World

Monday

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Angela Merkel played a key role in the rise of the AfD

To no one’s great surprise, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) romped to victory in Sunday’s election in the eastern state of Thuringia. The party, classified as right-wing extremist by Germany’s security authorities, also came a close second to the centre-right CDU in Saxony’s election. The result is being described as the first for a far-right party in a German state parliament election since the Second World War. Angela Merkel must share the blame In response to the AfD’s triumph, German chancellor Olaf Scholz urged other German parties to exclude ‘right-wing extremists’ from power, saying: ‘The AfD is damaging Germany.’ If so, Angela Merkel must share the blame. It is the former

Nigel Jones

How long will Germany’s anti-AfD ‘firewall’ last?

Berlin awoke this morning in a state of shock. Although opinion polls had predicted that the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) would do well in yesterday’s eastern state elections in Thuringia and Saxony, the cold reality that the anti-immigration, anti-Islamist party has topped the polls in Thuringia and come a close second in Saxony, takes some getting used to, even for cynical Berliners. Mainstream centre and leftist parties in Germany have vowed to form a ‘brandmauer’ (firewall) against the AfD The German capital is a left-wing island surrounded by the sea of states of former East Germany, which are rapidly moving to the far right. The AfD scored more than 30

Constantin Eckner

What the AfD’s ‘historic victory’ means for Germany

Alternative für Deutschland’s success in east German state elections marks a major blow to the government in Berlin. The AfD is set to win almost a third of the vote in Thuringia – putting it nine points ahead of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU). The AfD’s top candidate in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, hailed a ‘historic victory’. Despite the best efforts of the centrist parties, the AfD is not going away. Scholz’s remarks ignore a simple reality: that the AfD has transcended its status as a mere party of protest. This result, if confirmed once all votes are counted, would mark the first victory for a far-right party in a state

James Tidmarsh

The strange case of Pavel Durov and Emmanuel Macron

The arrest of Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram, has not only raised questions about the charges against him, but also about the peculiar relationship between the tech entrepreneur and the French government. In 2018, President Emmanuel Macron extended an olive branch, inviting Durov to lunch and offering him French citizenship in the hope of bringing Telegram under greater French regulatory oversight. Fast forward to today, and Durov finds himself under arrest, facing serious charges. This series of events – from lunch invitations and citizenship to sudden detainment – suggests both cooperation and coercion have characterised France’s approach to Telegram. Macron’s actions since Durov’s arrest suggest he

Sunday

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

The AfD is set to win its first ever state election

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland party is set to make history and take control of at least one of Germany’s state parliaments for the first time. According to exit polls released on Sunday, the AfD is on course to become the largest party in the state of Thuringia. While the final results of the election are unlikely to be confirmed before tomorrow, the AfD is predicted to win at least 30 per cent of the vote in the state. One projection by the pollster Infratest Dimap places the party’s vote share at 30.5 per cent, while a poll conducted on behalf of the state broadcaster ZDF puts the party on

Limor Simhony Philpott

Why Netanyahu is being blamed for the Israeli hostage deaths

The heartbreaking news that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages has caused rage in Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. All six hostages – Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sergeant Ori Danino – were kidnapped alive on 7 October. They were brutally executed by Hamas terrorists, possibly hours before they were found yesterday in a Hamas tunnel near Rafah, in the southern area of the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has been accused of sabotaging negotiations for a ceasefire Although Hamas bears the primary responsibility for murdering the hostages, many in Israel see Netanyahu as partly responsible for

Neve Gordon

The ICC is right to pursue Benjamin Netanyahu

On 20 May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan tried to push the borders of the ‘permissible’. In an extraordinary rebuke of existing practice, he not only sought arrest warrants for Hamas leaders who allegedly planned the 7 October, 2023, attack on Israeli military bases, kibbutzim, towns and the Nova music festival where 815 civilians, among them 36 children, and close to 400 members of the security forces were killed, and 251 others (mostly civilians) were abducted and taken to Gaza. In addition, Khan had the courage to ask the Pre-Trial Chamber to approve the arrest warrants of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its Defence Minister Yoav Gallant – two leaders

Sophia Gaston and Justin Bassi

How Labour should deal with China

Keir Starmer’s geopolitical in-tray will arguably be one of the most daunting in recent history. The Prime Minister faces a number of conflicts and hard choices – and a completely different geopolitical landscape to the last time Labour was in power. Key among these challenges is China, which has risen in the past 14 years to become an economic and military superpower, and a disruptive antagonist to the liberal international order. A relationship with China requires careful balance and an understanding of the unseen traps that might lie ahead So far the new government’s position has been mixed. Work has begun on the promised China audit, which David Lammy described as

Saturday

Matt McDonald

Will Kamala actually build the wall?

32 min listen

In a CNN interview, Kamala Harris has been pressed on why her policies on immigration have become more moderate since 2019, when she ran for president. Republicans have been accusing her of flip-flopping on her border wall policy. In this episode, Matt McDonald, managing editor of The Spectator’s US edition, fills in for Freddy whilst he’s on holiday. Matt speaks to Todd Bensman, journalist, author, and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Igor Toronyi-Lalic

Joan Collins, Owen Matthews, Sara Wheeler, Igor Toronyi-Lalic and Tanya Gold

30 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Joan Collins reads an extract from her diary (1:15); Owen Matthews argues that Russia and China’s relationship is just a marriage of convenience (3:19); reviewing The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering by Daniel Light, Sara Wheeler examines the epic history of the sport (13:52); Igor Toronyi-Lalic looks at the life, cinema, and many drinks, of Marguerite Duras (21:35); and Tanya Gold provides her notes on tasting menus (26:07).  Presented and produced by Patrick Gibbons.  

Friday

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

‘France killed my husband’ – the rising anger of the gendarmes

A gendarme was killed in France on Monday evening when a driver ran him over at a routine roadside checkpoint in Provence. The driver of the BMW was an intoxicated 39-year-old from Cape Verde who during his time in France has racked up a lengthy criminal record including ten convictions, two for drunk driving. On Wednesday the wife of 54-year-old Éric Comyn paid tribute to him at a service attended by local dignitaries and members of the gendarmerie. She described a devoted father of two teenage children, who was soon to retire after 30 years’ service. Madame Comyn is the latest in a growing list of grieving relatives in France who refuse

Karen Pierce

From the archives: the Dame Karen Pierce Edition

30 min listen

Women with Balls has taken a summer break and will be back in September with a new series. Until then, here’s an episode from the archives, with Dame Karen Pierce, who will shortly complete her term as British Ambassador to the United States. Filmed in 2019, when Dame Karen was the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, she talks to Katy Balls about her career ambitions when she was young, using Lewis Carroll to combat the Russians, and what day to day life is like at the UN.

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Shanshan may be the strongest typhoon in Japanese history

The Japanese are battening down the hatches – again – as typhoon Shanshan wreaks devastation to the south-west of the country, with worse, possibly much worse, to come for the rest of us further north. Millions of people have been told to flee their homes in the face of what officials are calling one of the strongest storms ever to hit the region. Shanshan may even prove to one of the strongest typhoons in Japanese history – which is some boast.  It is shaping up to be something close to the perfect storm in terms of its power and unpredictability Four people have died so far with 94 injured, but those figures will increase

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Olaf Scholz’s immigration quagmire

Shock quickly turned to anger in Germany when a Syrian asylum seeker was arrested for the brutal knife attack in the city of Solingen last weekend. Three people were murdered and eight more injured by a man who had no right to be in Germany.  Politicians from the coalition government reacted with a flurry of statements, demanding anything from tougher knife laws to quicker deportations of illegal migrants. But many voters want to see more than tweaks to the immigration system before they can begin to feel safe again on Germany’s streets. The message to Scholz is clear: if he wants to toughen immigration policy, he’ll have to do it without the

Amber Duke

The Kamala interview was a missed opportunity

CNN was the lucky winner of the first sit-down media interview with Vice President Kamala Harris since she was pushed to the top of the ticket nearly 40 days ago and, well, it didn’t go great.  It was not a particularly long interview. Dana Bash confirmed nothing was cut, but we still got only about 16 minutes of speaking time from Kamala. This was made more obvious by CNN’s decision to stretch the interview like pizza dough to fit an hour broadcast. They opened with a nearly five minute teaser video that came across like an ad for the Harris campaign, with Bash calling the interview a ‘watershed moment’ in

Thursday

Rupert Christiansen

Alt reich: Is Germany’s far right about to go mainstream?

46 min listen

This week: Alt reich. The Spectator’s Lisa Haseldine asks if Germany’s far right is about to go mainstream, ahead of regional elections this weekend. Lisa joined the podcast, alongside the historian Katja Hoyer, to discuss why the AfD are polling so well in parts of Germany, and how comparable this is to other trends across Europe (1:13). Then: why are traditional hobbies being threatened in Britain? Writer Richard Bratby joins the podcast, alongside Chris Bradbury, the drone support officer at the BMFA, to discuss his article in the magazine this week about the challenge red-tape poses to model steam engine and aeroplane enthusiasts (18:47). And finally: how has sound design changed

Guy Stagg

From the archives: An atheist goes on a Christian pilgrimage. Why?

23 min listen

Writer Guy Stagg threw in his job to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem via Rome – choosing a hazardous medieval route across the Alps. It nearly killed him: at one stage, trying to cross a broken bridge in Switzerland, he ended up partially submerged in the water, held up only by his rucksack.  On this episode of Holy Smoke, from the archives, Guy explains why his journey was a pilgrimage, not just travels. And Damian Thompson talks to Harry Mount, editor of The Oldie, about why he’s irresistibly drawn to church buildings while remaining an unbeliever – albeit an agnostic rather than an atheist.

Owen Matthews

What China wants from Russia

On the face of it, the ‘no limits’ partnership between Russia and China declared weeks before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022 appears to be going from strength to strength. Last week, Chinese Premier Li Qiang spent four days in Moscow and signed off on what Putin described as ‘large-scale joint plans and projects’ that would ‘continue for many years’. Russia’s trade with China has more than doubled to $240 billion since the invasion, buoying the Kremlin’s coffers with oil money and substituting goods sanctioned by the West. Moscow and Beijing have also stepped up joint military exercises. Last month, Chinese and Russian long-range bombers were spotted patrolling together

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Sir Keir’s tax warning, Russian air attacks and another prisons crisis

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, speaking in the garden of 10 Downing Street, warned that the Budget in October is ‘going to be painful’, and that ‘things will get worse before they get better’. ‘I didn’t want to means-test the winter fuel payment, but it was a choice we had to make,’ he said. ‘A garden and a building that were once used for lockdown parties are now back in your service.’ Meanwhile, it was discovered, a pass to Downing Street had been given to Lord Alli, the Labour peer and party fundraiser, who gave £10,000 to the Beckenham and Penge constituency party; the seat was won by

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Is Germany’s far right about to go mainstream?

‘We need to deport, deport, deport!’ Björn Höcke, leader of the Alternative für Deutschland in Thuringia, emphasises each word with a clenched fist. It’s a hot Saturday evening in the small town of Arnstadt and Höcke is launching the AfD’s state election campaign. His branch of the party has been categorised as ‘indisputably far right’ not just by the press but by German domestic intelligence. Nonetheless, it’s leading in the polls ahead of three east German state elections, two of which take place on Sunday. Höcke could well end up ‘Minister President’ of Thuringia. Germany, which Keir Starmer visited this week, is struggling not just with economic difficulties but with