Editor’s Picks

December 13, 2019

The Dumb, the Democrat and the Expert

The people have spoken and the “Brexit Election” campaign of the Conservatives in the UK will go down as one of the most successful in recent history. The number crunching will go…

November 14, 2019

From Berlin to Brexit: A short history of European walls

When it should be holding the beacon higher and brighter, the UK is abandoning its important role as a promoter and defender of the system which has kept the peace and created…

June 27, 2018

Leadership and the power of metaphor

As a general rule it’s important to avoid ‘mind reading’ or assuming you know what another person is thinking, writes Dave Rawlings. At first sight it might look like a variety of…

October 2, 2017

Brexit: university manoeuvres

A French revolution sees a new grouping of top universities prepare to take on the world, Aban Contractor reports from Paris. The discussions that followed Britain’s decision to leave the European Union…

June 14, 2017

When worlds collide

Taking the beliefs of others on board, trying them on as a temporary experiment, is the key to understanding their view of the world, writes David Rawlings. The murderous attacks in Manchester…

December 28, 2016

The big read: Life under the all-seeing “I”

Stefano Ermon of Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Lab speaks to Chief-Exec.com about the hopes and hazards of a world populated by learning machines As anyone who has ever tried to get…

December 26, 2016

Montaigne view: a tower in the Dordogne

The winding river Dordogne appears as though a string of pearls has been slung down onto a map of south-west France. From Bordeaux in the west to the newly opened Lascaux cave…

December 14, 2016

Green cars line-up on the starting grid

In 1899 the Belgian, Camille Jenatzy, broke the speed barrier at 100 kilometres an hour in a cigar shaped electric car known as La Jamais Contente. In 1900 at the World Exhibition…

November 30, 2016

The water is wide for Scottish fishing

Amid the Brexit doom and gloom one industry finds joy. But are the United Kingdom’s fishermen right to celebrate escaping the European Union’s common fisheries policy? Some of Britain’s fishing fleet skippers…

November 23, 2016

Comet Facebook impacts into Popper’s World 3

“The bottom line is: we take misinformation seriously.” Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook, wrote this in his blog on November 18. He also outlined ways the company plans to…

1 2 »

No plan for immediate retaliation against Israel, senior Iranian official says
Iran has no plan for immediate retaliation against Israel, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday, hours after sources said Israel launched an attack on Iranian soil. “The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack,” the Iranian official said on condition of anonymity. According to Reuters, an Iranian analyst also told state TV on Friday that mini drones shot down by air defences in Isfahan were flown by “infiltrators from inside Iran”. Meanwhile, the Israeli hard right minister Ben Gvir has posted a one-word post on X on Friday: “Feeble!” The Guardian, April 19

Israel strikes Iran
Israel struck Iran early this morning, according to two Israeli defense officials, in what appeared to be the country’s first military response to Iran’s attack last weekend. Three Iranian officials confirmed that a strike had hit a military air base near the central Iranian city of Isfahan early on Friday, but did not say which country had attacked. The explosions came less than a week after Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel, its first direct attack on the country, in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed seven Iranian officials on April 1. For days, Israeli leaders have threatened to respond to Iran’s strikes, which turned the two countries’ yearslong shadow war into a direct confrontation. The attack came after the US and European allies imposed new sanctions on Iranian military leaders and weapons makers, while imploring Israel not to risk a wider war by retaliating too strongly. New York Times, April 19

US veto sinks latest Palestinian bid for full UN membership
The United States on Thursday spoiled a long-shot Palestinian bid for full United Nations membership, vetoing a Security Council measure despite growing international distress over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The move by Israel’s key ally had been expected ahead of the vote, taking place more than six months into Israel’s military offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory, in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel. Twelve countries voted in favour of the draft resolution recommending full Palestinian membership. Britain and Switzerland abstained. Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas’s office called the US veto “a blatant aggression … which pushes the region ever further to the edge of the abyss”. France 24, April 19

EU watchdog warns bloc still needs Russian LNG
The EU’s energy regulator has warned the bloc still needs to import Russian liquefied natural gas to avoid an energy shock, even as a group of member states seeks to ban purchases of the fuel from Moscow. Acer, the bloc’s energy watchdog, on Friday said efforts to curb Europe’s record imports of Russian LNG “should be approached with caution” because the supply of pipeline gas from the country is set to fall at the end of the year. “The reduction of Russian LNG imports should be considered in gradual steps,” Acer said in a report that highlighted the difficulty for the EU of balancing energy security with the drive to hit Russia’s finances by cutting gas purchases. The watchdog, which closely monitors Europe’s energy market for adverse developments, plays a lead role in co-ordinating national regulatory bodies. Although the EU has succeeded in replacing Russian pipeline gas with LNG since the Kremlin’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the global gas market is still tight. Financial Times, April 19

Why a deluge of Chinese-made drugs is hard to curb
The US government has long accused China of flooding the country with deadly drugs like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin, claims the Chinese government denies. The US says Chinese-made opioids are fuelling the worst drug crisis in the country’s history. In 2022 more than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. According to a report published by the US select committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government provides subsidies to companies openly trafficking illicit synthetic drugs. The report found tens of thousands of posts online advertising illegal drugs and pre-cursors. The study claims that “wholly state owned” companies are involved in the trafficking of drugs. The Chinese government has consistently denied knowledge of the illegal drug trade. BBC news, April 19

Thames Water submits plan to raise bills by 56%
Thames Water is understood to have resubmitted a business plan to the regulator based on a much sharper rise in bills than previously thought and with households having to foot an increase in charges of 56 per cent over the next five years. The government is finalising a renationalisation plan, codenamed Project Timber, in the event that Britain’s largest water company, heavily in debt, is unable to recapitalise, leaving the taxpayer on the hook for billions of pounds. Thames was plunged into crisis last month after its nine shareholders refused to pump any more financial support into the company. The Times, April 19