Showing 81 - 90 of 337
Might Russia use its 'tactical' nuke weapons?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/08/2022
» On Aug 25, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, announced that the country's combat aircraft have been "upgraded" by the Russians to carry nuclear weapons, and Belarusian pilots are being trained to deliver them. It got a single paragraph, or no notice at all, on most news sites. Nobody panicked.
What shall we do with climate refugees?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/08/2022
» You wait ages for the bus, and then three come along at once. Books are a bit like that, too, although in this case it's only a pair of them, both tackling the question of what to do about all the "climate refugees". (The United Nations' International Organization for Migration estimates that 1.5 billion people may be forced to move in the next thirty years alone.)
India at 75, and what might have been
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/08/2022
» Last Tuesday, on the 75th anniversary of Indian independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to turn India into a developed country within the next 25 years. If all goes well, that could actually come to pass, but it would have to go very well indeed.
Ukraine War a risky game of Mother May I?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/08/2022
» 'This obviously does not happen because of a thrown butt," said British Defence Minister Ben Wallace. But the Russian Ministry of Defence insisted that the explosions that destroyed at least eight warplanes at Saki Air Base in Russian-occupied Crimea on Aug 9 were due to "a violation of fire safety requirements".
Taiwan is Nancy Pelosi's last hurrah
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/08/2022
» Nancy Pelosi's brief visit to Taiwan this week caused great if somewhat confected anger in Beijing, but the Chinese Communist regime was not her main target. The Speaker of the House of Representatives has long supported Taiwan, and she will be aware that both the government and the people are in need of some reassurance at the moment.
Tunisia: The last Arab democracy goes under
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/07/2022
» Tunisia would seem to have everything going for it. Average salaries are the third-highest in all of Africa's fifty countries, just behind Morocco and South Africa. Literacy is 97% among the under-30s, population growth is only 1% a year, and it's a democracy that functions under the rule of law. Or rather, it was.
Sri Lanka: A bad 'Band of Brothers'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/07/2022
» 'How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked (in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises). "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." Sri Lanka is much the same.
Cuban missile crisis redux in Nicaragua?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/07/2022
» It was a piece of news so obscure and implausible that I missed it when it first surfaced last month. The news was that the Russians are going to put hypersonic nuclear missiles into Nicaragua and terrify the Americans into backing down over Ukraine. Or kill them all if they don't.
The 'pink tide' is rising in Latin America
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/06/2022
» 'Corruption isn't fought with slogans on TikTok," complained veteran Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro. But social media can win elections, and a right-wing dark horse called Rodolfo Hernández, who calls himself the "King of TikTok", may crush Mr Petro's hopes of becoming Colombia's first-ever leftist president next Sunday.
Farewell to neutral Sweden and Finland
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/05/2022
» It's easy to imagine Vladimir Putin coming into the shop marked "Sweden", breaking some fine china accidentally on purpose, and growling: "Nice little shop you've got here. It would be a pity if something happened to it." But Sweden is not a pottery shop, Mr Putin is not a Mafia capo, and what's going on in the Baltic now is not a protection racket.