Trending:
August 20, 2026, 12:29 PM - 7 min read
The crisis raises questions Europe has not asked. Why is a European border located on African soil? And why has the dispute about Ceuta and Spanish colonisation remained unresolved for so long?
Read more
August 14, 2026, 02:16 PM - 6 min read
Hope, far from being mere rhetoric, can be a powerful force in politics. Whether Burnham’s tour of the UK, and the announcements made along the way, will be enough to inspire such hope remains to be seen.
Read more
August 11, 2026, 12:06 PM - 6 min read
Can the new PM make a success out of Starmer’s failure on prisoners? After a blitz of small wins, Burnham is finding that like his predecessor, there is only so much he can control on the big calls.
Read more
August 9, 2026, 01:26 PM - 6 min read
Is America under threat of communist revolution? Definitely not. But the DSA victories created the opening to label all Democrats as communists – and potentially influence crucial midterm elections in November.
Read more
August 7, 2026, 01:26 PM - 6 min read
The history of British democracy is not only a history of winners. It is also the history of the losers, loners and long-shots whose campaigns reveal what voters find funny, what they find unacceptable, and what they are, in the end, prepared to take seriously. A man in a bin costume standing against the man who forced this election is a small but revealing window into the shifting boundaries of British politics.
Read more
August 5, 2026, 03:48 PM - 6 min read
The Bankipur election result is a serious lesson for both the BJP as well as the opposition, the Congress in particular—that people are prepared to experiment and give a chance to “alternatives” if they seem better than the BJP. So far, the Congress has been the only credible alternative to the BJP nationally. Alternatives seem to have started emerging, for both the BJP as well as the Congress.
Read more
August 3, 2026, 01:00 PM - 5 min read
A diverse cabinet can still pursue policies that many minority communities oppose. Inclusion at the top no longer guarantees substantive representation below. That is the defining political challenge of Britain’s “post-first” era. The politics of representation have moved beyond celebrating symbolic milestones. The politics of the “first” have given way to the politics of governing. The central question is no longer who gets into the room, but what they do once they are there.
Read more
July 12, 2026, 12:37 PM - 6 min read
When things feel uncertain or dangerous, people might reach for the visionary. Yet the very leaders we feel most drawn to in those moments – the boldly confident, the certain, the inspiring – may not always be well-suited to navigating such complexity, if they resist the open-minded, ambiguity-tolerant thinking that difficult problems require.
Read more
July 10, 2026, 02:18 PM - 6 min read
Khamenei’s funeral was designed as a powerful political and diplomatic tool to project defiance and continued resistance against what Iran has called “global arrogance”. The government aimed to demonstrate its legitimacy, regional reach, public support and continued mobilising capacity despite the isolation efforts of its enemies. This mission seems to have been accomplished.
Read more
July 8, 2026, 12:58 PM - 6 min read
It is extremely unlikely that Putin will give in to pressure and withdraw from Ukraine. With both sides convinced they can win, there is little prospect of the war ending any time soon.
Read more
July 7, 2026, 12:46 PM - 5 min read
It is widely expected that Burnham will become prime minister through an internal Labour party manoeuvre rather than a general election. But this would reinforce the same uncomfortable point. The UK accepts major political transitions without the electorate ever casting a vote. Once again, the public may simply be expected to accommodate the outcome.
Read more
July 6, 2026, 04:46 PM - 6 min read
Poland president Karol Nawrocki has stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle. Political spats between the two countries over historical memory are nothing new. But this is the first since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to escalate to this degree. And the fact is that it has more to do with domestic Polish politics than any long-term rift between Poland and Ukraine.
Read more