Showing 91 - 100 of 137
North Korea and the art of the deal
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/05/2018
» The summit is on, it's off, it's sort of on again. It's amateur night every night at the White House, and the fate of the US-North Korean summit scheduled for Singapore on 12 June will be decided by the coin Donald Trump flips each day: heads three days in a row means "yes", tails three days in a row and the meeting stays cancelled.
Gaza deaths a symptom of utter despair
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/05/2018
» When all is lost, entire communities sometimes engage in suicidal gestures. It happened as recently as 1906 in Bali, when the local royal family and thousands of their followers, knowing they could not defeat the Dutch conquerors, dressed in their best finery and walked straight into the Dutch gunfire. Thousands were killed.
What King Kim III craves above all else
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/04/2018
» What does Kim Jong-un want? One thing: security.
Peeving Putin: Making Latvian society less Russian
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2018
» Lots of countries have two or more official languages: Canada (two), Belgium (three), Switzerland (four), South Africa (11), India (23) and so on. They all have trouble balancing the competing demands of the various language groups. But Latvia has only one official language, and it has a bigger problem than any of them.
Aleppo and the media's distortions
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/03/2018
» The stop-go evacuation of rebel fighters and civilians from Aleppo had begun again as I write, but the reason for the last interruption was instructive. It was Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) that burned the buses coming to evacuate the wounded from Foah and Kefraya.
Amateur hour in the Middle East -- and not much love
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/02/2018
» On Sunday it was revealed that the Syrian army has made a deal to help the Syrian Kurds (who are technically rebels) fight off the Turkish invasion of Afrin, a chunk of Syrian territory on the northwestern border with Turkey that has been held by the Kurds since 2012.
Time to annul Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/02/2018
» Nobel Peace Prize winners sometimes go on to undistinguished later careers, and some seem to have got the prize by mistake. Barack Obama, for example. But there has never before been one who went on to become a genocidal criminal.
Will the US betray the Syrian Kurds?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/01/2018
» Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an angry man at the best of times, but on Monday he outdid himself: "This is what we have to say to all our allies: Don't get in between us and terrorist organisations, or we will not be responsible for the unwanted consequences." That was a barely veiled threat that he will use force against American troops if they try to stop him from attacking the Syrian Kurds.
Abdullah Saleh's good luck runs out
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/12/2017
» Ali Abdullah Saleh seized power in Yemen in 1978, when he was only 36 years old. He lost it in 2012, when the "Arab Spring" was in full spate, and had been trying to get it back ever since. Thirty-four years was not enough. But on Monday, his truly astonishing ability to switch sides got him killed.
Future looks bleak for Grace Mugabe
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/11/2017
» 'Someone, anyone, with close links, please make sure Uncle Bob reads the correct speech ... Old man reads the 2013 inauguration speech and we're in kak for another five years," tweeted Mubaiwa Bandambira just before Zimbabwe's beleaguered president, Robert Mugabe, went on television with what was supposed to be his resignation speech. After all, Mr Mugabe is 93 years old, and he has read the wrong speech before.