World

In some ways, Poland’s presidential election on Sunday seems a simple continuation of the country’s long-standing status quo. Karol Nawrocki, Poland’s ‘populist’ new president, is expected to extend the existing gridlock between the president’s office and the cabinet, controlled respectively by Law and Justice (PiS) and Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO). The close result in the run-off, moreover, appears to be in line with the deep polarisation of Polish public opinion between two camps that increasingly see each other as enemies, not just as political opponents. Poland’s right is radicalising and blurring its traditionally sharp foreign policy thinking Yet, this short-term continuity should not blind us to signs of looming

Is the Japanese tourist, for so long in good numbers a welcome and reliable fixture at our most famous tourist spots, now in serious decline? The number of Japanese travelling abroad is still well down on pre-Covid times and with government data just released revealing that fewer and fewer Japanese even hold a passport, the slump could be prolonged, which would be disastrous for the UK tourism and hospitality industry. According to the Japanese government, only around 17 per cent of Japanese adults currently hold a passport, a significantly lower rate than the US and UK (50 and 85 per cent respectively). It seems the Japanese are less and less inclined

Faced with a cost-of-living crisis, rising delinquency, failing public services, and riots in the suburbs, the French government has finally sprung into action  –  it’s banning smoking outdoors. Not entirely, of course, just in places where children might be. The new rules, coming into force in July, prohibit lighting up in any space ‘frequented by children’, which is as vague and self-important as it sounds. We’re told this includes parks, beaches, bus stops and pavements near schools. Where else? No one knows. What is clear is that the state is now more concerned with puffing parents, than with knife crime or collapsing hospitals. This isn’t really about second-hand smoke. It’s