World

A frequent complaint heard from Muslim communities in recent years has been irritation and anger over any suggestion that Muslims – as a whole – need to apologise for attacks carried out in the name of their religion. I have sympathy for this irritation, tying as it does innocent people to the actions of guilty ones. But since the attack in New Zealand was carried out by a non-Muslim who was targeting Muslims, whether or not it needs to be said still it should be said – indeed must be said – that non-Muslims abhor, are disgusted, outraged and sickened by somebody going into a place of worship and gunning down innocent

Back in December, Emmanuel Macron was a man on edge. His poll numbers were spiralling down the toilet; hundreds of thousands of French who felt alienated from their government were taking to the streets to shout down the French elite in cities and towns across the country; and fires were burning all around Paris. Police officers and protesters-turned-rioters were on the frontlines trading rocks and rubber bullets, resulting in hundreds (if not thousands) of arrests. Macron, the blue-eyed, fresh-faced technocratic politician who marketed himself during the 2017 presidential contest as the Fifth French Republic’s aspiring saviour, was left twiddling his thumbs in the presidential mansion wondering how to address the

Last week, the Trump administration warned the German government that if it uses 5G wireless technology built by China’s Huawei, Washington will curtail intelligence sharing with its Nato ally. American officials are concerned that Berlin’s willingness to host Chinese technology threatens Nato security, and will give cover to other countries considering letting Huawei into their telecommunications systems. Yet Washington’s blunt statement might also have been a shot across Britain’s bow. Far more than Germany, Britain is a key intelligence partner of the United States, the cornerstone of the so-called ‘Five Eyes’ community. If Whitehall permits Huawei to set up 5G networks in Britain, the White House will face the unpleasant choice of

  Merchant Taylors’ School One of the country’s ‘great nine’ schools, Merchant Taylors’ School, near Rickmansworth, was founded in 1561 by the Merchant Taylors’ Company. Catering for boys from the ages of three to 18, it is highly academic but also well known for its extracurricular provision and pastoral care. Activities range from Combined Cadet Force and the Duke of Edinburgh Award to Greek and Mythology Club. It has a tutorial system, with each boy assigned a tutor who looks after him throughout his time at the school. Merchant Taylors’ also has a campus of 285 acres of parkland, and there is easy access from the Metropolitan line. More recently

In this week’s books podcast I’m joined by Owen Matthews to talk about the man many have claimed was the greatest spy of the 20th century, Richard Sorge, the subject of Owen’s riveting new book An Impeccable Spy (reviewed in the new issue of The Spectator by Nicholas Shakespeare). Sorge (he’s pronounced ‘zorgey’, by the way — not, as I introduce the podcast, idiot that I am, ‘sawj’). Here was a man who supplied information that changed the course of the Second World War — and far from being the sort of glum duffelcoated figure who populates Le Carre’s “Circus” — he really did lead an existence of James Bondish extravagance.

What should be done with Shamima Begum? Her husband Yago Riedijk, a Dutch jihadi fighter, has now said he wants to bring Begum home after her British citizenship was revoked. ‘We should live in Holland’, he told the BBC. In the Netherlands, the response has been clear: they are not welcome. The Dutch government takes a similar approach to the British when it comes to the question of dealing with citizens who travelled to Syria. Where a foreign fighter has dual citizenship, their Dutch passport can be taken away. If this isn’t possible, there is little the Dutch are willing to do to rescue their citizens from the limbo of

When Steve Bannon was ousted from the White House as president Donald Trump’s chief strategist, the populist provocateur and former Hollywood executive was back running staff meetings at Breitbart less than 24 hours later. The rumpled, grizzled, grey-haired Bannon – who has a fondness for philosophy, history, political bloodsport and green camo jackets – is constantly on the move for a new project. In the United States, the big project was getting Trump elected and ensuring the New York billionaire never forgot about the part of America that loved him and the part that cringed at the mention of his name. But ever since he left the Trump administration – and

It is nothing if not bold. Battered by the gilets jaune movement, challenged by populists, and with a flat-lining economy that may soon be in a full-blown recession, France’s President Macron has proposed a huge extension of the EU’s powers for the 2020s. His plans include common border controls, an agency for defending democracy, and a raft of new powers to allow Brussels to beef up its control of the economy. It is, to use the traditional phrase, ‘More Europe’. The trouble is, ‘More Europe’ is also increasingly a ‘Poor Europe’. What the EU really needs right now is some economic wins – but Macron’s plans are only going to make

Success of the SDP The breakaway Labour MPs would have an uphill task emulating the SDP’s early success. It fought its first by-election in the July 1981 — losing by 1,700 votes in Warrington. Yet that autumn it reached 50 per cent in the opinion polls, with by-election triumphs following in Crosby, in November 1981, and Glasgow Hillhead in March 1982. Eventually, 28 MPs defected from the Labour party but only one from the Conservatives. Early success, however, failed to translate into a breakthrough in general elections. In 1983 it won six seats (out of 23 won by the Liberal-SDP Alliance); that fell to five seats in 1987. Unfair fares

Donald Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un in Hanoi is a diplomatic triumph for Pyongyang. For the second time in under a year, the North Korean leader gets to strut his stuff on the world stage. Kim Jong-un is able to stand next to President Trump as – in his imagination – an equal. The Americans, for their part, have had to come to the table and are going to (among other things) likely hear demands for them to reduce their military presence in and around Korea. No, it’s not dignified, but what else can the president do? Can anything come from these talks? Maybe. Both sides clearly want there to be some progress in the today.

 Islamabad Six months into Imran Khan’s premiership and the new Pakistan prime minister has been plunged into his first major foreign crisis. Last week, a suicide bomber attacked Indian soldiers in Kashmir, killing more than 40 paramilitary troops. Simultaneously, another suicide attack massacred 27 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard near the Pakistani border of Iran’s troubled Sistan and Baluchestan Province. Khan has spent the early months of his premiership attempting to strengthen links with neighbours. He stretched out the hand of friendship to India. He opened the Kartarpur corridor to allow the visa-free passage of Sikh pilgrims. He has warmed up Pakistan’s old alliance with Iran, while working hard to

Whatever the arguments over the Government’s decision to revoke Isis bride Shamima Begum’s British citizenship, the teenager’s future now depends on one thing: will the courts determine she is a dual national who is eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship? If so, Sajid Javid’s decision is lawful, as this means that the loss of her British citizenship will not leave her stateless. But what does Bangladesh make of this row? The view from Dhaka has been clear: we don’t want her. In a statement issued this week, the country’s foreign ministry said: “The government of Bangladesh is deeply concerned that she has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship shared with

The days of black-clad militants rampaging through cities, parading captives as war trophies and doing wheelies in U.S.-made Humvees are over. The Islamic State – which once presided over eight million people in a reign of terror across territory as large as the United Kingdom – is now confined to an orchard in the dusty Syrian village of Baghouz. The so-called caliphate is now just 700 square metres. Within days— certainly weeks —all of Isis’ territory will be retaken, the stragglers either killed in a barrage of US airstrikes or sent to Syrian Kurdish-run prison camps to the north. The demise of the caliphate, however, has given way to a