America

Heritable guilt is in vogue

15 July 2023 9:00 am

I made a poor excuse for a Presbyterian even as a kid. I resented religious indoctrination every precious school-free Sunday.…

Joe Biden is not OK

1 July 2023 9:00 am

One of the most reliable standards in international comedy has long been the outstanding ineloquence of American politicians. In this…

Judge, jury and executioner

24 June 2023 9:00 am

‘Immediate Justice’, the government’s new policing initiative of pursuing petty criminals, reflects the black-clad law-enforcer’s 1970s methods exactly

Can Trump’s opponents prove him wrong on Ukraine?

27 May 2023 9:00 am

His opponents need to prove him wrong on Ukraine

Haunted by Old Russia: Rachmaninoff’s lonely final years

27 May 2023 9:00 am

Exiled from Russia and often denigrated in America, Rachmaninoff lived in a fug of unbearable, impenetrable sadness, says Paul Kildea

Portrait of the week

20 May 2023 9:00 am

The myths around immigration

20 May 2023 9:00 am

After the media bigged up the expiration of America’s Covid-era Title 42, which enabled the US to block entries into…

Daniel Penny and the problem with have-a-go heroes

13 May 2023 9:00 am

I have always liked the phrase ‘have-a-go hero’. It sums up a certain type of person who can emerge from…

The US knows the main threat is China

22 October 2022 4:00 pm

China’s President Xi Jinping opened the CCP’s 20th party congress by doubling down on four key issues: no let up…

Does Joe Biden know what ‘super-wealthy’ Americans pay in tax?

16 October 2022 7:30 pm

Joe Biden, ice cream in hand as so often, yesterday pronounced on Liz Truss’s tax reform disaster. ‘I wasn’t the…

What Washington was like during the Cuban Missile Crisis (2002)

12 October 2022 7:00 pm

On 27 October 1962, US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara stepped out of crisis meetings and looked up at the sky.…

Opec will regret taking on the US

8 October 2022 1:47 am

Production will be cut. Supplies to the rest of the world will be curbed. And inflation will rise just a…

Isis is wreaking havoc in Afghanistan

4 October 2022 12:10 am

The bomb tore through an examination hall in Kabul on Friday, where students – mostly minority Hazara, mostly young women…

The ups and downs of driving a Tesla

1 October 2022 9:00 am

I began the week in Miami, looking forward to what a friend of mine describes as ‘the finest sight in…

America's touching tributes to the Queen (1901)

20 September 2022 3:01 pm

The United States hasn’t always reacted rather snidely to the death of the British monarch. Below is The Spectator’s lead…

A hereditary monarchy is good for politics

17 September 2022 9:00 am

I suppose it was inevitable that with the death of HM the Queen certain floodgates would open. During her reign…

Not all Americans are so crass

17 September 2022 9:00 am

In the face of American snark about the Queen’s death, many a British newspaper reader was disgusted. With bad tidings…

Back on the road: Less is Lost, by Andrew Sean Greer, reviewed

17 September 2022 9:00 am

Get ready for more of Less: Andrew Sean Greer’s hapless novelist is back on the road. First things first: you…

Mad men plotting: The Unfolding, by A.M. Homes, reviewed

17 September 2022 9:00 am

Fifteen years ago, A.M. Homes published The Mistress’s Daughter, an explosive, painful account of how she met her birth mother,…

China vs the US: who will win the chip war?

10 September 2022 9:00 am

Semiconductors are the latest battleground for China and the US

When will the West start to deal with Africa on its own terms?

27 August 2022 9:00 am

When will the West start to deal with Africa on its own terms?

The problem with Biden's student debt plan

25 August 2022 6:02 am

In Europe it is handouts to help pay our energy bills – even for people who could easily afford to…

The West cannot do business with Iran

14 August 2022 4:41 am

Salman Rushdie’s would-be assassin might have been a lone wolf. He might have had no contact with military or intelligence…

A strange kind of recession

13 August 2022 9:00 am

It’s possible that I owe Joe Biden some sort of an apology, however mealy-mouthed it might be. Last week I…

Biden’s victories look a lot like defeats

6 August 2022 9:00 am

Joe Biden’s week did not get off to a good start. When running for office in 2020 he repeatedly boasted…