Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Saturday

Ani Chkhikvadze

Putin moves troops into Trump’s backyard

Clandestine US military forces are not the only foreign military troops operating in Venezuela. Russia has quietly dispatched military advisors of its own to the country, moved to reinforce Venezuela’s air defenses and signaled readiness to deepen military cooperation. While Donald Trump has authorized the CIA to conduct covert ops on Venezuelan soil and just days ago approved the seizure by US troops of an oil tanker leaving Venezuela, Vladimir Putin has pledged his support for Nicolás Maduro. In a phone call with Maduro on Thursday after the tanker was captured, the Russian president “expressed solidarity with the Venezuelan people.

Friday

Owen Matthews

The war in Ukraine is reaching its endgame

Painfully and chaotically, the outline of the peace deal that will eventually end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is emerging as the US leans on Kyiv to abandon key red lines. It may still be months before the guns finally fall silent. But one by one various roadblocks to an eventual agreement are falling away. Crucially, this week Volodymyr Zelensky conceded that his country needed new presidential and parliamentary elections. Moreover, for the first time, he floated the possibility that a Ukrainian military withdrawal from Donbas could be put to a national referendum.  "The Ukrainian people must answer the territorial question," Zelensky told reporters on Thursday. "I say clearly: yes, I support elections.

Bonnie Blue

Bonnie Blue: I stand with Nigel Farage

I have sweet memories of Christmas. My dad is proper old-school and would set up the video recorder. I don’t think we’ve ever watched the footage; I don’t know if he was even filming. But we couldn’t do anything until it was filmed. We never had loads of money, but Mum always went above and beyond. There was gold wrapping paper for presents from Santa. My family say I’m impossible to buy for now I’m better off. This year, I’ve asked for Disney princess pajamas. Christmas is a time for me to give back. Last Christmas was a bit of a shock. I was due to be in Australia but was then banned for my sexual stunts. My family was glad because it meant they got me for Christmas. Not that I’m much help. Cooking isn’t my forte.

Freddy Gray

Trump’s golden ticket

Give me your super rich, your global citizens yearning to be free! The Trump administration has finally unveiled its "Trump Gold Card Scheme," a new immigration wheeze through which the very well-heeled can buy US citizenship for a million dollars. "Unlock life in America," declares the homepage, like some portal for a self-help racket, in front of a motivational picture of some rocky mountains. "America’s opportunities accelerated," it says further down, above an image of the Trump Gold Card, which features the American bald eagle, the 47th President, and his famous signature. "Your opportunity begins here." There’s an opportunity cost, of course: $15,000 just to submit the form – and $1 million more if your application is successful.

Thursday

Jay Bhattacharya and Matthew J. Memoli

How we cured DEI at the National Institutes of Health

Since the National Institutes of Health was founded as a one room laboratory in 1887 its mission was simple; perform biomedical research to enhance health, lengthen life and reduce illness and disability for Americans. Scientists for more than one hundred years have taken this scientific approach to turn discoveries into better health. This mission unites all Americans of every race, color and creed. Everyone wants science that benefits their health. Over the last decade and a half this mission has been corrupted by a new mission and ideology: diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). This political ideology was reflected in all aspects of the NIH, including hiring practices, promotion and tenure, employee training, performance reviews, communications, management and, yes, even science.

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Spectator Editorial

Trump’s brave new world

No one ever tucked themselves up in bed to read a government document – at least not in the expectation of enjoying it. The standard format is one of hundreds of pages of impenetrable jargon yielding no more than nuggets of significant ideas. The Trump administration has admirably cut through that tendency to produce a National Security Strategy (NSS) that is worth reading: a coherent outlining of America’s strategic intentions on the world stage. Originally composed by Michael Anton, a brilliant mind who is sadly leaving the State Department, the document concisely lays out a Trumpian vision of America’s role in the 21st century.

Wednesday

Neal Pollack

Is affordability a hoax perpetrated by the fake news media?

According to a proposal filed by US Customs and Border Protection, travelers coming to the US from more than 40 countries may soon have to provide detailed social-media histories and a selfie in order to gain admittance. This will help restrict flow from countries like the UK, France, Japan and Germany, all of which the US has fought against in wars at some time in history. But lest you think these new standards represent some advanced level of paranoid xenophobia, be assured that a careful screening of visitors is actually in the United States’s best interest. I’ve applied for jobs before, and have applied to be a contestant on an infinite number of game shows. The US is simply looking for unproblematic visitors with good personalities who might also make good TV.

Charles Lipson

Is Trump becoming a lame-duck president?

American presidents face an inescapable dilemma as soon as they are reelected. Because they cannot run again, they find it increasingly difficult to dominate the national agenda. This constitutional limitation makes it increasingly difficult for presidents to “herd the cats” in their own party, filled as it is with prospective successors, and to defeat the opposing party, which sees the golden opportunity of winning the next midterm election. Those upcoming elections almost always go against the party-in-power since it is far easier to mobilize angry, negative voters than satisfied, complacent ones. Donald Trump is fighting tenaciously to postpone the impact of these indelible features of American politics, but he cannot escape them entirely.

Terry Barnes

Will tech companies bend to Australia’s social media ban?

It’s all too easy to get hooked by the online world, to fall headlong into it, to spend hour upon hour immersed in it. Cyberspace has its good uses, but it also has its bad ones. Staying in control of your social media life is difficult enough as an adult, but for children it can be an especially dangerous world in which to dwell. Too often children are glued to their phones and devices, staring, scrolling, disengaged from the world around them. Many children are exposed to online harm, including bullying, grooming and shaming. Appallingly, many children are emotionally and psychologically damaged from social media exposure. Terribly, and tragically, some have taken their own lives as a result of what has befallen them online.

Tuesday

Isaac Schorr

The billion-dollar fraud in a Democratic utopia

The real world has, once again, intruded on the utopia that progressives fancifully believe in.The Department of Justice alleges that in Minnesota a group including many Somali Americans have perpetrated a massive $300 million fraud scheme by accepting pandemic relief funds under the guise of feeding low-income children. The fraudsters claimed to have churned out 18 million meals for their communities. In reality, many of their distribution sites served no meals at all. In other cases, programs for the homeless and autistic children were raided. Prosecutors allege that the total cost of all the various schemes to steal taxpayer money is in excess of $1 billion.

Owen Matthews

What Ukraine really needs from Europe

If bear hugs were army divisions and brave words cash euros, Volodymyr Zelensky would have ended his tour of European capitals this week the best-armed and best-funded leader in the world. "We stand with Ukraine," vowed British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after hosting a summit for Zelensky and top European allies at Downing Street on Monday. "We support you in the conflict and support you in the negotiations to make sure that this is a just and lasting settlement." Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that "nobody should doubt our support for Ukraine" and added that "the destiny of this country is the destiny of Europe." France’s President Emmanuel Macron promised that Europe has "a lot of cards in our hands.

Ian Williams

The battle to stop US universities aiding Chinese repression

It goes by an innocuous name – “Integrated Joint Operations Platform” (IJOP) – but it’s one of the most sinister components of China’s surveillance state, managing what has been described as a genocide against the Uighurs. The IJOP combines multiple systems of repression – location, messages, contacts, social media and other data from phones, together with information from checkpoints, cameras and biometric records. It then flags “suspicious” individuals for detention and forced labor. Now leading US universities have been accused of extensive collaboration with Chinese laboratories which develop technology that may be deployed or adapted for use in this system.

Cockburn

When Piers Morgan met Nick Fuentes

Russell Crowe’s new film is about trying to suss out hidden fans of Hitler, but what happens when the person being questioned makes no attempt to hide? Toward the end of Piers Morgan’s live interview with Nick Fuentes last night, Morgan, in what seemed like a pre-prepared line, accused his guest of trying to “come across as a moderate” — just ten minutes after Fuentes called the old Bohemian corporal “very fucking cool.”  To that line, Morgan told Fuentes that "I think [Hitler] is very fucking a monster." Yet Fuentes burst out laughing in reply: "And that’s a clip! 'I think he’s very fucking a monster?' Do you hear yourself? Can we all grow up?

Monday

Neal Pollack

The Trump-Kennedy Center?

“I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate,” a tuxedo-clad President Trump said on the red carpet before hosting the Kennedy Center Honors. “But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself.” To open the show, Trump stood behind the presidential lectern and invoked the name of Johnny Carson, who, he said, was a master improviser like him. Trump hadn’t prepared much. He didn’t need to. "This is the first time a president of the United States has ever hosted the event. I don't know why.” It’s actually kind of an interesting question. Ronald Reagan, of course, would have made an excellent Kennedy Center honors host. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama enjoyed a stage and an audience in their primetime years, and George W.

Alexander Larman

Is Prince Harry about to spend a lot more time in Britain?

For lovers of self-destructive hubris – a quality that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex surely possess in spades – the saga of Prince Harry’s security is surely the gift that keeps on giving. His attempts to obtain British taxpayer-funded armed protection whenever he brings his family back to the UK have been expressed with much fervor and repetitiveness. And now, in this season of miracles, it looks as if he might have got his wish after all.  It seemed certain, after various expensive and amusingly humiliating courtroom defeats, that Harry’s desire to hire members of the London Metropolitan Police as his private security detail whenever he is back in the country of his birth would be denied.

Edward Howell

What are Ukrainian children doing in North Korea?

The regime of North Korea has continued to exploit the war in Ukraine to spread its propaganda. This week we learned that Ukrainian children, abducted by Russia, are being sent to an infamous North Korean summer camp. The children have reportedly been taught to "destroy Japanese imperialists" and heard from North Korean soldiers who destroyed the USS Pueblo, a spy ship captured and sank by North Korea in 1968.  This Ukrainian children have been at the Songdowon International Children’s Camp, located near the port city of Wonsan on the country’s east coast.

Gavin Mortimer

Yes, Europe’s civilization is being erased

Last week the Trump administration expressed its fear that Europe faces "civilizational erasure." Its concern was articulated in a 33-page National Security Strategy that outlined Donald Trump’s world view and how America will respond economically and militarily. The sentence that caused the most reaction on the other side of the pond was the assertion that, if current trends continue, Europe will be "unrecognizable in 20 years or less." Those trends are mass immigration and what conservative French commentators call the "Islamification" of Europe. If Europe doesn’t address these trends, the Trump administration predicts the continent’s "civilizational erasure.

Friday

Lee Cohen

Why shouldn’t Trump deport Prince Harry?

There are many things Americans admire about Britain – Shakespeare, Churchill and parliamentary democracy (on a good day). Above all, we admire the monarchy: that ancient, faintly miraculous institution which maintains its dignity even as the rest of the West dissolves into hashtag-fueled hysteria. What we do not admire, however, is being used as a backdrop for Prince Harry’s increasingly frantic attempts to remain relevant. No, I do not actually wish for President Trump to deport Harry to the Tower of London – although the image is, I confess, delicious, and might conceivably enjoy rare cross-party support on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Cockburn

Milo Yiannopoulos holds forth on the origins of homosexuality 

Are we becoming “faggotized?” According to Milo Yiannopoulos “everything has gone gay” – food, music, fashion, showbiz and – significantly – politics. On a new installment of The Tucker Carlson Show the former Breitbart journalist and Kanye West consigliere set out his general theory of male homosexuality.  Male gayness is not something you were born with, argued Milo, but is instead a “set of behaviors” caused by something misfiring about a man’s relationship with masculinity at an early age. For this devouring mothers or “nebbish fathers” are usually to blame; indeed, much of the rest of a male gay’s life can be seen as an elaborate attempt to get revenge on the parental figure who failed them.

Thursday

Sarah Beth Spraggins

Trump’s peace process pageantry

The US Institute of Peace was taken over by DoGE in January and now appears to have undergone a makeover both inside and out. Its new name is emblazoned on the front: “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.” The President loves deals and good branding, perhaps as much as he professes to love peace. On Thursday, in the high-ceilinged atrium of the building, he hosted a celebration of a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The actual peace agreement in question was signed over the summer with shaky results. Nevertheless, leaders from several East African nations, as well as the UAE and Qatar turned up to bear witness to the ceremonial acknowledgement of the agreement.

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