World View

I am very cross with myself.

The Strait of Malacca is strategically important.

We seem to be drifting back into the world of "might makes right".

In the 80 hours between Wednesday, January 15, when the Gaza ceasefire agreement was announced, and Sunday, January 19, when it went into effect, Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed 123 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children.

The name is brilliant: "vintage tonnage".

Turning yourself from a democratically elected president into a dictator is a tricky operation, and most people who try it fail.

Six months ago, at the end of Iran’s presidential election, I finished an article by speculating the long-lived theocratic dictatorship in Iran might be a lot closer to its end than its beginning: "If you can plausibly say ‘This cannot go on forever’, you are also saying ‘Some day this will come to an end’."

One week in, the ceasefire in Lebanon seems to be holding, but everything is connected: only three days later, the civil war in Syria started up again after a de facto four-year truce.

The indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza has triggered a great deal of public moralising, both pro and con.

The consensus assumption is still that Donald Trump will force Ukraine to yield to Russia as soon as he takes office on January 20.