giles whittell

World affairs ed at Tortoise and writer. Books include The Greatest Raid, Bridge of Spies and Spitfire Women. Views here my own

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

In Britain, modern populism has many faces but few solutions https://t.co/0zfDdzZVY6

[Rachel Sylvester @RSylvester1]

PM also pledges to put Europe at the heart of his premiership and says deal will be announced shortly on youth mobility scheme for 18-30 year olds starting in 2027 https://t.co/RYW8O3V5tU

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

A famous fishmonger says politicians aren’t reading the room, just like ten years ago, reports @GWhittell

A protest about weights and measurements 26 years ago set the table for the Brexit vote. Now, its supporters say Starmer’s government is about to get served
https://t.co/zk55qUTlLT

[Ivo Daalder @IvoHDaalder]

On World Review this week: The stalemate in the Iran War, King Charles’s surprising diplomatic triumph, and Germany rearms alone. With @annakatrein, @alexbward, and @GWhittell. https://t.co/LlsPCm9HNK

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

Starmer must be bold on rejoining the EU https://t.co/fFn5YopMtf

[Hartosh Singh Bal @HartoshSinghBal]

BSF soldier picked up by Narcotics Control Bureau, dies in custody. Post-mortem indicates brutal torture, BSF gives full honours to dead soldier, inquiry open. But if this is a serving soldier's fate, which high-up answers for such systemic behaviour?
https://t.co/QTGReZdjic

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

When Trump pulled out of the international nuclear agreement with Tehran in 2018, Iran lacked even a single bomb's worth of uranium. Since then, it accumulated 22,000 pounds of enriched uranium. @BlackiLi @WilliamJBroad https://t.co/r8pPDoXqgh

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

'Rogan sees ibogaine as the answer to an opioid epidemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans in the past 10 years'

@GWhittell reports that Gabon is being asked to grant the US access to a hallucinogen that can banish opioid addiction and could heal the Maga rift
https://t.co/Lqzskdw5J7

[Chatham House @ChathamHouse]

"I think the UK can play a major role right now quietly, just standing up for liberal democracy and holding the line on that."

Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) on how the UK should respond to the changing international order.

Watch the event➡️https://t.co/tQ0Ub2gfYI

[Marlborough LitFest @MarlbLitFest]

We're delighted to announce @SebastianFaulks as our 2026 Golding Speaker on Friday 25 September, kindly sponsored by @WilliamGGolding Full programme released at the end of June; box office opens early July. Save the date, we look forward to welcoming you all from 24-27 September!

[The Times and Sunday Times @thetimes]

I joined the Peace Corps to flee the UK’s graduate job crisis https://t.co/c8TZUBrLLy

[Simon Schama @simon_schama]

Anyone who, unhappily, had had to deal with demented relative or friend will recognise the startling loss of inhibitions about profanities as a symptom

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🔥 At #Munich Security Conference, @HillaryClinton didn’t hold back!

“The effort to force Ukraine into a surrender deal with Putin is shameful.”

She called it a historic error and corrupt to the nth degree.

She said Ukraine is fighting for democracy and freedom on the front lines, while losing thousands, and that Trump has betrayed the West.

Betrayed NATO.
Betrayed the Atlantic Charter.
Betrayed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

⚠️ If unaccountable power is normalised, if strongman politics becomes aspirational then the post-1945 democratic order erodes from within.

Across Europe, populists echo the same themes encouraged by MAGA

• Fatigue with alliances
• Admiration for decisive leaders
• Contempt for liberal institutions

If democratic nations pressure a country fighting invasion to surrender, the signal is global that force works. Alliances are conditional. Values are negotiable.

“Who would choose to live under a regime that was so unaccountable that it could act with impunity the way that Putin does, except that's who Trump is modeling himself?”

[giles whittell @GWhittell]

I never thought I would see a US president post a video containing such an unquestionably racist image - Sky News https://t.co/LCJlWwSdNc

[giles whittell @GWhittell]

Talk here of closed door Republican meetings in which all agree force against Greenland would be impeachable

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

In a single eccentric, autocratic year, Trump has already remade the world, writes @hughtomlinson and @GWhittell

https://t.co/KNjzSx0Lp0

[The Associated Press @AP]

Cellphone footage from Minneapolis appears to show a federal Border Patrol agent kneeing a man in the face multiple times while other agents hold him down on the pavement.

[giles whittell @GWhittell]

Why the Rosetta Stone will not be returning to Egypt ... just yet https://t.co/ZXBBaYlkbN

[giles whittell @GWhittell]

https://t.co/1CGFmeHxzW

[The Times and Sunday Times @thetimes]

The populist narrative of a migrant-driven crimewave is catnip on social media and oil to the wheels of Reform. But it is so far from the truth that we’re in danger of losing sight of the country we live in

🔗 Read more: https://t.co/AulwRnZmST

[giles whittell @GWhittell]

Russian imperialism is only part of it. Another part is Putinism: kleptocracy and the morbid fear of a thriving - and contagious - democracy next door.

[Branislav Slantchev @slantchev]

The root cause of Russia’s war on Ukraine is Russian imperialism.

That’s it.

That’s ALL of it.