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Aug 14, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Sam Leith |Alexander Horne |Europe Why |Matthew Lynn
Grade: B+Looter-shooters, match-three games, dragons and spaceships… Sometimes you despair of video games doing the same thing again and again — and then a lone developer gets a severe bump on the head and produces something completely batty.
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Jun 12, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Solveig Gold |Europe Why |Mark Galeotti
A new Pew Research poll with some stunning findings challenges common critiques from centrist and moderate politicos that the so-called “culture war” is a distraction or even imaginary. On the contrary, the results show a massive cultural chasm between Biden and Trump supporters that helps explain why America seems so politically divided — and why compromise often feels impossible.
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Jun 12, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Solveig Gold |Europe Why |Mark Galeotti
“We are really by far the biggest winner this evening,” said Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), when the European election exit polls were published last week. But although the Netherlands was first to go to the polls — with strong indications that the far right would be victorious — his “win” fell short of the storming result of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, which has sparked a political earthquake in France.
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Jun 12, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Mark Galeotti |Europe Why |Michael Hann |Katy Balls
Everyone loves Russia, or at least echoes its talking points — if you believe the country’s state media. Why should it be so important for Vladimir Putin, who tries to appear impervious to foreign criticism, to magnify any seemingly supporting words?
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May 23, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ben Domenech |Harry Cochrane |Europe Why
A record number of countries will hold elections this, including Britain on July 4 and the United States on November 5. These two great powers — each with a veto at the UN — have enjoyed a bond that has survived for so long, is it known on both sides of the Atlantic as “the Special Relationship.”There have been stand-offs: Britain refused to join the war in Vietnam, and when Argentina seized the Falkland Islands in 1982, the US did not intervene.
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May 23, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ben Domenech |Harry Cochrane |Europe Why |Ian O’Doherty
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. This old adage has taken on a new meaning for the left as Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is developing a bit of a habit for displaying allegedly “far-right” flags. In under a week, the New York Times has unearthed images of dissident flags waving proudly at the justice’s house on two separate occasions, leaving Democrats clamoring about judicial ethics.
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May 23, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ben Domenech |Harry Cochrane |Europe Why |Ian O’Doherty
Welcome to Thunderdome. One of the Biden White House’s biggest problems at the moment is that while they can point to all manner of aspects of the economy that are doing just fine — above all, the stock market — the lived experience of many key segments of the electorate is totally at odds with this analysis.
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May 23, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Harry Cochrane |Europe Why |Ian O’Doherty |Matthew Lynn
Colm Toibín’s new novel starts with a bang — or rather, the results of one. It is only on the second page that an Irishman arrives at Eilis Fiorello’s house and threatens to leave his wife’s love child on her doorstep, it being also the doorstep of the father, Tony.
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May 23, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ian O’Doherty |Europe Why |Matthew Lynn |Sam Leith
For once, the Irish government has actually done something it promised. The problem is that it’s precisely the wrong thing, at precisely the wrong time. On Wednesday, Ireland, along with Norway and Spain, committed to recognizing a Palestinian state. Ireland will formally ratify this on May 28.
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May 15, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Amelia Butler-Gallie |Solveig Gold |Europe Why
If modern America were ever to have its own “the Great God Pan is Dead” moment, it would arrive in the form of Popeyes and KFC celebrating 4/20 as a marketing boon. After all, what better way is there to signal the end of counterculture than by chomping down on some discounted fried chicken? Devotees of the “4/20” marijuana festival, commemorated globally each year, have bemoaned a string of corporate sponsorship deals which are, they sniff, at odds with the event’s hallowed “hippie” origins.
