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Friday, April 12, 2024

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.

Friday, March 29, 2024

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.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Shock Horror! Anthropocene Cancelled! We're back in the Holocene! Man the Pumps!

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Not all that long ago, attacking another country's territory was still seen as a big deal.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

The key debate on the last day of the COP28 climate summit was about whether or not the conference should endorse a resolution...

Thursday, November 16, 2023

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.

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

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.

Thursday, October 19, 2023

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.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

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.

Friday, September 22, 2023

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.

Thursday, September 7, 2023

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.

Thursday, August 24, 2023

"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.

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

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.

Friday, July 14, 2023

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.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

"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."

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

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?

Thursday, March 23, 2023

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.

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Turkey's elections are fairly free, and there is going to be one this Sunday (14 May). President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been in power for two decades, and he should really lose by a landslide.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Last year US President Joe Biden called Pakistan "one of the most dangerous countries in the world," presumably because of its potentially lethal cocktail of nuclear weapons and unstable politics.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

It's a pity that both sides can't lose in the war that broke out between rival generals in Sudan on Saturday, but the best that the 48 million Sudanese can hope for now is that one side loses quickly.

Friday, March 24, 2023

"The cold is coming soon," gloated former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev last June. He predicted that the citizens of the European Union, deprived of the Russian gas that normally supplied about 40% of their energy, would be freezing in their homes ...

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

"We are but one very small company (among) many hundreds of companies using AI software for drug discovery and de novo design...

Friday, February 24, 2023

As we pursue our daily lives, seeking solace within our own environment, we are constantly bombarded by events beyond our control that disturb our peace of mind

Friday, February 24, 2023

On Tuesday they reset the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds before midnight. How did they know that Germany would agree to give Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday?

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