Showing 1 - 10 of 681
Suu Kyi, media bias and morality
News, Fergus Harlow, Published on 11/04/2026
» History rarely collapses in an instant; more often, it is quietly rewritten until reality itself feels negotiable. In the years leading up to Myanmar's 2021 coup, a story took shape in the international imagination -- one that cast Aung San Suu Kyi not as a constrained civilian leader navigating a military-dominated state, but as a symbol of moral failure.
A plaintive song for the taxman
Roger Crutchley, Published on 29/03/2026
» I've just got back from filing my income tax and must thank the staff at the branch of the Revenue Department for their helpfulness and efficiency. It must be a thankless job knowing that nearly everyone they deal with would probably rather be somewhere else.
Cornered Orban at risk of losing next election
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/03/2026
» Viktor Orban has not aged well. When I met him in Budapest two months before the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, he was a typical hyper-ambitious student leader. Anybody who has been to university knows the type: fluent, ruthless, perpetually on the look-out for the main chance, and oddly old still to be a student. (He was 26.)
Trump goes off-script, US gone rogue
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/03/2026
» It was not supposed to work like this. "America First" and "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) were supposed to be about an inward turn to repair, replenish and rebuild an externally overstretched and internally weakened country, weighed down by unnecessary global entanglements, unsustainable national debt, and unimpeded mass migration. It seemed for a time that the MAGA movement to prioritise America above and beyond the international system and its constituent parts had found its final prophet in President Donald J Trump. But now, somehow, President Trump has betrayed the movement that has carried him to office by waging a disastrous war on Iran in cooperation with Israel.
News bulletins are going 'off-ramp'
Roger Crutchley, Published on 22/03/2026
» An expression that is being used with increasing frequency in recent news reports, particularly concerning the goings on in the Middle East, is "off-ramp". Switch on the TV and it won't be long before a "talking head" will be authoritatively discussing "off-ramp" opportunities.
Shoddy massages
Oped, Postbag, Published on 06/03/2026
» Re: "Thai massage industry set for overhaul", (BP, March 4). I'm looking forward to the day the Thais will finally upgrade and greatly improve the massage industry in this country. It is indeed in a dire state. I'm a fully qualified masseur with three diplomas from the world-renowned Wat Po school, two of them specialist courses. Very proud of it.
The perils of creating a power vacuum in Iran
Oped, Stephen Holmes, Published on 05/03/2026
» Critics of the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel point out that US President Donald Trump has no plan for what comes next. And they are not wrong: when Mr Trump boasts that he can resolve wars in a single day, he merely exposes the limits of his attention span. But the real problem is not the shortness of Mr Trump's time horizon; it's the narrowness of his threat perception.
Navigating between global superpowers
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 14/02/2026
» Both China and the US issued new national security policies over the past year. At first glance, they seem to diverge markedly, portending a deep rupture in the world order. Yet, they may also bear some similarities in terms of self-interest and self-advancement. Collateral to that, other countries seeking to forge a middle path may wish to navigate a perspicacious route towards global equilibrium.
Pheu Thai bets again on loyal red-shirt base
News, Anucha Charoenpo, Published on 06/02/2026
» The Pheu Thai Party's call for supporters to wear red shirts today appears to be a last-ditch effort to re-energise its traditional "red-shirt" base.
Are the Iranians pretending to have nukes?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/02/2026
» The Iranian regime is brutal, fanatical and corrupt. It has just committed the mass murder of its own citizens in the city streets and in their own homes. But the story we are told about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is very misleading.