Showing 1 - 10 of 63
The time I really put my foot in it
Oped, Roger Crutchley, Published on 19/10/2025
» A half-hearted spring-cleaning session at home during the week came to a welcome halt when I unearthed a couple of my father's wartime RAF books under a pile of disintegrating paperbacks. The Air Ministry books, published more than 80 years ago, always serve as a reminder of when as a kid I made a faux pas of embarrassing proportions.
Demographic time bomb threatens Chinese society
Oped, Nancy Qian, Published on 22/08/2025
» News stories about China nowadays largely focus on geopolitical developments, particularly the Sino-American rivalry. But China's 1.4 billion people, while aware of these issues, are more preoccupied with a problem that hits much closer to home: their shrinking families.
An anniversary worth celebrating
Oped, Jonathan Kings, Published on 24/06/2025
» This year marks a significant milestone for New Zealand's relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) -- 50 years of formal dialogue relations. This anniversary is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to this important partnership and a strong future together.
Where does the blame in Spain lie?
Oped, Ron Bousso, Published on 02/05/2025
» While it may be tempting to blame the unprecedented power outage that hit the Iberian peninsula this week on the rapid growth of wind and solar power in Spain, reliance on renewables is not to blame.
Sudan's war and the Africa we don't see
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/04/2025
» Last Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: "Many have given up on Sudan, but that is wrong. It's morally wrong when we see so many civilians beheaded, infants as young as one subjected to sexual violence, more people facing famine than anywhere else in the world.... We simply cannot look away."
As US retreats, will it be China's world or Europe's?
Oped, Orville Schell, Published on 11/04/2025
» 'Today we're in one era, and tomorrow we'll be in a different era," President Donald Trump loudly proclaimed from the White House Rose Garden as he hiked US tariffs to their highest level since 1909. "No one's done anything quite like this!"
Censure theatrics
Oped, Postbag, Published on 29/03/2025
» Re: "Political experts split on censure outcome", (BP, March 26).
Making the case for foreign aid
Oped, Nilima Gulrajani, Published on 07/03/2025
» Foreign aid is being slashed across the Global North, nowhere more so than in the United States. Within his first month back in the White House, President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and froze foreign aid, calling it wasteful and fraudulent. The United Kingdom recently followed suit, trading off its international-aid budget for higher defence spending.
How Italy managed to beat fascism after WWII
Oped, Mark Gilbert, Published on 22/01/2025
» Americans are alarmed by their country's stark political divisions. But they shouldn't despair. After WWII, Italy was even more politically polarised than today. Yet by the mid-1950s, it had succeeded, against the odds, in turning the page on its fascist past and constructing a contentious but functioning democracy.
Trump II's intellectual foundations
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/11/2024
» It seems counterintuitive and contradictory to think of an intellectual foundation behind United States President-elect Donald J Trump when he is professedly unintellectual, even anti-intellectual. But make no mistake. Mr Trump is merely a phenomenon. Understanding it reveals his worldview and consequent policy prospects. But doing so requires seeing the Trump phenomenon as it is rather than why and how it is detested by countless millions of us. Indeed, the biggest difficulty when analysing Mr Trump and his second administration is the global disdain he elicits.