World

Thursday

Ian Williams Ian Williams

How China exploits the West’s climate anxiety

In the fight against climate change, China loves to present itself as the world’s White Knight. Armed with wind turbines and solar panels, EVs and batteries, it will rescue us from oblivion if only we would let it.  There’s no shortage of western politicians, academics and organisations who are happy to go along with the idea that China is an ally in the global green revolution. The argument, broadly put, is that whatever our differences on other things (trifles such as security, economics and human rights), surely we can agree on saving the planet. Rachel Reeves seemed to reach that conclusion when she returned from her visit to Beijing last

Charles Moore Charles Moore

My Valentine’s Day car crash

Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, is not a MAGA groupie, but a believer in the Nato alliance. He knows about working with allies. Yet he says that the Americans should go right ahead with Russia, the murderous aggressor, without bringing Ukraine, ally and victim, or the Nato member states, into the talks. This is President Trump’s will, he says. Compare with the Middle East. Would Rubio – or Trump – say that Hamas, the murderous aggressor, was the key player, and should therefore have bilateral talks with the US whereas Israel, ally and victim, should just sit and wait to be told later what is happening? Trump helped

The Spectator

Who lost Ukraine?

In the America of the 1950s, one question dominated foreign policy: ‘Who lost China?’ The Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and the defeat of America’s ally, the Kuomintang regime, provoked agonised debate about the principles that should guide statecraft – the balance between containment and pushback, the relative importance of winning hearts and minds or prevailing by strength of arms. The question that we might ask today is: ‘Who lost Ukraine?’ Of course, the war between Kyiv and Moscow is not over. Ukraine’s army continues to fight with a tenacious courage that is inspiring. Volodymyr Zelensky’s diplomatic efforts to maximise support for resistance are unflagging. But all the

Michael Gove

Get real: the harsh lessons of our new world disorder

Sir Roger Scruton may not be the Prime Minister’s favourite author. Apparently Keir Starmer prefers Victoria Hislop. But as he prepares to travel to Washington next week, the PM could scarcely spend his time more wisely than burying his nose in The Uses of Pessimism – and the Dangers of False Hope, one of Scruton’s most powerful works. ‘Hope untempered by the evidence of history is a dangerous asset,’ says Scruton. ‘And one that threatens not only those who embrace it, but all those within range of their illusions.’ That is the correct, pessimistic, cast of mind with which to approach not just the war in Ukraine, and America’s ongoing

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: US and Russia talk, Chiltern Firehouse burns and Duchess of Sussex rebrands

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said that, to guarantee the security of Ukraine, he was ‘ready and willing’ to put ‘our own troops on the ground if necessary. I do not say that lightly’. Parliament would be allowed a vote on such a deployment, the government said. Earlier, Sir Keir took an unannounced telephone call from President Donald Trump of America about their forthcoming meeting. Afterwards, Mr Trump said: ‘We have a lot of good things going on. But he asked to come and see me and I just accepted his asking.’ The Chiltern Firehouse hotel in Marylebone burnt down. The Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill,

Wednesday

Owen Matthews

Could Zelensky have made a deal to stop the war?

Is there any truth to Donald Trump’s extraordinary and, to many, highly offensive comments apparently blaming Volodymir Zelensky for starting the war? Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said he was ‘disappointed’ that the Ukrainian leader complained about being left out of talks between the US and Russia in Riyad and claimed that Zelensky ‘could have made a deal’ to avert war. A ‘half baked’ negotiator could have secured a settlement years ago ‘without the loss of much land,’ claimed Trump. Trump is factually wrong – but not for the reason most commentators have assumed. Zelensky could indeed have averted the war back in October 2019, and came very close to

Matthew Lynn

Is X still worth £38 billion? Elon Musk thinks so

When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, his many critics gleefully predicted a catastrophe. We were told that everyone would quit the site for its rivals, such as Bluesky and Mastodon. The rebranding to X made Musk the object of ridicule. Musk was warned that he was unlikely to see a return on the $44 billion (£38.1billion) he had splashed out on the site. But hold on: today brings news that Musk is attempting to raise extra cash for his site at the same valuation as what he bought it for. Musk’s critics will no doubt say he is deluded. But his business acumen speaks for itself: this is a

Patrick West

Why is Tom Hanks mocking Trump supporters?

We have long become accustomed to actors holding and sharing their progressive political views. So when David Tennant opened the Bafta awards on Sunday with a dig at Donald Trump, repeating the line that the American President is a dangerous moron, many people were annoyed, but few were surprised. Mechanically reciting fashionable mantras is what actors do, and Tennant, hitherto known for his vocal support for the trans movement, is no exception. The entire film Team America: World Police (2004) was founded on this reality about thespians.  When his counterpart on the other side of the Atlantic, Tom Hanks, did similarly at the weekend, there was, however, genuine shock. Appearing on

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The BBC’s Gaza documentary omitted something astonishing

The BBC’s documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone at first glance seemed to offer a raw and intimate portrayal of life in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict. However, the programme, which aired on BBC Two on Monday, was deeply flawed. The documentary, narrated by a Palestinian child, Abdullah Ayman Eliyazouri, presented a personal account of the suffering endured by Gaza’s residents. But the investigative journalist David Collier has reported that the BBC seems to have omitted something astonishing. Eliyazouri is not just a random child caught in the crossfire, but the son of Ayman Eliyazouri, the Hamas-run Gazan government’s deputy agricultural minister. Collier’s investigation cross-referenced social media profiles and other publicly available

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Trump is making sure that Zelensky is re-elected

Ukrainians don’t like it when foreign leaders tell them what to do – whether they are Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump. Last night, Trump blamed president Volodymyr Zelensky for ‘starting’ the war with Russia and demanded that elections take place in Ukraine if it wants to be involved in the peace negotiations. Trump also expressed his disappointment that Zelensky hadn’t struck a deal with Russia before now, and said that Zelensky only had a ‘4 per cent’ approval rating in Ukraine. Trump may have been trying to put pressure on Ukraine to make peace faster, but his comments are actually only helping Zelensky secure a second presidential term.  Zelensky’s approval

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Was ‘free trade’ really working?

29 min listen

Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of think-tank American Compass, sits down with Freddy Gray at the ARC conference in London. They react to the announcement by President Trump over the weekend of reciprocal tariffs: the decision by the US to match import duties levied by other countries.  What’s the strategy behind Trump’s decision? And what could the consequences be for American companies and for global trade? They also discuss the broad political consensus behind free trade in the US since the 1990s. Given the ‘lived reality’ that faced many American investors and companies – for example competing with Chinese Electric Vehicles – was the free trade really working anyway?

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Trump’s support for Taiwan has infuriated Beijing

They were only six words on a website, but they helped maintain Beijing’s fiction that Taiwan is part of its territory. Their disappearance has infuriated China’s communist leaders. ‘It gravely contravenes international law and the basic norms of international relations,’ raged Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s ministry of foreign affairs, on Monday. The website in question was that of the US State Department. The words – ‘we do not support Taiwan independence’ – have been removed from its ‘fact sheet’ along with a tweak to another section that implies stronger support for Taiwan’s right to join international organisations, which Beijing has consistently blocked. The changes were welcomed by the

Eliot Wilson

Can the British army stretch to peace-keeping in Ukraine?

It has been a traumatic week for Europe’s political and military leaders. Last Wednesday, without warning, US President Donald Trump announced that he had spoken to Vladimir Putin by telephone for 90 minutes. During a ‘highly productive call’, he and the Russian leader had ‘agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately’ to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had not been informed of the conversation beforehand, much less involved. The transactional high-handedness of Trump’s approach, ignoring the injured party in the conflict and making direct and friendly overtures to the aggressor, should not have come as a surprise. But it left

Sam Meadows

The crypto crash haunting Javier Milei

When Javier Milei took power in Argentina there was one group whose ears pricked up with interest: the global crypto bros. After all, here was a president who seemed perfectly aligned with their values. A lover of economic freedom who harbours a deep hatred for state regulations and government spending. Surely this ‘anarcho-capitalist’ was a fan of cryptocurrencies? Twitter filled with threads about why Milei’s election victory was a ‘big moment for Bitcoin’. Once in power, however, he did not seem all that interested. That is until Friday, when he took to his X account to post about a new crypto coin that was ‘dedicated to boosting the growth of

Tuesday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

The US and Russia must not force Ukrainian elections

After four hours of talks in Saudi Arabia, Russian and American negotiators have reportedly come up with a three-stage plan to end the war in Ukraine. According to Fox News, the plan includes a ceasefire, elections in Ukraine and the signing of a final agreement. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who was neither informed nor invited to the talks, said that Russia and the US are discussing the same old ultimatum Moscow set at the start of full-scale war. ‘I wonder – if we didn’t accept such ultimatums in our most difficult moment, why does anyone think we would now?’, he said. Back in February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin said he

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Can Germany rise to the challenge of protecting Europe?

When European leaders discussed their response to US-Russian negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz felt ‘a little irritated’. France and Britain suggested sending European troops to secure a peace deal. Days away from an election likely to boot him out of power, Scholz found this an ‘inappropriate debate at the wrong time’. It will likely fall to his successor to shoulder Germany’s fair share of responsibility for European security. US and Russian officials have today held the first of peace talks in Saudi Arabia, forcing European countries to determine their role as a matter of urgency. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said ‘European nations

David Cohen

New Zealand’s cringeworthy new tourism slogan

‘Everyone must go!’ New Zealand’s new tourism declares, but so far almost everyone seems to be cringing. The prime minister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, this week unveiled the latest tagline aimed first at holidaymakers from Australia but also those living further afield. Critics say the wording of the latest marketing campaign sounds like something from a Boxing Day sale, or even a cry of desperation from the back of a typically long toilet queue on one of the country’s frequently crowded hiking trails.  Fewer outsiders are being enticed by New Zealand’s lanscapes than was the case before Covid Luxon, who in a past corporate life was the chief executive

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Vance criticises Britain: is this a new era for free speech?

15 min listen

The fallout continues from US vice-president J.D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference. Criticising Europe over what he sees as the retreat of free speech, he singled out the case of Adam Smith-Connor in the UK as something that worries him about the direction that Britain is heading in. Smith-Connor was arrested in 2022 and prosecuted for breaching an abortion buffer-zone in Bournemouth. Freddy Gray speaks to Paul Coleman at the ARC conference in London. Paul is executive director of ADF International, a faith-based legal advocacy organisation that has been advocating for Smith-Connor. What is the truth behind abortion buffer-zones? Is this part of a wider ‘censorship industrial complex’?

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Europe has much to learn from Georgia Meloni

Giorgia Meloni was nearly an hour late for Monday’s European crisis summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris. According to the French press, Italy’s prime minister made her appearance ‘in the middle of the meeting, 50 minutes later than the agreed time’. Perhaps her Maserati got caught in the Paris traffic, or perhaps Meloni made her late entrance intentionally; a way of underlining to her host, Emmanuel Macron, and the other European leaders present, that she alone has a warm relationship with Donald Trump. Meloni visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club for what both parties called an ‘informal meeting’ at the start of the year. The then President-elect described the Italian as

Ido Vock

Will Austria’s asylum seeker surveillance plan backfire?

Austria’s interior minister has announced plans for mass surveillance of Syrian and Afghan asylum seekers in response to a terrorist attack. The incident, which took place on Saturday, saw a Syrian allegedly stab one person to death and injure five others in Villach. According to police, the man –whose rampage was cut short by another Syrian man who intervened – was a legal resident in Austria and not known to authorities.  Gerhard Karner, known for his hard line on security, said ‘mass checks without cause’ of ‘asylum seekers with Syrian and Afghan backgrounds’ were needed to ensure public safety. He said that because the alleged attacker was unknown to authorities, there