The Spectator (World)

1 day ago | thespectator.com | Freddy Gray

Spectacular. Stunning. Game-changing. These are just three of the adjectives news reporters have used to describe Ukraine’s attack deep within Russia last weekend. There’s no doubt that the “Spiderweb” operation was technologically ingenious, well-concealed and brilliantly executed. Ukraine claimed its 117 drones destroyed or damaged some 41 strategic Russian bombers and caused $7 billion worth of damage to the Russian armed forces. But can an attack really be game-changing if the game doesn’t change?

3 days ago | thespectator.com | Ella Whelan

No one feuds quite as well as a celebrity woman. Don’t believe the sickly sweet farce between Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, ego, bright lights and competition for stage time have always provoked infighting. But while leading ladies used to duke it out Bette Davis and Joan Crawford style, today’s celebrity duels are a lot nastier. Over the weekend, Patti LuPone did something unheard of – she apologized. Or, at least, she released an apologetic statement.

3 days ago | thespectator.com | Kate Andrews

Elon Musk rarely bites his tongue. Just ask the Treasury Secretary, who the tech billionaire branded a “Soros agent,” or the UK’s Prime Minister, who Musk accused of going soft on grooming gangs in January this year. But it seems the founder of the Department for Government Efficiency (DoGE) has been holding back a rather explosive opinion – one he could never share while he was popping in and out of the Oval Office, working for President Donald Trump.

3 days ago | thespectator.com | Nicholas Farrell

Henry Kissinger once complained: “Who do I call when I want to speak to Europe?” Today the answer would be Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female Prime Minister, who has emerged as the most important leader in the European Union. No Italian leader has filled this unofficial role before: it is usually reserved for the heads of the bloc’s two largest economies, Germany and France. Yet Meloni has capitalized on the weakness of their leadership.

3 days ago | thespectator.com | Kate Andrews

“The so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built,” said Donald Trump on stage in Riyadh at the joint US-Saudi Arabia investment conference in May. “The interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”Calling time on the neoconservative framework for diplomacy – also known as waging war – was jaw-dropping enough. But President Trump wasn’t done. He wanted to celebrate.