World

Change, for some people, is difficult. Hearing voices on the BBC that differ from the Etonian baritone of old must rankle for some. Lauren Laverne, who took over Desert Island Discs (DID) is about as different from a stuffed shirt as one can imagine. Bright, lively, and witty, her fabulous north-east accent makes Laverne a timely and refreshing addition to Radio 4. Some of the more traditional radio critics have, in the past, expressed doubts about Laverne’s role as presenter of the iconic programme. But in The Spectator this week, Melanie McDonagh added her voice. “There’s no getting away from it,” wrote McDonagh, “Lauren is lightweight and uncerebral. Her capacity

The BBC’s flagship news and current affairs programme wasn’t in any doubt about who to blame for America’s latest bout of mass shootings. Newsnight’s report began with footage of Donald Trump addressing the faithful at a rally. ‘This is an invasion,’ he warned, referring to the refugees massing on the Mexican border. ‘When you see these caravans starting out with 20,000 people, that’s an invasion.’ It then cut to Emily Maitlis in the studio. ‘That was in May,’ she said. ‘Today, Donald Trump called on Americans to condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.’ She added that the President had made these remarks ‘with a straight face’ and ‘with autocue precision’

The president of the United States has to wear many hats. When a crisis hits the world, it’s the president who is often called to help solve it. And when a crisis hits the home front, whether it be a mindless mass shooting, a major hurricane, or a mass-casualty terrorist attack, it’s the president who is expected to play the healer-in-chief. It’s now a proven fact that Donald Trump cannot play the role of a healer. The two deadly shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio that claimed the lives of nearly 30 innocent people thrusted an immediate catastrophe upon Trump’s shoulders. And despite pledging to leave the usual

Try as I might, I just can’t seem to get anyone interested in discriminating against Indians. No one is tearing open packets of imported turmeric and cardamom and dumping their contents on supermarket floors. British academics aren’t severing ties with professors from Delhi University. If pension funds are divesting from Tata Motors and ICICI Bank, the FT is still to pick up on it.  This is strange because on Monday Narendra Modi’s right-wing government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, site of a long-running territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. Both sides claim the entirety of the state, which has been under Indian administration since Partition, and which

Who wrote ‘Our lifestyle is destroying the environment of our country… creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly over-harvesting resources… the next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable’? The answer, if media reports are accurate, is Patrick Crusius, the man accused of the El Paso massacre. The words appeared in his testament, entitled (in homage to Al Gore?) The Inconvenient Truth, which he seems to have put online before decreasing the number of people in America

Curfews, internet shutdowns, house arrest for opposition leaders. It’s the kind of list one normally hears in the world’s great authoritarian dictatorships. But today it is in fact the state of affairs in a part of India, the world’s largest democracy. Today the government of India announced that it was implementing direct rule and integrating the northwestern state of Jammu and Kashmir, one of the world’s hottest flash-points. The state sits on the border with Pakistan and has been a place of tension since the partition and independence of India in 1947. Ruled nominally by a Hindu Maharaja, the Muslim-majority state tried to avoid partition and declared its independence. The move angered the

When Boris meets Macron at the G7 meeting on 24 August in Biarritz, it will be one of the first international meetings of his premiership. What will be the dynamics of that tête-à-tête? Will Macron resort to the bonhomie he used – unsuccessfully as it turned out – in his first major encounter with Donald Trump when the French President matched his American counterpart’s power handshake? Will they open with references to their respective grandparents, Macron’s British great grandfather and Boris’s half-French grandmother? Or will Macron turn down Britain’s demands with a Gaullian ‘non’? And what will Boris’s stance be? Perhaps jovial and self-mocking (something the French find difficult to

Former Vice President Joe Biden had a gentle plea for Sen. Kamala Harris before the debate even began. As the two clasped hands and greeted one another with a cheerful hello, Biden asked Harris if she could do him a favour: ‘go easy on me, kid.’ The remark was made in jest; Biden is a politico pro and had no expectation any of his opponents on Wednesday night would let him get off the stage unscathed after two-plus hours. Sure enough, they didn’t. While the frontrunner had a far more aggressive and crisp performance than his low-key appearance in late June, Biden was the proverbial piñata. Every candidate, even the

The elderly lady’s face is red with rage as she screams with all her might at police. Leaning firmly on her walking stick, her head doesn’t even clear the top of their riot shields. Her grey hair tied back in a ponytail, her worn T-shirt is in bitter contrast with the army green and black donned by officers in full riot gear.  I took her photo at a march attended by tens of thousands in the Hong Kong neighbourhood of Yuen Long. A short time later, protestors were dispersed by the authorities. The picture went viral the next day. For those who supported the demonstrations, this woman inadvertently became a symbol of

Global trade would collapse amid a tariff war. The dollar would be in free-fall as investors fled the chaos. The stock market would tank as money was pulled out of the country. When Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States, there were lots of dire predictions about the impact it would have on the economy and the Dow Jones index. And what happened? The ‘Trump Bump’ as it became known on Wall Street was one of the strongest for any President in a long time. In the year after his election, the S&P 500 rose by 21 per cent, which was the best return since George Bush

I’m glad the Foreign Secretary thinks it ‘unacceptable’ of Iran to have seized a British-flagged oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz. But wouldn’t it have been a decent idea to give any British-flagged ships sailing through that tiny strait a naval escort? The risk was always there, ever since we seized an Iranian tanker at Gibraltar. Was the possibility of escorting tankers considered by the government?

It wasn’t so long ago when Beto O’Rourke, the punk-rock band member and three-term congressman from West Texas, was the man to beat. O’Rourke was the energetic, dashing politician who looked like a Kennedy and talked like a Kennedy. He may have lost his Senate campaign to the incumbent Ted Cruz, but he made history by scooping up over £64m ($80m) in fundraising in the process. His three-percentage point loss was the closest a Democrat in Texas came to winning a state-wide race in over 25 years. Beto is learning, however, that running a national campaign for president is a different animal—and that viral moments and smooth oratory on countertops

There’s nobody who writes true-life spy stories like Ben MacIntyre — and with his latest book The Spy and the Traitor out in paperback, Ben joins me to talk about the astonishing career of Oleg Gordievsky, a single spy who really did change the whole course of the Cold War. Ben tells me about Oleg’s rise, his downfall, his daring escape from Moscow — and how he lives now and what he thinks of the situation between Russia and the West these days. Plus, the peculiar role in the whole tale of Dire Straits’s Brothers In Arms…

There is fresh hope for Venezuelans this week as Norway seeks to broker a new round of talks between the Maduro regime and Juan Guaido’s opposition party. The hope is that if Maduro is offered a way to end his rule without international repercussions or imprisonment, he may be prepared to stand down. Norway has a long history of playing the middle man in these kinds of political talks. But is it being optimistic in thinking it can bring about change in Venezuela? After all, it isn’t simply a case of getting Maduro and Guaido to agree to a transition. Venezuela has become an international pawn, caught between the US’s