World
Will the right save Julian Assange?
In late 2018, Nils Melzer, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Torture, was contacted by lawyers representing WikiLeaks publisher Julian…
Taking the knee isn't the best way of showing black lives matter
As a black football fan who grew up going to matches in the seventies and eighties, I know more than…
What's the real reason Israel's vaccines were rejected by Palestinians?
Sipping an iced coffee in a Tel Aviv café this week, it felt like it was 2018 again. Nobody wears a…
France's silent majority has rejected Macron – and Le Pen
I popped down to the Salle du Peuple on Sunday to see how the voting was going in the departmental…
Johnson vs Sunak: The political battle of the autumn?
As ministers grow increasingly confident that they will be able to unlock by 19 July, Boris Johnson is facing a…
How Russia lurched from vaccine victory to Covid crisis
Russia made headlines last August when it triumphantly unveiled its pioneering coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V. But now, nearly a year…
Remainers declare war on Fox's biscuits
Next Thursday is election day in the Batley and Spen by-election and with polls showing a six point Tory lead,…
Pope puts EU founder on the road to sainthood
To many in Brussels, the French statesman is already a saint. But now Pope Francis has decided to put Robert Schuman…
Boris shouldn’t write off fossil fuels just yet
At last week’s G7 summit, Boris Johnson pushed his fellow leaders to back his climate finance plan to support large-scale…
Stonewall’s worrying school guidance
Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’ programme appears to have been haemorrhaging members since an investigationby the university of Essex found that the…
Ministers need to start bracing Britain for the third wave
The third wave of Covid-19 is well underway, driven by the now-dominant Indian variant. It may now be no more deadly than a typical…
A culture of fear has taken over at Edinburgh university
It is undeniable that the University of Edinburgh is the jewel in the crown of Scotland’s higher education system. Among…
Revealed: How the UK-Australia deal was struck
The UK’s first bespoke trade deal agreed since leaving the EU was finalised with Australia over two dinners. One took…
What Meghan Markle can learn from Enid Blyton
The year is 2070 and English Heritage are unveiling their latest Blue Plaque: ‘The Duchess of Sussex, children’s author, lived…
Are PCR tests the best way to track Covid?
Throughout the pandemic doubts have been expressed about the reliability of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests which have been…
Television, not social media, is fracturing our society
All it took for the Twitter mob to descend on me was a retweet from Michael Gove. Message after message…
Euros 2021: England are easily the most boring side in the tournament
England 0 Scotland 0 Hungary 1 (Fiola) France 1 (Griezmann) The wonderful Hungarians almost took my mind off England’s lamentable…
Naz Shah’s new community cohesion effort
Oh dear. It was just two weeks ago that Labour’s Naz Shah found herself in trouble for attending a pro-Palestinian…
Will Boris Johnson be one of the great prime ministers?
Boris Johnson may have been unable to work his magic on the burghers of Chesham as he did on fellow…
Biden and Putin have left Britain out in the cold
It would probably be wrong to say that Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin got on like a house on fire.…
Churchill, Cambridge and the battle for history
Is the tide in the so-called culture wars beginning to turn? Recent evidence suggests that at least a mainstream effort…
King of Fortress Wales: an interview with Mark Drakeford
Mark Drakeford sits opposite me in a small conference room on the third floor of Cathays Park, the nucleus of…
America isn’t back. Global grandstanding is
‘America is back at the table,’ Joe Biden wants us to know. ‘Diplomacy is back.’ After four years of Donald…
Why Warwick’s Covid modelling doesn’t add up
This week began with more frightening graphs from SPI-M, the government’s scientific modelling committee. A team at Warwick University calculated…
The dark past of Iran's new presidential favourite
‘Each vote counts…come and vote and choose your president. This is important for the future of your country.’ These were…
