America

Thursday

Owen Matthews

What Putin wants from his meeting with Trump

With just a day to go until the expiry of his ultimatum to Vladimir Putin to halt the war on Ukraine or face dire consequences, Donald Trump has once more reset the clock. Trump intends to meet in person with President Vladimir Putin of Russia as soon as next week, the New York Times has reported. That summit will be followed by a second, trilateral meeting including Trump, Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Trump reportedly told top European leaders in a conference call on Wednesday night. The announcement came after Trump’s envoy, real state developer Steve Witkoff, met Putin for three hours of talks at the Kremlin. Trump

Wednesday

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Is Putin calling Trump’s bluff on Ukraine?

US special envoy Steve Witkoff was back in Moscow today to meet with Vladimir Putin, ahead of Donald Trump’s Friday deadline for Russia to make peace with Ukraine. This was Witkoff’s fifth meeting with Putin this year. Similar to his previous audiences with the Russian president, today’s one-on-one lasted for three hours. While broadly we know that the two will have been meeting to discuss the Ukraine war, the details or results of the meeting so far remain unknown: according to Russian presidential aides, the Kremlin will hold off from issuing public comments on what transpired until Witkoff has had a chance to brief Trump. The President’s increasing frustration and

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Why the Trump-Russia story never ends

In June, Tulsi Gabbard found herself in a difficult position. As a dovish Iraq war veteran who happens to be Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, she’d spent weeks trying to stop America launching air strikes against Iran. She’d cited intelligence reports which contradicted Israeli suggestions that Tehran was just days away from having a nuclear bomb. Trump didn’t want to know. ‘I don’t care what she says,’ he told reporters, before ordering the strikes on Iran. Gabbard had been humiliated. Surely she had to resign? Nothing is sure in Trumpworld, however, and humiliation is half the fun. Rather than falling out with the Donald, Gabbard instead redoubled her efforts

Tuesday

Monday

Tim Shipman

Vance & Farage’s budding bromance

16 min listen

Nigel Farage hosted a press conference today as part of Reform’s summer crime campaign ‘Britain is lawless’. He unveiled the latest Tory defector: Leicestershire’s Police & Crime Commissioner Rupert Matthews. Amidst all the noise of whether crime in the UK is falling or not, plus the impact of migration on crime, is Reform’s messaging cutting through? Would US Vice President agree with Farage’s message that Britain is lawless? Vance is in the UK, staying in the Cotswolds, as part of his summer holiday. Tim Shipman and Lucy Dunn are joined by James Orr, associate professor at Cambridge University, and a friend of Vance’s to talk us through the dynamics between

Wednesday

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Trump’s tariffs are taming China

Stockholm This week, the fate of the global economy could have been decided over a Mongolian barbecue in a Stockholm tourist trap. On Tuesday, just 50 yards from Sweden’s seat of government, Rosenbad – where the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng had been wrangling over trade negotiations – the Chinese delegation suddenly exited the talks and headed for lunch near the Mongolian buffet place, where they had eaten the day before. Its windows were covered up and a sign announced it would be closed for three days for a ‘private event’. The Americans stayed behind, making do with salad. China, still the factory

Tuesday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Trump, MAGA, and US foreign policy

Kate Andrews speaks to Damir Marusic, assignment editor at The Washington Post and co-founder of Wisdom of Crowds. They examine Donald Trump’s surprising foreign policy moves in his second term: his position on the Israel-Gaza conflict, why he’s armed Ukraine despite MAGA frustration, and whether his instincts are reshaping Republican foreign policy for good.

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Do Donald Trump’s fans like South Park or not?

Eric Cartman, the antihero of South Park, is a disgusting bigot who mocks disabled people, demeans women and says hateful things about Jews. When the series debuted in 1997, much of what offended parents, educators and religious groups came out of the mouth of this school-aged Alf Garnett. Later, it was the forces of coercive progressivism who bridled, especially at its derision of the trans creed. Suddenly, the median South Park disapprover was Emily, 30 ans, who worked in HR, actually met a black person once, and renamed her dachshund because ‘Dumbledore’ made her feel complicit in JK Rowling’s gendercide. Now the series is displeasing MAGA groupies after its 27th

Monday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

What should we make of Trump’s trip to the UK?

Donald Trump is in Scotland, holding court at Turnberry. He’s welcomed Sir Keir and Lady Victoria Starmer to his golf course, and had a long discussion with reporters at a wide ranging press conference, that covered Russia, Gaza, and his long running feud with London mayor Sadiq Khan. To unpack it all, Freddy is joined by political editor Tim Shipman, and deputy US editor Kate Andrews.

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Starmer’s disingenuousness on free speech won’t fool Trump

It’s often the rotator blades of Marine One that blare over Donald Trump’s voice as he stands near the helipad on the south lawn of the White House. In Turnberry, in Scotland, it was bagpipes. Trump, playing host to the Prime Minister, performed his now familiar ingratiation ritual as he welcomed Sir Keir and Lady Victoria Starmer to his golf course. ‘Our relationship is unparalleled,’ he said, above the din. He flattered the PM’s wife and even suggested, in his delightful nonsensical way, that she is a well-known figure all over the United States. Finally, the bagpiping stopped and the world could hear as Trump and the reporters rattled through the

Sunday

Catherine Ellis

How Trump helped Venezuela’s Maduro bounce back

For someone widely believed to have lost a presidential election just a year ago, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is looking remarkably defiant – and still firmly in power. Maduro has just pulled off another patriotic spectacle – a choreographed homecoming of Venezuelan migrants with flags, cameras, and emotional reunions. This followed a deal with the Donald Trump administration that secured the return of 252 Venezuelans from CECOT, El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison. Trump has breathed fresh political oxygen into a regime many thought was on the brink Maduro cast himself as a protector, bringing his people home from what he called ‘concentration camps,’ with the regime launching an investigation into alleged abuses. For

Thursday

William Moore William Moore

Soul suckers of private equity, Douglas Murray on Epstein & are literary sequels ‘lazy’?

44 min listen

First up: how private equity is ruining Britain Gus Carter writes in the magazine this week about how foreign private equity (PE) is hollowing out Britain – PE now owns everything from a Pret a Manger to a Dorset village, and even the number of children’s homes owned by PE has doubled in the last five years. This ‘gives capitalism a bad name’, he writes. Perhaps the most symbolic example is in the water industry, with water firms now squeezed for money and saddled with debt. British water firms now have a debt-to-equity ratio of 70%, compared to just 4% in 1991. Britain’s desperation for foreign money has, quite literally,

Patrick Kidd

The Donald and the art of golf diplomacy

In 1969, one of the great acts of sportsmanship occurred at Royal Birkdale golf club in Southport, when the Ryder Cup came down to the last green. Britain’s Tony Jacklin had a three-foot putt to halve the final match with Jack Nicklaus and make the score 16-16, but the American picked up Jacklin’s marker and said he was happy to share the spoils. ‘I don’t think you would have missed,’ he said, ‘but I didn’t want to give you the chance.’ The gesture was immortalised in the naming of a Florida golf course, the Concession, which has just been awarded the next three senior PGA Championships, one of the majors.

Wednesday

Tuesday

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

Stephen Colbert’s Late Show should have been axed long ago

Things are not going so well with left-wing comedian talk show hosts over the water. Last week came the news of the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert by CBS/Paramount. And Ellen de Generes, whose daytime chat show was chopped back in 2022, revealed this weekend that she’s moved permanently to the Cotswolds, where she is currently farming chickens (she was keeping sheep too, but they kept running away from her). Both of these developments are being attributed to the reelection of one Donald J. Trump as President. Colbert’s firing by Paramount came very soon after his outburst on his show about the company settling a lawsuit by

Friday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is Epstein the new Russiagate?

28 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Spectator writer Roger Kimball. They delve into the Epstein claims, the media’s handling of the story, Trump’s economic agenda, and whether the MAGA movement is holding strong or starting to splinter.

Thursday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Will AI have rights?

17 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Spectator writer Paul Wood about his piece this the latest edition of Spectator World on AI and whether it will soon have rights. This first came about when Paul went to live in Rome and discovered some of the work the Vatican has been doing in AI.

Tuesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Trump – the conventional foreign policy President?

28 min listen

Trump has said he’s “very, very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened severe tariffs against them if there’s no deal on Ukraine within 50 days. He’s also sending more weapons to Ukraine in coordination with NATO. What’s behind his change of heart on foreign policy, and how’s his MAGA base responding? Freddy Gray is joined by deputy US editor Kate Andrews, and Sergey Radchenko, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. You can watch this episode here.

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is Texas eating Hollywood?

20 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by editor-at-large of The Spectator World, Ben Domenech. They discuss why Hollywood productions are being drawn away from California to states like Texas, and what this could mean for the future of filmmaking in America. Ben writes about this in the new edition of Spectator World, and you can subscribe to the print magazine here: https://thespectator.com/subscribe