World

Thursday

David Patrikarakos David Patrikarakos

The Israel-UAE peace deal was made in Iran

The last time I was in Israel people were preparing for the worst. ‘This crazy bastard is going to annex the West Bank and then we’re all screwed,’ my Israeli friend bemoaned to me. It turns out he was wrong. The United Arab Emirates and Israel have just agreed to normalise relations. In return, Israel has agreed to suspend its plan to annex large chunks of the West Bank. Make no mistake: what has happened is historic. The UAE has been politically hostile to Israel since even before it gained independence from Britain in 1971. There has not been a single day in its existence where it has not officially

Paul Wood

The mood in Lebanon is for revolution

When 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left in Beirut’s port exploded last week, a three-year-old girl named Alexandra Najjar was torn from her mother’s arms as they ran inside from their balcony. In the same instant, every-thing in the apartment was flying through the air — doors, window frames, shards of glass, the air-conditioning unit, the family’s piano — and something hit the little girl. She died later from her wounds and on Lebanese social media she has become the ‘Angel of Beirut’, a symbol of the innocent people ‘murdered’ by their government’s negligence and incompetence, as her father, Paul, put it. He gave a restrained and dignified interview to

Jack Clover

Is this the end for Europe’s last dictator?

Alexander Lukashenko, labelled by the Bush administration as ‘Europe’s last dictator’, was never going to go down without a fight. In his final public address before Belarus went to the polls he offered a thinly veiled warning to those who wish to remove him from power: ‘[Our Belarus] is rather naive and a little bit fragile but she is beloved and when you love something you do not give it up.’ On election day, Lukashenko delivered on his grim campaign promise. Official exit polls gave the incumbent an implausible 80 per cent of the vote: his fifth landslide in 26 years at the helm. The lion’s share of presumed electoral

Wednesday

Jacob Heilbrunn

Kamala Harris ticks all Biden’s boxes

With his selection of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden bowed to the inevitable. Harris ticks all the boxes — Bay Area progressive who pushed a lock ’em up policy, senator with no apparent skeletons that haven’t already been pulled out of the closet (see: Willie Brown), and a woman and minority who relishes political brawls. She once bashed Biden for his busing policy. Now she will be busing him. Harris has it all over the other candidates. Karen Bass of El Jefe and Venceremos Brigade fame was a disaster waiting to happen. Susan Rice is a creature of Washington elite institutions with no real political constituency. And Stacey Abrams would have

Tuesday

James Chater

Can Taiwan pull off its China gamble?

When Alex Azar, the US health secretary, arrived in Taipei on Sunday, he became the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan since the United States began diplomatic recognition of Beijing in 1979. In both Washington and Taipei, the significance of the visit has been rightly emphasised. Still, the visit has not been met with unequivocal praise in Taiwan. After all, while visits of this nature are undoubtedly important, they risk generating instability in cross-Strait relations. Could a closer relationship with the US spell trouble for Taiwan? In one editorial published in Taiwan’s United Daily News on Monday morning, the trip was described as ‘a new wave of attack in the

Monday

David Patrikarakos David Patrikarakos

Lebanon’s existential crisis

It had to happen. On Monday evening, just under a week after 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at Beirut’s port exploded and killed over 160 people, the entire Lebanese government resigned. This was not a surprise. The blast resulted from negligence of the grossest kind. Three cabinet ministers and seven members of parliament had already quit. And frankly, in these times: who would even want the job? Prime Minister Hassan Diab made the announcement in a national TV address. It came after days of protests in which demonstrators hung effigies of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, and even Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. That anyone would dare to

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Belarus’s regime is nearing collapse

It’s hard to believe Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko will retain his half-affectionate, half-exasperated nickname ‘Batka’ (Dad) after his re-election yesterday in a presidential vote rigged beyond the point of farce, which led to violent street protests across the country. Despite claims he had fled the country, the ‘last dictator in Europe’ made it through the night – but his regime is now nearing its end. Lukashenko has been more-or-less firmly ensconced in Belarus since 1994, and under his rule the country has remained a strange Soviet-capitalist hybrid. There are still streets named after Marx, the political security police are still called the KGB, and large state enterprises still dominate much of

Saturday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is Biden blowing the election?

17 min listen

The polls are tightening, meanwhile Joe Biden is on the back foot over another gaffe about African American voters. Is the Democratic challenger blowing the election? Editor of the National Interest Jacob Heilbrunn joins Freddy Gray, editor of Spectator USA.

Friday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The Vatican’s sinister deal with Beijing

24 min listen

Next month, the Vatican will talk to Beijing about renewing its 2018 deal with the Chinese Communist Party that effectively allowed President Xi to choose the country’s Catholic bishops. He has used this power to force Catholics loyal to Rome to join the puppet Catholic church set up by Chairman Mao in the 1950s. They can no longer refuse on the grounds that they recognise only the Pope’s Church because Francis himself has validated the orders of Xi’s party stooges.  But the Holy Father has done more than that: he has ostentatiously failed to condemn China’s savage assaults on human rights, the worst of which is its attempt to eradicate

Mark Nayler

Spain’s bizarre mask policies

Spain has a reputation for having some of the strictest policies on masks in Europe, with the public even encouraged to wear face-coverings outside. Yet today, Spain’s Health Ministry announced that the number of coronavirus cases has continued to rise, with 9,848 cases counted over the past two days – prompting those who live in Spain to question, yet again, the efficacy of mask-wearing regulations. These uncomfortable, claustrophobic pieces of cloth are often described as being compulsory in public in Spain, which perhaps implies that they have to be worn from the moment you leave your house to the moment you return, whatever the purpose of your excursion. But due

Gus Carter Gus Carter

Will France be quarantined next?

11 min listen

Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas were added to the UK’s quarantine list yesterday evening, meaning Brits returning from those countries will be required to stay at home for two weeks. With Belgium’s neighbour, France, also seeing a surge in coronavirus cases, will they be next? Gus Carter speaks to Katy Balls – who is on holiday in Paris – and James Forsyth about air bridges, exam results and the lack of candidates to become the next cabinet secretary.

John Keiger John Keiger

What’s up with Macron’s Lawrence of Arabia stunt?

President Macron neither lacks chutzpah nor a lust for drama. His walkabout yesterday amid the devastation of Lebanon’s Beirut, following the massive chemical explosion that killed over 150, wounded 5000 and razed a whole section of the city, evoked David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia with Macron as the strutting Peter O’Toole denouncing the factionalism that had thwarted the unity of the Arab peoples.  ‘I am here… to launch a new political initiative’ Macron intoned before shell-shocked crowds baying for a change of regime. ‘I expect clear answers from the Lebanese authorities about their commitments.’ And he warned that he would be back on 1 September to check that aid had

Thursday

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Pakistan has transformed into a covid-19 success story

As the covid-19 pandemic rages on, Pakistan is emerging as an unheralded, and unlikely, success story. Despite having the fifth highest population in the world, Pakistan’s cumulative covid-19 cases at 281,136, and 6,014 total deaths. rank the country 14th and 19th in the world. However, most remarkable of all is Pakistan’s progress over the last month, which has seen it rebound from the brink of disaster. Last week, Pakistan’s recorded daily covid-19 cases returned to the three-figure mark – the lowest since May. On Tuesday, Pakistan reported 432 new cases and 15 deaths, signifying a ten-fold decrease in both stats within a span of two months. This is a remarkable turnaround

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

Never has a virus been so oversold

There’s nothing unprecedented about Covid-19 itself. The equally novel, equally infectious Asian flu of 1957 had commensurate fatalities in Britain: scaled up for today’s population, the equivalent of 42,000, while the UK’s (statistically flawed) Covid death total now stands at 46,000. Globally, the Asian flu was vastly more lethal, causing between two and four million deaths. The Hong Kong flu of 1968-69 also slew up to four million people worldwide, including 80,000 Britons. Yet in both instances, life went on. What is unprecedented: never has a virus been so oversold. Why, I’d like to sign on with Covid’s agent. What a publicity budget. In a recent Kekst CNC poll, British

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

In defence of Amazon

We should take heart from BP’s £5.1 billion second-quarter loss, accompanied by a halving of its dividend. What’s good about that? Nothing — except that the loss reflects a write-down of the value of oil and gas assets that shifts the company to a more realistic footing for an extended period of low oil prices and reduced demand, indicating resilience rather than impending doom. In recent times, BP has lived through Deepwater Horizon, history’s most politicised oil-rig disaster, and extricated itself from TNK-BP, history’s nastiest Russian joint-venture. It operated when oil was below $20 a barrel in 2001 and when it hit $147 in 2008. It has plans to achieve

Francis Pike

Sea change: China has its sights on the Bay of Bengal

Pangong Lake is the most unlikely of places for a naval conflict between two of the world’s nuclear-powers, India and China, with a third, Pakistan, looking on with not a little interest. Lying some 280 miles east of Islamabad, 360 miles north of New Delhi and 2,170 miles west of Beijing, Pangong Lake is in the remote northern Himalayas. In 1905, the explorer Ellsworth Huntington said that its beauty could ‘rival, or even excel, the most famous lakes of Italy or Switzerland’. It is a harsh world, frozen in winter, inhabited by a sparse indigenous population of hardy goat herders. And it’s situated in the southernmost spur of the Aksai

Christopher Meyer

Dear Boris: what happens if Trump doesn’t accept defeat?

Dear Prime Minister, You already have quite enough on your plate. So forgive me if I hoist a storm cone over another potential problem. I refer to the US presidential election on 3 November and the possibility of its ending in deadlock and confusion. I was the British ambassador to Washington during the Bush/Gore election of 2000. The outcome hung in suspense for a month. Everything turned on which contestant had won more votes in Florida. In the end, the matter had to go to the US Supreme Court for a decision. I was present at the hearing. After 9/11, it was the most dramatic moment of my time in

Pieter Cleppe

Europe is finally coming to terms with Brexit

An article in the Dutch, left-leaning newspaper Het Parool led with the headline ‘Despite Brexit, multinationals prefer London over Amsterdam or Paris’ this week. The piece reports that ‘the feared exit [of companies] from Great Britain is not happening’ as expected, and highlights the fact that Unilever decided to: Become fully British, scrapping its dual [Anglo-Dutch] structure [which has been in place for 90 years]. Its headquarters will be London and not Rotterdam, despite the avid attempts of Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Reportedly, the opportunity offered by London’s capital markets trumps any risks resulting from Brexit, an element that could also play a role in Shell possibly moving its headquarters

Wednesday

David Patrikarakos David Patrikarakos

No bread, no heat, no hope: Life in Lebanon after the Beirut blast

Once again, crisis comes to Lebanon. Once again, people are dying young in the Middle East. Last night an explosion in the port of Beirut killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000 others. They say the blast was heard almost 150 miles away in Cyprus. They say it shook the earth all the way across the eastern Mediterranean. It was colossal; first one bang, then another, before a mushroom cloud fanned out over the capital – yet one more tragedy to smother those beneath. Even for a country on as intimate terms with tragedy and as long inured to bombs (one killed its former president Rafik Hariri)

Alastair Stewart

Was what I said about travellers offensive?

Public discourse has become the linguistic equivalent of walking on egg-shells. Fear of causing offence is truncating open and free-ranging thought.  I took a call from a listener – Frankie from Huntingdon – on my Talk Radio show yesterday. He objected to something I’d said. I’d been discussing rural crime with the National Farmers Union (NFU) who had reported a surge due to Covid 19 and continuing greed. Quad bikes disappearing for cash; sheep & lambs, for food. Another caller – Mike from the New Forest – had observed: ‘When the fair happens, we know to lock everything up’. Political interviews and speeches · Alastair Stewart on rural crime I’d