8 h. ago 'This is our Berlin Wall moment. So why is Starmer all but silent on the plight of the Iranians?': A powerful intervention from the son of the late Shah of Iran

The chant resounds through the streets of Iran's holiest cities. 'The final battle. Pahlavi will return,' the protesters cry. 'Javid Shah! [Long live the Shah!].

Politics

3 d. ago Fact check: Defence spending fell below 3% of GDP in the 1990s

John Major’s government cut defence spending to below 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in in 1995, and it has not risen above that level since.

Politics

1 week ago ‘We want the mullahs gone’: economic crisis sparks biggest protests in Iran since 2022

Protests against deteriorating living conditions have widened to include criticism of way country is being governedAlborz, a textile merchant in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, decided he could no longer sit on the sidelines. He closed his shop and took to the streets, joining merchants across Iran who shuttered their stores and students who took over their campuses to protest against declining economic conditions.The sudden loss of purchasing power pushed Alborz and tens of thousands of other Iranians into the streets, where protests are now entering their fourth day. Students have paralysed university campuses, traders have shut down their stores and demonstrators have blocked off streets in defiance of police. Protests have spread from the capital, Tehran, to cities across the country. Continue reading...

Events

2 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

2 w. ago Moment Dead Ringers star is booed in front of William and Kate

Actor and comedian Duncan Wisbey briefly had to pause due to the cacophony of jeers at the Royal Albert Hall when he aped the Prime Minister's voice on stage.

Politics

3 w. ago Trump’s $10bn attack on the BBC doesn’t have to make sense. In his absurd world, he has already won | Jane Martinson

The legal action has made news and it will do damage. A potential disaster for the corporation and the UK, but a good day’s work for this presidentLove Actually may be a terrible movie, but it provides one speech that’s hard not to wish into reality this Christmas. Keir Starmer, the actual, nonfictional UK prime minister, needs to channel the one played by Hugh Grant – and stand up to an absurd US president now bullying the BBC with a $10bn lawsuit.Just imagine for one moment that Starmer decided to make Donald Trump’s claim against the BBC the final straw for a special relationship that is increasingly special only in a bad way. That would not be outlandish, for not only has Trump taken aim against a British broadcaster, but earlier this week it seemed that his promise of an AI “prosperity deal” (bought, let’s not forget, with gurning invites to Windsor Castle) is set to evaporate. As the fictional Love Actually PM once said: “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend Since bul...

Politics