World

Thursday

The Spectator

The questions the government must answer over the China spying case

Exactly a year ago, this magazine warned that ministers were showing a dangerous naivety towards China. We revealed that the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister were all intent on cosying up to Beijing. They were scornful of the wariness Conservative ministers had shown towards the Chinese Communist party. The Labour leadership believed that their pursuit of growth could be supercharged by Chinese investment. They hoped one of their missions – the drive to decarbonise the grid – could be facilitated by Chinese tech. They thought Tory attitudes to China were warped by ideology and a more pragmatic line towards Beijing would be economically rewarding. A ‘China Audit’

Tim Shipman

Here be dragons: the truth about Chinese espionage

On 3 July a Chinese man, Xu Zewei, was arrested in Milan to face extradition on nine charges relating to the hack carried out by a group called Haf-nium during the Covid pandemic. Western companies had secrets stolen in 2020 and 2021 when a weakness in the Microsoft Exchange servers was exploited. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, later said 70 British firms had fallen victim to ‘a malicious act by Chinese state-backed actors’. The court documents claim that officers of China’s ‘Ministry of State Security and the Shanghai State Security Bureau directed Xu to conduct this hacking’. China is constantly probing for ‘weaknesses’ in British defences

Wednesday

Georgia L. Gilholy

Why are British aides going on ‘Future Leaders’ trips to China?

What if it were uncovered that staffers for Foreign Office ministers had been flown out to Moscow for lavish grace and favour trips with Vladimir Putin’s underlings? Investigations would be launched and resignations hastily tendered. But we can expect no such outrage when China, not Russia, is the destination. Why funnel money into tackling the CCP’s malign influence while investing in networking trips that fuel its propaganda machine? The ‘Future Leaders Programme’ is organised by the Great Britain-China Centre (GBCC), a taxpayer-funded quango charged with encouraging ‘dialogue’ with China. According to parliament’s register of interests, staffers for Catherine West, then Foreign Office minister for the Indo-Pacific, and for David Lammy, the

Mark Nayler

Pedro Sanchez is compiling a blacklist of anti-abortion doctors

Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Socialist prime minister, has demanded that the regions of Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands and Madrid – most of which are governed by the Conservative People’s party (PP) – compile lists of doctors who refuse to perform pregnancy terminations. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the PP president of Madrid, has refused to publish what she calls a ‘blacklist’. The move is part of Sanchez’s plan to make abortion a constitutional right, following the example set by France last year. Abortion has been legal in Spain since 1985, and in 2010 the 12-week rule, which allowed women to receive pregnancy terminations without having to give a reason, was increased to 14

Yossi Melman

Netanyahu has let a key opportunity slip through his fingers

The refusal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit this week has cast a long shadow over his future – both at home and abroad. After President Donald Trump landed earlier that day at Ben Gurion Airport – at the very moment Israeli hostages began to be released – he invited Netanyahu to ride with him in ‘the Beast’, the US presidential limousine, on the way to address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. During the 30-minute drive, Trump personally urged Netanyahu to accompany him to the summit. Netanyahu, seeking formal protocol, requested an official invitation. Within minutes, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi telephoned the Israeli prime minister. On

Limor Simhony Philpott

Hamas unchecked is as brutal as ever

As the dust settles on Israel’s phased withdrawal from Gaza under Donald Trump’s hard-won ceasefire deal, Hamas has slithered straight back into the void. Barely hours after the ink dried on ‘phase one’ of Trump’s plan, the Islamist rulers of Gaza unleashed a wave of reprisals against rival Palestinian clans. Accusations of ‘collaboration’ with Israel, or simple refusal to bow to Hamas’s rule, have triggered executions, abductions and what survivors are calling outright massacres. Instead of rebuilding, Gaza is now witnessing a purge. The message is clear: anyone who worked against Hamas during the war will pay for it now. In Gaza City, fierce clashes have erupted between Hamas and

Tuesday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Middle East experts got Trump all wrong

Whenever Donald Trump proposes a policy that runs counter to the progressive consensus, there are three stages of response: it’ll never work, it’s a disaster, it was our idea all along. We are at stage three on Trump’s truce in Gaza. Antony Blinken, Secretary of State in Joe Biden’s administration, says: ‘It’s good that President Trump adopted and built on the plan the Biden administration developed after months of discussion with Arab partners, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.’ It’s true that Joe Biden secured a two-month ceasefire at the start of the year and with it the release of a sizeable contingent of hostages. It’s true also that Trump’s truce

Tim Shipman

China spy scandal: ‘a masterclass of ineptitude’?

13 min listen

Tim Shipman and Charles Parton, China adviser at the Council on Geostrategy, join James Heale to discuss the ongoing fallout over the collapse of the Westminster spy case. Security minister Dan Jarvis answered an urgent question on the matter late on Monday in Parliament, stringently denying that the government played an active role in collapsing the case. But, as Charles and Tim stress, the case still doesn’t add up. Is it as simple as the government not wanting to offend China? And is the deputy national security adviser being ‘hung out to dry’? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Irwin Stelzer

Can the peace in Gaza last?

He came, he saw, he conquered. That just about describes President Trump’s 12,000-mile round trip from Washington, D.C. to Israel and Egypt. He addressed Israel’s Knesset in Jerusalem, greeted the hostages and their families, hopped on Air Force One for a flight to Sharm el-Sheikh, signed the first phase of a Gaza peace deal, delivered a moving speech, met with the leaders of 27 countries to push the next phases of his 20-point peace plan forward and take a well-earned victory lap, and returned to Washington after what most people would consider a full day. The hope that a ceasefire will eventually reduce the bitter enmity between Gazans and Israel

Bronwyn Jones

Did Blair really rebuild Kosovo?

Donald Trump seems to be questioning Tony Blair’s inclusion in the so-called ‘Board of Peace’ to rebuild Gaza. On Monday, speaking on Air Force One, the President said, ‘I like Tony, I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody’. Those backing Blair’s bid to be involved in the peace plan point to his role in rebuilding Kosovo. If he did it there he could surely do the same in Gaza, they argue. But is Kosovo really an example of successful nation building? And how much credit should we give to Tony Blair if it is? Blair may have created a plan

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Thank God for Donald Trump

Imagine, for a moment, the world we narrowly escaped. A world in which Joe Biden, frail and fading, remained in the 2024 presidential race and, with the exhausted assent of a compliant media and a protective establishment, was returned to the White House. A world in which his decisive televised collapse never quite happened or was quickly obscured. In this alternate reality, Biden staggered through the campaign and secured just enough ground to claim victory. If the career diplomats sneered at the ‘real estate men’ entering geopolitics, they may now see: sometimes, it takes builders to rebuild the world Had that happened, the consequences would have been severe, not just

Monday

James Tidmarsh

Macron has to choose: humiliation or defeat?

Emmanuel Macron’s presidency is imploding, squeezed between enemies he can no longer outmanoeuvre. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insoumise, joined by the Socialists, have united to force yet another no-confidence vote, this time set for Thursday. Once the master of France’s centre, Macron’s political survival hinges on a humiliating surrender of his flagship pension reform, or a headlong rush into legislative elections his party cannot win. Macron presents every decision as an act of duty, then retreats when his own powers are threatened. The result is a presidency that has lost its moral centre as well as its political one The Lecornu government 2.0 was meant

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Donald Trump is the real anti-fascist hero

Tell me: who has done more for the cause of anti-fascism? Real anti-fascism? Those masked mummy’s boys of the Antifa movement for whom ‘fighting fascism’ means little more than hurling abuse at blue-collar oiks who voted for Donald Trump? Or Donald Trump himself, the man they love to loathe, who today accomplished the miraculous feat of liberating 20 Israelis from the anti-Semitic hell of Hamas captivity? It’s Trump, isn’t it? Today should be the day that Trump Derangement Syndrome is laid to rest As of today, following the soul-stirring emancipation of the last living Israeli hostages, whenever I hear the phrase ‘anti-fascist’ I will think of Trump. Forget those sun-starved

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The relief, joy and grief of Israel’s hostage homecoming

This morning in Israel began like no other: layered, dissonant, momentous. A collision of spectacle and salvation, of grief and hope, of noise and meaning. It was a morning composed of many parts: part show, part hope, part illusion, part bluster, part redemption, part commercial deal, part peace plan, part threat, part diplomacy, part war. For a few hours, all those contradictions briefly aligned to form a kind of harmony. They may yet fall apart again but, for now, they have converged in one extraordinary sequence of events. Palestinians not aligned with the regime’s grip are being hunted down, tortured, and silenced On one side of the news screen, Donald

John Keiger John Keiger

Can Louis XX save Macron’s France?

From the stability of the Fifth Republic’s institutions, France is regressing to the chronic instability of bygone republics. In eight years as president, Emmanuel Macron has expended eight prime ministers. For the moment, one per year compares favourably with the Third and Fourth Republics, whose governments averaged nine and six months respectively. But the pace is accelerating. Since Macron’s re-election in May 2022, his prime ministerial tally is five, with the last government surviving 14 hours. Where to look for a ray of hope in France’s darkening political crisis? New government, dissolution, presidential resignation? None seem likely to unblock France’s political and institutional gridlock General de Gaulle designed the Fifth

Sunday

Tom Gross

The folly of releasing Hamas terrorists for peace

Sorry to spoil the party, but there’s one aspect of this week’s Middle East peace deal which is pure madness. As part of the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, Israel is set to free 250 Palestinian terrorists serving lengthy prison sentences for murder and other serious offences. Many of them have boasted of their crimes and said they would happily carry them out again. (Up to 1,700 Hamas fighters captured during the current war are also set to be freed, but may be worth releasing if this deal brings an end to the conflict.) This kind of terrible deal-making will surely only encourage the future kidnapping of other innocent people by

David Cohen

Why the Maori party keep doing the haka in parliament

Parliamentary proceedings in New Zealand once again screeched to a halt this week after an unsanctioned performance of the haka caused bedlam in the country’s normally genteel debating chamber, forcing the speaker to suspend the House. The latest war dance took place on Thursday after a new MP, Oriini Kaipara, 42, of the nativist Maori party, finished her maiden speech in the House of Representatives with a deafening flourish. On cue, supporters in the gallery leapt to their feet and broke into a ferocious haka to show their support for the television presenter turned politician, with Kaipara herself joining in the ruckus. The haka may generate online clicks, but for

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Japan has a bear problem

In a scenario out of a horror film, or Werner Herzog documentary perhaps, Japan is experiencing a spate of bear attacks, including a series of fatalities. Over the last few years, the number of encounters, attacks and deaths have all surged. This year alone, since April, 200 people have been attacked and six killed. The ongoing grisliness is threatening to seriously impact tourism in certain areas. Most attacks are in the northern island of Hokkaido, known as ‘Japan’s last frontier’ Some of the stories are the stuff of nightmares, such as when an 81-year-old woman in Iwate was mauled to death inside her own home in July – or the

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

What does it mean ‘to forgive’?

34 min listen

The announcement by Erika Kirk – the widow of assassinated political activist Charlie Kirk – that she forgave her husband’s killer, has led many to question the nature of Christian forgiveness. Granting forgiveness can seem hard for the smallest of crimes, let alone the murder of a close family member, so how can other people follow Erika’s example? One person who sadly knows better than most is Professor Everett Worthington. Prof. Worthington is Professor Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University and a clinical psychologist who has studied forgiveness throughout his career. However, it isn’t just through academia that he understands forgiveness; when his mother was murdered, he also made the decision

Friday

Madeline Grant

When will Labour be honest about its China spy problem?

Yvette Cooper managed to say ‘let me be clear’ twice, in a couple of minutes during her interview with Nick Robinson on the Today Programme this morning. For seasoned Labour-watchers, the phrase ‘let me be clear’ was one inherited from the grand panjandrum of political deceit – Tony Blair himself – and is almost always an indicator that the person saying is it about to be as unclear as possible. They might as well walk around with the phrase ‘I’m lying’ written on their foreheads in red paint, so obvious an indicator of incoming deceit it is. If these are the grown ups, then send in the clowns The Foreign Secretary