Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
A review of the book “In The Streets Of Tehran” by Nila (2023)
September 2nd, 2026 by Roger Darlington
This short book (around 100 pages) by Nila, a pseudonym of a female writer and activist based in Tehran, is a heart-breaking read – both because of the descriptions of the repression shown towards the Woman/Life/Freedom protest movement of 2022-23 and because of the knowledge now (2026) of how that female-led movement, the latest in […]
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A review of the new book “Israel: What Went Wrong?” by Omer Bartov (2026)
August 30th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Bartov is a Jew who was born and raised in Israel in a resolutely left-wing kibbutz and served in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) for four years which included the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He took his first degree at Tel Aviv University and his doctorate at Oxford University. Since 1987, he has been teaching […]
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How was the state of Israel created?
August 28th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Many people seem not to know or to have forgotten. Israel was not created by the British (in spite of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 or the British Mandate of 1920-1948) and it was not created simply through a takeover by Jewish settlers (although the Nakba was an expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinians). It was […]
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Does Israel have a written constitution?
August 15th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Israel is one of a tiny number of countries in the world – the others are the United Kingdom and New Zealand – that does not have a written constitution in the sense of a single, codified constitutional document. On 14 May 1948, as the British mandate was about to expire, the Jewish People’s Council […]
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Suez in 1956 and Iran in 2026 – are there any parallels?
May 2nd, 2026 by Roger Darlington
This week, I watched a television documentary on the Suez crisis of 1956, a period that I knew too little about as I was only eight years old at the time. In this crisis, Britain and France, together with Israel, concluded that Nasser’s acquisition of the Suez Canal represented some kind of existential threat. They […]
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It’s time for another revolution in Iran
January 10th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
No regime lasts forever. Totalitarian regimes frequently look immovable but often collapse surprisingly quickly. Think of apartheid in South Africa or Communism in Central & Eastern Europe. What is happening in Iran right now may be the death throes of the current regime. We must hope so. I visited the country in 2009, a year […]
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A review of the new documentary “Prime Minister”
December 15th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Whatever omniscient cab drivers think, I can tell you, as someone who has worked for a national government, that governing a country is hard. It is even harder if you’re young and a woman – and pregnant. It’s harder still if you’re prime minister of a country when the entire world is suffering a pandemic […]
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Which countries have more than one capital?
September 26th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Eswatini (formally known as Swaziland) has its administrative capital in Mbabane and its legislative and royal capital in Lobamba. Bolivia has its constitutional capital and seat of judiciary in Sucre and seat of government, executive and legislature in La Paz. South Africa has Pretoria as its government capital, Cape Town as it legislative capital and […]
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Which countries have no capital?
September 25th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Switzerland has no official capital in its constitution. Instead Bern is the federal city and the site of the government. Nauru has no official capital. The government offices are located in the district of Yaren which functions as the seat of government.
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Populism is gaining traction even in Japan
September 12th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
A disturbing new phenomenon in Japan is the rising popularity of a populist party called Sanseito which loosely translates as “Do It Yourself Party”. In the 2025 upper house election, Sanseito made a significant breakthrough, winning 14 new seats to bring their total in that chamber to 15. They also hold a few seats in […]
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