World

When we were putting together the latest issue of Spectator Life, we had a debate about whether to put Donald Trump on the cover – not out of any political squeamishness, but because the article about him by Alex Connock is 26 years old. Back in 1990, Alex was a cub reporter for an American weekly magazine and was sent to Atlantic City to write a piece about Trump’s latest casino. The billionaire took a shine to him and made him an offer that, as a journalist, he couldn’t refuse: to join him and Michael Jackson on a trip in a private jet. Alex’s account of that adventure is so

To describe John Bercow and his wife Sally’s marriage as colourful, could be seen to be an understatement. The Speaker’s wife has regularly made the news, just last year hitting the headlines after she temporarily left her husband to be with his cousin. So, Mr S was intrigued to learn that Bercow offered guests at the launch of Margaret Hodge’s latest book It’s Impossible a rundown of his sleeping arrangement. Held at the Speaker’s House, Bercow used his speech to give a history of the property — and the beds. He explained that, despite efforts by the ‘downmarket’ media to conflate the state rooms with the private upstairs, his family lived in the ‘somewhat less

I was a little less than three blocks away on West 26th street when I heard the blast. Twenty-two years of living in Beirut had taught me to wait for the sirens before becoming concerned. And they came, distant at first, and then louder, followed by the clatter of a helicopter. But the New Yorkers enjoying the pop-up food court in Madison Square Park on that balmy Saturday night didn’t appear to be panicking. Neither for that matter was CNN, which was covering the Black Caucus Foundation in Washington, attended by both President Barack Obama and the Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. It would be an hour before it broke the news that an

China could be hurtling towards a banking crisis, reports The Telegraph. Citing a report from international financial watchdog The Bank for International Settlements, the paper says that the country is mired in debt, with the ‘credit to GDP’ ratio at 30.1 – leagues ahead of any comparable country. Historically, any number above ten was a surefire sign of crisis to come, and certainly required close supervision. Credit currently stands at 255 pc of GDP. This represents $28 trillion of loans – more than North America and Japan combined. A collapse of Chinese banking would send shockwaves through the world. The UK is ‘appallingly bad’ at supporting start-ups, says the BBC.

The fit, or fugue, that Hillary Clinton suffered during a 9/11 memorial service in Manhattan on Sunday left mysteries in its wake. One concerns Mrs Clinton’s apparently serious medical problem. Another concerns her opponent Donald Trump, who appears eager to run her campaign for her while she convalesces. When felled, Mrs Clinton was two weeks into a public-relations blitz designed to tar Trump as a bigot. In August, she accused him of making the Republican party a vehicle for racism and the ‘hardline right-wing nationalism’ of Vladimir Putin and Nigel Farage. At an open-to-the-press dinner for gay donors two days before her incident, she used vivid and memorable language. ‘To

Prepare the stake, stoke the fire: someone has blasphemed against climate-change orthodoxy. The speech criminal in question is Nicolas Sarkozy. Yes, the former president of France, a man who really ought to know better, has wondered out loud if mankind is solely responsible for climate change. Cue media fury. Cue eco-outrage. Cue accusations that Sarkozy has gone ‘beyond the limits of decency’. Cue an atmosphere that’s almost medieval, which basically tells Sarkozy, and by extension everyone, that you cannot say things like that. You probably shouldn’t even think them. The swiftness and ugliness of the response to Sarkozy’s comments confirm that questioning climate change is to the 21st century what

I felt for the first time on Sunday that Donald Trump might actually win the US presidential election. I’m not the only one moving in that direction. Hillary Clinton looks in bad shape, and while it’s one thing to be seen as dishonest, to be dishonest and sickly is not a great combination. More mostly bad news in polls this AM for Clinton, whose chances are down to 63%. https://t.co/WLXtJodIzD pic.twitter.com/ptYAT144mC — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 15, 2016 September 11, 2016 was, as Damian Thompson says, the day the conspiracy theorists were proved correct, for once. Conspiracies about Hillary’s health were popular not just because the Clintons have consistently been dishonest throughout their

Consumers who are forced to have prepayment energy meters put in should face a maximum installation fee of £150, the regulator has proposed. Currently such energy users – already the most vulnerable to debt – face a charge of up to £900, said Ofgem. As many as 4.5 million people use prepayment meters for electricity, while 3.5 million use them for gas. Consumers who pay in advance also face higher energy bills, although from April 2017 these prices will be capped. Renting London is no longer the world’s most expensive city in which to rent, The Telegraph reports. This is according to the CBRE Global Living report, which monitors property costs in 35