A selection of premium articles available exclusively to our members

Highlights

Health & Families

Can anyone be fit but fat? What ‘healthy obesity’ really means – according to experts

A study suggests a quarter of middle-aged women, and one in 10 middle-aged men, are healthy despite being clinically obese. But before you ditch the salad and carrot juice, Leah Hardy unpicks the science of who is and isn’t at risk

<p>‘Exercise plays a big role in health even if it doesn’t change your weight one gram,’ explains one neuroscientist. ‘If you are carrying muscle, you will always be healthier than someone at the same weight with less muscle’ </p>

<p>Jamie Ritchie, of Scotland, will have a key role up against Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony </p>

Here’s how Scotland can shock Ireland and escape pool of death

Why Berlin keeps pulling me back

<p>Humane’s AI Pin projects lasers onto any surface, offering artificial intelligence in the palm of your hand</p>

The mystery AI device that could replace your phone

Voices

<p>Prime minister Rishi Sunak delivers his keynote speech at the Conservative Party annual conference</p>

Business Comment

Businesses combed Sunak’s speech for good news. They searched in vain

<p>HS2 would have taken the strain off exisiting train services and removed freight traffic from motorways – making it easier to drive to the office (Carey Tompsett/PA)</p>

Will Rishi’s transport vision improve your commute? Don’t bank on it…

<p>Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will not promise to reverse the prime minister’s changes</p>

The one thing Labour must do to avoid the traps laid by the Tories

The Longer Read

<p>Reinhold Messner has been described as charming and flamboyant, arrogant and egotistical. An enigma</p>

Mountain man: the miraculous life of climber Reinhold Messner

<p>The conference’s slogan will be ‘long-term decisions for a brighter future’ </p>

Sunak is in a race against time to show what he stands for

<p>The LNER C7 Class 4-4-2 steam locomotive No 727 approaches the Darlington Bank Top crossing on 1 June 1925 </p>

It’s time to exorcise the ghosts of our great railway stations

Politics Explained

<p>Delegates at the Tory conference pose with Nigel Farage in Manchester</p>

Could Nigel Farage really end up leading the Tory party?

<p>Under the proposal, any child now 14 or under will never be able to legally purchase tobacco </p>

Sunak’s smoking ban plan: A sin tax that’s certain to turn to ashes?

<p>Rishi Sunak delivers his keynote speech in Manchester</p>

Sunak wagers that wedge issues will divide and conquer Labour

<p>Voters have had enough of Suella Braverman’s culture wars</p>

Why Tories are opening a new front in the culture wars

Most Commented

Hamas ‘takes dozens hostage’ as Netanyahu declares war – live

406 comments

Fiona Bruce apologises for calling Question Time audience member ‘Black guy’

118 comments

Ukraine gains ground in counteroffensive as Putin condemned for ‘inhuman’ attack

287 comments

Boris Johnson blasts Rishi Sunak’s plan to ban smoking for future generations

92 comments

Editorials

7 October 2023

The Independent View

Labour’s victory in Scotland may not be all it seems

<p>Suella Braverman’s speech at the Conservatives’ conference raised eyebrows for some of the language she used</p>

The Independent View

Politicians stoke culture wars – with trans people caught in crossfire

5 October 2023

The Independent View

Can Rishi Sunak really claim to be the candidate of change?

Culture

Does London need another mega concert venue like The Sphere?

<p>Michael Caine, whose new film ‘The Great Escaper’ could mark the last time we ever see perhaps Britain’s greatest ever film star on the big screen</p>

It’s a privilege to watch greats like Michael Caine grow old on film

<p>Master of Hollywood: Bradley Cooper attends the premiere of ‘Joker’ in 2019</p>

Bradley Cooper overcame addiction and anxiety – now he runs Hollywood

Travel

<p>Alex Holder at her new bookshop in Lisbon</p>

Why I bet my life savings on a romcom dream

<p>Hawaii’s wildfires created mixed messaging over the summer </p>

How soon is too soon to visit a tourist destination after a disaster?

John RentoulThe Independent’s chief political commentator

<p>Rishi Sunak was pilloried for having ‘derailed HS2’ </p>

Errors & Omissions

Mea Culpa hits the buffers

<p>Starmer and Reeves think that the way to win is to trust their instincts less and to subject themselves to the iron straitjacket of fiscal discipline</p>

No, Keir Starmer won’t be more radical in government

<p>Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is currently 17 points ahead of the Conservatives – quite a buffer</p>

Five ways Keir Starmer could still blow it

Andrew GricePolitical columnist who keeps his ear to the ground inside Westminster

<p>How would Labour persuade the private sector to fund public projects on more favourable terms for taxpayers than previously? </p>

Starmer has found his ‘magic money tree’ – but his party won’t like it

<p>The prime minister pledged to end ‘the old consensus’ of the last three decades – ignoring which party has run Britain for 17 years of that time</p>

Sums don’t add up for Rishi, ‘the change candidate’

<p>Suella Braverman delivers her keynote speech at Manchester on Tuesday </p>

Was this the moment we passed ‘peak Suella’?

Chris Blackhurst

<p>Customers queue to withdraw money from the Northern Rock Bank in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, in 2007 </p>

Business Comment

Don’t be surprised if there is another run on a UK bank

<p>Sharon White with Rishi Sunak</p>

Business Analysis & Features

Why change at the top might not be enough to save John Lewis

<p>Rishi Sunak’s political expediency is being made at the expense of trust </p>

Business Comment

If HS2 is scrapped, spare a thought for the victims no one talks about

News analysis

<p>EU leaders pose for a photo during the informal summit, in Granada, Spain </p>

Why two of the EU’s biggest political headaches aren’t going away soon

<p>With a 27 per cent market share and growing, is the chain simply too big? </p>

Business Comment

Tesco profits leap to £1.2bn — and shoppers are the ones out of pocket

<p>Thatcher thrilled delegates in Brighton in 1980 with ‘You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning!’ </p>

History shows party conferences can make or break a leader

<p>Giovanna and Beatrice, sisters of the mafia boss, outside the cemetery</p>

The brutal life and graveyard-filling crimes of ‘the last godfather’

Sport

<p>Calling the shots: ring MCs (from left) Bruce Buffer, Kody Mommaerts and Michael Buffer </p>

Let’s get ready to rumble! Inside the ropes with boxing’s ring MCs

<p>USA fans at the Ryder Cup in 2021 </p>

Are American Ryder Cup golf fans the most cretinous in world sport?

Mary DejevskyExpert on foreign affairs, Russian politics and diplomatic relations between the Kremlin and the west

<p>Robert Fico, Slovakia’s new leader, spearheaded his party’s election campaign with pledges to end all military support for Ukraine </p>

Are the cracks beginning to show in Europe’s support of Ukraine?

<p>Dame Sue Carr was made to look like a cross between Santa Claus and an ill-dressed bishop</p>

What on earth is the lady chief justice wearing?

<p>Suella Braverman posed legitimate questions about definitions of migrants and refugees</p>

Suella Braverman isn’t entirely wrong about multiculturalism...

America

<p>Joe Biden speaks in Belfast on 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement</p>

Biden says Brexit deal can bring ‘significant’ US investment to NI

<p>Such leaks remind countries like Russia – as well as US allies – of the sheer scale and reach of Washington’s operations</p>

The diplomatic damage done by the Pentagon leak won’t last long

<p>Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley wrote a tweet attacking ‘weak and woke’ ideology the day she declared her candidacy</p>

Republicans are running on ‘wokeism’ – but don’t know what it is