Our desperate world is governed by gangsters, led by Putin and Trump

Two weeks of glorious weather with the temperature in these isles topping those in our favourite Euro hotspots, roses already the size of plates and blossom fluttering everywhere. So why my sense of gloom? It's because the perfect clime cannot disguise the state of the world and in particular its so-called statesmen.

In Ukraine the killing goes on and gets worse; peace talks in Turkey achieved the promise of a prisoner exchange but no ceasefire and to what end? No Putin, Zelensky waiting in the wings and Agent Orange proclaiming "Nothing's gonna happen until me and Poootin get together".  Meanwhile he is in the Middle East collecting freebies (not mere baubles, just a £350million 747) while the sheer unthinkable horror of Gaza grows by the day. There are no victors in that benighted strip, just victims and more victims.

So far, in the 19 months since Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis at the Nova music festival, itself an unspeakable atrocity, Israel has retaliated by killing at least 55,000 in Gaza, the vast majority civilians, including an estimated 6,000 children. The place is just a vast pile of rubble burying countless bodies.

Now Netanyahu has resorted to genocide because whatever his slick spokesman David Mencer may say, that is exactly what it is. Mencer talks of anti-Semitism and Holocaust inversion. Bollocks. How else would you describe a 10-week long blockade of food and medical equipment from aid agencies? Those kids still alive are beginning to resemble images from the Ethiopia and Biafra of old and, dare I say it, the Jews who (barely) survived Hitler's death camps.

There are currently more children with amputated limbs in Gaza than in any other part of the world, a proud boast once held by Sierra Leone but Netanyahu can claim it as his very own. Nobody except the UN seems to want to use the words Famine or Genocide but so far pussy-footing around the issue has got nowhere. Trump meanwhile persists with his odious line about taking over Gaza and turning it into a giant Trump resort which, if it ever happened (it won't), would probably go bankrupt like three of his casinos. How the hell do you bankrupt a casino?

The stark facts are that the world is governed by gangsters, most notably Putin and Trump. My real worry is that one of them, the one who speaks a form of English, is clearly more senile than ever he claimed Biden was. Try this if you don't believe me. And these are verbatim:

Praising Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man who, according to a US Intelligence report, approved the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, he said: "He's your greatest representative, greatest representative. And if I didn't like him I'd get out of here fast. You know that don't you? He knows me well. I do ... like him a lot. I like him too much. Too much. I like you too much".

 

There's worse: And again this is exactly as said: "Sean Duffy, the Head of Transportation, he's a great Sean though but Sean Duffy was the world champion for five years climbing trees and down, up and down, world champion! So that's what you call a serious lumberjack. And he's doing a fantastic job too, a really respected guy, a terrific guy. He's doing a fantastic job at Transportation. But this has been a fantastic, uh, historic trip."

This is the man currently entrusted with the future of the globe. He's a demented, venal narcissist whose family has been with him on the trip round the souks making themselves richer, according to CNN, by $200 billion. Contracts to build skyscrapers and golf courses and a crypto currency deal. Not for the US but for Trump Inc.

No amount of sunshine can make me feel better. 

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But here's the good news: The Qatari gift of a Boeing 747 contains no less than 171 miles of wiring. and who's to say that all those wires haven't been infected by all sorts of bugs?  When the US built a new embassy in Moscow in the 1970s, as a gesture of goodwill it used Russian construction workers. When complete, listening devices were found everywhere and the whole project had to be scrapped before it was due to open. 

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The strange tale of David Lammy's 360-mile taxi ride in France which ended with his luggage being ‘stolen’ by the driver because he refused to pay the fare reminds me of a 275-mile journey from Odesa to Kiev. It was in the winter of 1990 and Kim Willsher, Askold Krushelnycky and I had taken a flight from Moscow to Kiev. But just as we were preparing to land, fog came in and we were diverted to Odesa.

After a sleepless night on wooden benches in that airport we went looking for a train but the only one available was a passenger-cum-goods loco which would take 24 hours. A taxi then. The great Askold, who speaks the language as well as he speaks his Oxford-accented English, went searching. A Lada was found with a driver permanently attached to one of those stinky Russian cabbage fags. After $40 changed hands we set off, Askold in the front and therefore nearer the seemingly inevitable accident and Kim and me in the back.

There was very little floor, it had long ago rusted to nothing: the passing road was visible underneath and mud was thrown up into the car as each mile went by. The Lada had windscreen wipers but lacked washers, that function was delivered by a squeezy bottle which had to be squirted at regular intervals by the driver and Askold who had long ago resigned all hope. There was a comfort stop from which all comfort had been removed but during which the taxi-man had bought himself a particularly pungent sandwich of some sort, adding the smell of garlic to that of the ghastly fags.

All other traffic on the journey seemed to be heavy lorries with their spray from the muddy roads engulfing our little car. 

But somehow we got there after an eight-hour trip. Unlike our Foreign Secretary there was no argument over the price, we were just grateful to have made it one piece. Though the thought of the smell of Russian cigarettes still turns my stomach. 

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Sarah Ferguson tells the Creative Women Platform Forum (me neither) that the late Queen regularly speaks to her through the corgis left to her and her pompous ex. The couple are the subject of my friend Andrew Lownie’s latest biography, to be called Entitled, and published in August. 

You’d think by now that Fergie would have learned to keep quiet but no. All together now: She’s barking!

ALAN FRAME

17 May 2025