America
Cuba libre
Havana There is an astonishing patience in the Cuban people, born of endless waiting. When a store has, say, chicken,…
The Soviet spectre haunting Afghanistan
As US and British forces pull out of Afghanistan, further victims of the ‘grave of empires’, Russia is experiencing a mix…
The Kremlin’s plan to destabilise the West
On Sunday, Russia releasedits new National Security Strategy. In many ways, it picked up from where the 2015 version left…
Triumph of the Taleban
Their patience is paying off
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.…
Why the Biden-Putin summit wasn’t a waste of time
The meeting between U.S. president Joe Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Geneva started cordially enough. A quick handshake, toothy smiles…
The struggle to contain China
The theory that the pandemic began with a leak from a research laboratory in Wuhan is rapidly gaining currency. Since…
Haut topic
It seemed a suitable topic for a bank holiday. We were discussing Haut-Brion, a bank-breaking wine. There is a question…
It’s time to face the truth about masks
However surreal and dystopian the pandemic landscape seemed at first, no enduring vista feels ‘surreal’ and ‘dystopian’ indefinitely. Citizenries uniformly…
Diary
What would happen to the Republicans after Donald Trump? That has been one of the pundits’ favourite themes in the…
‘A worse pandemic will be next’
Michael Lewis on the scientists who saw Covid coming – and were ignored
The UK’s very American political realignment
The speed and scale with which voters, mainly but not exclusively in the north of England, have switched their allegiance…
The true cost of make-believe money
I like Bill Maher. He’s a rare practising left-wing comic who’s actually funny. But last week, his routine on cryptocurrency…
China envy
From spending to lockdown, the West is copying Beijing
Portrait of the week
Home ‘I think we have got a good chance of being able to dispense with the one-metre-plus from 21 June,’…
A new cottage industry
Cottagecore, not to be confused with cottaging, is an aspirational lifestyle trend. The word is relatively new —although you’ll find…
Britain is not America
‘If people in Wales had access to as much media coverage of decisions that affected Wales as they do of…
George Floyd was a victim of American gun culture
The triple guilty verdict on Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd was greeted with general relief across the…
Supermajority
‘Wizard,’ said William. ‘Super,’ said Ginger, in William and the Moon Rocket (1954). More recently we have had Alex Salmond,…
Putin’s on manoeuvres – are we ready?
‘What follows plague?’ I asked a medieval historian at the start of the pandemic. ‘War,’ he replied. In recent days,…
Reparations for slavery don’t add up
Last week, a bill cleared the US House Judiciary Committee that would establish a 13-person commission to consider federal reparations…
Why Sikhs are worried about the Indianapolis mass shooting
Last week, the New York Times mapped the location and number of casualties of mass shootings that have occurred on US…
Portrait of the week
Home The Duke of Edinburgh, who was married to the Queen for 73 years, died at Windsor Castle, aged 99.…
Money to burn
Consumers, not ministers, will lead the recovery
Biden’s party is over
Washington, DC The Democratic party is dying. That may be hard to believe since Democrats control both houses of…
