Richard Spencer
@RichardJSpencer
Followers
18K
Following
3K
Media
174
Statuses
14K
Correspondent @TheTimes. Previous: Hull, London, Beijing, Dubai, Cairo, Beirut. Contact: [email protected]. Opinions my own. Facts universal.
London
Joined February 2009
Public service announcement: today is my last as Middle East Correspondent for @thetimes. From next month I am returning to an old beat as China Correspondent (with a bit of global politics thrown in). It’s also my last day reporting from the Middle East after more than 14 years.
52
5
252
It is beyond belief that people over the age of 40 or even my age are saying that public disorder in Britain is a modern, post-Blair/mass immigration phenomenon. Where on earth were you in the 70s and 80s?.
220
405
3K
This is nonsense. Saudi is siding with itself. Everyone who knows knows it needs oil to be above $80 a barrel for its budget to break even. Why wouldn't it act when it sees oil go below that, as it did last week? Not everything is about "what I, an American, want".
So disappointing. At this pivotal moment in history, Saudis side with Putin and against us.
99
575
2K
I went to the street in the Ukraine that's being renamed Boris Johnson Street. The residents got me drunk and told me how much they loved him. I have to say they had never heard of Partygate but seemed to think it was a good idea.
72
308
2K
Tonight is an important night: it marks the 25th anniversary of my one and only encounter with Christopher Hitchens. Which was also the single most humiliating moment of my career. A 🧵 for anyone interested/wanting to sneer.
43
211
2K
Quite a few people asked me why so many elderly Ukrainians have stayed on in Kyiv, so I asked them. They answered beautifully, reminding me of the extraordinary history of Ukraine in the last 90 years. This war is just another blip in a chain of disasters.
19
464
1K
In a twist, I have now received praise on Twitter for being Richard Spencer, the US Navy Secretary. However, I'm sad to report there's much less of it than there was for me being Richard Spencer, the white nationalist. I think this says something about you, Twitter.
20
141
1K
This little baby used to be worth $33 or £25 and two used to pay my monthly electricity generator bill. Now it’s worth just over $1 and I’ve dug out 96 to pay my bill. Imagine being on a Lebanese salary right now.
21
286
1K
I asked people what it was like living in the shadow of that giant column of Russian tanks near Kyiv whose aerial photos we stared at in March. The stories they told of battles, spies phoning in tank positions, murderous retribution, were extraordinary.
19
315
936
I crawled home to bed. I never told anyone I had been on American TV. I have never told anyone I had a conversation with Christopher Hitchens. Till now, when he's dead too.
35
5
745
@iyad_elbaghdadi Twitter is where you go to abuse people you don’t know about articles you haven’t read about places you haven’t been to.
8
164
602
To repeat, as on many previous occasions: this is not me. I write about Muslims quite a lot, but not like he does. See my profile for more.
Twitter suspends Richard Spencer, other prominent alt-right accounts
79
108
489
When oil went below $60 in 2015 there were gloating articles in the western press for ages about how Saudi Arabia was going to be bankrupt in five years. Now we are surprised and outraged that they would try to prevent the oil price sinking again? It's such a weird meme.
16
182
447
Worth remembering amid the lionisation of the Pantshir resistance that it was Ahmad Zia Massoud - Ahmad Shah Massoud's brother - who as Afghan VP took $52 million cash in a holdall to Dubai, calmly declared it at the airport, and walked off with it (acc to a Wikileaks US cable).
20
118
357
Speaking to older residents in Ukraine, including not only Russian-speakers but actual Russians, it's quite striking how President Putin has lost the Soviet vote.
7
42
339
Terrible, appalling news. Mohammed @MoeMoussa25 was last year's Beeston fellow (international journalist scholarship scheme) at @thetimes, and wrote passionately and with great insight about Gaza. Many condolences, just unimaginable.
My family was killed by Israel on Mon. My mother, father, two sisters and their grandsons were killed in Jabalia camp. My father was a driver for @ICRC_ilot. Please help me find out who is alive and who is dead and if they were buried or not. Please @ICRC_ilot.
6
192
354
This is an extraordinary 🧵 in which a Russian soldier complains about his treatment at the hands of his officer and confesses to a murder - exactly the same murder which, by total coincidence, I described in a piece from the village of Andriivka, west of Kyiv, months ago.
1/ Another account of a Russian soldier's involvement in the war in Ukraine has emerged via the independent Russian media outlet Important Stories. Daniil Frolkin, a 21-year-old contract soldier, has spoken candidly of his involvement in war crimes and looting. A 🧵 follows.
3
90
313
Incredible. Can there be any greater symbol of the war than this peace deal, which mentions neither the Syrian government nor opposition, and ends by saying the document is valid in "Turkish, Russian and English". No version in Arabic, the language I always thought Syrians spoke.
This is the full text of today’s agreement between #Russia and #Turkey on #Syria, ending a two-week escalation and establishing new dynamics in the north west. #Erdogan #Putin
15
185
319
@warghetti Amazing. Why didn't I know this before? Explains why the one time (in 14 years in the middle east) I was ever allowed to do the washing up in an Arab household I had to endure a running commentary on how I was doing it wrong because the food had included eggs.
3
5
298
FWIW in ten days’ reporting on the southern/Bakhmut fronts infantry officers have told me they are taking many injured but many fewer killed than anticipated. Anecdotes aren’t data of course but this is mentioned in NYT story today too.
Informative podcast with @DAlperovitch reflecting on his recent trip to Ukraine. " They certainly had hopes that the Russians would not be as deeply as entrenched as they are. It's really, really tough going, they're taking enormous casualties."
6
55
300
Here's the Turkey-Russia deal for northern Syria, interpretation 2, TLDR version: US, Britain, other allies send air force and special forces to Syria, spend four years helping locals clear it of Isis, hand it over to Putin and Assad, withdraw under a shower of rotten tomatoes.
27
210
266
I've returned from Syria where I witnessed first hand the destruction caused by this week's earthquake, and the lack of assistance from any quarter, except for some tents from Turkey, itself hard hit. The UN is noticeable by its absence. Ibraham lost nine members of his family.
18
154
299
The true story about Corbyn's wreath-laying that no-one seems to want to mention is that he laid his wreath at the grave of a man who was killed by Abu Nidal Organisation on Saddam Hussein's orders for working for the CIA.
23
163
266
So the man responsible for yesterday's attack in London is: not Arab, not a refugee, not associated with a country on US entry ban list.
14
205
236
On Saturday, I wrote about a 15-year-old Yazidi boy who had escaped four years of Isis captivity and spoken to his parents again. On Saturday, he was driven back to his home in Sinjar with 10 others to a cheering crowd. Small good news in bleak times.
One of the 11 boys who was recently liberated by SDF in #Baghouz recivea hero welcome in his hometown Shengal/ Sinjar. First thing he asked was ‘Did anything happen to Shengal?”
4
82
246
Seems the leading contenders to be British prime minister are (by heritage) two Indians, a Pakistani, and an Iraqi Kurd. I feel @Sathnam may have to write volume 2 - Empireland: the Empire Strikes Back.
8
41
226
The woman in the picture is Raisa Stayanova. She was a character.
4
22
223
The Kurds didn't help us in Normandy on DDay, @realDonaldTrump said, making everyone laugh because how could they? Well actually he didn't even get it right - they did.
16
101
194
Amazing story - grandson of an archaeologist reads article about undocumented antiquities, walks into Greek, Italian, Cypriot and Pakistani embassies, hands over his inherited collection and says: "These are yours I believe."
1
99
196
Naim or Paradise Square in Raqqa, where Isis used to crucify and display the heads of their victims, now has a Nutella House cafe. Globalisation - it gets you in the end.
10
70
208
I so hope this is real.
4
64
181
Truss was the actual *minister for childcare* when, according to her, the "establishment" wasn't doing anything.
We live in this weird world where the former *prime minister of the United Kingdom* can pretend she’s not part of the ‘British establishment’.
3
61
191
A British-flagged Swedish owned tanker has been impounded by Iran and is heading for a Revolutionary Guard base at Qeshm. Northern Marine, Clyde-based subsidiary of Swedish firm Stena AB, confirm hostile action preceded vessel's change of course this pm.
25
194
165
There’s just one problem. I don’t want to. Not my job. My job's to make sure intros match the text and headlines, and stuff. It’s not to defend the monarchy. I’m kind of… a Republican. A soft, centrist, you know I don’t care but if people like it then fine I suppose sort of one.
1
2
175
Beirut monthly generator bill ready then. Just one of these notes was worth £50 three years ago.
3
28
182
Twitter friends: as of today, I have joined @TheTimes as Middle East Correspondent, moving to Beirut later this month. See profile for more.
35
51
176
Where's the real war in Ukraine? I argue here that the the Donbas fighting is a distraction from Russia's main success, its control over the Black Sea coast. As @jackhillphoto and I found, it's going to be mighty hard to dislodge the Russians here.
15
75
166
Unbelievably ridiculous decision given recent history and current politics.
BBC Arabic radio and BBC Persian radio will cease amid a cost-saving plan and a new focus on the digital offering. The proposals will result in the loss of around 382 post closures.
6
57
143
The film script element was provided by the local home guard boss, Anatoliy Kybukevych, whose men hid out during the occupation and phoned in Russian artillery positions. Several were caught and summarily executed. "They knew the risks they were taking," he said.
0
25
144
Apart from anything else, extraordinary decision for @Telegraph to publish such a hostile review of a book by the reporter who actually covered Brexit for them.
Drearily predictable @DanielJHannan review. Zero engagement on substance. Just a rant.
11
30
138
Two months on from the #beirutexplosion and I’m back in my study for the first time. A tree outside was killed but the bougainvillea is still out. All around the sound of rebuilding. Hard to believe the neighbourhood will ever be the same. Big test Of Lebanon’s famed resilience.
7
14
153
There's a first time for everything - I'm in Riyadh, and just been picked up by a woman Uber driver. #wouldnthaveexpectedthatadecadeago.
6
22
150
There's been a fair bit of mention of Libya's post-war chaos. Virtually none of Russia's role, oddly - the warlord who controls Derna and allowed this to happen is backed by Russia (and previously) Wagner, as well as Egypt and UAE.
It's startling how little of the coverage of Libya even acknowledges our disastrous intervention which bombed it into pieces. Have people literally forgotten?.
9
47
136
I don't often write about Oman but I did yesterday and it's fascinating: last of the eccentric Sultans, expertly manoeuvring waters muddied by upstart princes and presidents on all sides:
8
61
138
Hitchens scents blood. “Some people might say!” .I hear myself through him for what I am, the mealy-mouthed, pathetic, wishy-washy voice of the British Establishment. Unwilling to wield the sword of truth and justice, and plunge it into the heart of the corrupt royals. Idiot.
1
3
137
This is terrifying. One of the reasons I went into partial quarantine when I flew back from China three weeks ago was the thought of Lebanon's 1.5mn Syrians. But the virus is coming anyway, apparently via Qom of all places.
And with each of these, the virus approaches the vast settlements of freezing and underfed IDPs dotting the Middle East.
2
63
123
Can everyone calling for "perspective" on coronavirus, saying fewer people die on the roads, etc, please read this. Issue is critically ill %age. Increasingly clear reason for death rate disparity is whether ICUs are overwhelmed. Issue not whether it is "worse than ordinary flu".
7
58
119
So it turns out that the people who in 2011 said Assad's hold on power was unsustainable were right. just a little premature. Personal friends celebrating today include Syrian Christians and Alawites as well as Sunni Muslims.
3
25
142
Instead of writing a news story about the return of Saad Hariri as Prime Minister of Lebanon I think all we need to do is publish the official photograph. Incredible expressions.
17
33
138
Someone surely has to look at the role of Whatsapp in politics. Fixes that 20 yrs ago would take months to unravel in private lunches and nervous phone calls between politicians and journalists now goes from individual whatsapp to group whatsapp to journo whatsapp in two minutes.
It is worth considering the kinds of interactions between journalism and power over the past decade that have helped create the foundations for the UK's state of permanent crisis.
4
36
130
One heartening, and striking feature was hearing people we accosted, unprepped, pretty much matching in their stories what we reported at the time from supposition and expert analysis of the pix. Of course, hearing it from eye-witnesses was incredibly dramatic.
1
14
122
Wake up to the news that billionaire Saudi-linked Sunni businessman Mohammed Safadi is to be Lebanon's new PM, after billionaire Saudi-linked Sunni businessman Saad Hariri was forced out by protesters demanding an end to politics run by a plutocratic sectarian elite.
4
51
118
Covering Syria for a living is like the horror film you cannot bear to watch but cannot turn your eyes away from. @Josiensor is making a break for it, after five years of stellar work. Fine colleague, honourable rival, fierce friend. Couldn't ask for more.
I wrote a final goodbye. I sign out today after 5 years in Beirut with an impossibly heavy heart as Syria faces its greatest tragedy yet. It's hard thing for journalist to acknowledge, looking back on a body of work, to realise it has had so little impact .
2
14
125
From my position dazed on the intellectual floor, my corner waving a towel, I cannot remember exactly how the rest of the debacle unfolded. I could not see Hitchens. I could feel, however, his contempt spattering my glasses all the way from New York.
1
1
114
Why is it me and Christopher Hitchens? The answer is pretty soon apparent. He is there to rip apart the monarchy, nay, the whole fabric of British society. I’m supposed to defend it.
1
2
117
Can anyone explain Brexit gin to me? It appears to be made in Bulgaria. Is it sold anywhere other than, er, Lebanon, where I found it?
6
13
118
I wrote about my interrogation in 2012 by Anwar Raslan, the Syrian colonel convicted of crimes against humanity in Germany yesterday, and more importantly about the many layers of Syria's torture state.
1
36
116
@MikeRStephens Sure there's an element of "up yours, US". But that does not mean it is "siding with Russia". It is a reminder that if the US defines other countries acting in their own interests against those of the US as "siding with the enemy", they will have a lot more enemies.
6
13
116
Loujain al-Hathloul, Saudi women’s rights activist, has been released from prison after three years, though still serving a suspended sentence. Here are the before and after pix
5
26
111
As a distraction from the #UKElection2019 I’d like to tell the story of my mother’s teddy bear, which is 79 years old today, and the Second World War. If you read it, please read to the end.
6
72
112
(Reporting this was not dangerous but did involve a new challenge, the requirement to eat vast quantities of home-made borscht.).
1
6
98
The mysterious drone attack on a Hezbollah site in Beirut overnight Sat/Sun targeted a key part in the manufacture system for precision guided missiles, @thetimes has been told:
23
108
105
Sorry to hear about the death of Kenny Rogers. Was converted to his music by Fouad Zlitni, Col. Gaddafi's translator, who drove reporters around Tripoli singing along to Kenny Rogers and Cat Stevens in between Nato bombing raids. Odd, but good.
6
22
104
Key moment for the Middle East today. Which side will its key power UAE take over Rus v Ukr? It has a vote in the UN security council and is a US ally, but has been cosying to Putin and likes his style. And be sure it will speak for its Gulf neighbours - Saudi, Bahrain too.
5
46
104
While we are rightly obsessed with the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, it is a lesser-noticed disgrace that children are dying of starvation in a refugee camp in a Syrian enclave set up and controlled by the West:
5
94
96
So there I am, coming off shift after midnight after the longest week in news journalism of the era. Acres of copy shovelled. Knackered, hot, sweaty. Cheap suit, cheaper shirt, probably baby sick there somewhere. Oh and Mother Theresa just died too.
1
2
101
Iraq hanged 42 people on one day today, the same day it was trying to persuade Kurds they were better off under Baghdad's rule.
13
106
97
Foreign policy as General Studies essay questions for 14-year-olds. Extraordinary.
The war raises many questions. Can violence be fought with violence? Can peace only be established without weapons? We should discuss both questions with respect. But one thing is clear: we support Ukraine so that violence does not become the norm. - @Bundeskanzler Scholz.
4
18
97
“Well at least I can agree on one thing with Mr Spencer.” It’s amazing he remembered my name, but he obviously did it just so he could let fly with that particularly brutal use of the dishonorific “Mr”. “If we don’t want Charles, and we don’t, let’s get rid of the lot of them.”.
2
1
104
It was literally what Britain was most famous for, apart from the Empire, and Mrs Thatcher possibly.
5
3
99
Read this story by @SameralAtrush on how the Russian mercenary force Wagner has embedded itself in Libya though no Libyan actually wants it there. So many lessons about how the Middle East is operating while the 20th century western powers eat themselves.
5
50
94
In fact, it probably serves absolutely no-one's interest to say Abu Iyad was a CIA agent (of some sort). End of a thread which I may be alone in finding interesting.
12
11
93
This is not a coup nor is it comparable to what happens in "failed states" or developing world countries. As @kshaheen says, it's a bit insulting to say it is.
9
31
101
Here’s my story from Monday that battle by the way: ‘We take their trenches – but they take them back’.
2
18
96
RIP Kim. What a shock. Never a dull moment in 30 years on the road with you, from the Old Bailey to Kyiv. So many stories. So so sorry but also couldn't imagine you getting old. The Independent’s award-winning war correspondent Kim Sengupta dies aged 68
2
26
98
@EliotHiggins A reminder that Prighozin used to deny and get very angry at suggestions that he was in any way linked to the Wagner group, responding to one journalist's request for comment with a "ten-minute tirade of unprintable vocabulary" according to his own spokesperson @SameralAtrush.
2
18
87
I'm conflicted about Qatar, a place I've been visiting on and off for years now (except when I was briefly banned). Many of the criticisms are justified. But I also find the pile-on a bit unthinking. So I wrote about that.
6
42
97
This much commented on piece this weekend by Martin Indyk is a classic of its kind - the solipsism and narcissism of retired and defeated officials.
4
25
100
I panic. Hitchens is already in my ear going on about sycophantic newspaper editors and the Prince of Wales and fawning headlines, a national embarrassment etc. I decide taking him on directly would be a fool’s errand. I plump for the “some people might say” approach.
1
2
94
My thoughts are with my friends and neighbours injured in today’s Beirut blast. One close friend in hospital, another on way to be checked for a wound in her neck. 50 dead - what a tragedy for a city already suffering.
3
10
88
“Finally, do you think that the succession should just dispense with Charles altogether?” the anchor says. I grab an answer I can stand by. There’s not much point in having a monarchy if you pick and choose your monarchs. At last, Hitch lets me off. Sort of.
2
1
93
I was at the scene of the Velyka Novosilka ambush (to be precise Novodarivka) described in the NYT piece - it’s a mess but a survivor told me that remarkably no one was killed.
3
6
94
But this is the original sin of Brexit. The ideology with which the ground was prepared in pro-Brexit political and journalistic circles was then matched with a contradictory pitch to attract a separate set of voters.
6
18
83
We can laugh at a Trump speech on Islam. But Obama's much praised speech to Muslim world in 2009 sowed the seeds of subsequent disasters.
9
33
72
America says it wants to move its embassy to Jerusalem, and tells its diplomats not to go there as the decision makes it too dangerous for them. Ah yes.
1
66
92
Of course it did.
3
20
90
Usual introduction: Diana’s shocking death has divided Britain, monarchy tottering, has the Queen’s address to the nation healed the rift? What was the role of the press? Here to discuss is Richard Spencer from the UK Daily Telegraph and writer and essayist Christopher Hitchens.
1
3
88
The Syrian refugee who was stranded for seven months in Terminal 2 of Kuala Lumpur airport after being refused entry or exit before being granted asylum in Canada has just been awarded citizenship. He's quite pleased, though also sad.
This is a day that cost me a father, a destroyed homeland, prison, persecution, tears, blood, & fifteen years of being away from my loved ones. Wishing the same for every oppressed freedom fighter. Wishing the same for every refugee in refugee camps. Today is a day like no other
1
22
79
I mean I'm the last person normally to complain about the NYT but the US has spent $6+ trillion on wars in the Middle East supported by the NYT while half a million Americans are homeless. Does no-one introspect any more?.
Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, which will involve elaborate processions, vigils and rituals, will be paid for by British taxpayers as they deal with soaring energy prices and high inflation. The British government has not yet said how much it will cost.
8
14
90
I spoke to families of young victims of the Iraqi government’s new method of killing people - a tear gas canister to the head.
2
69
82
For the "maybe he should have read @thetimes" files. in yesterday's "20 faces to look out for in 2020 feature" I asked whether Maj-Gen Qassem #Soleimani might be struck down by hubris.
9
26
84
Context 1: It was the Friday after Princess Diana was killed in the car crash. Context 2: I was at the time night news editor of the @telegraph. Not a glamorous job. Career a bit doldrum-y. Also had two v. small offspring.
2
1
83
Not normally one for animal pix but here's some video of Saudi camels being snowed on and wondering what is going on.
2
22
83
Closing down pubs and cafes during a health crisis doesn't turn a democracy into an authoritarian state. If you think it does, you have fundamentally misunderstood the nature of dictatorship.
2
15
79
It's now clear that Iran's outbreak is the worst in the world, worse than China's proportionate to size of population, perhaps even in absolute numbers. Canadian epidemiologists @AshTuite @BogochIsaac suggest 18,300 cases as of a week ago, must be many more today.
According to deputy of Iran's parliament speaker, 23 MPs are infected with #Corona virus,.
8
92
81
I'm driven to central London and ushered into the NBC studio. It is pitch black. I query this. Oh sorry, they say, the tech is on the blink and we have to green screen a London backdrop so you have to do it in the dark. Just wait till a light comes on and stare at it. Unnerving.
1
1
82
I try again, suggesting that the press were divided on the issue. I am now doubly at a loss. Clearly, I am there to defend both the press and the royal family, except the press has turned on the royal family, except that the Telegraph has stayed loyal and turned on the press.
1
2
82
I'm not sure there's anything more British than the fact that the cartoonist of the anti-establishment Guardian and the BBC chairman he pilloried and has apologised to were at public school together.
2
16
86