China's children crisis was so inevitable

When a government dictates how many children you can have that is surely an example of the worst kind of dictatorship, whether it be a communist or fascist regime involved. China for years had a one-child policy and now decades later Beijing must be ruing the day they came to that decision. Five years ago, worried at the latest figures of a dramatically falling birthrate, they changed the one-child-only edict to a two-child policy. But for a host of reasons, not least the fact that the longstanding policy of only allowing one child had created a small-family syndrome across the nation, plus the rising cost of living and perhaps also a reluctance among young couples to do what the Central Committee of the Communist Party decided was right for them. So there was no great rush for supplementing the only child with a sister or brother. Now Beijing has even more alarming demographic statistics and can see an economic nightmare appearing in the future because there simply won't be enough Chinese around to fill all the jobs and help China stride towards becoming an economic and military superpower to rival and eventually overtake the US. So now the latest brilliant idea from the committee and President Xi Zinping is to allow everyone to have THREE children. But if the two-child strategy didn't work, it's hardly likely that the three-child pronouncement is going to have much chance of success. It makes you wonder whether before long there will be an edict from the forever-leader Xi Zinping that all families MUST by law have three children. This will be the ultimate test of a communist dictatorship because if all Chinese couples are obliged by law to have three children, then Bejing security police will have to start knocking on doors late at night to make sure couples are engaging in the necessary activities that lead to conception. I can see it happening.

Perfect timing for Boris's wedding

There is a timing for everything in politics. Boris's "surprise" earlier-than-expected wedding to Carrie Symonds at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday was perfectly timed as the row raged over the prime minister's handling or mishandling of the fight against coronavirus, thanks to his former ally Dominic Cummings. Wedding bells always help to focus the mind of voters elsewhere. I'm not saying that the date of the wedding was brought forward by a year just to shut Cummings up. But only a few days ago it was being put about that Boris and Carrie would marry in the summer of 2022. At the time I thought it was a bit strange. Why on earth wait for another year. Get on wth it Boris I thought. But now we know, it was all a clever plot to make the wedding on Saturday a total surprise and bring smiles to a population fed up to the molars with lockdown and quarantine and masks and social distancing. So, congratulations Boris and Carrie, now official First Lady as opposed to First Fiancee. I wish them well. And if it helps us all forget Dominic Cummings then we will all be better off for it. Despite the Indian variant and the very very very bad decision not to stop all flights from India immediately that variant had been declared, let us hope that the promised return to normality can go ahead as planned on June 21.

William Shakespeare is dead

It was certainly very upsetting news that the Great Bard has finally after all these centuries passed away. No more comedies, no more tragedies, no more sonnets. Like Queen Anne, William Shakespeare is dead. What was surprising was that when Argentinian TV news reader Noelia Novilla scooped the world by revealing the legendary playwright's death, she gave no quotes from his works. Nor, and I found this extraordinary, did she get any reaction from such important contemporaries as Christopher Marlowe, John Webster or Ben Jonson. Not a word from them. When you get a scoop like that a reporter should get all the famous people who knew him well to provide their personal eulogies. So the Great Bard died without due honour and respect. But we can now all expect a worldwide retrospective of Shakespeare's works. The Argentinian news reader did not explain why it was that Shakespeare appears to have written nothing since 1616. I guess we shall hear more in some future broadcast from this fine reporter. Meanwhile rest in peace William "Bill" Shakespeare, the world's first male receiver of the Pfizer coronavirus jab who died at the age of 81 of an illness unrelated to Covid.

Bashar al-Assad the Big Winner

There have been great survivors in the political world but perhaps none more so than Bashar al-Assad, just voted in by his "adoring" electorate as president of Syria for a fourth term in office, giving him another seven years in power. He was said to have won 95.1 per cent of the vote with a 75 per cent turn-out. That was almost as high a vote as Saddam Hussein used to win when he stood for reelection as president of Iraq. In Iraq under his regime no one dared to vote for anyone else. In Syria a tiny number voted for two political "opponents" but I suspect they were told this was all right to make the democratic vote look truly, wonderfully democratic. So while the election was clearly arranged to produce the result it did, Assad is still a great survivor because for at least five years the whole of the Western world, led by the United States, was all for persuading him to step down and allow a real election to be held in the hope and expectation that someone more acceptable - acceptable to the West - would be voted in and bring peace to Syria. It never happened because Assad had the mighty backing of Russia and Vladimir Putin. His Russian bosom pal sent thousands of Spetsnaz special forces and private contractors from the Wagner Group, the Kremlin's favourite mercenary organisation, to help keep Assad in power and drive off any threats to his regime. It was a cunning move by Putin to back Assad this way, along with fighter bombers based in western Syria to join the anti-Isis campaign to lend legitimacy to the Russian military presence. Assad was safe. There was never ever going to be a change in regime. Putin won, Assad won and the US and the West lost. The American, British, French and others' involvement in fighting Isis, supporting the brilliant, largely Kurdish militias, was without question a success story. Isis collapsed and the caliphate was destroyed. But in the wider political game, the plan to oust Assad without actually firing a single shot against him, was a failure. Putin saw to that. Now Assad has another seven years to be Russia's puppet leader and Moscow will no doubt make maximum use of their man's election victory. Moscow has already sent three nuclear-capable long-range bombers to the airbase at Khmeimim in western Syria giving them easy access to the Mediterranean to carry out surveillance missions of Nato warships operating in the area. I always remember Barack Obama saying many times that Assad would have to go for the sake of Syria's future. But I'm afraid to say, Syria's future is Assad.

Biden asks the CIA to investigate the Covid laboratory theory

I kind of feel sorry for the CIA. The US intelligence agency has vast resources but until now has come up with no definitive proof that Covid-19 escaped from or was leaked from China's institute of virology in Wuhan. Yet Joe Biden has now asked them to have another go because of the revelation which incidentally the intelligence boys knew about, that three employees at the institute had fallen very sick in November 2019 and had been hospitalised. You wonder what more the CIA can do to get further proof. Unless they manage somehow to interview the three institute employees, assuming they didn't die from their sickness. But the Chinese security authorities are going to be on high alert for any sign of a CIA type skulking around the institute or asking questions in Wuhan. So unless they get a lucky break and some signals intelligence satellite picks up a couple of Chinese virology chaps chatting in a bar about their poor colleagues who started the whole pandemic off, it's hard to imagine how Biden is going to get any fresh intel that could enable him to join Donald Trump in accusing Beijing of being responsible for the worldwide health crisis. And even if they do find something new, Beijing will just deny its veracity and will accuse Biden of stoking up old and false news. But perhaps I'm underplaying the CIA's capabilities. Maybe somewhere in Wuhan there is a "source" who will tell all. But I sincerely doubt it. Who in Wuhan of all places is going to reveal anything which might be traced back to them. When the virus started racing around Wuhan, Chinese security honchos went around knocking on people's doors to make sure they had daren't to venture out. Lockdown in China meant total lockdown or else. So, good luck CIA. I'll wait with bated breath. As will Biden no doubt.

Boris is roasted by his one-time best buddy

Boris will survive the roasting he got from Dominic Cummings speaking to the parliamentary committee today. But it's worth considerng the fact that here we have an unelected official or I should say unelected former official in 10 Downing Street who is lauding it over everyone and giving his view that Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, should have been fired a long time ago and that Boris should never have been prime minister. That sort of damning chatter is fine in the local pub, although a bit tedious, but appearing before an august televised parliamentary committee, suddenly his views and judgments are given god-like respect as if he is the only person in the land who is blessed with omniscience and foresight and brilliance. He was all mucked in with the Downing Street lot, so if he was so all-knowing, how come he is blurting it all out now. I am quite sure that with hindsight there were a huge number of mistakes made. We know most of them, like the millions wasted on dodgy protective gear, the failing track and trace system, the appalling decision to allow untested Covid patients transfer from hospitals to care homes and the delays in taking action in stopping people coming to the UK from high-risk countries. But Cummings in his endless answers today seemed to be trying to give the impression that he and only he knew how to handle the pandemic and that everyone else was getting in the way and making the wrong decisions, especially Matt Hancock. The truth is that no one in any country in the world was fully cognisant of what to do when Covid-19 first arrived. It took the World Health Organisation ages to even describe it as a pandemic. Trump dismissed it. Boris certainly took his time to take it seriously. But there were so many conflicting views around the world that it's hardly surprising the UK government waited until it was absolutely necessary to order a lockdown. The UK was not alone. Locking the whole country down was such a huge decision. There are still people who think it was the wrong thing to do. Sweden didn't lock down and for a few weeks we all envied them their freedom. But the Swedes were wrong. The infections rose and rose. The most scandalous errors and bad decision-making have been in India by Prime Minister Modi. More than 300,000 dead - and climbing - because of the total failures of leadership and strategy. So, yes, Boris made mistakes but whatever Cummings says, I don't believe that he took any decision that deliberately put peoples' lives at risk. If and when the UK opens its doors to normality again on June 21, Cummings will be forgotten.

Dominic Cummings to reveal all. Who cares?

People with grudges and grievances are rarely worth listening to. Take Dominic Cummings, one-time right-hand man to Boris Johnson and the Svengali of 10 Downing Street until he was forced out. He is apparently intent on revenge and will give a full account of the way he thinks the Boris government has mishandled the Covid pandemic when he apears before a Commons committee tomorrow. I have no doubt he knows a lot and has emails and texts to prove it. But does anyone care anymore what Cummings thinks? Will it make any difference to the Boris government? I suspect he will sound like a grumpy old man and while he will make headlines for 24 hours, Boris and co will put their own spin on it and it will die a death. The fact is that Cummings may have been pretty clever in masterminding the Brexit campaign for Boris and appeared to be very much in charge of 10 Downing Street when he was the master adviser, but he's no superstar. He looks and dresses more barrow boy than glamour boy, and I doubt he is popular with the vast majority of people in this country whatever political persuasion they might be. Ministers, cabinet and junior ones, behaved as if they were scared of him and that's no way to run a government. There will be curiosity but little sympathy for him when he makes his appearance before the Commons committee tomorrow. One thing no one will ever forget is his breach of lockdown rules in the early days of the pandemic when he drove off to his parents in Durham and then made a special trip to the local Barnard Castle "to test his eyesight" before returning to London because he was worried about his vision. For most of us, he lost it from that moment and whatever he says tomorrow he's not going to upset, let alone, unseat Boris who, provided the vaccination programme continues apace and freedom for all returns on June 21, will run and run and run. But Cummings is determined to have his moment and will come up with all kind of incompetences by Boris which I think we knew already. Cummings is yesterday's man. And should remain so.

The origin of the Covid virus comes round full circle

Give or take a few weeks, possibly months, the Covid-19 virus hit the world around 18 months ago and here we are with a new report suggesting that, after all, it IS possible the spread of the deadly virus began from China's institute of virology in Wuhan. Talk about coming round full circle. When it was first mooted after it was revealed the virus had first shown itself in Wuhan, Beijing furiously denied the pandemic origins had anything to do with the institute and insisted there had been no leak. It came from bats and bats were being sold in the food market in Wuhan but the insitute of virology was clean as a whistle, the Chinese authorities said. Although it was tempting to blame the Chinese and in particular the Wuhan institute for starting it all off, it proved to be very difficult to be categorical abut anything. Donald Trump latched on to the China connection immediately and called it the Wuhan virus, much to the delight and support of his many fans in the Republican party. There was mostly a careful distinction between a deliberate leak of the virus from the institute and an accidental leak, although conspiracy theorists preferred the former idea, that it was some cunning plan to cause mayhem around the world. Most sensible people didn't believe it could have been deliberate. And when asked, top people in the US, including General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff who presumably sees all the intelligence going around Washington, publicly sided with those who said the virus had developed naturally, not from a laboratory. If Milley was so certain why is the Wall Street Journal now claiming in an article by my old colleage Michael Gordon, that an intelligene report was far more circumspect about the laboratory theory, pointing out that three of the institute's employees had been hospitalised with something nasty and serious towards the end of 2019. Did Milley and others know that when they were so adamant Covid-19 was just nature playing a dirty game, not the Chinese? Now the conspiracy theorists will be back en masse. This story ain't going away.

Claiming victory after the Israel-Hamas confrontation is insulting to those who died

The Israeli military are claiming big gains in their retaliatory offensive aganst Hamas in Gaza, and the Palestinians in Gaza are claiming victory over the Israelis, although their justification for this conclusion beats me. Neither side won. But the civilian populations in both Israel and Gaza lost because they were the victims of the 11 days of fighting. Israeli airstrikes killed 240 Palestininans but does that official figure include the 150 Hamas fighters and leaders the Israelis claimed to have killed? If so, then 90 Palestinian civilians died, including 65 children. Twelve Israelis, including one 12-year-old boy, died from Hamas rocketfire. So if the figures are accurate it means that in 11 days, 252 people died. That's nearly 23 people every day.So there is no reason or excuse for either side to boast of victory, least of all those living in Gaza who have seen death and destruction on an unremitting scale. The world talks blithely about reconstructing Gaza City but that will take billions of dollars and years of work. And before Gaza City has been rebuilt there could be another outbreak of violence that will once against lead to deaths of civilians and the demolition of buildings. The potential for war to be repeated must be high. Only politics and diplomacy will stop the cycle of violent outbreaks. Any sort of peaceful conclusion looks as unikely today as it has ever been.

Martin Bashir and the dodgy cheques

The more you read about the Martin Bashir Panorama interview with Princess Diana in 1995 the more astonished one gets that a perfectly capable reporter used such devious methods to persuade her, through her brother Charles Spencer, to talk to him. Forged cheques to show that certain people including Patrick Jephson, Diana's aide, had been paid to monitor her every move?! How does a reporter think of doing such a thing? And why did he think that making up cheques to show that Diana was under surveillance would persuade her to give the interview? He claims she never saw the cheques and they played no part in her decision to be interviewed. But the fact is at that time Princess Diana was under all sorts of strains and pressures both real and unreal because of the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles, and the persuasive voice of Bashir, with or without those forged cheques in his hand, would have played on her mind and finally psuhed her to say yes to the interview. There is nothing wrong with charm and persuasion. All good reporters use such qualities to get people to talk to them. But persuasion based on guile and falsehood aimed at someone who is going through an intense personal crisis, someone vulnerable and fragile, like she was, that's a different form of journalism which I don't recognise as either acceptable or professional or forgiveable. Why did he do it? Was he so desperate to get the interview of the decade because he knew others in the BBC, such as Nicholas Witchell, the royal correspondent, were also wanting to interview Diana, and Bashir didn't want to be beaten to it? Again, rivalry for a scoop is fine, that's part of the journalism game. But at what point in his legitimate ambition to interview one of the most famous women on the planet did he think to himself, "I know, let's get a forged cheque or two drawn up to show I have access to secret stuff which could be the deciding factor. Nicholas Witchell, Ha!!" That giant step from legal and professional endeavour to laying a false trap, that's what I find extraordinary. As a fellow journalist. It was a move by him which had devastating consequences, not just for Diana and the whole Royal Family, but also in the end for him too.

A reporter's sources are sacred but not under Trump

So now it has emerged that the US Justice Department in the Trump administration in 2017 got hold of a CNN reporter's phone calls and emails for two months in order to try and trace who she was speaking to because of a number of what was judged to be leaks of classified information. The reporter in question is none other than the doughty Barbara Starr or Barb as everyone calls her. She is the longstanding Pentagon Correspondent for CNN. She's very good at her job, a relentless questioner at Pentagon briefings and press conferences and someone who doesn't like bland, non-specific answers. You wouldn't normally mess with Barb but it appears Trump and co did just that. The Justice Department allowed for her personal and work phone and emails to be checked by Big Brother. They weren't allowed to see the contents of the phone calls and emails but could check who she was speaking to and for how long. Leaks of classified information must be a pain in the whatsit for any administration but generally it leads to embarrassment and awkward questions rather than a dangerous breach of national security. What is at stake here is Barbara Starr's right to feel confident that she can go about her professional business without having the FBI and Justice Department tapping her phones. In a democracy it is unnerving to discover that "the authorities" are watching your every move as a reporter if you step out of line or if they think you are stepping out of line. Barb is a professional and a dedicated reporter. She will be fuming! The Justice Department needs to be transparent and reveal why it took such action against Starr. Meanwhile, Barb, it looks like you will have to go back to sending message-carrying pigeons for your next stories.

The "unintended" consequences of the war between Israel and Hamas

The latest victims of the 11 days of violence and horror in Gaza include a man who spent his working career saving lives, and nearly all of his family. They were the "unintended" civilian victims of an Israeli attack on a Hamas bunker beneath a block of flats. Once the bunker and foundations had been demolished, the four storeys above collapsed into each other killing everyone inside. They included Dr Ayman Abu al-Ouf, head of internal medicine at the nearby Palestinian main hospital, along with 12 members of his extended family. They included his wife and two children. If anything should persuade the Israeli cabinet to call a halt to the bombing it should be the untimely and tragic death of Dr al-Ouf, a man who was said to have dedicated every working hour to try and save the lives of the many wounded civilians caught up in the military confrontation between Israel and Hamas. Apologies and regrets for the unfortunate death of Dr al-Ouf and his family are meaningless unless their passing in such horrific circumstances leads to an end of the slaughter. Also killed on the same day was Dr Mouin al-Aloul, Gaza's top neurologist. Two doctors with unrivalled experience in their fields. If the Israelis were right and the underground bunker beneath the block of flats where Dr al-Ouf lived was a Hamas command bunker, then Hamas must take the blame for hiding beneath a civilian block of flats, endangering the lives of everyone living above them. But how could the Israeli military planners imagine that by targeting the bunker the rest of the building would not also be destroyed, thus killing civilians, something which Israel has insisted it is doing its best to avoid. Like all wars, it's a war of unintended consequences, each of which has a devastating and lasting impact on people's lives.

How much influence has the US these days?

The US is still an economic and military superpower and despite all the gainsayers over recent years who have claimed that America is on the decline, I doubt things are going to change significantly in the next decade or so, even as China rises and rises. But how much real influence, diplomatically, does the US have today in resolving crises. Joe Biden has adopted the "speak quietly" mode of diplomacy as opposed to Donald Trump's megaphone rhetoric. But is this approach working, for exmaple with Benjamin Netanyahu? Biden has had several calls with the Israeli prime minister and in the latest one he urged Netanyahu to "significantly deescalate" the situation vis a vis Gaza as of today. But Unless Biden added an "or else" warning, Netanyahu will carry on as he has for the last ten days, striking back heavily every time Hamas fires more rockets from Gaza. In fact Israel has said there is no question of a ceasefire right now. So I guess that means Biden didn't add an "or else". The or-else warning would be pretty meaningless because there is no way a US president is going to threaten to withdraw military help for Israel or support a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel. Neither of those things are ever going to happen. The US is committed to ensuring that Israel retains a technological military edge over all adversaries, and it's difficult to envisage any US administration siding with China and Russia in criticising Israel. So in terms of Israel and the Israel-Palestine issue, the US has very little influence. Quiet words or strong words - Barack Obama wasn't always nice to Netanyahu - will land on deaf ears if Israel is in the middle of a security crisis. The Israeli attacks on Gaza will stop when the Netanyahu government decides it is right and safe to do so, not when the US says so. Netanyahu knows that Biden is not going to break with tradition and will always stick to the agreed line which is that the US supports Israel to defend itself. The "deescalate today" message will be embarrassing for Biden if Netanyahu sticks to his guns and ignores worldwide pressure to call a halt to the military action.

The casualty and destruction statistics in the Israel-Hamas war are horrific

After nine days of remorseless military action by both Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the statistics of death and destruction are horrifying. Inevitably, while Israeli citizens have died and have been injured and communities have been terrified for their lives from the constant rocket fire, the most devastating impact has been in the overcrowded, poverty-stricken streets of the Gaza Strip. The daily destruction of buildings, images of crushed tower blocks and weeping families have underlined that even when a ceasefire is eventually won, Gaza will even more than before be uninhabitable, with damaged sewer and water systems, streets piled with fallen masonry, hospitals packed with wounded and frightened children. A landscape of destruction. How can a thin strip of land like Gaza survive under such a barrage of Israeli firepower? Will the people of Gaza now rue the day they voted Hamas into power or will they burn for revenge against their neighbours? Nine days of war and destruction can only lead to one thing for the people of Gaza, more hatred, more despair and more misery. There HAS to be a ceasefire soon but then what will the nine days of war have achieved? Israel will no doubt point to the military successes: more than 150 dead Hamas fighters and tunnels used by them destroyed by airstrikes. But will that bring peace? Will Hamas be defeated and give up? It seems not. According to the Israeli army, this militant organisation fired 3,350 rockets into Israel over a period of eight days which is more than during 50 days of war between Israel and Hamas in 2014. About 90 per cent of the rockets were targeted and brought down by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system. Right now there seem to be no moves from either side to call a halt to the military offensive. While Hamas continues to fire rockets, Israel will retaliate. Does any leader in the world have real influence on either side to stop this mayhem?

How come some people are still refusing the Covid jab?

It doesn't seem to matter what the experts or governments say, there are still people around the world who believe that it's either against their human rights and privacy and freedom of expression to get the Covid vaccination or somehow it's all a giant conspiracy to control populations. In this day and age when there is so much information available on the internet for all to see and read, it seems incredible that anyone can seriously still think that having a vaccination jab is not the right thing to do. The world will not be safe until everyone has been vaccinated but it looks unlikely that this is going to be achieved. There are too many no jabbers around. These are presumably the same people who believe that human beings have never landed on the moon or that 9/11 was carried out by the CIA or that 9/11 never actually happened. I'm fully aware that there are some nutty people on this planet and it may not be their fault for whatever reason. But good health is the foundation of life on earth and right now with this pandemic refusing to go away, every man woman and child, whether mad in the head or not, should be vaccinated. In the UK today it's a big celebration moment because the ban on so many things has now been lifted, including international travel, eating in restaurants, going to the cinema and hugging grandchildren. Yet despite a vigorously successful vaccination programme in the UK, government ministers are still hedging their bets and warning people to be ultra cautious: no flying off unless it's essential, no face-to-face hugs, six only inside a house etc etc. But surely if you're vaccinated twice then life should be allowed to return to normal without Boris Johnson and co popping up every minute saying "no no no, be careful, be cautious, don't do that or that". Actually lockdown or some form of it has been going on for so long that for many people I suspect there will be a large degree of hesitation anyway. In some ways we are all suffering from lockdown syndrome and can't shake it off.

More than ever the Palestinians need their own state and life

The daily rocket fire and airstrikes between Israel and Gaza emphasis above all the desperate need for the Palestinians to have their own state and to be given worldwide help to create a new future and give them a proper life. The omens, however, are appallingly bad. Geographically, politically and strategically there is as much chance of a breakthrough in the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis as there is in solving the growing adverse relations between the US and China. The resurge of violence, started by Hamas in Gaza after a barrage of rocket fire into Israel demonstrated not only the suicidal tendencies of the militant Islamic organisation - their leaders knew Israel would retaliate - but also their blindfold hatred of their neighbours. Why did they launch their attack when, if they had considered the consequences they would have concluded that strikes against Israel at this time would probably help to keep Benjamin Netanyahu in power. Politically Netanyahu will benefit most from the latest confrontation because an Israeli leader shown to be tough in protecting Israel's citizens will always win support. But if Netanyahu does eventually manage to form a coalition government will he be in the mood to have another historic attempt to resolve finally the Israel/Palestine question? I very much fear not. When Joe Biden phoned him last week to deliver the ritual US presidential message - "We support you all the way in your right to defend yourselves but please use restraint" - Netanyahu's response would have been as tough as usual - "Yes Mr President we have the right to defend ourselves and will continue to do so until the rocket fire stops". Netanyahu is never going to back down while Hamas rules the Gaza Strip. Any thoughts of peaceful solutions will have been abandoned. And in any event there can be no such thing as a peaceful and stable agreement while the committed enemies of Israel reside across their borders. In this the 21st century, nevertheless, the Palestinian issue should be addressed more seriously than ever. Is Biden prepared to pull out all the stops and try and achieve what all his predecessors have failed to achieve? Bill Clinton got the closest. I suspect with so much on his plate back home and his worries about China and North korea, Biden will hand it all over to some worthy envoy and just hope it goes away.

The great reunion of old foes

FULLER VERSION OF MY TIMES STORY TODAY: The trauma of being shot down and captured by irate Iraqi soldiers threatening to kill them is still vivid in the minds of two US Navy bomber pilots 30 years after the Gulf War. However, a remarkable reconciliation and friendship between Lieutenants Bob Wetzel and Jeff Zaun with the Iraqi general who took charge of the two prisoners of war and treated them properly under the Geneva Convention has helped to change their lives. Major-General Layth Muneer, commander of the Iraqi air force’s H-3 airfield in Anbar province in the 1991 war, stopped the soldiers from beating the two pilots and took them to the infirmary at the base where doctors treated them. The following morning he sent them both off to Baghdad as PoWs. That was the last he saw or heard of them. A conversation on a tennis court in Alexandria, Virginia 21 years later led to a reunion between the old foes and their friendship has blossomed ever since. “He saved our lives,” said Bob Wetzel, now 60, married with two children and living in Denver, Colorado. He and Jeff Zaun, his navigator on the night of January 17, 1991, at the beginning of Operation Desert Storm, had been tasked to bomb the H-3 airbase. They had flown in their A-6 Intruder bomber from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga in the Red Sea – call sign Quicksand - and came under intense missile and anti-aircraft artillery fire as they approached.Wetzel evaded two missiles. But a third, a Franco-German short-range Roland missile hit the A-6 and as the engine was “eating itself with a screeching sound” the two crewmen both shouted: “Eject, eject, eject.” Zaun recalled the terrifying moment when they were forced to surrender after trying to escape across the sand dunes, “surrounded by yelling Iraqi soldiers firing their guns in the air and pushing us around, until the senior officer turned up and called for order”. “He spoke in Arabic to his soldiers but he told us in English that he would take care of us,” Wetzel said. Wetzel had two broken arms and other injuries from the ejection and was taken to a hospital in Baghdad. Zaun had suffered severe bruising but with no broken bones and was sent to the Iraqi secret police headquarters in the capital where he was beaten with rubber hoses and forced to appear in a TV propaganda broadcast. His battered face became one of the enduring images of the Gulf War. General Muneer left Iraq, lived in Egypt and then arrived in the US and applied for asylum. His application is bogged down in the asylum courts and his request will not be heard until 2026. However, his love of tennis opened a new chapter in his life. He told his tennis partner Rodrigo Cruz about the two American pilots and how he and his son, a soldier in the US army, had given up trying to find them. “I assumed Bob and Jeff had survived the war but I failed to find them until I mentioned it to Rodrigo who traced Jeff’s mother,” Muneer said. “The Great Meeting as I named it was in Crystal City [Arlington, Virginia] at Ted’s Montana Grill. I was so excited to meet them after more than 21 years. They were supposed to be my enemy at that time and now they have become my friends at this time. The world is too small,” he said. His tennis partner Cruz who was at the reunion said: “I will always remember what Jeff said when I first contacted him. He said, ‘what, is the general still alive, is he really in the US? You’re not bullshitting me?’” Meeting up with the Iraqi general was “pretty bizarre”, Zaun, 58, who lives in Jersey City, admitted. “I was working three blocks from the Twin Towers on 9/11 so I don’t get fazed by much. I’m hard to amaze but it was kind of cool,” he said. The three old enemies meet every year on January 17, except last year because of the Covid pandemic. They are hoping to meet again soon. The two US pilots are giving their full support to General Muneer in his asylum application for residency. But Zaun said: "I don't think it's anything to do with the general personally, it's just that the asylum courts are overwhelmed with applications and there are not enough judges to deal with them."

An Israeli ground invasion of Gaza must be prevented

More than a thousand rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel and no one can argue against the right of Israel to defend itself by retaliating.However the rapid escalation in strikes and counter-strikes has now reached the most dangerous moment. Israel is threatening a ground invasion to find and eliminate the Hamas Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist group who are the sworn enemies of Israel. A ground invasion and the impact on the tiny Gaza strip of packed and overcrowded buildings would be catastrophic for the civilian population however careful the Israeli defence force might be in seeking out what they view as the bad guys. Gaza is one of the most life-threatening places on earth and is so cramped into its narrow piece of territory that the arrival of tanks and armoured vehicles across the border from Israel would endanger the very existence of this Palestinian enclave. The Israeli military have always used bulldozers to knock down homes they consider are being used by the militants to attack Israel. Bulldozer destruction on top of constant airstrikes aimed at tower blocks where Hamas is thought to be located would be a combination so devastating that Israel must be persuaded to pull back from a ground invasion. The military are putting together a plan and it will be up to the scarcely in power Bibi Netanyahu government to make a decision. Netanyahu is still prime minister despite failing to put together a workable government after yet another inconclusive election in March, the fourth in two years. The Israel-Palestine horror story which successive US presidents have failed to resolve is never going to end in a peaceful agreement if another full-scale war is set in motion. Yet it seems every international organisation and foreign government are powerless to intervene and stop a new war.

The January 6 Capitol insurrection was just like a tourist visit!

The US Republican party's revisionist view of the January 6 riots on and inside the Capitol has begun in earnest. It wasn't a riot at all. Looking at the images on the day reminded one Republican of a typical tourist visit to the seat of democracy in the United States of America. And no no no Donad Trump wasn't to blame for inciting the riot and by the way who says they were Trump supporters anyway, did anyone ask them? All these arguments were made during the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing yesterday. This was yet another low moment in the history of Congress. Such an extraordinarily outrageous rewriting of the facts on that January 6 event. Just to put the comments about a normal tourist visit made by Republican Representative Andrew Clyde from Georgia into context, five people died on that day and two police officers later committed suicide. I hope this sort of death toll doesn't happen every time tourists pay a call on the Capitol. Trying to disassociate Trump and his pre-riot speech from the subsequent rioters' actions is one thing but to claim that the fighting and smashing of windows and attacks on police and the terrified members of Congress who believed their lives were in danger can never be explained away as a routine day out in the Capitol. It beggars belief that the Republican from Georgia dared to come out with this tourist analogy. Another person speaking out at the committee also distinguished himself by his sheer effrontery. Christopher Miller who for a few months was acting US defence secretary in the final period of Trump's administration, had previously admitted in public that the Trump address to the crowd in which he called on his supporters to fight for their cause played a part in what subsequently followed. But before the committee he said he had now reassessed what happened and actually thought this wasn't the case at all oh no no no. There had been a pre-planned conspiracy to assault the Capitol and it would have happened whether Trump had spoken out or not. Miller said it was ridiculous to accuse him of deliberately changing his tune to which one Democratic Representative Stephen Lynch (Massachusetts) responded: "You're ridiculous". Actually the whole session was ridiculous, aimed on the Republican side to show that Trump had nothing to do with the riot of his supporters, most of whom by the way were wearing Trump Make America Great Again caps and hats and t-shirts. Democracy at work in Congress yesterday? It was a sorry sight.

Cheney ousted as Trump rules

Liz Cheney, embattled, feisty Congresswoman who dared to criticise Donald Trump over the January 6 "insurrection" against the Capitol, has been ousted from her role as Number 3 in the Republican party. Her so-called colleagues in the House, led by Kevin McCarthy, House Minority leader, are so wrapped into the Trump Magic Circle that the disobedient, disloyal Liz Cheney had to be removed to allow her place to be taken by a fervent Donald supporter. Dick Cheney, her father and one of history's most powerful ex-US vice presidents must be mortified at the way the family name has been besmirched in this internicene battle. The message from the Cheney ousting is clear. The only way to survive in the Republican party is to bow down and adore Trump, the man who led them to defeat. It really is a massive political contradiction. Does Kevin McCarthy think it's the best policy for the future of the party to hang on to the coat tails of the former president? Well I suppose he does. Either that or he is just scared at saying or doing anything that might upset Donald Trump. Today was a victory for Trump and a defeat for the Republican party's chances of extracting themselves from the Donald clutches and moving on to another leader who might have a better chance of beating Joe Biden in 2024. Today will be remembered as the moment when the Republican party lost its head and its direction. Liz Cheney was one of the few to go against Trump and she has suffered the consequences. But in the end she will be proved right and if Trump stands again in 2024 and is defeated for the second time, some Republicans, although probably not the unctuous Kevin McCarthy, will have the grace to say she was right.

More confusion over travelling abroad

When the UK government announced its long-awaited Covid traffic lights system, allowing people to travel free of quarantine to 12 countries, including Portugal and Malta, there was a mad rush of holiday bookings. Up 660 per cent apparently! But now it has become clear(ish) that if a country has been designated green it doesn't mean after all that anyone can pack their bags and fly off on holiday. All it has done is to remove the requirement to go into quarantine or sef-isolation. The advice about only going abroad for essential purposes still stands. British Airways has messaged all its clients that they could be fined £5,000 if they turn up at the airport and admit they are going on holiday. So what on earth is going on? The Boris government said that from May 17 the ban on flying overseas would be lifted and when the traffic light system was announced it looked like Boris had given carte banche permission for people to go on holiday to Portugal etc. If this isn't the case, and British Airways has got it right, it's the latest example of a shambolic policy. Thousands and thousands of people are going to arrive at airports with tickets for Lisbon or Faro or Porto or wherever and be told they can't fly without giving a proper reason why they wish to travel. Lying on a sunbed on the beach will not be considered an adequate reason. As for the vaccine passport which is now going to be available for those with an NHS App from Monday, what's the point of it if you can't use it to travel overseas? The latest developments are going to cause massive chaos and anger. Presumably even if other countries are put on the green list, such as Spain and France, the same restrictions will apply. As for flying to the US, nothing has changed. The US has suspended all travel for Brits with a few very limited exceptions and that looks like staying unchanged for the foreseeable future. I'd go to Bognor Regis for a change of scene but apparently it's full!

Biden is on a high but Trump is still dreaming of being president again

Looking at the Joe Biden popularity stakes in the US right now and you would think that Donald Trump might start planning his permanent retirement. More than 60 per cent of people in a survey liked the way Biden is doing business so far, including the way he is driving Covid-19 into the shadows by the rapid vaccination programme. Of course Trump is not the sort of bloke who will just say "Enough is enough, this chap Biden is doing too well, I'll forget about 2024." Of course he won't. But the longer the popularity polls favour Biden the more difficult it will be for Trump, despite all his Republican backing, to put his name forward again for the White House job. Yet he is definitely considering it because he said so over the weekend. One of the complicating factors for the former president is that Biden has made it pretty clear he sees himelf as a two-term president. There's only a tiny chance he might hand over the mantle to his deputy, Kamala Harris, and it would have to be for health reasons. Into his fourth month in office, Biden by now will have got the White House power bug and even though it causes sleepless nights, he looks like he is enjoying being president. So why give it up before he has to? Sorry, Kamala, but it looks like you are going to have to wait until 2028. But Trump can't wait that long. Without formally declaring it, he has his sights on 2024 and big time. He, like Biden, won't want to pass the baton to someone else even if he or she looks like, sounds like and basically is a Trump Part Two. No, he wants the glory for himself. But does he dare stand if Biden continues to do well? Trump should never be underestimated, as Biden's White House chief of staff Ron Klain said over the weekend. But even someone with as oversized an ego as Trump, the thought of losing again might just be the one factor which dissuades him from having another go at the Big Job.

The murderers in Afghanistan will never go away

Whether they call themselves Taliban or Isis or Haqqani, the killing of 50 people, most of them girls, at the school in Kabul has proven yet again that there will never be peace in Afghanistan. It is a country embedded in warfare and slaughter. Whether the Americans stayed or left, the killings were not going to stop. Killing on this scale is terrorism but it is also a way of life for tens of thousands of fighting-hardened, militant men who have no care for human life and have sworn to devote their pitiful lives to murdering people for a cause which goes back to the darkest of ages. There is no hope for Afghanistan. There never was. Now with the prospect of having a country without any foreign troops to protect the vulnerable and innocent, there will be mayhem. The 300,000 US and coalition-trained Afghan troops and police will do their best to fend of the murderers but they will never be good enough to defeat the men of terror. For heaven's sake, 100,000 US troops and thousands of coalition troops from 48 countries couldn't manage it in 20 years, so it's hardly surprising. The murder of all those young schoolgirls in any other country in the world would have made horrified headlines around the globe for weeks. But this is Afghanistan. This sort of atrocity has occurred so many times that it drops from the news after just 24 hours. The murderers and fanatics have won in Afghanistan.

The Republican party just can't let go of Trump

To raise your voice against Donald Trump if you're in the Republican party is to commit political suicide. Congresswoman Liz Cheney who is one of the leading lights in the party and chairs an important committee in the House of Representatives is being ousted because of her opposition to Trump. It is becoming increasingy vitriolic and it sounds like she is going to be shunted off any sort of leadership role and replaced by a fervent Trumpite. As for Senator Lindsey Graham, arch supporter of Trump, he has made it quite clear that if anyone thinks the Republican party can survive without the former president then they might as well go and live in a cave in Montana. No he didn't say that last bit but he did say Trump and the Republican party were inextricably linked. Poor Liz Cheney and poor Republican party. They just can't let go. Senator Mitch McConnell has said how important it is to look forward not back, ie drop Trump but he was shouted down and has since gone quite quiet. But Liz Cheney has stuck to her guns and as a result she will fall. The other voice speaking out is Senator Mitt Romney. He has been anti-Trump for longer than most. But when he made a speech the other day he was jeered and booed and heckled. All of which must be music to the ears of Donald J Trump down in Florida whose ego was bashed by the 2020 election but who seems to think that the Republican party owes him and intends to stick around until the electorate - well the Trumpite electorate - begs him to stand again for president in 2024. Which they probably will. So whatever Cheney and Romney and a few others say, the Republican party will remain cemented into the past and will depend on Trump to get them out of the doldrums. They will, I think, fail and then most of the sensible Republicans will finally say enough is enough, we need another leader.

Shouldn't double-dose vaccined people be allowed to travel?

There was a time when Boris Johnson said everything depended on the vaccination programme and yet here we are with the government due tomorrow to announce its so-called traffic light arrangement for foreign visits and all the signs are that the only countries to be given the green light will be Portugal, Malta, Israel and Greek islands. What's going on? Surely everyone who has received the two doses of vaccine should be allowed to make their own decisions where they go? Caution in a pandemic is obviously common sense but millions of people in the UK have been fully vaccinated and the government of Boris Johnson should have the courage of its convictions and open up travel. If the vaccination programme lies at the heart of the government policy, as it does, then Portugal, Malta, Israel and Greek islands won't hack it. There are plenty of countries which have successful vaccination programmes. Like the US for example where more than 55 per cent of the eligible population have now been jabbed. Why isn't the US going to be on the green list? It makes little sense and it has to be said that delaying foreign travel for those who have been vaccinated is caution gone mad. Economies everywhere are desperate for holidaymakers' spending power. Let the vaccined have the freedom to go where they choose to countries that have effective vaccine programmes.

Women in Afghanistan could be forced back into the dark ages

As General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, commented the other day, he has no idea what is going to happen when the US troops have left Afghanistan. That is pretty much the view of everyone in the Biden administration. No one really knows how the Taliban will react once they know they can do what they want without having the Americans breathing down their neck. The exception is the US National Intelligence Council, the body that represents the director of national intelligence in assessing policy vis a vis classified information. The NIC wrote a report in early April which warned that if the Taliban were to take over power in Afghanistan the rights of women could be set back two decades. This is such a depressingly dismal prospect for the millions of women and girls of school age who have actually benefited from having the troops of 36 nations roaming around for the last 20 years. They have blossomed because they could emerge from their Taliban brutally-enforced purdah and get educated, apply for jobs, even go into politics. All of that could be swept aside if the Taliban once again rule in Kabul, says the NIC in an unclassified version of its report out today. The Taliban told American negotiators in Qatar that women would be allowed to have a life and work and get educated provided they wore veils. But no one should ever believe what the Taliban say or promise, and it's clear the NIC certainly doesn't. I wonder how Joe Biden responded when he was warned by his intelligence advisers that the future for women in Afghanistan would be bleak if he ordered all US troops out of Afghanistan. I suspect that both Trump and Biden night share the same view: The US didn't send thousands of troops to Afghanistan to save Afghan women. But the trouble is, having sent so many troops, one of the positive outcomes was that women were born again and for the first time for years could enjoy life without the fear of being publicly abused and beaten. The Taliban have recently been targeting women in prominent roles, assassinating them, and thus demonstrating that they have not changed one iota since the time when they were in power. From September 11 onwards girls and women in Afghanistan face a scary future. And I doubt any over-the-horizon US force will be sent in to save them.

How the Seal Team evaded Pakistani air force on the night of the Osama bin Laden raid

The combat-hardened and supremely skilful pilot of one of the Chinooks involved in the May 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, has explained how a unique training programme run by the US Marines helped him save the helicopter and the Seals on board from being shot out of the sky by a Pakistan air force F-16. A helicopter is not the ideal platform to engage in an air-to-air dogfight with a hostile fighter jet. It has neither the weapons on board nor the speed to take out an F-16. So it was all down to brilliant evasion techniques and seat-of-the-pants flying that led to the Chinook arriving back in Afghanistan safely after the raid that killed Bin Laden. Retired US Army Chief Warrant Officer Douglas Englen, flying that night with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, an elite unit, saw the F-16 locking on to his helicopter prior to launching a missile that would have destroyed his aircraft, killing everyone on board, and put into practice what he had learned during the US Marine Corps's weapons and tactics course. He managed to confuse the F-16 pilot who never launched a missile. It could have been a devastating end to what had been a brilliantly successful raid. One Black Hawk helicopter had already been lost when it came down outside the compound and that was when Doug Englen and his crew flew in to help bring the Seal Team Six members away from the raid site, as well as Osama bin Laden's body and bags of intelligence material. Speaking to the War Zone, a US defence website, Englen said the training he had received saved the day. By all accounts Chief Warrant Officer Englen was one of the most remarkable pilots ever to fly on special forces operations. When the planning began for the Bin Laden raid, he was one of the few people to be brought in on the secret mission to provide his unique experience. Everyone on the Seal team wanted him involved. What a guy!

It's rapid exit time for the Americans in Afghanistan

The Joe Biden troop-withdrawal programme in Afghanistan began on May 1 and already it's moving rapidly. Not just troops of course but equipment by the tonnage is being lifted onto C17 transport planes and flown back to the States for whatever future use they might be assigned. When you have been at war in-house as it were, in other words, in another country, for 20 years there's a massive, I mean massive amount of equipment and war zone detritus that builds up inexorably. Some of it gets shifted back home, some gets left for the Afghans and a helluva lot of stuff gets destroyed and left for someone else to clear up. Exiting a country after a war and entering a country for a war involve the same mighty logistics. The Americans are exceptionally good at wrapping everything up and packing it all off back home, except of course in Vietnam where such was the emergency that the exit was by no means a highly-polished logistical success story. After the 1991 Gulf War which was so short, comparatively, the hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles and artillery and containers by the thousand packed with everything from toilet rolls to computers were bundled off in ships and transport aircraft in an exit strategy masterminded by some brilliant three-star American general whose name escapes me. But 20 years of STUFF. That's going to be an unbelievable challenge. But judging by reports coming out of Afghanistan, places like the Kandahar airbase where tens of thousands of troops were located during the peak periods of the war, are emptying fast. It must be so weird and disillusioning and scary for the Afghan military left behind in these cavernous places to realise that in a very short time there will not be a single American to call on to help with fending off the marauding Taliban. Despite the decent wages which the Pentagon will still pay, I anticipate there will be a lot of disappearing Afghan soldiers no longer prepared to fight the Taliban. I hope I'm wrong. But as Kandahar and all the other bases empty of US troops and equipment over the next four months, there will be an eerie silence. The only ones who will cheer will be the Taliban and the other nasties who live or hide out in Afghanistan - al-Qaeda, Isis etc.

Obama's big decision on May 2 Osama bin Laden raid

The decision-making behind the Seal Team Six raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2 2011 showed how President Barack Obama, and only Obama, made the crucial decision about what to do if the Pakistani authorities discovered what was going on and sent troops to intervene. I know of course that this is how the system works, it's always the president and commander-in-chief who makes the final decision but this was a huge deal. According to Admiral Bill McRaven, then commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who was in charge of the raid, it was Obama who asked the question when they were all gathered in the White House Situation Room during the planning stage of the operation. "What if the Pakistanis find out and arrive at the scene ready to intervene?" McRaven said he was fully prepared for his commandos to fight their way out of the compound and warned that it would be a helluva firefight. Obama thought for a moment and replied. "Agreed, fight your way out if necessary." The repercussions between the US and Pakistan would have been dangerously tense if Pakistani troops or police were killed. One of the major challenges was for the helicopter assault force to reach the Abbottabad compound without the Pakistani air defences being alerted. McRaven decided that if the Pakistani radars detected the specially-modified Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters carrying 24 Seals and one CIA operative as soon as they crossed the Afghanistan/Pakistan border and took offensive action, he would order them to turn back. If they discovered the US commando raid helicopters half way on their 162-mile journey from Jalalabad base in eastern Afghanistan, he also decided he would order a turn back. But if they were three-quarters of the way there, then it was full-on go. In the end the helicopters reached the compound without alerting the Pakistani air defences. The raid started at 1am May 2 and took 45 minutes, much of that taken up by grabbing the mass of dcuments and hard drives and other vital intelligence material which was shoved into black bags and thrown into the helicopters before taking off. The Pakistani troops and police in Abbottabad never arrived. And when the helicopters had to refuel inside Pakistan, locals who watched thought it was an exercise. There was no firefight with the Pakistanis. It could so easily have all gone wrong and Obama's legacy would have been very different.

American papers lap up Boris and Carrie like they do Harry and Meghan

The serious newspapers in the US such as the august New York Times, one of my favourites, love hoovering up all the gossip and tittle-tattle about our two Big Families - the Royal Family obviousy, especially the Queen, William and Kate, Harry and Meghan and Andrew, and the Downing Street family, Boris, Carrie and Wilf, their son. The Queen, bless her, has been hugely in the American news following the sad death of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh at the age pf 99. Harry and Meghan...well the least said the better. And Andrew because of his past friendship ties with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a story that won't go away until the prince sits in the same room as an FBI interrogation team which is never likely to happen. Right now it's all about Boris and Carrie and the refurbishing of the Downing Street flat and who paid for it, if anyone else other than Boris did out of his own pocket which he claims is the case. There's a good, quite respectful piece in the New York Times today part-written by their London bureau chief which examines whether it is fair of the British tabloids to blame her for everything that has gone wrong for Boris in the flat refurbishing department. It's a nice piece and is pretty fair to Carrie, pointing out the tribulations she has had to endure, including nearly losing her fiancee from Covid-19, giving birth to a son and attempting to make the Downing Street accommodation into something worth living in. To be honest, Boris himself is far too busy, or should be far too busy, to worry about the decorations of the flat, so all that would have been left to Carrie who has a good friend who is an interior designer and turned to her for help and advise. That's when the cost started to ratchet up, and Boris may have said, "don't worry, darling, I know someone who can help on the funding side, you go ahead," or words to that effect. The trouble is in the political world everything has to be scrupulously audited and authorised and if Boris did it all by the book Carrie would have got an Ikea makeover rather than an ooh-lala designer-heavy remodelling. As for Carrie whispering political advice into the ear of her Downing Street beloved, that's something which has always raised eyebrows and blood pressure among official advisers and civil servants who believe they have the exclusive right to tell/advise the prime minister what to do. As the New York Times pointed out, that's pretty sexist these days. Carrie is an avowed conservative with her own political views and she is the First Fiancee and has every right to say what she thinks. But you can see why the Grey Suits are wary of her. I say good luck to her. Being the partner of the prime minister and living in a flat in Downing Street is no cushy life. It's pressure pressure pressure. Those who hate Boris or politically oppose him say his flat decoration troubles are symptomatic of a leader who lies and doesn't care about the rights and wrongs of political life. And therefore shouldn't be prime minister anymore. I say enough already! Leave the man and the woman alone and let them get on with their life, public and private. As for Keir Starmer, Labour leader, posing in a John Lewis furnishing store - taking the mickey out of Carrie for allegedly complaining about the John Lewis furniture left by Boris's predecessor Theresa May in the Downing Street flat - get a life! That was undignified and pretty pathetic.