Showing 61 - 70 of 103
Softly, softly the right tactic for nuke deal
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/02/2019
» On a scale of one to 10, what are the chances that the meeting between Chairman Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump in Vietnam today and tomorrow (or any subsequent meeting) will end with a clear and irreversible commitment to the "denuclearisation" of North Korea? Zero.
Donald Trump the promise-keeper
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/02/2019
» Donald Trump is a man of his word, and he promised his "base" to build a wall on the US border with Mexico to stop an "invasion of gangs, invasion of drugs, invasion of people". It turns out that Mexico isn't willing to pay for it after all, but a promise is a promise. So he has declared a fake "national emergency" to get his hands on the money he needs.
The Great Dying, the Little Ice Age, and little old us
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/02/2019
» The Black Death killed about 30% of the European population in a few years in the middle of the 14th century. A century and a half later the native people of the Americas were hit by half a dozen plagues as bad as the Black Death, one after another, and 95% of them died. The plagues of the "Great Dying" had much less terrifying names like measles, influenza, diphtheria and smallpox, but they were just as efficient at killing.
Afghanistan: 17 years too late
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/01/2019
» 'The Taliban have committed, to our satisfaction, to do what is necessary that would prevent Afghanistan from ever becoming a platform for international terrorist groups or individuals," said Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, on Tuesday. So why didn't the United States have this discussion with the Taliban 17 years ago, in October 2001?
The Kurds: Betrayed once more
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/12/2018
» The Kurds are like Kleenex. You use them, and then you throw them away.
Shared delusions of Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/11/2018
» "It's a suffering tape, it's a terrible tape," the Snowflake-in-Chief told Fox News on Sunday, defending his refusal to listen to the recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi being murdered and sawn into pieces in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2. "I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it. It was very violent, very vicious and terrible."
US mid-terms reflect an ideologically divided nation
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/11/2018
» Former United States president Barack Obama said of the US mid-term elections that "the character of our country is on the ballot", and the outcome proved him right. The country is a psychological basket case, more deeply and angrily divided than at any time since the Vietnam War.
The changing of Syria's demography
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/07/2018
» With the fall of Daraa last Friday, the end of Syria's civil war is within sight. What will Bashar al-Assad and his ruling Ba'ath Party do with their victory?
America's trade war with China risks disastrous end
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/07/2018
» The United States could probably extract major concessions from China in a carefully managed confrontation on trading issues, because the Chinese don't want a trade war with their best export customer. But the US can't win the trade war that Donald Trump is planning to wage, and it kicks off today.
No universal health care is America's loss
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/07/2018
» Nothing is perfect, and that definitely includes health care. On the 70th anniversary of the first full-coverage national health care system that is "free at the point of delivery", Britain's National Health Service, English people have been marching in the streets demanding better funding for the NHS, and Donald Trump naturally got the wrong end of the stick again.