Europe’s selective outrage over Iran eludes the harder question of whether it can afford to ignore a nuclear-armed revolutionary regime. For 47 years the rulers of Iran have proclaimed America their sworn enemy. The chant of “Death to America” has echoed from Tehran’s streets and pulpits since the revolution of 1979. During those same decades, American citizens have repeatedly found themselves the targets of violence - from Beirut to Nairobi - carried out either directly by I

A new Taliban penal code effectively legalising domestic abuse exposes not just the brutality of Afghanistan’s rulers but also the world’s uneasy willingness to look away. “A husband may beat his wife, so long as there are no broken bones or open wounds.” Few sentences better capture the moral universe now taking shape in Afghanistan. What reads like a fragment from a medieval legal text is, in fact, part of a newly circulated penal code reportedly approved by the Taliban’s s

The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the first wave of strikes by the United States and Israel has thrust Iran into the most consequential political transition since the death of Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, who was the figurehead of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The appointment of Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba as successor leaves unresolved the deeper question of what kind of state Iran will become once the revolutionary generation passes from the scene. As

When the first missiles fell on Tehran before dawn on February 28, the mask had definitively slipped off in the three decade-old shadow war between Israel and Iran. Operation Epic Fury - a joint American-Israeli assault on missile batteries, command centres and suspected nuclear infrastructure - comes barely eight months after both allies had pounded Iran during ‘Midnight Hammer’ in 2025. As per reports, it has killed more than 700 people (including several Iranian civilians

The Moral Test of Pakistan’s Democracy Over Imran Khan's saga. The image of Imran Khan lifting the Cricket World Cup trophy at Cricket World Cup in Melbourne in 1992 remains one of the most indelible and enduring moments in cricket history. As captain of Pakistan’s national team, he was not merely a tactician but a talisman, a leader who transformed belief into victory. Decades later, that same figure now finds himself incarcerated, facing multiple legal battles and at the ce

The assassination of Judge Giovanni Falcone more than three decades ago laid bare Italy’s long war with the Mafia and the cost of defying it. Capaci, Sicily, the site of the A29 bombing that killed him in 1992. Giovanni Falcone At precisely 5.56 pm on May 23, 1992, thirteen drums of TNT and Semtex placed in a culvert on the A29 – the autostrada leading from Palermo Airport to Palermo, Sicily – and near to the small town of Capaci were detonated. The explosion was so massive t

Washington’s threat of military action over Nigeria’s spiralling violence reveals as much about American power as it does about Africa’s most turbulent giant. Nigeria is reeling. Schoolgirls are vanishing from dormitories in the dead of night; worshippers singing hymns are being dragged into forests while entire communities brace for the next set of gunmen to arrive. Into this turmoil barrels an extraordinary threat from Washington with President Donald Trump declaring that t

The global metropolis’ charm and civility can no longer mask a creeping sense of insecurity in Britain’s capital. The first thing that strikes you about London (or any part of Britain for that matter) isn’t its weather or its wit but its manners. People apologise when you bump into them. They thank the bus driver. They greet strangers with disarming warmth. Yet, beneath this veneer of civility, a sharper and more disquieting truth lurks: London, the city that prides itself on

Every fight for City Hall has prefigured the battles to come in Washington. Tammany Hall, New York City’s powerful and infamous political machine, controlled it in the 1800s. Fiorello LaGuardia, one of NYC’s greatest mayors, was elected in 1933. From the 18th-century lodges of Tammany Hall to Zohran Mamdani’s street rallies, the battle for New York’s City Hall has always held up a mirror to America. The city’s mayoral elections have been a barometer of national change, where

The 2025 Nobel laureates in economics show that prosperity depends not just on invention, but on the culture and institutions that dare to sustain it. Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt and Joel Mokyr Each October brings global anticipation as the Nobel Prizes honour excellence across science, literature, peace and economics. This year, the 2025 economics prize went to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for explaining how curiosity and creative destruction power long-ter

Sanae Takaichi’s rise as Japan’s first female Prime Minister shatters a glass ceiling but cements the conservative foundations beneath it. In a country where patriarchal tradition has long dictated the boundaries of public life, Sanae Takaichi’s ascent to Japan’s premiership is a moment of striking symbolism. For young Japanese women, the image of a woman leading the nation evokes the tantalising promise of change. Yet for all its historic resonance, her victory also undersco

Egypt’s 1979 peace with Israel redefined the Middle East, but also fractured the Arab front, turning Cairo into both the region’s indispensable peacemaker and its reluctant jailer. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left), U.S. President Jimmy Carter (center) and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin shake hands at the conclusion of the Camp David Peace Accords signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House on September 17, 1978. After two years of unrelenting bloodshed, t

The 2025 Economics Nobel reminds India that lasting prosperity comes from open markets, fearless innovation and a culture that rewards curiosity. Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt and Joel Mokyr This year, the Nobel prize for Economics was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for explaining how innovation drives long-term growth and how new ideas replace old ones through what economists call “creative destruction.” The award carries a strong message for every n

The Physics Nobel for three pioneering Berkeley physicists this year marks a watershed moment for quantum mechanics. John Clarke, Michel...

Without secure access to clean water, even the most ambitious ceasefire will be little more than a cease-fire. Recently, U.S. President...

The Charlie Kirk killing underscores America’s uneasy balance of free expression, political violence and identity. The murder of...

Climate change may fuel Pakistan’s floods, but governance failures are turning them into catastrophes. Pakistan is once again under...

Charlie Kirk’s death by gunfire is unlikely to settle America’s endless quarrel over firearms. Charlie Kirk built his career on the idea...

It is nearly ten years since former German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Europe’s borders in September 2015 in a gesture of boundless...

It is nearly ten years since former German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Europe’s borders in September 2015 in a gesture of boundless...