World

Monday

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

SpaceX has put Europe to shame

The flawless launch of SpaceX’s 5,000-ton Starship and its Super Heavy Booster, and the precision recovery of the booster on its launch pad, has opened the way to a manned mission to the moon next year and perhaps to Mars as soon as 2030. One giant leap for Elon Musk’s company on Sunday was one more reminder that Europe’s space programme is a colossal failure. Elon’s Musk’s dream has become Europe’s nightmare Europe is currently unable to launch even its own weather satellites, and India, which managed a soft landing on the Moon last year, now has a more credible space program. Twenty years ago, before SpaceX had launched a

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Kamala Harris’s ‘Joe Biden’ problem

As Hurricane Milton battered Florida last week, Kamala Harris did her best to look and sound presidential. The Vice President hosted a live broadcast with the leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She then called into CNN, live, to reassure Americans that her administration was tackling the crisis. The message was meant to be clear: she’s got this.  Alas, Joe Biden also wanted to show that he’s in charge and that muddled matters. On Friday, the actual Commander-in-Chief gave an emergency press conference about the disaster from the White House briefing room, which rather overshadowed Harris’s big rally that day in the critical swing state of Michigan.  Joe and

Billi Bierling

The discovery of Irvine’s boot on Everest raises more questions than answers

Andrew Comyn ‘Sandy’ Irvine disappeared while attempting to climb Everest in June 1924 with his partner George Mallory. For a century, the 22-year-old British climber’s body lay undiscovered. But last month a startling discovery was made on the mountain: a preserved boot with a red label attached; the lettering inside read: ‘AC Irvine’. Could this discovery finally solve the mystery of whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit? The group of American filmmakers uncovered the boot on the Central Rongbuk Glacier, on the north face of Everest. The expedition was not there to hunt for clues on the ill-fated British 1924 Mount Everest expedition and the climbers instantly knew what

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Who is slipping through Europe’s porous borders?

In the same week that over 1,000 migrants arrived in England, the head of MI5 admitted his agency had ‘one hell of a job’ on its hands. Ken McCallum said that while there is a threat from Russia, China and Iran, it was Islamist terrorism ‘that concerns me most’. In particular, al-Qaida and the Islamic State, specifically their Afghan affiliate Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), members of which slaughtered 137 Russians in a Moscow concert hall earlier this year. McCallum’s analysis is almost identical to that of Céline Berthon, the director-general of the DGSI, the French equivalent of MI5. She also namechecked the two Islamist terror groups in an interview last

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Can Lebanon ever be free of Hezbollah?

Lebanon is teetering on the edge of a seismic political shift, facing increasing pressure both from internal factions and external military threats. Years of dominance in Lebanon’s political and military arenas have not shielded the terror group Hezbollah from devastating external blows, including the assassination of its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The group’s entrenched power within the country’s political, military, and social structures has long presented a seemingly insurmountable challenge. As the group’s grip appears to weaken, a rare moment of vulnerability has emerged, one that could reshape Lebanon’s future. Yet the question remains: will this be a fleeting opportunity or the beginning of Lebanon’s long-awaited liberation from Hezbollah’s shadow?

Limor Simhony Philpott

Hezbollah’s drone strike won’t deter Israel’s campaign

Last night, a single Hezbollah drone managed to inflict more damage on Israel than 200 Iranian ballistic missiles so far. A ‘swarm’ of drones launched by the Iran-backed terror organisation based in Lebanon exploded south of the northern city of Haifa, with one hitting the Binyamina military base, home to a training camp for the Israeli Defence Force’s (IDF) Golani Brigade. Early reports indicate the drone was spotted by the Israeli airforce, but attempts to shoot it down failed. Sirens to warn those targeted also did not go off. As a result, it exploded, causing a reported 67 casualties according to Israeli media, four of whom have been killed and

Sam Meadows

Javier Milei could be in trouble

President Javier Milei isn’t believed to have attended Sir Paul McCartney’s Buenos Aires concerts last weekend, but if he had, he would have heard thousands of Argentines belting out ‘Getting Better’.  Are things getting better for Argentina? There’s enough in the World Bank’s latest assessment to give Milei optimism. While his brutal austerity measures have caused the economy to shrink by 3.5 per cent in 2024, according to projections, GDP is also primed to grow by 5 per cent next year. One consequence of Milei’s success has been a stark increase in poverty Now the main concern for Milei – and South America’s great libertarian experiment – is whether he

Sunday

Jonathan Spyer

Where does Lebanon go from here?

Israel’s overt ground intervention into Lebanon is now entering its third week.  So far, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have advanced just a few kilometers in and established control in a number of locations across the border.  The IDF itself has described its ground action on the border as consisting of ‘limited, localised and targeted raids.’  Standing at a border observation post a few days ago, my impression was that this description appears accurate, at least for now.  Looking across to the towns of Bint Jbeil, Maroun a Ras, Ain Ebel and Ait a Shaab, we heard the occasional sound of artillery cannons.  Twice, we saw interceptions of ordnance fired

Jawad Iqbal

Why India’s super-rich are snapping up Rolexes

Here’s a question: what do crazy rich Indians want more than anything? The answer appears to be luxury watches, and the more the merrier. From January to July of this year, Swiss watch exports to India were up 20 per cent compared with the same period in 2023, and up more than 41 per cent compared with the same period in 2022, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. The growing demand from the super-rich is set to soon make India one of the international watch industry’s top export markets.  The luxury watch market is very much about the exclusivity and social cachet it brings India’s economy is

Saturday

Michael Gove

Michael Gove, Max Jeffery, Christopher Howse, Robert Jackman and Mark Mason

31 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: new Editor Michael Gove discusses his plans for The Spectator (1:08); Max Jeffery heads to Crawley to meet some of the Chagossians based there (5:44); Christopher Howse reads his ode to lamp lighting (12:35); Robert Jackman declares the Las Vegas Sphere to be the future of live arts (19:10); and Mark Mason provides his notes on the joy of swearing (26:50).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Germany and the fuss over the ‘idiot’s apostrophe’

‘Now it’s official,’ the German press lamented, ‘the idiot’s apostrophe is correct.’ The Council for German Orthography, the body that regulates German spelling and grammar, has relaxed the rules on when and how apostrophes can be used to show possession. What seems like a matter for grammar pedants has fuelled angst for the very future of the German language. The issue itself isn’t new. Unlike English, German doesn’t traditionally use apostrophes to show possession. So Uncle Tom’s Cabin, for example, becomes Onkel Toms Hütte in the German translation. But this rule has long been eroded. It’s common to find places like ‘Tina’s Wolllädchen’ – ‘Tina’s Little Wool Shop’ – which

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

How Marseille became France’s Narcoville

France’s Interior Minister is the tough-talking Bruno Retailleau. In his inaugural declaration a fortnight ago, he hammered out his three priorities: ‘The first is to re-establish order, the second is to re-establish order, and the third is to re-establish order.’ Standing behind Retailleau was Gerald Darmanin, the man he was replacing as France’s ‘top cop’. He was also tough-talking but, like the interior ministers before him, the rhetoric had little effect on the violent lawlessness that has reached into every nook and cranny of the Republic. The teenager was stabbed dozens of times, doused in petrol and set on fire Within a few days, Retailleau admitted that he had been

Stewart McDonald

Starmer needs to get serious about China

In the coming days, Foreign Secretary David Lammy will visit China and Chancellor Rachel Reeves is eyeing up a visit early next year for economic and financial dialogue. Whilst engagement is important, it’s not unreasonable to expect an understanding of the government’s strategic position on such a defining relationship before ministers board their flights. Does the government believe in deepening and expanding cooperation with China, or does it believe – as it appeared to in opposition – that China is a threat and must be dealt with as such? We are simply left guessing. As Starmer marks his first 100 days in office, the fact that there is little-to-no clarity

Friday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Which campaign has the better ground game?

Republican strategist, and friend of Americano, Luke Thompson joins Freddy Gray to talk about the ground game of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. From postal voting, to party registration, to machine politics, whose is better? And what impact did Biden’s exit from the race have on the organised parts of the Democratic Party?  With Luke’s unique insight working on two current senate races, and as a longtime consultant to Vice-Presidential nominee J.D. Vance, they analyse the state of an election that continues to be unpredictable.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Jonathan Campbell-James

How will Israel retaliate against Iran?

When Iran attacked Israel last week with a barrage of missiles, one thing was certain: Israel would hit back hard. Ten days on, that response has still not come. Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, has warned that the retaliatory strike on Iran will have an element of surprise. Israel’s attack, he said, ‘will be deadly, precise and above all surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results.’ A wounded Iran with the IRGC still in charge could prove more dangerous Gallant knows that this element of surprise is critical; without it, Israel may have insufficient conventional capability to land a decisive first-blow strike.

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

France is finally opting for austerity

After the binge, the bill? The new French government of Michel Barnier presented the main lines of its proposed 2025 budget on Thursday evening, promising to cut public spending by £50 billion while raising taxes across the board. It’s belated austerity for a state with a fiscal policy that has previously resembled dine and dash.  The intention is to reduce the deficit to 5 per cent of GDP next year, before trying to go below 3 per cent in 2029. Meanwhile, France’s debt of 3.3 trillion Euros will increase.   This is a punishment beating for the most successful and productive companies and individuals in France Like one of those

Sam Goodman

Britain could pay a heavy price if it fails to crackdown on Chinese EVs

The European Union has joined the United States and Canada in slapping tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles (EVs). It’s a rare moment of transatlantic unity – but where does it leave Britain? For now, the UK remains the awkward man in the room. It is the only G7 country not to have imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs (or, in the case of Japan, which already has arduous non-tariff barriers to deter foreign automotive companies from entering its markets.)  The European Commission has made it plain that they see Chinese EVs as an economic threat Many will rightly question the silence from Whitehall. The UK’s omission from a coordinated attempt to stem China’s

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

France is losing the fight to keep its teachers safe

It is a year almost to the day since a French schoolteacher was killed by a young Islamist. Dominque Bernard, a high school teacher in Arras, died almost exactly three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was slain in similar circumstances and by the same ideology. A memorial service this week will remember Bernard; on Monday, schools across France will observe a minute’s silence in honour of the two teachers. The silence is unlikely to be universally respected. It wasn’t last year, when a minute’s silence for Bernard was interrupted by 357 ‘incidents’ in the schools and colleges of France. A teenage girl struck a teacher who asked her to

Daniel Rey

How postal votes could deliver Donald Trump the White House

Watch or attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies, and you may well see something surprising: an electronic billboard encouraging people to vote by post. It’s a big u-turn for Trump, who has spent years maintaining that postal votes are manipulated. Ahead of the 2020 election – which took place in the pre-vaccine era of the pandemic – Trump’s White House even blocked additional funding for the Postal Service, fearing that Democratic voters were more likely to avoid going to a polling station. Following the election, one of his many claims of voter fraud was predicated on supposedly corrupted postal ballots. ‘Mail-in voting is totally corrupt,’ Trump said So why the

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Does the Guardian need reminding that Hamas are the bad guys?

The Guardian has found a new minority it wants to shield from offence. A new oppressed group it might shed some virtuous tears over. A put-upon section of society that urgently requires the warm, loving hug of Guardianista pity. And you won’t believe who it is. It’s the mad militants who invaded Israel on 7 October last year. I probably shouldn’t call Hamas gunmen ‘mad’ – the Guardian might accuse me of ‘demonising’ them. In possibly the most crackpot piece it has published this year – and that’s saying something – the Guardian has slammed a new documentary about the 7 October attacks for ‘demonis[ing] Gazans as either killers or