6 h. ago Iran cannot be bombed into democracy. But it can be helped to find its way there | Simon Tisdall

Independent media, civil society, the rule of law – these are the things that Iranians truly need. And there are ways for the west to help secure themSoon after becoming president in 2017, Donald Trump ordered an attack on an Islamic State (IS) underground complex in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The strike involved the first-ever use in combat of a GBU-43 massive ordnance air blast (Moab) “bunker buster” bomb – the US’s most powerful conventional weapon. The bombing killed about 90 insurgents but failed to crush IS. It also made zero long-term difference to the US’s losing battle with the Taliban.Yet that was not the point. Inexperienced Trump, who had famously avoided military service, was keen to show he was in charge, a commander-in-chief unafraid to make tough calls and send troops into harm’s way. He craved a big bang – a spectacular demonstration of unmatched US power. Like a teenager who unexpectedly obtains the keys to the family gun cabinet, he could not resist the tem...

Events

32 h. ago How Miss Baird’s Primary 5 class set an example to Scotland about the Ukraine War

Expressions of solidarity with Ukrainians as they defend their country and democracy against the Russian invaders help them feel less isolated and alone

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44 h. ago Don't look away as the people of Iran cry out for our help | Jonathan Freedland

US bombs are not the answer, but there’s much the outside world can do – starting with noticing the horror unfolding in TehranDid you notice history being made this week? I am not referring to what may have been the most pathetic moment in recorded time – Donald Trump gratefully taking the Nobel peace prize medal from the woman who actually won it – nor the defection of a politician from one British rightwing party to another, but something grimmer. For this week witnessed what could well prove to be a landmark chapter in the blood-soaked history of the Middle East.Thanks to an information blackout caused by Tehran’s decision to switch off the internet, it is hard to be precise about what just happened on the streets of Iran. But one official has admitted to a death toll of 2,000. CBS News put the number of dead at 12,000, while some warn it could be many thousands more – all of them Iranian civilians, gunned down for daring to protest against their government and to demand a better...

Politics

44 h. ago Thousands of Iranians have been killed protesting for their freedom. Why are so many silent on their plight? | Jonathan Freedland

US bombs are not the answer, but there’s much the outside world can do – starting with noticing the horror unfolding in TehranDid you notice history being made this week? I am not referring to what may have been the most pathetic moment in recorded time – Donald Trump gratefully taking the Nobel peace prize medal from the woman who actually won it – nor the defection of a politician from one British rightwing party to another, but something grimmer. For this week witnessed what could well prove to be a landmark chapter in the blood-soaked history of the Middle East.Thanks to an information blackout caused by Tehran’s decision to switch off the internet, it is hard to be precise about what just happened on the streets of Iran. But one official has admitted to a death toll of 2,000. CBS News put the number of dead at 12,000, while some warn it could be many thousands more – all of them Iranian civilians, gunned down for daring to protest against their government and to demand a better...

Events

64 h. ago Netanyahu halts Trump from bombing Iran as Israel delivers vital intelligence on regime crackdown

The Israeli prime minister told Trump that Iran had stopped executing anti-regime protesters.

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3 d. ago Donald Trump's unhinged latest: On brink of bombing Iran, ICE threats and hero heckler

You can normally tell when Donald Trump is about to do something, because he tells you he's about to do it. Here's all the wildest moments from the last 24 hours in Trumpworld

Events

6 d. ago Rand Paul says bombing Iran will help regime as Trump considers strikes

More than 500 reported dead as security forces crack down on protests which are entering third week

Events

7 d. ago What unites Greenland, Venezuela and Ukraine? Trump's immoral lies and Europe's chronic weakness | Simon Tisdall

The president’s inability to tell right from wrong fuels his increasingly dictatorial, illegal and erratic behaviour Donald Trump made 30,573 “false or misleading” claims during his first term, according to calculations published in 2021 by the Washington Post. That’s roughly 21 fibs a day. Second time around, he’s still hard at it, lying to Americans and the world on a daily basis. Trump’s disregard for truth and honesty in public life – seen again in his despicable response to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis – is dangerously immoral.Trump declared last week that the only constraint on his power is “my own morality, my own mind”. That explains a lot. His idea of right and wrong is wholly subjective. He is his own ethical and legal adviser, his own priest and confessor. He is a church of one. Trump lies to himself as well as everyone else. And the resulting damage is pernicious. It costs lives, harms democracy and destroys trust between nations.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign ...

Politics

2 w. ago After Trump’s illegal Venezuela coup, there are two dangers: he is emboldened, but has no clue what comes next | Rajan Menon

The US president used largely fictitious charges to seize control, but can’t know how Venezuelans will react. He may also overstep now as regards IranDuring his presidential campaigns, Donald Trump pledged to end “forever wars”, abandon “nation-building” interventions and focus instead on reviving a US economy that, in his telling, had been deindustrialised by a floodtide of imports. Though Trump’s electoral victories cannot be attributed to any one thing, his “America first” narrative certainly struck a chord.But Trump’s use of force to seize the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, his full-bore support for Israel’s demolition of Gaza and his bombing of Iran’s nuclear enrichment installations show that he’s no less willing than his predecessors to resort to military interventions.Rajan Menon is a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York and a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies Continue ...

Politics

2 w. ago Today an illegal coup in Venezuela, but where next? Donald Trump talks peace but he is a man of war | Simon Tisdall

The world will be anxious, and rightly so. For a man so bent on a peace prize, Trump appears to revel in conflictThe overthrow and reported capture by invading US forces of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s hardline socialist president, will send a shiver of fear and consternation around the world. The coup is illegal, unprovoked and regionally and globally destabilising. It upends international norms, ignores sovereign territorial rights, and potentially creates an anarchic situation inside Venezuela itself.It is chaos made policy. But this is the world we now live in – the world according to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Trump’s threat to bomb Iran again draws sharp rebuke from Tehran

US president says he will support Israeli attack on Iran’s missile programme

Events

3 w. ago Through the lens of history, Trump's legacy will be more of a blotch than a Maga masterpiece | Simon Tisdall

Take this hopeful thought into 2026: the tyrants we endure always falter, and their ‘seismic’ upheavals are usually false dawnsFor those who lived through the cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, was an unforgettable moment. The sinister watch towers with their searchlights and armed guards, the minefields in no-man’s land, the notorious Checkpoint Charlie border post, and the Wall itself – all were swept aside in an extraordinary, popular lunge for freedom.Less than a month later, on 3 December 1989, at a summit in Malta, US president George HW Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that after more than 40 years, the cold war was over. All agreed it was a historic turning point.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago China has set a bear trap for Keir Starmer – and our naive PM is walking straight into it | Simon Tisdall

The conviction of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong is another hostile act. How can Britain ignore Beijing’s provocations and human rights abuses?The UK pushed hard to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, the newspaper publisher and British citizen who was a leading light in Hong Kong’s brutally suppressed pro-democracy movement. So, too, did press freedom and human rights campaigners. But the Beijing-appointed high court judges in the former colony convicted him anyway, finding Lai guilty last week on fake charges of trying to “destabilise” the Chinese Communist party (CCP). For Xi Jinping, China’s dictator-emperor, there is no greater crime.Protesting to China’s ambassador, the UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, condemned the trial as “politically motivated”. She’s right, of course – but her angry words will make no difference. Beijing’s contempt for Britain’s views is as painfully obvious as the UK’s weakness and indecision in the face of Chinese hubris. The breaking of its solemn promise t...

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