• OPINION

  Turkey is swiftly heading towards a regime of terror

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/11/2016

  » 'In Turkey, we are progressively putting behind bars all people who take the liberty of voicing even the slightest criticism of the government," wrote author Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's first Nobel Prize winner. "Freedom of thought no longer exists. We are distancing ourselves at high speed from a state of law and heading towards a regime of terror" that is driven by "the most ferocious hatred".

• OPINION

  A tale of two bombs -- in Manchester and Bangkok

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/05/2017

  » There were two bombs on Monday. The one in Britain killed at least 22 people and injured 120 as they came out of a concert at Manchester Arena. It was carried out by a suicide bomber named Salman Abedi and claimed by the Islamic State (IS). The other was in Thailand, and injured 22 people at a military-linked hospital in Bangkok; nobody has claimed responsibility yet. But what happened afterwards was very different.

• OPINION

  Qatar crisis could turn nasty quick

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/06/2017

  » Public-spirited businessman Moutaz al-Hayat is flying 4,000 cows into Qatar from the US and Australia to boost milk supply in his country, which is being blockaded by most of its Arab neighbours in the Gulf. It will take 60 flights, and is definitely not cost-effective. But that may not be his biggest problem.

• OPINION

  Was the creation of Pakistan a monumental mistake?

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/08/2017

  » It was never my plan to tell Pakistanis their country had been a mistake. I was 19 years old at the time, in Pakistan for the summer with 40 other young Canadian university students on a trip to foster international understanding. I had already realised that this was a completely pointless exercise, but it was a free trip and I had never been out of North America before.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  Is Aussie political madness catching?

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/08/2018

  » I happened to be in Canberra last Friday, speaking to a room full of journalists at the National Press Club, when the news came in, halfway through lunch, that Australia had a new prime minister. The moderator pointed out that the year is already two-thirds gone and it is "only three prime ministers till Christmas" -- and the China Daily's headline read "Australia changes its prime minister again, again, again, again, again".

• OPINION

  It wasn't a coup d'etat in Bolivia -- just a blunder

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/11/2019

  » 'Democracy is in danger in Bolivia as the result of legitimate pressures from the poor. We cannot generate economic growth and well-being for a few and then expect that the large majorities that are excluded will watch silently and patiently." A recent president of Bolivia said that, but it wasn't Evo Morales (who has just quit).

• OPINION

  Mysterious allure of being French

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/10/2020

  » On Sunday New Caledonia voted to remain French by a majority of 53.3% to 46.%. That's hardly an overwhelming majority, but it was the second referendum in two years to reject independence in the South Pacific archipelago, so we may take it as a done deal.

• OPINION

  Syria's suffered enough: End the sanctions

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/03/2021

  » The Syrian civil war is 10 years old this week, and it's time to stop it. At least half a million Syrians are dead, a quarter of the pre-war population are refugees abroad, and another quarter are refugees inside Syria. Thirty percent of the country's housing stock is destroyed or badly damaged -- and we have known who won the war for at least four years now.

• OPINION

  Coups are all the rage again in beleaguered Africa

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/02/2022

  » Military coups are back in fashion in Africa. There have been over 200 attempted coups in the continent since 1960, about half of them successful, but in the past two decades they had dropped to only two a year. Last year saw six, however, and there have been two already this year. The latest in Guinea-Bissau.

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