A run across the Mall in Washington DC, an early morning ritual during the decades I’ve been coming here for Newsnight

At the Trump trial in New York this morning where the judge found him in contempt of court for recent public pronouncements, fined the former president $9000

NEW: GRU Unit 29155, Russia's notorious assassination and sabotage squad, ran a family of illegals for years in Czechia. Meet arms dealers Nikolay and Elena Šapošnikov. Friends of Unit 29155 founding commander Gen. Andrey Averyanov, they helped the same operatives who poisoned…

The latest pint, pub and book tweet.

The pint - Gun Brewery Best Bitter.

The pub - The Nelson Arms - a wonderful discovery in Tonbridge (I can see Alessio Patalano holding court here)

The book - 'Red Devils' by Mark Urban - which I am already hugely enjoying 50 pages in.

🧵Leaders of 18 countries with citizens being held hostage by Hamas releasing joint statement calling on Hamas to take deal on table to release the hostages and get a ceasefire. A senior US admin official says they have had some signals Hamas may be ready to sit down again. will…

Woke up to the news that Senate has *already* voted to force ByteDance to sell its share of TikTok. Wow that was fast! especially by politicians’ standards. They REALLY want this to happen.
So what happens now? President Joe Biden has to sign it off - he has already said that he…

The Treasury is claiming that hitting the target of raising UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in 2030 amounts to a '£75 billion increase'.

How do they get to this £75bn number? 🤨

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The UK is to boost its defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030. That’s very important:
- funding crisis on new kit goes away (for now…)
- vital reinvestment in ammo stocks
- answer criticisms from former minister Rt Hon James Heappey MP + Tory back benchers
- challenge to Labour to match…

UK PM to announce £500m additional military aid for Ukraine in Poland Tuesday. Main points:
- additional Storm Shadow air launched missiles (number not clear)
- 400 vehicles including 160 Husky light armoured vehicles
- 4m rounds small arms ammo

Another Ukrainian innovation...

Through at last - the $60bn US Ukraine package held up in Congress since last October has finally passed. Great sigh of relief in Kyiv 👇🏻

The Pentagon is preparing to quickly approve a weapons package for Ukraine that includes urgently needed artillery and air defenses as Congress lines up votes to pass additional funding for the country, according to two U.S. officials. W/ Connor O'Brien politico.com/news/2024/04/1…

Over my many years as a journalist my stories have often made an impact- discussed in other media or in parliament, influenced policy . But I think this is the first occasion when one of my reports looks likely to change the law .Meirion Jones Louise Tickle Andrew Hosken

Good point by my colleague: the scale of the attack, including over 100 ballistic missiles, means this can’t be seen as purely theatre. It compares to the start of the invasion of Iraq (ave. 500 strikes a day), and only surpassed recently by Russia’s initial strikes in Ukraine.

The strange world of middle east escalation management: after Iran telegraphed its intention for a limited strike on Saturday, now the US hints at Israel's target list for the next round nbcnews.com/news/world/us-…

I spent a week back in the Donbas, eastern Ukraine, where I once lived and have reported from for years. It was heartbreaking to see it in such bad shape, people in dire need of help, lives torn apart by relentless Russian bombing.

'There is no confidence in tomorrow. Many…

Israel + Allied success fending off the weekend's Iranian attacks relieved many. But my concerns...
- about taboos being broken, by Israel on 1st Apr + Iran on Saturday
- that Iran's conclusion may be it needs nuclear deterrence, & faster
- which hastens an Israeli strike against…