World
Nancy Pelosi is losing her grip
Top Democrats took a media victory lap last weekend, crowing about the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that finally cleared the…
Are we heading for a net zero crash?
So far, the big message from the Glasgow climate conference is the role of finance in decarbonising the global economy.…
Fact check: are the NHS chief’s Covid claims correct?
The seven-day rolling average suggests Covid cases peaked around 23 October and have been in decline for almost two weeks. Despite…
Why is Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party trying to disarm the police?
A French police officer was attacked with a knife in Cannes this morning. The victim – whose bullet-proof vest saved him…
Top MoD mandarin: supporting BLM is ‘not political’
Is it political to support Black Lives Matter? Not according to No. 10’s most senior security adviser. Stephen Lovegrove (he/him) was…
The trouble with Austria’s vaccine passport plan
Are vaccine passports being used in other countries in an attempt to cut Covid infections – or to try and…
Can the Paterson Tory sleaze row continue to damage Boris?
After a bruising week for Boris Johnson over the Owen Paterson lobbying row, the government U-turned on its plan to…
The Bitcoin delusion
Cast your mind back a few years to last week – when there was much laughing and wailing at the…
The mask caste system
Visitors to New York tell me how surprised they are to see so few masked up people on the streets.…
Down the QAnon rabbit hole
Lies, in many cases, are comparable to sparks. They might not be very dangerous in and of themselves but under…
No sex, please, we’re national conservatives
Orlando, Florida Cockburn just got back from the second annual National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida. The ballroom of…
It’s time to reform the Big Four accounting firms
It has been exactly 20 years since the Enron scandal upended the reputation of global accountancy firms, leading to the…
The Trump talisman doesn’t work anymore
Glenn Youngkin’s victory over Terry McAuliffe is a loud wake-up call for the Democrats, who attempted to fuse the GOP…
Biden and Pelosi score late-night infrastructure win
For months, Democratic negotiations over Joe Biden’s twin spending bills were stuck in a cycle of infighting that felt it…
What is national conservatism?
I expected there might be some trouble at the National Conservative Conference, held earlier this week in Orlando. There had…
A net zero referendum? Bring it on
The left-green axis has been in uproar in recent weeks because several right-wing commentators have suggested holding a referendum on…
The West is falling behind China in the next space race
It is the first duty of governments to keep their citizens safe, protecting them from harm. This means constantly being…
What is the Bank of England playing at?
Last week, the Bank of England sent a number of confused messages. One was almost shocking: Andrew Bailey said that…
Will Ethiopia’s capital fall?
There have been stunning developments recently in Ethiopia’s grinding conflict between the national government and Tigrayan rebels in the north.…
‘Climategate’ still matters – but not how the BBC thinks it does
It is 12 years now since a tranche of emails were scraped from the server of the University of East…
The Tice is right: is Reform about to break through?
History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes, said Mark Twain. Right now the commentariat is looking for something that…
British MPs in the dark about Beijing’s threats
Following the killing of Sir David Amess, there has been much discussion in recent weeks about the safety of elected representatives. But…
Pfizer’s Covid pill breakthrough
After the UK medicines regulator yesterday approved Merck’s Covid pill for use on recently infected, vulnerable patients, Pfizer announced its…
Cold War, hot planet
Chelyabinsk is one of the most polluted places in the world. On 29 September 1957, an explosion ripped through the…
The Council of Europe was right to pull its hijab campaign
This week, the Council of Europe was forced to pull an advertising campaign promoting the hijab following a backlash from…
