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Hello and welcome to the edition. The Spectator's weekly look at some of the most intriguing and important issues within the week's magazine.

I'm Laura Prendergast. In this week's episode, how are China and Russia beating the West in the great game of

vaccine diplomacy?

Plus, has the US media lost its way?

And finally, what's behind our newfound love of the Anglo-Saxons?

First up, while Europe, bickers and the US focuses on its own population, China and Russia

have been busy supplying their vaccines to developing countries. In this week's magazine,

Cindy Yu writes about the new great game that is unfolding and says the West is yet to turn up.

To discuss, Cindy joins me now along with the writer and journalist Owen Matthews.

Cindy, in your cover piece this week, you write about the rise of what you call vaccine diplomacy.

Can you explain the dynamics in this new power struggle?

Yeah, so I focus mainly on China, who has been first to the game, really,

hundreds of millions of doses of its two vaccine producers have already

been ordered out. And it's not as if these are world-beating jabs. They've got actually lower

efficacy rates than Pfizer, then Oxford in some trials, and even than the Russian vaccine Sputnik.

But because of the global shortage and the pressures on production for all vaccines at the moment. China's managed to,

you know, slip into the crevices where the West has not been able to supply as fast,

especially because the developed world, high-income countries, have ordered twice as much

vaccine as they will ever need, which means that a lot of that pressure comes from over-ordering

...