World

Friday

William Cook

Why Europhiles should welcome Brexit day

As Big Ben fails to bong tonight, and Brexiteers toast a famous victory, will those who voted for Remain be ranting or sulking, or simply crying into their beer? If so, they should perhaps stop feeling so sorry for themselves. Of course, if you’re a Europhile, today is hardly a day of celebration – but neither is it a day for misery. Because if you believe in the EU, as I do, you should welcome Brexit Day. Brexit isn’t just a fresh start for Britain – it’s also a fresh start for the EU. For nearly 30 years, ever since Maastricht, Britain has been a constant drag on the development

Leon Hadar

Critics are wrong to scoff at Trump’s Israel-Palestine deal

‘In business, when I have a tough deal, people would say, “This is tougher than the Israelis and the Palestinians,”’ said President Donald Trump as he unveiled his long-awaited Middle East plan, the so-called Deal of the Century, during a White House ceremony on Tuesday. The comment, ad-libbed, not only demonstrated that the former real-estate tycoon does have a sense of humour. It suggested that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, President Trump is ready to do business when it comes to peace in the Holy Land. ‘Actually, there’s nothing tougher than this one but we have to get it done,’ he added. ‘We have an obligation to humanity to get

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mike Pompeo: the UK will be ‘front of the line’ for a trade deal

Given how hard Washington had been lobbying the UK government against allowing Huawei to have any role in the UK’s 5G network, there was a certain nervousness in Whitehall about the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to London this week. But judging by Pompeo’s appearance with Dominic Raab at Policy Exchange there was no need to worry. Pompeo declared that the UK/US relationship was in a ‘fantastic place’. He largely pulled his punches on Huawei. He emphasised the US’s view that the ‘Chinese Communist Party is the central threat of our times’ but he implied the US thought the UK’s eventual plan was to move away from Huawei

Monday

Bruce Anderson

Bloomberg is the only Democrat who can take on Trump

To paraphrase Shakespeare, the whirligig of time brings in… more whirligigs. Four years ago, few people thought that Donald Trump had a real prospect of becoming President of the United States. There were suggestions that Mr Trump himself did not take his chances too seriously. He might have seen the campaign as a way of boosting his ego as well as obtaining free advertising for his hotels and other business ventures; he did not spend much of his own money. Then, stuff happened – in particular, Hillary Clinton. Mrs Clinton is able. She is experienced. There is only one problem. She is dislikeable. Moreover, she and her family give sleaze

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Brexit Britain will find itself caught between the world’s superpowers

For those who claimed Boris Johnson would be Donald Trump’s poodle, the past month has been corrective. Far from bowing before American power, he is defying it. Johnson is considering rejecting America’s demand to ban Huawei from supplying parts of a new UK 5G network. His government is willing to override Trump’s objections and ensure the US tech giants pay more tax. Meanwhile the usually voluble Johnson has noticeably failed to offer loud support to Trump’s destruction of Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, preferring to ally with France and Germany instead. Johnson is not only showing that his left-wing critics failed to understand him, but honouring the promise he

Saturday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Prince Harry leaves, Jess Phillips drops out and Trump goes on trial

Home The Duke of Sussex left England to join his wife, Meghan, in Canada. This followed an agreement that stripped him of the style His Royal Highness and her of the style Her Royal Highness. ‘They are required to step back from royal duties, including official military appointments,’ a statement from Buckingham Palace said. ‘They will no longer receive public funds for royal duties.’ The Sussexes said they would repay the cost of the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, put at £2.4 million. ‘Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family,’ the Queen said. On the eve of his departure, the Duke said: ‘It brings me

John R. Bradley

Ten years on, the Arab Spring has only benefited the Islamists

A decade after the Arab Spring, good news anywhere is hard to find. In contrast to Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, extreme poverty has increased in the Arab region. Both internal economic growth and direct foreign investment have declined. Unemployment, especially among the young, has grown. Education standards are falling. There is less press freedom, less freedom of association. A BBC survey last year found that more than half of Arabs want to emigrate. In the countries where autocratic leaders were overthrown — Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen — there is nostalgia for the pre-revolutionary era. This week in Egypt, now the most brutally repressive Arab country since Saddam

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Le bromance: Macron has fallen under Boris’s spell

Montpellier When Emmanuel Macron was elected just over two and a half years ago, his ambitions stretched a long way. He described the presidential role as being like Jupiter, and believed that the momentum that took him to the Elysée would excite forces far beyond France’s borders. He hoped to deliver a ‘European renaissance’ that would overhaul the continent’s political structures. Only last year, he addressed a letter to the ‘citizens of Europe’ describing his vision of renewal. But he might have noticed by now that even in France his hold seems rather tenuous. And at present, the country is not a great advert for Macronism. In recent weeks we’ve

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

Democrats are trying really hard to lose this election

Should Bernie Sanders become the Democratic presidential nominee, expect the media to overuse these sprightly English expressions: ‘between a rock and a hard place’, ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’, ‘on the horns of a dilemma’ and ‘Morton’s fork’. After all, you wouldn’t call a Trump vs Sanders race a ‘Hobson’s choice’, which means ‘no choice’. Centrist voters would confront two options, all right — both of them dreadful. The past few weeks, the firebrand socialist from Vermont has pulled ahead in the polls in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, and a Sanders pick has become more plausible. But for never–Trumpers, the selection of an

Friday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

It’s in America’s interests to extradite Anne Sacoolas – but it’s also in hers

Hands up if you have ever heard of Brian Moles? No? Then what about Anne Sacoolas? Yep, I bet that is registering a bit more. Sacoolas, as pretty well the whole country now knows, was spirited out of the country by US authorities after allegedly causing the death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn by driving on the wrong side of the road near an airbase in Northamptonshire last August. Yesterday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he was rejecting a British demand for the extradition of Mrs Sacoolas, arguing that she had diplomatic immunity. And Mr Moles? Last year, Moles pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving

Ross Clark Ross Clark

There’s no need to panic about coronavirus

In contrast to prophets of doom, who get invited to Davos, asked to address the UN and are able to build entire careers around their scaremongering, there are few rewards for those who play down fears – even if they turn out to be correct. If there were, then perhaps I wouldn’t have to draw attention to this piece I wrote in the Spectator in September 2005 arguing that the H5N1 strain of bird flu had been hugely over-hyped and was unlikely to kill many of us. At the time, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was predicting there could be up to 50 million deaths worldwide, and former government adviser

Thursday

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Why Huawei may be allowed in the UK 5G network

Brandon Lewis, the security minister, is something of a genius at winsomely saying next to nothing. Even so I emerged from my interview with him on my show last night persuaded that the National Security Council and the Prime Minister would next week give the go ahead to the controversial use of Huawei kit in the roll-out of superfast 5G mobile broadband. It was something about the way he said that he utterly respected the advice of the security services and would take very seriously the evidence provided by BT and Vodafone. Here is why this matters. The security services, I understand, have concluded that GCHQ and the National Cyber

Steerpike Steerpike

Did MBS kompromat Boris?

Boris Johnson is a big fan of Mohammed bin Salman. But why? Back in 2018, the then-foreign secretary was keen to sing the praises of the Saudi Crown prince. In an article for the Times, Boris was clear that MBS was good news: ‘I believe that the crown prince, who is only 32, has demonstrated by word and deed that he aims to guide Saudi Arabia in a more open direction.’ A few months on, Boris came under fire for accepting a £14,000 trip to Saudi Arabia from the country’s foreign affairs ministry. Only days later, Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Macron’s Jerusalem meltdown was a revealing moment

Emmanuel Macron lost his cool during a walkabout in Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday and television cameras captured the moment for posterity. “Everybody knows the rules,” shouted the president of France, directing his wrath at Israeli security officials. “I don’t like what you did in front of me. Go outside!” The confrontation took place outside the Church of Saint Anne, a possession of the French government which is regarded as French territory. According to reports Macron snapped when Israeli security men attempted to accompany him into the church. It’s not the first time that a French president has had a fit of Gallic pique in Jerusalem; Jacques Chirac famously clashed

Wednesday

Ben Sixsmith

Russia and Poland’s war of words over the second world war

An extraordinary row between Russia and Poland over the second world war is refusing to die down and threatens to overshadow commemorations for the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has suggested Poland is partly to blame for the war’s outbreak. Poland’s president Andrzej Duda has hit back, accusing Putin of an ‘historical lie’. ‘The words of Vladimir Putin are a complete distortion of historical truth,’ he added. This war of words has hit a nerve in two countries shaped by what happened in the second world war. For Russians and Poles, the war is of immense cultural significance. Russians are proud that they defeated the Nazi

Tuesday

The Spectator

Shinzo Abe’s luck is finally running out

The Japanese are fond of poeticising the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossom season, which no sooner reaches its full glory than is gone, leaving behind nothing but bare branches, scattered petals, and a sense of wistful regret and nostalgic yearning. It’s the theme of countless haikus and mournful folk ballads. But if the cherry blossoms themselves soon vanish, the cherry blossom party scandal, currently vexing prime minister Shinzo Abe, is proving as worryingly hard to remove as Japanese knotweed. It’s in danger of turning into a Japanese version of Watergate. The annual prime minster’s cherry blossom viewing party is a tradition going back to 1952. Public funds are used

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Climate change isn’t responsible for Australia’s hailstorms

It was pretty inevitable that once rain finally started to fall in South Eastern Australia, extinguishing some of the bushfires which have been raging for weeks, the wet weather, too, would be blamed on climate change. ‘Climate apocalypse starts in Australia,’ a human rights lawyer tweeted in response to golf ball sized hailstones falling in Canberra. ‘You’d be hard-pressed to look at what is going on in Australia right now and not connect it to climate change.’ said the website News & Guts, tweeting similar pictures of hailstones falling on the Australian capital. For the Weather Channel it was a case of ‘record rains’ – citing by way of example

Monday

Hardeep Singh

It’s time to have an honest conversation about ‘Asian’ grooming gangs

It’s vital to talk plainly about what led to the situation in Manchester, where vulnerable white working-class girls were sexually abused as those tasked with protecting them simply looked on. The perpetrators have been described as belonging to ‘Asian’ grooming gangs. But the Times has reported that those involved were ‘mainly of Pakistani heritage’. So what’s the truth about who these men are? This is a difficult and uncomfortable topic, but to prevent a repeat of what unfolded in Manchester, it is vital to speak openly. According to a harrowing report from the independent inquiry into the failings of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and council, gangs of ‘predominantly Pakistani men’

John Keiger John Keiger

Macron will win and lose in his battle to change France

Winston Churchill’s comment about France has lost none of its piquancy. Churchill famously said of the difference between Britain, France and Germany: ‘In England, everything is permitted except what is forbidden. In Germany, everything is forbidden except what is permitted. In France, everything is allowed, even what is prohibited.’ France’s debilitating national transport strike, now in its 47th day, proves it. Ever since the Enlightenment, France has led the world in developing universal principles to govern citizens’ lives in the name of equality. This differs from the approach across the Channel, where piecemeal legislation of customary English common law means everything is permitted except what is forbidden, in the name

Saturday

Jeremy Griffith

The science of bushfires is settled (part 2)

Have you noticed how chaotic and wasteful eucalypts are? They have branches that grow in all directions and lengths and they seem to be forever dropping dead bits off them. Why hasn’t natural selection tidied them up so their branches are all economically organised to maximise access to light like beautifully ordered pines or symmetrical oaks? A eucalyptus tree actually looks like a whole lot of trees fighting with each other for access to the light. In fact, a trick to painting a eucalypt is to simply place a lot of grey-green blobs near each other and then connect them with stalks to a central trunk, and voilà, you have