The Taliban’s 80,000 troops have retaken Afghanistan with cities falling like dominos while the 300,000-strong government forces, better equipped and trained, mostly melted and surrendered with no will to fight. Why did it happen?
Yuri Gagarin gained worldwide fame as the first man in space. But the unsung hero of the Soviet Union's triumph was a brilliant scientist called Sergei Korolev. Korolev remained in the shadows throughout his career and was only revealed to have masterminded the USSR's rocket wizardry after his death in 1966. Guest: Stephen Walker, author of Beyond: The Astonishing Story of The First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space (published by Harper Collins)
The full text of this essay is published as Fair Game by Carmel Bird - published by Finlay Lloyd The lithograph is a satirical (yet strangely poignant and lyrical) record of the arrival in Van Diemen’s Land in 1832 of the Princess Royal, the first ship to bring non-convict women from England to be the ‘wives…
It is fascinating seeing people in the 21st century, especially self-declared leftists, still lionizing George Orwell, the worst kind of reactionary turncoat. For years, the cat has been out of the…