Showing 1 - 10 of 47
The treacherous sycophancy of the populists
Oped, Michael Burleigh, Published on 15/12/2025
» Until a few days ago, it had never crossed my mind that people across Europe -- including Londoners like me -- were living in a strife‑afflicted hell hole, "suffocated" by regulations, stripped of political liberties, and bound for "civilisational erasure". So, it was with some surprise that I read this assessment in the new US National Security Strategy -- a document that echoes pseudo‑intellectual propaganda more than resembling any serious foreign‑policy analysis.
Generational trust
Postbag, Published on 30/08/2025
» Re: "Tiny Vanuatu steps up to protect the climate", (Commentary, Aug 28).
UN turns 80 amid wave of global crises
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 02/07/2025
» Amid wars, global strife and massive refugee dislocations, the current global scene is overwhelmed with crises ranging from the Middle East to Ukraine and a dozen African conflicts, which rarely make the news. The contemporary world situation in many ways resembles 1945 and the end of WWII. There's a strange deja vu of a history most people do not know or would rather forget.
Breaking the silence over North Korea
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 29/05/2025
» Speaking out to break the information barrier inside the North Korean dictatorship is in itself nothing new, and usually quickly forgotten. North Korean exiles, friendly governments, and humanitarian organisations periodically raise the oft-forsaken banner of human rights, only to be confronted by realpolitik through another round of North Korean missile launches or nuclear proliferation.
Be wary of the TikTokalypse on the radar
Oped, Todd G Buchholz, Published on 31/01/2025
» When the United States president, Congress and Supreme Court are all in a tizzy at the same time, the topic under discussion is usually a global meltdown or, at the very least, income taxes. Today, the concern is dancing cat videos. In his first day back in the White House, Donald Trump launched a strike against the Court and Congress by signing an executive order to pause the ban on TikTok, earning applause from the Chinese-owned company. TikTok's online content creators are relieved, too, for many warn that a ban (or a forced sale to a US company) would devastate them. I call it the TikTokalypse.
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.
NK troops sent to the Ukraine: cannon fodder?
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 24/10/2024
» The rumours were true. The apparent dispatch of elite North Korean military units to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine appears at first surprising but actually is quite logical given the historic and comradely ties between Pyongyang and Moscow. After all, North Korea's isolated Kim Jong-un regime has forged increasingly close ties with Vladimir Putin's Russia and the cash-strapped North Koreans have shipped more than eight million 122mm and 152mm artillery shells to Russia during in the past year.
Even the stars favour Modi for third term as PM
Oped, Joydip Mukkarji, Published on 24/05/2024
» In the realm of astrological predictions, deciphering events such as sporting outcomes or political elections often entails scrutinising the birth charts of all contenders involved. When it comes to forecasting the outcome of elections in a vast democracy like India, the birth chart of the potential leader must be extraordinary to ascend to the highest office.
Armenia's latest exodus: Not a genocide
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/10/2023
» It is a tragedy, but it is not a genocide. In a single week, almost all of the 120,000 Armenians who lived in the enclave in western Azerbaijan called Nagorno-Karabakh have fled across the border into Armenia. Most say they don't expect ever to go home again.
Propaganda shows national derangements
News, Slavoj Žižek, Published on 11/09/2023
» Whenever a country's social contract unravels, conditions become ripe for rumours and absurdities to circulate. Even when these are outrageous and obviously nonsensical, they can give expression to a people's deepest fears and prejudices.