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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Edward Howell |Henry Hitchings |Philip Patrick |Justin Brierley
Month after month, it just kept plummeting. The South Korean birth rate last year earned the not-so-holy prize for being the lowest in the world. The demographic crisis faced by South Korea seems hardly the hallmark of the country’s self-proclaimed status as a “global pivotal state.” That said, the country’s fertility rate rose incrementally to a high of 0.75 births per woman in 2024, marking the first time in nine years that any such uptick has been seen.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Edward Howell |Sam Meadows |Niko Vorobyov |Philip Patrick
For a country that is notorious for its lack of connection to the outside world, North Korea is one of the world experts in cyber warfare. Only this week, North Korean hackers managed to steal $1.5 billion from the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, in what is the largest cryptocurrency hack on record. The fact that the stolen money is just over 5 percent of the country’s GDP does not mean the profits will be going to the North Korean people or economy though.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Henry Hitchings |Edward Howell |Francesca Peacock |Jonathan Sumption
For a few days in February 2000, Masayoshi Son was the richest person in the world. A risk-taker and showman, universally known as Masa, he had long been disdainful of Japan’s staid “salaryman” business culture and was riding the wave of dot-com mania. His company SoftBank, founded in 1981, had bet big on the growth of online shopping. The bullish mood didn’t last, and Masa slunk away from the limelight — but only for a while.
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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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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Matthew Lynn |Freddy Gray |Charles Lipson |Edward Howell
They won’t have liked the message or the messenger. With characteristic bluntness, Vice President J.D. Vance tore into the European Union’s smothering regulation of artificial intelligence today. Still, Europe’s leaders should listen. Vance happens to be absolutely right.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Martin Vander Weyer |Teresa Mull |Mark Galeotti |Edward Howell
When I visited Toronto with a UK delegation last winter, conversation focused on the issues of immigration, housing and inflation that were contributing to the unpopularity of Justin Trudeau, who finally announced his resignation as prime minister last month. The prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House was the slumbering python in the chandelier above the conference table: I sensed our hosts preferred not to think about how bad it might turn out to be. Well, now they know.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Matthew Lynn |Alexander Larman |Mark Galeotti |Edward Howell
So, it seems that Donald Trump wasn’t bluffing after all. On his way to the Super Bowl, the president made time to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the United States, ramping up a trade war that has been looming ever since he moved into the White House last month. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said he would slap the tariffs on “everybody.” “If they charge us, we charge them,” he said. These measures will hit Australia, Mexico, and East Asian manufacturers hard.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Freddy Gray |Edward Howell |Alexander Larman |Joan Collins
Amid the blizzard of earth-shaking Trump news, the appointment of a new British ambassador may not seem the most pressing story coming out of the nation’s capital. Yet today, Peter Mandelson will hand over his credentials to the Chief of State Protocol in Washington, DC and his arrival as His Majesty King Charles III’s man in America is certain to keep the “special relationship” gossip mill whirring for months to come. It could prove a brilliant appointment.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Gavin Mortimer |Edward Howell |Alexander Larman |Joan Collins
There is a wind of change blowing through the West. It emanates from Washington DC, where Donald Trump continues to dash off executive orders; more than fifty by the end of last week, the highest number in a president’s first 100 days in four decades. The liberal mainstream media is rattled. The New York Times magazine ran a piece at the weekend in which it described Trump as ‘the leading light of a spate of illiberal leaders and parties flourishing in democracies around the world’.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
thespectator.com | Philip Patrick |Edward Howell |Amy Everett |Dave Seminara
South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol has been arrested after police officers scaled fences and cut through barbed wire to detain him in his luxury Seoul residence. Suk-yeol, the first ever sitting South Korean leader to be taken into custody, was held in connection with his failed attempt to impose martial law last month. But while South Korean authorities have finally got their man, this is far from the end of the saga.
