Showing 1 - 10 of 10
After 66 years, Cuba's regime faces reckoning
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/02/2026
» Fidel Castro and his communist band of brothers have had a good long run in power (66 years), but they have run out of road.
In Russia, the really dangerous ones are sane
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/04/2024
» There are plenty of crazies in Russian politics who make bizarre claims about their country's victim status ("the evil West made us do it") and issue blood-curdling but implausible threats about using nuclear weapons on their enemies. But the really dangerous ones are quite sane.
The unravelling of Burma's military rule
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/12/2023
» The Burmese army is a leading candidate for Nastiest Army in the World. Even more than Pakistan's army, it is the tail that wags the dog: rather than the army serving the country, it's the other way around.
Shipping is worse than aviation
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 30/03/2021
» 'We're waiting on food goods like coconut milk and syrups, some spare parts for motors, we've got some fork lift trucks, some Amazon goods on there, all sorts," said Steve Parks of Seaport Freight Services in England, who is awaiting twenty of the 18,300 containers aboard the Ever Given. Which of those things cannot be sourced from somewhere closer than Asia?
Bibi, Benny and Ruvi: Israel's future
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/03/2020
» Benjamin Netanyahu, or "Bibi" as everyone calls him, is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, and still in office although he has failed to win three elections in a row. Last June, last September, and again early this month, Israeli voters split their votes in ways that made it almost impossible to put together a new government.
Cameroon's war on anglophones is self-defeating
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/11/2019
» Sometimes Donald Trump gets it right. In February he cut off US military aid to the central African country of Cameroon because of its appalling human rights record (and didn't even offer to restore it if the Cameroon government dug up dirt on his political opponents at home). Last Friday he acted again, dropping Cameroon from a pact that promotes trade between sub-Saharan African countries and the US.
Aviation must innovate to stop ‘f lygskam’ fate
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/10/2019
» Qantas, the Australian airline, has just test-flown the world’s longest commercial air-route: 16,500km from New York to Sydney non-stop. There were only 60 passengers aboard the Boeing 787, all in business class, because the plane needed to conserve the rest of its weight for fuel. And, we are told, they danced the Macarena in the empty economy class to stay limber during the 19-hour flight.
Netanyahu has nearly finished his grim mission
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/09/2019
» Benjamin Netanyahu's work is almost done. If he wins tomorrow's election and forms yet another government (he is now the longest-serving Israeli prime minister), he will put a stake through the heart of the "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was born in the 1993 Oslo peace accords. Hamas should send him a gold watch for long service.
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?
Pakistan's army a state above a state
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/07/2018
» 'Look, we have no other choice," Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said last May. "These games have gone on too long. Something has to change." Then he left to be with his wife Kulsoom, who is on life support while receiving treatment for cancer in England. But last week he and his daughter Maryam returned to Pakistan to begin serving the jail sentences imposed on them by a Pakistani court.