Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category


The global cost of covid in lives and illness

October 13th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

Covid has killed almost 6.5 million people and infected more than 600 million. The WHO estimates that 10% to 20% of survivors have been left with mid- and long-term symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness and cognitive dysfunction. Women are more likely to suffer from the condition.

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


Why do so many migrants wish to reach Britain?

October 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

As I regularly do, I spent the day in Milton Keynes entertaining my two granddaughters. Now the local taxi company that I use in the city is staffed by drivers who normally hail from Pakistan. But not today. This time my driver was from Afghanistan. There are many ethnic groups in Afghanistan and I was […]

Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)


How many countries are double landlocked?

September 30th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

A country is “doubly landlocked” or “double-landlocked” when it is surrounded only by landlocked countries (requiring the crossing of at least two national borders to reach a coastline). There are two such countries: Liechtenstein in Central Europe, surrounded by Austria and Switzerland. Uzbekistan in Central Asia, surrounded by Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. I have just returned from almost two weeks in Uzbekistan but I have never […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


A review of “The Long Game” by Rush Doshi (2021)

August 21st, 2022 by Roger Darlington

Important and informative though “The Long Game” is, it is not an easy read. There are 400 pages of small and dense text with a good deal of repetition and almost 1,500 notes. But Rush Doshi knows what he is writing about and what he is writing about is of huge geopolitical significance. Doshi is […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


On the 75th anniversary of independence for India, how much is there to celebrate?

August 16th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

Politics in India is much rougher and much more corrupt that in the democracies of Europe and North America. Assassination is not uncommon: the revered Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, and the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 were all murdered, although it has to be noted that these […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


Aircraft carriers: how many of them are there and who has them?

August 14th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

Currently I’m reading a book by American researcher Rush Doshi entitled “The Long Game” and subtitled “China’s grand strategy to displace American order”. Recently I read the section on China’s development of aircraft carriers which led me to wonder: how many aircraft carriers are there in the world and which nations have them? As usual, […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)


How strong is China’s claim to Taiwan? And what about Mongolia?

August 6th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

Taiwan has been settled for at least 25,000 years. Ancestors of Taiwanese indigenous peoples settled the island around 6,000 years ago. In the 17th century, large-scale Han Chinese immigration to western Taiwan began under a Dutch colony and continued under the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty of […]

Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (2)


Another match is lit in the tinder-dry Balkans

August 2nd, 2022 by Roger Darlington

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It is something of a joke among my family and friends that, when I visit a country, shortly afterwards there is some sort of catastrophe or crisis. You can see what I mean from this blog posting. Now, it’s only a couple of months ago that […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


A review of “The Age Of The Strongman” by Gideon Rachman (2022)

July 20th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

Rachman is the chief foreign affairs columnist for the British newspaper the “Financial Times”. He has written a well-researched, immensely informative, very readable and – at least for my liberal sensibilities – insightful and balanced review of the rise over the past two decades of a series of political figures whom he calls the strongmen […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


The tragedy of Sri Lanka

July 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

For months now, Sri Lanka has been in the grip of an economic crisis that has devastated the country and utterly impoverished most of its citizens. The latest news is that the Presidential Palace has been stormed and the Prime Minister’s home has been burned down. It is something of a joke among my family […]

Posted in My life & thoughts, World current affairs | Comments (0)