Showing 101 - 110 of 115
Is the Islamic State really on the verge of being crushed?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/09/2016
» The word on the streets is that the Islamic State (IS or Isil to its many enemies) is going under. In January it lost control of the city of Ramadi in Iraq after a long siege; in June it also lost Fallujah. In March it lost Palmyra to Syrian government troops, and last month it lost Manbij in northern Syria to the US-backed Syrian Kurds after another long siege.
Welcome all to humanity's epoch
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/09/2016
» Geology moves very slowly, and so do geologists. The Working Group on the Anthropocene was set up in 2009, but only presented its recommendation to the International Geological Congress in Cape Town last Monday. The Working Group's experts have concluded that we are now living in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. That is, the epoch when human beings are reshaping the Earth.
Let's fight malaria with chickens
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/08/2016
» I had malaria once, and it was extremely unpleasant. I had been working in Yemen, but I actually contracted it when I was flying home on a Dutch airline that must remain nameless. The flight made a stop in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and the plane was parked out on the runway while waiting to pick up passengers -- right on the edge of a mangrove swamp on the Red Sea coast.
The US and Russia agree on Syria
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/08/2016
» Great states hate to admit error, so when they have to change course they generally try to disguise the fact. That's why you may not have heard much about the way that the United States has changed course in Syria in the past three months.
'Solar Impulse' represents the future for aeroplanes
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/07/2016
» As I write this, Solar Impulse is already in the air on the last 48-hour leg of its remarkable journey: the first round-the world flight by an aircraft that uses no fuel except sunlight. By the time you read it, pilot Bertrand Piccard will probably have landed in Abu Dhabi, to global acclaim. And you can't help wondering: is this the future of flight?
Wrecked Iraq a symbol of stupidity
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/07/2016
» "Suppose that... the Iraqis feel ambivalent about being invaded and real Iraqis, not (just) Saddam's special guard, decide to offer resistance," wrote British prime minister Tony Blair to US president George W Bush in December 2001, two years before the US and the UK invaded Iraq. At least Mr Blair had some doubts, but neither man could really imagine that the Iraqis would see them as conquerors, not liberators.
Face-off looms over South China Sea
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/07/2016
» Next Tuesday, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will issue its ruling on China's claim to practically all of the South China Sea. And already the main military contenders are moving more forces into the region.
Russia was right about Syria conflict
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/05/2016
» 'The Russians had a more realistic analysis of the situation than practically anybody else," said Lakhdar Brahimi, the former UN Special Envoy to Syria. "Everyone should have listened to the Russians a little bit more than they did."
Property in Iraq fuelled by dirty money
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/05/2016
» Property prices in central Baghdad are as high as London's, even though Iraq's national income is down by 70% since the collapse in the oil price. Islamic State's (IS) bombs regularly devastate parts of the capital, and still the real estate market booms. Why?
Russia's Syria mission 'accomplished'
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/03/2016
» He wasn't standing on an aircraft carrier with a banner saying "Mission Accomplished" behind him, but Russia's President Vladimir Putin was a lot more credible than former US president George W Bush when he declared his country's military intervention in the Middle East a success. And most of the Russian forces in Syria are going home after only five months, not the eight years that American troops stayed in Iraq.