World

Friday

14 Feb 2025

Why Britain is crucial to Ukraine peace talks

Britain has the opportunity to become a master in tightrope diplomacy between Donald Trump and an increasingly alarmed Europe after the 47th president’s blitz of foreign policy announcements. To say that European leaders have been hyperventilating over the dramatic chess move made by Trump in his 90-minute phone call with Vladimir Putin is to put it mildly. Trump has been accused of appeasement a la Neville Chamberlain and his paper of peace following the US president’s seeming surrender to Putin’s two key demands to end the war in Ukraine: permanent retention of ground seized and no future membership of Nato for his suffering neighbour. Horrified leaders and politicians in Europe have

Stephen Pollard

Europe and the death of Nato

There has been no more effective and successful defensive alliance in history than Nato. The unity and determination of Nato’s members meant the Soviet Union understood that the doctrine of ‘Massive Retaliation’ was real: if they attacked, Nato would respond with nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union did not attack. But it is clear from events this week – and, in truth, has been clear for some years – that Nato is now effectively dead as a serious force for defence and deterrence, snuffed out by the myopia and weakness of the European political class. Russia’s invasions of Ukraine, first in 2014 and then in 2022, demonstrate how enfeebled deterrence has

James Hanson

Donald Trump is making the same mistake as Neville Chamberlain

It is easy to forget how popular Neville Chamberlain was in the autumn of 1938. Proclaiming ‘peace in our time’ after signing the Munich Agreement, he was heralded as the deal-maker supreme. A leader who’d averted needless bloodshed and whose critics were merely warmongering naysayers. You don’t need me to tell you the rest of the story, but you might have thought its lessons wouldn’t be so easily forgotten. Today it is Donald Trump casting himself as the bringer of peace to continental Europe. Posting on his Truth Social platform, the president said he’d spoken with Vladimir Putin, and that they two men had ‘agreed to have our respective teams

Sam Meadows

What Elon Musk can learn from Javier Milei

Did Argentina pave the way for Elon Musk’s Doge? At the very least, Javier Milei’s famous chainsaw has provided a roadmap for the South African billionaire to follow as he tries to slash the size of the US government budget. Musk has spent much of the past few days and weeks decrying supposed ‘fraud’ and ‘abuse’ his team has discovered in its analysis of US government spending, a message he reiterated in his Oval Office interview this week. Set aside his rather peculiar and broad definition of fraud for a moment and a straight line can be drawn between his messaging and Milei’s. The self-described anarcho-capitalist president waged his successful

Lisa Haseldine

The surprising fall of Germany’s populist far-left party

For all the alarm about the instability of German politics, the results of this month’s federal election campaign seem – on the surface – largely baked in. The conservative CDU party, led by the bullish Friedrich Merz, is expected to win, with approximately 30 per cent of the vote. The far-right Elon Musk-loving Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is predicted to come second with around 21 per cent. But dive deeper, and the polls show that German politics is still very much in flux. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party is fighting for third place with the Greens. And there are three parties which may well fail to meet the 5 per

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Why does Louis Theroux keep picking on Israeli settlers?

When is Louis Theroux going to make a documentary where he embeds himself with Hamas in Gaza? Or Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, or Qalqilya? Probably never, because he’d most likely come to a sticky end. His attempt to make a show about British Muslims who were sympathetic to Isis “fizzled out” Instead, Theroux is once again making a film about Jews in Judea and Samaria – the region known as the West Bank – focusing on so-called “settlers.” His last foray into this subject was The Ultra Zionists, in 2011, a documentary criticised by some for cherry-picking the most extreme and controversial voices from the settler movement to create a

Gavin Mortimer

How the judiciary fuel Europe’s migrant crisis

If Europeans wanted evidence that it is judges and not politicians who run their countries this month has proved it. At the start of February, the Rome court of appeal ordered that 49 migrants who had been rescued at sea and transferred to Albania – under the terms of an agreement struck between the two countries – be returned to Italy. It is the third time in four months that a court has intervened to thwart Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s attempt to combat illegal immigration. According to the judges, sending migrants to Albania is a contravention of an EU court ruling that member states must assess the safety of a

Thursday

13 Feb 2025

Lara Prendergast

Britain’s bureaucratic bloat, debating surrogacy & is smoking ‘sexy’?

40 min listen

This week: The Spectator launches SPAFF The civil service does one thing right, writes The Spectator’s data editor Michael Simmons: spaffing money away. The advent of Elon Musk’s DOGE in the US has inspired The Spectator to launch our own war on wasteful spending – the Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding, or SPAFF. Examples of waste range from the comic to the tragic. The Department for Work and Pensions, Michael writes, ‘bought one Universal Credit claimant a £1,500 e-bike after he persuaded his MP it would help him find self-employment’. There’s money for a group trying to ‘decolonise’ pole dancing; for a ‘socially engaged’ practitioner to make a film about someone else getting

Ido Vock

Will the Munich attack lead to a crackdown on asylum seekers?

Another day, another apparent attack by an asylum seeker in Germany. In Munich, a 24-year-old Afghan is alleged to have driven a Mini Cooper into a trade union demonstration. At least 28 people have been injured, 11 seriously, according to police. The alleged driver of the car, Farhad N, reportedly came to Germany in 2016 Bavarian Premier Markus Söder called the crash a “presumed attack”. Police say they don’t know whether there is a link to the Munich Security Conference, which is taking place in the city. The alleged driver of the car, Farhad N, reportedly came to Germany in 2016. His asylum application was rejected but he was issued

Lisa Haseldine

Car rams crowd in Munich, injuring at least 28

This morning, at around 10.30 local time, a white Mini Cooper ploughed into a crowd of more than 1,000 people in central Munich, south Germany. According to the local authorities, at least 28 people have been injured, with several suffering life-threatening injuries, including a child. Pictures from the scene show a battered car, with a smashed windscreen, surrounded by debris and discarded first aid material. According to Bavarian police, the driver of the car, who was arrested at the scene, is a 24-year-old Afghan failed asylum seeker. The man is reportedly known to the police and has a history of drug and theft-related offenses. The German newspaper Der Spiegel is

Dalibor Rohac

Trump risks playing into Putin’s hands on a Ukraine peace deal

With the phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the quest for a peace deal for Ukraine is off to a troubling start. The conversation hinted at an eventual normalisation of United States-Russia relations and signalled that negotiations are likely to be led over the heads of Europeans – and Ukrainians – and possibly without input from Trump’s own Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg. ‘As we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine’, Donald Trump wrote after his conversation with the Russian leader. ‘President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.’ We both believe very strongly

Jawad Iqbal

Saudi Arabia’s beer ban shows why it shouldn’t host the World Cup

Football fans attending the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia will not be allowed to buy alcohol during their time there. Hands up anyone who is surprised. The sale of alcohol is outlawed in the desert kingdom, and penalties for consumption include flogging, jail or deportation. Prince Khalid bin Bandar Sultan Al Saud doesn’t come across as someone who spends much time in pubs The Saudis are also notoriously indifferent to the notion of human rights, so they’re hardly likely to respect the desire – some might describe it as a basic right – of some football fans to have a few bevvies before, during and after a match. The

Jonathan Spyer

The case for ending the Israel-Hamas ceasefire

The question now facing Israel is this: will the war in Gaza recommence? The ceasefire agreement was signed less than a month ago, and it is already looking shaky. The first phase of the deal has not yet been completed. Sixteen of the 33 Israeli hostages scheduled to be freed in this phase have been released, and so have 656 of 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. But Hamas has now announced the postponement of the release of an additional three hostages, which was scheduled to take place this Saturday. US President Donald Trump has expressed support for abandoning the phasing of the deal, and demanded that all hostages be released by Saturday at noon –

Matthew Parris

Let Trump buy the Chagos Islands

Forgive me for returning in this column to Diego Garcia. The issue is too important to shrug aside: important not only in itself, in defence terms and in the immediate, but in the longer-term lesson this has for Britain in our relationship with the United States; and there is a new rumour to report, and more to say. America is having a laugh. Washington – not China, not the International Court of Justice, not Mauritius and not particularly Donald Trump – is the problem here, and the author of Britain’s present difficulty. America is hiding behind our skirts and leaving Britain to face the flak. But it is they, not

Martin Vander Weyer

Where have all the new businesses gone?

The Chancellor’s appeal to regulators last month for suggestions to boost growth was mocked as evidence that the government itself is hopelessly bereft of ideas. Might as well ask traffic wardens to devise urban regeneration schemes, we scoffed, or food safety inspectors to plan state banquets. But it made sense to the extent that smarter regulation really should have the potential to boost economic activity – and there are signs the message has got through. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey speaks of using Brexit freedoms to shield smaller UK banks from ‘Basel rules’ that would require them to hold larger reserves. The Financial Conduct Authority chief Nikhil Rathi has

Andrew Kenny

The dark heart of South Africa’s Expropriation Act

Cape Town How damaging will South Africa’s Expropriation Act be? The legislation, which allows the state to seize private property without compensation, was signed late last month by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The act is consistent with the Marxist ideology of the South African Communist party, an ally of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). It’s claimed it will ‘redress the results of past racial discrimination’ and ‘undo the legacy of apartheid’ (among other platitudes). The reality, however, is that this legislation will likely do nothing to help the country’s majority black population who live in grinding poverty. There is nothing in the act to stop it instead being used by

Charles Moore

Channel 4 shouldn’t get to decide the next Archbishop

Obviously, it is difficult to defend the leadership of the Church of England, and I am inexperienced in that art; but I do feel strongly that its episcopal appointments should not be controlled by Channel 4 News and Cathy Newman. This, in essence, is what is happening. First went Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, because Channel 4 News was determined to show that he had not reacted vigorously over the John Smyth scandal. (In my view, the Makin report failed to prove Welby’s culpability.) Next was the turn of the Bishop of Liverpool, John Perumbalath, forced out after Channel 4 News reported his alleged sexual assault against an unnamed woman

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Andrew Gwynne sacked, Trump saves Prince Harry and a £30m refund over moths

Home Andrew Gwynne was sacked as a health minister and suspended from the Labour party for making jokes about a constituent’s hoped-for death, and about Diane Abbott and Angela Rayner. Oliver Ryan, a member of the WhatsApp group where the jokes were shared, had the Labour whip removed and 11 councillors were suspended from the party. Asked about 16,913 of 28,564 medics registering to practise medicine in Britain last year having qualified abroad, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said there was ‘no doubt’ that ‘the NHS has become too reliant’ on immigration. The government issued guidance saying that anyone who enters Britain by means of a dangerous journey will normally

Paul Wood

Does Trump deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

Donald Trump told reporters this week that he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to free some of the Israeli hostages in Gaza. But, he went on, ‘they’ll never give it to me’. Trump’s chances of putting on white tie and tails in Oslo have receded to a distant speck with his plan to Make Gaza Great Again – by removing the Palestinians. This proposal may have doomed the brittle ceasefire and jeopardised further hostage releases. It has made the prospect of a deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel vanishingly small. It might also end up destabilising Jordan and Egypt. But the agent of chaos in the Oval Office

Matt Ridley

Will ‘The Seeker’ find the truth about the Covid lab leaks?

At the Royal Calcutta Turf Club, where ghosts of British nabobs look out over the racecourse, my neuroscientist wife spoke to an audience of businessmen in support of Robin Sengupta, a pioneering Newcastle neurosurgeon. He has founded a world-leading Institute of Neurosciences in Kolkata where richer patients subsidise poorer ones. After a morning meeting doctors and patients, he showed us the land where an ambitious new medical school will soon emerge from the rice paddies and crayfish farms. At the Jaipur Literature Festival, debating innovation with the economist Shailendra Mehta, I told the audience that the job of being the world’s most innovative nation in the decades ahead is vacant