The war of words over the unresolved Northern Ireland trade screw up post-Brexit is escalating with David Frost, negotiator on the UK side, threatening the nuclear option of suspending the protocol about the land border between north and south if the EU doesn’t budge by the end of the month – which would breach international … Read more
The strange tale of Newcastle United, a lacklustre English football club that hasn’t won a major domestic title since 1955, being bought after a determined hassle by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund raises many questions. It is no simple commercial deal with political pressure being brought to bear on Boris Johnson to persuade the football … Read more
Stephanie Grisham, formerly embedded with Trump and Melania in the White House, joins the long list of escapees dishing the dirt. But more than most she’s being accused of hypocrisy in staying put, backing the lies in public and only belatedly deciding to spill the beans. As Press aide and chief of staff to … Read more
Despite smirking smiles at the meet with Boris Johnson in New York and banter about vaccinations, Jair Bolsonaro is not as confident as he appears. His attempt to rabble-rouse the mob in Brazil to bully the country’s Supreme Court into submission appears to have been a failure. He aimed to do ‘a Trump’ and mobilise … Read more
Great things are expected of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow kicking off on October 31st this year in the aftermath of increasingly violent weather swings worldwide. How many of the lofty promises will end up being actioned is questionable but the pressure is certainly on. One of the pledges of the … Read more
‘Live in the midst of difficulties as if they did not exist’ is a laudable I Ching goal for a keep-calm-and-carry-on tranquillity but hardly helpful as government strategy in the face of mounting problems. Empty supermarket shelves, the result of a mixed Brexit and pingdemic effect, are alarming shoppers and likely to worsen towards Christmas. … Read more
A Texas ban on abortions after six weeks has gone ahead despite Chief Justice Roberts of SCOTUS calling the enforcement scheme as “not only unusual, but unprecedented” and said it deserved more exacting judicial scrutiny. He was over-ruled by five of his conservative colleagues. Over recent years other such attempts at state level have been … Read more
The trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will start this week in California. She is charged with six counts of fraud relating to her now-defunct medical startup. The company, founded in 2003, claimed it would revolutionize the medical testing space with a new blood diagnostic technology. Theranos had reached a valuation of $10bn before it … Read more
“What you see is what you get” applies to some, but Shakespeare wasn’t wrong in his estimation that “ all that glisters is not gold — gilded tombs do worms enfold.” The gulf between the public image and the private reality is always most marked with political or celebrity figures, who sell a seductive slice … Read more
The ranting, rancid, far right-wing Katie Hopkins has been booted out by yet another media outlet. She has been dumped as a cast member of Australia’s Big Brother VIP after describing Covid-19 lockdowns as “the greatest hoax in human history” and joking about breaching quarantine rules. Last year she had her Twitter account with 1.1m … Read more