The UK officially left the EU in January 2020 but it currently remains within the framework of EU rules. This “transition period” finishes at the end of 2020. Although the UK has already left, the dilemma of deal or no deal has reappeared. The UK government’s negotiations with the EUContinue Reading
Pexels Men have long been recognised as being most at risk of suicide, but the Office for National Statistics recently reported the highest annual rate of female suicides in the UK since 2004. This increase in female self-inflicted deaths comes at the same time as concerns the pandemic may increaseContinue Reading
Sporting events and initiatives could help strengthen ties between the Gulf states and Israel. EFKS/Shutterstock Back in 2016, I was excited for the Bahrain Women’s National team to compete in the Aphrodite Cup, an international football tournament held in Cyprus. Bahrain’s team, of which I was in charge, had previouslyContinue Reading
After an urgent debate initiated by the European Union, the UN Human Rights Council has condemned human rights violations in Belarus following the country’s disputed election in August. On September 18, the council passed a resolution instructing the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to enhance its scrutiny of theContinue Reading
Delivered with energy, and with very punchy attacks on Boris Johnson and the government’s pandemic response, Keir Starmer’s first conference speech (delivered online due to the pandemic) as Labour party leader undoubtedly fulfilled his objectives. But, because of how bad Labour’s 2019 defeat was, we also saw how those objectivesContinue Reading
Ashok Mirpuri, Singapore’s ambassador to the US, recently said that achieving trust in diplomacy is “about the cues and nuances” that come from face-to-face interactions. What Mirpuri did not elaborate on, however, is that reading others when you’re in the same room together can just as easily reveal clues aboutContinue Reading
After the death of the supreme court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Donald Trump finds himself with an opportunity to tip the US Supreme Court into a 6-3 conservative majority. Appointing a third justice to the court could cement Trump’s political legacy, and that of his conservative supporters, for generations.Continue Reading
Defence Images/Ed Lowe, CC BY-NC-ND The Westminster parliament is currently considering one of the most ill-conceived and misleadingly presented pieces of legislation ever introduced. It purports to do something that it cannot while doing several things it should not. The legislation in question is the Overseas Operations Bill, introduced byContinue Reading
The UN general assembly is one of the main fixtures of the global diplomatic calendar. At no other time are so many global leaders gathered in one place at one time. For diplomats it is Wimbledon, the Masters and the Tour de France all rolled into one. I attended myContinue Reading
EPA/Janos Philip The number of new COVID-19 cases in the Czech Republic recently surpassed 3,000 in a single day. As infections rise across Europe, the country, which has a population of 10 million, has regularly seen daily case numbers overtake records from March and April. Other central and eastern EuropeanContinue Reading
