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Jun 24, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Philip Patrick |Ella Johnson |Jonathan Spyer |Oliver-James Campbell
Thailand has just passed a “landmark” marriage equality bill, which will pave the way for the recognition of same-sex unions in the Land of Smiles. The upper house in Bangkok comfortably approved the measure on Tuesday, and as soon as King Maha Vajiralongkorn signs it off Thailand will become the first Southeast Asian jurisdiction to formally legalize gay marriage. Equality campaigners in Japan will be watching these developments closely.
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Jun 24, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ella Johnson |Philip Patrick |Jonathan Spyer |Oliver-James Campbell
Donald Trump spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition on Saturday, with a few speakers deeming him “the anointed one.”Trump spoke for approximately one hour and twenty-five minutes. The coalition slotted multiple hype-men right before he appeared, including Republican governor Kristi Noem.
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Jun 24, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Jonathan Spyer |Oliver-James Campbell |Toby Young |Charles Moore
Tensions on Israel’s northern border are currently at their highest point since the outbreak of hostilities in October last year. On Friday, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres said: “One rash move — one miscalculation — could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination.”The latest reports indicate that the US has declared it will give Israel its “full support” in the event of war with Hezbollah.
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Jun 23, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Charles Moore |Oliver-James Campbell |Toby Young |Daniel Rey
OdessaOur conference here is about Black Sea security, where I am the guest of UK Friends of Ukraine. Its subject reflects one of Ukraine’s greatest, yet least publicized successes. Almost a third of the Russian fleet has been destroyed, mostly by sea drones. The rest is trapped in ports much further east. As a result, almost normal amounts of grain and other goods flow to the wider world.
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Jun 23, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Oliver-James Campbell |Toby Harnden |Douglas Murray |Morgan Marietta
Open one of the major novels by Honoré de Balzac and you are likely to encounter a sentence such as this, from Cousin Bette: “Towards the middle of July, in the year 1838, one of those vehicles called milords, then appearing in the Paris squares for the first time, was driving along the rue de l’Université.” Or this (from César Birroteau): “On winter nights there is no more than a momentary lull in the noise of the rue Saint-Honoré.” It is the same story in Père Goriot (rue...
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Jun 23, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Toby Young |Oliver-James Campbell |Charles Moore |Daniel Rey
I’m in New Zealand on a speaking tour organized by the Kiwi Free Speech Union and in some ways it’s like visiting Britain in a more innocent era. This struck me when I went on a tour of the Hobbiton movie set, where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed. The Shire of Tolkien’s imagination, lovingly created by Peter Jackson, is an idealized version of rural England — and New Zealand, with its perfectly manicured lawns and open-faced, friendly people, is a bit like that.
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Jun 15, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Jonathan Spyer |Oliver-James Campbell |Toby Young |Charles Moore
On the right flank the aristocrats of the conservative intelligentsia dominated by the likes of Max Boot, David Frum, David French, Bill Kristol and George Will would rather compromise than soil their false pride; the haughty intellectual snobs are thus perfect targets for Alinsky’s “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules” — aristocratic intellectual elites that would rather die than support a judicial and policy juggernaut with bad table manners.
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May 13, 2024 | 
msn.com | Oliver-James Campbell
Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
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May 13, 2024 | 
theguardian.com | Oliver-James Campbell
As someone who has been hard of hearing since I was a teenager, I read with great interest about the case of Opal Sandy – the 18-month-old British toddler who has recently had her hearing “restored” in a pioneering medical trial. Opal was born with auditory neuropathy, which is caused by the disruption of nerve impulses travelling from the inner ear to the brain, and which left her completely deaf.
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May 10, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Jonathan Spyer |Oliver-James Campbell |Toby Young |Charles Moore
In the weirder quarters of the right-wing internet, kooks have long made comparisons between Donald Trump and the emperors of Ancient Rome — viewing him as a Caesar wronged by his rivals and betrayed by his friends, willing that one day his successor might avenge him. A story this week gave fuel to the fire that Trump’s youngest son Barron would become the Octavian to his Julius.
