World

Wednesday

Matthew Lynn

Sweden’s Covid-19 strategy is already paying off

There are lots of different ways of measuring the terrible state of the global economy. The collapse in overall output. The fall in trade as ports and airports empty. The trillions printed by central banks, and the soaring price of gold as investors lose faith in a recovery. But one is surely this: keeping the drop in GDP in single digits actually looks pretty good. Sweden this morning reported its flash estimate of second quarter GDP. Output was down by 8.6 per cent compared with the first quarter, and 8.2 per cent compared with the same quarter last year. It was, as the release helpfully pointed out, the worst result it

Paul Wood

How much worse can things get for Lebanon?

Just before Twitter started firing out messages about a ‘bomb’ in Beirut, our cleaner rang us in tears, shaking, telling us our house had been damaged by an explosion. Video from her phone showed our windows blown out and splintered furniture. There was debris in the street and wrecked cars at odd angles. A man grabbed the phone from her to say there were injured everywhere, too many to count. Our house is in the Christian neighbourhood of Gemmayze, near the EU ambassador’s residence, and also close to a building belonging to the political party of a Christian militia leader. Automatically, I wondered if either of those could have been

Tuesday

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Can tourism subsidies save Japan’s coronavirus-blighted economy?

In a striking contrast of priorities, as the UK government offers discounted fast food vouchers to revitalise the restaurant and hospitality sector, the Japanese have chosen a different, healthier, method of boosting their own Corona blighted economy: half-price domestic travel. The Japanese government anticipates the move will see hordes of travellers roaming across the country indulging in the usual Japanese holiday activities of hiking, camping, making pilgrimages to shrines, and bathing in hot springs – all the while, of course, spending money. The ‘Go To Travel’ campaign, as it has been called, is a bold and expensive (1.35 trillion yen or £10bn) initiative, and is, in theory, a good and

Charles Parton

The US is right to rethink its relationship with China

Anyone who has worked in an office has fantasised about destroying it. As someone who has taken a sledgehammer to his office and fire to his papers – leaving the Libyan embassy in 2011 – I experienced a twinge of nostalgia on seeing Chinese diplomats burning papers after being given 72 hours to leave their consulate in Houston in July. Inevitably, the inevitable tit for diplomatic tat came, and American officials were sent packing from their consulate in Chengdu. Since then, relations between the US and China have deteriorated further, with Donald Trump pledging this week to ban the Chinese video app TikTok for national security reasons. This breakdown in

Jim Lawley

Juan Carlos’ exile may not save the Spanish monarchy

In the ‘bad bank’ model, a bank protects itself by dumping its toxic assets onto a second, newly-created institution. By taking the problems off its books, the first bank hopes to restore its reputation and financial health so that it will be able to carry on business as usual. The Spanish monarchy has just carried out an analogous operation. The 82-year-old former king, Juan Carlos I, who reigned for 38 years until his abdication in 2014, has gone into exile because, as he explains in his farewell letter, of the ‘public repercussions of certain episodes in my private life’. The ‘episodes’ have included ongoing investigations into a gift of £77m

Monday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

What do the ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats want?

27 min listen

Earlier this year, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson gave credence to the conspiracy theory that the US military took coronavirus to China. It’s just one example of a new school of diplomacy that has dominated Chinese foreign policy – the ‘wolf warriors’. But does this approach work, or does it merely antagonise the world? Professor Todd Hall is a Chinese foreign policy expert at Oxford University, and tells Cindy Yu about what the wolf warriors say about China’s view of the world.

Saturday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray, Douglas Murray, and Katy Balls

26 min listen

On the episode this week, Freddy Gray, editor of the Spectator’s US edition, reads his cover piece on the real Joe Biden. We also hear from Douglas Murray on the trial of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp – and about allegations that can’t be proved or disproved. At the end, Katy Balls relays the government’s anxiety over a second wave.

Thursday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Who is the real Joe Biden?

34 min listen

Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump in the polls, so what is at the root of his appeal? (00:50) The government is anxious about a second wave – can it avoid repeating its mistakes? (11:15) And Rachel Johnson on her generation of high flyers and early retirees (23:30). With editor of the Spectator’s US edition, Freddy Gray; our economics correspondent Kate Andrews; deputy political editor Katy Balls; former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt; journalist Rachel Johnson; and comedian Dominic Frisby. Presented by Cindy Yu. Produced by Cindy Yu, Max Jeffery, and Sam Russell.

Senay Boztas

The rise of Dutch Euroscepticism

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has taken on the mantle of ‘Dr No’ across the capitals of Europe after he took a tough stance on the EU’s coronavirus bailout fund. But in the Netherlands, most people supported his stance on EU integration. At the talks, Rutte successfully led the ‘frugal five’ countries – the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Finland – in their battle to reduce the EU’s proposed coronavirus subsidies from €500 billion to €390 billion (£450 to £350 billion). The countries also ensured an economic conditions brake was attached to another €310 billion (£280 billion) in loans, which are expected to go mostly to Italy and Spain. It was a

Constantin Eckner

Trump’s error in withdrawing troops from Germany

The Pentagon will fulfil President Trump’s demand to move almost 12,000 US troops out of Germany. About 6,400 forces will be brought home and 5,400 shifted to other countries in Europe. While Pentagon officials claim the action is part of a plan to strategically ‘reposition’ forces in Europe, the move is widely seen as an attempt by Donald Trump to punish Germany for its supposed failure to spend more on defence. Trump announced last month that he wanted to cut the number of active duty US troops in Germany from roughly 36,000 to slightly more than 24,000. His comments indicated that the move was tied more directly to his anger over Germany’s

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The real Joe Biden: what would his presidency look like?

It is usually a bad idea for a presidential candidate to leave himself open to the accusation that he is soft on law and order. Yet last weekend Joseph Robinette Biden Jr did exactly that. He attacked the ‘egregious tactics’ of the federal officers trying to control the apparently never-ending riots in Portland, Oregon. Sensing an open goal, President Trump’s campaign promptly accused Biden of ‘siding with the criminals’. In any normal election year, such an exchange would be a major flashpoint. In the Covid-19-riddled anarchy cauldron that is America in 2020, nobody much cares. Joe Biden can say pretty much anything, or nothing at all, and his lead in

Colin Freeman

Why the US assassination of Iran’s top general didn’t spark a war

Iran’s new meddler-in-chief in Iraq is a bespectacled general called Esmail Ghaani. Brought in to replace Qassem Soleimani after his death in a US airstrike in January, he has the same green uniform as his predecessor, the same grey beard, and the same orders to make Iraq’s Shia militias do Tehran’s bidding. That, though, is where the similarities end. Soleimani was a legend among his followers in Iraq — he spent years building contacts with local commanders and joined them on the battlefield against Isis in Mosul. Ghaani, by contrast, is an owlish, uncharismatic figure who looks like he might be happier behind a desk. Unlike Soleimani, he doesn’t speak

Juliet Samuel

Why do we still struggle to see Xi’s China as a threat?

For years Westminster has been obsessing over Russian interference in Britain. Yet while we fret over oligarchs and social-media bots, the most dangerous assault on our democracy and security goes not just unchallenged, but largely unnoticed. Beijing is richer and more sophisticated than Moscow on every level, and its influence more prevalent across British society. But even as we witness events in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, we still struggle to see China as a threat to our way of life. This blind spot means China has been able quietly to amass huge amounts of influence with little pushback. Just look at how Huawei settled itself in our communications infrastructure and

Christopher Sandford

Tear gas Ted: the mayor manning Portland’s barricades

Portland, Oregon The federal courthouse in downtown Portland, Oregon, has become ground-zero for the nightly orgy of assaults, looting, arson, and public nudity — and, most recently, a surrealistic duel between protestors and federal agents using leaf-blowers to drive back each other’s tear gas — that continues to enliven America’s so-called Rose City in the wake of the death of George Floyd. It’s a curious thing, this new alignment of some of America’s most high-profile mayors with the very people burning down their towns. In Portland the competent authority figure is 57-year-old Ted Wheeler, who took office three and a half years ago. By law, all Portland mayors are nonpartisan,

Wednesday

Daniel DePetris

Has the EU finally found its spine when it comes to China?

There is no point putting lipstick on a pig: the relationship between the United States and China, two powers holding a combined 40 per cent of the world’s GDP, is at its most depressing and alarming since the establishment of their diplomatic relations in 1979. As soon as you think bilateral ties couldn’t get any worse, Washington and Beijing prove us wrong by closing consulates and harassing each other’s diplomats. This puts the European Union, that slow, cumbersome bureaucratic machine, in a tricky position. On the one hand, Europe doesn’t want to rock the boat with either the US or China. Yet on the other, EU officials and European heads-of-state

Ross Clark Ross Clark

A second wave? Perhaps, but deaths are still down

‘Let’s be absolutely clear about what’s happening in Europe,’ the Prime Minister tells us. ‘Among some of our European friends, I’m afraid you are starting to see, in some places, the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.’  Really? It rather depends on what graph you’re looking at, and over which period. On Saturday, the government consigned Spain to the sin bin – with quarantine for anyone travelling from there to Britain – on the grounds that there has been an uptick in recorded cases. Sure, the number of confirmed cases has risen in the weeks since late June, and – at around 2,000 a day – is running

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is a second wave imminent?

10 min listen

Boris Johnson said there are signs that a second wave of coronavirus will soon sweep through Europe. Should Brits still go on their holiday abroad, and could the UK cope with another lockdown? Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Kate Andrews.

Seth J. Frantzman

Netanyahu won’t be worried about Israel’s coronavirus protests

The Israeli Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem is located in a leafy neighbourhood of stately villas, many of which date from the era of the British mandate and combine Bauhaus and Arabic architectural styles. Over the last few weeks the neighbourhood has come to resemble more of a protest camp, festooned with a mix of Israeli and black flags and banners calling prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a dictator. Amid the Covid crisis, with Israel suffering a second wave of the virus, the protests are a unique spectacle that could grow into a wider movement. It is a rare sustained protest against more than ten years of rule by the same

Monday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Was there a different way to handle the Spanish quarantine?

15 min listen

Within a few hours, the government enacted a quarantine policy for those returning from Spain (including the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, and almost including our own Economics Correspondent Kate Andrews). There’s been confusion and unhappiness over the speed with which this was put in place, but did the government have any choice? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Jim Lawley

Can Spain stomach another lockdown?

‘Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone?’ sang Joni Mitchell. In the Spanish city of Zaragoza, people certainly know what they all too briefly had and what they’re now missing. Thanks to Covid-19, over the last few months they’ve gone from having a busy bustling city to not having it, to having it again and now back to not having it once more. Like all Spanish cities, Zaragoza is normally a vibrant social centre with bars and restaurant terraces every few yards, with parks and plazas full of life where people meet, children play and everybody seems to talk at the same