World

For many years, a framed cover of The Spectator looked down, like a silent reproach, on the drinkers in the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Its cartoon showed Britannia and the British lion on a barren rock, bent in a kowtow towards a distant, unseen overlord. The title read: Our Betrayal of Hong Kong. It was published when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and the Tiananmen Square massacre had just taken place in Beijing. The editorial, two whole pages of eloquent indictment, did not please the woman who had signed the Joint Declaration with China by which the rights of Hong Kong were to be guaranteed for fifty years after

After one of the most difficult missions ever undertaken in the Himalayas, Indian mountaineers have now finally been able to reach a team of climbers on Mt Nanda Devi who went missing last month. As of writing, they have recovered the bodies of almost all of the eight climbers, four of them British, who were caught in an avalanche on its slopes, bringing to a close another tragic chapter in the mountain’s history. To most people, Nanda Devi is just another peak in the Himalayas and might as well be anonymous. But once it was a name to conjure with. At 25,640 feet, it was the highest mountain in the British

Joe Biden may have the nickname ‘Middle-Class Joe’ but in truth, the former vice president is a career politician. He was elected to the Senate in 1972 at the ripe age of 29 and kept his seat for 36 years until he decided to gamble on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign by joining his ticket. With eight years as VP experience under his belt, Biden wants the top job for himself more than ever (he previously ran for president in 1988 and 2008, but both of his campaigns quickly floundered). Typically, career politicians are like robots. They read the talking points their staffers write, stick to the teleprompter during speeches, and

Beirut: At seven in the morning of June 5th, 1967, Israeli warplanes took off to launch a surprise attack that would destroy the air forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq while they were still on the ground. The Syrian defence minister, Hafez al Assad, ordered a counterattack by his ground forces, tanks rumbling down from the Golan Heights on Israel’s northeastern border. The offensive was given the code-name Operation ‘Nasser’, or Victory. It was, as Guy Laron writes in his book The Six Day War, a ‘pathetic…ignominious failure’. Laron describes a litany of incompetence. A diversionary attack on a kibbutz in the Galilee was seen off by a bunch of

Donald Trump is at his best when he’s campaigning. The man loves the limelight, the massive rallies in 20,000-seat arenas broadcasted in real time by Fox News, and the accolades, applause, and chants from his red-hatted disciples. Trump won the 2016 election by letting his force of personality take over the campaign and riding on the exhaustion of the Clinton political brand. 2020, however, is not 2016. Trump can claim to be an outsider populist all he wants, but the ‘drain the swamp’ mantra doesn’t have the same allure when you’ve been in the middle of the swamp for the last three years. Trump’s campaign staffers don’t want to get

America’s last presidential election campaign won’t be easily forgotten. From leaked Access Hollywood tapes and spurious insults between the two contenders to incessant chants of “lock her up!”, Clinton vs Trump was something Americans simply hadn’t experienced before. It was ugly. But the 2016 election may turn out to be a walk in the park compared to the 2020 election—particularly if Joe Biden is the Democratic presidential nominee.   Of all the Democrats running for president today, Trump clearly sees Biden as the biggest threat to a second term. Nobody thinks for a moment that Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren or Beto O’Rourke can pick up white, non-college educated, working-class voters in the Midwest

The New York Times has said it will stop publishing political cartoons, six weeks after an image of a blind, kippah-wearing Donald Trump being led by a dog with the head of Bibi Netanyahu appeared in the paper. The cartoon was rightly condemned and an apology swiftly issued. But scrapping cartoons for good – and parting ways with two of its long-time cartoonists, neither of whom drew the offending image – is a step too far. The paper’s bungled campaign against Donald Trump shows why. Since Trump first emerged as a candidate for the presidency, the NYT has railed against him for all manner of sins, from his womanising to his apparent bid

If I were a pensioner, I’d be a bit miffed by the BBC’s decision to end the policy of giving free TV licences to the over-75s. At present, the cost is met by the government, but it was due to be picked up by the BBC from 1 June 2020. At least, that’s what I thought — and I had good reason. According to a report on the BBC News website dated 6 July 2015, the Beeb would ‘cover the cost of providing free television licences for over-75s’ and ‘in return… the licence fee will rise with inflation’. The story referred to this as a ‘deal’ that the BBC had

Well, that was surprising. The BBC has announced that from 2020 it will do away with free TV licences for the over-75s. In future, free licences will only be available to households which have at least one member receiving pension credit.   Everyone else will have to pay the full whack of £154.50 a year. In defence of its decision, the BBC cites the results of a consultation, 52 per cent of the 190,000 respondents to which it says were approving of its decision to end blanket TV licences for the over-75s. Let’s skate over other recent democratic exercise where 52 per cent of the population were in favour of something