West’s failure to understand Afghanistan and lost peace

“The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan”  assess the West’s similarly failed approach to Afghanistan in military, diplomatic, political and developmental terms and reveals the west’s failure to understand Afghanistan and the ties that bind Afghanistan, and its people underpins the west’s 20-year struggle there. Building on record of the past starts from the first…

New Zealand to ban smoking from 2027

The government plans to introduce a law that, starting in 2027, will lift the smoking age by a year every year. New Zealand plans to raise the legal smoking age by one year every year effectively banning the sale of tobacco to people born after 2008. “We want to make sure young people never start…

Teenager escapes from crocodile death roll in Zambia

Eighteen-year-old, Amelie Osborn-Smith, from Andover, Hampshire, who was whitewater rafting on the Zambezi river in Zambia when a crocodile clamped on to her leg and tried to drag her under the water on last Tuesday. The teenager said her brain went into “overdrive, and people say that you see your life flash before your eyes,…

The repetition of history as tragedy, but never as a farce

533: A Book of Days, tells the story through a tireless explorer of distant cultures, for more than forty year Cees Nooteboom has been returning to the Island of Menoca, “the Island of Wind”, and it is in his house there, with a study full of books, and a garden taken over with native plants…

Kissinger’s Shuttle diplomacy

A provocative history of Henry Kissinger’s art of diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East that is full of unique challenges and barriers Kissinger and his successors have faced in their attempts to broker peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Master of the Game, reveals the drama, dazzling manoeuvres and grand strategic vision.   In…

Life on the run with no identity

Hyeonseo Lee, a child growing up in North Korea. was one of the millions trapped by the world’s most secretive and brutal communist regime.  From the indoctrination she received in Kindergarden to her forced service in the Socialist Youth League at age of fourteen, the state controlled ever aspect of her life. As the great famine…

Michael Henley – The Muse Gallery

The Muse Gallery – 2-15 December – “Descended” by Michael Henley. An epic look at life on the planet “and afterwards….” Henley, who studied art at Lincoln,  draws from the Vanitas Movement and classic Baroque Painting to enchant and confuse us with this set of mesmerising artworks – most of which are 3D involving backlighting…

Aaray Collective wins the Turner Prize for Irish pub with banners

Array Collective, a Belfast-based activist group have won the prestigious Turner Prize 2021, after they beat four other collectives to take the £25, 000 prize money. Their works,  a mock Irish pub adorned  in banners supporting reproductive rights and protesting against conversion therapy. The Judges praised the group for highlighting social and political issues in…