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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | David Cohen |Matthew Lynn |Klaus Dodds |Edward Howell
Diplomatic storm clouds are gathering around the Cook Islands, a picturesque tourist destination in the South Pacific known for its creaking palms, pink beaches and deliciously warm nights. The microscopic island-nation has a long-standing “free association” with New Zealand, which sees Wellington give the islands defense and financial support.
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Oct 7, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | James Lewisohn |Europe Accusations |Gavin Mortimer |David Cohen
Nørrebro, Copenhagen’s hip, multicultural inner-city area, was crowned the world’s coolest neighborhood by Time Out in 2021. Former residents include Denmark’s greatest living film star Mads Mikkelsen. If you’ve viewed Nordic noir TV dramas depicting the nexus of hip urbanism and the tribulations of mass migration, you’ll have seen plenty of Nørrebro (sometimes called “Nørrebronx” in tribute to the formerly dangerous region of New York City).
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Oct 7, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | David Cohen |Kate Andrews |David Kaufman |Christopher Harding
New Zealand just lost one tenth of its naval defense fleet. The HMNZS Manawanui — the jewel in the nation’s small military crown — ran aground near Samoa this past weekend after hitting a reef and catching fire. The $100 million specialist survey vessel sank on Sunday morning off Samoa’s southern coast of Upolu. An order to abandon ship was made the previous evening after it got into trouble.
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Oct 7, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Gavin Mortimer |David Cohen |Kate Andrews |Europe Accusations
Emmanuel Macron has chosen to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ murderous attack on Israel on October 7 by criticizing their response. In a radio interview, the president of France announced that “the priority today is to return to a political solution, to stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza.” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the remarks shameful and said it was a “disgrace” to call for an arms embargo on Israel.
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Sep 16, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ian Williams |Freddy Gray |Juan P. Villasmil |David Cohen
So China wants to make the world more “safe, reasonable and efficient” by training thousands of police officers from across the globe to “help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities.” The offer came last week from Wang Xiaohong, China’s minister for public security, at a police forum attended by officials from 122 countries in the eastern city of Lianyungang. There were few details, but then few are needed.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ben Domenech |Suzi Feay |David Cohen |Douglas Murray
The Kamala Harris campaign team apparently based their debate strategy assuming that ABC News would prove as pliable and willing as the rest of the media toward their efforts, expecting that the rules requiring muted mics between answers would be thrown out.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Suzi Feay |David Cohen |Julie Burchill |Francis Beckett
Commentary on the young Romantics can be curiously puritanical. Not on saintly John Keats, who died too young to cause any trouble. But Byron and Shelley? Beastly to women, negligent as parents, destructive as friends, oblivious to their own privilege. Feminist observers tend to resemble the English visitors to Geneva in 1816 who borrowed telescopes to spy on the renegade inhabitants of the Villa Diodati across the lake, hoping to be scandalized.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | David Cohen |Julie Burchill |Freddy Gray |Klaus Dodds
New Zealand’s most important trading partner is also the nation’s biggest security headache, according to a new risk-assessment report produced by the country’s security intelligence service, or SIS. The government agency sees espionage activities orchestrated by Beijing as a “complex intelligence concern” for a country that has become highly dependent on China for its economic health. The baleful assessment appears in the SIS’s latest annual security threat environment report.
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Jun 17, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | David Cohen
In the UK, the Labour party has pledged to halt any new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, which the Tories today suggest could cost billions in tax revenue over the next ten years. When it comes to energy policy, Labour could really benefit from looking at what happened when New Zealand’s Labour party tried the same thing in the South Sea.
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Apr 10, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Amber Athey |Hannah Moore |David Cohen |Jonathan Spyer
Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Seraphina Rose, appeared to come out as transgender last weekend. The chosen venue for this announcement? Her grandfather’s funeral. The young lady recently got a buzz cut and wore a black suit to the memorial service, at which she introduced herself to the audience with her new name before reading a Bible verse. “Hello my name is Fin Affleck,” she told the grieving audience.
