Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Who is next for the United States?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/01/2026
» The Crazy Gang are high on the "brilliant success" of their Venezuela caper and looking for new targets. Like Alexander the Great, US President Donald Trump weeps because there are no more worlds to conquer. But wait! Actually, there are still lots of places to conquer.
Kingdom of Denmark vs the Shadow Fleet
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/10/2025
» Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, two-thirds of the Danish kingdom's income came from taxes paid by every ship passing through the Øresund ('The Sound') Strait, the only exit from the Baltic Sea. Each ship had to declare its cargo -- and if the Danes thought they were undervaluing it, Denmark had the right to buy it at the declared price.
Vintage tonnage keeps Russian oil flowing
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/01/2025
» The name is brilliant: "vintage tonnage". It evokes 17th-century pirate vessels flying the skull-and-crossbones, 18th-century ships-of-the-line bristling with cannons, or even 19th-century clipper ships in full sail bringing tea to England and America. The images are always romantic and often beautiful.
Life elsewhere will someday be possible
Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/09/2023
» This week's real news is the discovery of life on another planet. As Cambridge University's Nikku Madhusudhan said in the first sentence of his report: "The search for habitable environments and biomarkers in exoplanetary atmospheres is the holy grail of exoplanet science." And he has probably found the Holy Grail.
How the United States can avoid war with China
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/02/2023
» 'I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight [with China] in 2025," declared US Air Force Gen Mike Minihan last weekend. He didn't mention what his elbow told him, or if he ever consulted his head on the matter.
A resurgence of alliances is an echo of past wars
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/01/2023
» Alliances are as old as civilisation. Older, actually: almost every hunter-gatherer band that anthropologists have studied, from the New Guinea highlanders to the Yanomamo in the Amazon, made alliances with other groups to try to protect themselves.
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".
How to stop sea level rise at its source
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/06/2022
» 'Ninety percent of ice flowing to the sea from the Antarctic ice sheet, and about half of that lost from Greenland, travels in narrow, fast ice streams measuring tens of kilometres or less across. Stemming the largest flows would allow the ice sheets to thicken, slowing or even reversing their contribution to sea-level rise."
Climate change hits southern part of Africa
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/04/2022
» Tropical Storm Ana in January, Tropical Cyclone Batsirai in February, then Dumako, Emnati and Gombe in quick succession: three cyclones and two "tropical storms" in six weeks hitting the coasts of southeast Africa.
Lebanon quickly sinking in more ways than one
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/10/2021
» Off the Lebanese coast about 60 kilometres north of Beirut a 104-metre battleship stands vertically, with her bow and some 30 metres of her length plunged into the mud. The seabed is 140 metres down, but you can even scuba-dive on the stern if you are a technical diver. The ship is a bit like Lebanon, for reasons I'll explain later.