Editorials

Trump is doing what must be done — but risks repeating history

Niall Ferguson reminds us that great powers often lose not because they are militarily weak, but because they underestimate how quickly economic shocks, allies’ reluctance, and an opponent’s asymmetric tools can turn victory into defeat. The question now is whether Trump’s advisers remember the Suez Crisis, and whether they have learned from previous American presidents’ many lost wars in the Middle East. The question now is whether Hormuz will become for the United States what Suez became for Britain.

Knives are out in America

The Iranian madmen may be running low on attack weapons (though there is no sign of that yet), but they possess far stronger weapons: Western mainstream media that rejoice at every American setback, and Democrats in the US who constantly bash Trump and predict that the “illegal” war is already lost. They dismiss the mullahs’ enriched uranium. Yet they themselves are playing at least as high-stakes a game as Trump.

Happy Easter!

How many people, cultures, and nations have not been radically transformed after an encounter with the Son of God, who says “Peace be with you” and has loved us since the dawn of time? There is nothing greater than a Creator who looks at us in love and says: It was for you that I suffered and died.

Helena Edlund: Thoughts before Sunday #165

Neither then nor now was it possible for anyone who was dead to come back to life. Yet that is exactly what happened — and the disciples were prepared to go to their deaths rather than deny it. And that is why we know it is true.

Population replaced at a terrible cost

Under Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s population has grown by more than 200,000. The increase is due entirely to immigration. Under Støre, 8 out of 10 immigrants have come from non-Western countries. The low employment rate among them is putting increasing pressure on Norway’s public finances. This trend is clear and accelerating. As a result, public spending as a share of the economy is rising, financed by higher taxes. Norway is heading towards a population replacement.

The Victory of the Cross

Christians must hold fast to the cross as the symbol of both the beginning and the fulfilment of God’s plan. Paradoxically, this instrument of torture and death has become the symbol of victory over death — the spiritual kingdom that conquers the material kingdom of power. The cross symbolises not death, but meaning and eternal life. It is the most powerful — and most hated — of all symbols.

Something is fundamentally wrong with Sánchez’s Spain

The case of 25-year-old Noelia Castillo Ramos is shocking Spain. After her parents divorced, she was placed in a youth home, where she was brutally gang-raped by “unaccompanied minors”. The rape was reported to the police, but the perpetrators were never punished. Noelia attempted to take her own life, but survived and was left dependent on a wheelchair. She was granted euthanasia by the Spanish state – against her parents’ explicit wishes.

Decisive Donald, Greedy Big Bad Wolf, and Cowardly Jonas

Norway is the world’s 5th largest shipping nation and has strong interests as well as a long tradition of helping to keep maritime trade routes open. We could have sent minesweepers. It is incomprehensible. The Støre government is willingly tagging along in the wrong direction. Together with the EU, the Støre government is making the mission to neutralise the clerical regime in Iran even more difficult. That will not be forgotten in Washington.

The sound of an alliance fracturing

The alliance is built on reciprocity, solidarity and values worth dying for. Yet Europeans are no longer content with merely condemning the US and Israel’s war. They are now refusing to let America use their bases and airspace. The latest example is Poland refusing to lend Turkey a Patriot system. Poland is protected by 10,000 American troops, but will not help the US fight a ruthless enemy. At that point, NATO no longer exists.

Starmer to Reparations grifters: “We spent more ending slavery than you made from it.”

Britain finally grows a spine: Keir Starmer tells reparations campaigners to get stuffed.
In a surprise statement released on Wednesday morning, Sir Keir delivered a blunt message to Barbados: “Sue us, and we’ll build a statue of William Wilberforce with your aid money.”