World

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

French Jews are living in fear

The Paralympics begin in Paris tomorrow but the feel-good factor generated in France by the Olympic Games at the start of the month has long since evaporated. Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, was perhaps a little premature in declaring on August 7 that the success of the Games had ‘crushed the far-right’s message’. That message, according to Hidalgo, is one of negativity and division, challenging the prevailing progressive view of France as a country of happy multiculturalism. By far-right she meant the ten million plus people who had voted for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in July’s parliamentary elections. ‘Something incredibly positive is happening, and even good news,

Monday

Jonathan Spyer

Iran and Hezbollah don’t want a war with Israel

Hezbollah’s response to the killing of senior official Fuad Shukr, when it finally came, was a more minor event than anticipated. For weeks, both the Lebanese Shia Islamist group and its Iranian patron have been threatening a terrible revenge for the recent assassinations in Beirut and Tehran. It is now clear, however, that neither Hezbollah or Iran wishes to risk a descent to all put war at the present time. Iran appears to have relegated its response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran to some point in the future. Hezbollah, meanwhile, sought to target two sites of high significance – the Mossad headquarters, and the HQ

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

John Mearsheimer on Ukraine, Israel-Gaza and the US election

44 min listen

Professor John Mearsheimer joins Freddy Gray to discuss the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza, and the influence of both on the US election. The Israel-Gaza conflict has led to internal divisions within the democratic party, how will Kamala Harris deal with this? And as the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows no signs of ebbing, what does he see as the west’s role in the war?  Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Jim Lawley

Is anti-tourism becoming Spain’s Brexit?

Believing that membership of the European Union was undeniably beneficial for the UK economy, many Remainers struggled to understand why the majority had voted against it. One hypothesis was that ‘Leavers’ felt they’d missed out on the benefits – that perhaps people who thought the wealth hadn’t been spread around fairly had voted for Brexit in order to teach the greedy elite a lesson. Here in Spain, it’s tourism that, to the authorities’ surprise, has suddenly proved unpopular. It’s easy to see why they considered tourism to be undeniably beneficial. After all, it accounts for about 13 per cent of GNP and a quarter of the new jobs created in

David Loyn David Loyn

Ignoring the Taliban won’t end their reign of terror

The Taliban have always had a strange misogynist world view, weirdly preoccupied by sex. The first time they were in power in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the governor of the western province Herat banned women from walking or talking in the street outside his office, in case he was distracted by footsteps ‘or hearing the sound of their laughter’. The Taliban attempted to control every aspect of life. But it has taken until now, three years into their second period of power, for them to impose the full set of restrictions they imposed then.  The last three years have been bad enough, particularly for women and girls, banned from

Sunday

Owen Matthews

The arrest of Pavel Durov raises awkward questions

Pavel Durov, Russian-born founder of the Telegram messaging and social media app, has been arrested in France for failing to comply with official demands to regulate content posted by users on his app. According to a warrant issued by France’s Ofmin – an office tasked with preventing violence against minors – Durov’s alleged offences include abetting fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime, child pornography and the promotion of terrorism. The arrest of the 39-year-old Durov – a French, Saint Kitts and Nevis and United Arab Emirates citizen – is set to become a battle royal between advocates of free speech and those who seek to regulate it. Elon Musk, owner

Jake Wallis Simons Jake Wallis Simons

Israel’s strikes on Lebanon bring Jerusalem one step closer to regional dominance

As the dust literally settles across southern Lebanon in the aftermath of the Israeli airstrikes, we are starting to see an answer to the question of whether this will be the escalation that leads to all-out war. Hezbollah has declared an end to the first phase of revenge for Israel’s assassination of its most senior military commander Fuad Shukr, who masterminded the killing of 241 marines and 58 French soldiers in 1983, in Beirut last month. Its planned attack on the headquarters of Mossad and Unit 8200, Israel’s fabled military intelligence directorate, has been averted. Casualties appear to have been very limited. Jerusalem’s spy chiefs have flown to Cairo to

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The Islamists want to silence music the way they have free speech

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday at a festival in Germany that left three people dead and many more wounded. In a statement they said one of their ‘soldiers’ carried out the attack ‘as revenge against Muslims in Palestine and everywhere’. As soon as news broke of Friday’s attack in the town of Solingen, fifteen miles east of Düsseldorf, seasoned observers of Islamist extremism knew who to blame. Despite the risible posturing of western governments in recent years that far-right fanatics pose as great a threat to our way of life as Islamic extremists, the people aren’t fooled. It’s not the far-right who have murdered

Eliot Wilson

The EU finally takes the Red Sea crisis seriously

An oil tanker carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude oil is on fire and adrift in the Red Sea, after Houthi militants based in Yemen apparently caused three explosions on board. The Greek-flagged MV Sounion now represents a ‘navigational and environmental hazard’, according to the European Union’s naval mission in the region, Operation Aspides. It went on to warn that the fire ‘could lead to a severe ecological disaster with potentially devastating effects on the region’s biodiversity’. This is a serious situation. Houthis attacked the vessel on Wednesday, following which the crew – 25 Filipino and Russian sailors and four private security contractors – was taken off by a French warship

Julius Strauss

How life carries on near the Kursk front line

Sumy, Ukraine In the city of Sumy, the jumping off point for the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk region, the night is punctuated by the sound of explosions, the staccato fire of anti-aircraft batteries, and occasionally the whir of Iranian-made Shaheed suicide drones. In a parking lot in the east of the city a dozen cars were burned to a crisp on a recent Saturday morning, incinerated by one of Moscow’s Iskanders, a hypersonic missile that travels at Mach six and has a range of more than 300 miles. Meanwhile in a basement cellar in the city dozens of young Russian conscripts, taken prisoner in Kyiv’s recent land-grab, were being

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

The allure and terror of Mount Fuji

Six men have died on Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji since the start of the climbing season in July. This figure, two more than last year, is especially worrying given that steps had only recently been taken to mitigate the dangers of climbing the mountain. Various restrictions were introduced earlier this year to deal with overcrowding, which has become a feature of the mountain. A cap of 4,000 climbers a day was imposed along with a fee of 2,000 yen (£10). A website giving advice about weather conditions and congestion on the mountain was set up. Prayers were offered in an official ceremony before the climbing season opened. The lesson from

Saturday

James Heale James Heale

What could a Kamala Harris presidency mean for the UK?

16 min listen

As the Democratic National Convention draws to a close in Chicago this week, Patrick Gibbons is joined by James Heale and Gerry Baker, editor at large of the Wall Street Journal to try to make sense of what a Harris presidency could mean for the UK. Is she continuity Biden? Do we really know what she stands for?  Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Cindy Yu. 

William Cash

William Cash, Marcus Nevitt, Nina Power, Christopher Howse and Olivia Potts

31 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: William Cash reveals the dark side of Hollywood assistants (1:12); Marcus Nevitt reviews Ronald Hutton’s new book on Oliver Cromwell (7:57); Nina Power visits the Museum of Neoliberalism (13:51); Christopher Howse proves his notes on matchboxes (21:35); and, Olivia Potts finds positives in Americans’ maximalist attitudes towards salad (26:15).  Presented and produced by Patrick Gibbons.  

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Why aren’t left-wing anti-immigration parties called fascists?

It is almost six years to the day since the charismatic German left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht launched a new movement to counter the rise of the far-right in her country. Wagenknecht is proof that much of the mainstream media go easy on a politician if they are perceived to be left-wing What distinguished ‘Aufstehen’ (Stand Up) from the rest of the left was its negative view of mass immigration. Wagenknecht’s movement was greeted more with curiosity than animosity by the left-wing European press. Under the headline, ‘The emergence of an anti-migrant left in Germany’, the French paper, Le Monde, said it might herald ‘the start of a promising adventure, which could profoundly shake

David Cohen

Why are so many young people abandoning New Zealand?

Heading to the UK is a longstanding rite of cultural passage for many Kiwis. People like my youngest son, who will be visiting Britain for the first time this autumn, are a big part of the tradition. But so is returning home again. New migration figures are putting paid to that last bit. Record numbers of New Zealanders appear to be picking up sticks and decamping from the Antipodes, and a lot of them aren’t bothering with return tickets.  It may be that New Zealand’s charms are wearing thin What the ultimate cost of this is for their nation remains something of an open question, but for now the numbers are ‘just phenomenal’,

Friday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Has RFK just started the NeverHarris movement?

As recently as July, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was still winning up to 15 per cent support as an independent candidate in the US presidential polls. Today, however, he just suspended his struggling campaign — and, while trashing the Democratic Party he once belonged to, he endorsed Donald J. Trump for the presidency. ‘In an honest system I believe I would have won the election’, he said, which is debatable, to put it mildly, even if 1.1 million people tuned in to watch him live on Twitter. ‘In my heart I no longer believe that I have a path to electoral victory in the face of this relentless systematic censorship

Terry Barnes

Australia’s legal battle to define a ‘woman’ is not over yet

Giggle v Tickle. The name of this Australian court case sounds like an A.P. Herbert legal parody. Except that it is no parody. It is an action brought by a transgender person and activist Roxanne Tickle against a woman-only website, Giggle for Girls, founded and run by a feminist businesswoman Sall Grover. Tickle, born male but who underwent a surgical sex change in 2019, claimed she was discriminated against by Giggle and Grover on the basis of her being a transgender rather than biological woman, principally on the basis of a selfie submitted to the website and Grover for review as part of her application. Grover, on the other hand,

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

What do the Democrats believe in?

29 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Aidan McLaughlin, the editor in chief of Mediaite, and Andrew Cockburn, the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine, as the Democratic National Convention draws to a close. Kamala Harris has had a dramatic rise to the top of the democratic ticket, but what does she really believe in? And is opposition to Donald Trump the only thing that unites the party?  Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Kamala Harris’s DNC speech was surprisingly good

Chicago The Democratic National Convention this week has been all razzle, dazzle and repetition. Endless platitudes about freedom, values, love, America, patriotism, hope, unity – ‘turning the page on Trump’ and ‘turning hate into hope’. The implicit message: don’t go thinking too hard about whether Kamala Harris could be a good president. Away from the hype, though, people are wondering: what might America’s first woman commander-in-chief do in office? Some dared to believe Harris might tell us in her acceptance speech – the most significant moment of her political career. It was, appropriately enough, the most substantial speech of the whole convention And, to a small extent, she did. Harris may be

Thursday

Michael Evans

Will Israel and Hamas sign a peace deal?

The omens for a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas are looking alarmingly bleak following the latest shuttle diplomacy by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state. The US ‘bridging proposal’ aimed at resolving contested issues raised after the three-stage peace formula offered by President Biden on 31 May appears to be dead in the water. Central to the impasse is the insistence by Benjamin Netanyahu that Israeli troops must be allowed to remain in two security corridors in Gaza to ensure that even if the fighting has stopped Israel will retain the ability to watch for and deter any future attempts by Hamas to rearm or launch attacks