World

Tuesday

James Tidmarsh

The fall of Europe’s public service broadcasters

Europe’s public broadcasters were created to stop propaganda. Born in the wreckage of war to protect democracy from lies, they now preach soft, sanctimonious, state-approved truths. The resignations at the BBC this week are only the latest symptom of decay across the European media landscape. The model built to keep power in check now serves it. Public broadcasting was conceived in the aftermath of 1945. After Goebbels and Vichy radio, democracies decided that truth needed its own institutions. The state would fund but not control them. Broadcasters like the BBC, Radiodiffusion Française, Germany’s ARD and Italy’s RAI would speak for the public. For decades, they did. They were calm, factual,

Monday

Theo Padnos

The jihadist I knew: my life as a prisoner of Syria’s president

As Washington rolls out the red carpet today for the former al-Qaeda chieftain and now Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s minorities continue to live in terror. An army of destruction, half Mad Max, half Lollapalooza is rolling through the desert somewhere south of the country’s capital, Damascus. Who has ordered these militants into action? No one knows. What do they want? It isn’t clear. But, as a former prisoner of al-Sharaa’s band of jihadists, I can’t say I’m surprised by what is unfolding in Syria. That dark prophecy is alive in al-Sharaa’s Syria Whatever else might be said about the old regime of Bashar al-Assad, no one was ever in

Sunday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Has Trump Made America Great Again? Ann Coulter v Peter Hitchens

29 min listen

To watch the debate in full, go to https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/americano-live-is-america-great-again/ American commentator Ann Coulter and British columnist Peter Hitchens join host Freddy Gray live in London to debate whether America is great again—and what the Trump era means for both sides of the Atlantic. From immigration and national identity to executive power and the rule of law, they clash over whether Trump has delivered real change or simply accelerated a dangerous new politics.

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Have the culture wars gone spiritual?

23 min listen

Why are Silicon Valley billionaires obsessing over Heaven & Hell, and what does it tell us about American society today? Spectator World‘s Arts Editor Luke Lyman joins Damian Thompson on this episode of Holy Smoke to talk about how a fascination with the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist and a techno-utopia – or techno-apocalypse – has gripped the ‘tech bros’. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Michael Evans

What will Trump do in Venezuela?

Venezuela has been on tenterhooks for weeks, waiting as the United States gathers an armada of warships. The world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, looks likely to arrive in the Caribbean from the Mediterranean early next week to join the assortment of destroyers, frigates, amphibious assault vessels and a nuclear-powered submarine.  No one seems to know exactly what this magnificent display of American naval firepower is all about. Has it been sent to destroy the cocaine smuggling networks in Venezuela, or topple President Nicolas Maduro, the egregious leader of that poor country? Or is its purpose to remind the Latin American region that the US under Donald Trump

Saturday

David Cohen

What will Jacinda Ardern do next?

When I first met Jacinda Ardern in the early 2010s, the notion that the young MP with the toothy smile in front of me might one day go for the top job at the United Nations was unlikely. After spending the past couple of years stitching together a portrait of New Zealand’s fortieth prime minister, I’d be more inclined to ask: what took her so long? Writing an unauthorised biography of any major political figure is a rum business. It’s rather like breaking into someone’s house and then tidying up the living room. My attempt to chart Ardern’s public life and her ‘politics of kindness’ led me helter-skelter through a

Alan Allport

No, Elon Musk: we Brits aren’t hobbits

‘When Tolkien wrote about the hobbits, he was referring to the gentlefolk of the English shires, who don’t realise the horrors that take place far away,’ Elon Musk wrote on X in response to the news of the fatal stabbing of Wayne Broadhurst in Uxbridge. ‘They were able to live their lives in peace and tranquility,’ Musk explained, ‘but only because they were protected by the hard men of Gondor.’ ‘When Tolkien wrote about hobbits, he was referring to the gentlefolk of the English shires,’ Elon Musk said The billionaire X owner was employing this literary allusion, he said, to propose a new breed of Tolkienesque ‘hard men’ – he

James Tidmarsh

The French state is ashamed of its rose queens

Every summer in small French towns from Créon in the Gironde to Salency in the Oise, a young woman dressed in white walks through the square, crowned with a wreath of roses. She’s the rosière, the rose queen, chosen by her town for her modesty, kindness and civic spirit. The crowning is part of the village fête, a day of processions, music and dancing that celebrates community life. The fêtes de la rosière date back to the fourteenth century, when Saint Médard, Bishop of Noyon, is said to have founded the first ceremony to reward the most virtuous girl of his village, meaning, in the language of the time, the

Friday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Can Ukraine afford Zelensky’s winter giveaway?

Since taking office in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky’s decisions have often been a mix of blatant populism and good intentions. Today, however, a number of his domestic policies are seen in Ukraine less as acts of genuine support for the war-weary public and more as attempts to shore up his approval ratings. This year, just as last, Zelensky has announced a round of ‘winter support’, under which every Ukrainian can receive 1,000 hryvnias – around £18 – from the state. The money can be used to pay utility bills, buy medicine or books, or be donated to the army. The scheme was tested last December, when more than 14 million Ukrainians

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Is it only left-wing leaders who are allowed to be young?

There was a time when the French left turned its nose up at all things American. Too low-brow for them. Not now. The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral race has caused much joie de vivre in left-circles. For Mamdani, his youth is a virtue, but with Bardella it’s a weakness Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the Gallic Bernie Saunders and the leader of the far-left La France Insoumise, described Mamdani’s win as ‘very good news’. The general secretary of the centre-left Socialist party, Olivier Faure, posted a smiley face on X above a headline in Le Monde, hailing Mamdani as ‘the youngest mayor in New York history’. Mamdani referenced his

Jacob Heilbrunn

Nancy Pelosi was a ruthless operator

Nancy Pelosi’s career ends as it began. She entered Congress in 1986 during the Reagan administration and is ending it under the most influential Republican president since the Gipper. On Thursday she released a six-minute video announcing her retirement in 2027 from Congress, the latest octogenarian to depart it. No sooner did she announce that she would not seek reelection, than Donald Trump crowed that he had outlasted her. Old age, it seems, is no barrier to a slanging match. A few days ago the 85-year old Pelosi called him an ‘evil creature.’ Now Trump, on the verge of becoming an octogenarian himself, returned the favour. She was evil, corrupt

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The looming threat to Israel

In the aftermath of war, a new front opens. Not in the ruins of Gaza’s cities, but in the corridors of diplomacy, where maps are redrawn with words and allegiances. Israel now finds itself encircled not by tanks but by treaties, resolutions, and incentives: a web of international manoeuvres that promises ‘stability’ while redefining the terms of its own strategic freedom. At the centre of this recalibration is the United States, whose post-conflict blueprint projects a pacified region steered by pragmatism, compromise, and multilateral oversight. But beneath the rhetoric of reconstruction lies a more perilous logic: one that treats deterrence as destabilising, ambiguity as maturity, and the survival instincts of

Michael Day

Is it too soon to say the truth about Dick Cheney?

Long before Donald Trump arrived on the political scene to warp all international diplomacy and finance around him, there were US administrations creating greater calamities. George W Bush’s first government, from 2001 to 2005, was one of them. Dubya wasn’t a sleazy grifter or a weapons grade narcissist. But on his watch the United States did, with its war on Iraq, bring chaos to the Middle East and spark an explosion of Islamic terrorism for which we’re still paying the price. Cheney was a man devoid of empathy, who used US superpower to slay hundreds of thousands of people and smash things Of course, the Iraq invasion wasn’t his idea.

Thursday

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Is Germany ready for military service?

It’s finally crunch time for Boris Pistorius’s plan to reintroduce military service in Germany. Following a delay of several months thanks to the country’s snap federal election campaign at the start of the year, the defence minister’s new ‘Modernisation of Military Service’ draft law is currently being debated in Berlin. Under Pistorius’s proposals, all 18-year-olds will be asked to complete a questionnaire that will gauge their willingness and ability to carry out military service. For men, the quiz will be compulsory; for ‘other genders’ – including women – it will be optional. Those who declare themselves willing to serve will be invited for a formal assessment for recruitment into the

James Tidmarsh

The tragedy of the Shein takeover of Paris

The most glamorous department store in Paris, the BHV Marais, a vast art deco landmark stretching along Rue de Rivoli facing the Hôtel de Ville, is leasing space to Shein, the Chinese fast-fashion giant. Once a symbol of Parisian refinement, BHV now finds itself hosting a brand that epitomises disposability. This has sparked demonstrations outside the store and drawing sharp criticism inthe French press. France can’t save its shops, its factories or its dignity because it no longer believes in the value of producing anything at all This isn’t just another retail opening, it’s cultural surrender. It is proof that Paris, once the world’s fashion capital, is now renting out

Ian Williams Ian Williams

China is holding the West to ransom over rare earths

China’s naked weaponisation of rare earths brings to mind Mao Zedong’s ‘four pests’ campaign, the old tyrant’s fanatical effort to exterminate all flies, mosquitoes, rats and sparrows, which turned into a spectacular piece of self-harm. Sparrows were always an odd choice of enemy, but Mao and his communist advisers reckoned each one ate four pounds of grain a year and a million dead sparrows would free up food for 60,000 people. The campaign, launched in 1958, saw the extermination of a billion sparrows, driving them to the brink of extinction. But the sparrows also ate insects, notably locusts, whose population exploded, and the ravenous locusts wreaked far more damage to

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Train stabbing attack, Mamdani takes New York and the Andrew formerly known as prince

Home The King ‘initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew’, who is now known as Mr Andrew Mountbatten Windsor; his lease on Royal Lodge, Windsor, was relinquished and he made a private arrangement with the King to live on the Sandringham estate. His former wife, Sarah Ferguson, will find her own accommodation. Their daughters remain Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice. Richard Gott, who resigned as literary editor of the Guardian in 1994 after The Spectator accused him of having been in the pay of the KGB, died aged 87. Gopichand Hinduja, the head of Britain’s richest family, died aged 85. Eleven people were

Andrew Gimson

Is Zack Polanski our Zohran Mamdani?

Like Zohran Mamdani in New York, Zack Polanski offers the thrill of cost-free rebellion. Mamdani leapt to prominence at the end of June by unexpectedly winning the Democratic party nomination in the New York mayoral race, and doing so as an avowed socialist who claims that by taxing the rich he will relieve ‘the despair in working-class Americans’ lives’. Polanski has made waves since the start of September as the new leader of the Green party of England and Wales, using a rhetoric calculated to appeal to left-wing activists, while proclaiming himself the champion of plumbers and hairdressers. He has conjured up an alliance between utopian socialists like himself and

Tim Shipman

Gilded age: the lessons from Trump’s second term

Washington, D.C. When John Swinney, the SNP leader, and Peter Mandelson visited Donald Trump in the Oval Office a few months ago, the President showed them three different models for his planned renovation of the East Wing of the White House, which he has demolished to build a new ballroom. ‘If you’re going to do it,’ Scotland’s First Minister suggested, ‘you might as well go big.’ This Wednesday marked one year since Trump’s election victory, and going big captures the essence of his second term – bold and controversial moves, which have impressed even British politicians who thought him reckless in his first term. When Trump visited Chequers on his

Wednesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is New York finished?

New York has elected Zohran Mamdani — and Heather Mac Donald, fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Spectator writer, warns the city is heading for trouble. She tells Freddy Gray why she thinks Mayor-elect Mamdani’s agenda on crime, housing and education could undo decades of progress, and why this moment feels like “a student activist government taking over a real city”.