World View

General The Right Honourable The Lord Ismay, KG GCB etc, the first secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, was probably holding a glass of port after an excellent dinner when he growled his famous remark.

As my flight landed in South Africa on Sunday, I looked in vain for the plane that was due to take off with the first 49 white, Afrikaans-speaking "refugees".

In 10 whirlwind weeks Donald Trump had already smashed the international system of rules and alliances that more or less kept the peace for the past 80 years.

‘‘We need to wake up from a failed, 40-year consensus that said we could ignore the encroachment of powerful countries as they expand their ambitions,” US Vice-President JD Vance said.