Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Will Vance regret being the face of the Iran deal?

After a week of international agonizing, it looks as if the first round of the latest peace talks between America and Iran will not begin today – at least, not formally. The Memorandum of Understanding has been signed – electronically by Iran and by Donald Trump’s hand in Versailles on Wednesday. But J.D. Vance’s big Switzerland trip, originally planned to kick off the talks, has been put on hold as the Lebanon issue reared its troublesome head overnight. Late yesterday afternoon, Hezbollah fired several salvoes of rockets at IDF targets, killing four soldiers. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes in Southern Lebanon, killing 18 and wounding 33, according to the Lebanese ministry of health.

Charlie Gammell

Iran’s loser victory

After years of negotiations, two wars, a succession of ruthlessly quashed uprisings in Iran and countless billions of dollars’ worth of ordnance smashing into rubble across the region, we have the bones of an agreement. Not a deal, it should be said. Instead an understanding that manages to speak volumes and yet say very little in the way of concrete details. Vice President JD Vance's trip to Switzerland may have been postponed -- after Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire over Lebanon last night -- but the Memorandum of Understanding between America and Israel has been signed, and both sides seem confident that the peace process has not yet been derailed. Who won, you might ask? Surely, Iran.

Ben Clerkin

Israel is the new Ukraine

J.D. Vance didn't call Benjamin Netanyahu out by name, but in sternly reprimanding the "Cabinet of the Israeli government" from the White House podium on Thursday, he sent Israel and its Prime Minister a clear message. In demanding more respect, raising the threat of severe consequences and ordering the country to get in line, the Vice President echoed the public fight he picked with another world leader and US ally: Volodymyr Zelensky. It wasn't quite as spectacular as the now infamous Oval Office blow up in February last year between Trump, Vance and the Ukrainian president. But Vance went further in his criticism of Israel than any other US President or Vice President in recent memory.

John Fund

The mostly untold story of the brutalist Obama Presidential Center

A dozen years in the making, the $1 billion Obama Presidential Center had its public unveiling in Chicago today. It became the sought-after ticket for liberal politicians and celebrities who want to ignore the presence of Orange Man Bad in the White House. Indeed, Donald Trump wasn’t even invited, no doubt much to the relief of former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden who all showed up. The performers included Bruce Springsteen, Bono and Jennifer Hudson. They were celebrating a most unusual building, and one the mainstream media has shown remarkably little interest in looking into. Its brutalist near-windowless features have been compared to a 225 foot World War Two flak tower. Britain’s Guardian even noted it was “like a Klingon prison.

Thursday

June 18, 2026

Ben Clerkin

Is Trump going to defund Israel?

Cutting US military aid to Israel was once an impossible dream of the most extreme fringe of the Democratic party. Today axing the $3.8 billion annual package is a bipartisan issue being spearheaded by the GOP. The number of free US tax dollars that Israel would receive to spend on its military under a GOP plan being discussed by both governments would be reduced to zero. The brainchild of Marlin Stutzman, a staunch Israel ally and Republican congressman from Indiana, the proposed memorandum of understanding, which would come into effect when the current deal ends in 2028, now forms the basis of the negotiations and was endorsed by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Wednesday

June 17, 2026

Freddy Gray

Will the Iran deal destroy J.D. Vance?

When it comes to foreign policy, Donald Trump is neither hawk nor dove. He’s a dealmaker who plays differing sides off each other. In so doing, he ends up disappointing warmongers and peaceniks in equal measure. Rather than blaming Trump for a bad deal, his pro-Israel supporters will tie its shortcomings to Vance On 28 February, when he launched Operation Epic Fury, Trump’s more dovish supporters felt betrayed. The president who had campaigned against regime-change wars began a new conflict by channeling George W. Bush. "To the great, proud people of Iran I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand," he said.

Jacob Heilbrunn

Trump has been humbled over Iran

Donald Trump is engaged in one of the biggest battles of his career. After spending millions to turn the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “flag day blue,” Trump is combatting a tenacious opponent that threatens to mar his upcoming July 4 celebrations. US National Park Service Workers spent much of yesterday on a desperate mission – dumping gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool to eliminate the ghastly green clumps of algae that have colonized it. Trump is awash in a sea of troubles. His name has been removed by court order from the Kennedy Center. His White House ballroom is facing cost overruns amounting to several hundred million dollars.

Tuesday

June 16, 2026

Freddy Gray

Can Trump forge a lasting peace?

22 min listen

Freddy is joined by Daniel McCarthy, US columnist for The Spectator and the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review. They discuss the US-Iran peace deal, whether a lasting peace is possible in the region, and what's at stake for Iran and leaders in the Persian Gulf.

Cockburn

J.D. Vance versus The View

Vice President J.D. Vance went on The View Tuesday morning in the vain hope of talking about his new faith-focused book, Communion. Instead, he found himself locked in a debate with a group of ladies who subjected the VP to a show trial. Vance was questioned on topics including immigration and deportation, President Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and the release of the files. The most eye-catching exchange was with the show’s moderator, Whoopi Goldberg, concerning race. “What did black people do to this administration that has allowed it to really stigmatize folks of color?” she asked. “And you know how hard it is, you have folks of color in your family.

Ani Chkhikvadze

Will Janeese Lewis George be the Zohran Mamdani of DC?

Eight months after New York handed City Hall to a democratic socialist, Washington, DC appears ready to follow suit. Janeese Lewis George, a former prosecutor, leads the field, preaching the same message of affordability that carried Zohran Mamdani to power. DC residents head to the polls today to vote in the mayoral primary after Muriel Bowser decided not to stand for reelection. In the deepest of blue areas, the winner of the Democratic primary race is almost certain to be its next mayor. The primary has become an ideological tug-of-war between the Democratic party's socialist wing and its business-aligned establishment. Lewis George runs as the candidate of the progressive coalition.

Brendan O’Neill

Jerry Seinfeld and the dark truth about ‘Free Palestine’

I see Jerry Seinfeld has got the pompous left sobbing into their keffiyehs. His sin? He refused to buckle to their neo-religious mantra “Free Palestine.” The comedy legend was accosted by a YouTuber outside Madison Square Gardens in NYC last week. ‘Free Palestine’ feels like a jeer designed to taunt Jews “Can we get a ‘Free Palestine’?” the streamer asked as he shoved his mic towards Seinfeld’s mouth. Seinfeld smirked. He held his tongue. No “Free Palestine” passed his lips. It gets better. He then proceeded to shut down his chirpy interrogator with three words. “It doesn’t exist”, he said. He was talking about Palestine. Cue fury from the Gazaholics. This was “racist rhetoric”, cried the cranks at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Monday

June 15, 2026

Cockburn

Spencer Pratt teams up with Karen Bass’s brother to sue Mayor for ‘reckless negligence’ during fires

Spencer Pratt may not be the next mayor of Los Angeles. But he’s not letting his primary defeat subdue him into silence. On Saturday, Pratt announced his plan to team up with Karen Bass’s brother to sue the Mayor for her carelessness during the Palisades fire. “I am proud to be teaming up with Karen Bass’ brother in suing his sister for her reckless negligence that led to the destruction of our homes. I hope their Thanksgiving dinner isn't too awks. I know ours hasn't been the same since last year…” Pratt said on X yesterday. Last month, Mayor Bass’s brother Kenneth sued the City of Los Angeles, the state of California and other agencies involved in the wildfires for their handling of the crisis.

Terry Barnes

How many people did Australia’s backpacker murderer kill?

Australians are known for world-class performances in many fields. Mostly, our achievements are a source of national pride, but one field of achievement causes us only horror and shame. Our serial killers are some of the most prolific and brutal anywhere. And none are more brutal or prolific than the late, unlamented, Ivan Robert Marko Milat. Milat took his victims into the forest bound, terrified and subjected them to unspeakably sadistic torture The facts of Milat’s known killing spree are gruesome and horrific. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Milat turned the Belanglo State Forest, a bushland reserve off the main highway to Melbourne, and 80 miles from Sydney, into his personal killing field.

Sam Leith

Will Keir Starmer’s under-16 social media ban actually work?

Today, with much fanfare, the British government is rolling out its new policy to protect young people from online harms. Here is a political/legal move for which I am the target audience. I have three teenagers, and for those not so afflicted, let me tell you that keeping them from spending all day, every day goggling at one piece of tech or another is an infernal game of whack-a-mole. Item: Child One, Instagram. Very, very occasionally, she forgets to delete her browser history and Ctrl-H yields page after page after page, hour after hour, of Instagram hits. If you restrict or remove the phone app, it will be re-downloaded or the site opened instead in a browser window.

Atbin Moayedi

Sweden shows that not all immigrants are the same

I’m just going to say it. Not all immigrants are the same. I know that reading that might make you feel uncomfortable, particularly if you’re white and American and therefore more vulnerable to cancel culture and snowflakery. But it’s true. Some immigrants are simply better than others. And by better, I mean that immigrants from certain nations and cultures are more likely than others to integrate and make a positive contribution to their new country. Sweden is a useful terrarium of immigration; the good, the bad and the ugly Sweden is a useful terrarium of immigration; the good, the bad and the ugly. I was born in Sweden to Iranian parents in the early 1990s.

Max Horder

Is the White House trying to hurt Anthropic?

The US government has finally intervened in the AI regulation question, albeit in the kind of haphazard, incoherent, and possibly corrupt manner in which the Trump administration tends to wade in to anything related to the stock market, particularly on a Friday evening before it closes. The US Department of Commerce announced that Fable, Anthropic’s hardened version of the underlying model Mythos, was indeed far too dangerous to be released to the general public. Then they issued a blanket export control directive saying that no “foreign nationals” should be allowed to use the new product. So Anthropic, most of whose employees are foreign nationals, had no option but simply to turn Fable off.

Maximillian Garely

Trump is treating AI like a nuclear bomb

Initially, AI’s critics insisted that artificial intelligence was just another software product. AI was presented as a huge commercial opportunity, sure. It was presented as a tool through which humans could enhance their lives, but ultimately it was still understood as a statistical program that knew how to spell. Thanks to the Trump administration’s Anthropic export ban, that illusion is dead. The more powerful the technology becomes, the more determined governments are to control who can access it The United States government ordered Anthropic to suspend access for non-US persons to Fable and Mythos 5, its most advanced models, after officials raised national-security concerns. Whatever one thinks of the decision itself, its significance is hard to overstate.

Sunday

June 14, 2026

Maximillian Garely

Trump’s birthday UFC fight is a seminal moment in US politics

The UFC event today at the White House has been widely dismissed as an absurdity. Inevitably, the administration’s critics have portrayed the event – officially part of America’s 250th celebrations but curiously taking place on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday – as an odious example of Trumpian excess. Supporters, meanwhile, celebrate it as evidence that Trump is uniquely in touch with ordinary Americans. Politicians are increasingly asked to function as cultural icons But what media commentators think of the UFC event is beside the point. The significance of this event lies not in the UFC itself, but in what it shows us about the changing nature of political authority. Beneath the headlines and Reddit threads, American politics is undergoing a profound change.

Jacob Heilbrunn

Is Trump’s birthday extravaganza his last hurrah?

In January 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt held a toga-themed birthday party at the White House to mock the accusation that he was an incipient dictator. Donald Trump is doing him one better. The President celebrates his 80th birthday today. As such, his plans for Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts today in an octagon on the South Lawn of the White House are reminiscent of the extravaganzas of the Emperor Commodus, whose rule prompted Gibbon to warn: Of all our passions and appetites, the love of power is of the most imperious and unsociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the submission of the multitude. For America’s semiquincentennial, Trump gave UFC head Dana White permission to construct an arena on the South Lawn of the White House that is known as "The Claw.

Friday

June 12, 2026

Tim Shipman

‘I identify with Daenerys Targaryen before she went mad’: an interview with Kemi Badenoch

There was a moment backstage, before I interviewed Kemi Badenoch for a Spectator event, when I felt like John Sergeant with Margaret Thatcher bearing down on him as he pronounced her leadership in difficulty. I suggested to Badenoch that she was a rare example of a politician I had changed my mind about. “You mean you were very negative before?” she said, fixing me with the full alpha female glare. I muttered something placatory, but the truth is that a year ago I thought she was rubbish – and that was the mainstream view in her own party. She was arrogant, flat-footed, absenting herself from a stage that was being dominated by Nigel Farage, resistant to advice, convinced she was great at PMQs when even Keir Starmer was wiping the floor with her.

James Heale

Can Reform see off the threat from Restore?

Nigel Farage has always prided himself on being able to see off any threat from his right flank. But now a new force has emerged in the form of his ex-colleague Rupert Lowe. When the two Reform MPs fell out 15 months ago, friends shared memes of Farage’s past fallen rivals ascending to heaven. “Come and join us, Rupert!” they exhorted. Instead, Lowe fought back, setting up his own party, Restore Britain. In the Makerfield by-election on June 18, one poll puts Restore on 7 percent – enough to stop Reform and hand the seat to Labour’s Andy Burnham. Restore’s strategy is simple: use Farage’s playbook against him. Like Farage, Lowe has put his faith in social media, building up a noisy following that can then be turned into a campaigning force.

Freddy Gray

Will peace be the perfect gift for the President?

Donald Trump’s 80th birthday is this weekend, and what better present for a struggling octogenarian Commander-in-Chief than a peace deal with Iran, signed if not quite yet sealed and delivered. There is, I’m told, some late scrambling over "semantics" in the so-called "memorandum of understanding" between America and Iran, and lingering issues over the language concerning the "nuclear dust" – i.e., Iran’s enriched uranium. But the rest is all but agreed. J.D. Vance could fly to Europe to sign a deal tomorrow – or if not it will be Trump as he attends the G7 in Evian near the Swiss Alps on Monday. Trump really wanted to stage a peace photo-op with Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei but had to be told that would not be possible.

Mark Galeotti

What Tommy Robinson really sees in Russia

Everyone who is everyone – within a certain political and social fragment – has been in Russia this past week. Conservative American conspiracy theorist Candace Owens; Errol Musk, father of Elon; toxic “manosphere” influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate; and Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist. Robinson told the Guardian that he had traveled to Moscow “to see how this country got itself so well on to the straight and narrow and see the beauty of a civilized society here.” In the process, he was walking a well-trodden path of westerners heading to Russia to see exactly what they want to see. Once it was socialists like Sidney and Beatrice Webb, who found Stalin’s regime “the very opposite of a dictatorship.

Blake Neff

The coming storm against MAGA

Economist and former New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman has called for a post-Trump “deMAGAfication” of America, and left no mystery about the comparison he was making. “And I’m not going over the top by using a word that’s very similar to the ‘denazification’ that we pursued successfully after World War Two in Germany.” Krugman remained vague about the nature of this “thorough purging,” but said it should include “not just the MAGA ideology, but the whole structure of hugely unequal power, hugely unequal wealth that made this horrific moment possible.” Today’s left – secular, post-Christian, postmodern and postcolonial, untethered from faith, tradition or national feeling – has few moral intuitions other than “Do not be Hitler.