Latest from Coffee House

Saturday

10 Oct 2026

Mulholland Drive makes perfect sense

When David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive was released in American cinemas 25 years ago this Monday, the critic Roger Ebert rejoiced that one of Lynch’s experiments at last “doesn’t shatter the test tubes.” Ebert seemed delighted that Lynch had focused on some of the more prosaic aspects of filmmaking – plot, character, dialog – instead of privileging sound and vision: he argued that his 1997 film Lost Highway was “about design, not cinema.” Lynch had been having a bad run. Lost Highway was largely panned by critics for being too obscure, and he responded with the 1999 road drama The Straight Story. It’s tempting to see The Straight Story as a wounded joke: the film was rated a family-friendly “G.

Friday

9 Oct 2026

Jawad Iqbal

Live-streaming an execution is grotesque

The public will be able to watch via livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, the US-born Muslim terrorist who shot dead 12 unarmed US soldiers. Officials in the Pentagon said that more details would follow of what would be the first public execution in the US in almost a hundred years. Nobody should be in any doubt about the abhorrent nature of Hasan’s crimes, but is that sufficient cause to turn the gravest of punishments – the death sentence – into mass entertainment? Executions are not, and should never be, public spectacles. It is the very least that is expected of a civilized democracy, which is why public viewing of executions has been a no-no for a long time now.

Freddy Gray

The execution will be televised

"Deus Vult." That, famously, is what the large tattoo on Pete Hegseth’s right bicep says. The phrase, which means "God Wills It," is a Crusader reference. Critics suggest the words have white supremacist connotations; Hegseth, formerly a major in the Army National Guard, believes it means fulfilling the Almighty’s plan to defeat America’s enemies. But what does God want? That’s a difficult question for mere mortals to answer. Does He want to see terrorists executed by firing squad on video livestreams for all the world to see? Because that’s what Secretary of War Pete desires.

Neal Pollack

Where is James Talarico?

In the midst of the most contentious Texas US Senate race in a generation, Democratic nominee James Talarico suddenly and mysteriously dropped off the campaign trail on September 29, and has yet to return, though his campaign claims a resurrection is coming tomorrow. Talarico last appeared in public at a fundraiser alongside Robert DeNiro in New York City, which isn’t in Texas. On September 30, he showed his face on Zoom at a forum for the Hispanic Business Council, and said he had the flu. “I was ready to eat my favorite quesadilla tacos, but I was starting to feel kind of under the weather a few days ago, and last night it got so bad that I went to the urgent care here in Dallas,” he said.

Charles Lipson

The mudslinging midterms

This is not an edifying election. That’s putting it delicately. Any honest survey of the quality of the candidates and the arguments they are making will leave you deeply depressed. All across the country, voters are being asked to choose among truly dreadful candidates, whose main argument is that “the other guy is much worse.” Both parties do it. They do it because it works. Unfortunately, the candidates don’t have to exaggerate to underscore how bad their opponents are. That doesn’t stop them from making it their battle cry. “My opponent is more corrupt than Tony Soprano.” “My opponent believes transgenders should play in your kid’s sport. After he’s rammed that outrage down your throat, he’ll force your kid to marry one.

Thursday

8 Oct 2026

Alexander Munguía

Rubio picked the wrong Athenian

The Pnyx is a scrubby hill west of the Acropolis where Athenian citizens once crammed together to argue, vote and, now and then, talk themselves into disaster. On Wednesday, as the sun went down behind the Parthenon, Marco Rubio stood there and told the West to rediscover its nerve. It was the best speech a western statesman has given in years, and its diagnosis is right. Europe did spend decades outsourcing its defense and much of its self-respect, and Rubio’s hymn to thumos – “the fire of passion, strength, courage, pride” – revived an oft-neglected idea. But listen to the virtues he chose. The Greeks, he said, prized “relentless ambition,” “risk and glory” and “an impatience with the notion of impossibility, chafing at all boundaries and limits.

Alexander Larman

A small victory for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Whisper it, but the tide may be turning for one of Britain’s most unpopular, and unfortunate, men. The news that Thames Valley Police have admitted to using unlawful warrants to search Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s homes when he was arrested earlier this year is undeniably a victory for the beleaguered former Duke of York. It also might well be the beginning of the end for the police investigation into allegations of his misconduct in public office. There was widespread skepticism when it was announced that Andrew would be taking the police to court, and Buckingham Palace sources were quick to stress that the King would not be funding any part of the legal process. But Andrew has now won the first round at the Royal Courts of Justice. Mr.

Lionel Shriver

The Islamification of Texas

As the UK’s contribution to worldwide carbon emissions is less than 1 percent and doesn’t affect global temperatures a jot, the worthies’ repeated justification for net zero is that Britain is obliged to set an example to the rest of the world. You may be pleased to hear, then, that in one respect the UK is indeed being held up as an example. See, say, the Nick Freitas (not Fuentes) YouTube video “Britain is gone, and America is next.” Alas, Britain serves as a cautionary tale, illustrative in conservative American circles of what happens to a western country that neglects to check wholesale Muslim immigration. In another video, “The immigration crisis that will destroy the West,” Freitas strolls through Whitechapel. “Where am I?

Douglas Murray

Reading is the ultimate life hack

The London Underground used to be a happy place for authors. We would get into a carriage and see rows of people, studiously ignoring their neighbors – unless their neighbor was a dog – and reading a newspaper or an actual, physical book. The same went for the New York subway and, to a lesser extent, all train networks. Today you get into a carriage and everyone is staring into the same phone screens that they stare into most of the rest of the day. Books give us some ability to see through, as well as put into perspective, the troubles of our time I try not to be judgmental about this, since I always try to see the best in people, however disgusting they might look.

Chris Beetles

My best friend Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer was my closest and dearest friend for 40 years. I first met him in 1986 when we were invited to be judges for a Royal Watercolor Society Open Exhibition. We hit it off immediately. There was an ebullience and lightness in him that I warmed to. We met up later for dinner and carried on meeting once or twice a week ever since. Yesterday, I went to the restaurant where we used to have breakfast and I almost ordered eggs benedict in his memory – he was always the one for the unhealthy option – but I just couldn’t bear to. He never talked about his own death, though he sometimes joked about what he’d say at my funeral; he was all about life and the immediate future. He was, in fact, talking about the future up to the time he died, about his plans for writing.

Gavin Mortimer

Do France’s student protesters have a point?

On September 21, students at the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, south-east of Paris, staged a protest. They had a list of grievances. Classes were overcrowded and there was a shortage of teachers. They were also dismayed at the decaying state of some of the school buildings and the automated university admissions platform they feel deprives them of autonomy. Students filmed the protest and uploaded the footage onto social media. It went viral. Across France, children in other secondary schools joined the protest. They aired the same complaints as their peers in Créteil – and more. Some students described seeing rats in classrooms, others of enduring leaking ceilings and moldy walls. For many, memories of the summer heatwave were still painfully fresh.

Wednesday

7 Oct 2026

Elisabeth Dampier

Could a steak chain heiress bring down Germany’s former spy chief?

Has a custody dispute involving the multi-millionaire heiress of a steak chain brought down the former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service (BND)? Yesterday August Hanning, who ran the BND from1998 to 2005, was arrested after a search of his home found documents that prosecutors say suggest he had illegally acquired BND intelligence after leaving office and used it to further his private consultancy work. It is alleged that in 2010, several years after leaving the BND, Hanning reached out to his former aide, named only as Manfred D. due to German privacy laws. Manfred had been his chief of staff and remained in that role for subsequent BND heads until March 2026.

Jacob Heilbrunn

Trump is trying to stave off a midterms disaster

Once upon a time Democrats used to ask, “What’s the matter with Kansas?” Now it’s Republicans who may be tempted to adopt the phrase. For almost a century – 94 years, to be exact – Democrats have not won a senatorial seat in the sunflower state. But what’s rapidly developing is a red undertow, thanks to President Trump’s mounting unpopularity. The widely respected Cook Report has just announced that a Senate majority is squarely in the sights of the Democrats – and moved Kansas from “lean Republican” to a toss-up state. Blimey! It’s no wonder that Trump has been barnstorming in deep red America to try and rescue the midterm elections.

Alexander Munguía

The meaning of Flávio Bolsonaro

In May, Flávio Bolsonaro sat down with Donald Trump at the White House. He made a pledge: if he were elected president, Brazil would join the Shield of the Americas, Trump's hemispheric alliance against the cartels. That pledge is now three weeks from coming due. On Sunday Flávio finished ahead in the first round of Brazil's elections, 47 percent to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 45, short of an outright win but in pole position for the runoff on October 25. Much of this is down to the dismantling of USAID. American tax dollars underpinned Brazil's left-wing establishment, with funding for progressive media, universities, Supreme Court staffers and pro-LGBT activists. Now that money is gone, and Bolsonaro Jr.

Tuesday

6 Oct 2026

Cockburn

Reports about taking out Los Angeles and San Diego are greatly exaggerated

It’s four weeks until Election Day and Donald Trump is doing his utmost to dig Republicans out of their polling hole. In theory, anyway. Trump has been rallying through red states – Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas – to try and secure existing Senate seats. But today’s Democratic pile-on concerns a throwaway comment he made last night in Nebraska. Mid-weave, of course. The President said: “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They could take out a city... ‘let ’em, let ’em take Los Angeles, let ’em take out San Diego, that’s...’ this is a very small price to pay... and it’s gonna be over with very soon, it's essentially almost over with.

Lisa Haseldine

Has the plague broken out in Russia?

On the evening of Friday October 2, Daria Shipilova, an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, died in a district hospital in the Russian city of Shelekhov. Her place of work, and the rumored circumstances of her death, have triggered a public health emergency in the region and a slew of questions: did the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, kill Shipilova? Could this metastasize into a plague epidemic in Russia? Should we – abroad – be worried? The Russian authorities have done their best to play down the link between the plague and Shipilova’s death. According to Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, Shipilova had been diagnosed with pneumonia of “unknown etiology” – i.e. of unknown origin.

Maximillian Garely

AI could make government small again

For decades, we on the liberal right have been sold the fiction that Republican lawmakers are fighting for small government. There are many reasons why the state seems to relentlessly expand no matter who is in office; an important, though overlooked, one is that it is incredibly difficult to persuade voters that smaller budgets and reduced employee counts can achieve equal or superior results. Voters might dislike bureaucracy, but they fear what happens when the machinery behind it is dismantled – what if the alternative is worse? One needs look no further than the backlash against DOGE to see that the right needs to prove a smaller government can improve citizens’ experience in dealing with it.

Alexander Larman

There will never be another Jeffrey Archer

The news of the death of Jeffrey Archer at 86 came in somehow typical circumstances. The bestselling novelist, Conservative peer and all-round reprobate was hard on the publicity trail for Adam and Eve, which he was calling his final book, although, typically, he was leaving the door ajar for future literary endeavors. Apparently his “sudden and peaceful” death came between writing sessions at his Westminster penthouse – a home where, at his famous Krug and shepherd’s pie parties, he liked to show guests the views over the Thames that Monet had once painted.

Monday

5 Oct 2026

Arnout Nuijt

The Bolsonaro comeback that has stunned the Brazilian left

Against all the odds, Flávio Bolsonaro – the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro – has come first in Brazil’s presidential election. Although there will be a second round of the presidential race in three weeks’ time, as none of the candidates secured an outright majority, the first round of these fiercely contested elections has resulted in a painful defeat for the country’s left. After securing 47 percent of the vote, Bolsonaro is in pole position for the second round, especially as three smaller right-wing candidates are out of the race. Their voters are now up for grabs.

Jim Lawley

Sánchez is heading for defeat in Spain’s snap election

Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez could have waited until August next year before facing the voters. Instead, he has called a snap election for November 29. In Sánchez's announcement, he declared that Spain had become a global benchmark for peace, feminism and prosperity, claiming the best economic and social results achieved by any democratic government in Spain. Recognizing that his “progressive” coalition government has also made mistakes, Sánchez, who has been prime minister for eight years, explained that in order to do more he needs to “renew and broaden the support of the people.” The immediate trigger was Friday’s defeat of his emergency housing legislation.

Joanna Williams

The Cornell Seven and the problem with consent

It’s October and a new academic year is underway. In Britain, students are taking diversity classes; in France, they are rioting. And in America, they are panicking about campus rape culture. Plus ça change… The legacy of the almost decade-old Me Too movement is that we ‘believe all women’ but, as the Cornell case shows, sometimes reality is more complex The case of the “Cornell Seven” has been making headlines across the US this week after a female student, known only as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit alleging she was drugged and raped by seven male students in the Chi Phi university fraternity house in October 2024. At first glance, the facts are horrific.

Simon Diggins

Why the US bombers left RAF Fairford in a rush

The hasty withdrawal by the United States of its 12 B-1 Bombers from Royal Air Force base Fairford, without explanation by the Pentagon, has fueled much speculation. The most obvious conclusion is that there is an ongoing security threat to the airbase in Gloucestershire, even after the foiling of last week’s attack, if that is what it was. The lesson for the UK from the sudden departure of the US bombers should be clear: we are now primarily responsible for own defense and security The US, while initially pleased with what they said was a good British reaction to that incident on September 27, seemed as bemused as many others as to why five men, who were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offenses, were subsequently released on bail.

Sunday

4 Oct 2026

Michael P. Gibson

Get ready to flee socialist America

Peter Thiel, as is his wont, caused a stir last week when he expressed doubts that a Republican could win the White House in 2028. In an interview in Berlin on the MD Meets podcast, the billionaire cofounder of Palantir said he was still a “Vance partisan,” but he cautioned that a debate over whether Marco Rubio or J.D. Vance would be the better nominee was less important than the threat of socialism. “If Democratic Socialists take over the Democratic party that’s a much bigger deal,” Thiel said. “That is the end of America.” The PayPal godfather has already packed for the Pampas Thiel, who is a friend of mine, foresees parallels between the dynamics of right-wing populism and left-wing socialism.

Friday

2 Oct 2026

Lukas Degutis

In pictures: The Nixon Revival

On Wednesday night, The Spectator welcomed readers and guests to our new home in NoMad for our first New York event, The Nixon Revival: why he matters again. US editor Freddy Gray chaired a lively discussion between Conrad Black, Daniel McCarthy and former Nixon staffer Geoff Shepard on the legacy of America’s 37th president — and why, more than half a century since Watergate, "Tricky Dick" is finding admirers on the American right. The discussion was livestreamed on the night and has now been edited to watch on demand, exclusively for Spectator subscribers. Watch it in full here. Before and after the conversation, readers mingled over drinks and rosé courtesy of Château Léoube, with the party spilling out on to The Spectator’s rooftop terrace overlooking Manhattan.

Freddy Gray

Is libertarianism dead? Daniel McCarthy vs. Robby Soave

45 min listen

In this episode of Americano, Freddy hosts a debate between Daniel McCarthy of the Heritage Foundation and Robby Soave of Reason magazine to examine whether libertarianism has effectively died as a vital political force or remains quietly triumphant through tech deregulation, AI innovation and unprecedented levels of individual freedom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Pedro L. Gonzalez

The right has a woman problem

The right has its own unwritten rules of political correctness. There are forbidden words, and while they might not be met with censorship, they do elicit eye rolls. One proscribed term is “misogyny.” It also happens to be the most accurate description of the right’s mood and trajectory these days. The right’s response to this trend has been to downplay it, or even deny that it is happening at all. But ignoring it will not make it go away. Political discourse often operates like a ratchet: the intensity around a given topic is constantly turned up, but the mechanism is not designed to dial back.

Freddy Gray

Can superintelligence save Trump?

Donald Trump’s greatest strength is his indefatigability. The grumblings within his administration grow louder. Inflation is stubborn, the price of oil too high, the Democrats ahead in the polls for all the key Senate election races. Yet the President is out and about, doing what he perhaps does best, which is campaigning. "Pretend I’m running, please. If we don’t win, they’ll end up impeaching me," Trump told a rally in Oklahoma yesterday. His aim is to turn the midterms into another presidential-style contest, and he’s right that the name Trump continues to be the key factor in American politics, something far more potent than the Republican party brand. As ever, though, the Donald divides opinions – and according to some surveys, his net approval rating is -23.

Daniel Beurthe

Inside the murky world of Tether

In July 2014, three aspiring entrepreneurs – Reeve Collins, Craig Sellars and Brock Pierce – launched a startup from a Santa Monica bungalow. Its product, Realcoin, was a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency: a digital token that, unlike volatile Bitcoin, could be used for everyday transactions. When the trio pitched it to Silicon Valley’s big investors, they were laughed out of the room. This could have made for a classic startup origin story, were it not for the cast behind it. Their résumés betray the whole venture as a pipe dream.

John Fund

Is Peter Thiel right about the problem of Trump’s presidency?

In Trumpworld, there are whispers that one of the boss's biggest failings is his choice of personnel. Some claim that Donald Trump's appointees are toadies, disasters or novices, and that they drag down the effectiveness of policies that make sense for America. Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech chairman of Palantir, has criticized Trump's ill-chosen apprentices. In a podcast interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Thiel laid out a harsh view of Trump’s second term compared to his first: I think the two administrations made opposite mistakes. The first administration brought in all these people who couldn’t agree, and it was just all this internal fighting. The second administration, I think overcorrected for the mistake of the first term with all these loyalty tests.

Gavin Mortimer

Will France’s school protest movement spread?

The government of France held a crisis meeting yesterday afternoon as a school protest movement intensified in violence. On Wednesday, 625 people were arrested and 83 gendarmes and police officers were injured as youths protested outside hundreds of schools nationwide. Yesterday, a school in Nantes was severely damaged after being firebombed and a fire engine was destroyed in Marseille. In the city of Reims there were fierce clashes between protesters and police, and only the use of tear gas dispersed the demonstrators. In some cities, such as Rennes, it was reported that university students were protesting alongside the high school pupils. The government claimed yesterday that the movement has been hijacked “by LFI and its far-left proxies.

Piers Morgan

The truth about Princess Diana’s brother

“Mr. Morgan,” said the faux-regal voice at the end of the line, “this is Earl Spencer. I’ve got you now, you bastard.” Suffice it to say, this call didn’t happen last week after the alleged “historian” was forced to publicly apologize for publishing a lie about me in his new book. (He accused me of being Mirror editor in 1993 when it published gym photos of Princess Diana in a notorious invasion of her privacy that cost £1 million in damages – but I didn’t join the Mirror until 1995.) However, the irony of what that call was about isn’t lost on me, 31 years later.

Thursday

1 Oct 2026

Monica Sobchak

Cornell brings back #MeToo

#MeToo is back – thanks, largely, to Cornell University. A former student, identified only as Jane Doe, alleged in a civil suit last month that seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity drugged and gang-raped her in October 2024. Most of the subsequent social media outrage blurs a few distinctions. Prosecutors looked at her initial 2024 police statement and decided not to file charges. Cornell ran its own Title IX process. The county DA says the new civil lawsuit is “dramatically different” from what she told police at the time – as her original statement suggested she consented, and that when she raised concerns, the men stopped.

Matthew Lynn

The national debt is back with a vengeance

The 5 percent barrier has long since been left behind. This week, the yield on 30-year American government bonds hit 5.6 percent, its highest level since way back in 2002, while the cost of ten-year borrowing rose to its highest level in 20 years. However hard the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tries to control it, the interest rate the American government has to pay to finance its vast deficit keeps on rising relentlessly. As it climbs towards 6 percent and perhaps even higher, surely we must soon see a change in the political debate. Three decades of financial complacency will be swept aside – and the politics of deficit reduction will be back.

Melanie McDonagh

Christa Pike should be allowed to live

Coincidentally with the sad passing of Esther Rantzen, who spent her last couple of years campaigning for assisted suicide in the UK, there’s just been an interesting case of an assisted dying going wrong. The state of Tennessee kills prisoners sentenced to death by means of an injection of pentobarbital, the same substance used by the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland (only not usually by injection) where Dame Esther had considered going after she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Pike has been executed once; that, even supporters of the death penalty must agree, is enough Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, a prisoner sentenced to death, Christa Pike, survived a double injection of pentobarbital and is now in hospital being resuscitated.