World
Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State, once called Slovakia "the black hole at the heart of Europe," which seems a harsh judgement on five million Slovaks.
It has not been a good week for Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin 'Bibi' Netanyhu, chief decision-maker in the war in the Gaza Strip that has already cost at least 35,000 civilian deaths.
"History repeats itself -- the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce," said Karl Marx. He was talking about European history, of course, and here it comes again, a century later, doing a tribute act to the 1920s.
Extreme nationalism always looks foolish or even deranged to those who have not caught the virus, but in India it's now official.
The crisis in Senegal, the one country in West Africa that has never had a military coup, has passed. Few people outside Africa were paying close attention, but I'm sure you will be pleased to know that democracy has survived.
It may seem that the violence and chaos that have gripped Haiti are finally being addressed. The unelected acting president nobody wanted, Ariel Henry, has resigned.
Shock Horror! Anthropocene Cancelled! We're back in the Holocene! Man the Pumps!
Not all that long ago, attacking another country's territory was still seen as a big deal.
The key debate on the last day of the COP28 climate summit was about whether or not the conference should endorse a resolution...
There are really three parties to the 'pause' -- nobody is officially using the word 'ceasefire' -- that brings at least a temporary end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
The Armenians are a people of great antiquity -- the first Armenian kingdom was in the 8th century BC -- but they grew up in a tough neighbourhood, and they have been in retreat for a very long time.
The Armenians are a people of great antiquity -- the first Armenian kingdom was in the 8th century BC -- but they grew up in a tough neighbourhood, and they have been in retreat for a very long time.
The Armenians are a people of great antiquity -- the first Armenian kingdom was in the 8th century BC -- but they grew up in a tough neighbourhood, and they have been in retreat for a very long time.
The Armenians are a people of great antiquity -- the first Armenian kingdom was in the 8th century BC -- but they grew up in a tough neighbourhood, and they have been in retreat for a very long time.
Javier Milei, who is very likely to be elected president of Argentina in the October election, is fairly frank in his view of Pope Francis, a fellow Argentine.
"The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine," wrote Sextus Empiricus, a Sceptic philosopher who lived mainly in Athens and Alexandria almost 2,000 years ago. Justice may be slow to come, but in the end the wicked will be punished.
Three of the world's biggest democracies, all with past, present and/or prospective leaders facing prison at the same time. In the end, it's the courts that decide.
When Nato held its annual summit in Brussels two years ago, all 31 presidents and prime ministers of the alliance's member states dutifully showed up, but their hearts weren't really in it.
"I believe the (Iranian) regime will fall within a couple of years," said Mohsen Sazegara. "It's very different from three years ago, when they suppressed demonstrations in just five days. And the movement is spread all around the country."
Let us suppose that the current Russian regime collapses, with or without a Ukrainian military victory to give it a final shove. Who would be the least objectionable candidate to take over in Moscow?
There is no justice. Bashar al-Assad, the murderous Syrian dictator whose membership even the Arab League suspended twelve years ago, is off to Riyadh this week to celebrate his re-admission to the organisation.