World

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Putin’s mind games still have power over Ukraine

The air raid sirens sounded yesterday, the American embassy in Kyiv closed, as did the Italian and Greek. The British and French embassy warned nationals to take care and encouraged staff to work remotely. The Ukrainian air force warned residents of the city to seek shelter from an incoming massive air attack. And then nothing happened. It’s not clear which is more embarrassing. That the Russians seem to have been able to perpetrate a nerve-jangling hoax, not least by circulating messages on social media and messaging apps seeming to come from HUR, Ukrainian military intelligence. These claimed that a ‘particularly massive’ airstrike was on the way involving more than 300

Peter Frankopan

Will China soon rule the waves?

On Sunday morning, a communications cable between Sweden and Lithuania was damaged, almost certainly deliberately. Just hours later, the C-Lion cable, the only data link between Finland and central Europe, was severed by what authorities have diplomatically called an ‘external impact’. Most would call it sabotage. In a week where the Biden administration finally gave Kyiv authorisation to use longer-range missiles against targets in Russia, few should think it is a coincidence. Sir Walter Raleigh said that ‘whoever commands the sea commands the trade’ and that ‘whoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world – and consequently the world itself’. To understand how the English

Matt Ridley

The ‘experts’ who enabled RFK Jr’s rise

The nomination of husky-voiced, musclebound Robert F. Kennedy Jr – who once dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park – to be secretary of health and human services in the Trump administration has horrified ‘experts’, according to the BBC. A left-wing Democrat who admires the late Venezuelan Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez, hates big business, rails against the ultra-processed food that Donald Trump likes to eat and wants climate sceptics jailed, RFK Jr sounds like a BBC hero and hardly a natural member of the MAGA tribe. But his criticism of Covid vaccines catapulted him into the arms of Trump. The experts who now bash him should reflect on their

Owen Matthews

Biden’s missiles will do Ukraine no favours

With just over 60 days left in office, Joe Biden’s White House has significantly escalated the Ukraine war it had tried so hard to contain by authorising the use of US-supplied medium-range ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) and antipersonnel mines against targets inside Russia. Biden’s U-turn breaks a long-standing convention on US presidential transitions that lame-duck presidents aren’t supposed to make major foreign policy changes – especially not ones that severely constrain the stated policies of their elected successor. The immediate result has been a direct Russian threat to the US embassy in Kyiv and what German defence minister Boris Pistorius has called ‘sabotage’ of undersea internet cables in the

Ukraine

Eugene Finkel

How Ukraine can survive Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s triumph in the US presidential election is seen as a tragedy for Ukraine. Trump and Ukraine certainly have a troubled history. During Trump’s first term, when he pressured president Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, this effort led to Trump’s first impeachment. Trump’s sympathy for, indeed admiration of, Vladimir Putin is well-known. Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance claim to have a plan to swiftly end the Russian–Ukrainian war, presumably by strong arming Kyiv to cede territory to Russia and abandon its bid for Nato membership. Is Ukraine doomed and headed toward defeat and subjugation by Russia? Putin prefers fighting to a ceasefire and will likely reject any Trump

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Why Beijing is wary of a Russo-North Korean alliance

56 min listen

There have been reports that some 11,000 North Korean troops are present in Russia and preparing to take part in the Russian invasion. While not acknowledged by either country, if true, this would mark a historic milestone: the first East Asian state to send troops to Europe since the Mongol Empire.  And yet, both countries’ most powerful neighbour and ally – China – has remained suspiciously quiet about this new development. Beijing’s silence may well express a deep distrust and unease that actually characterises China’s relationship with its so-called allies. To get into the recent developments and what we can learn from the history of the relationship between these three countries, the

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Ukrainians brace for Trump’s return

‘Donald Trump is like the light at the end of the tunnel’, an American told me last night at the only Washington DC bar throwing a pro-Trump election party. For many Ukrainians, though, he’s more like the end itself. Trump has called himself ‘good friends’ with Vladimir Putin. He said ‘Ukraine no longer exists’ and that ‘even the worst deal [with Russia] would be better than what is now’. Ukrainians got the hint and hoped for a Kamala Harris’s victory. But Americans have chosen, and now Kyiv will bend over backwards, trying to convince its biggest military backer not to abandon Ukraine.  Trump has called himself ‘good friends’ with Vladimir

China

America

Europe

Jim Lawley

Spain won’t forgive and forget over Valencia’s deadly floods

The head of the Valencia regional government has just attempted an impossible task – justifying his administration’s conduct before, during and after the flash floods that killed over 220 people in the Spanish region last month.  Since the catastrophe on 29 October, relentless, richly deserved criticism has been heaped on Carlos Mazón’s right-wing Partido Popular administration, which last year scrapped a special response force for natural disasters. On the day of the floods, instead of monitoring the situation, Mazón enjoyed a leisurely restaurant lunch lasting until six in the evening and then took over an hour to reach the emergency command centre. The flood warning, when it finally came, was

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Labour vs Elon Musk

14 min listen

As Trump announces the appointment of Elon Musk to tackle US government efficiency, James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and editor Michael Gove about the dynamics of Labour’s relationship with the tech billionaire. Musk had a public spat with Labour figures over the UK summer riots, the Center for Countering Digital Hate – co-founded by Starmer’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney – is facing a congressional investigation, and some Labour figures are even calling on the party to quit X/Twitter. Should Musk’s closeness to president-elect Trump worry the Labour government? But first, the team discuss Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s proposed NHS changes, and Liberal Democrat attacks on Labour’s National Insurance

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

How will progressives explain Amsterdam’s latest anti-semitic violence?

Since the scenes of Jews being hunted, beaten and kicked as they lay on the ground pleading for mercy in Amsterdam, antisemites have sought excuse, or that weaselly insinuator ‘context’, in the reported behaviour of a number of Maccabi Tel Aviv football hooligans, who are said to have attacked a taxi, tore down a Palestinian flag and sang anti-Arab chants. Video footage reportedly shows rioters chanting ‘kankerjoden’, Dutch for ‘Jewish cancer’ I wrote in the wake of those events that any Israeli fan who engaged in such yobbery is to be condemned but that their actions did not justify a modern-day pogrom that plunged Israelis and other Jews into a

Today

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Labour’s Chinese takeaway

I was thrilled to learn that our government intends to enjoy an ‘open’ relationship with China – one of my favourite countries, as I am sure it is yours. Sir Keir Starmer announced this intention when he bumped into Xi Jinping at the G20 beano in Rio de Janeiro. He also said: ‘We want our relations to be consistent, durable, respectful, as we have agreed, avoid surprises where possible. The UK will be a predictable, consistent, sovereign actor committed to the rule of law.’ Those agreeable adjectives are all Keir’s – I didn’t slip any in, surreptitiously, Not even ‘predictable’, which I assume was there to reinforce the earlier commitment

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Rising inflation, electric car targets and a tax on flatulent livestock

Home Thousands of farmers protested in Westminster against inheritance tax on farms. Tesco, Amazon, Greggs and 76 other chains belonging to the British Retail Consortium said that costs introduced by October’s Budget ‘will make job losses inevitable and higher prices a certainty’. The annual rate of inflation rose to 2.3 per cent from 1.7 a month earlier. The British economy grew by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, but shrank during September; in the second quarter it had grown by 0.5 per cent. Beth, the Queen’s Jack Russell, died. An additional 50,000 pensioners will live in relative poverty next year as a result of cuts to the winter fuel

Piers Morgan

Get ready for Elon Musk’s sex robots

My old mucker Donald Trump’s return to the White House has predictably sent the woke brigade into hysteria. From posting demented videos and shaving their heads to banning Trump supporters from having sex with them, it’s been a masterclass in the sore loser mentality they profess to despise so much in him. The Guardian is suffering a particularly embarrassing outbreak of PTSD (post-Trump-success distress). The editor’s email offer of support therapy to traumatised staff made me laugh out loud, as did the paper joining the liberal exodus from Elon Musk’s X in an equally comical fit of pique. But to be fair to the kale-munching wastrels, it can’t be easy

Yesterday

Sean Rayment

Anti-personnel mines will be very useful for Ukraine

The decision by the Biden administration to supply Ukraine with thousands of anti-personnel mines will, I imagine, be greeted with unalloyed joy within Kyiv’s corridors of military power. The US has provided Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout its war with Russia, but the addition of anti-personnel mines is aimed at blunting the advance of Russian ground troops in the east, and in the Russian region of Kursk where Ukrainian forces are fighting to cling onto the ground they captured earlier this year.  Anti-personnel mines are weapons of the utmost cynicism – they work on the premise that wounded soldiers cause more problems for an enemy than dead ones Anti-personnel mines are

James Snell

Could Ukraine go nuclear?

Should Ukraine have nuclear weapons? This is a question that was raised, a little insincerely, by President Zelensky recently as he discussed Nato membership and its alternatives. If Ukraine was not in Nato, Zelensky mused, the only alternative would be to look for protection of another kind: nuclear arms. A recent story in the Times said that Ukraine could make a ‘rudimentary’ nuclear bomb ‘within months’ if Donald Trump withdrew Ukraine’s military assistance. Russia has not used its nuclear weapons, but they have been the major reason no western power has directly intervened on Ukraine’s side. Ukraine had its own nuclear arsenal after the fall of the Soviet Union left it

Tuesday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Joe Biden has put Ukraine in an impossible position

This week, Joe Biden lifted one of the many restraints placed on Ukraine in its war with Russia. The outgoing US president has allowed Kyiv to use long-range US-made ATACMS missiles in the Russian region of Kursk, a part of which is currently held by Ukraine. Last night, Kyiv used these missiles to strike a large Russian weapons depot in the Bryansk region neighbouring Kursk, suggesting Ukraine will also be able to use ATACMS on other Russian border regions. Biden’s move is mainly intended to ‘send a message’ to North Korea – which has sent 10,000 troops to aid Russia – and to thwart the Kremlin campaign to force Ukraine out of

Limor Simhony Philpott

An Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire will never last

Could this long round of armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah finally come to an end? It’s too early to know for sure, but all signs seem to point in this direction. Lebanon and Hezbollah have reportedly agreed yesterday to a US ceasefire proposal. American envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut today to finalise a deal between the sides. It seems that there’s an agreement on most issues, and Hochstein’s role is to tie up a few loose ends. Even if an agreement is reached, it would only be a temporary solution According to the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah will have to abide by UN Security Resolution 1701 from

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Could Trump save Ukraine?

One thousand days into Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, three facts seem to be evident. First, Russia is losing. It is using its soldiers like human ammunition, burning through its economic reserves and mortgaging its future to Beijing. Second, Ukraine is losing faster than Russia. Ukraine’s forces are beleaguered along a too-long front and increasingly reliant on what looks like press-ganging for recruits. The country’s energy infrastructure is 80 per cent damaged or destroyed. The third fact: Donald Trump’s election is throwing all the old assumptions about the war into doubt. It is a sign of the odd times in which we live… Chief of the Defence Staff Sir

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Banning Marine Le Pen from politics would be a grave mistake

Paris prosecutors last week recommended that Marine Le Pen be jailed and banned from public office for five years. The court also wants similar sentences for 24 members of the party who, along with Le Pen, are accused of misusing public funds. The prosecutor accuses Le Pen of using money intended for EU parliamentary aides to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2009 and 2016. The defence’s argument is that it’s hard to differentiate between what constitutes EU work and party work as the two often overlap. The judges will study the evidence and a verdict is expected in early 2025. Le Pen was probably not surprised

Monday

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Keir Starmer’s desperate cosying up to Beijing

Keir Starmer has met President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, telling the Chinese leader that he wants to build ‘consistent, durable, respectful’ relations. China’s official Xinhua news agency said there was ‘vast space for cooperation’. It was the first meeting between a British prime minister and Xi since 2018, and Starmer proposed further top-level meetings. Starmer clearly believes that Britain can ‘speak frankly’ where it disagrees with China while pursuing closer economic ties The timing was unfortunate, not only because of the shadow of Donald Trump, and the prospect that a cosying of British relations with Beijing will put the UK at odds with a

Fabian Hoffmann

How effective will Ukraine’s ATACMS be?

Last night, US President Joe Biden authorised Ukraine to use American ATACMS – or Army Tactical Missile Systems – against targets in the Russian region of Kursk. This decision came approximately six months after ATACMS were first deployed in Ukraine. Before now, they have been limited to targets in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory. The decision from Biden appears to be a direct response to Russia amassing a large number of troops in Kursk, which Ukraine has held since August this year. Reports suggest that up to 50,000 Russian troops are currently preparing for a large-scale counteroffensive to take back the region, using 10,000 to 12,000 North Korean troops sent by Kim Jong-un. The

James Heale James Heale

Labour’s Trump-Xi balancing act

14 min listen

Keir Starmer today will become the first British leader to meet China’s Xi Jinping since 2018. The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil, and under the looming shadow of a second Trump presidency. Can Starmer strike the right balance? James Heale talks to Cindy Yu and Katy Balls. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Graham Watts

What really caused Vladimir Shklyarov to fall to his death?

At approximately 1 a.m. on Saturday, 16 November, Vladimir Shklyarov fell to his death from the fifth floor of his apartment block at Lieutenant Schmidt Embankment on St Petersburg’s Vasilyevsky Island. He was 39. That much is true. How and why he fell will be the subject of ongoing conjecture, perhaps for years to come. Shklyarov posted on social media: ‘I’m against all warfare…I want neither wars nor borders’ Nicknamed ‘the Skylark’ by English-speaking balletomanes, Shklyarov was nearing the end of his career as one of his generation’s greatest dancers, possessing an elegant lyrical, yet athletic, virtuoso performance style and technique, which was second to none. His whole career was

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Ukraine will make the most of its new firepower

Overnight, the news of Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles on Russian soil has been sinking in. Reports suggest that Kyiv is planning to use US-made ATACMS missiles for the first time in the coming days. We won’t know for sure until after the attack has taken place though – speaking at a press conference last night, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the news but said ‘strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.’ The White House was reportedly persuaded to grant Ukraine permission to use the missiles following the news that approximately 10,000 North Korean troops

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is it wise for Starmer to meet Xi?

Keir Starmer will today become the first prime minister in six years to meet with Xi Jinping. The Labour leader is due to meet with the Chinese president at the G20 summit in Brazil as Starmer’s government attempts a wider reset of UK/China relations. This is being pitched by Downing Street as a move to ‘stable and pragmatic engagement’ with Beijing following a cooling of relations in recent years. The last prime minister to meet with Xi was Theresa May in 2018 who hailed a ‘golden era of UK-China relations’. Since then, however, allegations of espionage, human rights abuses, the national security law in Hong Kong and the pandemic have

Sergey Radchenko

What will Putin do about Biden’s parting gift to Ukraine?

At the very moment most people seem to have forgotten of his existence, President Biden has slowly but purposefully shuffled across Vladimir Putin’s latest red line in Ukraine. After months of President Zelensky’s tireless pleas, the United States has finally given Kyiv a green light to use American missiles (ATACMS) for strikes deep inside Russia. Putin may well decide that it is safer to swallow his pride and pretend nothing has happened Reports indicate that Biden’s permission applies in the first instance only to the Russian and North Korean troops deployed in the Kursk region. It aims at helping Kyiv to hold on to the piece of the Russian territory that

Sunday

Michael Evans

The sad death of the Eurofighter Typhoon

Britain’s fighter jets are running missions into Syria, dropping bombs on the Houthis in Yemen, patrolling over Estonia, Lithuania and Romania, close to Ukraine, and guarding our shores from interloping Russian bombers. And yet, the Typhoon final-assembly production line at Warton in Preston has effectively come to a halt. There are no new orders from the Ministry of Defence, and there is a battle going on between Typhoon supporters and those who want Britain’s military to have more American Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft instead. The government is saying nothing because there is a strategic defence review underway. It’s an old, old story, rehearsed so many times in the past. Do

Saturday

Nadine Dorries

Nadine Dorries, Katy Balls, Edmund West, Sam Dalrymple, and Tanjil Rashid

32 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Nadine Dorries reads her diary (1:12); Katy Balls analyses the politics behind the Assisted Dying debate (5:58); Edmund West allows us a glimpse into Whitby Goth Week (11:55); reviewing Avinash Paliwal’s book India’s New East, Sam Dalrymple looks at the birth of Bangladesh (17:39); and Tanjil Rashid reveals William Morris’s debt to Islam (21:23).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Niko Vorobyov

Russia’s mephedrone problem is spiralling out of control

Russians are, stereotypically, known as heavy vodka drinkers – a fact that is often celebrated, despite all the bodily perils it entails. What’s rather less talked about is that Russia suffers one of the worst HIV epidemics outside Africa. This is thanks, in no small part, to heroin users sharing needles. But the latest challenge to public health, aside from the meatgrinder in Ukraine, is the synthetic stimulants craze behind which lie an underworld of cyber drug cartels. Russia’s drug problem is nothing new The annual death toll from illicit drugs has more than doubled since 2019 to over 10,000 a year, a gruesome trend that’s likely to continue as the stress of the

Rupert Darwall

Cop is dying

In the near three-decade history of the annual round of UN climate conferences, the Baku Cop29 stands out. There have been disastrous Cops before. For those with long memories, there was Cop6 in the Hague after George W. Bush narrowly won the 2000 presidential election, which was disrupted by protestors and the outgoing American climate negotiator had a cake thrown at him. Then there is the Copenhagen Cop15, when the Global South, led by China, India, Brazil and South Africa, sunk a binding climate treaty that would have required them to cap their emissions. But never before has there been the indifference and mass absenteeism that marks the Baku Cop.