The brain of Homo sapiens has a fatal attraction to secrets. What we see before our eyes is never sufficient; we want to know what lies behind it, what explains it, what’s the deeper meaning. The compulsion to get beneath the surface of things lies at the heart of what makes some people scholars or …
The Trump-Putin revelations tell us what we knew all along Read More »
On Sept 10, 2001, I published a column about Belarus, the former Soviet republic squeezed between Russia and Europe. It described how the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko was stealing elections, keeping tight control over the media and the economy, harassing political opponents and occasionally murdering them. Lukashenko, I wrote, was Europe’s longest-standing dictator. Yet only …
Why the world should be paying attention to Putin’s plans for Belarus Read More »
In the weeks leading up to the declaration of war in 1914, the British were supremely confident. “It will be over by Christmas” said the optimists; pessimists reckoned the war might last two whole years. Almost nobody predicted the trenches, the destruction of farms and fields, the loss of an entire generation of young men …
The lure of chaos is leading Britain straight into the abyss Read More »
In almost any field of human endeavor — football, acting, plumbing — failure has a price. If you can’t push the hockey puck into the goal, you get kicked off the team. If your jokes don’t make people laugh, your career as a stand-up comic is brutally short. If the house you built has a …
The Brexiteers have failed — so they blame Theresa May Read More »
During his first NATO summit in Brussels, President Trump refused to state his support for NATO’s most important treaty obligation. During his first British visit, the president managed to offend everybody, from tabloid journalists to the queen. But although there are many incidents and relationships to choose from, the most embarrassing European foreign policy failure …
Hungary is thumbing its nose at the U.S. — by following Trump’s cues Read More »
Fire, flares and tear gas scorched Paris on Saturday night; on Sunday morning, the carcasses of burned cars littered the streets, and graffiti covered the Arc de Triomphe. Smaller, and mostly more peaceful, marches had also played out across the country, where for the past couple of weekends protesters have occupied French toll booths, blocked speed cameras …
The democratic world could feel the heat from Paris Read More »
On Saturday evening, three small Ukrainian naval vessels left the Ukrainian port of Odessa and headed for the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. Along the way, they had to pass through the Kerch Strait, a sliver of water that lies between the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Russian mainland. The Ukrainian ships were well within their …
Russia’s latest attack on the Ukrainians is a warning to the West Read More »
We are now more than two weeks into a new sanctions regime on Iran, and it will be a long time before it ends. The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has listed 12 conditions that Iran needs to meet before that happens. They include a permanent cessation of Iranian support for revolutionary groups abroad, as …
Iran’s regime could fall apart. What happens then? Read More »
Finally, after many months and a million leaks, the 585-page Brexit agreement has been published. It is available and downloadable. Theresa May, the British prime minister, has finished her negotiations with the European Union.
It took a while for Orange County, Calif., to count all the mail-in votes, but officials there did it. The result: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) will be leaving Congress after 15 terms in the House. So as he leaves the stage, let’s spend a little bit of time saying goodbye to Rohrabacher, the soon-to-be ex-congressman from …
A not-so-fond farewell to Dana Rohrabacher, Putin’s best friend in Congress Read More »
