Women in Politics

Is Jacinda Ardern’s short sharp goodbye a template or a telling sign of the times?

— Did the hatefulness drive Jacinda Ardern from office and out of politics? Why would the mother of a 5-year-old want to be the focus of a storm of crazed commentary and calls to action? Is walking away an act of bravery or the acknowledgement you can’t hack it?

COMMENT

The 2023 election calendar has some big ones

— New year, new election cycles with 2023 seeing five key races: Nigeria, Turkey, Pakistan, Thailand, and Argentina.

Brazil

At Lula’s inauguration, did Bolsonaro ‘eat the last cannibal’?

— When Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, widely known as Lula, assumed the Brazilian presidency on New Year’s Day 2023, his predecessor had already created an element of something called ‘eating the cannibal’.

Christmas

Christmas should be cancelled in December and moved to February 7

— Why Christmas comes too soon after Thanksgiving.

COMMENT

Britain is failing the Aid and Reconstruction Complex

— What if a country has made such a series of catastrophic decisions that it cannot afford to help people in other parts of the world or protect the planet anymore?

COMMENT

Britain and Belgium: Asylum crises as Albania slams the UK ‘madhouse’

— Most people who cross the English Channel leave their homes in search of a better life, freedom, respect, or a decent, assured income. But countries comply differently with their international obligations towards refugees.

UK Politics

Suella Braverman’s colour-coded stance... all red, white and blue

— Suella Braverman’s contentious declaration that southern England is facing an “invasion” of illegal immigrants, one of the oldest othering tropes in the book, was rightly met with a barrage of criticism this week. Rashmee Roshan Lall explains why.

COMMENT

Liz Truss’s government spewed hate about everyone, including tofu-eating people like me

— Spewing hate about everyone, including tofu-eaters like me, is neither a strategy nor a solution to climate action activists’ disruptive tactics, Rashmee Roshan Lall writes.

COMMENT

Is Liz Truss really a symbol of Western democratic resilience as China crowns Xi Jinping?

— No matter whether a system is democratic or undemocratic, a bad leader’s period in office could leave millions of broken lives in its wake.

COMMENT

Liz Truss and the best of British robotic libertarianism

— Say the name “Liz Truss” now and the two words convey a world of meaning. Misgovernance, missteps, miserliness towards the poorest and most vulnerable. But most importantly, one woman’s name has come to signify the best of British robotic libertarianism.

COMMENT

Liz Truss puts Britain on course to an uncivil war

— Britain wouldn’t be Britain if it didn’t routinely send up people in authority, especially if those people say silly things that also happen to be mean.

COMMENT

Liz Truss’s unoriginal, unedifying and outdated plan for ‘Growth. Growth. Growth.’

— Liz Truss is out of date. She is half a century late. The UK economy and the world faced different, less complex crosswinds then.

OPINION

Kamikwasi, Librium Liz and the great British joke factory

— Liz Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are becoming so absurd about their economic plans for Britain as to be beyond satire.

COMMENT

Back to the other Liz’s world. Shtum, imperious, foxy

— In all the days that the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II lay in state in London, the British government remained shtum, imperious, and foxy.

COMMENT

There is no escape from history for Britain, its new king and the rest of us

— David Olusoga’s unique perspective stands out in the rushing rivers of reminiscence, royal praise, anecdote and biographical sketch.

COMMENT

Is the Truss cabinet’s visual diversity any more than just that?

— To all those sincere campaigners for diversity, is visual diversity enough?