World

Monday

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

France’s political upheaval is bad news for Ukraine

It has been a bad few days for Volodymyr Zelensky. The president of Ukraine must have covered his face with his hands as he watched Joe Biden’s rambling performance against Donald Trump in last week’s televised debate. Trump’s view on Ukraine’s war with Russia are well-known: he wants an end to the conflict Then came the results from the first round of the parliamentary elections in France. There is still a second round to play but one thing is certain: the next government will not be one of Emmanuel Macron’s choice. His political project – what he described as ‘neither left nor right’ – is dead, and so to all

Sam Leith Sam Leith

Why is Putin really trying to interfere in the UK election?

Who says Britain is no longer a Great Power? To those of a declinist cast of mind, it must stand as a rebuke that, even with everything else on his plate, Vladimir Putin still regards our elections as worth interfering in. And, what’s more, those elections are so important that the Aussies are taking enough of an interest in them to consider that Russian interference newsworthy.   Russia may be trying to influence our elections, which as I say is flattering and all, but they aren’t trying very hard At the same time as it’s heartening that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation considers this a big deal it’s also, I suppose,

Ilya Somin

The (selfish) case for immigration

The 2024 general election ‘should be the immigration election’, Nigel Farage has said. The Reform leader’s wish has been granted: the topic of immigration is a major focus of debate. It’s also a big issue in the United States’ presidential election. Much of the debate in both countries depicts immigrants as a burden that receiving countries should accept (if at all) only out of altruism or a sense of obligation. But this is misleading, and ignores the many benefits of migration to Britain and other receiving countries. Open migration is not just charity for migrants Accepting migrants is the right thing to do, in part because it saves many thousands of

John Keiger John Keiger

National Rally brings a political earthquake to France

There is one big winner from the first round of the French legislative elections – and several big losers. The winner is the Rassemblement National (National Rally) with 33 per cent of voters backing its candidates or their allies – on a turnout of 67 per cent, the highest in decades. The RN now has a fighting chance of forming a working government from 7 July.  Marine Le Pen has called on voters to give her party an ‘absolute majority’ in the National Assembly in the next round of elections on Sunday. ‘We need an absolute majority for Jordan Bardella to be named prime minister by Emmanuel Macron in eight

Sunday

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is on course to take power

Emmanuel Macron suffered the biggest humiliation of his presidency on Sunday evening as his Renaissance party was beaten into third place in the first round of the parliamentary elections. Exit polls confirmed what the opinion polls predicted last week: that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is now the dominant force in French politics. It surpassed the 31 per cent score in the European elections on June 9 – a victory that prompted Macron to call a snap election – winning 34 per cent of the vote. The left-wing Popular Front coalition was second with 29 per cent, and Macron’s centrist Renaissance party trailed in third on 22 per cent. The

Jonathan Spyer

Will Hezbollah declare war on Israel?

In Israel currently, people are waiting for a possible escalation in the north. The United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Russia and the Netherlands have called on their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country. Western embassies in Lebanon are exploring the coastal area to locate possible points from where an evacuation by sea could be carried out. The German foreign ministry, in a message on its website, drily notes: ‘A further escalation could also lead to a complete suspension of air traffic from Rafiq Hariri Airport. Leaving Lebanon by air would then no longer be possible.’   The USS Wasp amphibious assault ship has arrived via the Strait of Gibraltar to the

Michael Taube

Trudeau must uncover the truth about what happened in Kabul

Barely a week has gone by before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is back in the news again – and for all the wrong reasons. Trudeau and his Liberal government have been involved in a litany of mistakes, missteps and messes since they took power in 2015. These include previous allegations of the PM wearing blackface, ethics breaches, questionable spending history – and more. And now a new incident this week can be added to the list. This controversy, more than most, seems particularly egregious. The Globe and Mail’s blistering story alleged that then-National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan instructed Canada’s Armed Forces to focus on rescuing about 225 Sikhs in Afghanistan during the 2021

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Will Marine Le Pen finish what her father started?

France votes today. If the opinion polls are correct Marine Le Pen’s National Rally will be the big winner in the first round of the parliamentary elections. A poll on Friday had the NR on 36.5 per cent – seven and a half per cent ahead of the left-wing Popular Front coalition, with Emmanuel Macron’s centrist union third on 20.5 per cent of the vote share. The polls were spot on at the start of the month, predicting a landslide victory for the NR in the European elections that duly transpired – so it seems probable that once again one in three voters will cast their ballot for a party

Saturday

Margaret Mitchell

Biden’s social media needs a refresh

Joe Biden has a cold. That was the desperate message sent out by sources close to the president halfway through Thursday night’s painful debate. Biden’s sick-note recalls the first televised debate in 1960, when the incumbent vice president and Republican nominee Richard Nixon, recently hospitalised and still recovering from a staph infection, appeared pale and sickly beside the tanned, waspy Democrat John F. Kennedy who had the advantage of makeup on his side. Trump and Biden campaigns have been courting ‘content creators’ Six-and-a-half decades on, the presidential debates remain little more than a beauty pageant, this time apparently with morticians staffing the makeup team. The televised format changed the presidency forever,

Peter Wood

Newsom is better than Biden

I have on the desk two yo-yos. One is from the brand Duncan – the ‘Imperial’ model. The other is from the brand Yomega – the ‘Fireball’. Which is better?  The Imperial is the top-of-the-line Duncan model, a classic, that gave warrant to company’s 1960s slogan: ‘If it isn’t a Duncan, it isn’t a yo-yo’. The Imperial is the vintage Rolls Royce of yo-yos. It’s elegant but not for the racecourse. The Fireball, introduced in the 1990s, was part of the new generation of ‘transaxle’ yoyos, which allow for sustained spin and complex tricks. It is a sports car – though since superseded by much higher performance models. While you weigh that choice, let’s

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Katy Balls, Gavin Mortimer, Sean Thomas, Robert Colvile and Melissa Kite

31 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Katy Balls reflects on the UK general election campaign and wonders how bad things could get for the Tories (1:02); Gavin Mortimer argues that France’s own election is between the ‘somewheres’ and the ‘anywheres’ (7:00); Sean Thomas searches for authentic travel in Colombia (13:16); after reviewing the books Great Britain? by Torsten Bell and Left Behind by Paul Collier, Robert Colvile ponders whether Britain’s problems will ever get solved (20:43); and, Melissa Kite questions if America’s ye olde Ireland really exists (25:44).  Presented by Patrick Gibbons.  

John Keiger John Keiger

Macron’s power in Europe is draining

In Brussels over the last two days EU heads of state and government have been carving up the ‘top jobs’. France is represented by President Emmanuel Macron, whose party took a lashing in the European elections, diminishing further his international standing. By contrast, Marine Le Pen’s victorious Rassemblement National, now on track to win the 7 July general elections, was not present. When RN forms a government it will have to live with the consequences of the President’s decisions for at least five years. It is no coincidence, therefore, that on Wednesday night Marine Le Pen gave an interview opening the way to a constitutional struggle with the head of state

Jacob Heilbrunn

Can the Democrats drop Joe Biden?

After his disastrous outing against Donald Trump on Thursday evening, Joe Biden’s surrogates are scrambling to salvage something from the wreckage. ‘I would never turn my back on President Biden’s record’, California Governor Gavin Newsom said. ‘I would never turn my back on President Biden, and I don’t know a Democrat in my party who would do so, especially after tonight.’ Jill Biden might consider her own candidacy Don’t believe a word of it. Seldom has the famously fractious Democratic party been in more turmoil than over the question of whether Joe must go. Democrats, who were expecting a donnybrook on Thursday only to watch Biden cower mutely before Trump,

Michael Evans

Is America fit to lead the West?

Foreign policy rarely plays a significant role in a US presidential election. Domestic issues, the economy, money in the pocket, jobs, immigration, these are what voters are most concerned about. But this time, it could be different. The first TV debate between President Biden and Donald Trump seemed focused on one thing: is Biden the man to trust to lead the western alliance for another four-year term? Or, as Trump insinuated, is he so weakened and fragile that none of the adversarial leaders in the world have any respect for him, let alone fear him? For America’s allies, Biden’s lacklustre performance will have caused considerable anxiety Fear, it seems, is

Friday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Biden’s debate disaster

16 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to pollster Patrick Ruffini about the first 2024 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Just how bad was it and can Biden survive his performance? They discuss the reaction to the debate, including a surprising theory going around Republican circles.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

America is in trouble if Gavin Newsom succeeds Biden

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California is everywhere at the moment, earnestly assuring Americans of his unwavering loyalty to poor, senile Biden, while at the same time frantically pitching to replace him. This sort of deep duplicity comes quite naturally to Newsom, who is, God help America, a huckster of a very familiar sort.  It’s astonishing that anyone who’s presided over this mess could be a feasible candidate for president, yet here we are Back in the late 1990s, when I lived in Dallas, Texas, I became fascinated by television evangelists. They were snake-oil sellers to a man, offering healing or ‘financial blessings’ in exchange for donations – usually a

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Meloni is furious at the EU’s centrist stitch-up

The European Union has reached an agreement on the bloc’s political leadership for the next five years – and in the process again demonstrated that ineptitude is no barrier to promotion. The 27 leaders of the EU have reappointed Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission. Estonian Kaja Kallas is the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and António Costa has been nominated as president of the European Council. The nominations of von der Leyen and Kallas must be ratified by the European Parliament next month but Costa, the former Socialist prime minister of Portugal, has been endorsed by his peers and will take office on 1 December. Kallas

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Biden’s legacy has been left in tatters

Joe Biden did not simply alter his chances at winning a second term last night. He altered his legacy. It will remain forever changed, regardless of the outcome in November. In 2020 Biden was chosen to be president – first by his party, then by the public – to take some toxicity and radicalism out of the debate. This centre-left Democrat (or centre-left compared to the rest of his party, at least) had a decades-long history of working with his Republican counterparts. He had the once common, now miraculous, ability to get along with (and even on occasion praise) politicians outside of his own party.  This was a dereliction of

Yascha Mounk

Democrats have led America to the brink of the abyss

Before Thursday’s debate, the leading contender to win the upcoming presidential election was already Donald Trump, a man whose first stint in the White House provided all the necessary evidence that he is spectacularly ill-suited for the job. During that term in office, Trump ruled rashly and selfishly. He lavished praise on his appointees before firing scores of them for incompetence or insubordination. He picked constant fights with the independent institutions that preserve the separation of powers. And when he lost a hard-fought race, he refused to concede defeat, inspiring a mob to assault Congress, and breaking the key norm that has sustained the American Republic for the past centuries.

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Biden and Harris must go

For months US Democrats have been wondering why voters were not supporting Joe Biden. He has been a good president, and enacted many worthy reforms. Donald Trump, by contrast, is clearly a dictator in the making. The idea that American voters have elderly relatives and (love them though they do), know that an 81-year-old cannot take on a tough job, let alone stay in post until he is 86, did not seem to occur to them. You are in a fight to save your democracy. You can’t expect others to do your fighting for you Ah, Democrats were saying only this week, Trump is as rambling and senile as Biden. Maybe, but you need