100-year struggle began with Balfour Declaration
One hundred years ago this week, in the midst of World War 1, the British government sent a letter known as the Balfour Declaration that led, three decades later, to the creation of the state of...
World View
Unfinished nuclear business
Unfinished nuclear business
Today's Hiroshima does not give television journalists a lot to work with. It is a raucous, bustling, mid-sized Japanese city with only few reminders of its destruction by atomic bomb in 1945.
`Everyone should have listened to the Russians'
`Everyone should have listened to the Russians'
"The Russians had a more realistic analysis of the situation than practically anybody else,'' said Lakhdar Brahimi, the former United Nations special envoy to Syria.
Some sound thinking but simply too much bluster
Some sound thinking but simply too much bluster
Rodrigo Duterte, who has just been elected president of the Philippines, comes across as Donald Trump on stilts.
Lens pans to Clinton presidency
Lens pans to Clinton presidency
Shortly before John Kasich dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, leaving Donald Trump as the only candidate, the Ohio governor put up a spoof video on the internet.
Iraq the model of a failed state
Iraq the model of a failed state
Property prices in central Baghdad are as high as London's, even though Iraq's national income is down by 70% since the collapse in the oil price.
Bangladesh is in deep trouble
Bangladesh is in deep trouble
How is this for a staunch defence of free speech in a secular state?
Warming accelerates in unprecedented way
Warming accelerates in unprecedented way
If you spend a lot of time talking to scientists about climate change, there's one word you'll hear time and time again, and yet it's hardly ever mentioned in the public discussion of climate change. The word is ‘‘non-linear''.
Corruption allegations running deep
Corruption allegations running deep
You couldn't make this stuff up.
EU faces multiple risks
EU faces multiple risks
A recent headline on the leading French newspaper Le Monde said it all: ‘‘Migrants, the Euro, Brexit: The European Union is mortal.'' And it's true. The EU could actually collapse over these three threats.
He who’ll say anything to get what he wants
He who’ll say anything to get what he wants
"These are my principles, and if you don't like them ... Well, I have others.'' (Groucho Marx)
What a Syrian deal looks like
What a Syrian deal looks like
After the Syrian army recaptured the city of Palmyra from Islamic State a week ago, US State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted that the liberation of the ancient city was a ‘‘good thing''.
Burma transition could work
Burma transition could work
Finally, after Aung San Suu Kyi founded the National League for Democracy in 1988, after she won the 1990 election by a landslide, after the military ignored the results and put her under house arrest for 15 of the next 21 years, after a difficult five-year transition since 2011 where the return of democracy to Burma was often in doubt, after 54 years of military rule, the woman Burmese just call "The Lady' is in power.
EU, Turkey deal doomed
EU, Turkey deal doomed
Early next week, the deal made between the European Union and Turkey to stem the flood of refugees into the EU goes into effect. It will promptly blow up in everybody's face, for three reasons.
Cuban predictions a risk
Cuban predictions a risk
A British journalist compared the huge American delegation (800-1200 people) that is accompanying President Barack Obama on his first visit to Havana to Japanese soldiers stumbling out of the jungle to discover that the war ended a generation ago.
Russians in Syria: ambition achieved
Russians in Syria: ambition achieved
He wasn't standing on an aircraft carrier with a banner saying "Mission Accomplished'' behind him, but Russia's President Vladimir Putin was a lot more credible than former US president George W. Bush when he declared his country's military intervention in the Middle East a success.
Minimalism engenders success
Minimalism engenders success
If the US Congress had not imposed a two-term limit on the presidency in 1947 after Franklin D. Roosevelt's record four electoral victories, President Barack Obama would be a safe bet for a third term next November.
Muslims playing catch-up with Western attitudes to sex
Muslims playing catch-up with Western attitudes to sex
The French left does political correctness and moral outrage much better than the American left, so the row over what Algerian novelist and journalist Kamal Daoud recently said about sex in the Arab world has been bigger and louder in France than in the United States. But it is equally stupid in both places.
Xi becomes a one-man regime
Xi becomes a one-man regime
Opening the National People's Congress in Beijing last weekend, Prime Minister Li Keqiang set China's growth target for the coming year at 6.5%-7%, the lowest in decades. Only two years ago, he said 7% was the lowest acceptable growth rate, but he has had to eat his words. He really is not in charge of very much any more.
Britain flip flops on unity
Britain flip flops on unity
What would you call a country that called for "a structure under which can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom ... a kind of United States of Europe'' at the end of World War 2 (Winston Churchill, 1946), but refused to join it when its European neighbours actually began building it (European Economic Community, 1957)?