#RadioMoskva Peace talks making small steps forward, but no deal most likely We are now deep into the peace talks process to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. Predictably, it’s all getting pretty confusing, but I'm staying positive for now as progress is being made. The

This is so depressing

Jonathan Franzen is one of the most influential novelists alive today. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a National Book Award winner, and this conversation is all about how he writes his books. For him, great writing begins with great characters. And developing great

To Kallas all securities ownership law, customary international law on immunity of official reserves, and a bilateral Belgium-Russia treaty of indemnity are irrelevant because we can force the judge to rule against Russia regardless. No legal rationale. No principles. Just a

This is such a stupid position. It’s what started the war n the first place - Nato refuses to admit Ukr to Nato or even say it’s possible when talking to ze - Nato refuses to confirm this stance when talking to Russia Everyone is pissed off & ukr left in limbo What’s so

Good analysis of the thinking in Moscow. Putin is in no rush (unlike, for some reason, Trump) and feels he can wait for Ukraine to either be delivered to him by Washington or to collapse on its own. Time will tell whether this is as delusional as his belief in a swift Ukrainian

Loud signals from both the US (leak in Politico on what Rubio told European diplomats) and the EU (Kallas’ speech) that there will be no solid security guarantees for Ukraine. That was expected since Istanbul talks which collapsed at least partly because the US and Britain were

It is mind blowing that there are 1m (!) more people claiming universal credit than at the time of the last Budget

OBR: Asylum accommodation costs more than triple the Home Office's previous estimate at £15.3 billion over the next decade, and on top of this the assumption that costs will fall is being contradicted by the surge in arrivals.

The most insane statistic for me is this: 4 years from now the British people will be paying £406 BILLION for a welfare regime that includes 1.2 million foreigners and will now actively incentivise Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nigerian and Somali families to have more children.

"This is not the end of the war. But it may be the beginning of the end. And if it is, there will really be something to be thankful for on Thursday." My contrarian take on the latest American effort to end the war in Ukraine. For @TheFP.

Stunning figures here. Without the threshold freezes this decade, the basic threshold would by over £17,000 and the higher rate threshold over £70,000(!!!) in 2030. A simply colossal impact of fiscal drag.

The welfare bill is, give or take £10bn, now much the same as the income tax take. Pretty much every penny in income tax paid by these working people Reeves care about so much... goes to a welfare recipient.

I’ve been to a few post-Budget 2 Chairmen sessions in my time, but my god

If this is the "real story," I declare this story to be extremely boring. Would not buy a ticket. Would not even stream at home. Not on an airplane. Not even on the toilet.

Zelensky's former press secretary Iuliia Mendel: "Uncompromising stance on NATO membership means we are knowingly sacrificing tens or hundreds of thousands of lives right now for a theoretical promise of security sometime in the distant future… a promise that may never

AI now greatly reduces the time from a speech’s delivery to its satirisation.

In which Kallas flat out denies that Ukraine is losing the war and says the EU is prepared to fund its war effort for another two years if necessary. Bookmark this if a deal falls through and Kyiv is forced to swallow even worse terms. With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Some brief thoughts on the recent Witkoff–Ushakov–Dmitriev leaks and the broader state of the peace talks. 1. Moscow faces a serious structural problem: whom should it actually talk to on the American side? - Steve Witkoff is convenient and receptive to Russian ideas, but

The Insider: The 28-point plan adopted by the White House, allegedly written by Americans with “input” from Kirill Dmitriev, is in fact at its core a recycled Russian document that The Insider was shown several months ago by a source close to the Russian government