World
China's state broadcaster returns to British airwaves
It’s a hard tasking trying to sell China these days. What with the crackdown on Hong Kong, the subjugation of…
Afghanistan and the end of the American hegemony
We used to sneer at the way the Russians were chased out of Afghanistan by a ragtag of mujaheddin armed…
Is Theresa May in any position to criticise Boris?
When Theresa May told a joke at her own expense at a reception of Tory MPs held to celebrate Boris…
The last war for democracy
Twenty years after 9/11, the War on Terror has come full circle. Everyone expected the Taliban to surge back to…
Is Joe Biden OK?
Just before the Christmas holiday in 2018, then-President Donald Trump canceled his planned vacation to his Mar-a-Lago resort, citing the…
What exactly was the plan in Afghanistan?
The collapse of the Afghan army and state was so rapid and so total that, mercifully, talking heads have already…
Biden’s press conference was a feast of disinformation
Joe Biden emerged from his cave, saw his shadow, and told us there will be three more years of winter.…
Did ‘gender studies’ lose Afghanistan?
Twenty years of war in Afghanistan are over. What comes next is 20 years, or even more, of recriminations and…
Which lobbyists run MPs' interest groups?
David Cameron’s links to Greensill have brought the issue of lobbying back into the spotlight. Next month the Committee on…
France is nervous about welcoming a wave of Afghan refugees
Emmanuel Macron has once more infuriated many in France, but this time it has nothing to do with Covid passports…
How are the vaccines affected by the Delta variant?
Has the emergence of the Delta, or Indian, variant reduced the effectiveness of Covid vaccines and if so by how…
Even the Taliban are in shock: my week on the Kabul front line
I’ve been to the front line in Iraq, Syria and Libya and witnessed all kinds of crazy, unlikely events. But…
Afghanistan will once again become a breeding ground for terror
‘Bin Laden is dead and al Qaeda is degraded in Afghanistan and it’s time to end the forever war’. So…
The truth about Biden’s booster shots
Don’t let this relatively Fauci-free week fool you. The Biden administration is still laser-focused on the coronavirus. In fact, as…
The Afghan state was dying before the Taliban took over
To understand how Afghanistan is going to change in the future, you have to first understand what the ‘Islamic Republic’…
The Taliban’s lightning victory was no surprise
As the debacle in Kabul unfolds, in Washington and London the mud slinging about who is to blame is beginning.…
Afghanistan: The error of withdrawal
Like many veterans, this last week has been one that has seen me struggle through anger, grief and rage. The…
Harry and Meghan’s glib Afghan statement
Finally, some news to cheer us all up on this grim, relentless August. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have…
The blind spot in the SNP's 'war on drink'
Scotland’s grim reputation for abnormally high drug fatalities has become embedded in the public consciousness over the past year. The…
How did US intelligence get Afghanistan so wrong?
It may well go down as the understatement of the year. In a quite extraordinary address to the nation after…
Finally, the Sussexes speak out on Afghanistan
If you’re an Afghan translator sheltering in a Kabul compound, life must seem pretty grim. The Taliban’s triumph has brought…
Joe Biden’s shabby treatment of the Afghan army
Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable? The President: No, it is not. Q. Why? The President: Because you…
Joe Biden and the grand battle of ideas
Well, Donald Trump doesn’t seem so bad now, does he? I don’t say that because Joe Biden has turned out…
How the UK failed the army interpreters stranded in Afghanistan
We lost. Whatever hope we had that we could help Afghanistan crawl out of its misery has been shattered. The…
Saigon and Kabul: what would Nixon say?
Having worked with former President Richard Nixon during the last years of his life, I’m often asked what his view would be…
