All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Truth, infamously, is the first casualty of war. But the truth, in modern Russia, was critically wounded before it got anywhere close to the staging grounds, let alone the battlefield. And still the disinformation project limps on. The most recent and blatant example of the Kremlin’s communications modus operandi is its instant write-off as ‘fake’
‘Our home is our heart,’ a video posted by a couple from the Kyiv suburb of Hostomel begins, showing them cycling through its leafy streets and playing with their dogs. In a split second, the picture changes. Their house is on fire. Outside, a car has ploughed into a ditch, its young passengers shot dead.
Westminster is in recess but many of its finest are out and about, knocking up doors in their local constituencies. Council elections are just five weeks away and while some struggle to muster enthusiasm for such contests, the result will invariably be seen as a referendum on the two main party leaders. But amid all
Viktor Orbán has now spent a total of 16 years as Hungary’s Prime Minister but he has not lost his hunger for power. Energetically campaigning across the country, exploiting every advantage of incumbency, and excoriating the incompetent opposition, on Sunday he notched up his fourth landslide victory in a row. Crucially, he maintains the two-thirds majority in
Teslas will be permanently trending. So perhaps will space rockets. Petrol cars will be quietly forgotten about. And if you get enough likes and followers perhaps you might win a place on the planned space colony on Mars. With the news that Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, and one of the richest men in
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A recent poll showed that if a general election was to be held today between Trump and Biden, the 45th President would be successful in winning back the White House. But what is it, in just over a year, that has led to such a flip? Freddy talks with Trump spokesman Liz Harrington on Trump’s
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The government will publish its long-awaited energy security strategy this Thursday. The plan, which has been repurposed since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is expected to include commitments to reduce the 6 per cent of energy Britain currently gets from Russia, and pledges to increase the use of nuclear energy. But could net zero, a priority
When Carrie Lam became Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017, she positioned herself as a candidate for unity. Five years on, having announced this morning her decision to step down, she will be remembered as Hong Kong’s most divisive leader. There is a grim irony that Lam – who was Beijing’s favoured choice for the top job – used ‘WeConnect’ as
When allied military operations go well or badly, we very quickly hear about them. But what about sanctions? It is about time that we started to ask: are they hitting their target, or are some of them slewing off, out of control, straight into civilian targets? Notionally, sanctions have been a success – or at
The scale of Viktor Orbán’s victory in the Hungarian election overnight has taken even his supporters by surprise. Against many predictions, Orbán has actually improved his position: he has retained for his Fidesz party the two-thirds parliamentary majority necessary to override certain constitutional challenges to change a number of constitutional rules. Progressive opinion, in and out of
It was 2 a.m. when Russian gunmen broke in and took away 21-year-old Milana Ozdoyeva. When Sara, her three-year-old daughter, tried to grab her mother’s hand they shoved her aside. Milana’s son, who was 11 months old, just stared uncomprehendingly. ‘They were wearing masks and camouflage,’ Milana’s mother told me. ‘They forced us all to
The government’s delayed energy strategy is finally due to be released this week. The Prime Minister is due to unveil his plans on Thursday, which will supposedly ensure that the UK is self-reliant on energy supply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Not that the proposals will lead to much change overnight. Instead, they are focussed on ensuring self-reliance in
It’s 15 months since President Biden swept into the White House, where, judging by his current poll ratings, his tenure might not be a long one. Of course, many in his party never thought the 79 year-old would run again in 2024: the problem for Democrats is that his deputy Kamala Harris is even more unpopular.
Viktor Orbán took the stage for a victory speech in Budapest last night with supporters chanting his name. Not long after polling stations had shut, it was already clear that the Hungarian prime minister’s Fidesz party had won a stonking victory against the United Opposition, a group of six parties led by small-town mayor Péter
It’s the best comedy the BBC has made in years. The twists and turns of the race to be the corporation’s next political editor have kept all of Westminster agog for months. Now, after a three month recruitment process whittled down the candidates to two outsiders, BBC bosses have decided that, er, that their preferred candidate
Sergey Nikiforov – Russian troops’ actions ‘look exactly like war crimes’ The pressure on Kyiv has been easing recently, with Russian soldiers apparently withdrawing from the area around the capital. President Zelenskyy has said that he believes it is part of a tactical retreat so that the Russian army can refocus their efforts on the
Sunday: a day of rest, church and more headlines about Tory MPs misbehaving. Today’s unfortunate backbencher is David Warburton, who faces the unholy trinity of allegations about sex, drugs and undeclared Russian loans. The Somerset MP has now had the party whip withdrawn, following claims he took cocaine and was sexually inappropriate towards three women. He
For an ancient city with an illustrious industrial history, Derby doesn’t get much attention. But it does boast at least one famous, possibly apocryphal story, known to scholars of urbanism. Sometime in the 80s or 90s (accounts differ), a party of visiting German VIPs was given a tour of the city’s sights: the humdrum housing
Geopolitical pundits fool themselves by thinking that President Putin wants simply to return to challenge Nato or return to the Soviet Union. This is a much older story. Russian imperialists have had utopian designs on the Ukrainian plains since at least the days of Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible. In 1768, Catherine the
There’s a spectre haunting the Scottish Government: the spectre of Alex Salmond. Like Banquo at the feast, the former First Minister has returned once more to unsettle his successor and onetime protege, Nicola Sturgeon. For the Sunday Mail has today revealed that lawyers are probing claims that perjury was committed in the former First Minister’s trial for sexual
Emmanuel Macron welcomed the faithful to Paris on Saturday at a rally in the west of the capital. I know the venue well; it is the home of the Racing 92 rugby club and many a time I’ve sat in the indoor arena, roaring my approval at a bone-crunching tackle. The hollering on Saturday was for
Is it a criminal offence to quote from the Bible? Finland’s former home secretary Päivi Räsänen found herself in hot water when she did just that. ‘How does the doctrinal foundation of the Church fit in with shame and sin being raised as a matter of pride?’ she asked. Räsänen’s objection – which came after the Evangelical Lutheran Church
Today marks 40 years since Operation Rosario, when Leopoldo Galtieri’s commandos landed on the Falkland Islands and began an invasion that prompted the Falklands War. The Guardian has commemorated the occasion with an unapologetic op-ed by the Argentinian government swearing itself to reasserting control over the islands. Foreign minister Santiago Cafiero, author of the op-ed, declares that ‘the recovery
With eight days to go before the first round of voting in the French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron has just had his worst polling so far. The new numbers show that in the second round of voting, presumed to pit Macron against Marine Le Pen just as in 2017, the president has a lead of
The latest poll has France’s socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo on 1.5 per cent. This is the party that won the presidential election a decade ago. Britain’s Labour party should look at the French socialists and be very afraid. This is what happens when a political party turns its back on its core electorate and instead panders
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This week it looks like the war in Ukraine is turning. The Ukrainian resistance has moved from the defensive to the offensive against their invaders and American intelligence has reported that the Russian forces are struggling by almost every metric. Though for the Western world this is a very encouraging sign what does a true
The biggest thing in the political rock world returns to the international stage this spring with a one-off appearance at Harvard University on 26 May. The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, is booked to be the venerable institution’s main speaking act at its 371st Commencement, welcoming the classes of 2022 and 2021. Harvard lauds
From the outset of the war in Ukraine, the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence agencies have accurately predicted every twist and turn of Putin’s playbook. The United States, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have been linked in the world’s most sophisticated and integrated all-source intelligence gathering and analysis organisation since the Second World War. In doing so,
‘That used to be my neighbour’s Skoda,’ says Alexei Marchenko, as he points to a twisted lump of metal in the wreckage of a row of garages. We’re standing in the courtyards of his housing estate in Kyiv, where a Russian missile landed overnight. One person has been killed and another dozen injured, although it’s a
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The Spectator’s contributing editor Paul Wood interviews Dr Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution, who also served as a director within President Trump’s national security council, where her brief focused on Europe and Russia. This conversation was a joint production with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Founded in 1991, IWPR is a non-profit
The U-turns on conversion therapy last night reveals a problem for Downing Street. After its partygate troubles, No. 10 is very keen to avoid issues that cause tensions with Tory MPs. I understand that desire, in part, lay behind the decision to drop legislation to ban LGBT conversion therapy. But the problem is that there
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The cost of living crisis became a reality as millions today face a £700 per year price hike to their energy bills. What can the government do to support those that fall into fuel poverty? Also on the podcast, the government has quietly approved the takeover of Newport Wafer Fab by a Chinese owned technology