All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The world is facing the prospect of its first nuclear attack since the US Air Force dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yet that horror arouses little fear or outrage. The possibility that a cornered Putin will use ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons to punish Ukraine for humiliating the Kremlin remains a nightmare
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Two police officers were stabbed this morning near Leicester Square in central London. What can new Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley do to fix the capital’s crime epidemic? And the pound today fell to a 37-year low against the dollar. What can the government do to give the markets confidence? Max Jeffery speaks to Fraser
To say that Vladimir Putin is giving autocracy a bad name is rather to state the obvious. But it now appears to have dawned even on his ‘old friend’ Xi Jinping that Russian incompetence and cruelty in Ukraine is undermining their joint ambition to re-write the international order. Putin’s admission that Beijing might have ‘concerns’
Politics is a cruel business. One minute the gods are shining brightly on you, the next, you’re consigned to the barren wilderness. And few know that better than Liz Truss, our northern Premier with a Sicilian bent. For Truss, The Godfather appears to be less a film than an instruction manual, judging by the nature
First, it was a flagpole. Back in 1997, inside the Windsor bubble based at Balmoral – where the priority was two princes whose mother had just died – it made complete and utter sense for no flag to fly at Buckingham Palace. Protocol dictated one didn’t have the Union Jack at half-mast at the institution’s
My enemy’s enemy is my friend. This ancient proverb partly describes the EU’s fast developing relationship with Muslim Azerbaijan, a Turkic country whose forever enemy is neighbouring Christian Armenia which is militarily supported by Russia. And natural gas is the crux of this unnatural alignment. On 18 July the EU gleefully announced that by 2027
Unlike some Americans, China’s communists have no problem getting their heads around hereditary monarchy. Last week, President Xi sent his condolences to the United Kingdom. Now, he’s sending one of his most trusted deputies to pay respects at the Queen’s funeral. China has called off its wolf warriors, its diplomatic ideologues known for berating the West. Beijing
P.G. Wodehouse once wrote that ‘it is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.’ Much the same might be said of Prince Harry, whose ability to bear grudges – and to make it clear, publicly, why he is doing so – has been displayed with remarkable consistency
Montpellier Last month the Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, visited the south-west of the country to offer her support to firefighters tackling a series of large forest fires. It was also a good opportunity to broach a subject close to her heart. ‘More than ever,’ she warned, ‘we must continue to fight against climate
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has become a towering figure in European politics over the past 12 years thanks to his promotion of ‘Christian democracy’ as an alternative to western liberalism, which he claims has lost its way. But a change to abortion laws introduced by the Hungarian government this week may indicate an alarming
The Wagner Group thrives in the shadows, but now its founder has been caught on camera: recruiting prisoners from a Russian penal colony for the war in Ukraine. In the video, Yevgeniy Prigozhin paces about a large group of prisoners, giving them the hard sell on joining the Russian war effort. He offers them a
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Freddy Gray speaks to Lee Cohen, senior fellow of The Bow Group and The Bruges Group, about how the death of Queen Elizabeth has been received in America.
In public health circles, it is considered terribly gauche to expect policies to work. You might think, for example, that a trailblazing intervention designed to reduce obesity would be considered a failure if obesity rates rise to record highs after it has been implemented. Not so with the sugar tax. Obesity among both children and
Sotk, Armenia A group of Armenian soldiers stand guard on the road towards the village. ‘It’s not safe to go ahead,’ one says, slinging his Kalashnikov across his shoulder and motioning for our van to pull over. ‘They were shelling the highway just 15 minutes ago.’ In the distance, there’s the unmistakable thunder of artillery
First it was Brexit, now it’s the Queen. That the New York Times has a near-pathological loathing for Britain is nothing new at this point; but it seems that the motivating factor for the ‘Gray Lady’s’ Anglophobia has switched in recent days from the 2016 referendum result to the passing of our beloved monarch. Barely
In 2002 I attended the lying-in-state of the Queen Mother. I did it as part of the grand old British tradition of faintly annoying all your left-wing friends. I also thought it might be an interesting dollop of history-in-the-making. How right I was. Along the South Bank, round midnight, I joined the queue – quite
In a week of solemn intonation and symbolic meaning, the sight of Sinn Féin’s leader Michelle O’Neill shaking hands with the King at Hillsborough Castle was yet another event to be dissected and extrapolated. Hushed tones providing narration from London fell over themselves to stress the meaning of this and repeated the article of faith:
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Preparations are well under way for the Queen’s funeral next week, but which world leaders will be in attendance? Will they all be able to behave themselves? Also on the podcast, as the new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng works quietly in the background, is his idea to scrap caps on banker’s bonuses a risk worth taking?
Preparations in Whitehall continue at pace ahead of Her Majesty’s funeral on Monday. And for a handful of hardy souls queuing overnight, they had the privilege of witnessing the rehearsals ahead of the great event. One organiser told Steerpike’s man on the spot that the run-through was meant to be conducted without a public audience
Critics say that scrapping the cap on bankers’ bonus will encourage a return to excessive risk taking. It will provoke retaliation from the European Union, they warn. And perhaps, worst of all, it could prove fatal politically, rewarding a few rich Tory friends while the rest of the country struggles with the cost-of-living crisis. Chancellor Kwasi
Ibrox stadium, home of Rangers football club, saw a powerful tribute to the late Queen last night before the team’s Champion’s league game against Napoli. There was a minute’s silence, then an enormous tifo covering the entire Broomloan stand was revealed (of the Union Jack with the late Queen in silhouette in the middle). The
Here comes Paddington – again. Earlier this year, to celebrate her platinum jubilee, the Queen agreed to be filmed taking tea with Paddington in a sketch whose final punchline was a joke about marmalade sandwiches. Her Majesty told the bear she always carries one in her handbag, just in case. On film she was excellent,
Sweden may soon have a centre-right prime minister – an unusual turn of events for a country in which the Social Democrats have won 19 of the last 24 elections. Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderate party, is now set to take power. ‘I am now starting the work of forming a new, effective government,’
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The Queen’s coffin has been taken from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. Mourners will pay their respects for the next four days before the funeral on Monday. Also on the podcast, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss the latest news in the Ukraine conflict.
What better way to mark the death of the monarch than via some good old royal disinformation? Twitter users have been in a strop today about Prince Andrew, the black sheep of the Windsor mob. Apparently, his brother, King Charles, has taken it up on himself to appoint the Duke of York as a ‘Counsellor
Just how much of a grip does Vladimir Putin have on the situation currently unfolding in Ukraine? Over the weekend, the Ukrainian Army made a series of rapid advances, reportedly regaining control of as much as 3,000 square kilometres of formerly Russian-controlled territory. According to one Ukrainian commander, the counter-offensive had Russian soldiers fleeing for
Ukraine is racing to establish control over the newly-liberated Kharkiv region. The country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky paid a surprise visit to the city of Izyum, until recently a strategic point for Russia’s occupation reinforcements (photos here). ‘We are moving in only one direction – forward and towards victory’, he said after the Ukrainian flag was raised in
‘So it is come at last, the distinguished thing!’ exclaimed Henry James on his deathbed. Such a thought is reflected in funerals – always more powerful than a memorial service or ‘celebration’ – because the person’s body is present. When it comes at last to Elizabeth II on Monday, it will be the most distinguished
President Xi Jinping hasn’t stepped outside his country since the pandemic began. For almost three years, China’s elderly leaders have been swaddled inside Beijing; journalists granted an audience with Xi have told me that they had to go through days of hotel quarantine before the meeting. Today Xi returns to the global stage. His first
What is going on in America? A celebrity eccentric known as ‘the Pillow guy’, his real name is Mike Lindell, claimed yesterday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized his mobile telephone. Lindell, a former crack addict turned successful entrepreneur who is now a major supporter of the Trump movement, says he was returning from
There’s a sad mood of mourning in Westminster at present so thank God for Matt Hancock’s ongoing efforts to become relevant again. The Casanova of the Commons has tried every trick in the book to mount a cabinet comeback since losing office in disgrace some 14 months ago. He’s signed a book deal, joined the
Whacking up the price of black ties given the extra demand. Running advertising campaigns for cut price comfort food to get the nation through a painful few days. Or putting your zero hours workers on call for the whole of Monday just in case they are needed, while rushing out a quick line of over-priced
This morning’s surprise update from the Office for National Statistics shows headline inflation at 9.9 per cent on the year to August, down slightly from 10.1 per cent in July. While consumer inflation remains at a 40-year high, the drop from double digits back into single digits has the optimists whispering: might inflation have peaked?