World

Saturday

Sam Meadows

How Javier Milei found $18 billion

When Domingo Cavallo implemented at the start of December 2001 a restriction on cash withdrawals, he unwittingly unleashed a month of rioting and looting across Argentina that would leave 39 people dead. Police brutally cracked down on protests that quickly spread as the country’s economy fell to pieces. The basket of laws enforced by the then-finance minister became known as the Corralito and were a desperate response to a devastating – and worsening – economic crisis. A series of setbacks had caused both individual Argentines and companies to convert their pesos into dollars and get them out of the banks. Some 25 per cent of the country’s cash had been spirited away

William Cook

Two forgotten men brought down the Berlin Wall

Here in Berlin, 35 years ago today, at a dull press conference in a dreary conference room a short walk from my hotel, an East German politician made a rookie error which brought about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Half a lifetime later, it’s easy to forget that this seismic shift was the result of a bizarre accident – the unlikely collision of two snap decisions by two men whose names are now almost forgotten. As Berlin throws a party to celebrate the 35th anniversary of what Germans call the ‘Friedliche Revolution’, how many of these revellers are aware that their ‘Peaceful Revolution’ was shaped (or even caused) by the impulsive actions

Paul Wood

Paul Wood, Sean Thomas, Imogen Yates, Books of the Year II, and Alan Steadman

30 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Paul Wood analyses what a Trump victory could mean for the Middle East (1:16); Sean Thomas gets a glimpse of a childless future while travelling in South Korea (8:39); in search of herself, Imogen Yates takes part in ‘ecstatic dance’ (15:11); a second selection of our books of the year from Peter Parker, Daniel Swift, Andrea Wulf, Claire Lowdon, and Sara Wheeler (20:30); and notes on the speaking clock from the voice himself, Alan Steadman (25:26).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Friday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will Trump make good on his election promises?

32 min listen

Kate Andrews, standing in for Freddy Gray is joined by Nick Gillespie, host of The Reason Interview and Freddy Gray himself. They discuss whether Trump 2.0 could be different in his final time in office. Will he ‘drain the swamp’? And will the Democrats learn the lessons from their election loss?

Lara Brown

Labour must learn from Kamala Harris’s transgender muddle

Donald Trump’s remarkable election victory has been rightly attributed to the long shadow of inflation combined with mass illegal immigration across the southern border. While these factors dominated the national swing, an under-discussed element of the Republican campaign was the relentless targeting of voters in swing states with paid advertising linking Kamala Harris to radical trans ideology. Why was this – and what lessons should be drawn for Labour in the UK? The ads were simple. Their tagline: ‘Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump is for you.’ The ads were simple. Their tagline: ‘Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump is for you.’ They showed clips of her, from

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Did Christianity create secular humanism?

33 min listen

Since the election of an overwhelmingly secular Labour government, people who describe themselves as humanists have a spring in their step: for example, there’s a prospect that humanist weddings will be legally recognised in England and Wales (they already are in Scotland). But what exactly is a humanist? Definitions vary and there’s a heated debate about to what extent the ethical but firmly atheist beliefs of the rather loosely organised modern humanist movement are descended from Christianity. In this episode of Holy Smoke we’ll hear from Andrew Copson, CEO of Humanists UK since 2010 & President of Humanists International, and the theologian and Spectator contributor Theo Hobson, author of God created Humanism:

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Susie Wiles and the rise of the Floridian right

‘Susie Wiles is a great choice for President Trump’s chief of staff,’ said Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and the man Donald Trump so humiliated in 2016. Uh oh. Bush’s approval of the second Trump administration’s first major appointment instantly rang alarm bells in some quarters of the new American right. Wiles, who ran Trump’s campaign with Chris LaCivita, is seen by some Trumpist insiders as a suspiciously old-fashioned operative, in hock to the moneyed interests who used to run the Republican party. Over the summer, we heard whispers of clashes between Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s most doggedly loyal aide, and Wiles and LaCivita over funding. Wiles once wrote

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Why did so many Christians vote for Trump?

It’s hard to know what to say about Donald Trump. Well, maybe it’s easy enough if you’re a fan, or if you are an opponent who’s very sure that the liberal case just needs to be reiterated more forcefully. But for the rest of us it’s difficult. It’s a special sort of difficulty, a difficulty of tone. As a liberal Christian, my main response is to be aghast that most Christians voted for him – the ratio was almost two-to-one. Why don’t these people have more respect for liberal democracy, and common decency, I am tempted to ask. Why don’t they have more fear of crude bullying and authoritarianism?  The

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Trump’s tariff plans don’t have to spell bad news for Britain

On the face of it, Donald Trump’s threat to impose general import tariffs of 10 to 20 per cent on all goods – and much higher levies on those from China – is bad news for Britain, the US and the world. That protectionism makes us poorer is a lesson which seems to have to be re-learned every generation. The last time America was forced to learn the hard way was when George W Bush tried to protect the US steel industry with punitive tariffs on imports of steel in 2002. A US government review later concluded that the tariffs had cost 200,000 jobs in US by increasing the prices

Terry Barnes

Could Kevin Rudd’s Trump tweets cost him his career?

If British Labour ministers and officials find dealing with President Donald Trump 2.0 a formidable challenge, their Australian Labor cousins may find the task of working with a president with an elephantine memory for slights even more daunting. As ministers – including Foreign Secretary David Lammy – are rediscovering to their chagrin, you can delete embarrassing social media posts, but they never disappear. That’s something that may cost former Australian prime minister, and now Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, his diplomatic career. Rudd has been posted to Washington for the best part of two years as current Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese’s envoy to the Biden administration.

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Amsterdam has failed its Jews

Last night in Amsterdam, a scene unfolded that should send shockwaves across Europe: hundreds of Jews were hunted and beaten by mobs following a football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax. Whether a spontaneous flare-up or organised assault, terrified fans were forced to jump into the city’s canals to escape violence. At least ten were injured, and three remain missing. As Israel dispatched emergency flights to evacuate its citizens, one must ask: how long until this happens in London or elsewhere in the UK? The Netherlands must confront this issue immediately, not only for the safety of its Jewish residents and visitors but for the stability of its own

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Jewish football fans are not safe in Europe

Israeli football fans were attacked in Amsterdam on Thursday evening and three supporters are listed as missing this morning. It is reported that the assailants yelled ‘Free Palestine’ as they kicked and punched the Jewish supporters. According to the Israeli foreign ministry, a group of masked men, some of whom were draped in Palestine flags, ambushed the Israelis after their Europa League match against Ajax. A dozen supporters were injured and three are still unaccounted for on Friday morning. The fear in France is that next Thursday won’t be so passive when the Israeli team are in town The Times of Israel reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has despatched

Jim Lawley

Trump’s triumph has infuriated the Spanish left

‘Everybody’s lost but me,’ mutters a teenage Indiana Jones emerging from a cave in the middle of the desert to find that the boy scouts with whom he arrived have now disappeared without trace. Spain’s left-wing prime minister might be excused for thinking much the same. Relentlessly upbeat about the benefits of immigration, Pedro Sánchez now finds himself more or less alone in the European Union. And just when he was hoping that fellow progressive Kamala Harris would win the US election, he finds instead that he’s going to have to contend with Donald Trump.  ‘We will work on our strategic bilateral relations and a strong transatlantic partnership,’ Sánchez said, presumably

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Kamala Harris and the death of the celebrity endorsement

Poor old Bruce Springsteen. The legendary rocker bet the farm on an endorsement of Kamala Harris and may well have alienated about half his audience as a result. The ‘Boss’ who had built his career on empathising with the hard-grafting, blue-collar, Bud-swilling ‘deplorables’ with his anthems of white working-class alienation, recorded a folksy recommendation from the counter of a (real or staged – who knows?) diner. ‘Freedom, social justice, equal opportunity, the right to love who you want’ are on the ballot, pleaded Springsteen, adding that Trump’s ‘disdain for the constitution’ should disqualify him from office. Harrison Ford followed suit in two ads run just before polling day. The Star

Thursday

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Trump’s comeback, Labour’s rural divide, and World of Warcraft

37 min listen

This week: King of the Hill You can’t ignore what could be the political comeback of the century: Donald Trump’s remarkable win in this week’s US election. The magazine this week carries analysis about why Trump won, and why the Democrats lost, from Freddy Gray, Niall Ferguson and Yascha Mounk, amongst others. To make sense of how Trump became only the second President in history to win non-consecutive terms, we’re joined by the journalist Jacqueline Sweet and Cliff Young, president of polling at Ipsos (00:58). Next: is Labour blind to rural communities? The changes to inheritance tax for farmers are one of the measures from Labour’s budget that has attracted the

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Are we about to see Trump unleashed?

32 min listen

Kamala Harris has delivered her concession speech, signalling the start of the Democrat post-mortem. Donald Trump has secured a total victory, the kind which gives him a mandate to make some pretty radical reforms. Americano guest host Kate Andrews is joined by Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest, to discuss what a second Trump term will look like: from domestic to foreign policy. And what about the Democrats? Where do they go from here? 

Constantin Eckner

Germany’s traffic-light coalition was doomed from the start

Germany’s ruling traffic-light coalition – which has looked shaky since it was formed three years ago – has finally collapsed. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he had no trust in his finance minister Christian Lindner, who leads the Free Democrats. Scholz’s decision to act against Lindner follows months of disagreements between Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democrats and the Greens over budget policy and the country’s economic direction. A vote of confidence, which could pave the way for early elections, will take place early next year. As the ruling coalition has been busy tearing itself apart, Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been making headway, gaining support in several federal

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

What Marine Le Pen can learn from Donald Trump

The reaction of Marine Le Pen and her party to the stunning triumph of Donald Trump was curiously flat. Emmanuel Macron tweeted his congratulations to the 47th President of the United States early on Wednesday morning, an hour before there was any reaction from Le Pen, the woman who had once been proud to liken herself to a Gallic Trump. When it came, Le Pen’s message was tepid. She wished him ‘every success’, and added: ‘This new political era should contribute to the strengthening of bilateral relations and the pursuit of constructive dialogue and cooperation on the international stage.’ Le Pen has distanced herself from Trump for a while now Contrast

David Christopher Kaufman

I voted for Kamala Harris – but I’m not surprised she lost

In the end, I voted for Kamala Harris, but I always knew she was destined to lose. After all, if Harris was having trouble convincing me – a mixed-race gay Northern Californian – to get behind her, her chances were worrisomely slim. And the Harris campaign – rushed and reckless, relying on the same tired playbook that failed Hillary Clinton in 2016 – appears to have lost the vast American middle in spectacular fashion. Harris had plenty more to offer – if only she hadn’t been so afraid to let it loose The biggest problem for Harris is that she wasted every opportunity to make herself seem interesting. Here is

Daniel DePetris

What does Trump’s win mean for America’s allies – and its enemies?

When Donald Trump won his first-ever election in 2016, the world woke up the next morning in a collective state of shock and disbelief. Washington’s allies in Europe were caught completely unprepared; all of a sudden, they had to contend with a leader who relished needling them for all kinds of sins, real and perceived. America’s allies like Japan and South Korea, whose defence policies depend almost entirely on a stable alliance with the United States, were now forced to deal with a man who threatened to use those alliances as leverage to extract greater defence spending in Tokyo and Seoul. Latin America didn’t know what to believe, and frankly