World

Australia’s choice: Chinese trade – or American security?

 Sydney For decades, Australia has been known as ‘the lucky country’. At the end of the world geographically, we are separated from the global troublespots by vast oceans. We have recorded 27 years of uninterrupted growth, partly because of a surge in exports of commodities to China. At the same time, our tough border protection policies boost public confidence in, as John Howard put it, ‘who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come’. As a result, our politics have not been profoundly affected by the kind of populist forces dismantling established parties across Europe. Nor have we witnessed an anti-globalisation backlash. Not for us any Trump-

Admit it, Trump is right about Sadiq Khan

I’m sorry to say this, but Donald Trump really doesn’t think much about Britain at all. He may have some sentimental attachment to Scotland, because of his mother, but we’re not nearly as precious to him as the British like to think. He may be blowing British minds today with his explosive Sun interview, but he’ll just shrug it off, go play golf, and then meet Putin. But what Trump does have is an unthinking genius for sniffing out weakness, and he’s unthinkingly sniffed it out in Sadiq Khan. “I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad. I look at cities in

Donald Trump is a news god – but his memory is patchy

One of the myths about Donald Trump is that he’s wildly unpredictable. In media terms, he’s an absolute banker: everywhere he goes, every time he opens his mouth or picks up his smartphone, he gives the press what we want. Take his glorious interview with the Sun this morning. It was timed to perfection. The great news value is not that we are surprised by what Trump thinks — we probably all could have guessed that Trump wouldn’t love a soft Brexit; that he would say you need Brexit to be as hard and sordid as possible — but that Trump just says it. He says what every reporter wants

Do svidánija, NATO

Until now, not one of our NATO allies believed the American President actively sought favour and approval from the leader of totalitarian Russia.

Conservatives are wrong about free speech

‘There. I said it.’ That phrase, and the attitude it strikes, says something pretty specific. It doesn’t just say: here’s what I think. It says: ‘Here’s what I think, and, you know what? It’s what nobody except me dares to say in public.’ It says: I’m brave. It says: I speak truth to power. It says: here I am on the battlements. It also says: I’m a grade-A chocolate-coated plonker. And though most people are too fly these days, too aware of the lurking threat of Craig Brown, to use that form of words, there’s a good deal of there-I-said-it-ism about these days. In particular, when it comes to the