The mother of all war novels, to adapt a phrase from Saddam Hussein, must be War and Peace. But, just as the BBC’s Desert Island Discs gives every…

North Korea’s rulers have always had strong views on art. Kim Il Sung, the regime’s founding despot, said artists should “arouse burning hatred for…

Of the world’s 7,000-odd languages, almost half are expected to disappear by the end of the 21st century. Two culprits are usually considered…

For the first time, a former American president has been convicted of a felony—34 felonies, in fact. This historic disgrace should both shock the…

What is the ideal job to outsource to artificial intelligence? Today’s AIS, in particular, the Chatgpt-like generative sort, have a leaky memory,…

Three years ago, when Ebrahim Raisi won the presidency in a rigged election, some Iranians thought it was a stepping stone to a bigger position. Ali…

At first glance, the world economy looks reassuringly resilient. America has boomed even as its trade war with China has escalated. Germany has…

A new instalment of Fallout, a long-running series of video games, was released recently to rave reviews. Critics called the post-apocalyptic…

In March last year, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, paused at the door of the Kremlin. Before bidding farewell to Vladimir Putin, he offered him a final…

Just over six years ago, when Donald Trump first announced tariffs on Chinese goods, it was as if a bomb had gone off. American stocks fell sharply…