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“An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time.”

In her own words, Taylor Swift’s latest album The Tortured Poets Department is a product of her personal life – which is often played out in the most public way.

Fans have already spent hours poring over her raft of new lyrics in the 31 new songs.

Two hours after its release, the singer announced The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, which includes 15 additional new songs.

From Kim Kardashian to Travis Kelce, here we take a look at who the lyrics might be about.

Analysis:
Marriage, babies, break-ups – breaking down the album

Break-up with Joe Alwyn

Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn.
Pic:Blitz Pictures/Shutterstock
Image:
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn. Pic: Blitz Pictures/Shutterstock

Fans had been expecting a breakdown of the singer’s six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn – and they weren’t disappointed.

Even in the album title, there appears to be a reference – Alwyn and Normal People actor Paul Mescal revealed in 2022 they had a WhatsApp group chat with Fleabag actor Andrew Scott called The Tortured Man Club. Four months later news of Swift and Alwyn’s split emerged.

The song appearing at number five in the new tracklist – often the slot reserved for the most meaningful song on each of her albums – is So Long, London, and is thought to offer new insights into her split with the British actor.

In the lyrics, Swift hints at wedding plans, singing: “You swore that you loved me but where were the clues, I died on the altar waiting for the proof”, as well as being upset at having to leave London which she said she “loved”.

She also makes a reference to “the house in the Heath” she left behind. The singer was often seen in Hampstead Heath with Alwyn when they dated, as he lived in north London.

“And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free,” she sings. “Me locking myself away in my house for a lot of years – I’ll never get that time back.”

Swift was performing her Eras tour when it was reported that she and Alwyn had split – and the first show she played was in Florida, which is the title of one of her new songs, featuring Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine.

“The hurricane with my name when it came, I got drunk and I dare it to wash me away,” she sings.

In another song, Fresh Out The Slammer, Swift discusses feeling isolated in a relationship. “Another summer taking cover, rolling thunder, he don’t understand me.

“Splintered back in winter, silent dinners, bitter he was with her in dreams.”

Romance with Matty Healy

Image:
Matt Healy. Pic: PA

Meanwhile, fans have interpreted the lyrics to the first song on the album titled Fortnight, featuring US star Post Malone, to be about British singer Matty Healy, whom she was rumoured to be dating briefly last year after her split from Alwyn.

Swift sings: “Sometimes I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me, but you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave and I had said that to Jack about you so I felt seen, everyone we know understands why it’s meant to be.”

But who are Lucy and Jack – the friends the lovers are confiding in?

Fans have suggested Lucy could be Lucy Dacus, a singer in the band Boygenius, who is friends with Healy.

Meanwhile, Swift’s close friend Jack Antonoff was a producer on the song.

While Swift doesn’t namecheck Healy, a number of other songs appear to reference him, including Guilty As Sin where she sings about having “fatal fantasies” for someone from her past while in a relationship.

Fans are also suggesting the song The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived appears to allude to Healy “ghosting” her.

“You tried to buy some pills, from a friend of mine, they just ghosted you, now you know what it feels like.”

New relationship with Travis Kelce

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) kisses Taylor Swift after the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. The Chiefs won 25-22. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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Travis Kelce kisses Taylor Swift after the Super Bowl final. Pic: John Locher / AP

“I’m making a comeback to where I belong”, she sings in her 15th track, The Alchemy.

This song certainly seems to be a nod to her blossoming romance with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.

The song references American football terms including “touch down”, “the team”, “warm the benches” and “winning streak”.

Swift began dating the athlete last year and her attendance at the Super Bowl made headlines around the world, including that kiss with Kelce after the Chiefs’ victory. The couple recently attended the Coachella music festival together.

Pic: Jennifer Johnson/Shutterstock for Neon Carnival
Image:
Pic: Jennifer Johnson/Shutterstock for Neon Carnival

“Shirts off, and your friends lift you up over their heads,” she sings.

“Beer sticking to the floor, cheers chanted, cause they said there was no chance, trying to be the greatest in the league, where’s the trophy, he just comes running over to me.”

Kelce, who has recently landed a role as host of the game show Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity?, said he listened to parts of the album and said it’s “unbelievable”.

Read more:
Boyfriend hails ‘unbelievable’ album

Feud with Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian, with former husband Kanye West, wore a Roberto Cavalli creation at the 2015 Met Gala in New York. Pic: Rex/Startraks/Shutterstock
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Kim Kardashian, with former husband Kanye West, in 2015. Pic: Rex/Startraks/Shutterstock

In one of the additional new songs, thanK you aIMee, fans have been decoding what they believe is a reference to Kim Kardashian. The letters capitalised in the title spell Kim.

Kardashian’s ex-husband Kanye West infamously stormed the stage at the 2009 VMAs as Swift accepted her award for best video by a female artist, a stunt he later claimed in a lyric “made that b**** famous“.

Amid the row, Kardashian posted a video online of what appeared to be West on the phone with the singer, where Swift appeared to consent to the vulgar lines.

The MTV VMAs moment in 2009 when Kanye sparked his feud with Swift. Pic. Reuters
Image:
The MTV VMAs moment in 2009 when Kanye West sparked his feud with Swift. Pic. Reuters

“I wrote a thousand songs that you find uncool, I built a legacy which you can’t undo,” Swift sings.

“But when I count the scars, there’s a moment of truth, that there wouldn’t be this, if there hadn’t been you.

“And maybe you’ve reframed it and in your mind, you never beat my spirit black and blue.”

She then appears to reference West and Kardashian’s 10-year-old daughter North West.

“And one day, your kid comes home singing a song that only us two is gonna know is about you.”

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After the album was released, Swift wrote on social media: “An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.

“This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed.

“And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.

“And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”

Swift will bring her Eras tour to the UK from 7 June, which she will start with three shows in Edinburgh.

The run of London shows begins on 21 June.

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Stock markets suffer sharp drops after Donald Trump announces sweeping tariffs

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Stock markets suffer sharp drops after Donald Trump announces sweeping tariffs

Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.

The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.

While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.

Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble

All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.

A person works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 31, 2025. Pic: AP
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The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP

By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.

Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.

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Worst one-day losses since COVID

As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.

It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.

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The latest numbers on tariffs

‘Trust in President Trump’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.

“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”

Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”

He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.

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How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?

Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’

The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.

He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.

Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.

He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”

Read more:
Do Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff numbers add up?

Tariffs about something more than economics: power

It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.

Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.

It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.

He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”

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Trump’s tariffs are about something more than economics: power

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Trump's tariffs are about something more than economics: power

Tanking stock markets, collapsing world orders, devastating trade wars; economists with their hair ablaze are scrambling to keep up.

But as we try to make sense of Donald Trumps’s tariff tsunami, economic theory only goes so far. In the end this surely is about something more primal.

Power.

Understanding that may be crucial to how the world responds.

Yes, economics helps explain the impact. The world’s economy has after all shifted on its axis, the way it’s been run for decades turned on its head.

Instead of driving world trade, America is creating a trade war. We will all feel the impact.

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PM will ‘fight’ for deal with US

Donald Trump says he is settling scores, righting wrongs. America has been raped, looted and pillaged by the world trading system.

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But don’t be distracted by the hyperbole – and if you think this is about economics alone, you may be missing the point.

Above all, tariffs give Donald Trump power. They strike fear into allies and enemies, from governments to corporations.

This is a president who runs his presidency like a medieval emperor or mafia don.

It is one reason why since his election we have seen what one statesman called a conga line of sycophants make their way to the White House, from world leaders to titans of industry.

The conga line will grow longer as they now redouble their efforts hoping to special treatment from Trump’s tariffs. Sir Keir Starmer among them.

President Trump’s using similar tactics at home, deploying presidential power to extract concessions and deter dissent in corporate America, academia and the US media. Those who offer favours are spared punishment.

His critics say he seeks a form power for the executive or presidential branch of government that the founding fathers deliberately sought to prevent.

Whether or not that is true, the same playbook of divide and rule through intimidation can now be applied internationally. Thanks to tariffs

Each country will seek exceptions but on Trump’s terms. Those who retaliate may meet escalation.

This is the unforgiving calculus for governments including our own plotting their next moves.

The temptation will be to give Trump whatever he wants to spare their economies, but there is a jeopardy that compounds the longer this goes on.

Read more:
Do Trump’s numbers on tariffs really add up?
Trump hits island home only to penguins with 10% tariffs

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng gestures to Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves following a photo session at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Florence Lo/Pool Photo via AP)
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Could America’s traditional allies turn to China? Pic: AP

Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister who coined the conga line comparison, put it this way: “Pretty much all the international leaders I have seen that have sucked up to Trump have been run over. The reality is if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s global affairs or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”

Trading partners may be able to mitigate the impact of these tariffs through negotiation, but that may only encourage this unorthodox president to demand ever more?

Ultimately the world will need a more reliable superpower than that.

In the hands of such a president, America cannot be counted on.

When it comes to security, stability and prosperity, allies will need to fend for themselves.

And they will need new friends. If Washington can’t be relied on, Beijing beckons.

America First will, more and more, mean America on its own.

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‘A genius actor’, ‘firecracker’, and ‘my friend’: Tributes paid to Top Gun star Val Kilmer

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'A genius actor', 'firecracker', and 'my friend': Tributes paid to Top Gun star Val Kilmer

Actors, directors and celebrity friends have paid tribute to Val Kilmer, after he died aged 65.

The California-born star of Top Gun, Batman and Heat died of pneumonia on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told the Associated Press.

She said Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.

Tributes flooded in after reports broke of the actor’s death, with No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin among the first to share their memories.

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Watch: Val Kilmer in his most iconic roles

He wrote on Instagram: “See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those.

“I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts.”

Kyle Maclachlan, who co-starred with Kilmer in the 1991 biopic The Doors, wrote on social media: “You’ll always be my Jim. See you on the other side my friend.”

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Michael Mann, who directed Kilmer in 1995’s Heat, also paid tribute in a statement, saying: “I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.

“After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.”

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Heat co-star Danny Trejo also called Kilmer “a great actor, a wonderful person, and a dear friend of mine” on Instagram.

Cher, who once dated the actor, said on X that “U Were Funny, crazy, pain in the ass, GREAT FRIEND… BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness”.

Lifelong friend and director of Twixt, Francis Ford Coppola said: “Val Kilmer was the most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life.

“He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know – I will always remember him.”

The Top Gun account on X also said it was remembering Kilmer, who starred as Iceman in both the 1986 original and 2022 sequel, and “whose indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations”.

Nicolas Cage added that “I always liked Val and am sad to hear of his passing”.

“I thought he was a genius actor,” he said. “I enjoyed working with him on Bad Lieutenant and I admired his commitment and sense of humor.

“He should have won the Oscar for The Doors.”

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