US/UK Axis

When Jack Staw travelled with Condi Rice, she famously offered her bunk on the State Department plane to Iraq in 2006.

No such news has emerged from the overnight train that Antony Blinken and David Lammy took to Kyiv.

The US Secretary of State and the British Foreign Secretary are headed east to show solidarity with Ukrainian authorities who are under new and relentless attacks from Russia's forces.

Before departing, the pair held a relatively freewheeling press conference in the Locarno Room of the Foreign Office in Whitehall, where the spotlight was on how Iran was freeing up the Kremlin's arsenal by shipping frontline missiles to Russia.

Iran’s transfer of what intelligence sources suggested were 400 short-range missiles, were most likely the Fateh 360 weapons with a range of 120km, Mr Blinken said. Dozens of Russian personnel had been trained on their use in Iran, he said.

They will give Russia the “flexibility” to use its long-range missiles on Ukraine’s infrastructure by freeing them up from the front line.

Failed in London, banned in Dubai

A British surgeon accused of serious malpractice while working at a top hospital in London has been suspended by the Dubai hospital he was working for.

Clemenceau Medical Centre in Dubai Healthcare City said it took "immediate action" to suspend Yaser Jabbar following British news reports alleging malpractice at the weekend.

The orthopaedic surgeon's treatment of more than 700 patients is under review following claims of misconduct at the renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London.

“CMC Hospital Dubai has been made aware of recent reports concerning allegations of misconduct and malpractice involving a physician employed at our hospital,” Dr Alya Al Mazrouei, chief executive of CMC Hospital Dubai, told The National.

“We took immediate action to suspend the physician. We are awaiting the relevant authorities’ decisions on the matter.”

And finally

Spectators not onlookers

The sale of The Spectator was being hailed on Tuesday as a coup for its RedBird IMI owners. The world’s oldest weekly magazine has attracted a price tag of more than ￡100 million ($130 million) or more than 30 times its 2022 earnings, making it one of the most expensive UK media deals.

As Chris Blackhurst writes, the sale was astutely handled, deliberately held in no hurry and designed to draw out bidders. The title was kept separate from its Telegraph sister title. Expectations have not been set for the newspapers to command quite the same premium.

In the end, only Sir Paul Marshall, funder of GB News, the UK TV station, and the probable front-runner for The Telegraph, was left standing. But it’s a tribute to the competition that he saw off concerted interest from Rupert Murdoch no less and other bidders.