Fact-checking Trump’s Town Hall appearance on @CNN. “I built the wall … hundreds of miles .. I finished it”.
False. Trump admin reinforced/replaced 453 miles existing structures. Only 47 miles new barriers. US-Mexico border is 1,900 miles. And Mexico has not paid for any of the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… VP Mike Pence should have returned presidential votes back to state legislatures. Impossible. Pence didn’t because he had been advised and knew that VP does not have power or legal authority to do so. Even John Eastman, Trump adviser, admitted illegal to halt vote certification.

Toxic Trump - Exhibit A:
In crucial Pennsylvania Senate race Trump-backed Mehmet Oz, celebrity TV doctor, out of state, no political record, lost to John Fetterman, left-wing Democrat still recovering from a stroke, 51% to 47%. Trump scuppered chances of more mainstream Repubs. Toxic Trump - Exhibit B:
In New Hampshire Senate race, Trump-endorsed election denier Don Bolduc lost to Democrats 53% to 45%. Yet the Granite State re-elected mainstream Republican Governor Chris Sununu by 16 points.

US/UK intel estimates that Russia has lost more of all kinds of vehicles and aircraft than Ukraine at a ratio of around 4:1. This a consequence of allies (mainly US and UK) equipping and training a guerrilla army. Russian military thought they were simply sending a bunch of heavy armour into a friendly nation. So the level of Ukrainian resistance came as a shock. So did the terrible performance of the Russians.

DEVELOPING ENERGY CRISIS FOR EU AND UK.
Russia has reduced gas flow to Europe AND it’s sending Europe a chill wind from the north, producing a severe cold snap expected to last into the New Year, exacerbating Europe’s serious power supply problems this winter. These developments are especially bad for France, with 4 of its nuclear power plants out of commission for repairs. EDF is burning oil in generators to keep power flowing, adding to oil shortages and sending oil prices to record highs.

Last night Biden claimed Afghanistan was never about nation-building. Yet in 2003 he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee re Afghanistan: “In some parts of the administration, nation-building is still a dirty phrase … … but the alternative to nation-building is chaos, a chaos that churns out blood-thirsty warlords, drug traffickers, and terrorists." When the US first intervened in 2001 he had said much the same thing.

Those of you inclined to fall for the soft soap currently coming from the Taliban should read Bret Stephens @nytimes.
"The killing won’t stop. Watch — if you have the stomach — videos of the aftermath of an attack in May on Afghan schoolgirls, which left 90 dead ... "... or the massacre of 22 Afghan commandos in June, gunned down as they were surrendering, or Taliban fighters taunting an Afghan police officer, shortly before they kill him for the crime of making comic videos.

There's a widespread expectation among Westminster-based journalists and foreign correspondents reporting from London that a huge constitutional bust up between Sturgeon and Johnson is inevitable. But it's not clear the British government has to do anything 1/9 The consensus forecast is that Sturgeon passes a bill allowing for a second independence referendum in Holyrood. Johnson moves to have it struck down by the Supreme Court because it is ultra vires (the constitution is a reserved matter for Westminster under 1998 Scotland Act) 2/9

The Spectator on why the Scottish parliament must publish all relevant evidence -- or end up "null and void": "Last week, The Spectator went to the High Court in Edinburgh to seek clarification on the publication of Alex Salmond's written testimony to the Parliamentary Inquiry into how the Scottish Government handled complaints against him (nothing to do with the criminal trial).

Spectator thread: Among the Scottish parliament’s many crucial roles, there is none more important than its ability to scrutinise government and hold it to account. The same is true of a free press. Both are at their best when they hold power to account on behalf of the public. But neither can do this essential duty when crucial documents are withheld during important inquiries. The Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Gov’s handling of the Alex Salmond affair decided last week that it would not publish crucial submissions, including Mr Salmond’s ....

Lest you forget.
The Johnson Government’s decision not to join the EU vaccine procurement programme was widely vilified at the time. Today’s Daily Mail has a useful catalogue of who said what when
eg The Observer: “Brexit means Covid vaccine will be slower to reach UK.” Martin McKee, left-wing professor at London School of Hygiene: “UK will have to join other non-EU countries in a queue to acquire the vaccine after EU states have had it.”
LBC’s James O’Brien — ad nauseam

Devastating column in @heraldscotland by @iainmacwhirter on Scottish Crown Office — and, believe me, its troubles are only just beginning:
“£14m, £20m, £24m – eye-watering sum in damages awarded to those wrongly prosecuted for fraud over Rangers bankruptcy grow larger by day. “It is reliably reported that the two men, Paul Clark and David Whitehouse, have already banked £10m apiece. That’s £10m! Each.
When various legal fees are included the bill is now bumping against £24m and could rise still further.
But that is not all.

Alex Salmond's assault on his former protégé Nicola Sturgeon is pretty savage:
Terms of Hamilton inquiry to see if she broke ministerial Code so tightly drawn by her deputy (Swinney) that almost impossible it can find against her.

https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1347929898153816066

Idea that her March 29th 2018 meeting with his emissary re complaints against him -- meeting she claimed to have forgotten -- fleeting or opportunistic "simply untrue".
Claims she indicated mediation/arbitration possible in procedures investigating complaints against him. Reneged

Reasons to be cheerful for America after last night's grim scenes from Capitol Hill.
1. It was not an attempted coup or insurrection. It was a mob on the rampage, which got further than it ever expected because of appalling policing. 2. The Trump presidency is already over, ending in ignominy after his role in fomenting last night. Mike Pence is caretaker for the next 12 days working with congressional leaders. The Pentagon and the National Guard are answering to them.

You accuse me of regularly praising Trump for four years. Yet cannot produce a single example. Not one.
You ignore my many criticisms of Trump on this very platform.
Unable to stand up your original tweet you retreat to making me accountable for the content of The Spectator.

https://twitter.com/PriyamvadaGopal/status/1347174296334946306

You know that is disingenuous. The Editor is solely responsible for all content. He has published pro and anti Trump articles over the years. You ignore that too.
Part of my job is to protect his editorial freedom to publish what he wants, even when I disagree with it.

In one of the most egregious examples of value destruction in newspaper history, JPI Media (formerly Johnston Press), owners of The Scotsman and a raft of regional titles, is sold for a mere £10m, spread over 3 years. They bought The Scotsman Group alone for £160m in 2005. The Scotsman had been purchased for £80m 10 years before that. So we (I was Publisher for those 10 years) doubled its value in a decade. Add in another £25m for the magnificent building we constructed (which JP did not buy but rented before moving to much reduced premises).

Key quotes from businessman letter to Herald:
“I have never encountered anti-Scottish resentment south of the Border (indeed the number of Scots in top positions in my industry rather suggests the opposite). What I have rather encountered is a quite genuine sense of bewilderment at an endless enunciation of grievance and inferiority. This isn’t Anglophobia, it is something more. [The SNP wants] to control our own future and decide what sort of country we choose to live in.

Important thread (for me!): With heavy heart I announce I will be leaving the BBC. Despite sterling efforts by new DG to come up with other programming opportunities, it could not quite repair damage done when Andrew Neil Show cancelled early summer + Politics Live taken off air But I leave with no animosity or desire to settle scores. I look back on my 25 years doing live political programmes for the BBC with affection. And gratitude for brilliant colleagues at Millbank, who always made sure I went into the studio fully briefed and equipped for the fray

The Government's chief medical and scientific officers made it clear that the prospect of 49,000 Covid cases /day by mid-October was not a prediction but an extrapolation. Even so, it's the scary figure they want us to take away from their presentation. Much of the media has duly obliged. But Whitty/Vallance did not dwell on the presumptions behind that 49,000 stat: that cases are doubling every 7 days; and that they will continue to double every 7 days til mid-October. However ...

Now that Bahrain has joined the UAE in recognising Israel, Saudi Arabia cannot be far behind. A sea-change in the geopolitics of the Middle East is underway, leaving the Palestinian leadership isolated. Consider this from the state-backed Saudi Gazette: "Palestinian politicians have sabotaged negotiations and rejected all peace initiatives for six decades in order to keep the aid funds flowing to their private bank accounts."

California now generates a third of its electricity from renewables, largely solar and wind. It is also experiencing its first electricity blackouts for two decades. The problem: it is prematurely closing gas and nuke plants that plugged the gap for intermittent wind and solar. Battery storage is a possible solution. But not yet. California’s biggest facility, a lithium ion battery plant at Escondido, has the capacity to power 24,000 homes for 4 hours. The state has 13m households; a year has 8,760 hours. And a single Escondido costs circa €50m.

As Guardian, BBC, Mirror + many others announce rafts of redundancies, almost alone in UK media, The Spectator is hiring. Here's why: several years ago we decided future lay in subscriptions -- print, digital or both. We didn't mind which. But to read us you had to subscribe. The results have been Spectator Spectacular. Subs have soared and so have revenues. A year ago we reached circa 65,000 subs. This month we're over 85,000 and rising faster than ever. We're on target to hit 100,000 by Christmas, perhaps well before.