America
The skull beneath the skin: Ghost Pains, by Jessi Jezewska Stevens, reviewed
Pain lurks below the surface of these sardonic short stories. Happiness is fleeting, and ‘we carry death within us like a stone within a fruit’, one narrator observes
Emergency on Planet Biden
‘If aliens attacked Earth, do you think we would be safer under Joe Biden or Donald Trump?’ That’s a question…
At least Britain isn’t that corrupt
Long-time readers may recall that I take a special interest in the art of corruption. And this week America has…
Children need protection from adult madness
The Texas Supreme Court just upheld a state law banning so-called gender-affirming care for minors, to explosive consternation from predictable…
From revolutionary Paris to the moon
Thirlwell’s protagonist Celine flees malicious gossip in revolutionary France to ponder on sisterly solidarity, patriarchal violence, motherhood, colonialism and slavery
What’s gone wrong for Ron DeSantis?
Where did it all go wrong for Ron?
Barometer
Mx Universe A transgender woman was named ‘Miss Netherlands’, and will now compete in the Miss Universe contest. British TV…
Heritable guilt is in vogue
I made a poor excuse for a Presbyterian even as a kid. I resented religious indoctrination every precious school-free Sunday.…
Joe Biden is not OK
One of the most reliable standards in international comedy has long been the outstanding ineloquence of American politicians. In this…
Judge, jury and executioner
‘Immediate Justice’, the government’s new policing initiative of pursuing petty criminals, reflects the black-clad law-enforcer’s 1970s methods exactly
Can Trump’s opponents prove him wrong on Ukraine?
His opponents need to prove him wrong on Ukraine
Haunted by Old Russia: Rachmaninoff’s lonely final years
Exiled from Russia and often denigrated in America, Rachmaninoff lived in a fug of unbearable, impenetrable sadness, says Paul Kildea
The myths around immigration
After the media bigged up the expiration of America’s Covid-era Title 42, which enabled the US to block entries into…
Daniel Penny and the problem with have-a-go heroes
I have always liked the phrase ‘have-a-go hero’. It sums up a certain type of person who can emerge from…
The US knows the main threat is China
China’s President Xi Jinping opened the CCP’s 20th party congress by doubling down on four key issues: no let up…
Does Joe Biden know what ‘super-wealthy’ Americans pay in tax?
Joe Biden, ice cream in hand as so often, yesterday pronounced on Liz Truss’s tax reform disaster. ‘I wasn’t the…
What Washington was like during the Cuban Missile Crisis (2002)
On 27 October 1962, US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara stepped out of crisis meetings and looked up at the sky.…
Opec will regret taking on the US
Production will be cut. Supplies to the rest of the world will be curbed. And inflation will rise just a…
Isis is wreaking havoc in Afghanistan
The bomb tore through an examination hall in Kabul on Friday, where students – mostly minority Hazara, mostly young women…
The ups and downs of driving a Tesla
I began the week in Miami, looking forward to what a friend of mine describes as ‘the finest sight in…
America's touching tributes to the Queen (1901)
The United States hasn’t always reacted rather snidely to the death of the British monarch. Below is The Spectator’s lead…
A hereditary monarchy is good for politics
I suppose it was inevitable that with the death of HM the Queen certain floodgates would open. During her reign…
