World

Monday

John Keiger John Keiger

Keir Starmer should think twice before shunning Marine Le Pen

Riding high in the polls with a 20-point lead, the Labour party is preparing for government. Across the Channel with a 10-15 point poll lead in the June European elections and predicted victory in the 2027 presidentials, the Rassemblement National is making tentative preparations for government too. Two years after forming his cabinet, Sir Keir Starmer’s cross-Channel interlocutor will be either Marine Le Pen or – should her ineligibility be declared in the forthcoming October trial for alleged misuse of European parliamentary assistants – the RN’s star president Jordan Bardella. David Lammy, who is given to intemperate language, should avoid insulting the future French government Labour’s election manifesto is yet

Sunday

Jawad Iqbal

The West must wake up to the threat of Islamic State-Khorasan

It is time to wake up to the growing international threat posed by Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), the group believed to be behind Friday’s terror attack on a Moscow concert hall that left more than 130 people dead. For far too long this Afghanistan-based offshoot of Islamic State, formed in 2015, has been underestimated. Ignoring it is no longer a safe or wise policy option. Alarm bells have been sounding for some time now about the growing threat posed by IS-K IS-K has been growing in strength in Taliban-led Afghanistan ever since the Americans pulled out of the country in 2021. It has been successful in attracting a growing number of

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

How Brigitte Macron captured the Elysée

As Emmanuel Macron approaches the end of the second year since his re-election, his presidency seems to have become a cosplay. Out is Macron the policy wonk, mansplaining interminably. In is Macron the action man.  What might be behind this remarkable transformation? Brigitte, say the Elysée-ologists. President Macron’s wife, his high school drama teacher, 24 years his senior, appears to be the winner in a palace power struggle and Macron 2.0 is the result. It’s been rough for Macron since he lost his majority in the National Assembly in 2022. His relationship with the German chancellor has descended into mutual loathing. He’s tottering on the edge of humiliation to the Rassemblement

Mark Nayler

Could corruption bring down Spain’s government again?

Just four months into its second term, Spain’s Socialist-led government is already mired in corruption allegations. The latest scandal emerged this week and focuses on the wife of prime minister Pedro Sanchez, Begoña Gómez.  Gomez is alleged to have had secret meetings with the management of Air Europa, Spain’s third largest airline, in late 2020, just before it was bailed out with a €475 million aid package by her husband’s leftist government.   The Conservative Popular party (PP) has wasted no time in capitalising on this. Eloy Suarez Lamata, a PP representative in Spain’s upper house, claimed that the allegations against Gomez ‘would have brought down’ any other president in Europe ‘because

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Can Macron halt the ‘Mexicanisation’ of France?

Emmanuel Macron showed off his virility this week with the release of two photos in which he is seen giving a punchbag his best shots. Is Vladimir Putin scared? More to the point, will the drug cartels of Marseille be frightened into submission by the Elysee Palace’s very own Rocky? The day before the publication of the photos, Macron visited Marseille, his thirteenth visit to the Mediterranean city in seven years. As usual, the president swung by to talk tough about the deadly violence that has gripped the city for years. Last year, 49 people were shot dead in tit-for-tat killings among rival drug gangs, and 123 were wounded. ‘In

Saturday

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Putin is as deluded about the Islamist threat as the West

From the outset it was obvious to seasoned observers who massacred more than 130 Russians at a concert hall Moscow on Friday evening. It wasn’t, as some in the Kremlin claimed, Ukraine. What would they stand to gain from such indiscriminate slaughter? The people who opened fire in the Crocus City Hall cleaved to the same ideology as those who have this century murdered thousands of innocent men, women and children in New York, Bali, Madrid, London, Brussels, Paris, Manchester and Nice. According to reports, the group that carried out the Moscow attack is known as Islamic State Khorasan (Isis-K) and it has a reputation for ‘extreme brutality’. Despite the fact that

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Who will Putin blame for the terror attack?

A branch of the Islamic State terror group, Isis-K, has claimed responsibility for last night’s stadium terror attack in Moscow. US officials, who had warned of such an attack two weeks ago have said this sounded credible. But the Kremlin has not accepted the Isis-K claim and says it’s looking at all explanations – even (as some Russian journalists are advocating) that the attack was organised by the Ukrainians. Putin himself has hinted at this, saying the FSB had apprehended men on their way to the Ukrainian border. As I reported last night, western intelligence warned the Kremlin of a likely terrorist attack on Russian soil earlier this month. The

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Cameron is wrong to threaten Israel with an arms embargo

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron is threatening to suspend arms sales to Israel. The Telegraph reports that the former prime minister demanded Israeli officials grant the Red Cross access to captured Hamas fighters or face a suspension of the export licence for defence materiel. Israel has claimed a security exemption to the Geneva Convention as the reason for blocking such access. The Red Cross has not visited Israeli hostages being held by the Palestinians. The Brits were previously reported to be contemplating an arms embargo if Israel invaded the Hamas stronghold of Rafah. Cameron has also complained about the length of time it takes for aid convoys to be allowed

Jawad Iqbal

Where did it all go wrong for Brazil’s football team?

When England play Brazil in a friendly at Wembley tonight they will go into the game as firm favourites to win. It is hard to imagine writing that sentence at any other time in the last fifty years, which is a measure of how much the tables have turned. How so? Today’s Brazil side are very beatable The Three Lions are unbeaten since being knocked out of the last World Cup in Qatar two years ago, and they have finished top of their qualifying group for Euro 2024. They have a long-serving manager in Gareth Southgate, who knows the strengths and weaknesses of his present squad. Brazil, meanwhile, are in disarray,

Friday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Trump vs luxury beliefs

29 min listen

Freddy speaks to Rob Henderson, author of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class, in which he coins the term ‘luxury beliefs’. These are certain beliefs held by a section of the elite which confirm and elevate the status of those who hold them. As a consequence, they can cause harm to those lower down the social strata. Is Donald Trump the antidote to America’s ‘luxury beliefs’ complex?

David Cohen

Why is New Zealand’s deputy PM rowing with Chumbawamba?

In their musical heyday, the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba enjoyed a reputation for having an irreverent attitude towards those in political authority. Twelve years after they musically packed it in, a political figure abroad is making even more of a name for himself for his own irreverence towards Chumbawamba. The group has asked New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, to stop using their best-known song, ‘Tubthumping’, as a curtain-raiser at his rallies and in his fulminations against the woke peril. The populist politician, though, is vowing that the show will go on. It doesn’t help that the 78-year-old Peters is not only his country’s longest-serving parliamentarian but one

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Donald Trump’s bid to woo Latino voters

President Joe Biden has been touring Nevada and Arizona in an attempt to win back disgruntled Hispanic voters. ‘This guy despises Latinos,’ he said, speaking of his adversary Donald Trump, the inevitable Republican nominee. Trump’s response? He posted the following on his Truth Social page: Laugh or scorn all you want. The polls show Trump now has majority support Hispanic voters.

Sasha Lensky

How Putin used doublethink to manipulate the Russian election

In many ways, the recent presidential shenanigans in Russia, officially dignified with the word ‘elections’, have become a strange ritual. They’re both utterly predictable in terms of their result and, at the same time a source of anxiety for all concerned. Putin has been in power now for 25 years, and no elections under his rule have corresponded even minimally to internationally recognised standards. Their main violation has been the extensive use of public sector workers, both to run the elections and vote the way the Kremlin tells them to. Thus the electoral machine is technically always ready to provide any result required of it. Yet this was also the

Jake Wallis Simons Jake Wallis Simons

Biden’s Rafah plan will only help Hamas

The fathers, brothers and sons who are risking their lives for their country do not want to go into Rafah, on the Egyptian border of the Gaza strip. The ordinary Palestinians who hate Hamas and wish for a swift Israeli victory – and there are more of them than you think – do not want a battle in Rafah. There are more than a million human shields there. The question is not one of wants. The question is one of needs. If Rafah remains untouched, Israel will have lost the war Attacking the terrorists’ last redoubt is not some kind of genocidal indulgence, as many in the west would shamefully

Geoff Hill

The disruptive comeback of Jacob Zuma

Johannesburg For a decade to 1973, Jacob Zuma – or JZ as he is known – was an inmate of Robben Island, the infamous prison built on a 1,300-acre slab of rock four miles off the South African coast. A fellow inmate was Nelson Mandela, also inside for treason. Both went on to become presidents of South Africa; but whereas Mandela had the Robben Island prison shut down and turned into a national monument, JZ, who has once again set his sights on high office, now wants it re-opened. In 2018 Zuma was removed from office by the ruling African National Congress (ANC), accused of theft and embezzlement. It’s bizarre

Matt McDonald

Inside America’s stand against TikTok

Washington, DC Earlier this month, the video app TikTok started sending urgent push notifications to its 170 million American users. ‘Congress is planning a total ban of TikTok,’ it said. ‘Speak up now.’ The company called on TikTokers to defend their ‘constitutional right to free expression’ and provided a handy link so that ‘businesses, creators and artists’ could all contact their representatives directly and urge them to vote down the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. An army of angsty teens was activated but the effort backfired. Many kids got carried away, screaming out death and rape threats, and that underlined the point which elected officials behind the

David Mitchell

Japan shows up Britain’s impoverished councils

I’m halfway through a stay in Japan, the land of the free public toilet. City squares, riverside walks, bus interchanges in the middle of nowhere – chances are there’s one waiting. The grubbiest are old but clean enough. The cleanest are like operating theatres. I think of days in British cities where you have to draw up a dot-to-dot itinerary taking in that Starbucks (customers only); that department store (if it hasn’t closed down); that museum (entry £5). And I’m a guy: we have it easy, I know. Why is public provision for this basic bodily function so dismal across the UK? I keep hearing this vicious rumour it’s because councils

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

America’s obsession with Kate-gate

Has Kate Middleton united America? For the past few days, we have been one nation under her spell. The Princess of Wales has dominated Google searches in the United States ever since Kensington Palace released that now-notorious doctored photo of her with her children for Mother’s Day. Her name search beat that of both ‘Donald Trump’ and ‘Joe Biden’ over the past week. To say she has broken the internet would be only the start of it: rumours of her well-being are making their way into every newsroom, dive bar and church fellowship hour across America. Left-liberal pals now just want to know when I last walked by Buckingham Palace

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Could Jordan Bardella be France’s next PM?

Dixmont, Yonne In Britain, France’s National Front is synonymous with the Le Pen family. Jean-Marie founded the right-wing party in 1972 and his daughter Marine replaced him as its leader in 2011. In France, however, the National Rally – as it was rebranded in 2018 – is increasingly the party of Jordan Bardella. The 28-year-old was elected its president in November 2022. The party members had a straight choice: Bardella, a working-class youngster from northern Paris, or the veteran Louis Aliot, the 53-year-old mayor of Perpignan who had joined the party before Bardella was born and who was for many years in a relationship with Marine Le Pen. ‘You grow

Wednesday

Gray Sergeant

China’s threats to Kinmen should be taken seriously

When two Chinese fisherman died last month trying to flee Taiwan’s coastguard, Beijing laid the blame at Taipei’s feet and demanded an apology. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also spied an opportunity to advance its territorial claims. China has been targeting Kinmen, an island controlled by Taiwan, more aggressively over the past few weeks. The CCP stated that ‘there is no such thing as “prohibited or restricted waters”’ – saying that the waters around the island had been used as traditional fishing grounds by both sides. On the morning of 19 February, four Chinese coast guard vessels patrolled around Kinmen’s restricted waters. Personnel boarded and inspected a Taiwanese tourist boat that had ‘veered slightly of course’. The next day, a