Donald Trump’s second term is going no better than his first. He has failed to end the war in Ukraine, failed to produce a credible healthcare plan, and failed to rein in government spending. Inflation remains elevated, unemployment is rising, and growth is slowing. Strip out AI investment and deficit spending, and the underlying economy … Read more
Reform UK’s donor list this year reads like a map of global capital. A £9 million donation from a businessman based in Thailand. Hundreds of thousands from a telecoms entrepreneur born in Beirut with global interests. Large sums emerging from corporate vehicles and overseas-linked donors. Fund raising dinners in Dubai hosted by Mumbai billionaires. According … Read more
The schism on Britain’s hard right is no longer gossip; it is formal. Rupert Lowe, reportedly buoyed by encouragement from Elon Musk’s online ecosystem, has launched a rival to Reform. His one-MP outfit is called Restore. The launch, staged in Great Yarmouth, leaned heavily into hard-line rhetoric on immigration and “national restoration”: mass deportations, drastic … Read more
I was in Barcelona last weekend. One of the world’s best cities. It also happened to be the opening weekend of Melania, the new documentary about Melania Trump, and the promotion was impossible to miss. A massive billboard dominated Plaça de Catalunya. Every bus stop seemed to have her face on it. Amazon money, very … Read more
Trump is bonkers Donald Trump’s speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos was a rambling, incoherent mess. His letter to the Prime Minister of Norway was equally unhinged, blaming Norway’s failure to award him the Nobel Peace Prize for the crisis over Greenland. He appears not to understand the difference between Norway and Denmark … Read more
The biggest political story of the weekend wasn’t the soap opera around Andy Burnham. It was the death of the Conservative Party. For those who missed it, there has been a furious online row among the British right over the Government’s decision to hand over the Chagos Islands. In the real world this is not … Read more
Oil, Renewables and the Slow Unravelling of Petro‑States With Venezuela back in the headlines, another oil state is once again under pressure for regime change. This time the focus is Iran. Iran has faced mass protests against its authoritarian regime before, but the current moment feels more brittle. The country is not only grappling with … Read more
On the morning of January 3, U.S. forces struck Caracas, seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and flew them out of the country. Once again, the United States has undertaken a military operation that was efficiently executed in pursuit of an uncertain political objective. A dramatic first step has been taken, while the … Read more
Predictions This year has been dominated by a convergence of authoritarian and illiberal governments, antisystem parties — typically on the far right — and sympathetic private actors coordinating their messaging and lending each other material support. Many people who would historically have recoiled from far-right politics have instead been drawn in through a constant churn … Read more
TV in 2025: Streaming, Distraction and the End of Attention For a century, the business of running a Hollywood studio was simple. The more people watched films, the more money studios made. Box office receipts were the signal. Attention equalled profit. Streaming broke that relationship. Netflix audiences don’t pay for individual films or shows. They … Read more