World

Saturday

Patrick Allitt

America has a long tradition of voter fraud

Donald Trump was making modern political history even before he fell ill in the final stretch of his election campaign. By suggesting the result could be fraudulent — and therefore invalid — the incumbent President was menacing the fragile framework that, for more than 200 years, has eased the transition from one administration to another. There has been nothing like it in living memory, other than Trump’s previous allegations of voter fraud after his 2016 win. But the United States certainly does have a history of dodgy politics — electoral fraud was as American as apple pie throughout the 19th and into the early 20th century. Since then it has been,

William Cook

Berlin’s underground is the latest battleground in Germany’s culture war

By the time I got to Mohrenstrasse, the protesters and their BLM placards were long gone. The only thing they’d left behind was some red paint, splattered on the sign above the subway station. I guess this was meant to imply that by naming this U-Bahn station Mohrenstrasse, Berlin’s public transport bigwigs had blood on their hands, or something. But today, in the pale autumn sunlight, it actually looked rather attractive and artistic. I hope they keep it there. For this subway sign to remain here, albeit with a light splattering of red paint upon it, would, to my mind, be a good solution to a problem that’s dogged Berlin’s

Friday

Sarah Coolican

On Russia, the EU should learn from the Baltics

When is the EU going to take action against Belarus, the Soviet dictatorship crumbling away on its eastern edge? Dominic Raab has announced that the UK will unilaterally impose ‘Magnitsky-like’ sanctions against Belarussian officials, blocking those complicit in the mass incarceration of protesters from operating within the UK. Meanwhile, at a Foreign Affairs Council meeting last month, Cyprus chose to veto proposed EU sanctions against Belarus. The move will further weaken a ‘non-binding’ resolution by the bloc which condemned president Alexander Lukashenko while refusing to recognise the result of August’s rigged election. The European Parliament continues to falter in taking decisive, multilateral action against a dissident regime. Cyprus’s decision to veto the sanctions

Ashis Ray

Could Covid give rise to a theocratic India?

The second day of October is a red-letter day in the Indian calendar. It’s the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi, better known as Mahatma or ‘great soul’. The man who with non-violence and non-cooperation brought British rule in India to its knees. The anniversary of Gandhi’s birth is a national holiday in India; a day of celebration and remembrance. Not this year, though. India has just clocked the dubious distinction of 100,000 Covid-19 deaths; later this month it could exceed the United States to record the highest number of people infected by the deadly virus. A country not entirely integrated with the international travel grid ought to have fared better. Narendra Modi’s response was

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

When a president gets sick

President William Henry Harrison died, famously, after giving the longest inauguration speech in history. On a bitterly cold winter day in 1841, Harrison spoke for an hour and 45 minutes — to prove what a man he was. Then he fell ill with pneumonia and died after just 32 days in office. He tried not to show weakness. He perished. The lesson for Trump, who has just tested positive for coronavirus, is clear — don’t try to tough it out. Viral infections aren’t impressed by machismo. He should put his re-election efforts aside, as much as is humanely possible, rest, and recover. Maybe one of Trump’s advisers should take away

Matt McDonald

Donald Trump tests positive for Covid-19

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for Covid-19. The President and first lady underwent testing after Hope Hicks, one of his top aides, tested positive on Wednesday. Trump has been campaigning across the country this week. He was in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday night for his first debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden and was in Bemidji, Minnesota. He also appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last night, where he discussed Hicks’s diagnosis. ‘She did test positive, I just heard about this,’ he said. ‘And I just went out with a test, I’ll see — you know, ’cause we spend a lot of time

Thursday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

American meltdown: November’s democratic disaster

40 min listen

Is this week’s presidential debate a taste of the chaos to come? (00:55) In defence of ‘wokeness’ (15:10) and are male-only spaces immoral? (30:25) With Matt Purple, Senior Editor at the American Conservative; Karin Robinson, host of the Primarily: 2020 podcast; Sam Leith, The Spectator’s Literary Editor; Andrew Doyle, the writer behind Titania McGrath; and Emily Bendell, the entrepreneur who is bring a lawsuit against the Garrick Club. Presented by Cindy Yu. Produced by Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery.

Richard Mawrey QC

Trump’s right, the US election could easily be rigged

In the furore over Trump’s bid to fill the vacant Supreme Court slot, commentators have pointed out that his nominee’s first job may be to rule on the validity of the election result. Is that likely to happen? As the judge in the election court that exposed serious voter fraud during the 2004 Birmingham council elections and in several other election cases involving fraud, I think I may be able to go some way in answering that question. Fear over a disputed election stems from President Trump’s claim that postal voting is vulnerable to widespread fraud — committed, one need hardly say, by the Democrats. The Democrats have naturally reacted

Matt Purple

American meltdown: a democratic disaster

Tuesday night’s debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden was a hopeless mess — a national embarrassment. For 90 minutes, two cantankerous and incoherent old men ignored the rules, shouted over each other and ruined the event. Trump insulted Biden’s intelligence and his children. Biden told Trump to ‘shut up’ and called him ‘a clown’. The debate may prove useful in one sense, however — as a foretaste of the democratic meltdown that is coming America’s way after the election on 3 November. Again, the rules of the contest will not be accepted, each side will accuse the other of cheating and the whole occasion will turn into a

Wednesday

John Keiger John Keiger

The EU is adrift and in search of an anchor

The EU has never been a serious global foreign policy player. Without a European army or a meaningful defence pact, the pretence of a Common Foreign and Security Policy is mere sound and fury signifying nothing. Back in 1991, the Gulf War served as a stocktake of the international weakness of the European communities with the Belgian foreign minister lamenting Europe’s position as ‘an economic giant, a political pygmy and a military worm.’ If anything that position has worsened today with China on the cusp of overtaking the EU economically. The global pandemic — in which Europe has been severely affected — is shaping up as another stock-take of where

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Was that the worst debate of all time?

19 min listen

Donald Trump and Joe Biden met in the first head-to-head debate of the campaign yesterday evening. The result was a frenzied 90 minutes of outbursts and interruptions from which neither candidate emerged well. Biden lambasted the President as a ‘clown’, while Trump ruthlessly attacked the Democratic challenger’s family, ignoring the tragic death of his son, Beau. Freddy Gray speaks to Kate Andrews about whether the debate could possibly have been any worse.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Bog-standard Biden is the president America needs

Peggy Noonan, the doyenne of conservative American columnists, once published a ‘story of Ronald Reagan’ that bore the title ‘When Character Was King’. It has sometimes been objected that Noonan prizes grace and civility in public life to the exclusion of much else, including plenty that is vital. There is some truth in this assertion and it would be a mistake, doubtless, to look upon past American presidencies as times of Socratic wisdom and splendour. The republic has always been an argument, and often an ugly one at that. And yet, nevertheless, Noonan’s perennial concerns, unfashionable as they may be, have a certain urgency in the present moment. Politics at

Charles Lipson

Team Biden will be delighted with the debate

The first presidential debate is the most important — and Joe Biden won it. These contests should be understood — and judged — as political events, not as high-school debating contests. Ask yourself: what should a successful candidate accomplish? He should put forward his own vision, define his opponent, generate enthusiasm among his voters (to ensure they turn out), and appeal to any who remain undecided. He must also answer the big reservations about his candidacy, including major weaknesses identified in polling and by the opposing campaign. And he must drive home his opponent’s weaknesses. Using that scorecard, how did Joe Biden and Donald Trump perform? Biden came into the

Constantin Eckner

Germany’s ‘reckless’ coronavirus era is over

As Angela Merkel enters her final year in office, the German chancellor faces one of her most difficult challenges amid the rise of coronavirus infections. Germany was rightfully praised for how it managed the pandemic early on, recording a steep drop in infections after the initial outbreak in March. However, for the past two months, infections have been increasing again – much to the concern of Merkel and political leaders across the country who were keen to ease restrictions on businesses and citizens. During an internal party meeting on Monday, Merkel told fellow Christian Democrats that Germany could have 19,200 new coronavirus cases a day by Christmas if her government

Roger Kimball

The debate was no disaster for Biden — but Trump won

A couple of days ago, Paul Mirengoff observed that ‘Going back at least as far as Ronald Reagan, incumbent presidents have not done well in first debates.’ Was that true tonight? Yes and no. President Trump interrupted too often, he did not respond to Chris Wallace’s questions or Joe Biden’s assertions with the specificity that his record has armed him with. For his part, Joe Biden did not drool in his shoe or utterly lose the thread of the discussion. So he exceeded expectations. The whole performance was odd. I tuned into the non-profit C-Span to avoid the other droolers. There was the usual boosterism from the organisers of the event.

Daniel DePetris

Trump’s debate clash with Biden was a national embarrassment

Last night’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden started amicably enough. Both men strolled on stage, Trump wearing a red and blue striped tie, ready to battle. Joseph ‘Average Joe’ Biden greeted the president with a ‘How are you, man?’ From that point on, the debate quickly degenerated into one of the most despicable, embarrassing clown acts Americans have ever seen on national television. It took about 20 minutes before Biden, visibly exasperated by Trump’s badgering and interrupting, pleaded with his opponent across the debate hall to ‘please shut up.’ When the whole thing wrapped up about 90 minutes later, moderator Chris Wallace had a sore throat, newscasters

Tuesday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The humiliation of Becciu and the return of Pell: what lies behind this spectacular reversal of fortunes at the Vatican?

24 min listen

The Vatican is this week in the grip of a paranoia reminiscent of the days when Renaissance popes (and their dinner guests) were forced to employ food-tasters. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, until 2018 the sostituto at the Secretariat of State – that is, the Pope’s hugely powerful chief of staff – has been sacked by Francis, who has accused him of stealing vast amounts of money. It’s now a matter of record that Becciu organised a series of bizarre investments, costing the Vatican hundreds of millions of dollars, in a former Harrods warehouse converted into luxury flats and an African oil company. The Pope, who once showered him with favours, stripped

Kapil Komireddi

Exclusive interview: Armenian PM on Azerbaijani conflict

On Sunday, Azerbaijan began shelling Armenian positions in Nagorno-Karabakh — a disputed piece of territory in the Caucasus peopled primarily by the Armenians but owned, at least on paper, by Azerbaijan. In the 1920s, Soviet administrators, disregarding demography, had placed Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan. In the run-up the USSR’s demise, the local Armenians voted overwhelmingly to secede from Azerbaijan in a referendum and proclaimed independence. Nobody recognised the result. And when the USSR collapsed, the place ended up inside the internationally recognised borders of Azerbaijan. A terrible war ensued. Armenia seized Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent lands, Russia brokered a ceasefire, and an international forum called the Minsk Group was convened in 1992

Seth J. Frantzman

View from the Golan Heights: Israel prepares to take on Hezbollah

Ain Qana is a pretty pastoral village perched on a hillside in southern Lebanon. On 22 September a large explosion destroyed a building on the edge of the village. It was about 12 miles from the Israeli border. Reports indicated it was a munitions storage linked to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group. Hezbollah is navigating a complicated time in Lebanon today. After Beirut’s massive explosion in August, the organisation has come under scrutiny because of its illegal weapons stores across Lebanon. However, the Hezbollah also has members in parliament. In July it accused Israel of killing one of its members in Syria and vowed to respond. What was the Hezbollah member

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The Trump vs Biden debates are bound to be boring

Ladies and gentlemen — tonight we are going to witness the most hotly anticipated TV debate in history. In the red corner, aged 74 and weighing in at 250 pounds, the reigning champ, the tangerine typhoon, Donald J Truuuuump. In the blue corner, a challenger all the way from planet amnesia, the 77-year-old stuttering cyclone, Joe Robinette Bideeeeen. Let’s get ready to ruuuuuuuuuumble! Ah, televised presidential debates — exciting, aren’t they? The tension, the massive stakes, the enmity — it’s as close as politics gets to actual entertainment, and people love the idea of them for precisely that reason. Worse is better, these days. We don’t want soaring rhetoric, clashing