“Just to give you some context, President Trump pulled out of the climate accords and for a day and a half we covered the climate accords. And the CEO [President of CNN, Jeff Zucker] said in our internal meeting, he said good job everybody covering the climate accords, but we’re done with that, let’s get back to Russia.”
— John Bonifield of CNN, reported June 27, 2017
On the same day as the CNN revelation the London Daily Telegraph newspaper, a sad remnant of its former admirable self, carried a piece captioned “Britain’s new £3bn warship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, set to squeeze out of dockyard for the first time — and Russian spies are watching.” The fact that this vastly expensive floating white elephant will not be deployable until 2021 — if it has aircraft by that time — is neither here nor there. What is intriguing is the statement, without the slightest evidence, that Russia is spying on it.
Just why Russia or any other country would want to have people watching HMS Queen Elizabeth leaving its dock is not explained, but the Telegraph cautioned solemnly that “the Navy is also preparing for the warship’s first appearance to attract a concerted Russian spying effort, with submarines, ships and planes try to get a good look at the UK’s new flagship.”
It is not explained how they could obtain more detail of the ship than was provided by the hundreds of photographs in the media, because the only…