World View

A zombie dream has taken over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, or at least the extreme right part of it, which is the tail that wags the rest.

We are getting very close to the point where Donald Trump realises that his dear friend Vladimir Putin has been playing him for a fool.

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: "Nato was designed to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down."

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" of the many thousands who are supposedly going to find safety from racist persecution in Donald Trump’s United States.

Israel may or may not have God on its side (opinions vary), but it certainly has the United States government on its side, and that seems to be enough.

Not being a believer myself, I take only a limited interest in the doings of priests, imams and rabbis, but I did stumble into a situation involving the late Pope Francis at a crucial point in his early career.

The dictionary defines a horse whisperer as "someone who is skilled at training horses using gentle, non-violent methods based on understanding horse behaviour and psychology."

Not only did Trump blink first, but he blinked at exactly the right time.

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, but his bizarre "tariffs on everybody" policy has given us a glimpse of what may take its place.

The "third wave" of nuclear weapons countries is beginning, and it will be at least as dangerous as the previous waves.