Dr. Binoy Kampmark, Author at The News Chronicle

The Conviction and Sentencing of Witness K

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Jun 21, 2021

After tormenting the man for years, it became clear that the Australian authorities were willing to, for want of a better word, compromise. The more accurate word would be compromising. Instead of banishing former spy turned bean spiller Witness K to a cell and throwing away the key, there was preference for a softer, more […]

ET, You Bore Me: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and the Pentagon

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Jun 18, 2021

Those of you drawing sustenance and stimulation from the traditional acronym UFO best brace yourselves. The less exciting and dull term accepted by the defence clerks – unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) – is renewing its march into the extra-terrestrial hinterland. On June 25, the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force will release a declassified report to Congress […]

Vague Alternatives and G7 Summitry: The Build Back Better World Initiative

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Jun 15, 2021

Summits often feature grand statements and needless fripperies. In Cornwall, the leaders of the G7 countries were trying to position and promote their relevance as the vanguard of democratic good sense and values. They, the message went, remained relevant, valuable and essential to the order of the earth, despite challenges posed by the autocrats. Never […]

Less Freedom, More Money: Tony Blair’s Vaccine Passport

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Jun 13, 2021

Sincere Tony is again on the stump, promoting his vision of how best to return to a lovely, unruffled world of capitalist endeavour, circuit lecturing and summit meetings that no longer need to be held online. And when Blair has visions, they are bound to be highly selective and keen in terms of his own […]

Denmark Offshores the Right to Asylum

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Jun 08, 2021

This has been a fantasy of Danish governments for some time. There have been gazes of admiration towards countries like Australia, where processing refugees and asylum-seekers is a task offloaded, with cash incentives, to third countries (Papua New Guinea and Nauru come to mind). Danish politicians, notably a good number among the Social Democrats, have […]

Suicidal Games: Tokyo’s Coronavirus Olympics

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Jun 07, 2021

A pandemic crisis. A state of emergency. Overwhelming public opinion bristling with alarm. Notwithstanding these factors, Tokyo is still on track to host the Olympics that was cancelled last year in response to the global pandemic. The first sports team – Australia’s softball crew – has touched down. Is all this folly, bravery or self-interest? […]

That Old Story: Spying on Friends

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Jun 04, 2021

One has to be repeatedly reminded that the theatre of international relations knows no friends and only national interests, whatever those might be. Intelligence services, being an expression of those interests, do not necessarily discriminate in targeting their quarry. The revelations of Edward Snowden in 2013 about warrantless and unwarranted surveillance by the US National […]

Laying the Bear Trap: Orbán visits No 10 Downing Street

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Jun 01, 2021

His comments would not have fallen on deaf ears. While metropolitan London would have been aghast at his pedigree and remarks, a Brexit-audience in the rustbelts and areas of deprivation, would have felt a twang of appreciation. For them, migration has not been a boon and glory. For Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, it has been an […]

The Dominic Cummings Show

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 31, 2021

The former chief strategist for Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in a stroppy mood before the UK parliamentary Health and Science committee. For seven hours, Cummings unleashed salvo after salvo against his former boss and the government coronavirus response. Boiling down some points of the Cummings show: there was a failure on the part of […]

How It All Went Wrong: The Global Response to COVID-19

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 28, 2021

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response was never likely to hand down a rosy report with gobbets of praise. Organised by the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last May, the panel’s gloomy assessment was grim: the COVID-19 pandemic could have been avoided. Almost nothing in the main report could be seen as […]