World
How AI is reshaping the Iran war
The magnitude and speed of the US and Israeli airstrikes eliminating Iranian regime officials can be explained in part by…
Asia is paying a very heavy price for the Iran war
This week, Sri Lankans took Wednesday off. They’ll be doing the same next week – and for as long as…
El Mencho’s last stand
Jalisco, Mexico No one seems to know exactly how El Mencho was killed. We are told the feared leader of…
Five things we learned this week
First of all, it’s farewell to Chuck Norris, the action movie star of such Hollywood classics (Generous – Ed.) as…
Has Giorgia Meloni really turned against Donald Trump?
I often think that the dissemination of news is like a game of Chinese Whispers. Giorgia Meloni, for instance, has…
Ukraine’s allies are falling away
As Ukraine emerges battered but unbowed from the third and most terrible winter of the war against Russia, its people…
Iran and America’s new protection racket
“Whoever rules the waves rules the world” – Alfred Thayer Mahan. Would Donald Trump have attacked Iran on February 28…
Could Britain help unblock the Strait of Hormuz?
It has not required advanced training in detecting nuance or reading between the lines in recent days to understand that…
Anthony Albanese’s mosque heckling is a humiliation
Ever since the Hamas atrocities of October 2023, it’s not been easy being Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese. Following the…
Ramadan in Iran made my life a misery
I still remember the last Ramadan I spent in Iran. My mother and I wanted to take a walk in…
Anti-vax parents shouldn’t get benefits
Like all parents, I find the prospect and experience of my child getting sick very unpleasant. Well, I say like…
Decriminalising late abortions isn’t progressive
Last week, the body of an 18-day old baby girl was found in Westminster, in desperately sad circumstances. The baby’s…
Britain’s borrowing splurge is not sustainable
After a record tax take and surplus in January, normal service has resumed. Britain experienced its second-largest February borrowing splurge…
Is the disagreement between Israel and the US over striking Iran’s gas fields real?
As the war approaches the end of its third week, US and Israeli strikes inside Iran continue to intensify and…
Israel can’t assassinate its way to victory over Iran
The killing of the Iranian senior security official Ali Larijani this week is the most significant ‘targeted assassination’ undertaken since…
Could Iranian drones bomb Britain?
One night in 1909, in Peterborough, a police constable named Kettle looked up and saw ‘a strange cigar-shaped craft passing over…
Labour cares more about itself than Britain
While many people have been dissecting the power struggles and growing fissures within the Labour party, it might instead be…
Why did the authorities turn a blind eye to the alleged rape of a Berlin schoolgirl?
A 16-year-old schoolgirl was allegedly raped in the garden of a state-funded youth centre in Berlin-Neukölln last November. It was…
Nick Timothy isn’t the bad guy in the row over mass Muslim prayer
Would you rather live in a society where a man is free to criticise religious practices or one where such…
Why America and France are always arguing
“Not perfect,” was Donald Trump’s reply when asked about Emmanuel Macron’s support for the Iran operation. “But it’s France, we…
The Democrats’ weakness on war powers
Given my longstanding disgust with America’s lawlessly interventionist and self-destructive foreign policy, I should be outraged by Donald Trump’s cavalier…
Will the Covid inquiry teach us anything?
The Covid inquiry has published the third of its ten (ten!) modules today, this time focused on how the healthcare…
Why Muslims should be allowed to pray in Trafalgar Square
I approve of the large Muslim prayer meeting held in Trafalgar Square on Monday. But I would not want such…
Why the Afghan-Pakistan war matters
More than a decade ago, during a tense visit to Islamabad as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton gave Pakistan’s leaders…
Brace yourself: inflation is coming
In a surprise to no one, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted nine-zero to hold interest…
