Donald Trump sought his fourth national security adviser in less than three years after firing John Bolton, who had been in the job for 17 months. Mr Bolton says he resigned before Mr Trump sacked him. The pair had not seen eye to eye: Mr Bolton was far more hawkish on Iran, North Korea and Russia. …
John Bolton’s successor as national security adviser is unlikely to change America’s foreign policy FOR THREE years President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has seesawed between threats to bomb enemies and moon-shot diplomacy. The president has flirted with nuclear war with North Korea, only to become the first sitting president to step onto its soil. He has …
An agreement that allows chavismo to survive is the only option GIVEN THAT their home country was built on oil, it is appropriate that the social hub of Venezuelan exiles in Miami should be a diner at a petrol station. El Arepazo is in Doral, a suburb near Miami’s international airport with a golf resort belonging …
A country known for pacifism struggles with covert aggression, too IT IS RARE for James Bond to pass up a martini. But on a visit to Japan in 1967, in “You Only Live Twice”, he opts for sake—served at 98.4°F (36.9°C). “For a European, you are exceptionally cultivated,” enthuses Tiger Tanaka, a Japanese spymaster. Mr Tanaka …
The ruling party loses half its Moscow city council seats THE FIRST indication that things were not going to plan for Vladimir Putin came when the official exit polls for city-council elections in Moscow failed to materialise on schedule at 6pm on September 8th. By the early hours, the majority enjoyed by United Russia, the ruling …
The boss of Russia’s state-controlled gem-miner flaunts the timeless appeal of real rocks FROM THE air, the mine in Nakyn looks as if a giant took an ice-cream scoop to the Earth’s crust. Inside the pits, in Russia’s far-eastern region of Yakutia, trucks with wheels taller than their drivers rumble along narrow dirt roads carved into …
Bashar al-Assad is on the verge of retaking Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold. But that will not end the chaos he has wrought at home and abroad “ASSAD OR WE burn the country.” For years Bashar al-Assad’s troops have daubed that phrase onto walls in the towns they recapture. The insurgents pushed the dictator to …
Bashar Assad rules the ruins of a nation he has bombed and gassed into submission EIGHT YEARS into a savage war, the images still numb. Near the village of Haas, a headless child lies amid the rubble of bombed homes. In the town of Ariha, an infant dangles several stories up from the wreckage of another …
A violent crackdown on protests has prompted widespread outrage EGOR ZHUKOV, a student in Moscow, published a video blog on August 1st in which he described how the siloviki (members of Russia’s security services) had seized power in Russia, using protests over local elections in Moscow as an excuse. “Russia will inevitably be free,” he said, “but …
A new type of arms race could be on the cards AS THE NAVY plane swooped low over the jungle, it dropped a bundle of devices into the canopy below. Some were microphones, listening for guerrilla footsteps or truck ignitions. Others were seismic detectors, attuned to minute vibrations in the ground. Strangest of all were the …
Tradecraft, statecraft and stagecraft mingle at the Old Vic theatre A MAN LIES in a hospital bed, dying. But in his final days, he helps unravel his own murder; the solution links his grim fate to a lurid world of violence and corruption. With its ticking clock, and mix of private agony and grand themes, the case …
America is doing too little to bring its allies back to their senses ORDER A GLASS of Asahi lager in a pub in Seoul these days and chances are the bartender will shake his head disapprovingly before suggesting one of the watery local alternatives. Shopkeepers have relegated Japanese products to the bottom shelf or removed them …