Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Is Donald Trump becoming a globalist?

It was a banner day for Donald Trump. On Thursday, at the Justice Department, a long perpendicular banner with his stern visage was unfurled, proclaiming “Make America Safe Again.” And just across from the State Department, Trump convened his shiny new Board of Peace at the former US Institute of Peace, which has a dove-shaped

The two missing words in King Charles’s Andrew statement

There are, you’ll note, two little words missing from King Charles’s statement on former prince Andrew’s arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office. It goes as follows: I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office.  What now follows is the full, fair and

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Mamdani’s People’s Republic of New York

Proudly displayed in the window of my local Barnes and Noble are copies of a children’s book called Zohran Walks New York. It’s a graphic novel that shows our city’s new perma-grinning mayor meeting residents who are overwhelmingly happy to see him. A more instructive text for the children of Park Slope was tucked away in

The seismic arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Ever since the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, no member of the royal family has been arrested, which makes this morning’s news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been taken into police custody under suspicion of misconduct in public office all the more seismic. And with a certain grim irony, his arrest comes on his 66th

Iran cannot afford to call Trump’s bluff

The talks are still alive. Just. Iranian and US diplomats, engaging indirectly through Omani intermediaries, have yet to make any substantive progress toward a framework of understanding that governs further talks – as Kafkaesque as that might sound – but they are talking, and that is the best that the diplomats can hope for right

Did Billie Eilish get me deported?

For someone who believes that “no one is illegal on stolen land,” it’s a surprise that Billie Eilish’s legal team may have blocked my entry to the US. My plan was to test her theory of land ownership, which she stated at the Grammys to great applause, and take over her LA mansion with the

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France can no longer ignore the menace of left-wing violence

Police in France arrested nine people on Tuesday evening in connection with the death of a 23-year-old student in Lyon last Thursday. Most of those in custody are members of the “Young Guard,” an extremist splinter group of Antifa. Among them is reportedly a parliamentary assistant to an MP from Jean-Luc Melenchon’s La France Insoumise

Why I invaded the Chagos Islands

Peros Banhos, Chagos Islands On Monday at 08.52 local time, I waded ashore to the Chagos archipelago alongside four islanders who had come to establish a permanent settlement – which they hope will make it impossible for the British government to hand the territory to Mauritius.  We had managed to come this far in absolute

Is the war in Ukraine any closer to ending?

Is the latest round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, sponsored by the United States and currently under way in Geneva, likely to hasten the war’s end? Donald Trump seems to believe so. On Friday, President Trump claimed that “Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelensky will have to hurry. Otherwise, he will miss a great

Has Jeff Bezos destroyed the Washington Post?

24 min listen

Freddy is joined by Tina Brown, former editor of several publications including Vanity Fair, Tatler, the New Yorker, and the founding editor-and-chief of the Daily Beast. She now writes her own Substack FRESH HELL. They discuss the staff massacre which has unfolded at the Washington Post, why Jeff Bezos is wrong to be led by

Is Trump dismantling Venezuela’s socialist state?

24 min listen

Daniel Di Martino, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, joins Freddy to discuss the ongoing situation in Venezuela. Over a month on from the “bold and spectacular raid” and capture of Maduro, Daniel explains the reasons why he has hope in the government of Delcy Rodríguez and the changes that have occurred since – from

Why do climate activists own super-yachts?

Freddy is joined by Robert Bryce, energy expert and author of Robert Bryce’s Substack, to discuss his latest mini-documentary, YACHT-ZEE$. They talk about the billionaires funding radical climate activist groups, while yachting around the world, and whether they are modern-day robber barons.  

I burnt a Quran. Now I may have to flee Britain

My name is Hamit Coskun and last year I was convicted in a British court of religiously aggravated public order offense. My “crime”? Burning a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London. Moments later, I was attacked in full view of the street by a man. I was hospitalized. Then I was

Why Russia used poison to kill Navalny

When leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny died two years ago, the only real question was not whodunnit, but howdunnit?  His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, quickly blamed poison and said that his partisans had taken tissue samples from his corpse for examination. Yesterday, the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands announced that a combined intelligence operation had demonstrated that he was

Hamas is inching toward another war

Perhaps the biggest talent of humanity is our gift to adapt to challenging circumstances with creativity and ingenuity. It may also be our biggest fault. Just two days after I stood in the central Gaza Strip, touring the area and seeing the Yellow Line for myself, the IDF on Saturday announced another serious breach of

Rubio offers an olive branch to the Europeans

As Marco Rubio boarded his flight for Munich on Thursday night, he sought to reassure nervous Europeans that they weren’t about to be berated by America. “We’ll be good,” he said. It appears the Secretary of State kept his word when he addressed the Munich security conference this morning. Rubio kicked off his speech by

Is Putin paving the way for a crackdown?

It may sound like a rather arcane development, but a change in the command structure of the Rosgvardiya, Russia’s National Guard, offers some clues about both the state of the country and the Ukraine war – and the Kremlin’s fears for the future. Zolotov has been lobbying for some time for the Rosgvardiya to have

The Democratic primary in Munich

While all eyes and ears at the Munich security conference will be on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday, it was America’s Democrats who were able to enjoy their moment in the spotlight on Friday. The party was out in force: Californian governor Gavin Newsom, member of Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan governor

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The power of cryptid belief

23 min listen

Freddy speaks to Spectator writer Katherine Dee about the online obsession with cryptids and what it reveals about the modern internet. They discuss how folklore-style storytelling is thriving on platforms like TikTok, why conspiracy culture now resembles collaborative “alternate reality games” and how AI-generated images are blurring the line between what is real, fake and

Is this Irish man really an ICE victim?

Over the past few days there has been a flurry of stories and official statements about Irish national Seamus Culleton, now detained by ICE for overstaying a visa for almost 20 years while on the run from multiple drugs warrants in Ireland. The clip of him saying his holding area is a “concentration camp” has been heard

Will Canada soon be euthanizing babies?

Donald Trump may or may not bomb Iran in the next few days. His cheerleaders will cite the Tehran regime’s brutal executions of Iranian protesters as justification. But if the President is in the mood for humanitarian interventions and stopping barbarism, he might also want to make good on his pledge to annex Canada. Once

Trump is right about greenhouse gases

Irresponsible Trump, responsible China: that is the message the BBC’s climate editor seemed to be sending us by juxtaposing the news that the President had repealed Barack Obama’s “endangerment finding” and that China’s carbon emissions fell slightly last year. Trump’s critics like to portray him as a rogue figure in a world which is otherwise committed

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Why Gen Z is troubled by Jesus

Many teenagers today find Christianity off-putting because Jesus seems too fond of “mansplaining.” He appears to have a “God complex,” while the Almighty is alienating on account of being “really violent and aggressive.” These are the findings in the report Troubling Jesus, the third part of Youthscape’s “Translating God” project, based on a recent survey of British 14-

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US troops finally leave Syria

In December 2018, to the shock of pretty much everybody in the US national security establishment at the time, President Donald Trump publicly ordered the withdrawal of all US troops from Syria. The announcement caused a panic within the Defense Department, State Department and National Security Council, whose officials teamed up to dissuade Trump from

Tom Homan is Minnesota’s good cop

In announcing an end to the ICE surge in Minnesota, Tom Homan has become for Democrats an unlikely good cop to Kristi Noem’s bad. But the double-act might not last long – the person Homan truly wishes to bring to book is Noem. The White House Border Czar said this morning that the Trump administration

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Cartel drones vs Texas lasers

Yesterday, El Paso, Texas, was placed under severe restrictions from the Federal Aviation Administration. For unspecified reasons of national security, no aircraft would be allowed in or out for ten days. Washington sources soon confirmed what many suspected: the cause was hostile drone activity from Mexico. Then there was an about turn. Within a few

Why was Canada so afraid of misgendering a trans shooter?

A horrible and incredibly sad tragedy unfolded on February 10 in the small town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, Canada. An 18-year-old, Jesse Van Rootselaar, also known as Jesse Strang, turned a gun first on his mother and stepbrother, then on young students and a teacher at his former high school, and finally on himself – with

What will happen in the midterms?

35 min listen

The midterm elections in November is shaping up to be one of the most expensive elections yet. Freddy and Ryan Girdusky, author of the National Populist Substack discuss how inflation, crime and immigration are shaping voter patterns, whether the Trump coalition remains as strong as he claims, and what impact President Trump’s recent focus on

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Epstein and Lutnick, sitting in a tree?

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admitted that he went on vacation, with his family, to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in 2012. How very White Lotus! Suddenly, every ear in Washington cocked Lutnick’s way, like he was starring in an old E.F. Hutton commercial.  “My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies. I had another couple with,

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Ukraine has entered the gray zone

Kharkiv, Ukraine In a bunker on the outskirts of Kharkiv, a group of rookie Ukrainian soldiers are learning the basics of combat medicine.  The temperature outside is -4°F, and clouds of breath hang in the air – as does the gravity of what they are letting themselves in for. The dummies used for training have