perfect to share with friends of family this winter season over a cup of coffee.
They are £4.49 and contain 1,288 calories.
Meanwhile, the Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie offers customers another mince pie alternative this Christmas.
It has both milk and white chocolate chips, crunchy hazelnuts, and delicious salted caramel bits.
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Customers can expect to pay £4.18 for the cookies, which boast 671 calories.
All of these festive new items are available nationwide from today.
They can also be ordered online for collection or delivery on the Subway App.
The “ultimate” sarnie and taste bud tingling goodies will be available until January 10, 2025.
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Deniz Safa, Director of Innovation & Culinary at Subway EMEA, said: “We’re so excited to unveil the first new addition to our Footlong Sidekicks range since their launch in June.
“Fans went mad for our Footlong Cookie this summer, and as Christmas is all about sharing, our all-new Footlong Gingerbread Cookie is set to be the perfect treat to spread some festive cheer with friends and family.
“Enjoy it fresh, warm, and straight from our in-store ovens.”
“We’re also delighted to bring back the much-loved V.I.Brie SubMelt® which is back due to popular demand.
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“This brie, bacon and caramelised red onion festive toastie is the ultimate comfort food for chilly days, combining iconic festive flavours, and toasted to perfection.”
You can find your nearest open Subway store via their website.
A FISH and chip shop has launched its own fun festive feast — a deep-fried Christmas dinner.
Turkey, sprouts, pigs-in-blankets and stuffing balls are all battered and served on chips along with tubs of rich gravy and cranberry sauce.
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A fish and chip shop has launched a deep-fried Christmas dinner
However, revellers trying to get in shape for office parties are warned the £15 blow-out weighs in at a belt-busting 1,500 calories.
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And that is before those with a sweet tooth add a battered mince pie with warm custard or a Bailey’s– infused hot chocolate for £4.50.
The mega-meal will be sold throughout December by prize-winning Cromars in St Andrews, Fife.
Owner Wendy Napthine-Frame told The Sun: “We love finding new ways to reinvent classic fish and chip shop dishes and this felt like a really fun, festive way to do that.
“I think it’s going to go down really well with customers.
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“We’ve got battered turkey, battered sprouts, and battered stuffing, topped off with crispy golden chips, cranberry sauce, and a tub of gravy.”
She added: “The only thing we didn’t batter was the carrots because we thought we should leave something healthy on the plate!
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