On 23 July 2026, the EU adopted its 21st sanctions package against Russia as part of its efforts in the war it is waging against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Measures in the package include a price cap on Russian oil of $44 per barrel, permission for member states to sell confiscated oil, and a visa ban for Russian combatants. This brings the cumulative total of sanctioned individuals and entities to a record 3,100. The EU, however, finds itself in a quagmire, with me

‘The People of Aberdeen, in Scotland, are dancing in the streets because the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has stated that he will be opening up, all the way, the invaluable North Sea Oil!’ So rambled Donald Trump on Truth Social following BBC reports that new drilling at Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea would be permitted by the incoming administration. As these were existing projects introduced by Sunak and paused by Starmer, to allow drilling a

In his first week, new UK PM Burnham proclaimed himself protector of pubs, in a signal he believes the politics of the pub within the UK is worthy of concern. He is right. Yet the pint of lager on the bar can also be considered within an international frame. If you want to understand why the globalised world economy leaves people confused and feeling dislocated, then sit down, have a beer, and it might start to become clearer. The world’s brewing industry giants offer reflect

Following a fortnight of activity which possessed a more rhetorical than policy-oriented substance, Andy Burnham has now selected an almost unimpeachable cause as the first major test of his Premiership; reform to England’s withering social care system. The system in its current form is, it must be said, fragmented, unfair and ruinously expensive for an increasingly large number of families across the country. Its pressures universally buckle the already struggling local auth

India’s 2022 Arctic Policy has been framed as an expression of the Hindu philosopher, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’s, “the world is but one family.” The Government of India identified “Science and Research” and “Climate and Environmental Protection” as its first two strategic priorities. Meanwhile, earlier this year in May, in the joint statement of the Third India-Nordic Summit, “cooperation in the Arctic” was emphasised, mirroring the Arctic Policy’s signal of willingness to colla

History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. The Falkland Islands are on the verge of becoming a geopolitical flashpoint once again, echoing the tensions of the early 1980s. The catalyst this time is not an invading army but oil. Following the discovery of the Sea Lion offshore oil field in 2010 and the long-awaited Final Investment Decision at the end of 2025, the project is set to become the largest offshore oil development in the South Atlantic outside Brazil. For

My first impression of Panama City’s Casco Viejo was one of distortion. It was only possible to catch fragmented glimpses of its whitewashed walls through reflections cast out by skyscrapers lining the waterfront. Panama City’s old town seemed awkward and incongruous, positioned in the shadow of five-hundred-foot-tall buildings. Its pristine streets lay relatively abandoned, disconnected from the chaotic metropolis barely one kilometre away. This sense of dislocation and frag

The biggest item of note in Andy Burnham’s recent devolution speech was his commitment to ‘the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period’. It is estimated such construction will cost the taxpayer up to £13bn a year. This is merely the tip of the iceberg, however. Research released by the Centre for Policy Studies shows the state is already implicitly subsidising social housing rent to the tune of £43bn every year and paying out £36bn in housing benefi

Russia’s Central Bank raised its key interest rate to a two-decade high of 21% in late 2024 after a surge in inflation. Since then, it has pursued a policy of monetary easing, with the cut from 14.5% to 14.25% on 19th June marking the ninth consecutive cut. This has surprised some analysts, who were expecting a 50-basis-point cut. More broadly, it reflects the cautious approach that Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, has taken toward the economy, with

In the last week Andy Burnham, who stands at the precipice of becoming Britain’s next Prime Minister, seemingly ruled out an early general election. Whilst politicians ruling things out certainly doesn’t mean that they are ruled out, it does mean it is not ruled in. A general election is not part of Burnham’s short-term plan. The question remains however, is it part of Burnham’s plan in the medium-term, and should it be. Whilst the answer to the former is one that only Burnha

So here we are. Another new Prime Minister apparent, another undemocratic process in which a political party decides – as an internal matter – the appointee to the country’s top official political position. It is another reminder of the real workings of the UK’s parliamentary electoral system. The seats in parliament which give Labour its big legislative majority were decided in 2024 and it is within this latest 2024 settlement of the political forces in Westminster that a n

The Nazi Party came to power in 1933 in a Germany devastated by the Treaty of Versailles and Great Depression, and paralysed by a huge unemployment crisis of over 6 million. Six years later it was arguably the greatest power in Europe, tearing across the continent in relentless pursuit of ‘Lebensraum’. What happened in between might therefore be chalked up to nothing less than an economic miracle. It was not. When defining economic success on the regime’s own terms, namely au

Political satire is not hard to come by. A recent example of it, however, on the Green Party’s official Facebook Page, may have cheapened this already-common currency. It’s form was simple and standard enough as memes goes. An animated character is shown faced with a choice between two buttons, the look on their face betraying the difficulty they feel in deciding – the joke being that the choice is meant to be painfully obvious. The subject of the Green Party’s ire in this

Whether taking in the news, one’s social media feed, using a software or just holding a conversation, artificial intelligence is now nigh on inescapable. At a social event I recently attended, someone even casually offered me use of their Meta Glasses, its integrated AI feature able to translate the foreign language being spoken at the event. Like most people in the UK, I am suspicious of the promises of AI, particularly of the large US firms driving the so-called AI bubble

“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” – Roy Amara, Stanford computer scientist. Dotcom, housing, crypto, and now, AI. The Fastest Scaling in History An asset bubble is a period where the price of an asset skyrockets beyond its intrinsic value before violently crashing. They have plagued economies for centuries. The artificial intelligence industry has experienced what is considered the fastest techn

France held its first Africa-France summit in an anglophone African capital on 11 and 12 May, gathering more than thirty heads of state at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi. Emmanuel Macron and William Ruto co-chaired the Africa Forward Summit, which closed with the eleven-point Nairobi Declaration and €23 billion in pledged investment across energy, agriculture, artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure. Paris presented the venue and the figure

Despite not having won Best Picture or Best Director at the 2026 Oscars, I have no doubts that Ryan Coogler’s Sinners will stand the test of time as one of the greatest cinematic achievements of the 21st Century. In a media landscape saturated with franchises, reboots, and sequels, Coogler’s original genre-bending film about a black community in the Jim Crow south, who find their newly-established juke joint and promise of emancipation devoured by undead vampires, is both inc

At a news conference regarding agricultural policy on the 12th of August 1986, Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most recognisable quips satirising the organisation he had been elected to lead two years prior: “I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help”. Given the enduring appeal of this line for so-called libertarians and free-marketeers, the words that followed Reagan

Scotland votes in the nationalists for a fifth straight time, but nobody seems too happy about it. A pro-independence majority, made up of the SNP and the Scottish Greens, looks increasingly like a majority of arithmetic over conviction. The SNP didn’t win this, the other parties simply failed to capture the imagination of the country. The Tories’ vote collapsed into Reform, Scottish Labour was weighed down by its incredibly unpopular Westminster government, and the Greens ho

The UK awoke this week to news stories of demonstrations and agitation in the capital alongside a review of the overrunning and overspending on the HS2 rail project. These seemingly disparate stories tell another story, however, when linked together. In part, the reason we have creaking sclerotic bureaucracy capable of blowing £100bn on – well, it is hard to say what exactly is being delivered in return – is the same reason extremist groups are able to galvanise large number