World
Will Italy leave China’s ‘atrocious’ Belt and Road Initiative?
For some time now the world has being growing increasingly wary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but rarely…
Sunak’s new oil and gas licences face a fight against the odds
Just Stop Oil (JSO) has taken the news that the government will issue hundreds of new North Sea oil and…
How we could reach net zero without dumping oil
Rishi Sunak has shown no indication that he is considering dumping the government’s legal commitment to achieve net zero by…
Not all cyclists support Sunak’s war on traffic control
My fiancée wants to put a sign up outside our house demanding that the speed limit be reduced to 20mph.…
Ancient worms and the problem with climate politics
The poet Elizabeth Bishop, when she was feeling blue (which she often was), used to find comfort in thinking in…
Zelensky’s drone warning to Russians
Hours after Moscow was once again attacked by unmanned drones in the early hours of Sunday, Volodymyr Zelensky has declared…
Watch: Trump calls Biden a ‘dumb son of a b****’
It feels as if almost every American presidential election is billed as the ‘nastiest in US history’. Steerpike, contrarian that…
Why can’t the AfD work out where it stands on Europe?
Members of Germany’s AfD (Alternative fur Deutschland) party gathered in the eastern city of Magdeburg this weekend. The party’s aim…
Listen: Sunak hits back at BBC host over ‘private jet’ jibe
Rishi Sunak is up in Scotland today, hoping to woo voters with his plan to issue hundreds of new oil…
Britain’s nuclear test veterans are finally being remembered
Some wars get forgotten (viz Korea and Malaya); others are constantly refreshed in memory. As the manager of an Asian…
Sunak’s mother-in-law has divided India with her views on spoons
Sudha Murty, the Indian billionaire and philanthropist, who also happens to be Rishi Sunak’s mother-in-law, has something of a fixation…
Backing motorists won’t save Rishi Sunak
The lesson from the Uxbridge by-election was clear to both parties: the public will not accept green policies at any…
Why Starmer is no heir to Blair
How big is a 20 point opinion poll lead and what word should we use to describe it – insurmountable,…
Rishi Sunak’s trade-off ideology
In his interview with the Sunday Telegraph proclaiming himself to be pro-car, Rishi Sunak made an interesting point: that this…
Why I’m romantic about climate change
Why hasn’t an anti-technology movement emerged? It seems to me that we face two overlapping crises. One is obviously climate…
Escaping the city in Argentina
Planning a foreign trip is a bit like watching a trailer for a film. The research is a preview of…
What does Japan make of Oppenheimer?
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster epic Oppenheimer is wowing critics and selling out cinemas across the world. It’s already threatening to eclipse…
The triumph of oil
If you want a laugh, I recommend an article which appeared in the March 1998 issue of Scientific American, ‘The…
The joy of rescuing snakes
Snake rescuers like me always get asked the same question: have you ever been bitten? I’ve dealt with mambas, giant…
In defence of the Arts Council
I once knew a monster who said she could not read Proust because there were no figures in Proust with…
Nigel Farage faces another media battle
It never stops for Nigel ‘Rocky’ Farage. Having seen off the chief executive of both NatWest and Coutts in successive…
The French police have lost faith in the judiciary
Emmanuel Macron broke his silence about the recent riots in France at the start of this week. In a speech…
The political battle for net zero is only just beginning
This may come to be remembered as the year where the global warming debate became serious. Until now, there has…
Who killed comedy?
Wading into the Sadiq Khan #HaveAWord brouhaha, Laurence Fox had a pop at Khan’s ally Romesh Ranganathan thus: ‘You are…
Camari Mick is making pastry, not solving crimes
“I was really fascinated with the process, the science behind everything,” recalls Camari Mick, the now twenty-nine-year-old star pastry chef,…
