Politics

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Why Lindsey Graham was always ready for war

Political lives almost always end in failure, or at least anticlimax, but Lindsey Graham went to his reward while in the midst of achieving his goals. Indeed, even the timing of his death might advance one of the causes dearest to him. He had just returned from a visit to Kyiv and his fellow advocates of greater US involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war have questioned whether he might not have been murdered by Vladimir Putin. The evidence is against that but the South Carolina senator certainly had deadly enemies: he was high on Iran’s hit-list as well. For decades, he’d called for the use of force against the ayatollahs’ regime and he lived to see that call answered. The Republican aviary still has many other hawks. But can any take Graham’s place?

Will Lindsey Graham be remembered as a great senator?

Already the denunciations of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died at 71, are piling up. Former Republican operative Steve Schmidt’s verdict was not untypical. He declared on X that Graham not only “lacked a moral core,” but also found relevance “as a cast member in the most malignant reality show ever made.”  There’s never been a bummer rap. Graham’s moral center was never in greater evidence during the Trump era. Had Graham not aligned himself with Trump, American foreign policy would look vastly different over the past several years. Rather than delivering pompous, empty speeches like former senator Jeff Flake, he made a conscious decision to influence Trump rather than flee the field of fight.

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America is still gripped by the gerontocracy

What do senior Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and Iran’s new Supreme Leader have in common? Not a lot, except that both men are currently being hidden from public view – and nobody seems to know for sure if either Mitch or Mojtaba Khamenei is alive or dead. Iran is a brutal theocratic regime where the truth tends to be suppressed. America is meant to be a free and democratic society. Yet the 84-year-old Senator for Kentucky has been in hospital since June 14 and rumors are spreading that he is brain-dead, on life-support, or possibly worse, and the party leadership appears to be covering up the facts about his health.

The violent rage of North African hooligans

A police officer was hospitalized on Thursday night in London as Moroccans vented their fury at losing to France in the World Cup quarter-final. Riot police were deployed to the Edgware Road after Moroccans set off fireworks and chucked debris at officers. Police arrested four people for "violent disorder." There was also tension overnight in several Dutch cities, although the rioting wasn’t as bad as a fortnight ago when Morocco beat Holland in the World Cup. On that occasion police subdued hooligans with a water cannon and numerous arrests were made. There were also ugly confrontations in Toulouse last weekend when Moroccan fans celebrated beating Canada by attacking police officers.

Israel’s plan for a new Iran war

Metaphorically speaking, champagne bottles were uncorked in the Jerusalem office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Donald Trump declared at the NATO summit in Ankara that the ceasefire with Iran was over. Trump’s remarks – in which he branded Iran’s leaders "scum," "a cancer" and "liars" – were sweet music to Netanyahu and his government.  The 60-day ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan and Qatar on June 17 to end the war between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other – a war that began on February 28 – was effectively imposed on Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister, Mossad, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Air Force all wanted the fighting to continue.

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Fact check: Rupert Lowe on Joe Rogan

The American right has developed a morbid fascination with Britain over the past two years, particularly after Elon Musk began tweeting about grooming gangs. Some European influencers have found it lucrative to present Britain and parts of the continent as having "fallen," posting videos of crimes by immigrants and appearing on American podcast networks as weary ambassadors from broken countries to warn: "It could happen here." Yesterday The Joe Rogan Experience podcast released a two-hour interview with Rupert Lowe, leader of Britain's Restore party. Was Lowe there merely to create content – or is Restore a serious political party? Some of his statements suggest it’s the former rather than the latter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

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Both Iran and Trump need peace

The US military has launched a fresh round of strikes against Iran – the second in the past 48 hours – after President Donald Trump declared the fragile ceasefire agreement between the two sides was “over.” Trump said the latest attacks were in “retribution” for Iranian strikes on three cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump, in an angry tirade, referred to the Iranian leadership as ‘scum’ Trump added that if there were further attacks on shipping “it will get much worse!” The strikes hit a railroad bridge in Iran’s northeast, according to Iranian state media, as well as a military base in the coastal city of Bushehr, which is the site of the country’s only civilian nuclear plant.

Marine Le Pen’s return is a nightmare for French centrists

Marine Le Pen’s comeback has thrown France’s presidential election into disarray as rivals for the Élysée Palace scramble to revise their game plans. Before this week’s court ruling opened the way for Le Pen to enter the presidential race, other declared candidates on the left and right were counting on her lieutenant Jordan Bardella to be the right-wing National Rally’s candidate. Bardella has definite strengths, especially his handsome looks and appeal to young voters thanks to his massive following on social media. But his youth and inexperience, at age 30, are a handicap that opponents almost certainly were planning to exploit, especially in live television debates. Now it appears the Bardella scenario is off.

Why is the Iran war back on?

As the NATO summit in Ankara draws to a close today, it wouldn't be a Donald Trump summit without a few shocks. The ceasefire between the US and Iran has collapsed, and Trump has branded the Iranians "scum." But what does this mean for NATO and the rest of the world? Freddy and Owen Matthews discuss what the end of the US-Iran ceasefire means for Trump's presidency, why the agreement broke down so quickly, and what NATO's reluctance to provide military support to the US could mean for the wider conflict.

Why is the Iran war back on?
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Andy Burnham is Britain’s Biden

Watching Andy Burnham in Manchester, dressed in his T-shirt and jacket and pronouncing the return of a more old-fashioned, pro-worker left, I had a sense of déjà vu. I had seen this movie before, but with different accents. For the politician Burnham obviously resembles is not British at all – it is Joe Biden. Just like Biden, Andy Burnham’s self-image is based on the idea that those on the left are the tribunes of ordinary working people, not progressive elites. Like Joe Biden, Andy Burnham is a provincial throwback to an earlier time, just from the North West, not the Midwest. Just like Biden, Burnham rails against the "neoliberal" changes of the 1980s, which he blames for the economic problems of today.

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Trump has not forgotten about Greenland

If European leaders had a bingo card of all the fights Donald Trump could pick with them, at this week’s NATO summit in Ankara they would have won a blackout. Starting as he meant to go on, Trump used a joint briefing with NATO chief Mark Rutte this morning to reheat his litany of grievances with fellow members of the alliance. Trump today declared that he was "not happy with NATO because of what they did with Greenland" and their refusal, as he sees it, to help the US with the war in Iran. Greenland, the President said, was a "big problem for us," going on to claim – falsely – that "it’s not important for Denmark.

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How Trump inadvertently boosted Europe’s defense industry

With all the Hollywood drama and heart-pounding music of a Mission: Impossible trailer, NATO screened a short promotional film at its Ankara summit to showcase the military hardware it plans to buy to hit Donald Trump's defense spending target. One of the aircraft featured in the mini-movie was even an A400M – the heavy-lift plane that Tom Cruise clung to the side of in the fifth installment of his action film franchise. When the lights came back up, NATO’s Secretary General, Mark Rutte, shook hands, slapped backs and made clear that NATO had not only chosen to accept Trump’s mission to boost spending, it was now delivering.

Prince Harry has lost his most high-stakes gamble

It was always going to go this way. Every gambler eventually loses, and the higher profile that loss, the greater the eventual humiliation. But today’s judgment that Prince Harry as well as his other high-profile litigants – including Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and Baroness Lawrence – have lost their claims completely against Associated Newspapers for unlawful information gathering, thereby bringing to a deeply humiliating and unimaginably expensive end to their crusade against the British media, represents the end of the biggest gamble that this litigation-prone prince has ever taken. Anyone watching the trial will be unsurprised by the verdict.

Graham Platner’s defenders are the biggest losers of his implosion

Democrats are finally pulling the plug on Graham Platner, the failson whose juvenile addiction to schizophrenic online message boards, rad Nazi tattoo, anti-Israel rhetoric, mean drunkenness, infidelity and alleged abuse of women they believed would appeal to the white working-class men they loathe. But they’re only doing so after Politico revealed Monday that “A woman who dated Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections.

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Will the ‘anti-Trump playbook’ work in Britain?

Commentators were so busy fulminating against Trump’s FIFA shenanigans yesterday they mostly missed his intervention in the big story now roiling British politics. "They’re Running the 2024 Anti-Trump Playbook on Nigel Farage," the President posted on Truth Social, linking to an article on the National Pulse, an American media site founded by Farage’s old mucker Raheem Kassam. The point, now being repeated by Reform’s talking heads on TV, is clear. "They" – the SW1 elite – are trying to stop Nigel Farage, just as the Washington establishment mounted a ridiculously elaborate lawfare campaign to try to stop Donald Trump.

Should Paul Pelosi be on the road?

When President Trump refers to Nancy Pelosi as “Nervous Nancy,” you might assume he’s talking about her policies or leadership style. But maybe she’s just worried about her husband’s driving. Paul Pelosi was driving in Napa County Friday when he hit a parked car and briefly stopped before leaving the scene of the crash. The damage has been described as “major.” Deputies later found Pelosi’s convertible nearby with damage consistent with the hit. According to a statement released by the Napa County Sheriff’s Office, Pelosi told deputies he was aware he had hit something but “he did not know what he had hit, so he kept driving.” While reports cited a lack of alcohol in his system, he still faces possible misdemeanor charges of a hit-and-run.

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Trump reveals the limits of American power

Donald Trump’s quest for regime change in Iran has backfired horribly. The President misunderstood the resilience of the 47-year-old Islamic Republic of Iran, the strategic calculations of one-time ally Israel and the physical and political geography of the Strait of Hormuz. Vice President J.D. Vance appears now to be positioned as the public face of failure. The decision to launch the assault on Iran was underpinned by Israeli confidence that Iran’s leadership could be toppled and that the United States’ overwhelming firepower would produce shock and awe. It came in the immediate aftermath of plans to acquire Greenland, incorporate Canada, assert dominance over the Panama Canal and topple the then Venezuelan government. Cuba is no doubt next on Trump's list.

Anthony Scaramucci on Trump, Corruption & America at 250

Anthony Scaramucci on Trump, Corruption and America at 250

37 min listen

To mark the 250th anniversary of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, Anthony Scaramucci joins The Spectator to provide his assessment of the health of the nation. As we approach the halfway point of the second Trump presidency, what's his impact been on America's reputation? Will the Democrats' attempts to emulate Trump help or hinder them? And why are American conservatives so obsessed with Britain – or rather, Britain's supposed decline? Declaring Trump "an aging queen" under whom "the spirit of hypocrisy lives on" in America, the former White House communications director joins Freddy Gray and Tim Shipman for this special Coffee House Shots/Americano crossover to mark the Fourth of July. Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Natasha Feroze. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Germany is quietly falling apart

In Germany, the trains have stopped running on time, bridges have been shut over safety fears, and the country's largest carmaker, Volkswagen, is cutting a sixth of its workforce. The government's response amounts to a shrug, dressed up as reform. It seems like Germany is on a bad streak – and the AfD looks set to reap the rewards. Why does a country that still thinks of itself as Europe's engine room seem to have lost the ability to fix its own bridges? Take the railways, the infamous Deutsche Bahn. A few weeks ago, they ground to a total halt. Every train in the country stood still, because the radio system that lets drivers talk to signal boxes – a system that appears to date, in spirit if not in silicon, from the Kaiserreich – simply stopped working.

Trump brings the thunder for America’s 250th birthday

Who ever let a spot of rain get in the way of a good time? Donald Trump’s July 4 festivities were delayed by several hours due to the threat of thunderstorms. On the National Mall, Secret Service agents did their darnedest to urge some of the President’s more avid supporters toward shelter: in the Blacksonian, the Commerce Department, the IRS. Many were reluctant, despite the blackening skies and flashes of lightning in the distance. “It’s not a debate, keep moving,” agents said. Confusion filtered through the crowd as to whether the night’s celebrations were canceled or merely delayed. Attendees milled aimlessly around the Washington Monument grounds, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as “The metric system can’t measure freedom.

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Trump’s America is losing its mojo

The heat is on. The R&B group Kool and the Gang may be co-headlining the historic "A Capitol Fourth 250th Weekend Celebration," but that isn’t doing anything to cool the flaring political tempers in Washington during a record heatwave. Instead, the two-week-long "Great American State Fair" on the National Mall to celebrate American emancipation from British tyranny has turned into the birthday party gone wrong. The first sign that things were going awry for the party planners came a few weeks ago with the clumps of algae that began clotting the reflecting pool in central DC, which President Trump had tasked a company called Green Water Solutions to renovate. The company was true to its name. Green Water produced green water.