All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
35 min listen
Pete Hegseth has declared war on ‘fat generals’ and DEI in the US army – but why have standards slipped? Chris Caldwell joins Freddy Gray to discuss why the current administration feels so passionately about forcing a ‘major cultural shift’ in the military, plus the legacies of Bill Clinton’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy and
To India, where Keir Starmer has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the UK-India trade deal and learn more about the country’s digital ID scheme. But of course the curious matter of the China spy case collapse came up at today’s press conference as questions remain about why the charges against Chris Cash
According to a recent study at Oxford, celebrity prostate cancer awareness campaigns have contributed to the over-testing of white, wealthy men from the south of Britain for PSA – prostate-specific antigen, a marker used in the diagnosis of the disease. This over-testing, the Oxford academics say, has led to unnecessary treatment, harm to individuals and
Reform UK’s momentum is influencing other parties too. The Greens voted overwhelmingly to elect Zack Polanski last month, partly on the basis that he would replicate Nigel Farage’s media success. Labour are basing much of their current strategy on a cordon sanitaire approach, hyping up the threat of any Farage-led government. The Liberal Democrats are
On Saturday, our Italy correspondent Nicholas Farrell asked readers for their help in persuading his Italian wife and six children that Israel is not guilty of genocide in Gaza, a genocide they believe Giorgia Meloni is complicit in. His daughter, Magdalena, 18, has asked for a right of reply, which we are publishing below: Dearest
15 min listen
Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of his Gaza peace plan. During an extraordinary round table on the Antifa organisation last night, the US President was interrupted by Marco Rubio and given a hand-written message. He told those assembled at the White House: ‘I was just given a note
After two years of war, both Hamas and the Israeli government have agreed to a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. The pact will see the remaining hostages released by Hamas and the bombing of Gaza to stop. British politicians of all stripes have lauded the deal, while Trump has been praised for
In confirming the Israel-Hamas peace deal on Truth Social last night, Donald Trump referenced the seventh Beatitude from the Gospel of Matthew: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.’ Trump has been called a lot of things, many of them words you won’t find in the Bible, but could
There is no office more burdened by impossible choices than that of the Israeli prime minister. When Benjamin Netanyahu steps into the cabinet room today to present the Gaza ceasefire deal, he does so not as a tactician manoeuvring for political points, but as a statesman carrying the unbearable weight of a people’s pain, fear,
Nusret Gökçe, the Turkish social media sensation known as Salt Bae, has a restaurant empire built around the fan base for his incredibly expensive planks of steak; £680 for a wagyu strip loin, for instance, skirt steak for £380 and gold-gilded baklava for £50. Based in London at the Knightsbridge restaurant Nusr-Et, Salt Bae tried to expand
Transport for London is refusing to take down a social media video which encourages owners to take their cats on the tube network. The unhinged Instagram video shows two owners taking their cats on an escalator, in a lift and on a train, with the slogan: ‘This is your sign to start travelling with your
Only in Britain could a spy trial collapse because no one in government could decide who the enemy was. The case against two men accused of passing secrets to China did not fail for lack of evidence or investigative effort, but because the Crown Prosecution Service could not extract from Whitehall a simple statement that
When an Islamist attack on a synagogue in my home city of Manchester left two dead, I responded by writing about the failure of some parts of the pro-Palestine movement to distance themselves from Jew hate. I switched on my phone and found that my X feed had gone haywire It was a leftish argument,
The SNP government in Edinburgh has published another white paper on the constitution, ‘A Fresh Start with Independence’. It’s a bold title when your last white paper on this issue was published a whole 34 days ago. Indeed, between June 2022 and April 2024, the Scottish Government produced 13 white papers on independence. Putting out
Spooky season came early to Manchester this year. Outside the convention centre, a baffled, shattered city reels from the latest round of political violence, but inside, eyeless mannequins of Margaret Thatcher stare out over an empty exhibition hall where what remains of the Conservative party tries to understand what went wrong. There’s something macabre about
Prior to Kemi Badenoch’s arrival the Conservative party played us recordings of her voice piped over dramatic lift muzak. Conference seasons are always bizarre – gatherings as they are of remarkable sub-species of people who look at British politics and think ‘wow, that’s exciting’ rather than ‘oh God, what now’ (and I include myself in
10 min listen
This morning Kemi Badenoch wrapped up Tory conference with a speech that will – for now at least – calm Conservative jitters. The Tory leader’s hour-long address in Manchester was intended as a rejoinder to critics of her leadership and she certainly achieved that aim. Having been accused of lacking spirit, imagination and vigour, Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch wrapped up Conservative conference with a well-received speech that was bursting with policy ideas. The Tory leader’s hour-long address in Manchester was intended as a rejoinder to critics of her leadership. Having been accused of lacking spirit, imagination and vigour, Badenoch today demonstrated all three. The main headline grabbing announcement was her plan
The desire to seek restitution from those who have harmed or wronged us is normal. Our instinct for justice is inbuilt. Yet, in recent decades, there has emerged in the West a perverse distortion of this impulse: the demand for financial compensation from people who have done no wrong, made by people who have not
David Norris was convicted of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in April 1993 and now wants to be released from prison. Should he be? That is a question the Parole Board will consider as Norris has now served the minimum custodial term of a life sentence imposed in 2011. This body has the power
It already faced tariffs in the United States, and it has been struggling to cope with some of the highest industrial energy prices in the world. Now what remains of the British steel industry faces what could well be a terminal blow. The European Union is about to impose tariffs of 50 per cent on
You’ve got to feel sorry for Prince Harry. After some of the best headlines he’s had in years during his well-received return to Britain last month, that goodwill has swiftly been dismantled under a blizzard of bad publicity. There was the accusation that he or someone around him leaked sensitive information about his brief meeting
At the mausoleum that is this week’s Conservative party conference one of the bodies has just shown a slight muscular twitch. Kemi Badenoch will this morning try to reclaim the one subject on which the Tories can reasonably hope to base a revival: fiscal responsibility. Mel Stride has already proposed £47 billion worth of spending
Belgium’s federal Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, is not your average European leader. A conservative intellectual with a sharp tongue and a taste for historical analogy, he is perhaps the only European statesman to cite Edmund Burke more readily than Brussels regulations. A long-serving mayor of Antwerp – one of Europe’s great port cities –
You have probably heard that something extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church in France. The French bishops’ conference announced in April that more than 10,000 adults were due to be baptised in 2025 – a 45 per cent increase on the year before. France is seeing what the media call a ‘boom biblique’: a rapid rise
The Conservative party conference may be in full swing in Manchester but Reform UK’s politicians are still creating headlines. Deputy leader Richard Tice has given a rather punchy interview to Arabian Business during a trip to Dubai – in which he slated Britain’s immigration ‘disaster’, insisted a decline in the British work ethic was because
The Conservative party conference may be drawing to a close, but the fighting spirit of the Tories isn’t going anywhere. At the Spectator’s well-attended Scotland event this afternoon – ‘Can the Tories turn back the teal tide?’ – MPs Andrew Bowie and Harriet Cross were packing the punches. The story of the Scottish Tories isn’t
Robert Jenrick has been walking a tightrope. Over the course of the Conservative party conference he has been having to navigate the tricky situation of playing both the prince over the water and the loyal lieutenant to Kemi Badenoch. Mr Jenrick so far has played his cards very well. He is successfully channelling both Bonnie
It is day three of Conservative Party conference and the punchiest speech of the event has just been made. Robert Jenrick, the heat-seeking missile of the Tory front bench, has just delivered another howitzer aimed squarely at Britain’s judiciary. Brandishing a judge’s wig, he addressed the conference faithful with the vim and vigour that have
A little over two months ago, I stood in the fallow murderscape of the Nir Oz kibbutz facing towards the barbed border fence with Gaza. Once, this village in southern Israel was a thriving community of 400 Jewish people, known for their left-wing ideologies and progressive ideals. But, two years ago on this very day,
39 min listen
Tim Shipman, James Heale and Lucy Dunn record live at Conservative party conference in Manchester. What’s the mood at conference – and has Kemi done enough to neutralise her detractors? Tim says he expects there to be no immediate leadership challenge but the Conservatives need to get real about the ‘attention economy’ they’re faced with.
When Linden Kemkaran (formerly of The Spectator) was elected leader of Kent County Council, she presented herself as the poster-child for Reform in power. ‘The electorate,’ she said in June, ‘are looking to judge whether they can put their trust in a Reform government at the next election.’ Her administration set up ‘Dolge’, a ‘department of
I knew the modern left had its fair share of narcissists who can rarely see beyond their own navels. But even I never imagined they would spend the second anniversary of 7 October, the worst atrocity the Jews have suffered since the Holocaust, moaning about their ‘mistreatment’ by the Jewish state. Even I never imagined