27th of May 2025 I. Some of you may know the famous scene at the start of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, when one of our fur-covered ancestors picks up a bone from a skeleton lying on the ground and realises that it can be used to fight off enemies. Having killed the leader of … Continue reading Robots as Weapons of War
Journalism
15th of May 2025 As John Lanchester recently remarked (LRB 27 April 2025) ‘However little money there is for anything else, there’s always enough money for a war’. The failures of neoliberal economics threaten all kinds of political backlashes, some of which have already been seen in the nationalist turn of international relations. ‘Military Keynesianism’ … Continue reading Military Keynesianism?
13th of May 2025 As the Ukrainian war enters its third year, there has been renewed, if rather limp, talk of a ceasefire followed by negotiations. The premise is that since neither side can ‘win’, it makes sense to start making peace. Few now remember that the war almost ended before it got going. On … Continue reading The Lost Peace?
8th of May 2025 It is right to be suspicious of Putin’s intentions without falling for the idea that he will never stop. In 1836 the liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill claimed that Lord Melbourne’s government was smitten with the “epidemic disease of Russophobia,” an irrational panic that had triggered an unnecessary increase in defense … Continue reading The Nation: Russophobia—an Epidemic Disease?
10th of June 2025 Europe is committed to rearmament. Commission President van der Leyden unveiled her ‘ReArm Europe Plan’ which aims to boost EU defence spending by euros 800bn over four years. On 5 June NATO defence ministers agreed to double their members’ annual defence spending from an average of roughly 2.5% of GDP to … Continue reading Should Europe Rearm?
Former BBC producer and reporter Patrick Howse explores the latest worrying sign of the BBC's flawed interpretation of 'impartiality'
Peter Jukes, Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Byline Times, on the urgent need for media accuracy and why joining Impress, the independent press regulator, is the best way for us to uphold those values