Diplomatic Editor and columnist,The Times, foreign correspondent for 35 years.Increasingly anxious. Weltschmerz
London
Joined February 2010
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Roger Boyes retweeted
Joshua Wong was 18 when he made the cover of Time as "The Face of Protest." Now, at 29, he faces a possible life sentence. @jaynordlinger on the political prisoner Beijing wants forgotten.
thenextmove.org/p/remember-h… thenextmove.org/p/remember-h…
Herzog is right. The UK timing makes the sanctions look like a clumsy attempt to skew next month’s election, makes Bibi look like a martyr and just highlights the absence of any coherent western policy on the West Bank or Gaza.
Sanctions on Israel from the UK - or any other nation - will prove to be a grave miscalculation, a gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation, and a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history.
Sanctions are not a solution – dialogue is. I say to all foreign governments: Stop! Step away from the dead-end of sanctions and boycotts, and turn toward constructive dialogue and toward cooperation.
The logical consequence of Turkish- Israel rivalry in Middle East
This is hugely important: the Eastern Mediterranean is returning to its historical significance. At $3.6 billion, it's the largest Israeli defence export deal in the country's history.
Why now? Security, geopolitics, energy; and the pressing desire to counterbalance growing cooperation between Turkey, Egypt and other regional powers.
politico.eu/article/israel-g…
Roger Boyes retweeted
Tick-tock.
The countdown has begun.
When I was explaining why a former Ukrainian MFA was right to predict, as early as the end of 2022, that the liberation of Crimea would come first, most people thought we were being unrealistic.
On the contrary, we had rational arguments.
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Ukraine just stripped the Kerch Bridge of its air defence.
In a joint operation on June 21, Ukraine’s Security Service and Special Operations Forces struck two Pantsir air defence systems deployed directly on the Crimean Bridge — and simultaneously disabled four S-400 radar stations.
Six air defence assets. One operation. The bridge that Russia built as a symbol of its grip on Crimea is now unprotected.
Every air defence system destroyed around the Kerch Bridge expands the operational window for what comes next. Every radar station disabled removes another layer of early warning for Russian forces defending the peninsula.
The broader picture of Crimea’s air defence in June 2026:
→ Pantsir systems struck in Zaporizhzhia region — June 19
→ Two Pantsirs on the Kerch Bridge — destroyed today
→ Four S-400 radars — disabled today → All major land crossings closed or under fire control
→ Fuel rationing across the peninsula → Oil and gas infrastructure burning
Russia built the Kerch Bridge to make
Crimea feel permanent.
Ukraine is systematically dismantling everything that makes it defensible.
Source: Security Service of Ukraine, June 21, 2026.
#Ukraine #UAF #CrimeaIsUkraine #DroneWarfare #RussiaUkraineWar
Roger Boyes retweeted
FSB is preparing for the post-Putin era, DW columnist Konstantin Eggert writes. The recent arrest of Ilya Traber, who controls much of northwest Russia's port infrastructure and knows Putin well, shows no one in the inner circle is untouchable anymore, and FSB loyalists will now run the shadow fleet ports, positioning younger security service heirs to gradually push aside Putin's old circle in the coming power struggle.
Roger Boyes retweeted
Criminalising refugees and bending the legal process to send them away “at scale” blurs the distinction between a liberal democracy and even the coolest of dictatorships.
(£) thetimes.com/comment/columni…
By @rogerboyes
Roger Boyes retweeted
One of the all time great sketches. Anyone watching this knows they are in the presence of true #genius
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Roger Boyes retweeted
The talk now is of zastoi, political, economic and social stagnation. Putin’s claim to national respect was that he ended the chaos of the 1990s. Now he seems to be running away from fresh chaos — the sick man of Europe.
(£) thetimes.com/comment/columni…
By @rogerboyes
Roger Boyes retweeted
The isolated madness of rulers.
(£) thetimes.com/comment/columni…
By @rogerboyes
Roger Boyes retweeted
🚨NEW Conservative Reader! 🚨
@rogerboyes on China
@david_cowan on middle power strategy
@oren_cass on US / China trade
@cjsnowdon on our capitalist command economy
@PaulGoodmanCH on internal national security
@Sherelle_E_J on the rebellion against welfarism
PLUS
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Roger Boyes retweeted
Looking forward to participating in this #Freud panel on Sunday: sousamendesfoundation.org/ev…
Roger Boyes retweeted
“China’s national intelligence law, its counterespionage law, require Chinese companies to cooperate with Chinese intelligence and not disclose that fact to others. That creates espionage risks,” says @RushDoshi, director of CFR’s China Strategy Initiative and assistant professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
“These robots are equipped with LiDAR systems, microphones, and cameras that make them mobile surveillance platforms.”
Roger Boyes retweeted
Ivan Krastev: “the greatest achievement of May 8th was that Europeans collectively found the courage to imagine a future different from the present — and different from the past” Excellent speech: iwm.at/news/all-europeans-ar….
Met him Moscow in the 1970s when I was a rookie reporter, so gutsy wise and funny. Rumor of War a great book, had all those qualities
Philip Caputo wrote a best-selling classic about Vietnam, shared a Pulitzer for uncovering Chicago’s voting fraud, was captured by militants in Lebanon & shot by others, covered wars in Afghanistan to Africa, hunted big game & caught bigger fish
RIP dad
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Roger Boyes retweeted
Kim’s expertise could involve shrinking nuclear devices to fit on tips of missiles. Shared blueprints and physics data could shave years off Iran’s nuclear development. And there is NK’s proven skill in hardening deeply buried targets.
(£) thetimes.com/comment/columni…
By @rogerboyes
Roger Boyes retweeted
🇺🇸 Les Etats-Unis bloquent le détroit d'Ormuz.
@rogerboyes s'inquiète d'un "risque d'affrontement armé réél" avec la Chine ⬇️
eurotopics.net/fr/356237
Roger Boyes retweeted
Important corrective from @rogerboyes on Hungarian elections.
An Orban loss doesn't see return to cosy, pro-European consensus. Orban's social policies still widely supported. But people are fed up with crony capitalisism impairing economy. That's the change Magyar promises.
Roger Boyes retweeted
There is an obvious intersection point between Trump, Putin and Orban. For the moment its focus is to diminish the geopolitical weight of the EU by highlighting its lack of coherence.
(£) thetimes.com/comment/columni…
@rogerboyes on 'Orban the Thwarter'