World

Wednesday

Terry Barnes

Australia’s social media ban for children won’t work

I was born in the final years of the baby boom. To my generation of children, a social network was our mothers gossiping over the back fence or at the shops. Parents cannot contract out their responsibilities to government But, thanks to a miracle of nature and science, I’m also a father later in life, blessed with a five-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who is happy, intelligent, and learning fast and precociously about the world around her. She is also, however, happy to be glued to a screen, and can find her way around an iPad and YouTube on my phone. Whether I want her to or not, it won’t be all

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The EU is disintegrating before our eyes

Germany’s decision to reintroduce border controls in an attempt to halt mass immigration is awkward for Keir Starmer. A fortnight ago the British Prime Minister, a friend of European free movement, visited Berlin and among the issues he discussed with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were trade, defence and immigration. Things are so bad that Draghi admitted to having ‘nightmares’ about Europe’s future if nothing is done to halt the ‘slow agony’ of economic decline A few days before Starmer’s visit, three people were killed at a diversity festival by a suspected Syrian refugee. Germany’s decision to tighten its borders (initially for six months but this could be extended) is partly a

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: the key moments in the Trump-Harris debate

On Tuesday night the former President Donald Trump and the current Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in Philadelphia for the first presidential debate since Joe Biden’s disastrous fall from grace earlier this year.  The debate, moderated by ABC, took place over 90 minutes, and saw the candidates clash on immigration, Trump’s rallies, and Afghanistan. A snap CNN poll commissioned after the debate saw 63 per cent say Harris had won, compared to 37 per cent for Trump.  Here are the key moments from the debate: Kamala Harris goads Trump over his rallies As the section of the debate on immigration began – arguably one of Kamala Harris’s weakest areas – the

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Donald Trump was his own worst enemy in this debate

‘So I think you’ve heard tonight two very different visions for our country,’ Vice President Kamala Harris insisted in her closing remarks at last night’s presidential debate. Viewers, I suspect, may disagree. This was not a debate where we learned anything new. There was no great ‘vision’ put forward by Harris or Donald Trump. Public policy was barely touched upon. If what the candidates discussed in terms of specific plans is really their great vision for the United States – distorting the housing market, jacking up prices on consumers – then Americans should be very worried indeed. For a country facing a myriad of economic and existential problems, nothing mentioned

Amber Duke

Americans were failed by the Trump-Harris debate

The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump was a missed opportunity for both candidates and, as such, a disappointment for American voters.  Trump had three points he needed to land against Kamala Harris: that voters cannot trust her because she is constantly changing her policy positions without a satisfactory explanation; that she covered up President Joe Biden’s cognitive deficiencies from the American people and then participated in a political coup to take him out when it was politically convenient for her; and that she has had three and a half years to do the things she claims she will do on ‘Day One’

Charles Lipson

How Donald Trump lost the debate

If Kamala Harris is elected president – and that’s a big ‘if’ since the race is still tight – she won it on the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. True, her answers were often vague, but they were also inspirational and forward-looking. She avoided the ‘word salads’ that have so often marred her (rare) comments without a teleprompter. She was clear and articulate throughout.  Harris showed the skill of a professional politician as she avoided being pinned down on her most extreme policy pronouncements from 2019-2020, often denying she ever made them. Trump could have pressed her on those but seldom did.  Trump’s biggest problem was himself. His answers were angry, defensive,

Tuesday

Constantin Eckner

Germany’s border crackdown is a gamble

From next week, Germany will enforce controls at its borders once again. The decision, announced by interior minister Nancy Faeser, comes only a little more than a week after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved major successes in several regional elections. Faeser said that border controls would be applied to tackle irregular immigration as well as to strengthen internal security against the threat of Islamic terrorism and international criminality. These permanent controls will replace the usual spot checks common at borders within the European Union for six months, although it is possible that they could be extended. The government may hit the panic button if the rise of the

Terry Barnes

Australia is reeling after a man threw hot coffee over a baby

A young mother, picnicking with friends in a Brisbane park, is now praying for the recovery of her nine-month-old baby son from a random act of violence so pointless, so inexplicable, that it’s made headlines in Australia and around the world. A fortnight ago, out of nowhere, a stranger tipped a Thermos flask of scalding coffee over the head of the infant, a boy known publicly only as Luka. Despite quick first aid, including an off-duty nurse dousing the boy’s burns with cold water, Luka suffered major burns to his chin, neck, chest and back. He has already undergone multiple surgeries, and faces still more operations and skin grafts. Even

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Hot springs have doomed Japan’s net zero ambitions

Most people know that Japan is a country cursed with considerable seismic activity; frequent, and very occasionally devastating, earthquakes and tsunamis are a fact of life – and death. Less well known is the blessing the country’s position along the Ring of Fire brings – or potentially brings: abundant geothermal energy. It is estimated that Japan’s geothermal resources, a sort of natural subterranean cauldron, could meet 10 per cent of the country’s energy needs. At the moment though, geothermal makes up just 0.3 per cent of energy consumed, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). This makes it a massively, and some would say bizarrely, underexploited resource for a

Monday

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Why does Scholz want to speed up peace talks for Ukraine?

Is German chancellor Olaf Scholz giving in to pressure to reduce support for Ukraine and improve relations with Russia? Scholz declared during a televised interview with the German network ZDF broadcast last night that any fresh peace talks to bring an end to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine should also include Russia.  ‘I believe that now is the time to discuss how we can arrive at a peaceful resolution from this war, at a faster pace than currently appears to be the case,’ Scholz said. ‘The [Ukrainian] president and I are in agreement that any talks should include Russia.’ Securing Russia’s attendance at future peace negotiations is, of course, another

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Michel Barnier puts the French left to shame

The French left took to the streets on Saturday to protest against the appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister. The 73-year conservative was nominated by Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, sixty days after the left-wing New Popular Front coalition won the most seats in the parliamentary election. There were dozens of demonstrations across France. The one I attended in Paris was the largest: the organisers, the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) claimed that 160,000 people descended on the Place de la Bastille. The police put the figure at 26,000. I’d say the police had it right. Barnier understands that insulting or ignoring Le Pen won’t magically make her voters disappear

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Keir Starmer is falling into the same trap as Francois Hollande

There has been no honeymoon for Keir Starmer after his election victory in July. That is hardly a surprise as it was a ‘loveless landslide’ that Labour achieved, winning just 34 per cent of the popular vote. In the two months since the general election, Starmer’s approval rating has dropped still further, with two-thirds of Brits sceptical that he is a force for the good. Starmer should use Francois Hollande’s presidency as a case study in hubristic failure Yet Starmer appears to be deluded about his popularity. The same delusion afflicted Francois Hollande when he was elected president of France in 2012. Like Starmer, he didn’t understand that his victory

Sunday

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

The remarkable success of the Allied occupation of Germany

‘We came as adversaries, we stayed as allies, and we leave as friends,’ British prime minister John Major told crowds in Berlin on 8 September 1994, thirty years ago today. The last 200 British, American and French soldiers withdrew from Berlin that day, leaving the city without a foreign military presence for the first time since the Second World War. This was supposed to be the end of history. In reality, a new chapter had already begun. The presence of the Western Allies in post-war Germany is still remembered fondly today. There are events marking the 30th anniversary of their departure, and many traces of their occupation remain. Take the

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

No, Joe Biden is not a latter-day George Washington

George Clooney this week praised Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 election as ‘the most selfless thing that anybody has done since George Washington’. We heard this idea echoing throughout Democratic circles even before Biden stood down in late July – that he was nobly standing aside, in the manner of America’s first president, relinquishing power to save democracy for the greater good. Step forward the 21st century answer to John Adams: Kamala Harris.  It’s all such obvious rubbish. George Washington wanted to retire (for the third time) to Mount Vernon after his first term but was persuaded to run again in 1792 by Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and

David Cohen

How does New Zealand solve a problem like China?

New Zealand’s most important trading partner is also the nation’s biggest security headache, according to a new risk-assessment report produced by the country’s security intelligence service, or SIS. The government agency sees espionage activities orchestrated by Beijing as a ‘complex intelligence concern’ for a country that has become highly dependent on China for its economic health. The baleful assessment appears in the SIS’s latest annual security threat environment report. While the 48-page briefing highlights a raft of other related issues such as Moscow meddling in the lives of Russian-born New Zealand residents or else officially banning local journalists (including this writer) from travelling to the Russian Federation, a lion’s share of

Alexander Kolyandr

The sneaky way that Russia is still evading western sanctions

The leaders of the European Union can give themselves a pat on the back. They have, on the face of it, delivered on a promise made following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to end the export of European goods, machinery and parts critical to Russia’s war effort. Yet things are not quite as straightforward as they seem. Exports from the bloc to Russia in June plummeted to a mere €2.4 billion (£2 billion) – a third of the €7.5 billion (£6.3 billion) shipped during the last peacetime June of 2021 before the war, according to data from the EU’s statistical body Eurostat. The figure for June this year is the lowest

Saturday

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

How Robert Jenrick stole Kemi Badenoch’s thunder

Robert Jenrick appears on course to become leader of the Conservative party within a year of resigning from ministerial office in Rishi Sunak’s administration. That is a telling indicator of how far the Conservative regimes of the last parliament had strayed from the gut instincts of the Tory tribe. Jenrick has been focused on victory for many months The Newark MP is far from home and hosed in the contest and may yet be defeated by the force of Kemi Badenoch’s political personality, or the sheer ‘nice guy’ campaigning warmth of James Cleverly. But the bookies now make him clear favourite to become Leader of the Opposition on 2 November

Arieh Kovler

America’s Russian influence media scandal is unlikely to be the last

Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern aren’t household names, but they each have enormous, dedicated followings online. Their podcasts and videos all promote similar narratives: liberal values are destroying the West, Ukraine is America’s enemy, Covid vaccines are harmful and pointless and that Donald Trump, though flawed, is the United States’ last hope before it becomes a Communist murderdome ruled by trans Venezuelan drug gangs. When these influencers came together in November last year to launch Tenet Media, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Each already had their own brand and platform. How would this new media company benefit them? RT is awash with cash despite

Limor Simhony Philpott

Israelis have had enough of Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu is the great survivor of Israeli politics, but his grip on power is slipping. ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.’ Abraham Lincoln’s saying applies now more than ever to Israel’s prime minister. Netanyahu’s time will surely soon be up. Netanyahu cannot escape his inevitable legacy Motivated by self-preservation, Netanyahu has desperately tried to evade responsibility for the many failures that led to Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7. In the months since, Netanyahu has done his best to block a ceasefire