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Simon Tisdall

Simon Tisdall

The Guardian

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After Iran’s drone attack on Israel, the world must act: this is a crisis that threatens us all

The missiles and drones that rained destruction on Israel in the early hours of Sunday morning have given Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin...

14.04.2024 80

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

A nagging doubt plagues world leaders wooing India: whose side is Narendra Modi really on?

Suddenly, everyone loves India. But it’s an affair, not a marriage. Whether it lasts depends on the consequences of this week’s watershed...

13.04.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Middle East crisis live Once a relic of the cold war, political assassins are back with a licence to kill

In today’s lawless world, political assassination is the new growth industry – and anyone, famous or not, is a potential victim....

06.04.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Isolated abroad, torn apart at home, Israel must face the future it dreads: a Palestinian state

The catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore was shocking. Local people expressed dismay at the sudden disintegration of a...

30.03.2024 5

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Putin’s lethally negligent failure can’t be covered up. The Moscow attack leaves him weaker than ever

Each time Vladimir Putin messes up, the same question is asked: will it make any difference? Last week’s terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert...

25.03.2024 30

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Observer comment cartoon Rishi Sunak ‘bounces back’ – cartoon

24.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Lies, ideology and repression: China seals Hong Kong’s failed-state fate

So farewell, Hong Kong. The vibrant, pulsating city-state that grew, under British rule, into one of the world’s great financial, business, cultural...

23.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

The pope’s white flag was pitiful, but just how will the war in Ukraine end?

Pope Francis’s suggestion that Ukraine’s leaders should admit defeat, find “the courage to raise the white flag” and negotiate a halt to the...

16.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

The manifesto Britain needs The global outlook is perilous. But here are three things Labour can do to make the world a safer place

An incoming Labour government will face a daunting array of foreign and defence policy challenges, many of which are beyond the ability of any one...

12.03.2024 5

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Germany’s reputation for decisive leadership is in tatters when Europe needs it most

National stereotypes are unfair, insulting – and strangely reassuring. It’s somehow good to know in an unpredictable, fast-changing world that...

09.03.2024 30

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

The US as defender of democracy won’t win votes. Donald Trump gets it, but Joe Biden doesn’t

If Joe Biden believes his record as a world leader will help him get re-elected in November, he may have another think coming. His term began with...

02.03.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

A failing British nuclear arsenal reliant on the goodwill of Donald Trump? It’s a terrifying thought

Donald Trump and nuclear weapons are a scary mix. As president, he greatly expanded the US nuclear arsenal, scrapped arms control treaties and...

25.02.2024 90

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Observer comment cartoon Jeremy Hunt leads Rishi Sunak towards electoral extinction – cartoon

18.02.2024 40

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Poland is again threatened by a tyrant. This time, Europe must not look away

Recent panicky talk of a third world war seems a tad overblown. Yet the specific threat posed by Russia’s aggressive, revisionist regime to eastern...

17.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Alexei Navalny was brave enough to mock Putin’s absurd tyranny. Is it any wonder he is dead?

Tyrants and dictators are accustomed to criticism, to being condemned and reviled. The cries of their victims are nothing to them. The curses and...

16.02.2024 100

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Observer comment cartoon Labour hides as £28bn green pledge goes up in smoke – cartoon

11.02.2024 4

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

The world is waging war on its children, in an obscene mockery of international law

Callous disregard for civilian lives and safety is a disturbing feature of modern armed conflict. From Ukraine and Gaza to Sudan and Myanmar, respect...

10.02.2024 5

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Why is there still no Gaza ceasefire? Because self-interested world leaders are obstructing it

The people of Gaza cry out for a ceasefire. Each day brings more bloodshed, more devastation, hunger, disease and tears. Spell it out: nearly...

07.02.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

At war both within and without, Israel is experiencing a brutal coming of age

It is widely predicted that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fractious, rightwing ruling coalition will not survive acceptance of an...

04.02.2024 40

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

There is a mega-bomb waiting to explode in the Middle East. Biden must not light the fuse by attacking Iran

The unprecedented Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October set a fuse burning under the entire Middle East. Now the fearsome, figurative...

29.01.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Europe is heading for perilous waters, and its leaders are dozing at the tiller

Democrats fear Joe Biden is sleepwalking to disaster in a November rematch with Donald Trump. Tories level similar criticism at dozy Rishi Sunak as...

27.01.2024 90

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Fascism is everywhere on the march. And it’s Trump who sets the pace

The comforting conceit that Donald Trump is an unpleasant yet passing American aberration, often heard during his 2017-21 presidency, is harder to...

20.01.2024 7

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

The US isn’t the biggest power in the Middle East any more. Iran is

The first of what may be many US-led air strikes on Iranian-backed Houthi Shia militants in Yemen marks another dismaying milestone on a long trail of...

13.01.2024 5

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

From Gaza to Ukraine, brute force threatens to triumph in 2024

Assassination is a two-edged sword. Last week’s targeted killing in Beirut of Hamas’s deputy leader is but the latest of many covert attacks on...

06.01.2024 6

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Amid fears of escalation in the Israel-Gaza conflict, consider this: war without end suits Netanyahu

Warnings about a region-wide escalation engulfing the entire Middle East have been circulating since the first fraught days after the 7 October Hamas...

29.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

How much trouble is Xi really in? Outgunned Taiwan may be about to find out

Smart, combative, handsome, Qin Gang was fast-tracked to stardom. As a protege of Xi Jinping, China’s dictator-president, the precocious “wolf...

09.12.2023 8

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Biden now regrets the strength of his support for Netanyahu – he must act before it’s too late

Joe Biden has a Benjamin Netanyahu problem – and how he deals with it grows more urgent with each brutal, bloody day that passes. Thousands of...

06.12.2023 80

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Observer comment cartoon Cop28 dithers while the world burns – cartoon

02.12.2023 8

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

First Edition Germany is Ukraine’s new best friend. What a difference a war makes

Olaf Scholz, Germany’s safety-first chancellor, has been harshly criticised for foot-dragging on military assistance for Ukraine. As Russia’s...

02.12.2023 5

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Henry Kissinger dies celebrated, but why? His achievements have long since crumbled

‘All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure.” So said Enoch Powell – yet to this famous...

30.11.2023 100

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

‘Nuclear tinderbox’: Kim’s threats put North Korea on wrong side of history

For western liberals and progressive champions of open, democratic government, a clutch of recalcitrant regimes around the world seems firmly stuck on...

25.11.2023 10

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

The pressure on Netanyahu is starting to tell – this potential truce shows something has changed

A deal with Hamas to release some of the Israeli hostages seized on 7 October in return for a pause in the fighting in Gaza, if confirmed, would...

21.11.2023 3

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

First Edition Netanyahu is a liability for Biden. Peace is impossible until he goes

The devastating, deeply distressing and unrelenting human suffering in Gaza caused by Israel’s response to Hamas’s 7 October atrocities will leave...

18.11.2023 6

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

How two-faced Xi Jinping is exploiting war in Gaza to beget China’s new order

Anyone wondering what life would be like in a 21st-century world led by China need look no further than Beijing’s self-serving, two-faced approach...

11.11.2023 7

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

In a world on fire, Biden struggles to banish the curse of Trump

Is Joe jinxed? In less than three years as US president, Joe Biden has faced more than his fair share of international crises. America’s withdrawal...

04.11.2023 5

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Israel is in a fight to the finish. Whatever comes next, it must change

While unprecedented in scale and horror, the Hamas terrorist attacks on 7 October that killed more than 1,400 people were tactically and...

28.10.2023 9

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

What will the children who survive the onslaught of Gaza think of those who let it happen?

The screams of children are difficult to hear over the noise and fury of the Gaza maelstrom. So it’s doubly important to listen out for their cries,...

23.10.2023 100

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Toxic Netanyahu could drag Biden down in his fight for political survival

Is that it? Is that the best western leaders can do as the midnight hour approaches? Kindly Joe Biden doled out sympathy and dollars in a seven-hour...

21.10.2023 50

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

The peril now facing us: Israel invades, Iran intervenes – and this war goes global

T he foremost concern of western governments as the Israel-Hamas war enters a murderous second week is not the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. It is...

16.10.2023 60

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Angry old men set the Middle East ablaze. The young will pay the price

O ld men start wars. Young men and women fight them. It’s a phenomenon that has broadly held true throughout history. Now, once again, in today’s...

14.10.2023 4

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

In the midst of war, Benjamin Netanyahu is a liability who can only make things worse. He must go

W hy is Benjamin Netanyahu still prime minister of Israel? More than any other single political leader, on either side of the Israel-Palestine divide,...

09.10.2023 60

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

All eyes in Europe are focused on Poland’s divisive election fight. But it’s not a pretty sight

P oland has often been the victim of violent external aggression over the years – of Prussian militarism, Nazi invasion and Russian domination. But...

30.09.2023 10

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Who wants to rule the world? I will, says Joe Biden. No, it’ll be me, says Xi Jinping

T he EU is talking about admitting new members again, after years of blanking Balkan neighbours. The US is strengthening security ties with India’s...

23.09.2023 30

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

America needs fresh leaders – Biden and Trump should both stand down

U S president Joe Biden has many reasons to be grateful he is not a member of Britain’s ruling Conservatives, but one in particular stands out. When...

16.09.2023 7

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

Putin’s collection of oddball allies grows by the day. It’s time the west got tougher

V ladimir Putin must be feeling fairly desperate if he’s relying on Kim Jong-un for friendship and support. There’s a reason why North Korea’s...

09.09.2023 8

The Guardian

Simon Tisdall

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