World

Saturday

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Why Vladimir Putin is afraid of sea cucumbers

Vladivostok, the ‘ruler of the East’, is preparing to celebrate the 165th anniversary of its founding. City Day, as they call it in the capital of Russia’s Far East, will see week-long celebrations, including sailing regattas, street performances and an enormous firework display. The naval base, home to Russia’s Pacific Fleet, usually gets in on the act too, commemorating the arrival on 2 July 1860 of the first military vessel to seize control from its Chinese inhabitants. Many of those inhabitants stayed in the Far East, at least at first, though mass deportations to China increased after the Soviets seized power in 1917 – an egregious example of ethnic cleansing,

William Freer

Is Britain braced for the Russian threat from the north?

War in Ukraine, and the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, is forcing Europeans to prioritise defence. Keir Starmer has slashed Britain’s aid budget to pay for an increase in defence spending to 2.5 per cent of national income by 2027. But how should the UK use that uplift in order to keep itself safe? The challenge posed by the Northern Fleet is – alongside Norway – essentially the UK’s problem to deal with Many of the core assumptions which have underpinned British strategy for decades are being called into question. Amid the discussions centred on what a ‘Nato first’ policy for the UK looks like, there is

Benedict Rogers

The tragedy of Myanmar

Myanmar, or Burma as it used to be known, has experienced far more than its fair share of tragedy over the past 75 years or more. The death and destruction caused by yesterday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake is the latest in a litany of suffering which this beautiful but benighted South-East Asian nation has endured. I have visited the areas close to the epicentre of the earthquake many times in the past. I have been in Sagaing, Mandalay and the capital, Naypyidaw. The scenes of the devastation there are heartbreaking, because they are scenes of devastation affecting places and people I know well. Roads, bridges and buildings have been destroyed in a

Friday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Trump’s toxic mineral deal for Ukraine

Donald Trump’s latest scheme to exploit Ukraine is gaining momentum. Kyiv has been handed a rewritten, 58-page minerals deal, which obliges Ukraine to repay every cent of US military and humanitarian aid it has received since Russia’s 2022 invasion. Washington is also demanding control over half of Ukraine’s income from its natural resources, including oil and gas. The deal is indefinite: Ukraine cannot break or amend it without US approval. What does Ukraine get in return? Absolutely nothing. Trump is pushing for the deal to be signed next week, but even if Volodymyr Zelensky is forced to agree to the terms, it would be very unlikely to be ratified by

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Who is actually running the Catholic Church?

This is an excerpt from the latest episode of the Holy Smoke podcast with Damian Thompson, which you can find at the bottom of this page: It’s emerged that [Pope Francis is] going to be kept in isolation on the second floor of Santa Marta for at least two months, in what is, in effect, a hospital suite. It seems that even his top officials, such as the Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, currently fulfilling as many of Francis’s duties as possible in order to look like the next pope, will have only limited access to him. Apparently, everything will be filtered through the Pope’s Argentinian private secretary, Father

Caleb Quinley

Hundreds feared dead in Myanmar earthquake

Hundreds of people are feared dead after a 7.7-magnitude quake struck Myanmar. Tremors from the quake, which had its epicentre near Mandalay, caused devastation across Southeast Asia, including in Bangkok. Over 80 construction workers are missing in the Thai capital after a 30-storey building that was under construction collapsed. Search and rescue teams are scrambling to locate those who are trapped under the rubble. Over 80 construction workers are missing in the Thai capital In Myanmar, a country already facing a brutal civil war that has claimed thousands of lives, buildings have collapsed and hundreds of people are missing. The junta has declared a state of emergency in six regions,

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

A sick Pope and a paralysed Vatican: who is actually running the Catholic Church?

11 min listen

A greatly enfeebled Pope Francis is now living in enforced isolation in a suite at his Santa Marta residence that has been converted into hospital accommodation. He won’t be resuming public duties for two months, we are told – and even his senior advisors have limited access to him. As a result, it’s really not clear who is in charge of the Catholic Church. And, as Damian Thompson reports in this episode of Holy Smoke, it’s by no means clear when this paralysis will end; it’s significant that there has been so little talk of the Pope making a full recovery. Meanwhile, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State who isn’t bothering

Fabian Hoffmann

The Houthi threat isn’t going away

On 27 March, the Houthis launched two ballistic missiles at Israel. It also reportedly launched ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and long-range one-way attack drones at US Navy warships in the region, including the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier. The attack likely came in response to a series of US air and naval strikes against Houthi forces and military infrastructure in Yemen. These US strikes are part of a broader effort to degrade the Houthis’ ability to threaten international shipping in the Red Sea. What is notable about the Houthi attack is that it occurred in broad daylight. While the exact motivation is unclear, the timing may have been intended to

Owen Matthews

Owen Matthews, James Heale, Francis Pike, Christian House and Mark Mason

32 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Owen Matthews argues that Turkish President Erdogan’s position is starting to look shaky (1:19); James Heale examines the new party of the posh: the Lib Dems (7:51); Francis Pike highlights the danger Chinese hypersonic missiles pose to the US navy (13:54); Christian House highlights Norway’s occupation during the Second World War, as he reviews Robert Ferguson’s book Norway’s War (22:01); and, Mark Mason provides his notes on coins (28:18).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Zelensky may regret wishing for Putin’s death

Ever since 2013, I’ve been hearing that Vladimir Putin is going to die any day. Is Volodymyr Zelensky now trying to spin the same line? At a press conference this week, the Ukrainian President said of Putin, ‘He will die soon – that’s a fact – and it will all be over’, adding ‘I’m younger than Putin, so put your bets on me. My prospects are better.’ Admittedly, in actuarial terms, the 47-year-old Zelensky is likely to outlive the 72-year-old Russian leader. However, while the average life expectancy of someone born in the USSR in 1952, like Putin, is just 57, his grandfather Spirodon lived to the age of 86

Terry Barnes

Australia is bracing itself for a chaotic general election

Early this morning, even before dawn broke, Australia’s Labor party prime minister, Anthony Albanese, asked the country’s governor-general to call a general election for Saturday 3 May. Albanese’s short drive to Government House in Canberra capped a week when his government brought down a budget, in response to which Liberal opposition leader Peter Dutton set out his stall as prime minister in waiting. Effectively, both leaders gave their critiques of each other, and outlined their policy manifestos. It’s only day one, but the signs so far are it will be a bare-knuckle, five-week election campaign This will be one of the closest and most unpredictable elections for years. All indications

Eliot Wilson

Britain’s underfunded army is letting down Nato

The British army is overstretched. This is not breaking news to anyone who takes an interest in defence. Although its budget has grown in real terms over the last decade, it has faced a complex network of problems. In only six of the last 25 years has recruitment exceeded outflow, meaning that the army has been consistently under strength. Meanwhile, two of its three armoured vehicles, Ajax and Boxer, are badly behind schedule. Consequently, the new ‘Future Soldier’ reforms have been disrupted, and the gifting of equipment and ammunition to Ukraine has severely depleted stockpiles. The flair for improvisation shown by good soldiers has done much to conceal the worst

Henry Donovan

What Denmark’s social democrats could teach Germany’s SPD

Despite suffering their worst electoral humiliation since the 1890s, Germany’s Social Democrat party (SPD) is displaying a remarkable combination of arrogance and delusion. Having collapsed to a mere 16 per cent in last month’s election, the party has nonetheless strong-armed Friedrich Merz’s victorious CDU into abandoning fiscal discipline and embracing ruinous debt policies. This audacious blackmail would be impressive if it weren’t so dangerous for Germany’s economic future. Yet amidst this parliamentary chess game, the SPD remains stubbornly blind to the fundamental reason for their historic decline: they refuse to acknowledge that their traditional voter base, the German working class, has decamped completely to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)

Dwayne Ryan Menezes

J.D. Vance’s trip to Greenland is deeply insensitive

This afternoon, Vice President J.D. Vance is set to touch down in Greenland after deciding to join his wife Usha on her trip there. In a video on X, he explained that: ‘There is so much excitement about Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I did not want her to have all that fun by herself, so I am going to join her. I’m going to visit some of our guardians in the Space Force on the northwest coast of Greenland and also just check out what is going on with the security there of Greenland.’ Vance accused previous US administrations and Denmark of having ignored

Ferghane Azihari

Is Macron scared of Algeria?

Emmanuel Macron couldn’t have been clearer about why he wants to boost defence spending: ‘We want to protect peace in Europe and thus deter anyone from attacking us,’ France’s president said last week. After years of hesitation, during which the Russian threat was underestimated, at least in Western Europe, it’s about time France is taking defence seriously. Algeria’s rulers are clear on what they think of France. But Macron, who talks tough on Russia, stops short of retaliating Macron wants to raise defence spending to 3 or 3.5 per cent of the country’s GDP, up from 2.1 per cent. But Macron’s resolute stance against the Russian threat would look more

Thursday

William Moore William Moore

The age of the strongman, Tesla under attack & matinee revivals

35 min listen

This week: welcome to the age of the strongman ‘The world’s most exclusive club… is growing,’ writes Paul Wood in this week’s Spectator. Membership is restricted to a very select few: presidents-for-life. Putin of Russia, Xi of China, Kim of North Korea and MBS of Saudi Arabia are being joined by Erdogan of Turkey – who is currently arresting his leading domestic political opponent – and Donald Trump, who ‘openly admires such autocrats and clearly wants to be one himself’. ‘This is the age of the strongman,’ Wood declares, ‘and the world is far more dangerous because of it.’  Despite their bombast, these ‘are often troubled characters’, products of difficult childhoods.

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

What Jordan Bardella is doing in Israel

In September 1987, during a radio interview with RTL, the late Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the French National Front, stated that the gas chambers were ‘a detail of the history of the second world war.’  This week, Jordan Bardella, the president of the Rassemblement National, the National Front’s rebranded successor, visited the hallowed Yad Vashem holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and declared, ‘Concentration camps were the pinnacle of barbarism. No one will be able to forget what was the worst genocidal enterprise ever conducted.’ Bardella, heir to Le Pen, also visited the site of the October 7, 2023 massacre at the Nova music festival, where he met survivors and attentively

James Snell

Why the Houthis are targeting Jerusalem

Sirens blare across Israel, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They have been triggered by a barrage of missiles, launched from Yemen, purportedly by Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis. The Israel Defence Forces claim to have intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen, while Israeli emergency services say that at this time, there have been no injuries reported. This threat is only a new one in the most technical of senses. Israel already lives within the range and under the constant threat of missile attack – from Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, from Iran itself and from Iranian proxies in Iraq (and formerly Syria, before the fall of the Assad

Eliot Wilson

Don’t count on Trump defending Poland from Russia

The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, has warned Russia that the alliance would defend Poland against any aggression and would do so without restraint. On a visit to Warsaw, he said: When it comes to the defence of Poland and the general defence of Nato territory, if anyone were to miscalculate and think they can get away with an attack on Poland or any other ally, they will be met with the full force of this fierce alliance. Our reaction will be devastating. This must be clear to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and anyone else who wants to attack us. Would Nato’s ‘full force’ be brought to bear against Russia if