All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
When one of the 21st century’s most acclaimed music artists takes out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal to apologize for his anti-Semitic behavior, deny that he is a Nazi and ask for understanding as he works on himself, what do we owe him? Mercy, punishment, or neither? In his letter, titled “To
Over the last week, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, additional F-15 fighter planes and naval vessels carrying sea-launched cruise missiles have been making their way to the Middle East in what can only be described as a bid by President Trump to squeeze Iran into submission. In case anybody doubted this is what Trump
As Gangs of New York showed us, those who’ve settled in America have a tendency to bring Old World grudges over with them. Judging by a recent video put out by Dr. Mehmet Oz – now serving as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – one of these ancient feuds may now be playing
Is the Japanese economy about to crash? This once unthinkable prospect is now very much thinkable as concerns grow, and the cost of borrowing rises, in response to the bold but, to many, bewildering economic plans of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. It is a question of huge import, for if the Japanese economy collapses the
Europe has come up with a way to hit back at Donald Trump. What began last week as a suggestion that the continent’s soccer nations should boycott this summer’s World Cup has grown into a popular campaign. As the New York Times reported earlier this week, the man who first floated the idea was Oke
As the Potomac ices over for the first time in decades, Washington is in a deep freeze. Democrats are about to send it into an even deeper one. Intent on icing out ICE, they’re threatening to shutter the federal government over a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security and to impeach Kristi Noem. “Donald
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Freddy is joined by Spectator US online editor Ben Clerkin to discuss the situation in Minnesota, where for a second time an ICE officer shot dead a protester. Freddy and Ben discuss how Trump’s team are divided on the issue, why this time Trump has not been quick to defend the ICE officers and the
“If it bleeds, it leads.” Skim through the headlines of today’s papers and you’ll struggle to find much that’s positive. Coverage of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday might make you think the United States is on the brink of widespread civil disorder, but the truth is that America is set
According to unconfirmed reports, General Zhang Youxia, China’s vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), sent a company of troops (over a hundred or more) to the government’s Yingxi Hotel in western Beijing on January 18. Their mission was to arrest Xi Jinping. A few hours before, the Chinese president – alerted by an informant
A basic question all Americans should ask themselves before they draw any other conclusions about events in Minneapolis is this: when is it right to interfere with law enforcement? The consequences of doing so are, obviously, potentially grave, even fatal. Obstructing or harassing officers of the law could put their lives in danger as well
The fights in Minnesota aren’t just between the protesters and ICE, they also seem to be between President Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Behind the scenes, Trump officials have been lukewarm, at best, over Noem’s performance. And polling shows her department its deep underwater. Significantly, they sent border czar Tom Homan,
As America stayed inside at the weekend, terrified and frozen, the White House hosted its own movie night: the first-ever screening of Melania, an insider-access documentary about the First Lady, directed by the disgraced Brett Ratner. This film that old-school Hollywood wouldn’t touch with a barge-pole is coming to theaters everywhere on Friday, whether you
To walk out of a public performance before the end – be it the theater, a concert or a lecture – is not the done thing. It’s considered an antisocial act that disrupts the performance and thus other people’s pleasure. To walk out provokes tuts of disapproval and scowls of indignation. And yet while it’s
Last week was one of realpolitik, Trump-style. Greenland was sorted, the “New Gaza” unveiled, and all that was left was Ukraine and Russia. Donald Trump went from Davos back to the US but ordered his special envoys to Abu Dhabi, armed with the president’s formula for ending the war in Europe, to get a deal
A patient, an old woman with white hair, stripped of speech by dementia, followed us each shift, staying an inch behind, wanting nothing more than human presence. We let her into the staff room, where she hovered behind whoever was nearest, her tattooed number visible on her forearm. They found a young girl, Doris, who
Did a Border Patrol officer kill Alex Pretti in self-defense after being alerted that he was carrying a gun in a chaotic scramble to arrest him? Or did he execute the anti-ICE protester in cold blood after he was disarmed? The truth is that it is difficult to know. Facts, unlike opinions, are hard to
If you live in Minnesota, as I do, don’t turn on your TV. Don’t log on to social media. Don’t turn on the radio, pick up a newspaper or drive under an overpass. We are approaching a zombie apocalypse in Gotham City level of breakdown. And all indications point to more of the same –
The misadventures and “mummy issues” of Brooklyn Beckham – articulated in a verbose Instagram post about how much he hates his parents and why – has stirred feelings, even in those least likely to care about anything to do with the Beckhams, senior or junior. The reason why is simple: the 26-year-old man child of
FBI Director Kash Patel popped up in several news stories on Friday. He does this periodically, like a skin or glandular disorder – a Kash Rash, as it were. Looking as though he’d spent last night consuming the contents of the FBI’s seized-drug storeroom, Patel announced at an airport presser that the FBI had seized
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has tonight been forced to stall the Bill which would hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius. The legislation enabling the deal was expected to be debated in the House of Lords on Monday. But this evening, it was revealed that the votes have been delayed amid parliamentary ping-pong and
Braving biting January winds, 120 New Yorkers attended the much-anticipated launch of Nicolas Niarchos’s The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth, at The Spectator’s (still) unfinished, unfurnished penthouse digs. Niarchos is a journalist whose reporting has appeared in the New Yorker, the Nation and the New York Times. He has testified on the effects of
Can Donald Trump veto the UK’s cession of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius? And if he can, does he want to? On Tuesday, he termed it an act of “great stupidity,” which certainly seems to imply opposition. Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, followed up to say that the UK was “letting down” the US by handing over the
Trump Derangement Syndrome has become horribly over-diagnosed. Now, anyone who expresses doubts about his wondrous abilities – or just fails to repeat the White House’s preferred talking points – risks being branded a “TDS” sufferer. It’s boring. Still, there remains a large faction of elite journalists, social-media influencers and political actors who loathe Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s strangely artificial Board of Peace event in Davos on Thursday looked like a Hollywood rendering of an international summit. Everything was too slick, faintly uncanny. Like an AI-generated image, it was photo-real yet failed the most basic human glance test. Too perfect. No wabi-sabi. The first tell was visual: the set, complete with
The “nothing ever happens” people seem to be, sadly, correct about Iran thus far, although one hopes that the brutal Islamic Republic might still be overthrown. It’s hard to know what to think, and at times like this we all turn to the experts to give their analysis of what might happen and what might
Who among us hasn’t accidentally liked an Instagram comment calling for America to be “free from the Jews?” YouTube children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel fell into that trap this week, issuing a pathetic and quite possibly insincere apology online after one of her subscribers caught her in the act of upvoting Jew-hate. “I’m sure that’s an
Kat Abughazaleh is one of those influencers who – unnervingly – seem to pop out of nowhere fully formed. There was a stint at Media Matters – which in many ways pioneered the modern industry in “disinformation”-watchdogging, political fact-checking and “studying the far right” – where she made short-form videos taking the fight to people like
Rarely has the ideologically divided US Supreme Court seemed so much on the same wavelength. And that is not good news for President Trump. In arguments Wednesday in a case that centers on President Trump’s authority to fire members of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, both Republican and Democratic appointees suggested giving the
There has always been a section of the establishment which thinks that the solution to populism lies in a great straightening-out of the populace. Populism is happening because people are bored, they say, so conscript them, get them off their phones, give them things to do – especially the young. It is only through collective
Pop star Meghan Trainor posted a photograph this week skin-to-skin with her newborn daughter, “Mikey Moon,” who was still slick with fluids from the birth canal. The image was tender and maternal. What changed the dynamic was the caption. Trainor revealed she had not actually delivered her daughter, but had her gestated by another woman via a surrogacy arrangement. The online reaction was deeply uneasy and
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Freddy Gray speaks to investigative journalist and policy fellow at American Experiment Bill Glahn about the situation in Minneapolis. They discuss how Minnesota – a state once occupied by Scandinavian peace loving people – became the heart of political eruptions; the multibillion dollar fraud of state social benefits which led to the immigration crackdown and the
The latest media palpitation about Donald Trump concerns his just-announced “Board of Peace.” Unveiled as an initiative to manage the introduction of tranquillity and physical reconstruction of that pile of rubble formerly known as Gaza, the Board of Peace seems to be filling all the empty space in the parking lot reserved for international relations.
When Prince Harry left the witness box at the UK High Court this afternoon, it was observed that he was “visibly emotional.” The Duke of Sussex was there to give evidence in his group legal action against the Daily Mail publishers Associated Newspapers a day earlier than expected. There is inevitably a certain amount of personal toil
Michelle Obama is the latest guest on the Call Her Daddy podcast – the raunchy girlfest “Howard Stern for women” – and the conversation is about as relatable as you might imagine. Obama and host Alex Cooper spend a couple of minutes up top talking about skiing. The former first lady is particularly fond of