All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
I would like to ask readers for help. My Italian wife and our six children, aged 10 to 22, believe that Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza and that Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is complicit in this genocide. I do not. What should I tell them? Once again, I am forced to
It’s not easy for Germany to celebrate itself. But on Friday, the country tried. At the official celebration festivities for the Day of German Unity, the city of Saarbrucken near the French border hosted musicians, breakdancers, acrobats, magicians, and oddly, two actors dressed as a ‘talking sofa’ to entertain visitors. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the official head
The founding members of Led By Donkeys granted a public interview last Thursday at a theatre in Walthamstow. They were questioned by Guardian columnist Zoe Williams. Seated on squashy sofas, the four men looked like an ageing boyband who met at public school. James Sadri, suave and handsome, seems to be the boss. Ollie Knowles is the ebullient charmer.
The atrocious attack on a community of peaceful Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in Manchester yesterday shocked us all. But it was also the predictable outcome of converging trends that British society has either ignored or failed to stop. Since 7 October 2023, extremist organisations such as Isis and al Qaeda have repeatedly called for
Scottish Labour may be down but they’re not out. The polls have not been moving in their favour over the last few months and on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool a Norstat survey for the Sunday Times brought more bad news: never mind losing out on first place at the 2026 Holyrood election,
The G-A-Y Bar in Soho’s Old Compton Street is to close for good this weekend. It opened in the mid-1990s, spinning off from the Saturday club night of the same name at the nearby Astoria (itself long gone, thanks to Crossrail). Entrepreneur Jeremy Joseph, who has run the ‘brand’ since its inception, posted the news
Like the new school year, ambassadors to Britain usually change each September. Among those leaving this summer are the German, Swiss and Canadian representatives; their successors will shortly begin limbering up on the cocktail circuit, eager to make their social mark. The man they will have to beat is the US ambassador, Warren Stephens. His
A string of fairy-lights is the only item dividing the hotel room Shayan, 12, shares with her 14-year-old brother, Roman. In her ‘half’ of the room – slightly larger than the single bed she sleeps in – is a neat stack of shoe boxes she uses for her notebooks, make-up and jewellery. When I visit,
Like thousands of Jewish people, I was in synagogue on Thursday when the news came. My community and I were celebrating Yom Kippur – the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar when even non-practising Jews attend services. Suddenly dozens of mobile phones began to erupt with messages and a stream of murmurs echoed round
When Defence Secretary John Healey announced that Britain would help build a European ‘drone wall’, he was right to push the idea of a curtain of British-made interceptor drones to guard Nato’s eastern flank. Recent Russian incursions have shown that business as usual is no longer enough. Now, the challenging part begins: turning those buzzwords into
The advertising industry, so painfully obsessed with ‘diversity’ in TV commercials, has been publicly criticised for a lack of diversity in TV commercials. We’ve been here before. But this time, everyone in advertising will be delighted about the criticism. They – we – all know that for many years, there’s been an unrealistic overrepresentation of black people
Regardless of whether Sarah Mullally was our preferred choice for the new Archbishop of Canterbury, we should wish her well in her appointment. I hesitate to say ‘congratulate’, as this role is not a career prize but a demanding ministry of service. An archbishop should emulate Christ, who came not to be served but to serve. It is hard to live this way,
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The general election result of 2024 reflected – among other things – a collapse of trust among British voters in the Conservatives. How can the British right evolve so it learns lessons from the past and from across the pond, in order to win back its base? This is an excerpt from an event hosted by
If they were from any other minority, no one on the left would have the slightest trouble denouncing the deaths of 53-year-old Adrian Daulby and 66-year-old Melvin Cravitz as the result of a lethal racist attack. A terrorist with the resonant name of Jihad Al-Shamie – talk about nominative determinism – went for them because they
‘I look forward to spending the next seven years with you,’ said Bishop Sarah Mullally at the Diocese of London’s ‘Chrism Mass’ on Maundy Thursday this year. ‘Well, that’s her out of the race,’ said everyone – and everyone was wrong. Perhaps this is a modern twist on the old nolo episcopari rule: that those
It is the fate of any actor or actress who is inextricably associated with one major role that, when they die, the obituaries will lead with their best-known part rather than any of their other accomplishments. So it has proved with the great classical actress Patricia Routledge, who has died at the grand old age
The news footage was satisfyingly reminiscent of Mission: Impossible. Masked French commandoes swarmed up the side of the rusty oil tanker Boracay, assault rifles drawn, and commenced their search for evidence the vessel had been responsible for launching Russian drones at Danish airports. The captain and first officer – both Chinese nationals – were taken
In Manchester, a vigil is taking place after Thursday’s horrific terror attack left two people killed and three seriously injured in hospital. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to do ‘everything’ in his power to protect Jewish people in Britain, condemning the ‘horrific’ terror attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
According to Theresa May, Kemi Badenoch’s promise to repeal the Climate Change Act is a ‘catastrophic mistake’. Writing for The Spectator today, Ed Shackle, who works for a market research firm called Public First, was adamant that the policy change won’t just degrade the planet or obliterate Lady May’s thin political legacy – it is a bad electoral error,
The terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue – on the morning of Yom Kippur – can be described as a lot of things. Horrific, shocking, vile, but it was a not a surprise. Britain has been heading in this direction for many years. Jews in Manchester already knew they were potential targets While the 7/10
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On today’s Coffee House Shots, Tim Shipman is joined by Michael Gove to reflect on the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, which left two people dead. They discuss how the Jewish community has long warned of rising anti-Semitism, often forced to fund its own security, and how inflammatory rhetoric on recent pro-Palestinian
Ahead of the Conservative party conference this weekend, party leader Kemi Badenoch has, once again, demonstrated her lack of suitability for the role she has found herself in. Speaking on the topic of Brexit in an interview with BBC News Northern Ireland, Badenoch mistakenly said that ‘last time I checked, Ireland, Northern Ireland did vote
Jeremy Corbyn has spent a lifetime attaching himself to lost causes abroad and failed movements at home. Now, as the still-unnamed ‘Your Party’ continues to tear itself apart, Corbyn quietly slipped away from the domestic drama to South Africa and neighbouring Namibia, where he has been doing what he does best: surrounding himself with trade
Ministers aren’t always the quickest to take accountability in a time of crisis. So, it is easy to see why, after yesterday’s atrocity at a Manchester synagogue, the line being pedalled by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood this morning was that responsibility for the attack lies with ‘the assailants alone’. Snappy rhetoric, but it won’t
What was your reaction to the attack on a synagogue in Manchester yesterday? Most right thinking people, you’d hope, simply recoiled in horror and dread on hearing the news that two Jews had been killed and three seriously injured in a terrorist attack on British soil. For the ‘The Centre for Media Monitoring’ (CfMM), an
We have it on the best authority that the meek shall inherit the earth and in the meantime in the case of Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, it’s the See of Canterbury. She is a modest, very nice woman. I like her. I’ve met her a few times and she was always pleasant, decent and
Could Japan be about to run out of beer? Or at least of one of its favourite brands Asahi, whose ‘Super Dry’ is the number one best seller in this nation of hop heads? This is the alarming and looming prospect in the country after a cyber attack on Asahi forced the company to close
The country is still reeling from the horrific attack that took place at a Manchester synagogue on Thursday morning. The car and knife attack left two victims dead and three seriously injured in hospital, while the suspect was shot and killed by police. More details have come to light since then: police have said they
Do you know someone Jewish? Then they were probably at synagogue yesterday. I was there with my husband. My parents and my sister were at another one. Almost all of my Jewish friends will have been in attendance at their synagogues. Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, is the solemnest day in the Jewish
Dame Sarah Mullally’s appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury is not a normal story about a woman being appointed to a certain position for the first time. The difference is that the Church of England never made a clear decision about the legitimacy of women clergy. Here, at last, is its clear decision. The word decision
Of all the people who might be expected to get revelatory public comments out of the Prince of Wales, the beetle-browed actor Eugene Levy would not be high on the list. Yet during the Schitt’s Creek and American Pie thespian’s new show, The Reluctant Traveler, Levy ticks off a series of ‘bucket list’ experiences –
As so often, the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis hit the nail on the head over yesterday’s terror attack in Manchester. It was, he said, the result of ‘a tidal wave of Jew hated’. Jews have spent the past two years highlighting the danger posed by the authorities’ refusal to take more than perfunctory action against
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 – and made a lot of noise in the process. This marks the Tory party’s biggest step yet away from the establishment consensus on Net Zero. It also represents another significant step away from voters. Voters don’t choose Reform because of their policy position
