All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Giorgia Meloni has not cracked Italy’s migrant crisis. On the contrary, the number of migrants crossing the central Mediterranean is on the rise once more. A total of 47,313 migrants have crossed this year up to 12 September, which is 3,000 more than the same period in 2024. The vast majority makes land on the
There’s a certain thrill in saying, ‘I told you so.’ We all relish the moment when our warnings are vindicated, when the world finally catches up with our foresight. But this time, I genuinely take no pleasure in it. I said Britain would begin to crack, and now it is. I’m exhausted by those who,
We are in the grip of old habits. We assume, most of us, that when a prominent political figure is assassinated, the motive for the killing is political. So it was with Charlie Kirk’s assassin. Before anything was known about the killer, President Trump’s allies and outliers decided that it was a symptom of the
Over the weekend, Prince Harry attracted the best headlines and coverage in this country that he has received for months – possibly since he and Meghan staged their abdication of all responsibilities and fled to Montecito in 2021. This was all because of his carefully choreographed charitable and public endeavours. The praise included ‘how easy
The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party continued its westward march in popularity across Germany yesterday, securing third place in the local elections in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Preliminary results show that, alongside the outcomes of mayoralty and district administrator elections which took place in the state, the far-right party won 14.5 per cent
On Saturday morning, I skipped synagogue and went to the Tommy Robinson march instead. By the time I arrived at Whitehall to collect my press pass for the Unite the Kingdom rally, the sun was shining and the stage was still being set up. I had optimistically planned to go straight to Shabbat prayers and
Chaos continues to follow the prime minister, as damning emails between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein were made public, forcing Keir Starmer to sack the UK ambassador to the US just days before Trump’s scheduled state visit. Details of the emails were reportedly given to Downing Street on Tuesday, but Starmer defended Mandelson in the
The global military-industrial complex and its outriders were rammed into a giant indoor pigsty. Dealers and manufacturers and military men and politicians and officials from murky agencies and guys in cowboy hats and sunglasses who only really came to have their photos taken with guns – all of them in a crush to use a
In the early hours of 20 August, a 17-year-old girl set off on her bicycle, making the journey from central Amsterdam to the nearby village of Abcoude after a carefree evening out. What followed was any parent’s worst nightmare. In distress, the girl dialled emergency services, reporting that she was being chased and assaulted by
The UK’s worklessness problem is a well-documented crisis. Over six million people in the UK – almost a sixth of the working-age population – are on out-of-work benefits, a number that has nearly doubled in the last seven years. The government’s attempt to begin to address this with the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment
Ever since Graham Linehan’s bail restrictions were relaxed and the Father Ted creator was allowed back on X, he’s been firing off a blizzard of posts with the urgency of a man who senses that, for the first time in years, he is finally being taken seriously. One post particularly caught my eye. It stated: ‘BBC
Since Labour’s triumphant return to power barely a year ago, the party in government has floundered amid a struggling economy, a lack of political vision, and an inability to pass difficult reforms. Unfortunately for Keir Starmer, the situation could yet deteriorate much further. Just look at the implosion of the Labour government in 1931. Like
The French language may not be the global lingua franca it once aspired to be, but I’ve found myself using it in some unexpected places far beyond the Hexagon. Near the busy port of Keelung (pronounced Ji-long), beneath the steep hills surrounding a natural harbour less than twenty miles from Taiwan’s capital Taipei, is a
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Freddy Gray is joined by Heather Mac Donald, fellow at the Manhattan Institute. They discuss how race and crime grips America, and the epidemic of violence in inner-cities.
Call him a tech bro’, a hustler or even – hiss! – a Starmerite. But my word, I’m keen on my MP – and recently promoted business secretary – Peter Kyle, the Honourable Member for Hove and Portslade. That doesn’t mean I voted for him last time; I wasn’t going to assist Robbie the Robot
The ‘nonce party.’ That’s how Zarah Sultana described the Labour party at a rally in Brixton last night where the independent MP for Coventry South addressed supporters of her new movement, Your Party. She claimed to have posted numerous images of Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein on her X account, but her warnings went unheeded
Is patience with Javier Milei finally wearing thin? The bombastic leader of Argentina was sent a clear message of discontent by the electorate last week when he lost the province of Buenos Aires in a landslide local election. Although the contest has little consequence for the national picture, it will be causing consternation in Milei’s
France is taking the place of Italy, it seems, as the basket case of Europe. The turn-over of prime ministers in France – five now since the start of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term in 2022 – is worse even than Italy has ever managed. Since the fall of fascism in 1945 Italy has notoriously
If I were Rachel Reeves, my absolute priority would be to incentivise high earners to work hard for as long as possible. After all, the 10 per cent of taxpayers with the largest incomes contribute over 60 per cent of all income tax receipts. So, keeping them onside and busy would, you’d have thought, be a
In October 1972, Wael Zwaiter, the representative for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in Rome, returned to his apartment building on Piazza Annibaliano. After entering the lobby and pressing the button for the lift, he was ambushed by two Mossad operatives lying in wait who shot him 11 times and left him to die in a pool of blood. Within hours, the four-man hit squad
Another Banksy appeared this week, this time on the flank of the Grade I-listed Royal Courts of Justice in London. Naturally, the world’s news agencies leapt to attention. Not because of the image – a judge walloping a protester is the sort of wit you’d find on a novelty birthday card – but because the press
Beside me, children sing the ‘Hokey Cokey’. I subconsciously put my left foot in – and out – under the desk, where I face an empty page. Willing concentration to return, I turn to a tried and tested method: staring out of the window. The small garden is a stage for white butterflies that flutter
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Donald Trump touches down in Britain next week for his state visit and political editor Tim Shipman has the inside scoop on how No. 10 is preparing. Keir Starmer’s aides are braced for turbulence; ‘the one thing about Trump which is entirely predictable is his unpredictability,’ one ventures. Government figures fear he may go off
‘This was Parliament at its best’, so went the inane and factually incorrect mantra of Kim Leadbeater as her Assisted Dying Bill made its way through the House of Commons. It did so on the back of intense duplicity about its safeguards by its sponsors and by the simple fact that the vast majority of
Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from south-west Utah, has been detained over the shooting of Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of Donald Trump. Author and anthropologist Max Horder joins Freddy Gray to discuss the cocktail of online hate and tribal divisions that’s fuelling America’s new era of political violence.
Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin is keeping a close eye on the ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ campaign, and he does not like what he sees. According to Martin, society must say no. ‘Watching what is happening in the UK, I don’t like it. We, so far, have resisted a lot of what has transpired in other societies,’ he
20 min listen
The fallout from Lord Mandelson’s sacking continues. All eyes are now on Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – could he take the fall for Mandelson’s appointment? As Whitehall editor of the Sunday Times Gabriel Pogrund tells James Heale and Lucy Dunn, Mandelson and McSweeney’s relationship stretches back to New Labour. But, Pogrund warns,
George Abaraonye was elected in June to be the Oxford Union president for Hilary term 2026. He is a PPE student at University College and was the Union’s director of press when he became president-elect. The Oxford Student reported that he ran independently ‘under the #RESET slate and endorsed by the #HOPE slate’. He has certainly
To the US, where the FBI has been searching for Charlie Kirk’s shooter, after the 31-year-old was tragically killed while speaking at an Utah Valley University event. The Trump ally was a firm advocate of free speech and debate, and his death has shocked supporters across the world. The FBI has given a statement this
As with so many political assassinations across the Atlantic – the Kennedys, Martin Luther King –Charlie Kirk’s killer is likely to be some deranged individual, a lone wolf driven by fevered delusions, perhaps, or a sick, mentally ill person. His murder, though, is anything but mundane. Kirk was not just another talking head; he was
The bloody ideological instability of the United States – demonstrated this week by the horrific killing of Charlie Kirk – has a root cause that is not widely discussed, except in shallow and polemical ways. The nation of the United States was built on a faultline It is theopolitics. That means the relationship of religion
What do Ireland and Spain have in common? This week, the answer is Jews. On Monday, Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, came out with a truly bonkers – bonkers shocking, that is, rather than bonkers amusing – statement while announcing sanctions against Israel. Sánchez was angry that he couldn’t nuke the Jews (sorry, Israel): “Spain, as you
Lord Peter Mandelson is to the “Third Way” what Roger Stone is to populism – an alte kameraden from the freewheeling early days. A pinstriped broker and fixer. Whatever ultimately comes of the association with Jeffrey Epstein that has just cost him his job as ambassador to the United States, that such a figure was ever appointed