World
Labour MPs prepare for trigger ballots
It is a difficult time to be a Labour MP. With the Greens on the left and Reform on the…
Why is it so difficult to fire bad civil servants?
I have a nice memory of walking into the then Chancellor’s private office at 1 a.m. and everyone just being…
What will Ed Miliband do when the lights go out?
How many times has Ed Miliband told us that his renewable energy policies were helping to free us from ‘fossil…
Americans are erasing European culture
Did Mariah Carey mime or not when she headlined the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan? That was…
What Timothée Chalamet gets wrong about opera and ballet
In February, Timothée Chalamet said to his fellow actor Matthew McConaughey, as part of a CNN and Variety town hall:…
What is the point of an ‘anti-Muslim hostility tsar’?
Derrida et al were right. The written English language (langue) can be vague and elliptical and the intended meaning not always…
Will the war in Iran really weaken China?
Analogies in international politics are tricky and easily abused, yet they remain irresistible because they can illuminate patterns that are…
Iran’s Supreme Leader is just as bloodthirsty as his father
The announcement of Mojtaba Khamenei as the next supreme leader of Iran represents not only continuity in the Islamic Republic’s…
The days are numbered for Iran’s new Supreme Leader
As the war continues, the Iranian regime has pressed ahead with appointing its new Supreme Leader. Mojtaba Khamenei, the son…
What would Adam Smith make of the AI revolution?
Today marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith’s seminal text in the history…
Trump is heading for a hard reckoning over Iran
The social media video with which the White House has promoted its attack on Iran is, even by the standards…
Will Gerry Adams let truth prevail?
Picture Gerry Adams in a dimly lit courtroom, one hand raised in statesmanlike denial, the other twitching like Dr. Strangelove’s…
Who cares if Britain’s Eurovision entry has German lyrics?
What with the prospect of further resets with the European Union, and with British culture seemingly in a constant battle…
MAHA, stay in your lane
MAHA is not a foreign policy doctrine, nor should it become one. Nevertheless this week the movement experienced a split…
The graduate benefit is not what it was
Politicians are keen to fix what is seen as a mounting political problem with student loans. An increasing number of…
Chris Philp: ‘The government showed no foresight whatsoever’
In the last few days, Keir Starmer has agreed to let the US military use UK bases to conduct specific…
The Premier League is not boring
In the Premier League this season, the number of open-play goals, shots and passes are all the lowest in years.…
Russian oil is back
Donald Trump on Thursday allowed India to import more Russian oil. India recently did a deal with the US that…
Trump says no thanks to Britain’s aircraft carriers
The war with Iran entered its second week on Saturday with intense fighting across multiple fronts, as Israeli forces struck…
Never has North Korea felt more smug about its nuclear weapons
If there’s one thing that the ongoing Iran-US conflict is teaching North Korea, it is that nuclear weapons are an…
Don’t sacrifice the Kurds
The Kurdish region along the Iran-Iraq border is an imposing landscape of sublime beauty this time of year. The snow-capped…
Why Reza Pahlavi cannot lead Iran
There are many reasons why Reza Pahlavi should not be a future leader of Iran. He left as a teenager…
Reflections on the first week of Operation Epic Fury
Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, the joint US-Israeli campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran, have begun to reduce…
Brutalism is beautiful
Is a concrete Brutalist complex as worthy of commemoration and preservation as a medieval cathedral or neoclassical stately home? The…
Kiran Desai: ‘All cultures are rooted in magic’
It wasn’t until a painting arrived in her post, a gift from the Italian artist Francesco Clemente, that Kiran Desai’s…
