World
The Russian army is failing – but not enough to lose the war
There have been three major surprises for military analysts since the Russian military invaded Ukraine. The first has been the…
A wave of anti-Russian hysteria is sweeping across the West
McCarthyism is an overused word, I know. But really, what other word will do to describe the sacking of a…
How Putin wins the war
There was a revealing comment yesterday from Robert Habeck, the German economics minister. It is a comment that inadvertently suggests…
Did the move to the free market unleash Russia’s demons?
Back in 2009 on an unseasonably warm autumn evening in Moscow, I was walking to dinner with a banker friend,…
Russia’s war is not a Trump redux
I hate going back, again, to Orwell, but since the world is intent on using Nineteen Eighty-Four as an instructional…
Pro-Ukraine citizens clash with authorities in Georgia
Tbilisi, Georgia After one week of fighting, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already caused far-reaching geopolitical consequences, most of which…
The problem with the UK’s Russian clamp down
I’m no apologist for oligarchs, whether they be from Russia or anywhere else. I have been writing for years about…
Putin’s invasion has collapsed the French right
At the time it probably felt like a good idea for Marine Le Pen’s campaign team. A photo of her…
Saboteurs and looters: life in Ukraine’s capital
Lviv, Ukraine Russian troops have yet to reach the centre of Kiev. Instead, locals have two more immediate concerns: saboteurs…
Macron appears unassailable
Emmanuel Macron, the President of France for whom few voters have expressed much affection, is suddenly the leader of a…
KitKat-loving MPs consume £250k in snacks
After surviving his Covid scare in spring 2020, Boris Johnson was positively evangelical about the importance of weight loss. Launching…
The invasion of Ukraine and the death of globalisation
Putin’s savage invasion of Ukraine, and the West’s collective response, is the moment that the slow death of financial and…
Are Poles really against immigrants?
Krakow The invasion of Ukraine is being felt across Europe. Already hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians are spilling out…
Boris is back
Boris looks quite the statesman as he deals with the Ukraine crisis. MPs have spotted this and they want to…
Will the West boycott Russian oil?
The price of Brent crude exceeded $112 a barrel this morning. There is, as yet, no interruption in supply from…
The creeping authoritarianism of facial recognition
In an effort to lower crime rates, American law enforcement is pushing to combine facial recognition with expanded video surveillance.…
The crisis in Ukraine is strengthening the EU
The EU has a knack for turning a crisis into an opportunity. The Eurozone crisis led to the centralisation of…
No-fly zones won’t work, but what about aid to Ukraine?
Vladimir Putin’s forces are encircling the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol, and a 40 mile-long convoy of Russian armoured vehicles…
The Putin apologists of the European parliament
Never underestimate Vladimir Putin, and certainly never underestimate his advisers. Well before the first Russian rockets exploded in metropolitan Kiev,…
Ethical investors have weakened the West’s defences
It won’t be the first, or indeed the most serious, casualty of the war in Ukraine. It probably won’t be…
Putin is no Hitler
That English history lessons consist of World War II and the Tudors has come back to bite us again. The…
Joe Biden’s gung-ho State of the Union speech
It’s arguably not the right moment to focus on Joe Biden’s verbal slips, but it is a little unnerving when…
What’s behind the wave of French police suicides?
Since Russia invaded Ukraine last week the western media has focused on little else. In Britain this concentration is understandable:…
Ukraine couldn’t save Biden’s State of the Union
‘We oppose authoritarianism!’ our pundits all cry, before tuning in to watch the American president thunder like a god in…
No, Scottish independence is not like the war in Ukraine
Perhaps it’s the absence of any oppression of their own country that compels Scottish nationalists to latch onto the oppression…
