The revolution may be televised – but don’t expect the full story
For the first time in a long while, not only is there news from the Arab world, there are arresting pictures as well. Revolutions make for exciting live broadcasting, and some of it has been riveting....
View ArticleLibya: Gaddafi is about to force Barack Obama’s hand
Libya: Gaddafi is about to force Barack Obama’s hand Barack Obama is about to learn a lesson – the US president can’t be neutral, writes Anne Applebaum. Is it cowardice? Is it indecisiveness? Or is it...
View ArticleThe New Alliance
Freedom fries,’ served instead of French fries back in 2003, are no longer on the menu in Washington DC. French wine, out of fashion after Jacques Chirac refused to join our ‘coalition of the willing’...
View ArticleIs Dmitry Medvedev ready to stand up to Vladimir Putin’?
Vladimir Putin’s ruthless control of the Kremlin looks set to be tested, writes Anne Applebaum. This week, Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, said he might stand for re-election in 2012. A day later,...
View ArticleBin Laden killed: For a day or two, we’ll feel like the United States of...
It’s always satisfying when hoary old national stereotypes suddenly prove to be true. On Friday, the British were brought together as a nation by a royal wedding. On Sunday morning, Poland was brought...
View ArticleHe Just Called to Say He Loves Us: Barack Obama in London
I was in a meeting on the other side of London on Wednesday while President Barack Obama was speaking in Westminster Hall, so I didn’t hear what he said. But I could see him. My meeting was in a room...
View ArticleWho has what it takes to beat Barack Obama?
At this stage in any American presidential election, it is almost too easy to make fun of the primary contenders. It is especially true this year, when the sitting president – serene, remote,...
View ArticleThe Long, Lame Afterlife of Mikhail Gorbachev
In the most notable of the many photographs snapped at the gala held to mark his 80th birthday, Mikhail Gorbachev seems shorter and rounder than he did in his prime, back when he was one of the most...
View ArticleIt is in America that Rupert Murdoch faces ruin
We’ve been waiting a long time, but now the moment of reckoning is here: American journalists, long maligned by their British colleagues as boring and earnest, can finally take their revenge. American...
View ArticleHigh noon
The American left is revelling in Rupert Murdoch’s British troubles – and it’s America that has the power to really hurt him. Let’s start, first, with the bare facts: a British newspaper has been found...
View ArticleIs Nato finished?
The Libyan adventure shows a dwindling capacity for intervention. After Muammar Gaddafi and his ghastly children fled Tripoli, Libyans desecrated his statues and stamped on his posters. As it turned...
View ArticleCan America survive without its backbone, the middle class?
As the gaps within the classes widen, American society is starting to fracture. Boarded up: Many who used to feel secure in “middle America” now feel left behind – Can America survive without its...
View ArticleCan a nation survive without its backbone?
My friend J grew up in Chicago, but spent his summers in a small town on a Michigan lake. His family, because they came from the city and because they were “summer” visitors, were slightly more...
View ArticleCorrupt elites are being named and shamed – by the people
Around the world, tyrants and thieving officials are running out of places to hide. It will be a year ago next Wednesday that a Tunisian fruit vendor called Mohamed Bouazizi died, 18 days after dousing...
View ArticleUS Presidential campaign: Never has the good news sounded so bad
The sudden growth of the US economy spells trouble for Democrats as well as Republicans. Now we have reached a truly critical moment in the American presidential elections – and I don’t mean the moment...
View ArticleUS Presidential campaign: Never has the good news sounded so bad
The sudden growth of the US economy spells trouble for Democrats as well as Republicans. Growing pains: an upturn in the US economy has upset the election campaign plans of Republican Mitt Romney – US...
View ArticleEngland’s cultural scene is glowing with optimism
Despite the austerity, or because of it, the nation’s artists and audiences are full of life. There were queues outside the Royal Academy when I went to see the Hockney exhibition last week, and queues...
View ArticlePalin is just what Romney needs – and the very last person he wants
The ebullient Alaskan Sarah Palin has something the Republican campaign clearly lacks. Maybe you’ve read the book (Going Rogue), or perhaps you’ve seen the film (Game Change). In any case, you must...
View ArticleLondon Olympics 2012: we’re Olympic whingers – thank goodness
It was rather touching to watch British politicians finally rally round the Olympics on the eve of the opening ceremony last week, to hear Boris Johnson dismissing “a guy called Mitt Romney” who had...
View ArticleUS Election 2012: Mitt Romney and Barack Obama – the upside-down election
The Democrats and Republicans have stolen each other’s clothes as they attempt to win over America’s voters A quick quiz: which American political party talked about social issues, military families...
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