World

Monday

Francis Pike

Will Sanae Takaichi fly or falter?

A former heavy metal drummer and biker is not someone the world would expect to become a prime minister of Japan. Particularly if that someone is a woman. But that is what is likely to happen tomorrow. Last month, 64-year-old Sanae Takaichi became the first female head of the Liberal Democrat Party – the party that has ruled Japan for all but 4 of the last 70 years – and soon she will be Japan’s first female prime minister too. On Monday, Takaichi signed off on a coalition pact with the right-leaning libertarian Japan Innovation Party (Ishin). They have replaced the Komeito, the socially conservative party that is affiliated with Soka Gakkai, a

James Tidmarsh

The Louvre heist shames France

Thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris shortly after it opened on Sunday morning and stole nine invaluable relics from France’s crown jewels. While the exact valuation of the loot is still being established, it could be worth hundreds of millions of euros. The thieves used a cherry-picker to reach a window on the Seine side of the building, smashed display cases in the Galerie d’Apollon, the ornate hall built for Louis XIV and home to the crown jewels. They escaped on motorbikes before police arrived. Among the stolen items was the crown of Empress Eugénie, set with 1,354 brilliant-cut diamonds and 56 emeralds. It was later found smashed in the street

Sunday

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The Gaza ceasefire isn’t broken

The ceasefire in Gaza, barely settled just six days ago, has already been tested. Hamas was accused of violating the deal by firing rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire at Israeli forces while the US warned the terror group was planning an ‘imminent’ attack on Palestinian civilians. In response, Israel struck a wave of targets within the Gaza Strip, reportedly killing at least 11 people. It was a swift and forceful retaliation, prompting immediate speculation: is the war back on? Not necessarily. What unfolded in Gaza this morning bears a structural resemblance to events on the northern front nearly a year ago. In the days following the November 2024 ceasefire with

Katie Jenkins

Don’t underestimate Bolivia’s election

Towering above the baroque low-rises of Bolivia’s largest city is the 29-storey presidential palace. Built by the then left-wing leader Evo Morales in 2018, the £25 million glass-fronted skyscraper comes kitted with a designer-furnished gym, spa, helipad, three underground floors and even a private elevator for the president’s personal use. ‘Morales claimed he built this for the people. That it was the symbol of the new Bolivia,’ said my ‘guide’, an unemployed biochemistry graduate, when I visited the building in La Paz last year. Gesturing at the golden motifs adorning its facade, he added with a wry smile: ‘This is what socialism really looks like. No?’ Today, the ‘Great House

Andy Jones

We are not ready for drone terrorism

After multiple suspected drone incursions by Russia, the EU has belatedly swung into action with plans for a ‘drone wall’. This network of anti-drone radars, sensors, signal jammers and interceptors – which would mimic Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ defence system – would be built along the 3,000 km eastern front of the union’s territories by 2027. Whether used by terror cells or militarised nations, drones are cheap, simple to fly and easy to pack with explosives But while the EU builds the ‘wall’, the barbarian is already inside the gates. No threat – be it Russia, or any other hostile nation – needs to launch drones in their own territory to cause a

Michael Bloomberg

Mayors are the real political powerhouse

In Britain, the leading political parties have just held their annual conventions. After a month of national political debates, lost in all the commentary about polling and positioning, is a larger and more consequential story about the changing dynamics of power. In a world where parties, prime ministers and presidents have long dominated the global stage, the spotlight is increasingly turning to a new group of leaders: mayors. And they are shifting the plot from talk to action. In recent years, mayors have emerged as increasingly entrepreneurial actors on national and even international issues. They’re not only collecting trash and fixing roads, they’re also pioneering new ways to tackle job

Saturday

Arnout Nuijt

The flag wars have come to the Netherlands

The small community of Uithoorn, just outside Amsterdam, has unexpectedly found itself on the front line of Europe’s flag wars. Late last week, Dutch national flags – in bold red, white and blue – began appearing across the town. Their purpose? Perhaps a spontaneous show of resistance to a planned asylum centre earmarked for the suburb. Or perhaps something more calculated: a shrewd piece of political theatre ahead of the country’s elections on 29 October. No one can say for sure. But the response was immediate. With Pavlovian swiftness, the town council began removing flags from public spaces – although they left those flying from private property untouched. The council

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

How sumo wrestling bounced back

Sumo is the featured attraction at the Royal Albert Hall this weekend in a rare foray for the ancient sport outside of its spiritual home of Japan. The five-day tournament started on Wednesday and features 40 rikishi (wrestlers) (about six-tonnes’ worth) squaring off in a specially constructed dohyo (ring). Reinforced chairs and upgraded toilets have been installed for the exclusive use of the 28-stone ‘naked ambassadors’ (as they are being called here in Japan). Like test cricket, sumo wrestling is set apart and sustained by its antiquity It has been a huge success so far. Tickets sold out long ago but can be picked up for hundreds of pounds on

Grigor Atanesian

Will Trump’s peace hold in Nagorno-Karabakh?

On the Armenian banks of the winding Aras River, which represents the border with Iran, I am approached by two boys offering local grapes. The fruit is more yellow than green, and translucent and very sweet. ‘Are you American?’, one boy asks in Armenian. I am not, I tell them, and they are disappointed. It is late September and I am in Armenia, on the banks of this river, surrounded by the dramatic peaks of the Zangezur mountains, to film a programme for the BBC World Service about Donald Trump’s intervention in this country’s war with Azerbaijan. In early August, Trump announced with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan that

Friday

Jacob Heilbrunn

Has Trump fallen into Putin’s trap – again?

Sorry, Volodymyr. There won’t be any Tomahawk missiles headed to Ukraine now that president Vladimir Putin of Russia has talked on the phone with president Donald Trump, who called their session ‘very productive.’ What it will produce remains an open question. But it does seem to have resulted in a decision to hold an upcoming summit in Budapest. The bottom line: Putin has outflanked Ukrainian president Zelensky, who will meet at the White House with Trump today. Trump is a transactional president and he has business that he wants to transact with Russia, including, but not limited to, a peace deal between it and Ukraine. If anything, Trump, intent on winning

Sam Olsen

China really is a threat to Britain

When Dominic Cummings claimed this week that China had hacked into Britain’s most secret systems, the government rushed to deny it – understandably, given the political heat over the collapsed Chinese spy trial. But even if Cummings’ story proves false, the underlying truth remains: China has been systematically targeting Western networks for years, and extracting vast quantities of sensitive information. What is striking is not the allegation, but the reaction by a government so anxious not to call China a threat that it pretends not to see one. It is a surreal position, because the danger has been obvious for years. The truth is that China poses a greater strategic threat to Britain than any state since the

Daniel DePetris

Trump has a new European target in his crosshairs

There was a time not so long ago when Germany was US president Donald Trump’s favourite punching bag in Europe. During his first term in office, Trump had a penchant for biting Berlin’s ear off, blasting its political leadership as grossly incompetent, blaming the country for destroying itself by accepting a million refugees and wagging his finger at the Germans’ unwillingness to take more responsibility for their own defence. Trump hasn’t forgotten what happened in the lead-up to the Nato summit over the summer Yet those days are over. Trump, now in his second term, has a new European target in his crosshairs: Spain. The land of Tempranillo and Jamón

Nick Boles

Nick Boles, James Ball, Andrew Rosenheim, Arabella Byrne & Rory Sutherland

27 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Nick Boles says that Ukraine must stand as a fortress of European freedom; James Ball reviews If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: The Case Against Superintelligent AI, by Eliezer Yudowsky and Nate Sores; Andrew Rosenheim examines the treasure trove of John Le Carre’s papers at the Bodleian; Arabella Byrne provides her notes on skip-diving; and, in the battle of the sexes, Rory Sutherland says the thing to fear is not feminisation, but emasculation. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Thursday

James Tidmarsh

Macron survives again – but at what cost?

Sébastien Lecornu’s government has survived a no-confidence vote – but only because Emmanuel Macron shelved the pension reform that once defined his presidency. Today’s motion of censure fell short of the 289 votes needed to bring down the government, sparing Macron for now but leaving his authority weakened. What began as a crusade for fiscal responsibility has ended in capitulation, exposing the fragility of his presidency. If the vote saved Macron in the short term, it exposed how completely he has lost control of his political base Out of 577 members of parliament, 271 voted for censure, leaving the government 18 votes short of collapse. It was not a narrow

Arieh Kovler

Hamas is taking revenge on the gangs of Gaza

As the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force, perhaps Gazans thought they might finally get some brief moment of peace. If so, they were wrong. Almost as soon as the IDF withdrew to the new Yellow Line inside Gaza, the bullets started flying and Palestinians were once again being killed: but this time, it was Hamas pulling the trigger. Their first target: the Doghmush clan.  Until it took power in a coup in 2007, Hamas was essentially just the biggest armed gang in Gaza, and it hasn’t forgotten this  Like every society, Palestinian society has its faultlines that divide its people into different smaller groups. There’s politics: Hamas,

Eliot Wilson

Nato is far too complacent about Russian drones

Something is afoot in Nato’s airspace – but the alliance’s complacent response to the various incursions is rather troubling. In recent weeks, suspicious drones have intruded into the jurisdictions of Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Norway; identifiable Russian drones were tracked over Romania and shot down over Poland. Three Russian Mikoyan MiG-31 fighters violated Estonia’s airspace and loitered for 12 minutes before retreating when Italian F-35 aircraft were scrambled to intercept them. Putin is testing the alliance, pushing it little by little, upping the ante by increments to see what response he finds You might think that these various incidents would shake Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, out of his usual

Anastasia Piliavsky

Zelensky’s attack on Odesa is a step too far

In a single week, Kyiv has launched a triple attack on Odesa: on its language, history, and elected government. The city, which for almost four years has endured relentless bombardment and held Ukraine’s maritime front, now finds itself besieged by its own capital. With growing calls for an election, Zelensky appears to be clearing the field of rivals The most startling of these moves against Odesa is president Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to strip Gennady Trukhanov – the city’s three-times-elected mayor – of his Ukrainian citizenship and office. The charge is that Trukhanov holds a Russian passport, which the mayor flatly denies. Yet without a court hearing or any due process,

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Chinese spies, Vance’s rise & is French parenting supreme?

30 min listen

‘Here be dragons’ declares the Spectator’s cover story this week, as it looks at the continuing fallout over the collapse of the trial of two political aides accused of spying for China in Westminster. Tim Shipman reveals that – under the last Conservative government – a data hub was sold to the Chinese that included highly classified information; one source describes this to him as a ‘stratospheric clusterfuck’. Why do successive governments seem to struggle with UK-China relations? And, with many unanswered questions still remaining, what’s the truth over this case?  Host Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator’s political editor Tim Shipman, arts editor Igor Toronyi-Lalic and deputy editor

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Can anyone stop J.D. Vance becoming president?

As Donald J. Trump flew to the Holy Land on Sunday to declare peace, his Vice-President took to the airwaves to address the rumbling civil conflict on the home front. J.D. Vance did not rule out invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act in order to quell the violent protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in several American cities. ‘The problem is the fact that the entire media in this country, cheered on by a few far-left lunatics, have made it OK to tee off on American law enforcement,’ he told NBC News. ‘We cannot accept that in the United States of America.’ This is now Vance’s familiar role. He’s not

Nick Boles

Ukraine must stand as a fortress of European freedom

It is 35 years since I was last in Warsaw and the city is unrecognisable. Back then it was grimy and depressing, full of buildings still pockmarked by bomb damage. Nothing worked and nobody smiled. Now it gleams. The historic Old Town has been lovingly rebuilt and restored. Everything else is new: the cars, the shops, the office blocks and apartment buildings. The fashions are sharp and the teeth are white. It is a powerful tonic for beleaguered liberals. Don’t let the democracy-in-decline-mongers deceive you. Economic and political freedom work. And what the world needs is more of both. In the early 1990s I was sent as a wet-behind-the ears