The Edition: will Biden support Ukraine’s attacks on Russia?
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
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Summary
Owen Matthews writes the cover piece in light of the Zelensky drone offensive. Ukraine’s most successful strategy to date has been its ingenious use of homemade, long-range drones, which it has used to strike military targets as well as oil refineries and petrol storage facilities in Russia. The strikes are working but have alienated the US, who draw a red line when it comes to attacks on Russian soil. Owen joins the podcast alongside Svitlana Morenets, author of The Spectator’s Ukraine in Focus newsletter to debate what comes next. (01:44)
Next: Will and Lara take us through some of their favourite pieces in the magazine, including Rachel Johnson’s thoughts on women’s only clubs and Angus Colwell’s notes on wild garlic and the new foragers.
Then: who is the greater threat to democracy, Biden or Trump? This is the question that Lionel Shriver grapples with in her column, where she expresses total disbelief that the grim state of politics in the US hasn’t thrown up an alternative third party. Lionel joins the podcast to discuss what’s left for American voters. (19:47)
And finally: Astronomer David Whitehouse bids a fond farewell to the Voyager 1 space probe which, due to technical difficulties, may soon stop transmitting back to earth. On the podcast, he looks back on what we’ve learnt about space during the 50 years that Voyager has been travelling through the cosmos with Sasha Hinkley, astrophysicist at the University of Exeter and leading a team of scientists on James Webb Telescope. (33:25)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews. |
| 0:06.3 | Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12 week subscription in print and online, |
| 0:11.3 | along with a free £20 £10, John Lewis or Waitrose Voucher. |
| 0:15.0 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher. |
| 0:28.4 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, |
| 0:32.4 | where each week we shed a little light into the thought process behind putting the world's oldest weekly magazine to bed. |
| 0:36.5 | I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor. |
| 0:38.8 | And I'm Nora Prendergast, the Spectator's Executive Editor. |
| 0:42.0 | On this week's episode, |
| 0:43.6 | will Washington support Ukraine's attacks on Russian soil? |
| 0:47.8 | Who's the bigger threat to democracy, Trump or Biden? |
| 0:51.0 | And how will the Voyager 1 probe be remembered? |
| 0:59.2 | Thank you. or Biden, and how will the Voyager 1 probe be remembered? So, Will, this week's cover is Omer Matthews. |
| 1:02.2 | He's looking at how long America can continue to support Zelensky's long-range missile campaign. |
| 1:08.0 | As he points out, there's always been this red line that America is unwilling |
| 1:11.7 | to cross, which is directly supporting Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil. But as, as he points out, |
| 1:18.2 | that's now being tested because of Zelensky's very successful strategy at the moment of targeting |
| 1:23.8 | oil refineries and certain parts of Russia's key infrastructure. |
| 1:29.5 | Yes, and those drone strikes are becoming more effective. |
| 1:31.8 | So it is becoming more of a problem for Ukraine's allies. |
| 1:36.4 | And Owen joined us earlier to talk about the piece along with Svidlana Mornets, |
| 1:40.8 | author of the Spectators Ukraine in Focus newsletter. |
... |
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