My night with Youth Demand
‘Won’t you take me to… Funkytown!’ At around 10 p.m., in a bar under a railway arch in south London,…
The tragedy of Blackpool
It’s mid-afternoon in the Royal Oak pub in Blackpool and Liv has arrived to sell a bag full of stuff…
Dmitri Trenin: the pro-West Russian radicalised by Putin’s war in Ukraine
The circus of American and European diplomats in Moscow loved Dmitri Trenin while he was on their side. Trenin was…
Are the Saudis really ruining boxing?
There’s a new mantra in championship boxing. Try speaking to anyone from that world – a big-time promoter, trainer or…
The depressing world of influencers
Walid Sharks is taking a nasty beating at the AO Arena in Manchester. It’s the second round of his fight…
The sad world of the online influencer
Walid Sharks is taking a nasty beating at the AO Arena in Manchester. It’s the second round of his fight against…
‘It’s a necessity that the Middle East fears us’
Micah Goodman is done being nice and even-handed. He became a best-selling philosopher by telling Israelis that the Palestinians needed…
Zelensky was right to feel cheated by Nato
Gitanas Nauseda stood outside his palace and checked his watch. The Lithuanian President’s guests – the leaders of the other…
Should Ukraine show more ‘gratitude’?
Ben Wallace thinks Ukraine needs to be careful. The West has used a whole load of political energy this week…
How landmines scar a country
Afternoon is boom time in Quang Tri, Vietnam. Fifty years since the war here ended, and they’re still getting rid…
Mohammed bin Salman doesn’t care what the West thinks of him
Saudi Arabia is a bit like us. It’s decent at football. It holds conferences to talk about things like ‘investing in humanity’.…
Meet Israel’s 21-year-old TikTok firebrand
Hadar Muchtar is angry because Benjamin Netanyahu has won a sixth term as prime minister of Israel and she hasn’t…
Africa's zone of anarchy is getting worse
In the most violent region in the world, the West is realising that it messed up. Protestors in Burkina Faso…
Will Chad become Africa’s next warzone?
If you went to Doha this summer, you may have seen some militiamen from Chad. Perhaps at breakfast. For the…
Why Saudi Arabia is trying to take over the world of golf
Golf came to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. American expats, working in the nascent oil industry, brought their clubs with…
Could Iran come between Israel and its new Gulf ally?
When Israel and the United Arab Emirates first started speaking in 1994, the meetings were kept secret. The Emiratis, like…
In Israel, there’s never an easy fix
From an Israeli army base on the border with Lebanon, I can see the village of Maroun al-Ras. An Iranian…
The strange tale of NEOM: Saudi Arabia’s struggling desert megacity
Prince Mohammed bin Salman is desperate to shake Saudi Arabia’s addiction to oil. Its price has still not recovered from…
