Roger Scruton, one of Britain’s most prominent conservative philosophers, has died. He was 75.
Scruton’s family said in a statement that he died Sunday after a six-month battle with cancer.
A graduate of Cambridge University, S cruton embraced conservative ideas after visiting Paris amid the May 1968 student uprising. He recalled later that the students on the barricades struck him as “self-indulgent middle-class hooligans.”
A lecturer for many years at the University of London's Birkbeck College, Scruton carved out a role as a public intellectual — a relatively rare thing in Britain — with more than 50 books on morality, politics, culture and aesthetics, including “The Meaning of Conservatism,” “The Aesthetics of Architecture” and “England: An Elegy.”
Scruton valued tradition, high culture and the British countryside; he disliked socialism, liberalism, most modern architecture and much of popular culture.
He was widely respected in eastern Europe for his support for dissidents during Communist rule. He received honors from late Czech President Vaclav Havel, the Polish government and Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
In Britain, Scruton wrote articles for many publications and appeared on radio and television. He was eloquent and forthright in expressing often contentious views. Over the years, he said homosexuality wasn't “normal,” opposed gay marriage, supported capital punishment and wondered whether date rape should be considered a crime.
In 1999, the Pet Shop Boys won a libel suit against him after he alleged in a book on pop culture that their songs were mostly the work of sound engineers, a nd in 2002 he proposed to a tobacco company that he could place pro-smoking articles in the media in exchange for a fee.
Scruton was hired by Britain's Conservative government in 2018 as an adviser on improving modern architecture. He was fired several months later after the left-of-center New Statesman magazine published an interview in which Scruton said Chinese authorities were "creating robots of their own people," disparaged billionaire philanthropist George Soros and called Islamophobia “a word invented to stop discussion of a major issue."
The magazine later apologized for the way it had promoted the interview on social media, acknowledging that “the views of Professor Scruton were not accurately represented in the tweets."
Scruton was reappointed to the government post. He said the incident showed there was a "witch hunt" against those on the political right and an "attempt to silence the conservative voice” — though his voice was long prominent in public discussions.
Scruton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2016 for services to philosophy, teaching and public education.
Looking back on his life in December, Scruton wrote in the Spectator magazine that “coming close to death you begin to know what life means, and what it means is gratitude."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: “We have lost the greatest modern conservative thinker - who not only had the guts to say what he thought but said it beautifully.”
U.K. Treasury chief Sajid Javid said that “from his support for freedom fighters in Eastern Europe to his immense intellectual contribution to conservatism in the West, he made a unique contribution to public life.”
Historian Timothy Garton Ash said Scruton was "a man of extraordinary intellect, learning and humor, a great supporter of central European dissidents, and the kind of provocative — sometimes outrageous — conservative thinker that a truly liberal society should be glad to have challenging it".
Scruton is survived by his wife, Sophie, and children Sam and Lucy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday in hopes of securing $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum — a plan that rides on their comfort in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.
Since the U.S. military raid to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has quickly pivoted to portraying the move as a newfound economic opportunity for the U.S., seizing tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, saying the U.S. is taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan oil and will be controlling sales worldwide indefinitely.
On Friday, U.S. forces seized their fifth tanker over the past month that has been linked to Venezuelan oil. The action reflected the determination of the U.S. to fully control the exporting, refining and production of Venezuelan petroleum, a sign of the Trump administration's plans for ongoing involvement in the sector as it seeks commitments from private companies.
It's all part of a broader push by Trump to keep gasoline prices low. At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.
The meeting, set for 2:30 p.m. EST, will be open to the news media, according to an update to the president's daily schedule. “At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.
Trump is set to meet with executives from 17 oil companies, according to the White House. Among the companies attending are Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela, and ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which both had oil projects in the country that were lost as part of a 2007 nationalization of private businesses under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
The president is meeting with a wide swath of domestic and international companies with interests ranging from construction to the commodity markets. Other companies slated to be at the meeting include Halliburton, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Singapore-based Trafigura, Italy-based Eni and Spain-based Repsol.
Large U.S. oil companies have so far largely refrained from affirming investments in Venezuela as contracts and guarantees need to be in place. Trump has suggested on social media that America would help to backstop any investments.
Venezuela’s oil production has slumped below one million barrels a day. Part of Trump's challenge to turn that around will be to convince oil companies that his administration has a stable relationship with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, as well as protections for companies entering the market.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are slated to attend the oil executives meeting, according to the White House.
Meanwhile, the United States and Venezuelan governments said Friday they were exploring the possibility of r estoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, and that a delegation from the Trump administration arrived to the South American nation on Friday.
The small team of U.S. diplomats and diplomatic security officials traveled to Venezuela to make a preliminary assessment about the potential re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the State Department said in a statement.
Trump also announced on Friday he’d meet with President Gustavo Petro in early February, but called on the Colombian leader to make quick progress on stemming flow of cocaine into the U.S.
Trump, following the ouster of Maduro, had made vague threats to take similar action against Petro. Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart after a friendly phone call in which he invited Petro to visit the White House.
President Donald Trump waves as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
