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The Greene-eyed monster

QAnon conspiracy theory touting, school shooting denying, Trump-adoring US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was finally censured by the House earlier this year, losing her committee roles and being forced into a climbdown as to believing, or not, the very worst of her racist opinions. But just as it seems that Greene has apparently changed her […]

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Icebox of delights

Alfred Hitchcock called it the “icebox” moment. Seeing a film and discussing it with friends and family afterwards, talking about favourite moments and getting it all straight in your head. Going home, going to bed, satisfied. And in the middle of the night, getting a snack from the icebox and thinking… hang on. Something in

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Qatar: New dawn or false dawn?

After over three years, the blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia has been Riyadh, and its Gulf Cooperation Council allies, re-opened the border (previously intended to become a nuclear waste-filled canal) and have ended the trade blockade. While this is good news in the short term, in truth it is unlikely to change the undercurrent

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Virgin on the ridiculous

The BVI Virgin Islands are in the news again for all the wrong reasons, as the outgoing British governor Gus Jaspert has blasted the territory as playing host to a ‘plague of corruption’ and accused the government of actively working to facilitate and foment this to their own ends. Denials came swift, as expected, but

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Norway and China: Polar power?

‘Panda diplomacy’ is China’s long-standing policy of loaning (never giving) giant pandas to zoos worldwide, bestowing ‘friendship’ upon the host country in return for a tacit acceptance of China’s policy elsewhere – for who could turn down a panda? In practical terms however, China prefers to build its brand through financial and trading support, particularly

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Driven to distraction…

Aston Martin are likely to be feeling rather shaken and stirred at the moment, as the car company is at the centre of a controversy over commissioning, and self-preparing, a report dismissive of green/electric vehicles, and with the communications firm involved being registered under the name of the wife of a senior Aston Martin official.

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Shakespeare

“I say, there is no darkness but ignorance…”

One hundred years ago, the appropriately named Thomas Looney put forward the theory that the plays of Shakespeare had in fact been written by Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. A not inconsiderable achievement, given that for the last one-third of the plays he would have been dead. But the ‘Oxfordian theory’, absurd as it

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