Last night, an interview with Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin aired, the first Western journalist to speak with Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine. If you were hoping to watch something enlightening, you may be disappointed…
The interview started with Putin slapping down Carlson’s suggestion that his invasion of Russia was because of worries about the US: “Are we having a talk show or a serious conversation?“. To be fair, Tucker was more of a Jimmy Fallon than a Jeremy Paxman…
After a half an hour rant on the history of Russia from Putin, the Russian President took a break to mock Carlson for trying to join the CIA, taunting him saying, “thank God they didn’t let you in“. Carlson’s silence makes one wonder if that was a career path he should have pursued instead…
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns told Times Radio she would have put a precondition on a China trip if she were PM:
“I would have put a precondition that I was not going to go if I was prime minister, unless Jimmy Lai was coming home with me. I would also put a precondition in the six months leading up to the visit that I wanted a reduction in hostile acts against our country. But that’s not what we saw. And actually, in contrast, what we saw was clearly the Chinese Communist Party did put a precondition, which was that the new embassy in London had to be signed off. So why is it okay for China to set preconditions and to make very clear red lines about what they require for a visit, but we go without having put any ourselves?”