All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Amr Salem mingles cheerfully with foreign investors and members of Syria’s interim government in a five-star hotel in Damascus, and why not? Salem’s disposition, clothing, and manners fit the scene. Yet Salem was, in fact, a minister in Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the officials he warmly greets are members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), with
The word ‘oligarch’ returned to the media lexicon at Donald Trump’s inauguration this week when some of the world’s biggest technology entrepreneurs took their seats while US cabinet ministers were asked to sit dutifully behind them. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg felt the need to demonstrate loyalty to Trump. The President did not
The UK and Europe have had plenty of time to get to grips with the inevitable, that President Donald Trump will demand a substantial rise in defence spending. When he threw this demand at Europe the first time he served as president, the impact was like a fox entering a hen coop. Lots of fluttering wings
Freeloaders rejoice: Waitrose is bringing back free coffee for customers even if they don’t buy anything. This is a bad idea that will make shopping in what was once a nice supermarket even more miserable. The reintroduction of free coffee means more people through the door, and therein lies the problem Before the pandemic, the
Before the US election in November, there was unanimity among the Irish political classes that Kamala Harris would comfortably win. This support for Harris was matched by a casual disdain for Donald Trump. Before becoming Taoiseach, Simon Harris had dismissed Trump as nothing but ‘an awful gowl’, which essentially means someone is a moron. Ahead of
Should the Southport killer swing? Lee Anderson thinks so. The Reform MP posted an image of a noose on X, with the words: ‘No apologies here. This is what is required!’ It’s not the first time Anderson has backed the return of the rope, and not the first time I’ve contended that he’s wrong, but
Too many conservatives are behaving as if Donald Trump’s inauguration has somehow done to wokery what garlic does to a vampire; as if they can now sit back and watch the orange mist vaporise ideological insanity across the West. A study released today by the University of York shows just how crazy this sort of complacency
As the new Labour government continues to struggle with voters, support for Reform UK only seems to be growing. New survey results released today by pollsters Find Out Now sees Nigel Farage’s party top the charts – beating both its Tory and Labour rivals. Talk about moving into pole position, eh? The new data –
10 min listen
Reform MP Rupert Lowe has called for the death penalty to be re-established in the wake of the sentencing of the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. With the Assisted Dying Bill still making its way through Parliament, it has been decades since the topic of death has been so hotly debated by MPs. Katy Balls speaks
The Church of England has received a rather lot of bad press, to put it mildly, after the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to resign over the handling of a child abuse scandal. Now, rather than let salvation take its course, the Bishop of Dover has decided to wade into the conversation with some rather
Germany’s government after the election on 23 February will likely be led by pro-business Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz. His coalition partner, probably the Social Democrats of failed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, or else the Greens of economy minister Robert Habeck, will torpedo any serious economic reforms. Equally worrying: Merz’s own reform blueprint is far too timid.
As Donald Trump starts clamping down on diversity, equality and inclusion practices, it’s a shame that the same can’t be said on our side of the pond. In the same week that the new president ordered all of the US government’s DEI staff to go on paid leave ‘immediately’, Mr S has spotted a rather, er, odd
A £9 billion deal for nuclear submarine reactors was announced this morning between the Ministry of Defence and Rolls-Royce, the biggest-ever agreement between the two. The eight-year contract, called Unity, is to design, make and provide support services to nuclear reactors that power the Royal Navy’s fleet of submarines. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, says
We’ve heard more from the 47th President of the United States this week than we heard from his predecessor over many months. But Donald Trump has always loved the spotlight: especially when he gets to rile up all his favourite people. This was on full display this week when, rather than winding down from his
US president Donald Trump has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the cybercriminal mastermind who founded Silk Road and pioneered the drug trade’s move into cyberspace. Ulbricht was serving life without parole after he was found guilty in 2015 of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. On Wednesday, after over a decade in the dungeons, Ross
The murder of three young girls in Southport last July by Axel Rudakubana was an act of extreme savagery and calculated evil. Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were victims not only of a brutal killer but also of a system of policing, intelligence and criminal justice which
19 min listen
Cryptocurrency became a key feature of the American election and the Trump universe. Not only did Trump and Melania launch their own coins, but the President has also appointed venture capitalist David Sacks to be the AI and Crypto ‘czar’. Freddy Gray is joined by podcaster and owner of Bedford FC Peter McCormack to discuss
You won’t be able to get a cup of coffee. Nor will you be able to pick up something from the patisserie or the pizza oven. A trip to Sainsbury’s was hardly the most exciting thing in the world, but it is about to get a little bit duller, with the grocery chain set to
Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Change Agreement for the second time and reiterated his desire that America should ‘drill, baby drill’. The US president’s decision exposes the naivety of MPs in Britain who, in 2019, nodded through a legal commitment to reaching net zero by 2050, with the hope
Do we have to choose between prioritising European or American trade? Let’s hope we don’t, because we need both. But the question has sharpened this week for two reasons. The less important one is that Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s new trade commissioner, has suggested that the UK might join the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention, a group of 23 countries with
Southport killer Axel Rudakubana will serve a minimum of 52 years in prison for the horrific murder of three young girls. But despite the lengthy sentence handed to the teenager at Liverpool Crown Court today, it’s hard to say that justice has been served. Rudakubana should die behind bars, yet the law prevented the judge,
This afternoon, the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in jail – for the murder of three young girls and the attempted murder of ten other people at a dance class last summer. The 18-year-old murderer also admitted to producing ricin and being in possession of terrorist material
10 min listen
After last week’s bond market jitters, the Chancellor pledged to go ‘further and faster’ to improve the UK’s anaemic economic growth. It looks as though Rachel Reeves’ hunt for growth could come at the expense of Labour’s green agenda. Reeves is poised to make a series of announcements over the next month, starting with a
Well, well, well. The former footballer and pundit Gary Neville has been spotted on the streets of Davos during the 2025 conference of the World Economic Forum. The ex-BBC presenter is not known to keep quiet about his views, with the former sports star keen to highlight his Labour membership and speaking up on British
Growth, growth, growth is back on Rachel Reeves’ agenda – having been conspicuously absent in her first Budget last October. Still, no matter, the Chancellor now insists she is storming ahead with pro-business plans. Speaking at Davos – where else? – Reeves heavily hinted this morning that she will next week back a third runway
Sadiq Khan may have collected a knighthood – but he is still missing a czar. It is now three months since Amy Lamé announced she was standing down as the Mayor’s ‘Night Czar’ and a successor is yet to be found. Lamé role was to champion London’s nightlife – so it is a shame then
It may prove to be just the first of many screeching U-turns. Whilst hobnobbing among the plutocrats in Davos this week, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted that she may have to tweak her clamp-down on non doms, to make it less punitive for anyone who isn’t British, and happens to have a bit of
As in a more delirious version of Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office, again. In a thinly-veiled attempt to mend Beijing’s relations with Europe, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman commented: “Climate change is a common challenge facing all of humanity. No country can stay out
Last November, when the House of Commons voted on her assisted suicide legislation, Kim Leadbeater told her colleagues that the Bill would face ‘further robust debate and scrutiny’, including ‘line-by-line scrutiny in Committee’. But judging by the disgraceful scenes at her Bill committee’s first formal sitting on Tuesday, Kim Leadbeater and her supporters have given up on any pretence
Britain is heavily dependent on its underwater infrastructure. Ninety-nine per cent of our digital communications overseas are carried through subsea fibre optic cables. Significant damage to them at the hands of malign actors would jeopardise our way of life. Defence Secretary John Healey reported to parliament on an incident last November when a Russian spy