Digested week: Is it pedantic to point out Trump is ‘ending’ a war he started? | John Crace

Plus, Nicola Sturgeon’s marital relations, the hell of burnout, Tony Blair’s saviour complex and Spurs

I was at Chequers for Donald Trump’s and Keir Starmer’s joint press conference last September and remember being open-mouthed when the US president declared he had personally ended eight global conflicts.Trump followed this by claiming one of the wars he had ended was between Azerbaijan and Albania.

My eyes switched to Starmer who just nodded as if to say: “Yes.

He did that.” Either the war between Azerbaijan and Albania is the least reported war in modern history, or it was a total fiction.

Just as much as Trump’s later claim to have never met Peter Mandelson, just days after footage of him sharing a joke with https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/13/peter-mandelson-maga-labour-lord-charmed-donald-trump-inner-circle">the Prince of Darkness in the Oval Office led many of the news bulletins.

Keir didn’t bat an eyelid at that either.

But maybe I am being pedantic because it seems the US president is now getting round to ending a war that is actually taking place.

It’s surely a bit churlish to point out the war he is ending is the one he started.