I was there: Europe’s dramatic Ryder Cup win signed off a strange week
I was out by the practice green late afternoon on the Monday of the Ryder Cup, and so was Bryson DeChambeau.He was on his own, signing autographs for the handful of people on the other side of the railings, and there was this one woman leaning over towards him, a bottle blonde, late middle-aged, in a tight white dress.She was only a couple of feet away from him but she was screaming in his ear like she was trying to reach someone across the far side of the golf course.“We love you Bryson! Bryson! We love you! We love you for everything you’ve done for the Donald! We love you for everything you’ve done for the Donald!”It was a long, strange week, and when I think back on it now the golf is entirely overwhelmed by technicolour memories of the weird scenes around the grounds of Bethpage Black and in the surrounding town of Farmingdale.I wish I could say that the things I remember best are that approach shot Scottie Scheffler hit from 180 yards at the 10th, or the 40ft putt Rory McIlroy made on the 6th, or Jon Rahm’s chip-in from the rough at the 8th.
But they’re not.It’s the first man I met when I walked on to the course, who was wearing a T-shirt with pictures of Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris and the slogan “It’s Official – Trump Beats Women”, and the one I spoke to later on, who was wearing a top with “Alex Jones did nothing wrong” on it.It’s the wild grin on the face of New York state’s governor, the Democrat Kathy Hochul, as she was being furiously heckled by thousands of people during the opening ceremony, and it’s the cop in the parking lot who demanded: “Let me see some ID,” when I said good morning because he wasn’t satisfied with the press accreditation I had around my neck.It’s the yard sign saying “We are all Charlie Kirk now”.And it’s the argument I watched between a couple of white middle-aged golf fans and a young black girl on the 7.
20pm train after she refused to move the big cardboard box which was taking up the last two free seats in the carriage, which ended with him shouting: “This is the Long Island Railroad bitch, and I’m sitting on your shit!” as he dumped himself down on top of her belongings.It’s the woman who reprimanded everyone else for “letting him talk to a woman that way” and it’s the old man who turned around and told her she was “everything that’s wrong with this country”.It’s the scene at dawn on the opening morning, when the shuttle buses that were meant to ferry everyone from the train station got gridlocked and everyone poured back off them into the streets to walk to the course.It’s the 30-something dumb 20-somethings who decided to charge the level crossing while the next train was coming around the bend because they were in such a rush, and it’s the way the rail driver stuck his head out the window and swore at them while his brakes were squealing.It’s the endless queues, the closed roads and the underpaid concession staff complaining to the unsympathetic police that they needed to get in for their shift.
It’s Fortunate Son playing over the public address.It’s snipers on the clubhouse roof.It’s “airport-style security” around the back of the grandstand and a secret service member telling the man in front of me: “I’m going to let you bring that apple in with you but I need you to understand that if you throw it at the president you are going to jail.” It’s Air Force One flying low over the first tee, it’s the presidential limo pulling up, and a fleeting glimpse of a familiar yellow comb-over fluttering in the wind.It’s Keegan Bradley doing the Trump shuffle.
It’s Scheffler telling a room full of European journalists that the one thing he knows about the president from his own personal experience is that “he treats everybody the same and he treats people with utmost respect” on the very same day that Trump stood up at the UN General Assembly and said: “Your countries are going to hell.”It’s people double-fisting cheeseburgers at 8am in the morning because they had all-inclusive tickets.It’s the comedian Heather McMahan, the MC at the 1st tee, screeching: “Fuck you Rory!” into a microphone at dawn.It’s Team USA turning in one of the single worst team performances I’ve ever seen in any sport for two days and it’s the nauseous feeling of watching them sweep the leaderboard during the Sunday singles and thinking: “Surely not?” It’s McIlroy turning around and telling the crowd to “shut the fuck up” then dropping an iron shot to two feet.And it’s thinking that if you boil a frog you have to turn the heat up slowly so it won’t notice it’s being cooked, and it’s being on the flight back home and looking down out the window and wondering how many of the people beneath have noticed just how hot the water is.
How Las Vegas police ended up with a fleet of free Tesla Cybertrucks
The Las Vegas police department rolled out a new fleet of tactical vehicles to city streets last month: all Tesla Cybertrucks. The steel cars, wrapped in black-and-white vinyl, come decked out with warning lights and flashing sirens on the roof. They seem to be heftier, more angular versions of a traditional police car. Las Vegas is the first city in the US to grant its officers access to a battalion of the futuristic trucks, which have become synonymous with the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.“They represent something far bigger than just a police car,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a recent press conference showcasing the vehicles
Apple seeks to appeal against £1.5bn ruling it overcharged UK customers
Apple is seeking to overturn a landmark £1.5bn court ruling on behalf of millions of UK customers, which found the company overcharged them for years in its App Store.The iPhone maker has applied to the court of appeal to challenge a verdict that campaigners heralded as the start of a “tidal shift against big tech”.It is one of a cluster of cases heading towards trial in 2026 as consumers realise the mounting cost of paying up to 30% commission – what campaigners call the “Apple tax” – on apps and in-app purchases, which more people rely on for activities from fitness to dating.The appeal, if allowed, involves one of several class action suits against Apple and Google in which consumers, small businesses and entrepreneurs are demanding over £6bn in combined compensation
‘Undermines free speech’: Labour MP hits back at US government over visa ban on UK campaigners
A senior Labour MP has accused the Trump administration of undermining free speech after Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, announced sanctions against two British anti-disinformation campaigners.Chi Onwurah, the chair of parliament’s technology select committee, criticised the US government hours after it announced “visa-related” sanctions against five Europeans, including Imran Ahmed and Clare Melford.Ahmed leads the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), while Melford is chief executive of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), both of which have clashed directly with Elon Musk, the owner of X and a former adviser to the US president.Onwurah said on Wednesday: “Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek.“We desperately need a wide ranging debate on whether and how social media should be regulated in the interests of the people
Visa ban for European critics of online harm is first shot in US free speech war
For Maga politicians, European tech regulation hits hard in two areas: at the economic interests of Silicon Valley and at their view of free speech.The action against five Europeans who are taking on harmful content and the platforms that host it has had an inevitable feel to it, given the increasingly vociferous reactions to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Both pieces of legislation require social media firms to protect users or face the threat of sizeable fines. Indeed, Elon Musk’s X has been fined €120m (£105m) this month for breaching the DSA.These acts are prime examples of what US Republicans see as an anti-free speech culture on the other side of the Atlantic
European leaders condemn US visa bans as row over ‘censorship’ escalates
European leaders including Emmanuel Macron have accused Washington of “coercion and intimidation”, after the US imposed a visa ban on five prominent European figures who have been at heart of the campaign to introduce laws regulating American tech companies.The visa bans were imposed on Tuesday on Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner and one of the architects of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, including two in Germany and two in the UK.The other individuals targeted were Imran Ahmed, the British chief executive of the US-based Center for Countering Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German non-profit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index.Justifying the visa bans, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on X: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship
‘A gamechanger’: 200,000 UK small businesses sign up to TikTok Shop
It is better known for its viral dances and for making hits out of forgotten songs, but the social media site TikTok is becoming a force to be reckoned with as a shopping platform.Major retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Samsung, QVC, Clarks, and Sainsbury’s are now selling their wares on the site’s e-commerce service, TikTok Shop, alongside more than 200,000 UK small and medium businesses.Launched in Britain in 2021, TikTok Shop recorded its biggest sales day in the UK on Black Friday, with 27 items sold every second. Across the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period, sales were up by 50% on last year.The service works by letting brands sell directly inside TikTok through videos and livestreams with embedded links to items for sale, as well as through a separate shop tab on their profiles
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