Lisa Haseldine is The Spectator's online commissioning editor - foreign affairs.
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Harry Cole traverses America during the US midterms; Max Jeffery dissects the problems caused by the early release scheme; Lisa Haseldine explains how to cope with ruinous hen dos; and Jonathan Sumption and Nick Lezard talk through their favourite books of the year. Produced and presented by Abigail Brierley.
Next week marks a major milestone for the Coalition of the Willing. Starting on Monday, its military arm, the Multinational Force Ukraine (MNF-U), will conduct its first ‘boots on the ground’ exercise – a fortnight-long event – in Poland. Britain and France, as co-leaders of the coalition, will also lead on the exercise, the purpose of which is to rehearse how allied troops might provide support to Ukraine and its military following the end of its war with Russia. All in all, eleven European countries and 2,800 soldiers will take part in the land, air and sea exercise. Britain’s contribution will be made up of 300 troops as well as Voyager refuelling aircraft.
‘Hello girls!’ A few weeks ago, a WhatsApp chat named ‘Millie’s hen’ whirred into life on my phone. ‘We’re so excited to reveal the details of what will hopefully be an amazing long weekend!’ Three nights in the south of France next June, 15 women and a £500 ‘contribution’ for some, but by no means all, food, drink and activities. On flights, airport transfers, the rest of the food, drink and activities, we were expected to fend for ourselves. All in, Millie’s hen do would cost me close to £1,000. I scrolled down to the bottom of the eight-page PDF document that had been distributed by the organisers: ‘Once everything is booked, there might be a tiny variation in price. Thanks for understanding!’ I felt my blood pressure rise.
Last August, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Britain’s biggest car manufacturer, was hit by a cyber attack that forced it to shut down its IT systems and halted production for more than five weeks. At the time, three groups of English-speaking hackers going by the names of Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ and ShinyHunters claimed joint responsibility for the attack – believed to be the most costly in British history. Hackers from Scattered Spider had already been linked to attacks on M&S, Co-op and Harrods last year. But were they really responsible for targeting JLR too? Over the weekend, video footage emerged in which the former defence minister Al Carns was filmed stating that ‘we know that the Jaguar Land Rover attack was state-sponsored’.
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has been in St Petersburg today, meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss American-led proposals for ending the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine. Central to the plan put forward by Witkoff is reportedly a suggestion for a trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky at some undisclosed point in the future to negotiate terms for ending the war. The beginning of the three-hour meeting between Putin and Witkoff was open to the press. Witkoff thanked the Russian president for agreeing to supply America with 300,000 metric tonnes of diesel and expressed his hope that Putin would consider agreeing to the proposed trilateral meeting with Zelensky and Trump.
From the moment Donald Trump announced last week that he had struck a deal with Vladimir Putin for exports of Russian diesel and said that ‘it's time for Ukraine to get a new president’, it was clear that relations between Washington and Kyiv were at a new low. Last night, they appeared to sink even lower. Trump’s hostile turn against Ukraine has placed it in even greater danger Appearing on Piers Morgan’s show Uncensored yesterday, Ukrainian premier Volodymyr Zelensky declared that he felt ‘betrayed’ by Trump’s actions.
Andy Burnham has been in Berlin today – his first bilateral diplomatic visit since entering Downing Street nearly three months ago. The Prime Minister met his German counterpart, Friedrich Merz, face-to-face for the first time to ratify the bilateral Kensington Treaty – signed by the Chancellor and Burnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer last year. Greeted by Merz with full military honours in the German capital, Burnham’s first appointment was at a local high school, before the two met to formally ratify the treaty.
On the evening of Friday 2 October, Daria Shipilova, an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, died in a district hospital in the Russian city of Shelekhov. Her place of work, and the rumoured circumstances of her death, have triggered a public health emergency in the region and a slew of questions: did the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, kill Shipilova? Could this metastasise into a plague epidemic in Russia? Should we – abroad – be worried? The Russian authorities have done their best to play down the link between the plague and Shipilova’s death. According to Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, Shipilova had been diagnosed with pneumonia of ‘unknown etiology’ – i.e. of unknown origin.
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale reflects on Labour party conference; Angus Colwell goes on the hunt for Britain’s wokest bar; Lisa Haseldine reveals what she has been stockpiling; and Chas Newkey-Burden provides his notes on pickled onions. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.
Earlier this month, the government launched its ‘Prepare’ campaign, urging us to plan for all manner of emergencies and put together a kit of food and supplies big enough to last several days. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner helpfully revealed what she’d be stockpiling: ‘Mascara, concealer, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, some baked beans and a tin of custard – I like custard.’ This is perfect timing: Putin seems to be breathing a little more heavily down our necks and – phew! – I’ve just moved into a house with an understairs cupboard big enough for an emergency pantry. A quick glance online tells me I can buy so-called ‘go bags’ complete with first aid kits, head torches, mess tins and fire starters from roughly £175. All very useful, no doubt, but not much fun.
Since the American CIA chief John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow in late August to meet with his Russian intelligence counterparts, a number of theories regarding the purpose of his visit have circulated. In the weeks since, a consensus has emerged that Ratcliffe made his dash to the Kremlin to warn Russian officials against carrying out any escalatory provocation against Nato territory. Many have assumed that Ratcliffe’s warning related to a potential attack on one of the Baltic states or Poland – all of whom share a border with Russia. But what if Vladimir Putin had other Nato territories in mind, further west in the Mediterranean?
Speaking on the sidelines of the Brics summit in Delhi last week, Vladimir Putin once again insisted that Russia had no plans to attack Europe. ‘There is no such threat and never has been. We do not threaten, nor do we intend to threaten, European countries. Why should we?’ the Russian president said. And yet, in the weeks after Germany publicly blamed Russia for a series of drone attacks on Leipzig airports earlier in the summer and a Russian drone struck a Ukrainian train carrying former prime minister Boris Johnson just over a mile from the border with Poland, the evidence suggests that the Russian threat to Europe – and the Nato alliance – is growing.
With parliament back after the summer break, the debate around increasing Britain’s defence spending – so febrile just two months ago – is rearing its head again. On Wednesday, a voice no one knew the country needed chimed into the discussion. Taking to X, the Labour MP Diane Abbott intoned: ‘The imminent threat from Russia is a Nato fiction to justify their complete capitulation to Trump's demands for more military spending. The increase should not go ahead.’ Doing nothing about Diane Abbott risks undermining Burnham’s authority on defence It hardly needs stating that Abbott’s tweet was beyond stupid, not only for its ignorance but also for its naivety.
Just under a month after three drones were discovered in quick succession at Leipzig airport, the German government took the unexpected step of publicly naming the country behind the incidents. Standing alongside foreign minister Johann Wadephul on Tuesday afternoon, the German minister of the interior, Alexander Dobrindt, announced: ‘The German government has concluded that Russia is responsible for the hybrid attack in Leipzig on 4 August.’ According to Dobrindt, the German government was able to conclusively determine Russia’s involvement thanks both to a police investigation and findings made by the intelligence services.
Andy Burnham arrived in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv this morning, his first trip abroad since entering Downing Street last month. The Prime Minister’s visit has been timed to to coincide with Ukraine’s independence day, marking 35 years since it broke with the Soviet Union. Burnham will later today use the occasion to announce plans to share the blueprints for building the British components of long-range Storm Shadow missiles with Ukraine. Britain has been supplying Storm Shadow missiles – co-produced with France – to Ukraine since 2023, with Kyiv reportedly firing the long-range weapons in Russia for the first time in November 2024. Storm Shadow missiles have a range of nearly 350 miles, theoretically putting Moscow within striking distance of Ukraine.
In a sign of the unease about Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war in Ukraine that exists behind closed doors in Moscow, one of Russia’s most senior bankers was fired yesterday after a series of critical comments he made earlier in the year about the fragility of Russia’s economy. Warning that Russia was ‘falling behind’ globally both technologically and economically, Andrey Klepach stated the country would fail to win the economic ‘war of attrition’ against Ukraine. ‘The Ukrainian economy, despite everything, is surviving,’ he said. Klepach, chief economist at Russia’s second-largest, state-owned bank VEB, gave a speech in May, during which he linked the pressure on the country’s economy with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Have you ever wondered how much it costs to buy a drone, body armour, a combat helmet, a body bag or an AK assault rifle magazine in Russia? Not on the dark web, but on the open internet. To buy these items on Wildberries – the Russian answer to Amazon – would cost you (in order) as little as the equivalent of £41.95, £220, £90, £6.10 and a cheap and cheerful £5.50. It’s for this reason that the online retailer, owned by Russia’s richest woman Tatiana Kim, has become the latest target for Ukraine in its effort to fend off Russia’s invasion. Starting on 18 July, the Ukrainian army has begun sending drones into the country to attack warehouses and logistics centres belonging to Wildberries on a near-nightly basis.
The moment many European leaders had been awaiting with nervous anticipation arrived yesterday evening when the American Under-Secretary of War, Elbridge Colby, announced that the US would, at long last, be undertaking a review of its military presence on the continent as part of its commitment to Nato. Colby said: ‘This will be a real review, designed to ensure that Nato is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe taking primary responsibility for its conventional defence.’ The US Department of War has been threatening to launch this review for much of this year so far. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth used a meeting of Nato defence ministers in June to confirm that the review would be going ahead imminently.
Andy Burnham has given precious little away on his approach to foreign and defence policy since taking office last week. Today, however, we got a small glimpse of one aspect of what that might look like. This afternoon Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, became the first foreign leader to be hosted by the new prime minister in Britain. The pair met at Portsmouth naval base to inspect the 200-odd Ukrainian soldiers currently completing maritime exercises there. Burnham afterwards confirmed that the pair had also discussed the question of supplying anti-ballistic missiles to Ukraine ahead of the winter to allow it to better protect its critical infrastructure.
If European leaders had a bingo card of all the fights Donald Trump could pick with them, at this week’s Nato summit in Ankara they would have won a blackout. Starting as he meant to go on, Trump used a joint briefing with Nato chief Mark Rutte this morning to reheat his litany of grievances with fellow members of the alliance. Trump today declared that he was ‘not happy with Nato because of what they did with Greenland’ and their refusal, as he sees it, to help the US with the war in Iran. Greenland, the President said, was a ‘big problem for us’, going on to claim – falsely – that ‘it’s not important for Denmark’.
