World

Friday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Can Ukraine stop the bombings at its draft offices?

On 1 February, a young man walked into a military enlistment office in Rivne with a bomb in his backpack. Moments later, it detonated, killing him instantly and injuring eight Ukrainian service members. He was just 21, recruited online by Russian intelligence operatives who offered quick cash for sneaking the bomb inside. This attack was not an isolated incident – it was the beginning of a wave of deadly bombings targeting draft offices across the country. Two more attacks followed this week. In Kamianets-Podilskyi, in the Khmelnytskyi region, a man walked into a recruitment centre, bag in hand, claiming he had personal items to hand over. The bomb went off

Raymond Wacks

Trump’s sanctions will hit the ICC hard

Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) could sound the death knell of this important judicial body. The US president condemned the Court’s ‘illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.’ Trump’s response came after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu last November over alleged war crimes in Gaza, as well as a warrant for a Hamas commander. As a supporter of the ICC, I regret that its credibility has – at a stroke – been grievously diminished by this exercise of prejudice The ICC, despite its obvious bias in this case, performs a crucial role as the legitimate forum in

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Can Hamas ever be defeated?

No matter how many times it is vanquished or decisively discredited, ‘Palestinianism’ persists as an ideology unwilling to die. Rooted in Muslim Arab nationalism, it remains fundamentally opposed to the very existence of Israel – a Jewish, liberal, and free state. Hamas, one of its most notorious champions, has in recent weeks orchestrated a carefully staged spectacle as it releases Israeli hostages from Gaza. Masked gunmen stood triumphantly, their performance captured in high resolution by cameras that had somehow survived the supposed genocide. The message was clear: this was a moment of victory, a display of strength. Never mind that Hamas had suffered catastrophic losses – its military infrastructure shattered,

Thursday

Michael Gove

Labour’s Irish insurgent, Germany’s ‘firewall’ falls & finding joy in obituaries

48 min listen

As a man with the instincts of an insurgent, Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, has found Labour’s first six months in office a frustrating time, writes The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove. ‘Many of his insights – those that made Labour electable – appeared to have been overlooked by the very ministers he propelled into power.’ McSweeney is trying to wrench the government away from complacent incumbency: there is a new emphasis on growth, a tougher line on borders, an impatience with establishment excuses for inertia. Will McSweeney win his battle? And what does this mean for figures in Starmer’s government, like Richard Hermer and Ed Miliband? Michael joined the

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Donald Trump is liberating the US from the transgender madness

I thought Donald Trump was a woman-hater? The Guardian told us he’s a ‘far-right misogynist’ whose return to the White House would strike ‘visceral horror’ into the hearts of women everywhere. He’s the ‘misogynist in chief’, said CNN. Perhaps someone could explain, then, why he just signed an executive order in favour of women’s rights while surrounded by a joyous throng of beaming girls? The order is searingly feminist. It’s a manifesto against misogyny The scenes in the White House yesterday were extraordinary. Trump signed an order titled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’. It commands every educational institution and athletic association that receives federal funding to keep blokes, however

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Will the Tories really kick out low-paid migrants?

We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this. It is hard when analysing the new Conservative party immigration policy not to be put in mind of this ancient political joke. Despite having led us all not to expect firm policy announcements for a couple of years, Kemi Badenoch’s party has just nailed its colours to the mast of a migration policy idea that has recently been doing the rounds in right-wing think tank circles: toughening-up the eligibility criteria for granting foreign nationals indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK. Kemi Badenoch’s party has just nailed its colours to the mast of a migration policy idea

Douglas Murray

America has seen sense on aid. When will we?

The new administration in Washington has somewhat startled its critics by issuing a blizzard of executive orders during its opening weeks in office. So far the reaction from the American left might be summed up by the sentiment: ‘That’s not fair – it’s only us that are allowed to do things when we are in power.’ The American left are in a particular funk about the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – as though railing against the proposed reduction of federal spending and reduction of the American deficit is a natural vote-winner. But good news does just keep on coming. On Monday, Elon Musk said that President Donald Trump had

Kara Kennedy

MAGA Kids: How America’s youth went right

Washington, D.C. ‘What made you open a restaurant?’ I ask Bart Hutchins, the owner of Butterworth’s, a French-style bistro turned Republican hangout, frequented by the youthful wings of the Grand Old Party. It’s home to figures from the intellectual right such as Curtis Yarvin and darlings of New Right media including Natalie Winters, the increasingly slim White House correspondent for Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. ‘Have you read Death in the Afternoon?’ Bart says. ‘No,’ I say. ‘It’s by Hemingway.’ ‘I know.’ Bart pulls his phone out and starts to recite a few lines: ‘In cafés where the boys are never wrong; in cafés where they are all brave; in

Alexander Raubo

Why young MAGA supporters are flocking to Remilia

The MAGA social scene was defined on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration by the Coronation Ball – perhaps the most exuberant celebration of the new ‘Golden Age’. The principal speaker was, unsurprisingly, Steve Bannon, the architect of Trump’s first victory and the voice of the neo-reactionary core of the President’s movement. More surprising perhaps though was the Ball’s principal sponsor, Remilia Corporation, a conceptual art movement. It was as if a Reform UK rally were sponsored by the Turner Prize. After Bannon’s speech, a representative of Remilia, an artist operating behind the pseudonym L.B. Dobis, stood at the podium to speak about internet art and to outline Remilia’s plans

The Spectator

Britain could learn from Trump’s approach to foreign policy

The Foreign Secretary describes his approach to diplomacy as ‘progressive realism’. One can legitimately ask what is progressive about a closer accommodation with the slave-labour-deploying Leninists of Beijing or what is realistic about ceding the UK’s sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to China’s ally Mauritius. But David Lammy seems happy in his work. His choice of words serves to give an updated gloss to what most observers would readily recognise as the Foreign Office’s traditional approach – appeasement of our enemies and embarrassment at anything which appears to be a reminder of our colonial past. Whatever the aptest description of this government’s foreign policy, it is fair to say Donald

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Shoplifting surges, Trump eyes Gaza Strip and Norway’s government collapses

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, flew to Brussels for an EU summit, sought a ‘reset’ of relations and had celeriac soup and sea bream for dinner. AstraZeneca dropped plans to invest £450 million in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke, Liverpool, blaming the government’s ‘final offer compared to the previous government’s proposal’. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that she supported the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport; she had already backed a third runway at Heathrow and the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield airport. Water bills in England and Wales will rise to an average of £603. Some councils will be allowed to raise their tax by

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Britain’s Trumpists should be careful what they wish for

When I visited Toronto with a UK delegation last winter, conversation focused on the issues of immigration, housing and inflation that were contributing to the unpopularity of Justin Trudeau, who finally announced his resignation as prime minister last month. The prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House was the slumbering python in the chandelier above the conference table: I sensed our hosts preferred not to think about how bad it might turn out to be. Well, now they know. In response to Trump’s declaration of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods, plus 10 per cent on imported energy, Trudeau retorted with tariffs on many billions worth of

Oren Cass

What economists don’t get about Trump’s tariffs

We already knew that most economists are quite bad at economic policy. Unfortunately, foreign policy appears not to be much of a strength either. Indeed, it appears most financial experts may not even know the difference, based on their criticism of Donald Trump’s recent tariff threats against Mexico, Canada and China. Of course, a nation can introduce tariffs to generate revenue, promote domestic production, shift international supply chains and ‘decouple’ itself from an undesirable trading partner. But a nation can also use tariffs as powerful leverage to make other states change their behaviour. That is a negotiating tariff, not an economic one, and it is designed not to minimise potential

Elisabeth Dampier

‘Our side is significantly sexier’: an interview with Germany’s most controversial politician  

‘My knife is at your throat,’ says a Turkish barber, wielding a razor blade around Maximilian Krah’s face. Krah, one of the most controversial figures in Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, sits for a shave – and a grilling. The TikTok video of the conversation has racked up 2.8 million views. Does Krah hate foreigners, the bearded barber asks. No, but ‘eight million have come since 2013’, he says, and ‘too many don’t work and don’t want to work’. Does he hate Islam? Religion is good but ‘not as a reason to blow up people’. This isn’t quite what you’d expect from a member of the AfD but

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Tomorrow belongs to the AfD

‘The firewall has fallen!’ Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), posted on X, barely able to contain her excitement. The firewall (‘Brandmauer’) refers to the agreement by Germany’s establishment parties never to endorse or collaborate with the AfD. Last week, it was breached – for the first time in the history of the federal German parliament, a motion was passed with the AfD’s help. The person responsible was the man tipped to be Germany’s next chancellor: Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz. Merz’s motion called on the government to reintroduce permanent border controls, block all attempts to enter the country illegally and prioritise the arrest

Wednesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Will Trump make Gaza great again?

20 min listen

When Netanyahu visited the White House, Donald Trump said in a press conference that the US could take over the Gaza Strip and suggested the permanent resettlement of its 1.8 million residents to neighbouring Arab countries. It has sparked global condemnation raising questions about where the Gaza citizens could be resettled to, and how this could impact the hostage negotiations. To discuss this and the conflict more widely, Freddy Gray is joined by former Israel spokesperson Eylon Levy.

Malcom Kyeyune

What sets Sweden’s school shooting apart

Sweden has suffered its worst mass shooting in living memory. On Tuesday, a 35-year-old gunman went to a community college in the central city of Örebro armed with a firearm. After changing into combat fatigues in one of the school toilets, he launched an attack that left 11 people (including himself) dead and several more critically wounded. What Sweden witnessed was a form of violence born from cultural atomisation and ennui As someone who’s been involved, on and off, in the debates surrounding immigration and the new patterns of violence in Sweden, an incident like this appears as a round peg in a square hole. At first, as news of

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is Jared Kushner behind Trump’s ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ plan?

Who knew that America First had such global ambitions? Who knew that, when Donald Trump promised ‘mass deportations’, he also might have been thinking about using America’s might to extract Palestinian people out of Gaza to give them a ‘lasting home’ in Jordan or Egypt? Donald Trump promised ‘peace through strength’ on the campaign trail. The president never quite said that could mean deploying US funds and troops to remake Gaza into, as he now puts, a ‘Riviera of the Middle East’. ‘Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable,’ Jared Kushner has said Standing with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington yesterday, Trump said: ‘The US will take over

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Record Channel crossings expose Starmer’s failure to ‘smash the gangs’

More migrants have illegally crossed the English Channel since 1 January than in any previous year for this period. So far in 2025, 1,344 migrants were detected crossing the Channel in small boats between 1 January and 4 February, beating the previous record of 1,339 in 2022. The figures published by Border Force – and tracked daily by The Spectator’s data hub – put paid to Keir Starmer’s promise to ‘smash the gangs’. A key part of Labour’s manifesto – and one of Starmer’s ‘first steps’ – was to ‘create a fair system and stop the small boat crossings’. Since Starmer took office last July, there have been 24,586 migrant crossings. The news comes despite

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The audacity of Trump’s Gaza plan

Some moments in history demand recognition, not just for their weight in the present but for the seismic shifts they herald. The Trump-Netanyahu press conference was one such moment – not a perfunctory diplomatic exercise, nor a routine reaffirmation of alliance, but an unambiguous declaration of intent. It was a disruption of long-entrenched, failed orthodoxies and the unveiling of a vision that dares to reimagine the Middle East in starkly different terms. For decades, world leaders have clung to exhausted formulas – peace processes built on illusion, agreements predicated on fantasy, and a wilful refusal to acknowledge the fundamental realities of Palestinian rejectionism and terror. That era is now over. Standing together,