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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Freddy Gray |Owen Matthews |Jacob Heilbrunn |Lisa Haseldine
For Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, it’s a case of “Today Ukraine, tomorrow the world.” In their much-hyped phone call this week, the Russian leader didn’t seem to give much away: a step toward a sort-of ceasefire, a prisoner swap, and a few other odds and ends. But Putin knows that Trump wants much more than just an agreement on the Donbas.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Matthew Lynn |Jacob Heilbrunn |Lisa Haseldine |Bethany Mandel
Tesla and its hyperactive boss, Elon Musk, are having a rough month. On both sides of the Atlantic, there have been protests against the “Nazi-mobile” and the “Swasti-car.” The electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer’s sales are plummeting across Europe, and its stock is in freefall. On top of that, its biggest rival, China’s BYD, has just announced a super-fast charger that allows you to “fill up” your EV as quickly as you once could your gas-powered car.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Owen Matthews |Lisa Haseldine |Bethany Mandel |Ross Clark
And so it begins. Welcome to the first episode of the latest season of Putin’s Theatre of Fugazi — the longest-running drama in global geopolitics. The first takeaway from yesterday’s nearly two-hour phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin seems, at first glance, like a positive one. Putin conceded, in principle, strong support for a ceasefire.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Lisa Haseldine |Jacob Heilbrunn |Freddy Gray |John Steele Gordon
It may be taking him longer than the 24 hours he pledged on the campaign trail, but it appears that President Donald Trump might be getting somewhere on halting the war between Russia and Ukraine: following a call lasting an hour and a half, he has persuaded Vladimir Putin to agree to a partial ceasefire in the conflict. According to the statements beginning to emerge from the Kremlin and White House, the call appears to have gone well.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Lisa Haseldine |Freddy Gray |John Steele Gordon |James R. Snell
It may be taking him longer than the 24 hours he pledged on the campaign trail, but it appears that US President Donald Trump might be getting somewhere on halting the war between Russia and Ukraine: following a call lasting an hour and a half, he has persuaded Vladimir Putin to agree to a partial ceasefire in the conflict. According to the statements beginning to emerge from the Kremlin and White House, the call appears to have gone well.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Michael Evans |Jacob Heilbrunn |Christopher Caldwell |Lisa Haseldine
With all the good news coming out of the Jeddah talks about a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, there’s only one question that needs to be answered: Will President Putin be interested in any kind of deal right now? President Trump is convinced that Putin wants peace.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Mark Galeotti |Christopher Caldwell |Lisa Haseldine |James R. Snell
Has Vladimir Putin’s bluff been called? It certainly looks that way. As long as the Ukrainians refused to consider a ceasefire, Moscow could portray them as the obstacle to the kind of quick deal Donald Trump appears eager to secure. Previously, Kyiv had floated the idea — after another unhelpful intervention from French President Emmanuel Macron — of a limited ceasefire covering only long-range drone attacks on each other’s cities, critical infrastructure, and operations in the Black Sea.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Jacob Heilbrunn |Christopher Caldwell |Lisa Haseldine |James Heale
So Donald Trump and Sean Hannity are each springing for a Tesla. It shouldn’t prove much of a hit to their respective wallets, seeing as how each has amassed a not insubstantial fortune thanks to the emergence of the MAGA movement, though Hannity is probably something of a piker next to Trump.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Lisa Haseldine |James Heale |Matthew Lynn |Kate Andrews
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Elon Musk settled their week-long feud this morning — through their shared love of eliminating government waste. How cute!The spat began during last week’s cabinet meeting when Musk and Rubio clashed over their different approaches to cutting the US Agency for International Development. The New York Times reported that Musk called out Rubio for firing “nobody,” arguing that he was unwilling to dismiss large groups of employees.
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1 month ago | 
thespectator.com | Lisa Haseldine |Matthew Lynn |Kate Andrews |Michael Evans
Ukraine has agreed to an American proposal for an immediate 30-day truce in the war against Russia. Kyiv’s decision to accept a month-long ceasefire follows nine hour-long talks with members of US President Donald Trump’s administration in Saudi Arabia today. Making a statement this evening following the conclusion of the talks, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the “ball is now in Russia’s court” to agree to the ceasefire.
